"Investing
in terror"
"Sheikh Majed 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Firian recently stated in the Suleiman Bin Muqiran mosque in Riyadh: 'Muslims must… educate their children to Jihad. This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels; educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad in their souls. This is what is needed now…'" (Steven Stalinsky)
News and commentary on Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism.
Part 1: 2001/09/22 - 2001/12/31
Part 2: 2002/01/04 - 2002/06/18
Part 3: 2002/07/08 - 2002/11/30
Part 4: 2002/12/01 - 2003/04/29
Part 5: 2003/05/01 -
May 2003
"Saudi Chutzpah" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/05/01)April 2003
"US to withdraw forces from Saudi Arabia" (Peter Spiegel, Financial Times, 2003/04/29)
"Islamic Radicals On Campus" (Erick Stakelbeck, Front Page Magazine, 2003/04/23)
"PLO gets more than SR 1.8 million from the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen" (IMRA, 2003/04/22)
"Don't listen to the Arab elites, the Iraqis didn't and they're the ones cheering today" (Amir Taheri, The Times, 2003/04/10)
"Arabs react with dismay, disbelief to news of US troops in Baghdad" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Boston.com, 2003/04/07)March 2003
"With Friends Like These" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, 2003/03/26)February 2003
"Saudis launch first al-Qaeda trial" (Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC News, 2003/02/18)
"Our Friends the Saudis" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/02/05)
"The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks" (The American Jewish Committe. 2003/02/04)
"Saudis Aided Subpoenaed Woman's Trip Out of U.S." (Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post, 2003/02/05)
"'The Shah Always Falls'" (Fredric Smoler, American Heritage, from the February/March 2003 issue)January 2003
"Saudi Arabia, Negev" (Traditional women's costume in muslim countries)
"Saudi Shopping, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh" (Traditional women's costume in muslim countries)
"Objects and pariahs" (Diane West, The Washington Times, 2003/01/17)
"Saudi Women's Rights" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2003/01/12)
"The Scandal of U.S.-Saudi Relations" (Daniel Pipes, National Interest/danielpipes.org, from the Winter 2002/03 issue)
"Briton admits Saudi bomb murder" (Michael Theodolou and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2003/01/07)
"Saudis gave Al Qaida $500 million and never stopped giving" (World Tribune.com, 2003/01/05)
"Questions about Saudi crackdown" (Lisa Myers, NBC News, 2003/01/02)December 2002
"Who's Who in the House of Saud" (Aram Roston, The New York Times Magazine, from the 2002/12/22 issue)
"Preliminary Overview. - Saudi Arabia's Education System: Curriculum, Spreading Saudi Education to the World and the Official Saudi Position on Education Policy" (Steven Stalinsky, MEMRI, 2002/12/20)
"Saudis Behaving Badly" (Joel Mowbray, National Review, 2002/12/20)
"Democracy and Islam After September 11" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
"Who is Prince Nayef?" (Bill Tierney, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
"Initiatives and Actions Taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Combat Terrorism" (The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia/The Wall Street Journal, 2002/12/12)
"What Riyadh Buys" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2002/12/11)
"Saudi Stench" (Stephen Schwartz, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/09)
"A Wahhabism Problem" (Andrew G. Bostom, National Review, 2002/12/06)
"Saudis rally neighbors against post-Saddam democracy" (World Tribune.com, 2002/12/04)
"Saudi diplomat named in suit" (David Wastell, Sunday Telegraph/The Washington Times, 2002/12/02)
"Charity and Terror" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, from the 2002/12/09 issue)"Saudi Chutzpah" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/05/01)
"Here's something a little different: the first Best of the Web Today blind tasting. See if you can identify the vintage and origin of this fine whine:During this crisis patriotism as practiced in the United States reached alarming levels of intolerance and violence. The right of the other to dissent was unceremoniously thrown aside. If we take what happened to the Dixie Chicks as an example, one is hard-pressed to justify or even comprehend the incident. One of the ladies said she was ashamed of Bush being from her home state of Texas. She said it while performing on a stage in London. Had the Chicks been living under Saddam, we know a priori what would have happened. But knowing they lived in the United States one thought that the debate would have maintained a semblance of civility.
