Today, Farz tells the story of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who dared to talk about the ruler of Saudi Arabia. After years in exile, Jamal decided to go to Turkey to get married, which sounds great, except he had an ex-wife in Saudi Arabia and a currently very much still married wife in the US. When he needed to get proof from the Embassy that he wasn't married (to the first one, under Islam) he was killed. Learn more about this tragic story, & the history of Saudi Arabia with us!
Today, Farz tells the story of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who dared to talk about the ruler of Saudi Arabia. After years in exile, Jamal decided to go to Turkey to get married, which sounds great, except he had an ex-wife in Saudi Arabia and a currently very much still married wife in the US. When he needed to get proof from the Embassy that he wasn't married (to the first one, under Islam) he was killed.
Learn more about this tragic story, & the history of Saudi Arabia with us!
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
In the matter of the people of California vs. Orienthal James Simpson, case number BA097
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of State of California vs. Orienthal James Simpson, case number BA097.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Okay, we are back. It is someday in the future. How are you doing, future Taylor?
>> Taylor: Pretty good.
>> Farz: Good. Future seller's having a good day. It's good news.
Doomed to Fail is the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters
>> Farz: why don't I remember to ask you to introduce us? So why don't you go ahead and introduce who we are?
>> Taylor: Hello. welcome to Doomed to Fail. We are the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and greatest failures twice a week. And I'm Taylor joined by fars.
>> Farz: for newer listeners. I was the one who actually did our intro and Taylor fired me unceremoniously from doing the intros.
>> Taylor: You were voted off by me and my husband, who listens to all the.
>> Farz: Episodes, which feels unfair, but I will say Taylor's been doing a better job. So maybe it was right.
>> Taylor: You. You're welcome to pick it up whenever you want if you want to try something new, but I think it's important that we introduce ourselves.
I'm gonna be discussing the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
>> Farz: I know, I know. My problem is I just don't remember. I get in the weeds and I. First of all, I get excited because we're talking because, like, you know, it's good to talk and shoot the shit.
>> Farz: And then I forget why we're here doing what we're doing. This is why you're the boss.
>> Taylor: I am. Ah, that's why. That's why I do the Tiktoks.
>> Farz: That's why you do the tech talks. That's why I get the big bucks. so. So I think I'm doing. I'm doing my episode today. And this is going to probably go over everybody's or, most people's heads, but it, like, honestly popped up because of our text exchange over the weekend. because it sent me down like a rabbit hole of. Of sorts. you're probably not. I don't know if you're gonna connect the dots on this one. I'm gonna be discussing the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Do you know that guy?
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Okay. This is all tied to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia. However you want to say it. So we're gonna have a conversation about that as well. so first things first. I'm Middle Eastern. I get to talk shit about Middle Eastern culture. Like, that's the rule. Like, if. If it's your ethnicity or your culture or your religion, you could talk shit about it. So, like, whatever. I Say don't write to us because I'm not going to read it and I can say what I want. Cool.
>> Taylor: Okay.
>> Farz: Thank you.
>> Taylor: Yep.
>> Farz: so I'm going to go into a little bit about Saudi Arabia in general, along with, like, how it works, how it runs. and then I'm going to talk about this or poor bastard Jamal Khashoggi, what happened to him, why it happened to him and what happened or didn't happen to the people that did what they did to him.
Taylor: So in Saudi Arabia, the constitution is basically the Quran
So we're going to start off with discussing Saudi Arabia, which came into existence in 1727 when a guy named Mohammed Ibn Saud, who ruled over geographic territory that was essentially what present day Riyadh is, joined forces with other leaders and Consolid consolidated the regions that are currently known as Saudi Arabia. The name Saudi Arabia breaks down into House of Saad. That's what it actually is in Arabic, Saad being the name of the family. Sorry, you said something, Taylor?
>> Taylor: No. so that makes sense.
