Beck, Obama, & Saudi Connections

Since early last week, listeners across the country have been hearing Glenn Beck rail against the Obama Administration for its handling of the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing. Beck has been especially focused on the quick changes in the status and the subsequent, and very expedited, deportation of a Saudi suspect, Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi. Al-Harbi was the prime suspect on the day of the bombing and was previously on an FBI terror watch-list. He had open event files, including a 212-3B terrorist suspect designation before the bombing. In spite of this designation, Al-Harbi was quickly declared a witness and sent home. The truth behind what happened with Al-Harbi lies somewhere in the shadows, and will probably never be fully known.

Glenn Beck and former Muslim Brotherhood member, Whalid Shoebat, and many others are very concerned about the developments of the Al-Harbi connections with the Boston bombing. Glenn Beck has been the most vocal and has been leading the charge to get to the bottom of the story, presenting many verified documents detailing the changes in Al-Harbi’s status. Beck further ties the treatment of Al-Harbi to the pattern established under President Bush when 140 Saudis were quickly sped out of the country following the 9/11attacks of 2001-- although 15 of the 19 terrorists were Saudis.

This quick deportation of Saudis with or without direct connections to the terrorist crimes is troubling. At a minimum, it drives everyone with any discerning temperament and interest in the security of our nation to question why this might occur and so much of it is kept secret. The apparent conflict of interest fuels the fires of distrust and fans the flames of conspiracy theories. Given the already questionable policies and reprehensible performance of the Obama Administration on the foreign and domestic fronts, this fire is spreading.

The Obama Administration has been incredibly distrustful in the protection of our rights, or rather, in its hostilities toward those who wish to protect the Constitution. From the refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation in the 2008 election, to the focus on “right-wing Christian extremists,” to the cover up of Beghazi, the Administration and its appointed Secretaries have been seemingly focused on undermining the Constitution and America’s standing in the world. It has reached the point where Beck and many people on the politically and socially conservative side of the house believe the full weight and efforts of the entire Homeland Security Department is focused on the TEA party, and not Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Brotherhood, as the primary threats to our nation.

But all conservatives must keep in mind that there are literally hundreds of thousands of mid-level and fairly senior career intelligence, law enforcement, and military personnel who are sworn to support and defend the Constitution. These professionals are walking the tight rope of showing public compliance with the President and his policies, while quietly using bureaucratic inertia to slow the practical effects of the Administration’s efforts to undermine the Constitution. They are engaged in very personal, gut-wrenching struggles to preserve the institutions charged with protecting our nation. They are doing so at the risk of their careers as well as the risks of being lumped together with the Administration which sets the political agendas for those institutions. In some cases, they resign in protest as the Justice Department official did in response to Eric Holder’s handling of the Black Panther case. But in most cases, they continue to serve quietly to safe guard the continuity and integrity of those institutions until the political winds bring new political leadership.

In spite of the validity of the documents Beck has acquired and his listeners’ Congressional call-in campaigns, the American people will probably never get the answers we are looking for. Part of the reason is the intransigence and incompetence of the Obama Administration. Part of it is the need to keep the work of the Intelligence community secret and avoid actions and leaks which could further the destabilization of the entire Middle East. Such leaks and actions could potentially lead to the replacement of the House of Saud with another Muslim Brotherhood government, controlling a large portion of the world economy’s life blood.

To better understand the dynamics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one must understand it is a political tent woven from one of the most complicated patch works of political relationships in the world today, ruled by a royal family (the House of Saud) with over 6000 family members. Only a native Arabic speaker could truly comprehend the mix of Sharia law, family & tribal relationships, pride, insecurity, and face-saving backwards logic which keeps that patch work together. Too much stress in anyone direction, and it will rip apart at the odd angles of its many seams. That patchwork tent is under the stress from the harsh political winds of the Arabian Peninsula which seem to blow all directions at the same time. The civil war in Syria and the revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia have only increased those winds. The danger is the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda will replace the Saudi tent with a single fabric woven from the most radical interpretations of Sharia and integrated into a new greater Islamic Caliphate.

In the west, we tend to view royal families as vestiges of antiquated political systems with a privileged few holding dominion over the masses, keeping them in poverty and suppressing societal development towards freedom. In Saudi Arabia, the dynamic is reversed. The leadership in the royal family, with all their faults and weaknesses, are the educated, enlightened, and pragmatic ones in the equation. They recognize the need to balance the conflicting legal systems of Sharia, which governs domestic issues, and Common, International, and Trade laws which govern trade and international relations. They are trying to maintain a balance as they move a 15th century society of tent and mud house dwelling Bedouin herders (it is literally the year 1434 by the Muslim Hijri calendar) into the 21st century in a single generation.