Instead, they were attacked, taken off radio stations, and callers to the same stations spewed so much venom that it inevitably culminated in on-the-air death threats. Obviously, democracy is skin deep.California 2003? Nope, Saudi Arabia. It's an Arab News op-ed by one Mohammad T. Al-Rasheed. If the Dixie Chicks lived in Rasheed's country, of course, they would not even have been able to go to Britain to deliver their anti-Bush comments unless they had the permission of their "guardians" - fathers or husbands. Nor would they be allowed to drive, appear naked on magazine covers or even show their ankles in public." (See also: "The Dixie Chicks & Civility" (Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, Arab News, 2003/05/01))
"US to withdraw forces from Saudi Arabia" (Peter Spiegel, Financial Times, 2003/04/29)
"The US and Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that nearly all American forces would withdraw from the desert kingdom at the end of the summer after more than a decade of using Saudi bases as its primary Gulf air presence.
In a joint press conference with his Saudi counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said the toppling of Saddam Hussein would allow the Pentagon to reduce the American presence in the region.""Islamic Radicals On Campus" (Erick Stakelbeck, Front Page Magazine, 2003/04/23)
A must-read essay on The Constitution of the Muslim Student's Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA): "The limits of the MSA's blind devotion to heinous Islamic criminals will be further tested when the case of Asan Akbar, the black Muslim Army sergeant who killed two and wounded 14 of his fellow U.S. soldiers when he hurled a grenade into a tent in Kuwait during the Iraq War, comes to trial. Akbar grew up attending a Saudi-funded mosque in South Central Los Angeles. He later moved on to the University of California-Davis, where he spent much of his time at the Davis Islamic Center, home to (surprise) the UC-Davis chapter of the MSA. When Akbar, found cowering in a tent after his despicable act, wailed, "You guys are coming into our countries and you're going to rape our women and kill our children," he summarized the MSA's feelings on the current Iraq War in a nutshell. ...
Created and funded by the Saudis but bred in the vast expanse of North America, the MSA has engaged in every form of anti-Western behavior imaginable. Whether marching side-by-side with communists in protest of the U.S. government, supporting convicted murderers, preaching "Death to Israel", funding terrorist activities or worshiping at the feet of Osama bin Laden, the MSA National and its many campus chapters pose an imminent threat not only to the schools they inhabit, but the United States in general. With the war on terrorism escalating at home and abroad, one can only hope that this volatile organization is exposed for what it truly is - the sworn enemy of the United States, conducting a jihad right here in our own backyard." (See also: "Soda, pizza and the destruction of America" (Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily, 2003/03/18))"PLO gets more than SR 1.8 million from the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen" (IMRA, 2003/04/22)
A dispatch from the Saudi Press Agency: "In line with the directives of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, the governor of Riyadh region and head of the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen, SR1,830,693 from the revenues of the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen, were remitted today to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Abdel-Rahim Mahmoud Jamous, the director general of the offices of the popular committee for assisting the Palestinian Mujahideen in the Kingdom, said this remittance constitutes the first installment of the remittances of the popular committee to the PLO during this lunar year.""Don't listen to the Arab elites, the Iraqis didn't and they're the ones cheering today" (Amir Taheri, The Times, 2003/04/10)
"Much of the Arab media went hysterical about imaginary battles in which resisting Iraqis supposedly inflicted massive losses on "the invaders". They forecast a war that would last "for years", if not "until the end of time".
Al-Ahram, the Egyptian government daily, promised that "the heroic Iraqis, ready to fight to the last of their blood", would turn their country into "a vast graveyard for America’s imperial dreams”. Many Arab newspapers imported their illusions from the West. Throughout the war, the Saudi, Egyptian and Lebanese press syndicated hundreds of articles from British and French anti-war newspapers. (The Saudi Arab News, for example, ran up to ten articles from The Independent each day.)
The headlines screamed "Americans slaughter civilians" and "Thousands of Iraqis prepare for suicide missions". None of that happened. The Iraqis proved to be wiser than some of their Arab brethren had assumed. ...
These days the Arab media are full of articles about how the Arabs feel humiliated by what has happened in Iraq, how they are frustrated, how they hate America for having liberated the people of Iraq from their oppressor, and how they hope that the Europeans, presumably led by Jacques Chirac, will ride to the rescue to preserve a little bit of Saddam’s legacy with the help of the United Nations.
