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Good Riddance . . . But Not Much Improvement Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, is out. Prince Turki is in. by Stephen Schwartz 07/20/2005 3:45:00 PM AS ANNOUNCED ON Wednesday, July 20, Saudi Arabia's long-serving ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, is leaving town. Allegedly, he resigned. The dean of the foreign diplomatic corps in Washington will be replaced by Prince Turki al Faisal, the former intelligence chief of the kingdom. Seeing the last of the unctuous Bandar will be viscerally pleasing to many Americans and to Saudi liberal dissidents. The...

Senior U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a senior member of the diplomatic community in Riyadh told NBC News that Prince Bandar bin Sultan tendered his resignation as ambassador to the U.S. to Crown Prince Abdullah in recent days. The resignation appears to be the result of continuing health problems for the 56-year-old envoy. “You can feel comfortable reporting that,” said the western diplomat confirming what several Saudi and U.S. officials had told NBC News about the Prince's resignation. Bandar is the dean of the Washington diplomatic community. He has been a powerful figure in the U.S. since being...

WASHINGTON - The federal indictment of a graduate of a Saudi-backed Islamic school in suburban Virginia for plotting to kill President Bush is the latest example of the school's links to troubling activity, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., charged on Wednesday. Schumer said he is asking Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to explain where the school receives all of its funding, and whether the school may be "a breeding ground for anti-American sentiment - and, possibly even terrorist activities." It has been widely reported the school receives substantial funding from the Saudi kingdom. Schumer...

SAUDI 'SOLDIER' BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZ IN Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, a 23-year-old Northern Virginia man of Saudi Arabian background named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush. Abu Ali and his accomplices are accused of plotting to kill the president by gunfire or a car bomb. The indictment also spells out such criminal activities as assisting and receiving support from Osama bin Laden's band of murderers. Abu Ali was extradited to Virginia after many months in a Saudi jail. What's most remarkable about this case is the degree to which this would-be assassin is a...

WASHINGTON - When a believing Muslim is summoned to the United States due to life's circumstances, Saudi Arabian authorities disseminate through a network of major American mosques, like other religious directives, clear ways as to how one should act in his new surroundings. Take, for example, a document signed by the cultural attache at the Saudi embassy in Washington that instructs Muslims arriving in the United States not to initiate a greeting when meeting Christians or Jews, and never to convey good wishes marking a Christian or Jewish holiday. In general, the attache recommends that the Muslim believer avoid friendships...

A northern Virginia school that caters to children of Saudi diplomats is teaching first-graders that Judaism and Christianity are false religions. The allegations come from a Muslim group. The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism is calling on the Islamic Saudi Academy to remove the textbook used to teach first-graders. The teachers' edition of the textbook emphasizes several points, including the statement "All religions other than Islam are false religions." A second notation tells the teacher to ensure "explaining that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others." The coalition's director, Kamal Nawash,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A school that caters to children of Saudi diplomats is teaching first-graders that Judaism and Christianity are false religions, according to a Muslim group concerned that such teachings breed hatred. Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism is calling on Islamic Saudi Academy to remove the textbook used to teach first-graders. The teachers' edition of the textbook outlines several points of emphasis, including the statement, "All religions other than Islam are false religions." The coalition's director, Kamal Nawash, a Muslim, said it would be acceptable to teach that Islam is the only correct religion. But to explicitly tell first-graders...

Wanted Saudi Surrenders to Saudi Embassy in Syria Thu Jul 15, 2004 01:05 PM ET JEDDAH (Reuters) - A wanted Saudi man who disappeared four years ago after a brief imprisonment has turned himself over to the Saudi Embassy in Syria under a government amnesty, relatives said Thursday. They said Ibrahim al-Sadeq al-Harbi, 34, went to the embassy in Damascus after relatives notified Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef of his decision to surrender. "He is at the embassy and is scheduled to fly back home later today," Harbi's older brother Abdel-Ghaffar told Reuters. Harbi was the fourth person...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi TV broadcast pictures Saturday of four bloodied bodies of four suspected militants, including the Al Qaeda (search) chief in the kingdom, who were shot to death hours after killing an American contractor. Saudi officials said Johnson's beheaded corpse still has not been found, contradicting earlier reports that it was dumped outside the capital, Riyadh. The Al Qaeda cell allegedly led by Abdulaziz al-Muqran fulfilled its threat to kill engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. (search), beheading him and showing grisly photos on the Internet on Friday. The slaying drew a chorus of condemnation from around the...

