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I believe the "we give money to Bin Ladin to leave us alone" only in the sense that while he is not operating inside the Kingdom they have deniability, and while he is not attacking the royals themselves they have parallel interests.

Assigning someone to Sudan could be covered as "deporting" them to Sudan, so that means nothing to me. Of course at the level Bin Ladin operates at, you don't actually give orders to a guy at his level. He at some point becomes a force in his own right, he is not a spook with a CIA pension plan and semi-annual performance reviews, his agents are personally loyal to him, and he has by this time developed his own agenda. But if the Sauds are funding his activities outside the Kingdom, he is a Saudi agent, and his operations serve their interests or they would not fund them.

The fact that the money is laundered in as charitable donations from the royals also means little, thats one way its done. You will remember that one way we funded the Contras was by way of charities, one of the major ones handled by Jeb Bush... er, never mind. But you get my point, thats how its done.

Had we not intervened in Afghanistan when we did, I believe his intent was for the Taliban to push north into Tajikistan. I believe we have all seen reports that they were massing for a big push, and the Northern Alliance was at the point of folding when we came into the picture.

A Talibanistan in Central Asia would not have been beyond the realm of the possible had that happened. There are areas in the 'Stans that are beyond the reach of the governments as it is. Parts of the Ferghana Valley, for example, and there was a portion of I believe Kyrgyzstan that China simply demanded, and they ceded, a year or so back.

The fact that these regions sit on top of, or within arms reach of an enormous pool of oil and gas is just serendipity, I'm sure.

My reservations about Posner are that he is a shill for others, possibly a CIA shill, but a shill in any case.

This book only reinforces my view of him. He obviously couldn't have access to the kind of interrogations he is reporting, so someone has to make the decision to leak that information. That is what is interesting to me here, that a decision was made to leak this information, which will have the effect of ramping up the pressure on the Sauds. Unless they can get the rest of the media to ignore the story altogether. I wonder how much PR money that would cost.