To put this in perspective: at their births, many Saudis born outside the major city centers 40 years ago, had more in common with their ancestors of the 7th Century than with their children born today.

The introduction of massive oil wealth and its opulence and decadence, combined with the modern technologies in communications, air travel, and weapons into such a society has produced an extremely volatile mix. The portion of the Saudi population whose religious beliefs, social, and political sophistication is barley removed from the middle ages, is fertile ground for the Islamic Fundamentalist messages and recruiting. The fundamentalists are blanketing those populations with sermons, videos, and printed materials highlighting the corruption and sinfulness of the royal family and accusing them of being servants to the infidel Americans. This is a message which resonates with people whose perceptions of America are shaped by Al Jazera and internet pornography. This is the portion of the population which produced the 9/11 high-jackers.

For Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, drawing Saudi recruits for attacks on American soil serves a very strategic purpose: it undermines the relationship between the Saudi government and the United States. It causes public distrust and hatred of all Saudis in the US. This in turn, fuels Islamist propaganda which makes it harder for the Saudi King to use US assistance in standing against Iran and keeping a lid on the Islamic revolutionary movements within the Kingdom.

The Saudi Royal family maintains this incredibly delicate balance with heavily weighted ballasts. The Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for defense against foreign threats, is directly balanced by the full time and equally well armed National Guard, which is responsible for internal defense. In the city of Riyadh, there are a number of security colleges, each training students to serve in different agencies, which also counterbalance each other and prevent anyone administrator from becoming too powerful.

The Americans responsible for working with this myriad of Saudi agencies to keep the open pot of boiling Islamic Fundamentalism from spilling all over the place, reside in the US interagency intelligence communities. They work with the conglomeration of Saudi security agencies on the mutual self interests of the United States and House of Saud in reducing the fundamentalist threats on the Arabian Peninsula and world stages.

Which brings us back to Al-Harbi. It is possible that he has enjoyed some special status in the US because of his Saudi family ties and this somehow got him out of a tight spot. But it is also possible that, in addressing the common threats of terrorism to the US and House of Saud, (we will probably never know for sure), that many of the Saudis who have been quickly whisked away following 9/11 and the Boston bombing were agents and their families working in conjunction with US and Saudi intelligence agencies to infiltrate terrorist organizations in order to track and defeat their leadership and money lines of communications. Their covers were effectively blown when the attacks occurred and links led American law enforcement to them.

The evidence of this is not in what is being said. It is in what is not being said in relation to Beck’s charges and inquiries. While certain documents have been leaked showing changes to the terrorist watch-list standings (probably by law enforcement or political personnel who are naturally alarmed at the changes), the door has been shut on who was responsible for changing the status and why it was done. No one who can get access to the inside information is bringing it forward and most are going silent on the issue. This led Beck to call for his listeners to contact their Congressmen to demand answers. He has also openly wondered if the Obama Administration, which is charged with protecting the country, “is shipping terror into our country.”

The good news is, if Obama was shipping terrorists into our country and then covering them up, there would be mass resignations in protest from the intelligence communities. Those analysts and agents would be bringing the documentation with them to Congress – and this has not happened.

This brings us back to the other part of the equation; the intransigence of the Obama administration.

President Bush enjoyed a certain amount of trust from the vast majority of the American people in dealing with the terrorist threat. Whether they loved him or hated him, almost all Americans recognized that Bush loved America and the people who defend it on the home front, the battlefields of distant lands, and the shadowy world of intelligence. Speculation over the movement of the Saudi Nationals following 9/11 was largely ignored. Whether it was a good or bad decision, just about everyone believed Bush would try to do what is right for America.

President Obama does not enjoy such trust. At almost every turn, he has either failed to reinforce, or directly undermined the trust in the institutions critical to the safe function of our system of government. He has been critical of our Soldiers in the fight and our law enforcement personnel in the execution of their jobs. He left an Ambassador to die at the hands of a terrorist mob in Benghazi and demonstrated his lack integrity in the cover-up of the debacle. His stated thoughts on the Constitution are more concerned with trying to reshape and reinterpret it rather than supporting and defending its original intent and language. Much of his political rhetoric is focused on dividing America along, racial, class, and religious lines. His Administration has publicly stated they see American Citizens who demand the Founding Principles of our nation be respected as greater threats to the nation than foreign enemies actively trying to destroy us. He is a President who refuses to acknowledge that religiously motivated terrorists are basing their reprehensible crimes on the fundamentalist teachings of Islam and its political and legal system of Sharia.

