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>After leaving the Bureau, in 2005, he started the Soufan Group, a security-advisory firm in New York. His company runs a training academy for police and intell

>After leaving the Bureau, in 2005, he started the Soufan Group, a security-advisory firm in New York. His company runs a training academy for police and intelligence forces in Qatar, a neighbor and bitter rival of Saudi Arabia. The beginning of the article would have you think that this related to Soufan's anti-terrorist work. However, reading more it seems that this is related to his employment by Qatar. There is somewhat of a cold war going on the the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran and this seems to be related. Soufan is basically a mercenary working for a foreign government(Qatar) that another foreign government(Saudi) wants to do in. Even the article does not talk about any intention to kill him in the US, but in Qatar. This is very different from what happened to Jamal Kashogi who was a journalist and not involved in military or security affairs.

sgnelson 6y ago
So I guess it's okay then for the Saudi Arabia government to target him, harass him and try to kill him; because he's providing military aid (he's as much a mercenary as Boeing is) to one US ally, and another US ally doesn't like that.
pipologist 6y ago
Khashoggi was a long time Saudi intelligence operative who operated in Afghanistan during the Afghan Russian war, then was posted in the US embassy for several years as an intelligence officer, officially "advisor to the ambassador". He turned journalist and was very loyalist to the Saudi royalty. The ascension of the current monarch and his son turned him after power swapping that happened in Saudi, so he left and turned "activist". He held so much dirty laundry on the Saudi govt from his previous work that they saw him as a threat. I doubt Ali Soufan or any other Saudi dissidents are seen as such a threat as Khashoggi.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  Thank you for that informative background. Did you gather all this from public articles ?
ta17711771 6y ago
> This is very different from what happened to Jamal Kashogi who was a journalist and not involved in military or security affairs. Blatantly incorrect, he had CIA connections.

sgnelson 6y ago

So I guess it's okay then for the Saudi Arabia government to target him, harass him and try to kill him; because he's providing military aid (he's as much a mercenary as Boeing is) to one US ally, and another US ally doesn't like that.

pipologist 6y ago

Khashoggi was a long time Saudi intelligence operative who operated in Afghanistan during the Afghan Russian war, then was posted in the US embassy for several years as an intelligence officer, officially "advisor to the ambassador". He turned journalist and was very loyalist to the Saudi royalty. The ascension of the current monarch and his son turned him after power swapping that happened in Saudi, so he left and turned "activist". He held so much dirty laundry on the Saudi govt from his previous work that they saw him as a threat. I doubt Ali Soufan or any other Saudi dissidents are seen as such a threat as Khashoggi.

mav3rick 6y ago
Thank you for that informative background. Did you gather all this from public articles ?

ta17711771 6y ago

> This is very different from what happened to Jamal Kashogi who was a journalist and not involved in military or security affairs. Blatantly incorrect, he had CIA connections.