Khashoggi's murder was born of a brutal, 'Game of Thrones'-style culture around the Saudi crown prince, according to a wild insider account
- A wild insider account in The Washington Post described paranoia in the Saudi royal family leading to the murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
- Factions within the House of Saud started jockeying for power in January 2015, it said, and Prince Mohammed bin Salman grew increasingly brutal with his critics.
- One plot, it said, involved Saudi agents lying to China to get somebody extradited so Saudi Arabia could punish him.
Jamal Khashoggi's murder was born out of a brutal culture around the Saudi crown prince, which included members of the royal family jockeying for power, spying on each other, and tricking China into arresting a critical businessman, according to a wild insider account in The Washington Post.
In-fighting within the House of Saud started as early 2015, around the death of King Abdullah, the half-brother and predecessor of the current King Salman, the Post said.
Abdullah's sons, and Salman and his family, started competing for power, likely in an attempt to control the royal family's wealth and retain power in government, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote. Salman was appointed king two days after Abdullah died in January 2015.
Ignatius wrote: "The cutthroat scheming within the House of Saud over the following years matches anything in the fantasy series 'Game of Thrones.'"
Both sides started plotting against each other, with members of the Abdullah faction reportedly bugging the phones of senior princes, purchasing a device that could remotely and secretly detect phone calls within a 100-yard radius, and hiding surveillance devices in ashtrays around royal palaces to pick up on conversations.
King Salman's son, Mohammed bin Salman - who was appointed crown prince in mid-2016 - also reportedly grew increasingly anxious about his public image, and started organizing the kidnappings and detentions of his critics, The Washington Post said.
One of the wildest plots took place in August 2016, when then-Prince Mohammed's associates misled Chinese authorities into kidnapping and interrogating a Saudi businessman who had criticized Mohammed's policies and was close to the Abdullah camp, according to The Washington Post.
The column offered the plot as evidence of the lengths to which Saudi royals were prepared to go in order to achieve their ends. It is, the column contends, the same kind of scheme which led to the brutal death of Khashoggi.
Read more: Crown Prince Mohammed comes out on top of Khashoggi case
In the 2016 plot Prince Mohammed's associates had falsely told Chinese intelligence agents that Obaid had been funding terrorist activities and had been organizing a plot by Pakistani militants to disrupt an upcoming G-20 summit that year, the Post said.
The purported goal was for Chinese authorities to arrest Obaid under terrorism suspicions and extradite him to Saudi Arabia.
Acting on the Saudis' information, Chinese intelligence agents detained Obaid in Beijing, covered his head and body in a bag, and handcuffed him to a chair in an interrogation room, the column said.
Obaid was subjected to a long and painful interrogation, during which he said he had no idea what their accusations were about. Chinese authorities eventually let him go after finding no incriminating information on his iPad and cellphone, The Washington Post said.
Obaid, who has a Swiss passport, now lives in Geneva.
Shortly after becoming crown prince last year, Mohammed also consolidated his power by imprisoning more than 200 members of the Saudi elite, including 11 princes and dozens of top businessmen at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.
Some princes reportedly negotiated their release by promising to pay the government billions.