Thank God, the peoples of Iraq, not deceived by Arab hyperbole, are ignoring such nonsense.""Arabs react with dismay, disbelief to news of US troops in Baghdad" (Donna Abu-Nasr, AP/Boston.com, 2003/04/07)
Also via Best of the Web Today: "Arabs throughout the Middle East reacted with dismay and disbelief Monday to television images of U.S. tanks rolling through the heart of Baghdad, and some rushed to sign up for a holy war against the U.S.-led forces. ...
Over a breakfast of croissant and coffee at a cafe, Saudi accounting instructor Haitham al-Bawardi said he was having a hard time believing the reports.
"How can we know this is for real and not just coalition propaganda?" the 30-year-old said. "We had hoped Saddam would inflict as many casualties on the invaders as possible to teach them a lesson and make them think twice before striking another Arab country." ...
Another volunteer, Abdelfattah, 41, a worker in a regional city council, said the reports were "all lies."
"It is a psychological war," said Abdelfattah. "If it is true, then it is only a military strategy, to lure the American forces into a trap." ...
Ali Oqla Orsan, head of the Arab Writers' Union, described the U.S. incursion as a "propaganda parade," and said he hoped the allied troops would face "total defeat."
"They are practicing terrorism against a sovereign country," said Orsan, a Syrian. 'If the allied forces occupy Iraq, it would signal the beginning of a liberation war against the colonialists.'""With Friends Like These" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, 2003/03/26)
"A surprise Perry Mason-type maneuver in an Idaho courtroom has put the spotlight on an increasingly sensitive problem facing federal prosecutors in the war on terror: a battalion of defense lawyers working hand in glove with the Saudi Arabian government.
Ever since the 9-11 attacks, Newsweek has learned, the Saudi Embassy in Washington has been providing top-flight defense lawyers free of charge for any Saudi citizen detained as part of the Justice Department’s crackdown on suspected terrorists.
"That has been the policy since day one," said Muddassir H. Siddiqui, the former chief counsel for the Saudi Embassy. He said he personally arranged for defense lawyers for "hundreds" of Saudi suspects detained by federal agents after the 9-11 attacks.""Saudis launch first al-Qaeda trial" (Magdi Abdelhadi, BBC News, 2003/02/18)
"Saudi Arabian authorities have revealed that 90 Saudi nationals are to stand trial accused of membership of the al-Qaeda network. This would be the first prosecution in Saudi Arabia of alleged members of Osama Bin Laden's organisation. The interior minister, Prince Nayef Bin Abdulaziz, told the Saudi newspaper Okaz that more than 250 detainees were still being investigated on similar charges. There was evidence the 90 Saudis had joined al-Qaeda, the prince also said. ...
Prince Nayef accused what he described as foreign organisations of infiltrating Saudi society and brain washing its youths.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly rejected accusations in American media that the country's puritanical brand of religion, known as Wahhabi Islam, is a breeding ground for Islamic militancy. Prince Nayef's remarks are clearly an indication of the Saudi dilemma: the Saudi rulers are caught between the need to do something about the threat of militant Islam without openly acknowledging that it is a home-grown problem.""Our Friends the Saudis" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/02/05)
"Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal ... has a chilling report on Warith Deen Umar, a New York-based Wahhabi imam who until his retirement in 2000 "helped run New York's growing Islamic prison program, recruiting and training dozens of chaplains, and ministering to thousands of inmates himself." Here are Umar's views on the Sept. 11 massacre: "The hijackers should be honored as martyrs, he said. The U.S. risks further terrorism attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world. "Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come to this country, too," he said. The natural candidates to help press such an attack, in his view: African-Americans who embraced Islam in prison."
And who's behind this? Read on:
'Imam Umar - born Wallace Gene Marks and later known as Wallace 10X - twice has traveled to Saudi Arabia for worship and study at the expense of the Saudi government and its affiliated charities, part of an extensive program aimed at spreading Islam in U.S. prisons....'" (See also: "Saudis Aided Subpoenaed Woman's Trip Out of U.S." (Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post, 2003/02/05))"Saudis Aided Subpoenaed Woman's Trip Out of U.S." (Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post, 2003/02/05)
"The Saudi embassy quietly provided the wife of a terror suspect a passport and transit out of the United States in November, after she was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in New York investigating her husband's possible links to the al Qaeda terrorist network, diplomatic and law enforcement sources said. ...