They claim to have killed the Number 1 and 2 AQ leaders in SA..

WASHINGTON - A jailed American Muslim leader and a Libyan intelligence agent have told U.S. and Saudi authorities they were involved in a Libyan plot to assassinate the ruler of Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials said Thursday. The allegations are viewed as credible by U.S. authorities but investigators still are trying to determine if the plot was real and, if so, how far it advanced and whether Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was involved, according to two U.S. government officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case. The alleged plot against Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah...

By Paul Sperry © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON -- A top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government, which propagates a rigidly anti-Western strain of Islam, a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals. The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida. Douglass, routinely described as a "scholar" or "historian," has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across...

<p>April 7 - Within weeks of the September 11 terror attacks, security officers at the Fleet National Bank in Boston had identified “suspicious” wire transfers from the Saudi Embassy in Washington that eventually led to the discovery of an active Al Qaeda “sleeper cell” that may have been planning follow-up attacks inside the United States, according to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK.</p>

<p>Law-enforcement officials follow the money trail among suspected terrorists straight to the doors of the Saudi Embassy.</p> <p>April 7 - Within weeks of the September 11 terror attacks, security officers at the Fleet National Bank in Boston had identified “suspicious” wire transfers from the Saudi Embassy in Washington that eventually led to the discovery of an active Al Qaeda “sleeper cell” that may have been planning follow-up attacks inside the United States, according to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK.</p>

In recent months some 70 individuals with diplomatic status from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia have left the United States - an event little noticed in the broad policy debate, but extremely important. Here's why: Since 9/11, and the revelation that 15 of the 19 attackers on that day were their subjects, the Saudi rulers have repeatedly told the United States that the princely regime in Riyadh is a reliable ally in the war against terror. Such claims were restated with greater conviction after the bombings inside the kingdom last year. Yet as often as these reassurances are offered, the...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has ordered the expulsion of dozens of Saudi diplomats suspected of helping promulgate Al Qaida ideology. The State Department revoked the diplomatic credentials of the Saudi diplomats in Washington over the last month in an effort to crack down on Saudi efforts to promote Al Qaida interests in the United States. Diplomatic sources said about 70 diplomats and embassy staffers were expelled in late 2003 and dozens of others were ordered to leave the United States by mid-February. Many of those expelled were said to have worked in the office of the Saudi defense...

The United States has ordered the expulsion of dozens of Saudi diplomats suspected of helping promulgate Al Qaida ideology, diplomatic sources said. The State Dept. has refused to either confirm or deny the action.. The State Department revoked the diplomatic credentials of the Saudi diplomats in Washington over the last month in an effort to crack down on Saudi efforts to promote Al Qaida interests in the United States. The diplomatic sources said about 70 diplomats and embassy staffers were expelled in late 2003 and dozens of others were ordered to leave the United States by mid-February. Many of those...

Statement from Saudi Embassy in Washington on Expulsion of Diplomats www.spa.gov.sa/html/archive_e.asp?srcfile=612281&NDay=30/01/2004&wcatg=0 Washington, Jan 30, SPA -- In response to reports pirating to expulsion of some Saudi diplomats from the US, Ambassador Ahmad bin Abdulaziz Kattan, the Deputy Chief of the Saudi Diplomatic Mission in the US, in a statement to SPA, said that in line with the directives of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies was established in America more than 15 years ago. He noted that the Institute still receives the support of the Saudi leadership and...

WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The United States has revoked the diplomatic visas of seven Saudis as part of a tightening of visitor controls after the Sept. 11 attacks that involved mainly Saudi perpetrators, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. None of the Saudis was suspected of any wrongdoing other than a visa irregularity. They worked as teachers at an Arab institute outside Washington and were not employed by the Saudi Embassy, meaning they were not entitled to diplomatic visas, the officials said. "They (the Saudi Embassy) got a diplomatic visa for people better suited for a work visa," one...

Participants in a panel discussion sponsored by The New Republic and Saudi Arabia are claiming that their most hard-hitting criticisms of the kingdom were edited out of a transcript that appeared in the magazine. Billed as an opportunity to talk about Islam and its contemporary relationship with the West, the November 13 panel discussion was the second in a series of discussions organized by the Saudi government and the magazine, known for its support of Israel and criticisms of Arab regimes. Panelists Jonathan Schanzer of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Jay Tolson, a senior writer at U.S....