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"Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies. ... The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader."
-- Laurent Murawiec, Rand Corporation Analyst.
That undeniable and thoroughly documented truth becomes more apparent every day, while President George W. Bush beats the drums of war against Iraq and totally ignores the evidence and reality that Saudi Arabia does and will pose a far greater threat to the American people.
It is a story of influence and politics, where the big-name players do their little deeds behind veils of secrecy and with chummy winks that are based on their common lust for money.
Murawiec is an international security analyst for Rand, an independent public policy think tank that often consults the Pentagon.
His refreshingly candid assessment of Saudi Arabia was made before the Defense Policy Board. That's a Pentagon advisory board made of former senior officials and retired top military officers.
As soon as reports of the briefing surfaced, Saudi Arabia's valets in the Bush administration started squealing like stuck pigs. The Saudis were described as our dear, devoted "friends," and U.S.-Saudi relations as "excellent."
Nonsense.
The American people, especially those who died on Sept. 11 and their families, are victims of Saudi government policies that allow terrorism to thrive in exchange for the political support Islamist fanatics provide for the white-robed desert dogs who make up the royal family, the House of Saud.
But there are also some American corporations and wealthy individuals who benefit greatly from their cozy relationships and deals with the Saudi royals, and that drives American policy toward the kingdom far more than the reality of Saudi treachery and hypocrisy.
Families of 600 people killed on Sept. 11 are now suing Saudi banks, charities and members of the royal family, accusing them of financially sponsoring al-Qaeda and the work of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi native whose wealth came from a government-supported construction empire.
The families got no help whatsoever from the U.S. government in preparing the legal action. In fact, the suit should have some high-level Bush administration officials nervous about the favors they're going to have to do to protect their Saudi friends from the implications of the $1 trillion lawsuit. Lawyers for the families will use discovery powers to show that the U.S. government has evidence of Saudi involvement in financing terrorism.
Pundits of all political stripes are now onto the deals with the devil.
"How many more Saudi killers will reach U.S. shores thanks to the Bush administration's continued blindness toward Riyadh's sponsorship of terrorism?" asks Deroy Murdoch, contributing editor of the conservative "National Review."
"President Bush will never move against the Saudis because American corporations, some led by close Bush family friends and associations, do much business there," observes Robert Scheer, liberal columnist in "The Nation."
Much is made of U.S. dependence on Saudi oil (1.5 million barrels per day, about 17 percent of oil imports last year) as the reason we want to keep the Saudis happy.
The Saudis can manipulate world oil prices, and they often limit exports in order to artificially pump up the prices of U.S. domestic oil. Oil-producing states like Texas benefit enormously when the Saudis protect their prices.
Saudi oil imports are actually down significantly since the Gulf War, but economic ties between the countries are more broadly based.
U.S. exports to the Saudis, which include military hardware, cars and computers, top $8 billion each year. American-based corporations have $4.1 billion in direct investments there.
Making big money is where U.S. and Saudi business interests and political influence at the highest levels blur into the secretive world of crony capitalism. That's why the Bush administration tolerates a breeding ground for terrorism, and gives cover to the hotbed of hypocrisy, the House of Saud.
One of the principal conduits for the crony capitalism is the Carlyle Group, a bank and one of the world's largest private equity funds. In the process of protecting its investments, Carlyle has become the 11th-largest defense contractor in the United States and a major arms exporter to Saudi Arabia.
Carlyle's strategy for international business is to put on its payroll former high-level government officials and pay them big bucks to do their bidding. It works well.
Carlyle pays former President George H.W. Bush -- he won't say how much -- to serve as chairman of its Asian advisory board, and give speeches at investment conferences.
Just after George W. got sworn in, Bush the Elder spoke to a business conference in Houston to drum up potential U.S. investors for Saudi Arabia. Bush was invited to speak by Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz. He is a Bush family intimate and one of the key players in the unholy alliance.
Another Carlyle operative is Bush family fixer and former Secretary of State James Baker III. He serves as senior counselor to the company and has helped forge deep business ties in the Middle East.
Add to the Carlyle gang Frank Carlucci, former CIA Director and Defense Secretary in the Reagan administration.
These men all use their connections to foster business interests and do whatever is needed to protect the Saudi royal family, which controls business there, from any political attack that would imperil the Washington-Riyadh alliance.
To assure support for that alliance, the Saudis have kept Prince Bandar in Washington for two decades. He is an ever-present figure in power circles and has used his wealth and largesse to court, cajole and compromise a generation of U.S. politicians and policy-makers.
The best way to begin showing the Saudis we mean business is to lift Bandar's diplomatic credentials and kick his royal ass right out of the country.
The Saudis would be furious to lose such an effective influence peddler and the Bush family would lose a beloved friend.
The Saudis would be sure to retaliate in kind and give Robert W. Jordan, our Ambassador to Riyadh, the heave-ho.
But that's not such a bad idea either. Jordan is not a career diplomat or any kind of expert on the Middle East, but his background does explain why he's there.
He is a Bush crony who served as George W.'s lawyer when the SEC was investigating his possible insider trading with the now belly-up Harkin Energy Co.
He later joined James Baker III's Texas law firm, which kicked in $116,000 for the Bush campaign.
Jordan's service in Saudi Arabia is designed to watch over Bush, Baker and Carlyle family interests more than those of the American people. His departure is welcome.
The measure of Saudi influence on the Bush administration reached its pinnacle when Attorney General John Ashcroft recently announced the new National Security Entry/Exit Registration System.
This will require certain immigrants and visitors to be photographed and fingerprinted before stepping on U.S. soil and, as Ashcroft says, "This system will expand substantially America's scrutiny of foreign visitors here who may present an elevated national security risk and it will provide a vital line of defense in the war on terrorism." Gee, that sounds great.
Well, surely the Saudis who provided 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers and Osama bin Laden himself will have to register.
And beyond that, the Saudis are funding the madrasses around the world, the schools that poison young minds to hate America and thereby supply a new generation of terrorists.
Why, any reasonable person would say the Saudis have to top the list.
But that didn't happen. The attorney general ordered that only nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria must register. Saudi Arabia is a glaring omission, as a result of business and political interests.
President Bush, Bush the Elder and James Baker III are happy the Saudis were spared the embarrassment.
Other Americans should be outraged.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 27 2002 |