The Future Investment Initiative began its eighth iteration in earnest today. Two of the eight occurred during the pandemic and were not held at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh. The first FII occurred in October 2017. Within weeks Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman turned the Ritz into a torture chamber for Saudi elite.
Early reporting noted how Saudi royals had five star accommodations for a deep exploration of their finances. Three years later the sequestration became "the Night of the Beatings."
“On the first night, everyone was blindfolded and nearly everyone was subjected to what Egyptian intelligence calls the ‘night of the beating’”, said a source with intimate knowledge of what took place. “People were asked if they knew why they were there. No one did. Most were beaten, some of them badly. There were people tied to the walls, in stress positions. It went on for hours, and all of those doing the torturing were Saudis. “It was designed to soften them up. And then the next day, the interrogators arrived.”The history of the event can be seen through its various themes:
PEU legends were the first to look away from the Saudi killing of Jamal Khashoggi in their Turkish consulate on October 2, 2018. It's a Big Shift to kill a foreign journalist in another country.
Blackstone legend Stephen Schwarzman was one of the first to return and has been there ever since.
The speaker list reads a who's who of PEU legends and Tech Gods:
These are the people driving U.S. policy for both the Red and Blue political teams. Despite their love for Uncle Sam's wallet they absolutely hate paying taxes.
The FII is a window into the world of greed, power and influence. It stopped making sense for the little people long ago.