>> Farz: So in Saudi Arabia, the constitution as we would kind of understand and interpret it, is basically the Quran and the rule of law is Sharia law. So there's no legislation, there's no judicial branch, there's nothing that is just the Saud family. That's it. That's the ruling everything. That's the decision making tree right there.
>> Taylor: Right, right now.
>> Farz: Oh, yeah.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: Yeah. The, succession plan for who becomes king. It's very games Game of Thrones in the sense that it is typically the eldest or the most esteemed male heir that ascends to the throne and becomes the king. The kind of, the reason why I'm having this whole precursor of like, what Saudi Arabia is about is to kind of lay the groundwork or like, create like an understanding of like, the type of culture that it is. Because it is rough. It is a, like, it's not ideal. So here's a little bit of background on, women's rights in Saudi Arabia. 2017 is when they started allowing them to attend sporting events, which is also the year they were allowed to drive for the first time. 2018 was when it was, when it became formally, legal. Sorry. 2018 was when it became illegal to pay a woman less for the same job a man does.
>> Taylor: It's not legal here.
>> Farz: I mean, that, that's actually not 100 true. Which I'll share. Like a female Nobel laureate who said the exact opposite of that. Like, all right, so, Freakonomics covered this because it was like a huge thing and nobody paid attention to it, but she literally did a whole economic study on this. so 2019 in Saudi Arabia is when marrying a female under the age of 18 was finally banned. And 2021 is when women were legally allowed to live alone without a male guardian if they were widowed, divorced, or otherwise single. So that's the kind of, like, regime we're talking about here. So human rights have never been super high up on the king or the acting king's priority list.
MBS asserted his control over the royal family two years after his father ascended
so let's get into a little bit about who these folks actually are. So first things first is the king, which is kind of irrelevant. Like, this guy is not super important in this, in this story. His name is King Salman Bin Al Saud, and he came into power in 2015, and he came to power as kind of a reformer within the constraints of Islam. So he did some good things. But he also came to power when he was 80 years old. And he pretty much, yeah, he pretty much almost instantly ordained his son as the de facto leader of the kingdom. the crown prince is what his. What his title is, and his name is Mohammed Bin Salman, or, he goes by mbs. That's what I'm going to refer to him from here on out. So there wasn't an official transition of power here. There were just like, actions were taking place in Saudi Arabia that indicated to the international community that MBS was basically the acting king. One of the main things that happened was in 2017, two years after his father ascended to the throne, MBS asserted his control over the royal family, which is a huge and extremely wealthy family. And basically, like, these folks kind of just fly around and act like they have authority they don't really have. And that was really, really annoying to mbs, who's a very strong. I guess, I don't know, I want. I don't want strong leader in the sense, like, he doesn't like that shit is what I'm getting at. The, royal family is comprised of 15,000 people, and they hold an accumulative wealth of roughly around 1.4 to 4 to 2 trillion dollars. So super rich.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Given their resources and their names, some of these people claim they can speak on behalf of the government or that they have special privileges or they would accept bribes. And like I said, NBS just hated this stuff. So that's why in 2017, he detained about 400 members of the royal family in a Ritz Carlton and Riyadh, had their private jets and their passports seized, and subjected them to interrogations, torture, and a Whole host of other horrible things. And think about it. These are billionaires and there's a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, so the reason, the reason I'm bringing this up is like, this is a message saying, listen, being a billionaire, even being my own family doesn't preclude you from my control in Dominion. that's kind of the message that's being sent here.
>> Taylor: What was he, was he mad about them for? They were like trying to say they're powerful and he was like, you're not.
>> Farz: Yeah, they're just going around like, making deals and asserting like, their relationship to the royal family as a way to kind of, self aggrandize themselves. But also, part of this stuff is always for the optics, right? It's always for like, like, you know, when, when Jack Ma, like, just went missing in China for like two years, like, nobody heard from him. Like, it was just a sign saying we can do this. Like, you know, like we have this power and control. Like, don't, don't let that fool you. Like, don't you let your billions or your title or whatever for you into thinking that we don't have this control.