Maha Hafeez Marri and her five young children flew to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 10, three days after law enforcement sources said federal prosecutors had their last contact with a lawyer representing her. The FBI had confiscated passports for Marri and her children soon after her husband was arrested in Peoria, Ill., in late 2001.
Ali S. Marri, a native of Saudi Arabia and a citizen of Qatar, is charged with lying to the FBI about phone calls he allegedly made in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to a number in United Arab Emirates that belonged to a suspected al Qaeda operative. The operative, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi, allegedly received calls from several of the Sept. 11 terrorists and managed a bank account they used.""The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks" (The American Jewish Committe. 2003/02/04)
A comprehensive analysis of "93 books taught in grades 1-10, mostly from the years 1999-2002" in Saudia Arabian schools: "There is no doubt that the Muslims' power irritates the infidels and spreads envy in the hearts of the enemies of Islam - Christians, Jews and others - so they plot against them, gather [their] force against them, harass them and seize every opportunity in order to eliminate the Muslims. Examples of this enmity are innumerable, beginning with the plot of the Jews against the Messenger and the Muslims at the first appearance of the light of Islam and ending with what is happening to Muslims today - a malicious Crusader-Jewish alliance striving to eliminate Islam from all the continents. Those massacres that were directed against the Muslim people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslims of Burma and the Philippines, and in Africa, are the greatest proof of the malice and hatred harbored by the enemies of Islam to this religion.
Geography of the Muslim World, Grade 8, (1994) p. 32""'The Shah Always Falls'" (Fredric Smoler, American Heritage, from the February/March 2003 issue)
A must-read interview with Ralph Peters: "But I do believe the last couple of centuries demonstrate that cultures that oppress women, that don't have freedom of information, that don't value secular education, that have one dominant religion that infects the state and has power over the state, and whose basic unit of social organization is a clan, tribe, or extended family are just not going to compete with the West and especially with the United States. So I'm extremely pessimistic about the old Islamic heartland.
I personally feel that we've made a grotesque mistake aligning ourselves with the most oppressive of the Arabs, with the Arab world's Beverly Hillbillies. Other Arabs built Damascus, Córdoba, Baghdad, Cairo. The Saudis never built anything. The fact that they came into their oil wealth was a disaster, not for us but for the Arab world, because it gave these malevolent hicks raw economic power over the populations of poor Islamic states, such as Egypt. The line about Al Qaeda that's absolutely true is that Saudis supplied the money and Egyptians supplied the brains. So Saudi money, spent to support their grotesquely repressive version of one of the world's great religions, has been a disaster for the Arab world." (See also: "Stability, America's Enemy" (Ralph Peters, Parameters, from the Winter 2001-02 issue) and "Rolling Back Radical Islam" (Ralph Peters, Parameters, from the Autumn 2002 issue))
"Saudi Arabia, Negev"
(Traditional women's costume in muslim countries)
"Saudi Shopping, Saudi Arabia, Riyadh"
(Traditional women's costume in muslim countries)"Objects and pariahs" (Diane West, The Washington Times, 2003/01/17)
West on the Saudi-American Exchange Program, including these comments by American participants visiting Saudi-Arabia. Yes, this is the same country where, less than a year ago, the religious police forced 15 girls to burn to death in a blazing school, "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya." And of course you're "free from being looked at as a sexual object" when veiled - you're free from being looked at period. It could rather be argued that the "complete" veiling of women in itself is the perfect symbol of a culture viewing women as sexual objects in extremis: "'The portrayal in the Western media and culture is that Muslim women, especially in Saudi Arabia, are oppressed and subservient,' said one American participant. "Many Americans believed that women here were forced to wear the traditional abaya and veil. However, I have come to learn that the women here wear the veil by choice." While a Saudi censor couldn't have said it better, this quotation is attributed to Lorna Hadley, a student at Yale University School of Public Health. And — judging by the comments of fellow student Amelia Shaw — a fine choice wearing the veil is: "I thought women, by wearing the veil, would be silenced, and that symbolized not being allowed any verbal expression. However, when I did wear it, I felt free from being looked at as a sexual object." ...
