Saudi Envoy Slams Iraq War Opponents

HOUSTON (AP) -- Countries that opposed the U.S. decision to invade Iraq have no right to protest U.S. initiatives restricting reconstruction contracts to allies, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States, said Friday.

Bandar said he thought it was "amazing" that war opponents now "feel they have a right to share in the pie" of reconstruction contracts.

He said even more dangerous than terrorists themselves are those who say they condemn terrorism but don't actively fight it. Bandar repeatedly praised Bush's decisions to fight terrorism, invade Iraq and send troops to Afghanistan to oust the Taliban.

"We should be grateful for what the United States has done to get rid of those two evils, the Taliban and Saddam," Bandar said, generating applause from hundreds in attendance of a luncheon co-sponsored by the Bilateral/U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce.

Bandar kept his comments about terrorism to a minimum despite recent terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and warnings of more to come.

Nail A. Al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, said recent attacks on foreigners' housing compounds demonstrates the "evilness" of the al-Qaida terror network.

"We've uncovered a number of cells, a number of weapons," he said. "We expect more attacks."

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, were Saudis, and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom revoked his citizenship in 1994.

Saudi Arabia has spent more than $17 million on public relations, advertising and lobbying in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to Justice Department records. Television ads have depicted Saudi Arabia as aligned with American interests, and the country has hired Washington lobbying and law firms to advance its case.

Bandar has toured the United States in conjunction with the ad campaign to promote Saudi Arabia's relationship with America and its commitment against terrorism.

"We are your friends because you have never taken an action that would hurt our people," Bandar said, adding that Saudi Arabia will continue doing its part to "be shoulder to shoulder with you against evil."

> "We are your friends because you have never taken an action that would hurt our people," Bandar said

Since 1994 or earlier, the National Security Agency has been collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between members of the Saudi Arabian royal family, which is headed by King Fahd. The intercepts depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.

The intercepts have demonstrated to analysts that by 1996 Saudi money was supporting Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Central Asia, and throughout the Persian Gulf region. "Ninety-six is the key year," one American intelligence official told me. "Bin Laden hooked up to all the bad guys—it's like the Grand Alliance— and had a capability for conducting large-scale operations." The Saudi regime, he said, had "gone to the dark side."

[KING'S RANSOM, by SEYMOUR M. HERSH, New Yorker, Issue of 2001-10-22, Posted 2001-10-16]

Okay Freepers, get ready to flame. I am again saying that the Saudis are not a monolithic block of crazed jihadis. There are definitely kook jihadis in the Kingdom. But there are also elements in the Kingdom who are our friends. This cannot be denied. Go look at the history of the Cold War. These guys helped us bring down the Soviet Union by keeping oil prices down when we were breaking the back of the Soviet economy.

One reason people misunderstand the US-Saudi relationship is that we do not share a common cultural heritage with the Saudis. Saudi-American cooperation has always been about working together in areas where there is mutual interest. This was true in the war with the Soviets. And it is true in the war with the jihadis. People don't get this because many of the kook jihadis come from Saudi Arabia.

For my money, this kind of relationship is what alliances are all about. We work together where we agree and we agree to disagree where we don't. The best example of "disagree" is the war between the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs. The Saudis are big time supporters of the Palestinians. DUH! But even here it is unfair to tag all Saudis as advocates of suicide bombings of buses full of civilians. The Saudi proposal for an end to the conflict is not that far from Bush's roadmap. If you look at the Saudi position on Israel it is much more reasonable than say Syria's.

Again, the key to understanding my position is to realize that the Saudis are more complex than the current media portrayal. There are very dangerous elements in the country. There are also very useful allies. To trash the guys who are our allies in the war on terror is foolishness of the worst sort.

The condemnation of the guys running Saudi Arabia today reminds me of the attacks the left made on the South Vietnamese before the defeat of the ARVN. They were hopelessly corrupt, unpopular, undemocratic, blah, blah, blah. Well we undercut them and the Communists took over. Wow that was real smart!

If we don't develop some nuance towards our friends in the Kingdom we will reap a disaster of major proportions. A Saudi Arabia run by jihadist kooks will become a self-fullfilling prophesy. A Shah of Iran redux. Vietnam 1975. Brilliant, just what we need in the war on terror.

Please do me one favor. After you flame the hell out of me, go do your own investigation of the Saudi-US relationship. Don't just rely on the NY Times or the TV networks. It is not an accident that Bush is not attacking the Saudis en masse. He is condemning the factions who are against us in the war on terror and supporting the factions who are with us. The Saudis are taking casualties themselves. They deserve some credit for this. They aren't stupid. They know the jihadis are out to kill them too.

The hardest part of this to understand is that we are not going to see eye-to-eye with the Saudis on the war between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Saudis are aligned as solidly behind the Palestinian Arabs as we are behind the Israelis. This is not new. It goes all the way back to 1948. Despite the disagreement over Israel we have worked successfully with the Saudis in many really tough situations. The war with the kook jihadis is probably the best example in history of such a situation.

Ok. In the words of Uncle Jed. "Commence to flamin."

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