It is truly unfortunate that we have reached a point where a national radio hosts feels called to question not only the judgment, but the loyalty of a sitting President following a national tragedy. It is unfortunate that there is so much documentary evidence to support his questions. Finally, it is unfortunate that a sitting President has so poisoned the well of trust with such a large portion of the population that it serves to divide our nation at a time when we should be united in our stand against enemies who seek to destroy us.

Even if Obama has done the right thing in dealing with the Saudi connection, as he did when he ordered the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound, it is unfortunate that he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt from so many of us. Obama’s chickens have come home to roost.

William Russell is a retired Infantry Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Army and has served in Desert Storm, the Balkans, the Iraq War, and the Pentagon on 9/11. He has spent three years in the Middle East, including 18 months training the Saudi Arabian National Guard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Thank you for your continued service to the Republic with this lucid piece of writing. I especially appreciate the fact that there are thousands of professionals who swore the oath. I have a son who swore that oath, has served honorably and who shall soon advance into the ranks of Marine officers. And, I know, beyond a doubt, that he know what an oath is, and that he knows what integrity is.

There is yet good reason to hope. Never give up! Never,never, never.

John McCain lives in the desert.

BTW, if you get caught badmouthing the royal family in Saudi you'd best have relatives in one of the more powerful affiliated clans ~ otherwise you are 'toast'.

The way the state is organized is there are two main military forces ~ the Army, answerable to the king ~ and the National Guard, answerable to the various clans ~ which are sometimes identified as provinces.

They maintain the ideal balance ~ whether it's ideal or not, it's a well practiced traditional federal/federation system that's thousands of years old.

Here's where they really differ from us, although Bill Clinton might have tried to get it started ~ the founding family provides the dynasty which is a series of kings, usually brothers, or first cousins. Each king and his successors has as many wives as possible, and those wives come from the clans ~ whether affiliated or not. So a Saudi king might have a wife from Yemen for example.

They each try to have as many kids as possible.

Back when they had a million or so people the royals succeeded in breeding with each clan to produce a new class which is affiliated with the royal family and with the most important clan families.

This practice was continued down the line ~ I believe the last count was a good 50,000 'royals' in a country with 24 million.

Mullahs in Saudi are state employees. When one of them starts speaking out of line he gets reported, and he changes his sermons or he disappears.

There's always been a campaign against the royals and their corruption. That was going on even before they discovered oil there. At the same time the royals have always sought to ferret out discontent and silence it.

I think at the moment the royals are ahead ~ back on 9/11 they were behind and didn't know it.

one element Fur Shur, 9/11 blew the cover on all the Saudi watchers.

This particular practice is not unique to the Saudis. The Japanese government used to send 'watchers' with groups of Japanese immigrants. Most all of them came from the old noble families or the samurai class. American authorities thought of them as 'labor brokers'.

Saudis do this, but with a catch ~ the other Saudis don't know who they are. At the same time a Saudi watcher will be involved in OTHER things as well. One item would be to get friendly with non-Saudis in the area.

Way back in college the Kuwaitis did pretty much the same thing, but the watchees knew the watchers. I knew a nephew of the Imir as well as the guy sent to watch him. Both were students. A Saudi friend brought his slave with him ~ and the slave said he wasn't ever going back!

These guys were a hoot. Today there are far more people involved, and the Saudi watchers have a very big job on their hand infiltrating groups that might do things to hurt Saudi ~ so they have to pretend to be something else ~ maybe a Kuwaiti, or Omani, or maybe even an Iraqi. Since accent is all in Arabic, they are limited to the True Arabs without special language training.

There is a war raging in this world that takes place parallel to normal life and the Saudi government and the clans are both involved in it up to their armpits. For a variety of reasons it's all very Confucian ~ and I just don't know where that came from.

BTW, the piece has TOO MANY TOPICS ~ but most of it can be fit into something fairly coherent.

What is missing in so many discussions of Saudi is the reminder that SAUDI IS A POLICE STATE ~ both on the civil level, but also on the religious/moral level.

