Bush & The Saudi Princess

The (London) Spectator ^ | 11/30/02 | Mark Steyn

[Leisler]

He better know. Or is Saudi Arabia like his father's Iraq? I really like the guy, but if this and other articles are closer to the truth then the administration's line, then Bush can stuff his re-election goodbye. I'm not watching better men get killed and buried because party elites don't want to rock their cozy, and profitable relationships with these smoothed handed thugs. The Saudi's are scum.

[desertcry]

keeping enemies close...... Very close, so close that our enemies can't wiggle their toes without W knowing about it. This is the only thing that makes sense to me, and the President has done nothing thus far to lose my trust.

[desertcry]

This is very interesting indeed! The bent one has betrayed the American people so many times, I have lost count. There has been no emphasis about this meeting in the liberal media however, which makes me even more suspicious.

[winner3000]

I recommend to everyone to have faith in George W. There are a lot of things we don't know even though something tells me that his attitude toward the Saudis has something to do that he cannot go to war against the whole world at the same time.

Remember Iraq? While we were in Afghanistan, George W. took great pains to disprove any link between Al Qaeda and Saddam (an Iraqi friend told me to pronounce Saddam backwards. It was delightful!) After he kicked the Taliban's butt, he suddenly found the links and is going after Saddam. Something tells me that the Saudis have a window of opportunity until the end of the war with Iraq (which is why they're trying to prevent that war). If they don't change their tunes real fast, they'll be next one way or another. Meanwhile, let's not force Bush's hand until he's prepared to. If we finish with Iraq/Iran, Saudi money is still going to Al Qaeda and Bush is not pressuring the Saudis, then I'll be leading the booing (but, as I said, I have faith in George W.)

[lodwick]

Friends don't let friends fund terrorists!

Nice! ;-)

[Route66]

'I recommend to everyone to have faith in George W. There are a lot of things we don't know even though something tells me that his attitude toward the Saudis has something to do that he cannot go to war against the whole world at the same time.'
>>>>>>>>>
I agree with this. I have heard many middle east experts say as much. All the government downsizing Al gore and Clinton was so proud of came from our military and we can only do so much with what we have. In addition, we are doing little saber rattling with Iran, SA, and the other nations in the region because we need to keep the worlwide flow of oil stable and eliminate the muscle that Iraq weilds first. Without Saddam and the WMD he holds, the rest will not be as brazen and changes in Iraq will have a destabilizing effect on the governments of the Saudi royalty and the Iranian clerics.

[McGavin999]

How about adding in the fact the Billy Jeff Clinton was also in the general area at the same time and did, in fact, meet with the Saudi Ambassador for at least three hours, early in the morning at the Saudi's hotel ... after the Saudi had concluded his meetings with Mr. Bush at the ranch.

Excellent point. I've been saying since this thing came up that Bandar's wife was set up. Nice neat way to eliminate the friendship between the US and the pro-Americian Saudis. Bandar is entirely too sophisticated to have done something this sloppy especially when untraceable cash is so available to them. $130,000 to the SA princes is like chump change. They probably carry that much around in tip money.

I remember reading about Clinton being there at the same time and wondering what that was all about, could be he met with the people who set Bandar up. My guess is the guy in charge of intelligence. I vaguely remember there being some kind of upset where the old intelligence guy was thrown out and a new one put in place. I believe the guy in charge now is not exactly pro-American.

[RedsHunter]

Excellent point. I've been saying since this thing came up that Bandar's wife was set up. Nice neat way to eliminate the friendship between the US and the pro-Americian Saudis.

Personally, I'm not so sure about the set up thing. My surmise is that Bandar was taking Dubya's temperature on a whole lot of Saudi-American issues having to do with intelligence matters and the post-summit meeting with the bent one was intended to more or less for Clinton to confirm Bandar's take on Bush ... and just how much the American intelligence agencies would know about the Saudi sub-rosa operations in the USA. Clinton, knowingly or unknowingly, would be the perfect foil for such a purpose.

The question in my mind is whether or not His Slickness was paid to attend that meeting as a consultant to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Given his proclivity for whoring his status of former President, such an activity could certainly not be out of bounds for one of his character. A rate of $100K per hour would seem about right for such a service and to pay it would be chump change paid out of petty cash for one of Bandar's resources.