Saudi Arabia Quietly Helping U.S. in War

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia woke up to a war it has for months been trying to avert. But despite its opposition and repeated assertions it won't take part, the kingdom has quietly been helping the United States set up for the conflict.

Thousands of U.S. troops have deployed near the border with Iraq and in a garrison town in the north. More of them have been deployed at an air base near Riyadh, the capital. And 3,300 Saudi soldiers are in Kuwait as part of the Peninsula Shield, a military operation ordered by the Gulf Cooperation Council to protect Kuwait from a possible Iraqi attack.

``They have given the Americans everything they have asked for,'' a Gulf official said on condition of anonymity. ``Saudi Arabia is not participating; it's facilitating.''

Hours after the start of hostilities, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal reiterated his government's position that it would not be taking part in the war against ``brotherly'' Iraq.

In a statement to the official Saudi Press Agency, Prince Saud expressed ``grave concern and deep regret'' over the war. He hoped ``military operations end as soon as possible and that there be a return to the language of peace efforts.''

When talk about a U.S.-led war on Iraq began a few months ago, attention turned to Saudi Arabia, which hosted the U.S.-led coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. At that time, the kingdom was under direct threat from the Iraqis, who were moving south in the direction of Saudi Arabia.

After that war ended, thousands of U.S. troops, now housed at the Prince Sultan air base outside Riyadh, stayed to monitor the no-fly zone established in southern Iraq to protect that country's Shiites from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops.

That war and the high-profile participation of Americans roused the anger of Muslim militants and gave a pretext for Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to go after the ruling Al Saud family and the United States.

A complex element this time is the Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by 19 Arabs, including 15 Saudis, all of them believed to be bin Laden followers. Following the attacks on New York and Washington, dozens of al-Qaida sympathizers have been arrested in the kingdom and a few Westerners have been attacked. The attacks have also strained the decades-old Saudi-U.S. alliance.

The kingdom has been walking a tightrope between its desire to maintain good relations with the United States and the resentment Saudis feel over the war. The government fears an extremist backlash if it is seen by its people as siding with the United States against Iraq, a fellow Arab state.

Spurred by its domestic concerns, the kingdom has tried to resolve the crisis diplomatically.

Weeks ago, it discreetly floated the idea of Saddam going into exile. It also presented to major Western powers the idea of offering amnesty to all but the tight circle around Saddam in the hopes that senior generals would overthrow him. At the same time, the kingdom has been assuring its citizens that no Saudi troops will participate in the war.

But behind the scenes, Saudi Arabia has quietly been helping the Americans, mindful that if it did not join in the effort, it would have no say in helping shape a post-Saddam Iraq.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia announced it was closing the northern Araar airport to civilian traffic, saying it would serve as a base to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqi refugees.

However, the Gulf official said thousands of U.S. troops have poured into the town of Araar, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi border, and the garrison town of Tabuk, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Jordanian border. The official said the U.S. troops in Araar include U.S. forces who will use helicopters and aircraft to carry out search-and-rescue operations - basically help recover any downed pilots or planes. The official did not dismiss the possibility that attack missions will be carried out from Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, Western diplomats said the Americans have increased the number of their troops at the Prince Sultan base, from where U.S. and British troops have for more than a decade launched reconnaissance and patrol flights over southern Iraq. Those flights will continue during the war.

One diplomat said on condition of anonymity that what the United States has been doing in the no-fly zone will continue in what is now a war zone in southern Iraq.

The diplomat said that from the beginning the Americans have been careful not to ask too much of Saudi Arabia.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi political analyst, recently said in a piece in the Beirut-based Daily Star that Saudi Arabia must ``play some role in the 'liberation' of Iraq.''

``Saudi Arabia must pursue a pragmatic policy,'' said Khashoggi, who is also editor-in-chief of the Saudi Al-Watan daily. ``It is ... better for the Saudis to ensure a place for themselves in the operations room.''

America was founded to be a Christian nation...99% of the nearly 400 founding fathers thought so...the separation of Church and state..was to keep the state from enforcing one religon upon worshipers...as the founding of America was essentially a church relocation project..those Christians who were persecuted under the State-Church of England

The ACLU and their socialist/atheist ilk came up with this separation approach to destroy America and we are now reaping this fruit in our neuveau culture...freedom of speech for homosexuals child pornographers abortionists...and the muzzling of Christians with the declartion of separtion of Church and state

The reason Islam perverts culture and religion is that it is based upon the false premise that of Muhammed being the "enlightend one" by the one true God- Of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.. (even He confessed that he believed a demon visited him and influenced his writings...the buzzing in his ear nearly driving him insane)

Muhammed's fruits proved him..this is not a religon that could ever exist within the parameters of America established by our Founding Fathers..the ACLU notwithstanding..

