"King Fahd's beem a friend to the United States. And he's been a good ruler to his people. He's not the problem in Saudia Arabia."
How the heck can a man who is both king AND prime minister be a good ruler? That concept alone is enough to make me want to puke. And then you add his support for, at the very least, Palestinian murderers, and man, with friends like these...
While all you state is truth, there is another truth which you have missed. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia is what we would term a despot, but the alternatives for his countrymen are far worse. Fahd, for all his faults, which are admittedly legion, did at least attempt to modernize his country, back when he first assumed the throne.
The result was the hijacking of the holy site in Mecca, during the height of the pilgrimage season, by extremists. A number of pilgrims were killed, and the Saudi military was required to retake control of the site by force of arms. While the captured extremeists were subsequently executed, the forces behind them were never publicly revealed, although someone who has some passing familiarity with the kingdom, and its various power blocs can readily ascertain who was behind it, and more importantly, why.
The who is very easy, it was done at the behest of hard-line Saudi clerics, who are in a very tense, fragile accord with the royal house in running the country. The why, once the who is stated, is even easier. The clerics want the title "Defender of the Holy Sites" to devolve to them and not the king, and furthermore, they absolutely do not want any "Western" style reforms in the kingdom, as that could diminish their own power.
So, they embarrassed the king publicly, and in the end, with complete impunity, achieving the second part of their goals, stopping reform in its tracks. They favor, and always have, that Abdullah be king, as he is more in line with their philosophies than Fahd ever was...
the infowarrior