>> Farz: So that was a huge part of it. So then there were the people, A, ah, part of this purge that's going to be ongoing that ended up just going missing entirely.
Jamal Khashoggi was a critic of Saudi Arabia's royal family
And that's where we get into our main character for the story here, Jamal Khashoggi. So we mostly now think of Khashoggi as a journalist, an investigative reporter, kind of a truth seeker, which all happens to also be true. But he also came from the royal family and from wealth. So here's where our stories kind of collide. Not this week's, but before. for example, his first cousin was Dodie Al Fayed.
>> Taylor: Oh, wow. Yeah, I know who that is.
>> Farz: Yeah, the guy who died with Princess Diana in Paris. His,
>> Taylor: He didn't die.
>> Farz: Go did.
>> Taylor: No, he didn't.
>> Farz: Didn't he?
>> Taylor: No, I think he's still alive, Dodie.
>> Farz: Okay, Are you Googling? Yeah, we'll wait for the fact check in real time.
>> Taylor: Maybe he did die. Oh, no, he did. You're right.
>> Farz: I think everybody but the security guard in the pasture seat died in that accident.
>> Taylor: He was only 42. Yeah, terrible. Geez.
>> Farz: Anyways, moving past versus Diana's death during the Jamal Khashoggi story, again, going back to, like, his roots. His, his grandfather, Khashoggi's grandfather was a personal doctor to the king. Several kings before this story kind of takes place. His uncle was a billionaire international arms dealer. and so he was heavily connected to money and the royal family. But, but again, his main interest was journalism. He held some traditional, like Muslim views in his youth before coming to the US for his education, which kind of Westernized his perspective on things. His history is a little bit complicated because he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and he was really close to Osama Bin Laden, also a member of the royal family, the Saudi royal family. and so kind of there's a lot going on here and also it's all moments in time. Right. So back in the day, Bin Laden wasn't seen as like, ah, the evil guy that he is now because he was fighting for Afghanistan against the Soviet Union and so the US was arming them. I think there's a picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking his hand.
>> Taylor: I'm sure those deals, I'm not surprised.
>> Farz: 2003 is when Khashoggi started, being more outspoken about his like, I would say liberalism in this context. In a way that was seen as an affront to the government of Saudi Arabia and an affront to the government by virtue of how laws are interpreted as an affront to the religion as well. So like again, it's Sharia law. So if you're hostile towards the government, then you're hostile towards the religion. That's how it's kind of interpreted. And so Khashoggi became a thorn in MBS's side because of how vocal of a critic of his he was. he wrote for the Washington Post extensively about his 2017 crackdown on the royal family. He also was outspoken about the Saudi led war in Yemen and the humanitarian crisis that that caused. he spoke openly about the lack of free press and about human rights abuses in the country itself. And the part that really seemed to irk MBS was that his reputation was that of a serious journalist whose opinions should be taken seriously in the West. You know, it's one thing if some crazy guy on Twitter saying something, but it's another thing if it's like, you know, like nobody's going to take that seriously. But if being published in the Washington Post and it seems legit. I hadn't mentioned this before, but he worked for a ton of newspapers in the past that had a lot more of a local, regional or like, niche audience. So him writing for the Post was considered a huge deal and a big reason why MBS was progressively getting more and more pissed off about this guy.
>> Farz: So in 2018. He was working, Khashoggi was working on consolidating the various journalistic efforts that criticized the Saudi government in an effort to promote more free press and free expression. One of his collaborators is this guy named Omar Abdulaziz, who ran a blog critical of the government. He was living in exile in Canada at the time, having sought asylum in 2014. and there he was running his blog. He had a YouTube channel. All this was meant to be a way to kind of document the human rights abuses within Saudi Arabia. And then we get to the weirdest part of this story.
Jeff Bezos was also the owner of the Washington Post
Do you remember the nudes of Jeff Bezos that leaked?
>> Taylor: You know, thank God.
