_______ ____ ______
/ |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
/ /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East
/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\© http://www.MiddleEast.Org
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know!
To receive MER regularly and free - http://www.MiddleEast.Org/subscribe
-------------------------------------------
To comment on this article or on the article earlier this week "What Can
We Do About Terrorism?" by Lt. Col. Robert Bowman please use the
new MER FORUM at -- http://www.MiddleEast.Org/forum
-------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON SCENE:
"This is a moral crusade. Oh, I suppose
we're not supposed to use that word..
This is a moral campaign..."
Sir David Frost - on CNN, 10/17
SAUDI AMBASSADOR' BANDAR'S STRATEGY FAILS
Abdullah Will Not Really Be King As Long As Bandar Is On His Washington Throne
"One sign of how things are really going in Arabia
will be just how much longer Bandar bin Sultan
remains on his own throne in the American capital.
For if Bandar is left to work his own will in modern-
day Rome then Abdullah will not truly be King."
MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 10/19: Prince Bandar
bin Sultan's 20+ year strategy has now substantially failed. Years ago, very much
behind-the-scenes of course, the very controversial and in some circles much despised
Saudi Ambassador in Washington began a relationship with the some of the most
conservative and militant circles in Washington, very much including those associated
with the powerful Israeli/Jewish lobby. His goal was quite simple -- by ingratiating
himself within these circles; by spreading around much money, influence and favors;
Bandar felt he could assure that those who run the big corporations and own the major
media, along with those who dominate on Capitol Hill, as well as those in the
Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, could be counted on to support, and if
necessary defend, the Saudi Royal family come what may.
It is Bandar who has personally acted as intermediary all these years as the U.S.
has spent an estimated $300+ billion dollars to build up military infrastructure and
stockpile vast quantities of military hardware in "the Kingdom". But all that was
before Osama bin Laden and 11 September 2001, before the Royal elders of "the Kingdom"
decided that the just completed U.S.regional military command center at Prince Sultan
Airbase could not in fact be used as the Americans at first demanded. And from that
disguised confrontation decision a counterflow of news leaks, pressures, and threats
have started flowing -- including from many of those long courted and essentially paid
by Bandar -- which is seriously undermining al-Saud/Wahabi control over Arabia in this
new millenium.
Bandar is now the "dean" of the Washington Ambassador corp -- simply meaning he's
been representing Saudi Arabia in Washington longer than any other country's
ambassador here. Bandar has spent a great deal of money in the past two decades
(multi-billions), hired a great many people, been a primary force in creating a
network of influence-peddling centers, some of the "client organizations" we have
spoken about that are creatures of the "client regimes" -- including the Arab American
Institute (AAI - Zogby), ANA, American Muslim Council (ADC - Alamoudi), Washington
Report, ADC and the list goes on.
As for "the Kingdom" Bandar so ostentatiously represents, for more than 50 years
now Saudi Arabia has served as a kind of oil cow for the U.S.; and for the fast few
decades a petrodollar recycling and arms buying megacenter as well. The real need for
Saudi Arabia's Royal family has not been just oil supplies which are actually
plentifully available in many places, but rather controlling OPEC on behalf of Western
countries thus assuring plentiful amounts of very cheap Middle Eastern oil -- as well
as a recycling of all those petrodollars into U.S. and Western banks and corporations.
Even today one can purchase a gallon of oil that started life in the deserts of
Arabia, was transported halfway around the world, then refined, then shipped, then
pumped, for about the same price as a gallon of locally bottled water at the
neighborhood grocery store -- this while so many in the Middle East region itself
remain destitute and impoverished. The United States especially has floated its
modern prosperous economy on very cheap very plentiful foreign oil, with the Saudis
playing the central role in this whole historic arrangements.
But in the process, the al-Saud's have wasted and squandered so many mega-billions,
leaving not only the Arab world fractured and impoverished but creating a generation
of resentment within their own midst -- religious "radicals" on the right and
western-educated "modernists" on the left, but having in common their awareness of how
miserably the Royal family has handled their history and their future.
It is for a combination of all of these reasons that there is such great tension in
"the Kingdom" today, especially as the expanding young population realizes how badly
the corrupt and profligate Royal family has been, not to mention the whispered
awareness of how much "the Kingdom" has mortgaged both its policies and even its land
area to the American military and CIA. And of course the further awareness that the
rather small and natural resourceless country of Israel continues to trample on the
Palestinians and humble all of Arabdom and Islam tremendously exaccerbates this
already volcanic situation.
