HIDE AND SEEK

Arab Activist Forced Into Hiding After CIA Warns Him of Saudi Threat

Iyad el-Baghdadi is under asylum protection in Norway.

A prominent critic of Saudi Arabia has been forced into hiding after the CIA warned that the kingdom was out to get him. Activist Iyad el-Baghdadi, who’s under asylum protection in Norway, is a vocal critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The CIA warned Norway that the writer is facing a potential threat from the Saudis and he’s now being held in a secure location, The Guardian reports. “The way I understood it was, the Saudis have a crosshairs on me, but there is no idea of what they are going to do,” said El-Baghdadi, who has written for The Daily Beast about the kingdom in the past. “They assured me that they are taking it very seriously. They came prepared,” he said, adding that authorities had arrived with two squads to take him to his safe house: one to transport him and another to make sure they were not being followed. He was granted political asylum in Norway in 2015 following his arrest and expulsion from the United Arab Emirates without any formal charges or trial. “If they don’t want to kill me then I am not doing my job,” he said.