[MadIvan]

Anyone care to still say the Saudis are our friends? Bueller? Bueller?

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Sparta]

I'm really shocked!(sarcasm)

[gcruse]

                  How long can we keep it up?

[Cicero]

It's been obvious since a week or two after 9/11 that they are not our friends. Unlike Pakistan, they have not cooperated with us, and if anyone thinks they will come up with a full report on the Princess's expenditures, I have a bridge to sell them.

I doubt whether Bush really expects the Saudis to help against Iraq much if at all. It's just a good excuse to keep talking and to keep acting as if we need something from them--which we don't. But it's too soon for an open break.

[Amelia]

For most of us, the reaction is "D'OH!" but either the administration hasn't caught on yet, or they have reasons for not admitting it until now....

[RightWhale]

They aren't friends of the West, but they have so much money sloshing around, all of it new money since they began exporting oil in a big way in the 50s, they can't keep track of where it all goes. It happens to a lot of newly rich people who donate to causes.

[Senator_Palpatine]

"WIPE THEM OUT ALL OF THEM"

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, said the notion that the princess had aided terrorists was "crazy". Saudi Arabia "will be merciless against people in the war on terrorism", he said...

...unless they happen to be connected to the royal family.

We shouild inform our "friends", the Saudis, that unless they reign in their Wahabbi fanatics, we will conquer their pissant country and use their oil revenues to exterminate the islamist vermin from the face of the earth.

[marshmallow]

Personally, I believe that Saudi Arabia is far more of a pressing issue than Iraq. Our problem is Islamic fundamentalism, not the secular lunacy of Saddamism. Sure he's a tyrant and loose cannon but the theologicalal and moral impetus for groups like al-Qaeda comes principally from places like Saudi.

As Putin pointed out last week, 15 of the 19 highjackers were from this country, it is the spiritual focus of Islam through Mecca and Medina and it is very hostile to openly practising Christians. Now comes the money trail.

The Saudis are villains but they also hold our economy by the throat. If Putin would agree to flick OPEC the bird and supply us with oil, we could teach the Saudis and the bin Laden family a lesson they would long remember.

[TheBattman]

Well DUH! LIke it took the "top" law enforcement force in the country to figure that one out?

[Mixer]

Oil does not seem, or need, to be our motive for still calling them our allies. Since the USA only gets 13% of it's oil from SA. I doubt that is enough of a reason. So what is the agenda, and why does the US government refuse to call them the enemy, holding them directly responsible for producing 15 of the 19 September 11th terrorists?

[aristeides]

Does the wife of an ambassador enjoy diplomatic immunity, anybody know?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Hasn't James Taranto of the Wall St. Journal's "Best of the Web Today" column been talking about this Sept 11?

[Lael]

Proof of September 11 terrorists being funded by the Saudi royal family would boost a £10 trillion legal case brought by 3,000 relatives of victims of the attacks. The lawsuit has strained relations between Washington and Riyadh.

MadIvan, as odd as the American Tort system may seem at times, there is precedent for holding Nations responsible.

Earliy in the morning of September 30, 1916, an ENORMOUS explosion...perhaps the largest non nuclear 'event' occurred on the Munitions Terminal on Black Tom Island in New Jersey, set off while America was Neutral, by German saboteurs.

Unexploded Artillery Shells were found 15 miles [24+ km] away

The civil litigation it spawned survived two World Wars and was concluded in the late 1960's!

[Libertina]

Bueller? Bueller?
ROTFLOL

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

You'd sooner find people who are members of the Michael Jackson Fan Club.

[SauronOfMordor]

Shortly after 9/11, it was discovered that certain people had purchased unusually large numbers of "put options" (essentially bets that the stock will go down) in certain airlines, Boeing, insurance companies, and other industries that would be hit by 9/11, with these purchases occurring a few days before 9/11

There was a lot of talk about this for a few days, but then the story "went down the memory hole". It is my opinion that the activity was traced to people who could not be touched -- ie, that members of the Saudi Royal Family knew about it, and decided to cash in

[Centurion2000]

Bear something in mind guys. WHEN we take Iraq we will have upwards of an armored Corps with long barrels. Look at the map, anyone bordering that country will then be looking down the barrels of OUR weapons from practically point blank range.

Saudi Arabia could be taken right after Iraq.

[FR_addict]

Thanks for the post MadIvan. I don't agree with the Bush admin's handling of the Saudis, but there was one part of the post that aggravated me.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Saudis, but the Bush administration, which relies on Saudi oil and hopes to use Saudi bases to launch a war against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, has sought to play down Saudi Arabia's links to terrorism.

It sounds like the author is saying that the Bush admin is directly responsible for our reliance on Saudi oil, as if this same dependency didn't exist under Clinton, but only began under Bush.

Our country relies on Saudi oil mainly because of the environmentalist. I think it is time our nation decides to go after the oil in our own country. I am so tired of the liberals blaming the whole oil crises on SUVs and Republicans.

I wish Bush would use this as an opportunity to bring up the need for less dependency on foreign oil by extracting our own natural oil resources.

[DannyTN]

I think in light of Osama's long standing hatred of the Saudi government, that we need to seriously consider whether Osama intentionally picked Saudi national's to hurt US - Saudi relationships.
Having said that, let's pick priorities. The House of Saud openly condemns terrorism, even if Saudi clerics say differently in private. Meanwhile Saddam openly brags about funding suicide bombers.
Let's nail Saddam first. Figure out a way to cut our the west's dependance on oil, which will cut the Saud's surplus funds. And then demand that they adopt basic human rights and freedoms and let us fund churches and stock their libraries the way they are doing to us.
Without the threat of Muslim mob rule, Christianity wins every time.