And thus September 11, 2001, may well have marked a turning point not only for the
United States but also for Saudi Arabia and its now high-profile embarrassing
Washington Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
At the moment an internal political existential royal battle is underway back in
"the Kingdom" centered around long-time Crown Prince Abdullah and long-time Defense
Minister Sultan (Bandar's father). The former playboy, King Fahd, is largely
disfunctional; a team of more than 20 foreign doctors doing all they can to simply
keep him from expiring. Of course it is this intra-Royal situation which further
contributes to all the uncertainty and paralysis in "the Kingdom" today, with everyone
aware that unless something happens to Abdullah he will finally become King and be in
a position to much more forcefully assert his will, if he dares.
One sign of how things are really going in Arabia will be just how much longer
Bandar bin Sultan remains on his own throne in the American capital. For if Bandar is
left to work his own will in modern-day Rome then Abdullah will not truly be King and
maybe Sultan, with Bandar himself waiting in the wings, will still be somewhere in
line, the Americans still hoping to more fully do their will with the Saudi Monarchy
as they have done with what remains of the once mighty Hashemite Dynasty still
lingering and still important in Amman.
SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY SHOWS SIGNS OF PARALYSIS
[MiddleEast NewsLine - Washington - 17 October]: The Saudi ruling family find
themselves caught in a conflict of epic proportions between their traditional alliance
with the United States and their multiple financial and cultural ties with the Taliban
regime in Afghanistan.
Western diplomatic sources said members of the Saudi royal family have reduced their
public appearances, particularly to Westerners. The sources said this includes such
figures as Saudi King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and Saudi Defense
Minister Prince Sultan.
The royal family, the sources said, has not refused a U.S. request to participate in
the war against terrorism. But they said Riyad has not taken any steps requested by
the United States and agreed to by other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
This includes freezing assets of Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden.
"The Saudis have always been secretive," a Western diplomat said. "But now there isn't
really anybody to talk to who can give a straight answer."
The sources said King Fahd has been incapacitated by ill health, which has led to
dissension and uncertainty within the royal family. Abdullah has refused to agree to
measures against Bin Laden.
"I don't have to please people [in] downtown Washington," Saudi ambassador to the
United States Prince Bandar said. "But I must always take into account Saudi people."
U.S. officials said Bin Laden has received millions of dollars in aid from Saudi
businessman connected to the royal family. Washington announced that is seizing the
assets of Yasin Al Qadi, who heads the Saudi Arabia-based Muwafaq Foundation, which
has funneled money to Bin Laden.
In addition, a leading Saudi cleric has refused to end his criticism of the U.S.
attack on Afghanistan.
Western analysts said Riyad could remain in turmoil for some time to come. They urged
Western allies of Saudi Arabia to closely monitor the kingdom.
"A great deal has been said since September 11 about the lack of human intelligence in
the war against terror, and the West would be well served by the development of HUMINT
in Saudi Arabia as well," Saudi expert Joshua Teitelbaum wrote in a report by the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
HOW THE SAUDI ROYALS CREATED A JIHAD MONSTER
The Saudi royal family has been thrown into panic. It is facing the most serious
threat to its rule
since the 1990 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. The difference is that the Iraqi threat
was external. This
time, the House of Saud faces an internal threat.
What happened? In short, the Saudis have created a monster. It began in 1979 when
the Shah of
Iran was overthrown by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Saudi kingdom was in panic.
The
kingdom had a large Shi'ite minority and the new Islamic regime in Iran was openly
questioning the
legitimacy of Saudi sovereignty over Mecca, the birthplace of the Muslim prophet
Mohammed.
From that moment, the Saudis decided to play tit for tat. Riyad would export
fanatic Sunni
zealotry to combat Iran's Shi'ite militancy. The first test was in Afghanistan,
invaded by the
Soviets months after the Iranian revolution. Riyad helped recruit thousands of Saudis
and other
nationals to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, Iran's neighbor.
From the start, the Taliban movement supported by Riyad was anti-Iranian. For the
practical-minded Saudi leadership, the fight in Afghanistan was a muted warning to
Iran to stay
out of Saudi affairs. A key player in the Saudi effort was Osama Bin Laden.
The Saudis were ecstatic when the Taliban helped expel Soviet troops from
Afghanistan. But by
that time Bin Laden and thousands of Saudi and Egyptian nationals fighting in
Afghanistan saw
their mission as just beginning. Riyad was never the target. Instead, it would be
Egypt, Algeria and
Jordan — in other words secular Arab regimes.