>> Farz: Okay. This happened. This really did happen.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: and this is all connected to what I'm. What we're talking about here. I promise. So Bezos at the time, in addition to being the CEO of Amazon, was also the owner of the Washington Post, who was Khashoggi's employer.
>> Taylor: Isn't he still the owner of the Washington Post?
>> Farz: Yes. Yes.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: In April of 2018, Bezos met with MbS and they exchanged WhatsApp numbers, and they would have some friendly back and forths. In May of that year, MBS sent Bezos a video file. Don't know what the file was, but whatever it was, it contained code that gave MBS and the government of Saudi Arabia complete control and access to everything on Bezos's phone.
>> Taylor: Well, ew.
>> Farz: Which is how they found evidence that he was having an affair and how the nudes ended up getting leaked. And this is all because Washington Post was publishing Khashoggi's content that was critical of MBS on the. On the site, on the paper.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: What ended up happening? And, like, the actual transaction here, the chain of custody over these pictures went from Saudi Arabia to the National Enquirer to get published there, too. And then. And then Bezos came out and was like, I'm not paying Bill. I'm not. I'm just going to address this fully. Like, he actually handled it, like, pretty. Pretty well.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Good for him. Don't.
>> Farz: Yeah. Don't give in.
>> Taylor: Get into revenge porn. That's.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So this story is crazy. And this is also why being so incredibly rich is so incredibly helpful in life. We only know all this stuff about Khashoggi because Jeff Bezos was rich enough to hire a forensic investigations team to figure out what happened to his phone and how this stuff got leaked and hacked.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: So through that effort, it was learned that that guy I just mentioned, Omar Abdul Aziz, Phone was also part of the same spyware attack that Bezos was. And Omar and Khashoggi were super close friends. So all their back and forth chatter was being read by MBS and the Saudi government.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: They told each other everything. And they were super direct about how they felt about MBS and the way that things were running within the country, which is. Fueled the fire.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: In 2015, Khashoggi had a house in McLean, Virginia. Virginia, where he was resident, even as far back as 2015. So when his dad first sent AH to the throne, even back then, MBS was talking about killing him at home. And this was known. This was a plot that was intercepted by the nsa. So it never really came to fruition.
>> Taylor: But, like, think of, like, he meant in virgin. In America.
>> Farz: In America. Yeah. But that's what I'm saying. Like, how crazy that is. A foreign country coming to the U.S. coming to your hometown, to your house, to kill. Like, it's crazy. Like, it's like. It's like, scary. Like, people do like this. Like, So anyways, that never happened. And up till around 2017, various members of the Royal family would plea with Khashoggi to come back to Saudi Arabia and take on some task advising the royal family on their media strategy.
>> Taylor: He wants to kill you.
>> Farz: Yeah. He didn't think. He wasn't an idiot. He knew exactly what was going.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: He's literally covering him killing his own family.
>> Taylor: Right. Like, come here. There's really good cheese, you know, like, no.
>> Farz: Yeah. one thing to say about him, he was a bit of a philanderer. he got married once to a Saudi woman, in Saudi Arabia, who he then would divorce legally to marry an Egyptian woman in the U.S. and while he was married to that woman, he was also engaged to a Turkish woman in Turkey named Hatis Changis. I hope I said that right.
>> Taylor: So I'm sure you didn't.
>> Farz: Probably not. The dates are rough to kind of ask in here. The best I can shoot for is I think he got engaged four months after he married that woman in the U.S. exhausting. So exhausting. I don't know how these people have this energy.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
Taylor: He risked his life to get paperwork to marry Turkish woman
>> Farz: Anyways, so In September of 2018, he was in Turkey and he had to provide paperwork that only the government of Saudi Arabia could provide, which stated that he was not legally married under the eyes of Islam anymore so that he can marry this Turkish woman. That was the entire point. so he went to the Saudi embassy in Turkey on September 28, 2018, to request the Paperwork showing that he was no longer married to that first woman. He was very well aware of the danger he could possibly be in to the extent that he actually asked his intelligence friends in the US if they knew of any plots against them, which they did not know. And he also told his fiance to contact authorities if he doesn't return from the embassy.
