Fascinating article.
This guy is obviously well connected, but it does seem to me the House of Saud is running scared. When 9/11 occured I remember it being reported that the crown princes having 737's lined up for as far as the eye could see to get off the pennisula and head to Europe (primarily Switzerland). They were afraid with us being paralyzed that the Wahhabists were getting ready to make a play for control of the Kingdom.
Also, didn't a bunch of accountants and financial advisors to the Royals get blown up in a suicide car
bombing in which the car crashed through a security gate in the compound exploding in this Royal white collar compound. I can't recall all the details (you need a scorecard to keep up with all these attacks) but it did happen during a period of time in which westerners working there were being attacked frequently.
I think he's right on everything, I just believe the House of Saud is really running scared as the Wahhabists are tiring of the fat, westernized (in their mind) crown princes and they want the whole enchilada as they continue to build strength in the pennisula. I think the HOuse of Saud sees us as being their ultimate final line of defence as they know we won't tolerate the country falling to the hard line Wahhabist clerics.
But ultimately, we do fold like a cheap lawn chair when the Royals take a hard position
The Wahhabist infrastructure is analogous to the SS in Nazi Germany; it was constructed with the idea of having a fanatical, ask-no-questions, loyalist, elite force to maintain control over the Kingdom. When the morals patrols start getting attacked and killed, that will mean the civil war in Saudi Arabia has begun in earnest.
IMV, civil war will come to Saudi Arabia, and it isn't far off. When it does come, the US should be selling arms (and NOT at cut rate prices) to all sides, to maximize the number of fanatics who are massacred on all sides, by the other sides. While we're waiting for that to start, we need to drill the ANWR and press forward with coal-derived synfuels, as well as gas hydrate development.
The fanatics opposed to the royal house of Saud are other rich jackoffs like bin Laden, who aren't anywhere near the right bloodline, and also don't think the Wahhabists are ****ing things up in the right way, regard the royal house as too western, and live in the old Moslem tradition of the lifelong struggle against other Moslems (as well as everyone else).