From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: US-Saudi frictions [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- AP. 15 January 2002. Levin: U.S. Should Mull Saudi Bases. WASHINGTON -- The United States should consider moving its military personnel from Saudi Arabia because the Saudi government has been antagonistic toward them, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Tuesday. "We need a base in that region, but it seems to me we should find a place that is more hospitable," Levin said. "I don't think they want us to stay there." Levin didn't suggest where the U.S. troops should go. Levin said the Saudi government has isolated American military personnel and made them feel unwelcome. Also, he said, it's unfair that female members of the U.S. military are required to wear head-to-foot black robes, ride in the back seats of vehicles and be accompanied by males when off base. "I just think the Saudis actually think somehow they are doing us a favor by having us be there helping to defend them and helping to be in a position to go after terrorists and terrorist states," he said. Critics say the Saudi government has done too little to crack down on terrorists and extremists within its borders. Fifteen of the 19 operatives who participated in the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings were Saudi nationals. And the al-Qaida terror network's leader, Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, was exiled and stripped of his citizenship in the early 1990s after he was caught smuggling weapons from Yemen. "There are an awful lot of Saudis in al-Qaida, and that's troubling," Levin said. Bin Laden's war on America has been fueled in part by anger over the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest shrines. Levin said he doesn't believe the United States would be seen as giving in to bin Laden's demands if it removes the troops. But if it turns out that's the perception, he said, then the troops should stay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