>> Taylor: You don't have to married.
>> Farz: Yeah, I know. It's. It's like. Yeah. what's on your third marriage? Like, it's just be roommates. Like it's fine, a thousand percent.
>> Taylor: I feel like we talked about this before. Like, your third marriage. I'm not buying you anything, but like.
>> Farz: Will you give me some for my second?
>> Taylor: Yes. But your third. Absolutely not.
>> Farz: Thank you.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: If I get married three times, Taylor, you gotta have an intervention.
>> Taylor: Okay. well, especially if you risk your life to get the paperwork. I'd be like, this is not worth it. What are you doing?
>> Farz: Yeah. Ah, yeah, I did look at the woman because I was like, she must have been like an absolute stunner. And I was like, she was not a stunner. She did not have to die.
>> Taylor: He probably loved her, I guess.
>> Farz: I know she was beautiful in m.
>> Taylor: His eyes, but he shouldn't have. But he shouldn't have. Well, he was also married to someone else.
>> Farz: I know. It's so tiring. It's like, dude, you flew from Virginia, you left your wife to go to Turkey to go to the Saudi Arabia.
>> Taylor: Like, you're making some good, some good decisions. Like, I like that. We're like, he's obviously a flawed character. You know, he's like criticizing the government but then doing this like, stupid shit in his personal life.
>> Farz: I know. It's a story of mankind. Like everybody's good, everybody's evil at the same time.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: so in this case, on this September visit to the embassy, he does actually come back out. the officials there told him they need a few days to get the paperwork together and then he can come back later on to collect it. So around 1pm on October 2nd. So a few days.
>> Taylor: Yeah, but the paperwork is saying he's not married under the eyes of Islam, but he's married under the US government. But that doesn't matter.
>> Farz: Yeah, no, that doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, that's how it is. Yeah. There's. There's a lot of stories here. I. I have family who've gone through divorces and remarries and like, Islam has some very, very unique laws. Like there, there's a law in Islam that If you can't remarry the same person after a certain number of times, I forgot what it was. It's like, I think it's like after the third or fourth time you can't remarry them. And I was like, who was the person that, who was the couple that horsed?
>> Taylor: They're like, oh my God, you guys cannot keep doing this. We're not buying you any more blenders. That's what I said. I'm not going to your fifth wedding. No, I like that, that, that one. That's. Agree to agree on that one.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah.
A multinational investigation is underway into what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
so yeah, around 1pm October 2nd, Khashoggi goes back to the embassy to collect his paperwork. He's with his fiance who he tells to wait outside while he goes in. And by 3:30pm so two and a half hours later, the embassy officially closed. There was no signs of him. The fiance waited another 30 minutes before going to the authorities. but at that point, for all intents and purposes, he basically disappeared. So let's figure out what happened to him. So hours before he arrived at the embassy, a three person team departed Saudi Arabia for Istanbul. these three were a guy named Maher Mutreb who led the group and was a high ranking intelligence officer. Dr. Salah Tubegi, who is a forensics doctor and usefulness operation for a very grotesque reason. I'll get to in a little bit. There was Thar Ghaleb Al Harbi who was a security guy for MBS. These are all folks who are really close to MBS essentially. So in addition to these three, there was another 12 that were operating as support and supporting roles for the mission, remotely. The three members of the hit team entered the embassy hours before Khashoggi did. We don't know actually in fact for sure what happened to him. a multinational investigation was launched between the U.S. turkey and Saudi Arabia, which like I'm saying Saudi Arabia kind of like ingests like nobody. They were not really doing anything.
>> Taylor: They didn't help.