It's one thing to learn about Muslim dress — which, despite all the "understanding" this program has managed to promote, is about as voluntary a choice for your average Saudi gal as her religion. It's quite another when presumably liberty-loving American women become apologists for a sartorial brand of servitude that, of course, is just one oppressive fact of life for women living under Islamic Sharia law as legal, professional and social nonentities. And another thing: A woman may not look like a "sex object" when she dresses up like a haystack, but she still looks like an object, period — one wholly devoid of a recognizable human shape." (See also: "Why Feminism Is AWOL on Islam" (Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, from the Winter 2003 issue), "Saudi Women's Rights" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2003/01/12)and "Saudi police face deaths criticism" (Reuters/CNN.com, 2002/03/15))"Saudi Women's Rights" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2003/01/12)
Johnson on an article in Arab News, about a "seminar entitled "The Image of Muslim Women in the Western Media" ... organized by the Information Center for the Women’s Cultural Committee": "It's always good for an inadvertent laugh or two when the Saudis try to defend their misogynistic, backward treatment of women, and here's the latest attempt: "Seminar on women focuses on Western double standard". A little defensive, are we?: ... "Noura Adwan made the point that the Western media makes judgments on the rights of Muslim women from the perspective of Western feminism, and questioned its validity in Muslim societies. "It is clear that religious codes of dress for nuns who cover from head to foot is respected in the West while the abaya worn by Muslim women is regarded as oppressive," she said." She has a point; it is pretty shameful how our religious police beat nuns whose habits are too loose..." (See also: "Seminar on women focuses on Western double standard" (Intisar Al-Yamani, Arab News, 2003/01/13)"The Scandal of U.S.-Saudi Relations" (Daniel Pipes, National Interest/danielpipes.org, from the Winter 2002/03 issue)
Pipes on the "consistent pattern of deference to Saudi wishes" by U.S. government agencies, with lots of outrageous examples and an explanation - pre-emptive bribery: "The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, helpfully hinted at an answer in a statement boasting of his success cultivating powerful Americans. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office", Bandar once observed, "you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." This effective admission of bribery goes far to explain why the usual laws, regulations and rights do not apply when Saudi Arabia is involved. ...
The heart of the problem is an all-too-human one, then: Americans in positions of authority bend the rules and break with standard policy out of personal greed. In this light, Hunter's report on the three main U.S. government goals in Saudi Arabia begins to make sense: strengthen the Saudi regime, cater to the Saud royal family, and facilitate U.S. exports. ...
The massive pre-emptive bribing of American officials requires urgent attention. Steps need to be taken to ensure that the Saudi revolving-door syndrome documented here be made illegal.""Briton admits Saudi bomb murder" (Michael Theodolou and Daniel McGrory, The Times, 2003/01/07)
"One of the seven Britons who have been in prison in Saudi Arabia for more than two years on bombing charges has dramatically changed his testimony and confessed to murder. The families of the other Britons are said to be stunned by James Lee's admission and claim that it has ruined any chance that the men have of proving their innocence. One legal source said: "The Saudis take the view: 'One guilty, all guilty.'" British diplomats in Riyadh said that they were astonished by Mr Lee's written confession and his plea for clemency at the weekend and are demanding urgent talks with the Saudi authorities over their next move." (See also: "Saudi bomb victim's torture ordeal - and Britain's silence" (Paul Kelso, The Guardian, 2002/01/31))"Saudis gave Al Qaida $500 million and never stopped giving" (World Tribune.com, 2003/01/05)
"Saudi Arabia has transferred $500 million to Al Qaida over the past decade, according to a report prepared for the United Nations. The report asserts that the Saudi funds represent the most important source of financing for Al Qaida and that Riyad, pressured by leading officials, has failed to stop the flow of money to Al Qaida in wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington.""Questions about Saudi crackdown" (Lisa Myers, NBC News, 2003/01/02)
"It's called the Empty Quarter, hundreds of miles of desert along the Saudi border with Yemen that’s now patrolled almost around the clock by CIA drones searching for al-Qaida members. U.S. government officials tell NBC News that scores of al-Qaida operatives are now cycling back and forth between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and that 30 to 50 al-Qaida members are believed to be in Saudi Arabia at any one time. The claim raises new questions about Saudi cooperation in the war on terror.""Who's Who in the House of Saud" (Aram Roston, The New York Times Magazine, from the 2002/12/22 issue)
