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We've been looking into MBS's relationship with Jeff Bezos for a few days - here's a thread describing the picture I can see so far. Perhaps MBS partially thought he could get away with killing Khashoggi because of this relationship. Read, then retweet.
An important point to keep in mind, before I start: Dictators take things personally. They prefer to deal with personalities rather than institutions, and tend to be transactional in their dealings. Keep this in mind as you read the following.
Last October, as news of Jamal Khashoggi's brutal murder spread, many institutions and personalities that had links with MBS publicly denounced the murder and suspended their relations with the Saudi state. There was one notable exception: Jeff Bezos.
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I'd imagine Bezos was in a bit of a bind - a "complexifier" as he described it. Amazon had been interested in the Saudi market for two years, an interest that had turned into multiple projects. But also, Bezos owned the Washington Post, for which Jamal worked.
Things were far more sensitive for Bezos than for others. If Bezos speaks out for Jamal, then it'll seem that he's assuming some ownership for the Washington Post's "Justice for Jamal" campaign. It'll seem that he's another voice for the campaign.
Bezos clearly doesn't want that. It's clear (to me at least) that he respects the @washingtonpost's independence, treating it as an institution, not as just another business. These words from his bombshell Medium post come across as sincere. 
In his post, Bezos notes that "certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy". Bezos is obviously saying, don't take this personally. But just as obviously, someone did.
In the aftermath of Jamal's murder, Bezos stood apart from the Washington Post and did not wade into the Khashoggi affair - not commenting on the murder, but also not curbing the Washington Post in any way. Someone saw this as an act of betrayal. Mohammad bin Salman.
But let me backtrack first and give you a timeline of Bezos's business interest in Saudi Arabia, in three coming tweets:
In early 2017, Amazon acquired UAE-based Souq dot com, "The Amazon of the Middle East". But Amazon's main business interest seems to have been cloud computing - by September 2017 they were looking to establish a regional center in Bahrain.
By December 2017 Amazon was in talks with Saudi Arabia for investments in the country; the Saudis seemed most interested in three areas: First, AWS setting up data centers in the country; second, making Saudi Arabia an e-commerce and logistics hub...
...And third, perhaps the richest man in the world can also find other investment opportunities in the liberalizing country? Vision 2030 advertised - and required - an almost insatiable appetite for private sector investments, and rich investors.
(There's some very important comments to be made about the data centers and the e-commerce hub bits, and why MBS would be *particularly* interested in that, but I'll keep it for another thread).
So when Bezos and MBS met in person in March 2018, there was already a business relationship between Amazon and Saudi Arabia, and lots of further interest. The meeting was planned well in advance. It seems to have been a warm meeting - look at the smiles.
Now fast forward to October, Khashoggi's murder. Bezos is in a bind. MBS is a man he knows personally at this point. He doesn't want to seem to have joined the Washington Post's crusade, but also doesn't want to curb the Washington Post. What was MBS thinking, though?
We got part of the answer in November, when Saudi social media accounts controlled directly by MBS's close associates launched a campaign against Jeff Bezos. Hashtags included "Boycott Amazon" and the more specific "The owner of Amazon is attacking Saudi Arabia".
Here's one of the videos, titled "The owner of Amazon and Souq dot com attacks Saudi Arabia". Dated 21 November 2018.
The commentary is even more telling. "I never saw a businessman whose blind hatred and spite leads him to harm his own business interests - but that's Jeff Bezos, whose Washington Post is smearing Saudi Arabia".
The average Saudi didn't even know who Jeff Bezos was, so they even had videos explaining that, such as this one:
The accompanying tweet described Bezos as being: "Specialized in smearing our kingdom; gave the Houthis a platform to write articles against us; and attacked the [Future Investment Initiative] conference in Riyadh". Someone really took it personally.
So interestingly, while Bezos opted to remain silent on Khashoggi given his "complex" situation - it was the Saudis who launched an all-out attack on him first, accusing him of weaponizing the Washington Post against them. Thanks to @Ana3rabeya for finding the above tweets.
I remind again that these social media accounts are *not* independent. They are centrally directed and controlled by MBS and his close advisers. Analyzing their tweets is among the best ways to figure out what MBS and his close advisers are thinking.
Given this picture, I'm willing to bet that:
1. MBS thought that his relationship with Bezos - and Bezos's business interests - could get Bezos to curb the Washington Post's reporting on Jamal
2. MBS felt betrayed - and angry - when Bezos didn't, and sought to punish him.
1. MBS thought that his relationship with Bezos - and Bezos's business interests - could get Bezos to curb the Washington Post's reporting on Jamal
2. MBS felt betrayed - and angry - when Bezos didn't, and sought to punish him.
And maybe - just maybe - MBS felt that his links with Bezos would allow him to kill a Washington Post reporter without incident - thinking that Bezos won't risk his extensive business interests, and would intervene into the Washington Post to get them to lay it off.
We then fast forward from November to now - and the Bezos blackmail scandal. MBS had both the means and the motive to target Bezos. The extramarital affair - and MBS's relationship with David Pecker - may have given him the opportunity.
That's our thread. Our other threads on the Bezos blackmail scandal, first here:
Then here:
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