>> Farz: They didn't help. Yeah. The problem here is that everybody knows who did it. And everybody in the equation has direct financial, economic or security reasons why they don't want to make a big stink about what they know happened to this guy. But what we do know we obtained from a Turkish newspaper who somehow got recordings because everything's recorded in embassy. Apparently they got recordings of his last moments so we have some sense of what happened. So 12 minutes before Khashoggi has to arrive, you can hear two members of the team saying, quote, is it possible to put the body in the bag? And then the forensic doctor says, quote, no, too heavy. Very tall, too. Actually, I've always worked on cadavers. I know how to cut very well. I've never worked on a warm body, though, but I'll also manage that easily. I normally put on my earphones and listen to music when I cut cadavers. In the meantime, I sip on my coffee and smoke. After I dismember it, you will wrap the parts of the plastic bags, put them in a suitcase and take them out of the building. That's what he said.
>> Taylor: There's so much to say. That is like when the villain stops in a movie and tells you exactly what they've been planning. That's just like. That's just really funny that he's like, let me tell you exactly what I'm going to do to this body. And also, it's going to be a little bit gross because it's going to be warm. And also I'm going to need to smoke a cigarette. Like those just like, why are you talking about this? Just say, I'll do it. I will do the thing.
>> Farz: It's the last thing you tell Bond before he escapes.
>> Taylor: Exactly.
>> Farz: And also, like, they're from. They're with the government. Like, shouldn't they know that they're being recorded? It's their embassy.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Anyways, minutes later, you can hear one of them say, quote, the animal to be sacrificed has arrived. And another member says that he is here. So apparently from here, what we know is that he entered the embassy. Someone he knows greeted him because the interaction was very cordial. That changes when he is told he has to go to an office on the second floor to collect that paperwork work. He is apparently pulled by the arm and is heard saying, let. Let me go. What do you think you're doing? he enters the room where the hit squad is and is told to sit down and that he has to be taken back to Riyadh under orders of Interpol. Interpol's demanding that he returns and they're there to take him. There is a back and forth, for about 10 minutes. And like, when you read the transcripts of this, you can see, tell, like, he knows exactly. It had to have been so scary. You can tell he knows exactly what's going on. when he sees these guys, at one point he asked, quote, there's a to. There's a towel here. Will you have. Will you have me drugged? And he is told that he Will be put to sleep. His last words were, quote, do not keep my mouth closed. I have asthma. Do not do it. You will suffocate me. Which was literally the entire point.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: it is presumed that that happened, that he was suffocated to death. about 20 minutes after this happens, you can hear a saw. Go to work. And they start dismembering him inside the.
>> Taylor: Embassy with that one towel.
>> Farz: They probably had other towels.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. That is ridiculous.
>> Farz: Is that grotesque?
>> Taylor: It's grotesque. I mean, just. It's. So is this. I don't know. I don't know any other word but ridiculous that they have it on tape like, that, you know.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Like you've heard it. That's crazy.
There's no question who did the dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi
>> Farz: Yeah. So I didn't. I didn't listen.
>> Taylor: Not heard it. But you were the toy.
>> Farz: I read the transcript. Yeah. Yeah. and so, yeah, they dismember him. They put him into. They put parts of him in plastic bags. They put the plastics bags and briefcases, and they leave the building. All this is on camera, too. Like, there's cameras all around embassies. Like, the execution isn't. But, like, you can see these guys walking out with, like, really heavy, big bags, out of the embassy. So Saudi Arabia claimed to know absolutely nothing. MBS said he would take responsibility for it, but only because it happened under his watch, but not because he ordered it, apparently. and everybody's conclusion is, yeah, it was these guys. The Saudi did it. Like, they did it. Like, there's no. There's no question why it happened and who ordered it. the response by the Saudi government was to sentence five members of the death team, or the team, to death and three others to about 24 years in prison. But in a very, very odd coincidence, about a year after all this, nobody, was in prison anymore or had been executed, because given Islamic law, the eldest son of the victim can forgive and pardon the perpetrators, which Khashoggi's eldest son did. And during this kids? M. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, he also had kids. Yeah, he had four kids.