We dont need to irradicate Islam...we need to pull its teeth...so that it can no longer bite us..

The so called separation of church and state by the ACLU atheist types has lead to this moral equivilancy and linkage between so called radical Islam being morally equivilant to evangelical Christianity enabling the ACLU's establishment of the "atheist religion" as the new "state church"

We have allowed Islam in our institutions to build mosques and Islamic centers accross our nation ..lifted their children above our own in our own educational systems (affirmative action -diversity programs)...and under the Clintonistas allowed them to access to our institutions where they have peddled their influence and perverted our purpose..which has lead to the terrorism we have finally decided to contend with..

To approach the problem as a materialist one (even as a so called enlightend materialist) is to fail to understand the problem and to add to it..Our founding fathers nearly all practicing Christians understood this and applied it to government as well as their personal business practices and their communities and families...

America..... apart from Christ..... is dead

The atheists wish us to believe and enforce the exact opposite..The Father of America General Washington was a practicing Christian....who gave full credit to God and to Christ for not only the victory of America over the British but enforced the virtues of Christianity upon his soldiers
The idea that religon is to blame for the worlds problems is a false one..true religon is the answer to what man searches for..

As long as oil is in the middle east and the world pays through the nose for it...the muslims sitting on the oil will be able to buy weapons from the worlds arsenals willing to sell weapons to them..as long as the west educates its enemies in the science of physics chemistry and bacteriology/virology there will be those whose sole/soul motivation will be to use this knowledge to advance their beliefs according to their scripture...(by force of arms)

And when the west no longer supports terror...the east will pick up the gauntlette..
The war on terror will not be won ultimately by force of earthly arms..but in the meantime
we need to pick our battles carefully...

And GW Bush has my vote as the man for the job...frankly there is no other up to the task..

The muslim states will never be a friend of the USA...nations arent friends..they can be business partners as long as the USA is in the drivers seat...then we will be OK and that after all is all that is important..the idea that the USA should become weaker is insane...the Clintons push this as do their commie friends..as once we are out of the drivers seat they will have no one left strong enough to oppose them...hence their desire through groups like the ACLU to weaken us to the point where we can no longer oppose them.

Is Saudi Arabia our enemy?...Of course...one of thousands...who needs to be kept attenuated and operating in our best interest..should we establish an atheist materialist culture among Islam?....NO ...its bad enough in America..and would fly in the face of the God of Abraham Isaac & Abraham who established the USA in the first place..

Our problem is not only Islam trying to kill us...its those nations who provide them with the means to do so...today they use muslims as their proxies..tomorow who knows...once we are weak enough they will try more direct means...its the way of the world...imo

America..... apart from Christ..... is dead

Thank you very much for your reply. If America is dead apart from Christ, then, you might as well throw the towel, right now. The neocons that are influencing most of our decision makers are mostly non-Christians, and also are card carrying members of the ACLU. They all support abortion, and all for Government Indoctrinations (education)!

Do you remember when the public schools used to give Easter recess! Now it is a spring recess, and that is not enough, it MUST not coincide with Easter. Just ask Bill Kristol and his cohorts at our national education establishment.

You must be dreaming to think of this country as a Christian country. Yes the majority of this country is Christians, and yes our founding fathers were Christians, but no real Christians have limited power. The real power was awarded to the minorities with better organization, and better drive, the neocons. If the US was a Christian country as you think, do you suppose we would have allowed Sudan to systematically kill over two million Christians? When Billy Graham's son Franklin was heart broken over the holocaust of Christian Sudanese and demanded from his friend President Bush to do something about the atrocities of Moslem Arabs against the Christian Sudanese, Bill Kristol started to site the “separation of Church and State”, our media started to complain that a Christian friend of our President is influencing public policies!

Again, the concept of a nation constitutionally partial to one religion, and systematically intimidating and oppressing others who don't practice that particular religion is an evil and barbaric system. Religion should be a private thing between the individual and his/her God. Our country is a great country because of the equality, and respect we afford others who are not Christian; however, we should never abandon our Christianity to appeal to minority groups, the PC police, and the neocons.

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