Try this one ~ they don't care how many times you get married but sex outside marriage is forbidden and punishable. If you get divorced make sure it's recorded or you might end up violating some taboo you never heard of (marrying across clan lines, depending on the clan, can do that) and that would be punishable.

A lot of the stranger stuff is rare, but they did have a stampede at opening day at the IKEA and dozens of people got trampled to death.

There were well over 10 thousand people there!

Every Saudi I ever met loves Florida ~ California not so much.

I've read a hundred articles that make statements similar to this article and that's as far as things go.

Rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric... but NO WHERE is there anyone wielding the "terrible swift sword of justice" by taking ANY action that CHANGES things.

An apt analogy would be two friends talking when one notices that his car is being stolen and yells "hay my car is being stolen"... and then he and his friend never respond to the theft action and go into the house to drink beer and eat chicken.

My term "Dust in the wind" implies to that analogy and the articles statements.

Unlikely that AlHamdi was trying to infiltrate the terrorist organizations on behalf of the Saudis cooperating with US anti-terrorism - because he’s been identified by MestaMachine as Hamza, the son of Bin Laden, who has sworn to avenge his death.

I don’t know all of Mesta’s qualifications or all the facts she used to determine that, but know that she is qualified at doing facial recognition and she’s implied that there are other skills and knowledge she also has, that make her qualified to be trusted to make that determination. She’s also said that the US government would have known who he was even before the bombing, if I’m understanding correctly.

So there is deep, deep doo-doo going on here, and Michelle Obama’s visit to him (but not to one of the injured heroes from that day) links this guy directly to the Obamas.

So the DHS counterterrorism people are connecting Beck to the claim that the AlHamdi is really Hamza.

I think Beck knows it is Hamza but hasn’t come out and said it publicly yet. Not sure what he’s waiting for, but if it’s to build up the story for maximum effect, it’s hard to build for maximum effect when the only people who hear the claims are those who are already dismissed as “conspiracy nuts”.

That’s the danger of people ridiculing the whole notion of conspiracies, rather than debunking specific conspiracy claims based on specific evidence. The people who proved their own “coolness” by mocking the “crazy conspiracists” were instead writing their own obituary in the process, because they ridiculed an epistemology based on evidence and instead embraced an epistemology based on normalcy bias.

Those who will not listen to other people’s facts set the rules that will eventually discount their OWN facts when the time comes. Either we engage with facts or we don’t. Beck is finding that what he did to some of the rest of us (dismissing facts by calling the revealer a “crazy conspiracist”) is what is happening to him now. He’s giving facts, but can’t find anybody willing to stand with him in presenting them. Sad.

In the counter-terrorism group, were people believing that AlHamdi is Hamza?

hmm ~ I suppose you'd like to know wouldn't you. Let's just say it's sufficient to talk about the basic governmental structure in use in Saudi with the writer ~ and probably more than you could ever understand.

Did you find something he said that I didn't say in a slightly different way?

Ha, ha, you haven't read the article or the board either.

Back to temple work eh!

Well, I cannot say anything in defense in so called television conservative broad casters, whoever they may be, but the radio broadcasters are providing a valuable element to a free society.

I know I have criticized them for not talking about this or that, but the fact that they do talk about conservative philosophy is priceless.

I look at liberalism as a carefully crafted malicious organic code, very similar to malicious computer code. Liberalism is self replicating and self spreading. Once a liberal is made, that liberal is compelled to make as many other liberals as can be made, and thus their numbers increase exponentially.

Their methods are successful because they smartly exploit human psychological weaknesses, such as greed and envy, fairness, casting everything they want to do as a civil right. The only way to counter the spread of this malicious code is by spreading the counter code, which is that of freedom, individualism, or conservatism.

Now when one considers just how many sources of liberal code there are versus sources of conservative code, one can see that we are in great heap trouble. Liberals have corrupted almost every known source of communication to spread their code, while conservatives have almost no sources of code.

Viewing the situation in this light reveals just how valuable our radio hosts are, despite being imperfect. Without them, this nation would have been lost long ago, and may well still be lost.

It boils down to this. If no one speaks of conservatism and its worth, no one will know about it. The liberals will gain access to the new generations as early as possible and plant the seeds of evil in their minds, and those seeds will grow.

We as free people must do more. It is the duty of the free to make more free people, and we have not done that.

What we have done, for the most part, is allow the enemy to make drones, as many as they need, and their carefully planned plot is almost done.

We are definitely in great jeopardy.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.