>> Taylor: But who. So who were the people who did.
>> Farz: Was these guys.
>> Taylor: No, I know, but, like, who were they?
>> Farz: so these were all, people tied to the intelligence, agencies within the, Saudi Arabian government. And one of them was, like, a personal guard of mbs.
>> Taylor: Right. So, like, very clearly that he did it. Yeah, yeah.
>> Farz: So here's the thing that's interesting about the, the forgiveness part and the fact that all the crimes were pardoned was when the eldest son Issued this, ah, you know, forgiveness to the folks. Everybody was released and nobody was punished. It was at a time when his passports were revoked and he was banned from leaving the country. and he. In the right after doing this, he posed for an entirely voluntary, voluntary picture with MBS as well. So, that's. That's how that ended the outcome of that situation.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I feel like. Yeah, you'd be like, Uh-huh. That's fine.
>> Farz: Yeah, that seems to be a big part of, like, please don't kill me. Controls people is like. Because they also have, like, a ton of, like, again, going back to, like, Islamic law, like, beheadings are not uncommon and they're always in Saudi Arabia. At least they're done with swords. so it's not like a pretty picture. and the whole, I'm going to take away your passport, I'm going to ground you, I'm going to do whatever. Like, it's just. It's just, why ever stand up? Why ever do anything to draw that ire, you know?
>> Taylor: No, totally.
>> Farz: So. So NBS is still in charge. and, well, he's. He's currently the crown prince, but he's the de facto king. And there's been no consequences for any of this. Like, literally nothing. Like, he. Nobody got punished. yeah, they just got away with it, totally free and clear. Yeah. When I was reading about the royal family, it's unbelievable how rich these guys. It's like, it is. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want. One of the guys was like, one of the, he was the first person to order an, ah, Airbus A380 as a private jet. And he already had a 747 as a private jet. Like, is that this? Like, who needs that? That's over a billion dollars in planes. Like, oh, my God. So nuts. Oh. Oh, and Taylor, the reason I went down the rabbit hole with Leonardo da Vinci was because the, Salvador Mundi, the painting of, Jesus, like, in his younger years, holding the orb. Yeah, that's a Leonardo, da Vinci painting. It was auctioned in, like, 2016 or 17 or something for $450 million. And this guy is the one that bought it. He bought it for his private yacht. He literally has.
>> Taylor: Is it a boat?
>> Farz: It's on a boat.
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Is that crazy?
>> Taylor: Get it on land immediately.
>> Farz: Dude.
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: It makes me very nervous.
Yeah. The trillionaire cash. Wow. Now that I know it's on a boat. Um. But that's how you roll
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Now that I know it's on a boat. Oh, my God, that's ridiculous.
>> Farz: But that's how you. That's how you roll when you get that. The trillionaire cash.
>> Taylor: Wow. Wow.
>> Farz: So that's my story. Who knows what's going to happen in the future, but man, it is rough going in Saudi Arabia. But. And like in that.
Sports washing is when sports are seen as a unifying thing
So there's a thing again, I'm going to reference Freakonomics, less than that quite a bit. There's a thing called sports washing, which is, Have you heard of this term?
>> Taylor: no. I feel like it reminds me of how like the World cup, all those people died building that stadium in Qatar. Is that right?
>> Farz: No, no, it doesn't mean that. What it, what it is referring to is sports are seen as like a unifying thing. And it's like as a goodwill ambassadorship thing. And Saudi Arabia has this like, horrible, horrible history, like human rights and all that stuff. And one thing that they're doing is what Sports Washington is referring to is the fact that they're now. They, started live their own golf pro golf tournament. They. Oh, yeah, they're buying huge, chunks of F1 racing, which is hugely popular. They're investing in, European football, soccer, and it's all seen as a way of sports washing. And like Taylor, like, again, you know this. And I mean, very few people do, but they are also directly tied into the political technology that Americans use to elect people. And it's like. Yeah, like, it's not good.
