OF THE
TIMES
A Saudi general may have been tortured to death and several wealthy businessmen were allegedly abused in captivity at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's recent crackdown on powerful figures in Saudi Arabia, according to a newspaper report.
The most dramatic accusation involves Major General Ali al-Qahtani, an aide to a senior Saudi prince seen as a potential rival to the 32-year-old Prince Mohammed, who died in government custody in mid-December.
Sources told the newspaper that the general's "neck was twisted unnaturally as though it had been broken" and that his body had burn marks which appeared to be the result of electric shocks.
General Qahtani was taken to hospital in November but was reportedly returned to his interrogation after being seen by doctors. The government has not offered an official explanation for how he died.
The general's death had been widely reported in Arab and Iranian media previously but not in detail. The US report comes shortly before Prince Mohammed, known by his initials "MBS", is due in Washington for meetings with the Trump administration.
General Qahtani was an aide to Prince Turki bin Abdullah, a former governor of Riyadh who is from a rival line of the Saudi royal family to Prince Mohammed. Prince Turki was himself detained during the November crackdown on allegations of corruption. He was eventually released.
"He asked volunteers to deliver an electric shock to a stranger. Unbeknownst to the volunteers, there was no shock-and the people they were shocking were actors pretending to be terribly hurt, even feigning heart attacks. Milgram found that most people would keep delivering the shocks when ordered by a person in a lab coat, even when they believed that person was gravely injured. Only a tiny percentage of people refused." [Source]The suggested conclusion is that people are inherently unable to think for themselves when given a subordinate role in some authoritarian hierarchy, such as the role of the ordinary citizen in a state-controlled world. A documentary of this experiment can be seen here.
Comment: Perhaps it comes down to the ability to properly train people for skill, safety, judgement and responsibility versus buying a firearm and winging it. Programs that teach and practice such disciplines have value.