[vrwc54]

This is the article everyone is talking about. Yesterday on Special Report with Brit Hume, they said the story about the failure to shoot at Mullah Omar was true.

[AZFolks]

I heard a program on NPR today where a lot of what Hersh says was refuted, not by left wingers, but by some reasonable people from industry who have had significant dealings with Saudi and who have lived there. No one is to take this to mean the Saudis are not corrupt but it seems the author really overstated the case.

[Elenya]

The House of Saud's days are undoubtedly numbered as they have outlived their usefulness to the obl gang. I'm expecting an islamic revolution there any day now. Nasty business.

I'm not sure what we should/can do. I would vote for getting the hell out of there and let them kill each other for a bit, but some will say these oil fields need attention...

[SamAdams76]

I'm sick of seeing so-called "allies" like Saudi Arabia taking our oil money and funnelling it to terrorists. Let's just invade and take some of the oil fields for our own use. Not the whole country mind you, they can keep their stinking wasteland of a country. Just take an area about the size of Israel with enough oil to last us about a hundred years or so. And build the worlds biggest military base around the captured oil wells with enough firepower to waste anybody who tries to do anything about it. What the hell? They hate our guts anyway. Might as well get something for it.

[magoo_70115]

Just drop that f*&king JAG into Kabul or Kandarhar and let him explain to them the necessities for adhering to the rule of law.

[Cicero]

The most interesting part of this article to me is the early part, about NSA intercepts of conversations among the royal family. It may be bulls**t, as I think some of the other details are, but it wouldn't be the first time the intelligence agencies have leaked to Hersh (why him, I don't know). What it says about the Saudis' support of terror is pretty much what we've been saying here--but which I don't think most people have heard before. Someone wanted to get the word out about Saudi corruption and threachery, via the New Yorker, which has become a mouthpiece for the liberal establishment.

[steveegg]

Vulnerable? More like complicit, at least IMHO. I think that they use Al-Qaida much as the French use the Foreign Legion.

[BunnySlippers]

Nice. Bookmark.

[Southern Federalist]

Here is my stab at reorganizing the Arabian peninsula from my armchair:

Put the Muslim holy places under the control of a pan-Muslim council, with Muslim representatives appointed secular states with large Islamic populations - so it's not all Arabs but includes the Turks and the traditionally Sufi countries of Central Asia and the European countries and the Unites States.

Put the Council under the presidency of King Abdullah, whose family were protectors of the holy places for 700 years or so, when they were booted out by the brigand Abdul Aziz, whose endless brood still holds sway. The Hashemites are not perfect but there's a vein of sanity in the family (and to be sure also a vein of insanity, as for example Abdullah's granddaddy) and their roots go back into Islam's glory days.

Organize the oildfields - which are going to peter out one of these years anyway - in a sort of public interest corporation whose proceeds go to establish a fund for the upkeep of the holy places and a pilgrimage-to-Mecca fund for indigent Muslims.

Probably a hundred reasons it wouldn't work. But it's fun to speculate. At least this would reduce the clout of the local Wahhabi Brute Squads.

[aristeides]

FYI.

[Magician]

It's time for us to take back the Saudi oil fields (they belonged to American companies until they were nationalized 40 years ago). We can pay the Saudis a few dollars a barrel royalty as we did before the fields were nationalized.

If you think we have a slow economy now, wait until those oil fields fall into the hands of the fanantics in Saudi Arabia who are waiting to take over the country and throw out the House of Saud. Oil at $100 per barrel. The Dow at 2000.

[RobbyS]

According to someone who saw the report, it concluded that with only a small amount of explosives terrorists could take the oil fields off line for two years. More like six months, tops.

[ken5050]

Do you sense any similarity with the last days of the Shah of Iran?......and look at the mess that has caused. The House of Saud could topple like a house of cards in one day...there are more Palestinians working in the country, running the infrastructure, then there are Saudis living there....and did you see the thread about the Saudis are thinking about asking the US military to leave.

[libertylover]

"...the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration, is refusing to confront this reality..."

Hardly. The Bush Administration actually wanted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil BEFORE 9-11.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Looks like Mecca is about due for new management. Maybe the previous owners will take over. Ditto Iraq.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Saudi Arabia King Fahd receives Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2001, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Chavez stressed the need to stabilize the oil market during his visit, part of a multi-nation tour that was taking him to Iran and Russia. (AP Photo/SPA)