[ed. Interesting article, more for the insights into U.S./Saudi relations than the man himself. I share Glenn Greenwalds' suspicion that this "plot" has more hidden angles than have been revealed to date.]
by Helene Cooper
For years, Adel al-Jubeir was the playboy Saudi envoy and man about town, hosting parties on the diplomatic circuit, hobnobbing with this city’s political elite and appearing at events with media celebrities like Campbell Brown, then the White House correspondent for NBC News.
Then in 2007, amid tales of palace intrigue and feuding Saudi princes, Mr. Jubeir became the first commoner to be named the Saudi ambassador to the United States. And the youngish-by-Saudi-standards — he was 44 at the time; his predecessor was 61 — envoy for King Abdullah virtually disappeared. From the gossip columns, that is.
The Obama administration’s charge this week that an Iranian-American car salesman backed by Iranian officials hatched a plot to assassinate Mr. Jubeir using a Mexican drug cartel has, by itself, made for riveting reading. But what it has also done is to push the soft-spoken Mr. Jubeir, who had been quietly managing his own reinvention as his king’s most trusted adviser on Saudi-American relations, back into the media glare.
Mr. Jubeir has not been too thrilled with the spotlight. “No, he’s not granting any requests for interviews,” one press aide at the Saudi Embassy said on Thursday. “People keep calling and calling — he doesn’t want to talk.”
Read more:
photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
by Helene Cooper
Then in 2007, amid tales of palace intrigue and feuding Saudi princes, Mr. Jubeir became the first commoner to be named the Saudi ambassador to the United States. And the youngish-by-Saudi-standards — he was 44 at the time; his predecessor was 61 — envoy for King Abdullah virtually disappeared. From the gossip columns, that is.
The Obama administration’s charge this week that an Iranian-American car salesman backed by Iranian officials hatched a plot to assassinate Mr. Jubeir using a Mexican drug cartel has, by itself, made for riveting reading. But what it has also done is to push the soft-spoken Mr. Jubeir, who had been quietly managing his own reinvention as his king’s most trusted adviser on Saudi-American relations, back into the media glare.
Mr. Jubeir has not been too thrilled with the spotlight. “No, he’s not granting any requests for interviews,” one press aide at the Saudi Embassy said on Thursday. “People keep calling and calling — he doesn’t want to talk.”
Read more:
photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
