Posted on 08/16/2003 4:21:48 PM PDT by Brian S
Sat August 16, 2003 04:48 PM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah reaffirmed their "strong relations" and "overall close cooperation" in the war on terrorism in a phone call on Saturday that could help mend bilateral fences.
Bush angered the Saudi government last month by rejecting its request to declassify part of a congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks dealing with Saudi Arabia.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush discussed progress in the war on terrorism as well as bilateral relations during his 20 minute call with the crown prince.
"It was a good, positive conversation," McClellan told reporters. "They talked about the overall close cooperation in our efforts to crack down on terrorism and the two leaders talked about how strong relations are between the United States and Saudi Arabia."
The congressional report on the Sept. 11 attacks was released with a portion on Saudi Arabia still classified. The report raised suspicions over possible links between individuals in the Saudi government and some of the hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudis.
During a visit to the White House last month, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister angrily denounced the report as an "outrage" that "wrongly and morbidly" accused his country of complicity in the attacks.
Bush refused to declassify the section dealing with Saudi Arabia on the grounds it would compromise intelligence.
Bush spoke to Abdullah by phone from his Crawford, Texas, ranch, where he is vacationing.
Its obvious that W and the despot Saudis don't believe this happy horsecrap, but leave it to Reuters to turn a non-event into something significant.
Who purchased nuclear weapons for dirt poor unstable Pakistan?
Who had the chairman of the 911 investigation on their payroll?
A hard rain is going to fall.
Let me just ask you a couple of questions.
If the "Wahhabis" are so fanatically and irreconcilably hostile to the West in general and America in particular how do you explain the decades old close cooperation between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
If we are just the "infidel devils" to the Saudi's why did they help us bring down the Soviet Union?
Think about these questions before you join the Saudi bashing.
I'm willing to let the future determine that...
Most, if not all "cooperation" from Saudi Arabia has been self serving..and focused on their self preservation..
Whenever their interests were involved or threatened - they very clearly did NOT cooperate..
We will all know - quite soon, I believe.
In the meantime - I recommend keeping an armed eye on the bastards.
I learned a long time ago - at great cost, that it is wise to be suspicious of "friends" that haven't been proven under the most trying conditions....
Semper Fi
Not all cooperation from the Saudi's has been self serving. In fact, they have sacrificed their own self-interest several times for the alliance.
The Soviet Union collapsed because its economy collapsed. This was the strategy brilliantly executed by Reagan. An important element in that strategy was insuring that the Soviets would be starved for hard currency. This required that the Saudi's keep oil prices low for an extended period of time. It was this sacrifice by the Saudis that helped bankrupt the Soviets.
The Kingdom also took a great risk in 1991 by letting American troops stage Desert Storm from their territory. Having American troops in the Kingdom was extremely risky as it inflamed a number of religious factions in the country. Bin Laden has used the presence of American troops in the country to recruit Saudis to Al Qaeda. It is well known that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda have sworn to overthrow the Kingdom. Admitedly, the Saudis were afraid of Saddam as well, but they took a great risk in casting their lot with the Americans. They deserve a lot better than they are getting for their efforts.
It is true that most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis. The press is using this as evidence that all Saudis are terrorists. This is ridiculous. Al Qaeda has members of all nationalities as we are seeing as we take the organization apart. The truth of the matter is that Bin Laden deployed Saudis on 9/11 for two reasons. The first is that Saudis had particularly easy access to the country because of the alliance. But more importantly he chose Saudis for the mission specifically to drive a wedge between the United States and the Kingdom. The press is either too foolish or too biased to see this. Freepers should know better.
Gosh - I guess Senator Shelby was just 100 percent wrong when he said he'd read and reread the Saudi section of the report, and believed it was 95 percent releasable. Oh well, as long as the "Prince" gets to be entertained again in Crawford, who cares if the house of Saud was involved in 9-11.
15 OF THE 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
According to the USA today, The NSA intercepted radio transmissions on 9/10 containing the phrases "tomorrow is Zero Hour" and "The match begins tomorrow". Those transmissions were coming from inside Saudi Arabia...
Saudis had easy entree to the USA because of a weak State Dept that rubber-stamped visas for Saudis despite their track record of terrorism.
The "wedge" business is house of Saud spin. It's rather more likely Bin Ladin chose Saudis for the mission because he looked around his his Saudi-led, Saudi-financed, Saudi-staffed, Saudi-religion-inspired organization and found, you guessed it, a bunch of Saudis. Similar bunches of Saudis can be found making up the bulk of Guantanamo inmates, and filling the ranks of "foreigners" picking off our men in Iraq.
BTW, the 9-11 attacks were widely celebrated in the "kingdom". Horns were honked in celebration, block parties were held in some neighborhoods, and at one hospital, U.S. nurses quit when they arrived to find bin Ladin screensavers up on all the computers.
They're called the "royal" family.
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