Short profiles of the key players in the House of Saudi:
"Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, 78
Best known as the minister of defense and aviation. According to the rules of fraternal succession, he could be next in line to be king after Prince Abdullah. He purchases the best weapons money can buy, including U.S. tanks, fighter planes, missiles and Awacs (airborne warning and control systems). Yet, in spite of billions spent, the Saudi military is considered inadequate, and much of the gear reportedly sits abandoned. Sultan, who has been dubbed Mr. 10 Percent, supposedly became extraordinarily wealthy from kickbacks from Western businesses that handled multibillion-dollar defense contracts.""Preliminary Overview. - Saudi Arabia's Education System: Curriculum, Spreading Saudi Education to the World and the Official Saudi Position on Education Policy" (Steven Stalinsky, MEMRI, 2002/12/20)
A report on Saudi Arabia's education system, with translated examples from schoolbooks: "A textbook for 8th grade students explains why Jews and Christians were cursed by Allah and turned into apes and pigs.Quoting Surat Al-Maida, Verse 60, the lesson explains that Jews and Christians have sinned by accepting polytheism and therefore incurred Allah's wrath.To punish them, Allah has turned them into apes and pigs. ...
A schoolbook for 5th grade instructs the students: "The religions which people follow on this earth are many, but the only true religion is the religion of Islam. ... The whole world should convert to Islam and leave its false religions lest their fate will be hell. ...
The students are then asked to mark "yes" or "no" to the following questions:
*"The Islamic religion is the road to heaven…"
*'Other religions bestow eternal damnation on their adherent…'" (Note: This sermon is an example of the religion of peace in its Saudi version: "Sheikh Majed 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Firian recently stated in the Suleiman Bin Muqiran mosque in Riyadh: 'Muslims must… educate their children to Jihad. This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels; educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad in their souls. This is what is needed now…'")"Saudis Behaving Badly" (Joel Mowbray, National Review, 2002/12/20)
"A new report submitted to the United Nations Security Council explores the extensive ties between al Qaeda and the Saudi Arabia - something that should raise a whole host of questions concerning the future of U.S. relations with the House of Saud. ... Although charities play an important role in funding terrorism, the report also details how legitimate business enterprises and direct "contributions" from wealthy individuals also prove essential to the al Qaeda network. And the primary nexus for the banks, oil and construction companies, and "businessmen" who infuse al Qaeda with the necessary cash is an "ally" of the United States: Saudi Arabia. The report states that al Qaeda received $300 - $500 million in funding from wealthy bankers and businessmen, mostly from Saudi nationals or residents. ... But the biggest expense to propagate the growth of radical Islam is not paid for directly by al Qaeda, but by Saudi Arabia: the madrassas that that churn out rabid young Islamic fundamentalists primed for jihad. If nothing else, Saudi Arabia's continued insistence on fueling the spread of Wahhabism raises perhaps the ultimate question about whether the House of Saud is a friend or foe: 'How can a war against terrorism succeed while the United States has excluded or preserved countries such as Saudi Arabia, which tolerates the emergence of fundamentalism, sometimes instrumentalized [its] goal, and today has become [its] sanctuary?'" (See also the report: "Terrorism Financing: Roots and trends of Saudi terrorism financing" (Jean-Charles Brisard/National Review, 2002/12/19))"Democracy and Islam After September 11" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
"I do not see September 11 as an act of protest by Muslims or Arabs oppressed by the advance of Western democracy or the success of Israel. I see it as an act of provocation by Saudi-based extremists, intended to divert the younger, better-educated, middle-class strata of Saudi society, and similar social elements elsewhere in the Muslim and Arab worlds, from their growing demands for restoration of Islamic pluralism and the right to live normal lives, in a normal country, in a world at peace. ... By fostering the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, and then by seeking to shift blame for the atrocity of September 11 to Israel, the most reactionary elements in the Saudi ruling elite seek to quiet the growing demands of the educated and entrepreneurial classes for a new direction in society. This is an old phenomenon in the disintegration of tyrannies. September 11 had little to do with U.S. power in the world, and everything to do with bourgeois society knocking at the door of Saudi Arabia; little to do with Israel and the Palestinians, and everything to do with the recuperation of Islamic pluralism in Mecca and Medina.""Who is Prince Nayef?" (Bill Tierney, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/12/23 issue)