>> Taylor: Yeah. The sports watching washing. I mean, I feel like that, you know, like, I know as a human being that the NFL has done a lot of shitty things. You know, Like, I know that in 2000, I think it was just 2018, they went to court to say that they. For all of the people who have brain injuries after being in the NFL, they should compensate the black players less because black people are not as smart as white people.
>> Farz: That can be true.
>> Taylor: It's true.
>> Farz: 2018, they said that.
>> Taylor: Yes. So, like, I know that, but I still fucking want to watch the super bowl, you know? And like, I remember like John Oliver talking about the World World Cup. He's like, I fucking love the World Cup. I know. There's so many problems. What am I supposed to do? You know, the Olympics, we know all these things.
>> Farz: The NFL employed practices of racial baselining cognitive brain evaluations systematically provide black players with lower CTE settlement payments than their white counterparts. Wow.
>> Taylor: I know.
>> Farz: That is, That is crazy.
>> Taylor: That is so awful. It's like you don't. I don't even. You don't even know what to do.
>> Farz: Yeah, that almost. I literally thought, like, they can't be real.
>> Taylor: I know.
>> Farz: Oh, my God. Okay, well, in 2021 they reverse course, but still, that's a horrible perspective to have.
>> Taylor: It is, yeah. Any. Any year especially.
>> Farz: Yes.
>> Taylor: So recently, you know. Yeah, no, totally. That. I mean, that is dangerous and scary, but yeah, because people want to attend sporting events and do these things and then, like, what else is happening, you know? Yeah, yeah, I get it. So I get it.
>> Farz: that is our story for today.
Taylor: I disagree with Juan on this one. I agree with Taylor. Anything else you want to read out
Anything that you want to read out, Taylor?
>> Taylor: my husband Juan gave us shit for making fun of people who like Shakespeare and saying we didn't believe them. Or at least I said that very loudly.
>> Farz: I agree with Taylor. I disagree with you, Juan.
>> Taylor: And then I watched a little bit of Hamlet and I posted on our Instagram just Polonius saying 2009 self be true. I didn't finish it. But, Mel Gibson is, like, supposed to be young. I don't know how old Hamlet's supposed to be, but they just, like, give him bangs to, like, give him a youthful appearance. And it's funny. He looks ridiculous.
>> Farz: Oh, my God, he looks so ridiculous.
>> Taylor: You know what I mean?
>> Farz: You know how, like, in the office.
>> Taylor: Yes. You know how, like, on shows, they're like, oh, this is like the 20 year younger version of this person, but he's given, like, a wig with longer hair and you're like, no, that is not a 20 year old, younger version of that person. I think that's what they were doing with it. That was funny. yeah, I mean, I was like, I know. Well, then I was yelling towards my husband about it. I was like, oh, yeah, right. You've read all of Shakespeare. Give me a break. Like, he hasn't said that. But that was like, my response to.
>> Farz: Hey, I'm, on your side on this one.
>> Taylor: Like, I don't believe you that you, like, read it and understand it. You're like, oh, apologies to all the Shakespearean people. Scholars.
>> Farz: Yeah, all the scholars are listening to our podcast. Yeah, sorry, you guys.
>> Taylor: Sorry for that. And all of the seventh graders who are currently going through the emotional trauma of reading Romeo and Juliet.
>> Farz: Hey, I think that our listeners might be, you know, on the higher end of, like, the intelligence curve. Maybe not like scholars of Shakespeare, but probably up there.
>> Taylor: Yeah, maybe they've read a couple.
>> Farz: If you're smart. Write to us@dflpotagegmail.com.
>> Taylor: We'Ll write back, probably.
>> Farz: Yeah, we'll definitely write back. cool. We can go ahead and cut it off there, Taylor. And again, follow us on the socials at Dunefell Pod. And, email is duneflpodmail.com. anything else?
>> Taylor: That is it. Thank you, everyone. We appreciate you. Yep.
>> Farz: Thanks, Paul. We'll go ahead and cut it off.