Today, the Saudi leadership has been torn by what to do with Bin Laden. The
problem is not
that of one man: It is that of thousands of Saudis sponsored by their families and
leading princes
in the kingdom as part of the Wahabi commitment to Islamic zealotry. The feeling is
that any move
to limit, let alone stop, the Sunni Islamic drive would break up the kingdom —
whether from within
or without. Wahabi tradition is the only glue that keeps the desert Bedouin loyal to
the billionaires
princes.
The dispute has pitted Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz against Saudi Defense
Minister
Prince Sultan. Both are vying to be the next king of Saudi Arabia. Abdullah has
staked out his
claim as head of Saudi tradition. Sultan wants to pursue a modernist direction. The
result could be
chaos as militants in Saudi Arabia will use terrorism in an effort to decide the
succession struggle.
'SAUDI CONNECTION' PUTS NEW STRAIN ON ALLIANCE
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
[The Independent - 18 October 2001]: Investigators are concentrating on a "Saudi
connection" to the 11 September terrorist attacks on America, suggesting that part of
the conspiracy was hatched there - to the intense disquiet of Saudi Arabia's ruling
monarchy.
Relations were already queasy between America and the world's largest oil exporter -
which happens to be both Washington's most important ally in the Gulf and the
birthplace of Osama bin Laden.
American investigators soon discovered that up to 12 of the 19 hijackers of the four
aircraft used that day entered America with Saudi passports or with visas
issued by US consulates in that country. Since then more than 700 people have been
questioned or detained by the authorities in America in connection with the attacks
-among them an unspecified number of Saudi citizens.
Neither the Saudi embassy nor the Justice Department will say how many of the suspects
are Saudi: indeed, so little has been divulged, and so minor are some of the charges
on which the detainees are being held that American civil rights groups are asking
whether their constitutional rights have been violated.
According to lawyers, two members of Saudi Arabia's ruling family were detained for
more than 20 days after being picked up at Denver airport. They were
released last week, but will still have to answer for minor infringements of
immigration laws.
The Saudi embassy has retained lawyers for all the suspects, The Wall Street Journal
reported this week, after personal instructions to counsel from Prince
Bandar bin Sultan, the veteran Saudi ambassador in Washington, that "each and every
one of them is to be helped as if you have no other cases and nothing else to do".
This vigorous stance may be an admirable example of a country helping its citizens who
find themselves in difficulty on foreign soil. But it is
bound to raise fears in America that, as with the investigation into the deadly 1996
attack on US barracks at Khobar, Saudi Arabia, the kingdom might
prove less than fully co-operative with US investigators into a terrorist incident
with which it is linked.
In the case of the 11 September attacks, pointers to such connections continue to grow.
American investigators believe that several of the hijackers were recruited by
al-Qa'ida cells operating in Saudi Arabia itself. The inquiry is focusing on the
town of Abha in the south west of the country, where four hijackers are believed to
have originated. People from this region have also been linked with the attack on the
USS Cole in Aden last October, in which 17American sailors died.
These allegations, and others that Saudi-based charities and companies have channelled
finance to Mr bin Laden and his network, have placed the kingdom on the defensive, and
increased resentment of America in Saudi Arabia -the very outcome that the Bush
administration is seeking to avoid.
In a television interview last month, Prince Bin Sultan, who has been ambassador since
1983 and is very well connected to the White House, acknowledged that some people in
Saudi Arabia supported Mr bin Laden, but said their numbers were few. "When you say
'so many' you have to put it relatively," he told his questioner. "Relative to what?
Are there sixteen, twenty, one hundred?
"Bin Laden - what he represents, and people who preach like him or support him - yes,
they don't like my government. Yes, they don't like my political system. But they
don't like it for the wrong reasons, not for the right reasons you think of. They want
us to go back 1,000 years. We want to move forward."
But these arguments have not stilled public criticism. A recent editorial in The New
York Times declared that the "deeply cynical and cold-blooded bargain" at the heart of
the Saudi-US relationship - Saudi oil in exchange for American military protection
-was in urgent need of updating. "Decades of equivocation and Hobbesian calculations
have left US-Saudi relations in an untenable and unreliable state," the paper said.
"These deformities must be addressed before they do further damage to both nations."
MUSLIM ALLIES BREAK RANKS WITH U.S.