A profile of the "most powerful man in Saudi Arabia", the interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz: "Nayef is keenly aware that the widespread sympathy in Saudi Arabia for Osama bin Laden is a response not to bin Laden's personal charisma but to his jihadist mission, explicitly framed as obedience to the true Islam. It is a danger inadvertently sown by the regime itself, which long ago instituted the incessant intoning of the Koran on state radio and television. Prince Nayef, it seems, has decided to deal with this threat by riding the jihadist wave. ... When the United States finally starts calling this war what it is - a war against jihadist Islam - then clarity will dispel the illusion that our relationship with the Saudis can ever go back to what it was before September 11. The Saudis claim they are combating terrorism. Can they also say they are combating jihad? In this country, there are some old-school types who cling to their settled view of the Middle East; the academic community (with rare exceptions) is still sinking in the tar pit of postmodernism. But the Saudis have chosen their course, a path they presumably see as consistent with the dictates of the Koran. They will continue to play us for fools as long as they can. It is high time we stopped cooperating. We could begin by taking the measure of the man behind the throne." (See also: "Saudi Minister of Interior, Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz: 'Who Committed the Events of September 11… I Think They [the Zionists] are Behind these Events…'" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 446, 2002/12/03))"Initiatives and Actions Taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Combat Terrorism" (The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia/The Wall Street Journal, 2002/12/12)
A report by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia: "Since September 11, the government of Saudi Arabia has taken many actions to fight global terrorism. Following are concrete examples of these actions drawn from statements made by Saudi Arabian leaders, U.S. Administration officials, news articles and press releases confirming the efforts on the war on terrorism by the government of Saudi Arabia.""What Riyadh Buys" (Daniel Pipes, New York Post/danielpipes.org, 2002/12/11)
"A hint of the problem comes from none other than Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The Washinton Post reports that he boasted of his success at cultivating powerful Americans: "If the reputation . . . builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." This is precisely what happens. ... Ex-Washington hands paid handsomely by the kingdom include such figures as Spiro T. Agnew, Jimmy Carter, Clark Clifford, John B. Connally and William E. Simon. A Washington Post account lists other former officials, including George H.W. Bush, who have found the Saudi connection "lucrative." ... The heart of the problem is an all-too-human one: Americans in official positions of authority bend the rules, break with standard procedures and alter policies for reasons of personal gain. The effect of the Saudis' massive pre-emptive bribing is to render the executive branch quite incapable of dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the farsighted and disinterested manner that U.S. national interests require. That leaves Congress with the urgent responsibility to fix things." (See also: "Shilling for the House of Saud" (Matt Welch, National Post/Matt Welch, 2002/08/24))"Saudi Stench" (Stephen Schwartz, FrontPageMagazine, 2002/12/09)
"Last week's federal raid of a Massachusetts software firm raises many questions about U.S. security - not least about our "allies" in Saudi Arabia. The firm, Ptech Inc., is said to have held millions of dollars in contracts with clients including the White House, the FBI, the U.S. Air Force, and the Internal Revenue Service. Yet investigators believe top investor Yasin al-Qadi was a major financial backer of al Qaeda. ... But there are significant holes in recent media coverage of Al-Qadi. To begin with, Yasin al-Qadi is not a new figure in the investigation of Saudi-backed terrorism. His name surfaced only weeks after Sept. 11. ... On Oct. 14, 2001, Al-Qadi told the newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, "I spoke to [Cheney] at length and we even became friends. I also got to know former U.S. President Jimmy Carter." The interview bore the headline "Yes, I Know Bin Laden and U.S. Vice President is My Friend." At that time, Al-Qadi had already been identified by U.S. officials as a terror financier. The fact that this criminal sleazebag would attempt to besmirch the vice president's name does not reflect on Cheney, but it does demonstrate that terrorist backers are much more highly placed in Saudi society than many U.S. officials are willing to admit." (See also: "Hotlink to Terror?" (Brian Ross, ABC News, 2002/12/06))"A Wahhabism Problem" (Andrew G. Bostom, National Review, 2002/12/06)
