At least 2,700 U.S. soldiers are guarding one of the most despicable de facto rulers ever of the Saudi sheikhdom, Mohammed bin Salman, according to Saudi expert Doug Bandow. This is in addition to an elite private army that America’s No. 1 mercenary Erik Prince had helped train for the Saudi tribal lord.

The Saudi despot got the nickname Mr. Bone Saw after he ordered the October 2, 2018 slaying of famous Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khassoghi.

That the Saudis are fully supported by the Pentagon and naturally by the C.I.A. is evident by the fact that former C.I.A. chief Mike Pompeo is among the staunchest defenders of the “kingdom” while Jared Kushner, son in law of former President Donald Trump, reportedly had extensive business dealings with Mohammed bin Salman.

But President Biden did not want to be left behind and forgetting his talks about human rights when he was a presidential candidate was seen fist bumping with MBS after becoming the president— in a 180 degree turn on Saudi policy.

Earlier, Trump too was a harsh critic of the Saudis but ended up brown nosing them,

Of all the places on earth, after assuming office as C.I.A. chief, Mike Pompeo, chose Saudi Arabia, the darkest tribal fiefdom for his first foreign visit. Pompeo also organized Trump's first foreign visit as president to no other country but Saudi Arabia.  Alongside King Salman, Trump took part in the infamous Saudi sword dance. "It's so beautiful," Trump said, not realizing that the sword in his hand and the one that is on the Saudi flag symbolize the chopping off of the heads of "infidels," like himself. 

Jalila bint Sheikh Mohammad in center with her parents Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and Princess Haya bint Hussein. The Dubai first couple broke up after Maktoum allegedly wanted to forcibly marry off Jalila to MBS, who is 22 years older and already married.

That Mohammed bin Salman is an alleged pedophile and wanted to marry Princess Jalila, 11-year-old daughter of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohamed Al Maktoum was heard in a U.K. court during the marital dispute proceedings of Sheikh Mohamed’s former wife, the more cultured Princess Haya Bint Hussein, daughter of the Jordanian monarch.

Marrying under-age girls is part of Arab traditions for centuries as the bedouins believe a girl becomes mature enough for sex after her first menses.

Almost all rulers of the Arabian or Persian Gulf sheikhs are basically tyranical sheikhs or tribal-cum-feudal lords. All of them were bedouins hunting for lizards to eat in their famished deserts until the discovery of oil eight and half decades back.

On October 2, 2018 Jamal Khashoggi was enticed to the sheikdom's consulate in Istanbul, where he was killed, and his body was chopped into pieces by a bone saw. A special hit squad ordered by MBS allegedly flew into Istanbul on a private jet to carry out the gruesome killing, the C.I.A. believes.

Though Jamal Khashoggi killing became the most infamous of MBS crimes, there are many others such crimes that might have gone under the radar.

For example, a former senior Saudi security official Saad al-Jabri, who lives in exile in Canada claimed in an interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes that in 2014, Prince Mohammed bin Salman boasted that he could kill then-King Abdullah.

Almost one year after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the chief bodyguard of King Salman named Major-General Abdelaziz al-Fagham was killed at a friends place, fingers began pointing at MBS as the suspected killer.

“Because of al-Fagham’s relationships with many princes of the royal family since the days of King Abdullah, for whom he was his personal bodyguard as well, it’s possible that he was suspected of leaking some information about MBS’s plans,” Hamzah al-Kinani, a Washington-based Saudi academic and dissident who has worked previously for a senior Saudi royal, told Al-Jazeerah.

MBS first advised his father to remove half brother Prince Muqrin as crown prince, breaking the House of Saud tradition that the monarchy will revolve among the brothers. Muqrin, who had black blood in his ancestry, was replaced by MBS cousin Prince Nayef. And then in a palace intrigue, MBS got Nayef removed and had his dad appoint him as the crown prince. Bruce Riedel, a Saudi expert, wrote a brilliant background story for the Brookings Institution.

But one of the most unsavory acts could be getting rid of his half brother Abdullah, whose mother was a black slave in the House of Saud.

As I researched the story, I was horrified to see that former president Donald J. Trump fully backed whatever crime MBS had been committing, including war crimes and genocide in Yemen, culminating in the assassination of Khashoggi. MBS's actions included overthrowing his first cousin Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince. Nayef was given the CIA's George Tenet Award by Mike Pompeo in his first job as CIA chief under Trump. 

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't," Trump said about MBS lead role in Khashoggi assassination, undermining the assessment of the C.I.A.  To please the Saudi despot, Trump fired two of his cabinet members, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser Gen H.R. MacMaster.  Tillerson was sacked a week prior to MBS arrival for meeting with Trump at the White House, earlier that year. In fact a Vanity Fair report says both MBS and his former mentor MBZ— Mohammed bin Zayed, the tribal despot from the United Arab Emirates now MBS competitor—, both took credit for getting Tillerson fired.