By Matthew Engel in Washington
[The Guardian - Tuesday October 16, 2001]: Relations between the US and two
of its core allies in the war against terrorism, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,
approached crisis point yesterday after the Saudi interior minister, Prince
Naif, attacked the assault on Afghanistan while Pakistan pressed Washington
to ensure that its bombing campaign would be short-lived.
In the latest and most public of a series of disagreements that
have evidently taken the US by surprise in the five weeks since the September
11 attacks, Prince Naif told the official Saudi Press Agency that the kingdom
wanted the US to flush out the terrorists without bombing. "This is killing
innocent people. The situation does not please us at all."
Officially, the state department in Washington remains "very
satisfied" with the Saudi approach to the crisis, but this masks increasing
alarm not merely about the governmental response but about potential
insurrection that could endanger theSaudi regime.
Prince Naif's comments add to the diplomatic pressure being felt by
the US in its attempts to maintain support in the region for its policies.
The secretary of state, Colin Powell, who holds talks with General
Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad today, took further steps yesterday to bolster
Pakistan's support for the war, promising military-to-military contacts.
The sanctions imposed after Pakistan's nuclear test in 1998 still
prevent the US selling the country any weaponry or equipment, but by moving
towards direct military relations Mr Powell was clearly holding out the
prospect of future rewards if the Musharraf regime continued to play ball.
But with strikes ordered across the country by Islamist groups in
protest at Mr Powell's visit, Mr Musharraf is aware that his support for the
US action can go only so far. "The prolongation of the campaign will be a
source of concern to us," the Pakistani foreign ministry said last night.
Further underlining the tension that now racks the region, Indian
troops broke a 10-month ceasefire with Pakistan last night when they fired
shells into disputed territory in Kashmir, killing a woman and wounding 25.
A clearly worried President George Bush upbraided the two nuclear
powers when he said: "I think it is very important that India and Pakistan
stand down during our activities in Afghanistan and, for that matter, for
ever."
In the most extreme language to emerge from Tehran since September
11, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said that the US air
strikes were "dragging the world into a war".
The warning was in stark contrast to a New York Times report today
which revealed that Iran sent a secret message to the Bush administration on
October 8 agreeing to rescue any US military personnel in distress in its
territory.
At the top of Washington's in-tray of anxieties relating to its
coalition partners, analysts now believe that Saudi Arabia - where few
western journalists are allowed - may be turning into the gravest challenge.
"It's unbelievable how the feeling here has changed from sympathy
to anger in such a short time," a Riyadh-based westerner quoted by Reuters
said yesterday. Another resident compared the mood there to that of Iran
before the overthrow of the Shah.
Since September 11, Riyadh has refused to allow attacks on
Afghanistan from its bases; Prince Abdullah, the country's crown prince and
day-to-day ruler, has avoided meeting President Bush; Muslim clerics within
the once-monolithic country have issued fatwas against the Americans; and,
beneath the bland assurances of amity, there has been growing US frustration
about the extent of Saudi cooperation with this investigation too.
US feeling was expressed in a powerful editorial in Sunday's New
York Times, which described Saudi behaviour as "malignant" and said the
"deeply cynical" bargain between the countries, which for decades had offered
American protection for the regime in return for an uninterrupted flow of
oil, was now "untenable".
David Wurmser, director of Middle East studies at the American
Enterprise Institute in Washington, said yesterday: "The US's entire foreign
policy structure in the region has been anchored in the strategic
relationship with Saudi Arabia. If everything we're hearing is true, then
we're facing a total meltdown.
"The whole war as currently conceived would have to be
reconsidered, because Pakistan won't hold if Saudi support starts collapsing.
"You can't really separate Bin Laden from the Saudi establishment,"
Mr Wurmser said. "There are conflicting forces there, and part of the
establishment has been working with the Bin Laden faction to embarrass the
other half."
However, the state department spokesman, Philip Reeker, yesterday
repeated the "very satisfied" mantra that his colleagues have been using for
some time. He noted that Prince Naif had said the situation did not please
the Saudis.
"I think that quite reflects the attitudes we've been expressing
for five weeks now. This situation, clearly, doesn't please us. We would
certainly rather be able to focus on other things in our foreign and defence
policy."
----------------------------------
MiD-EasT RealitieS - http://www.MiddleEast.Org
Phone: 202 362-5266
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax: 815 366-0800
To subscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject UNSUBSCRIBE