Bostom criticizes Stephen Schwartz for identifying "Wahhabism as the source of all Islamic terror and injustice": "But the reality is that, for nearly 1,400 years, across three continents, from Portugal to India, non-Muslims have experienced the horrors of the institutionalized jihad war ideology and its ugly corollary institution, dhimmitude. ... Today, the Muslim intelligentsia focus almost exclusively on debatable "human-rights violations" in the disputed territories of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria, while ignoring the blatant and indisputable atrocities committed by Muslims against non-Muslims throughout the world. ... There is a dire need for some courageous, meaningful movement within Islam that would completely renounce both dhimmitude and jihad against non-Muslims, openly acknowledging the horrific devastation they have wrought for nearly 1,400 years. Nothing short of an Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment may be required, to acknowledge non-Muslims as fully equal human beings, and not "infidels" or "dhimmis." It is absurd and disingenuous for Schwartz to pretend that Islam's problems are centered solely within Wahhabism.""Saudis rally neighbors against post-Saddam democracy" (World Tribune.com, 2002/12/04)
"Saudi Arabia is working to form an Arab coalition to oppose any U.S. drive to impose democracy on the Middle East. Arab diplomatic sources said the kingdom has been consulting with Egypt, Syria and the Gulf states regarding the ramifications of post-Saddam reforms in Iraq. The sources said Saudi Arabia is concerned that it will be the next target of the Bush administration. ... The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi daily reported that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal has been touring Arab capitals and urging them to sign an agreement that would pledge to resist any U.S. effort for regime change in the Arab world. The newspaper said Riyad wants Arab League members to sign such a pledge during their next summit. "No one can change the Saudi regime but Allah," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said.""Saudi diplomat named in suit" (David Wastell, Sunday Telegraph/The Washington Times, 2002/12/02)
An American court has issued a summons against the next Saudi ambassador to Britain, saying that in his previous job he helped fund Afghanistan's Taliban regime while it sheltered Osama bin Laden. The summons has been issued to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence, ordering him to respond to a compensation claim for more than $600 million brought by the families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The development will cast a shadow over the prince's appointment, which will be announced in Riyadh within the next few days, after a six-week delay. ... The prince, who courted bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and maintained close contacts with the Taliban regime, was replaced as the Saudis' head of intelligence two weeks before the September 11 attacks, after he had served almost 25 years in the post. Earlier this year, he said bin Laden had become 'one of the most violent and, I think, one of the cruelest killers in modern history.'""Charity and Terror" (Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, from the 2002/12/09 issue)
More on the Saudi Money Trail: "As FBI agents in Chicago pursued an investigation into alleged terrorist financing in 1998, they ran across a curious money trail that soon led them into a diplomatic swamp. A local chemical firm that was suspected of laundering money for Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group, had received a $1.2 million cash infusion from the International Relief Organization, the U.S. branch of one of the world's biggest Islamic charities. Determined to "follow the money," they traced some of the charity's funding to a surprising and sensitive source: the Saudi Embassy in Washington. The money flow from the Saudis set off alarms in Washington. Investigators were told by top Justice officials to move carefully, according to sources familiar with the case. Some Justice higher-ups appeared worried that any inquiries into the operations of the Saudi Embassy could jeopardize U.S.-Saudi relations. "There was a concern about national security," said one investigator. The agents did as they were told. A court affidavit spelling out $400,000 in money transfers to the organization was carefully edited - to omit any reference to the Saudi cash. Instead, the document referred blandly to funds from an unidentified "embassy of a foreign government." The president of the chemical firm was later convicted of fraud. But charges were never filed against the Saudi-financed charity. Investigators complain they were actively discouraged by Justice Department brass from pursuing the group’s possible links to terrorism." (See also: "The Saudi Money Trail" (Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas, Newsweek, from the 2002/12/02 issue))
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