much of the world was horrified when saudi arabia sent a hit squad to turkey
to murder washington post columnist jamal khashoggi tonight the man you're about to meet
says a second saudi assassination team was sent to kill him in canada saad al-jabri was number two
in saudi intelligence and he was among the best friends america had against terrorism
now assad is asking america's help truth is hard to triangulate among spies despots and the middle
east you're going to hear that saad al-jabri may not be spotless but as a spymaster saad says he
has one more favor for america a warning about a prince with the power to trouble the world
the story will continue in a moment
i am here to sound the alarm about a psychopath killer in the middle east with infinite resources
who poses threat to his people to the americans and to the planet sad al-jabri is talking about
mohammed bin salman who seized power behind the back of the man greeting president obama
that's muhammad bin nayef then heir to the throne but in 2017 nayef was arrested
by prince mohammed bin salman a psychopath a psychopath with no empathy doesn't feel emotion
never learned from his experience and we have witnessed atrocities and crimes committed by this
killer a source from u.s intelligence told assad al-jabri would never show up for this interview
he'd lived too long in a silent profession the fact that he did show up is a measure of his
desperation assad is 62 married eight children he started as a cop but rose to the top of saudi
intelligence and earned a phd in the science of artificial intelligence he could be seen in the
oval office with american ambassadors the u.s military command and with michael morell former
acting director of the cia i'm a big admirer i found dr assad to be extraordinarily bright
i found him to be incredibly loyal to his country would you say honorable honorable yes absolutely
but in 2017 saad found himself on the wrong side of prince mohammed's coup
the deposed prince nayef was sod's boss sod fled to canada where he remains and refuses to return
now prince mohammed is making sad's family pay the very day of the coup two
of his children were barred from leaving the kingdom this is his daughter sarah
you
and his son omar both plan to be in american colleges they are now in saudi prisons next
the family says prince mohammed targeted saad's son-in-law they claim the son-in-law was kidnapped
in a third country and returned to the kingdom the first night he was kidnapped he received more than
100 lashes he was tortured he was beaten on his back on his legs khalid al-jabri is sad's eldest
son what was he told he was being detained for he was being told that he was detained and tortured
as a proxy for his father-in-law meaning my dad they even asked him a question who
do you think we should arrest and torture so dr assad can come back to the kingdom
their story recalls washington post columnist jamal khashoggi a critic of prince mohammed in
2018 a year after his coup u.s intelligence says prince mohammed sent a team to turkey
to lure khashoggi to a saudi consulate and dismember him saad told us that days later
before khashoggi's murder was known to the public he received a warning a friend in a middle eastern
intelligence service said another hit team was headed for assad in canada and the warning i
received don't be in a proximity of any saudi mission in canada don't go to the council don't
go to the and said why say they dismember the guy they kill him you are in the top of the list
saad says a six-person team landed at the ottawa airport in mid-october he says members of the
team lied to customs about knowing one another and they carried suspicious equipment for dna analysis
the team was deported canada seems to confirm at least part of this story saying we are aware of
incidents in which foreign actors have attempted to threaten those living in canada
it is completely unacceptable is that the way intelligence organizations work in this world it's
not a norm in this world it's a norm for countries like russia and north korea it's not a norm for
almost any other country in the world do you think mohammed bin salman fears you
he feeds my information assad told us his information includes a 2014 meeting
between prince mohammed on the left and the then head of intelligence muhammad bin nayef
it was three years before the coup saad claims the young prince boasted to nayef
that he could kill the sitting king abdullah to clear the throne for his own father
and he told him i want to assassinate king abdullah i get a poison drink from russia
it's enough for me just to shake hand with him and he will be done a poison ring from
russia and that's what he said whether he's just bragging but he said that and we took it seriously
by we sod means saudi intelligence took it seriously the alleged threat he says was
handled within the royal family assad told us he watched the meeting on a video recording does this
video recording still exist yes i know where it is it's now i know there are two covers of that
i know where there are prince mohammed is 36 and wields unlimited power on behalf of his ailing 85
year old father king salman the prince is admired by some for allowing women to drive permitting
movie theaters and disbanding the religious police who once assaulted couples for holding hands
there's two groups of people in saudi arabia there are those who are very happy with mohammed bin
salman the 70 percent of the population that's under 30. he is not popular with the old guard
with the royal family because he changed the system but much of that change has been reckless
his war in yemen has killed thousands of civilians in what the un says may be war
crimes he invited lebanon's leader to visit saudi arabia took him hostage and forced him to resign
he detained hundreds of potential rivals until they signed over their wealth jailed
women calling for human rights and murdered jamal khashoggi i expect to be killed one day because
this guy will not rest off until he sees me dead but what does america owe saad al-jabri we asked
former cia acting director and cbs news consultant michael morrell who worked closely with saad from
2010 to 2013. is it too much to say that sod may have saved american lives absolutely dr said
absolutely saved american lives he saved saudi lives many of them and he saved american lives
can you name any of those cases the one i can talk about is the so-called printer cartridge
plot in 2010 al qaeda hid bombs in two desktop printers they were in the air as
cargo headed to the u.s on two planes perhaps intended to explode over american cities but
thanks to intelligence relayed by saad al-jabri the bombs were intercepted during layovers
are there any other examples of times that assad had saved american lives there are what are they
i can't talk about them because they're still classified are there several there are many many
while working in that classified world sad al-jabri became enormously wealthy prince mohammed
typically accuses potential rivals of corruption and saudi entities are suing assad in the u.s
and canada claiming he stole as much as 500 million dollars from the counter-terrorism budget
did you steal the money no if you didn't steal the money how did you get so rich
you know i i have served a royal monarchy in a close approximately for for two decades
three kings four crown brands they've been nice to me they've been very generous it's a traditional
saudi arabia royal family they take care of people around them i don't know if dr assad
was corrupt in any way i wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't
because he's such an honorable man but i also wouldn't be surprised if he was because
everybody to some extent had their hand in the kitty and king abdullah allowed it permitted it
but in the saudi lawsuit against saad the canadian judge has said there is quote overwhelming
evidence of fraud and so she has frozen his assets as the case moves forward
the saudi government declined an interview but in a statement it said saad al-jabri is a discredited
former government official with a long history of fabricating and creating distractions to hide the
financial crimes he committed he implies that stealing was acceptable at the time
but it wasn't acceptable nor legal then and it isn't now i wonder assad says he's thinking only
of his imprisoned children i have to speak out i am appealing to the american people
and to the american administration to help me to release those children and to restore their life
sad al-jabri told us he's recorded a death video that reveals more secrets of the royal family
and some of the united states he gave us a short silent clip of the video which he told us quote
could be released if he is killed it includes a message to omar and sarah his imprisoned children
i told them i'm sorry
i tried my best
does the united states as a country owe anything to assad do i feel some obligation to dr assad yes
does the united states of america if the people at cia do the people at cia do
you know whether the country does or not i don't i don't know it's a little bit of a hard question
it's been hard for presidents to stand up to muhammad bin salman neither the trump nor
biden administrations publicly sanctioned him after khashoggi saudi oil isn't as important
as it once was but countering iran is which has led to a certain tolerance of a menacing prince
dr saad al-jabri on the hit squad he says mohammed bin salman
sent to silence descent at 60 minutesovertime.com sponsored by koligard