Posted on 08/12/2002 11:44:14 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
For many months I have been making the case against Saudi Arabia, explaining that it represents the very heart and soul of the evil in the Middle East – the kind of evil that struck deep and hard and painfully in America last year.
Now others are beginning to catch on.
The Washington Post reports that a top Pentagon advisory board received a briefing last month describing Saudi Arabia as "the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent" in the Middle East. I'm surprised only that such honesty would be welcome in any branch of the U.S. government, as it continues to pretend that Saudi Arabia is "our ally."
Saudi Arabia is not our ally. It is our enemy – our sworn, yet cunning enemy.
"The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader," the report to the Defense Policy Board stated. "Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies."
The briefing urged the U.S. to demand the Saudis stop funding Islamist terrorists, cool the anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli statements and teachings and "prosecute or isolate those involved in the terror chain, including in the Saudi intelligence services." If they fail to meet those objectives, then the U.S. should target Saudi oil fields and overseas financial assets.
That may sound rash, but it is perfectly in line with the way this war on terror was to be conducted as outlined in President Bush's very first speech on the subject. You're either with us or you're with the terrorists, he said. There is no question about whom the Saudis are with today. They are with the terrorists. The terrorists would not survive a week without their encouragement and financial support.
Remember, only three nations maintained diplomatic relations with Afghanistan's terror sponsors. Saudi Arabia was one. The Saudis poured money into the madrassas in Pakistan that inspired the Taliban and created its leadership. The Saudis directly sponsor suicide-bomb terrorism against Israel by, in effect, providing life-insurance policies for "martyrs."
Saudi Arabian soil may not grow much. But it is fertile ground for al-Qaida-style terrorism. Of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, 15 were Saudi citizens, carrying Saudi passports. This is the country in which Osama bin Laden built his fortune. A poll conducted by Saudi intelligence and reported by the New York Times showed 95 percent of Saudis sympathetic to bin Laden.
It's no wonder the Saudis impeded investigations into the Riyadh and Khobar Towers bombings that killed 23 Americans in 1995 and 1996. They refused to disclose to Federal Aviation Agency officials who was arriving in the United States from foreign flights. In 1996, they had a chance to take bin Laden into custody from the Sudanese and didn't accept the offer. They refused to allow the U.S. to take Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyah, responsible for the bombing of Marine barracks in Beirut.
It is illegal in Saudi Arabia for those who do not subscribe to a specific strain of Islam to worship God – even in the privacy of their own homes. Anti-Jewish hatred is so prevalent in Saudi Arabia – in the press, in the schools, in everyday life – that former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey describes the Islamists there as "the functional equivalent of the angry German nationalism of the 1920s and the early 1930s that gave rise to Nazism."
The truth is Saudi Arabia may be more repressive than Fidel Castro's Cuba. It is certainly less free than Iraq, a nation constantly on the verge of invasion by U.S. troops. Like Iraq, Saudi Arabia has desperately tried to get its hands on weapons of mass destruction from China and other sources.
So why does Saudi Arabia get a free ride?
There was an easy, one-word answer before Sept. 11: Oil.
Today, the answer is slightly more complex. Because bin Laden's major objective has always been the removal of U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia, we cannot withdraw now because it will represent an apparent victory for al-Qaida.
But the U.S. must begin to distance itself from this corrupt, totalitarian, brutal regime. We must wean ourselves from Saudi oil. We must be ready, at the right strategic moment, to close down our military bases there and allow the royal family to protect themselves.
She was the most rabid, anti-American person, one would hope to never meet.
Recently Saudi Arabia (and Iran too) send delegations to Pakistan. One of their goals is to cooperate on technical issues. Why do they want to cooperate with Pakistan one wonders.
But the U.S. must begin to distance itself from this corrupt, totalitarian, brutal regime. We must wean ourselves from Saudi oil. We must be ready, at the right strategic moment, to close down our military bases there and allow the royal family to protect themselves.
Ah-hem, and just let their conspiracy fester? Leave them the oil to plot further destruction of the U.S.?
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