MacMaster was fired on the third day of MBS's visit, while the "crown prince" was on his nationwide PR stunt campaign-- thanks to Mike Pompeo and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was his senior adviser, and point-man for Saudi deals.  

Trump also tried to convince Americans that since the journalist was not a U.S. citizen, the U.S. is not obligated to seek justice for him. His son Donald Trump Jr. went a step ahead: he said the slain journalist was sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, implying he deserved death.

With Saudi riyals and UAE dirhams, Egyptian dictator Abdel Fatah el-Sissi removed the party's popular government while Obama was still in office. El-Sissi was also the first to call and congratulate Trump when he won the November 2016 elections, in violation of established protocol when an elected U.S. president receives calls from major Western allies.

It is quite clear the U.S. intel did brief Trump that Jamal Khashoggi was a nephew of the late Adnan Khashoggi, the flamboyant Saudi playboy, and billionaire who died a pauper. Trump knew Khashoggi's uncle quite well--“I read every word about Adnan Khashoggi ,” he told the Vanity Fair, three decades back. Trump had bought one of the most expensive yachts in the world,  Nabila ,  from Adnan Khashoggi. Trump renamed the yacht to Trump Princess. The copycat Trump imitated Adnan Khashoggi's living room and admits this in his book The Art of The Deal: 

"In the middle of 1985, I got an invitation from Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian and a billionaire at the time, to come to his apartment at the Olympic Tower. I went, and while I didn't particularly go for the apartment, I was impressed by the size of its rooms. Specifically, it had the biggest living room I had ever seen."

Jamal Khashoggi was not an ordinary Saudi-- he had solid connections with the billionaire Bedouin tribal leaders of the House of Saud, called "princes" in the West.

The U.S. was going back in the time tunnel under President Trump--  the short-fingered vulgarian, as renowned journalist Graydon Carter described him way back in 1984. Under Trump, Americans saw immigrants being teargassed on the borders and babies snatched from parents arms, and minors appearing in court to defend their immigration status-- human decency was thrown out of the Trump Towers. Trump launched sleazy attacks on the U.S. media, the fourth pillar of the state. He called the press "fake" and "enemy of the people," encouraging tribal despots like MBS to get rid of journalists. 

Hidden from public eyes, there is an American "Lawrence of Arabia" behind MBS's meteoric rise and reckless actions:   Erik Prince, founder of the mercenary Blackwater and brother of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Prince was one of the main movers and shakers in the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen. Erik Prince has helped MBS form 5,000 strong private army to crush any dissent, including other members of the House of Saud. The army is called Al Saif Al Ajrab or the Blood Rusted Sword.

MBS is no reformer but one of the worst tyrants is proven by dozens of cases of gross human rights violations.

For example, Saudi Arabia sentenced Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University PhD student, to 34 years in prison solely for tweeting and writing articles, according to the Amnesty International. Additionally, The Guardian reported Nourah al-Qahtani, a mother of five in her late 40s, was sentenced in 2022 to 45 years for using Twitter to “challenge” the country’s leaders.

One of the biggest examples of MBS atrocities is the death sentence for Sheikh Salman al-Awda. The leading cleric, who is quite popular among Saudi masses, was awarded the death sentence simply because he refused ask his followers to support MBS.

While U.S. provides 2,700 soldiers, Pakistan army provides as many as 60,000 mercenaries to defend the despicable House of Saud. Former Pakistan army chief accepted Raheel Sharif accepted a role to lead the so-called Muslim NATO offered to him by NATO; Imran Khan, who was at the the time an opposition leader, had initially protested Gen Sharif getting the cushy Saudi job but then mysteriously went mute over the matter. Right now Gen Sharif’s successor Gen Asim Munir, who was previously stationed in Saudi Arabia as a mercenary junior officer to guard the wahabi regime and who rote memorized Koran while stationed there, appears closest to MBS. Gen Munir and I.S.I. chief Lt. Gen Nadeem Anjum made mockery of democracy in Pakistan by stealing the elections from populist former premier Imran Khan last month through documented massive rigging.

MBS may have played a role in the downfall of ousted premier Imran Khan. Though Khan was a best buddy of MBS and even acted as his chauffeur when the Saudi despot visited Pakistan he is said to have made some unsavory remarks about MBS; one of his cabinet insiders is believed to have taped and passed on Khan’s comment to MBS turning him into a sworn enemy— tribal despots lack sense of humor. However, one of Khan’s trusted Houston-based loyalist Atif Khan vehemently denies Khan made any comments against MBS.

The United Kingdom and Australia also provided support and mercenaries to protect the Saudi sheikhdom under MBS.

Like son like father? According to Saudi expert Ali AlAhmed of the Institute of Gulf Affairs, when he was governor of Riyadh before becoming the king, the father Salman had his own son Abdullah— a half brother of MBS from a slave mother — murdered in AlNakhil hotel in Riyadh in early 1980.

According to a report in The Nation, the Saudi petrodollars has closed the eyes of leading universities such as Georgetown and Harvard.