saudi arabian nights

G.W. Bush & Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia (from: say it ain't so already)

or... "every time you buy some gas a terrorist get's his wings."

“[…] ‘It’s about the Bush Administration and its relationship with the Saudis.’ Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, told me that the [28 page] document is ‘stunning in its clarity,’ and that it offers direct evidence of complicity on the part of certain Saudi individuals and entities in Al Qaeda’s attack on America. ‘Those twenty-eight pages tell a story that has been completely removed from the 9/11 Report,’ Lynch maintains.
     Another congressman who has read the document said that the evidence of Saudi government support for the 9/11 hijacking is ‘very disturbing,’ and that ‘the real question is whether it was sanctioned at the royal-family level or beneath that, and whether these leads were followed through.’ Now, in a rare example of bipartisanship, Jones and Lynch have co-sponsored a resolution requesting that the Obama Administration declassify the pages. […]
     The theory behind the lawsuit against the Saudis goes back to the 1991 Gulf War. The presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia was a shattering event in the country’s history, calling into question the ancient bargain between the royal family and the Wahhabi clerics, whose blessing allows the Saud family to rule. In 1992, a group of the country’s most prominent religious leaders issued the Memorandum of Advice, which implicitly threatened a clerical coup. The royal family, shaken by the threat to its rule, accommodated most of the clerics’ demands, giving them more control over Saudi society. One of their directives called for the creation of a Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which would be given offices in Saudi embassies and consulates. As the journalist Philip Shenon writes, citing John Lehman, the former Secretary of the Navy and a 9/11 commissioner, ‘it was well-known in intelligence circles that the Islamic affairs office functioned as the Saudis’ 'fifth column' in support of Muslim extremists.’”
— Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker
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“A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state [...] Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar.

Photo: keywordpictures

     Mr. Powell’s wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model.”
— Helena Cooper and Jim Rutenberg, The New York Times
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“In the Horn of Africa and East Africa, Wahhabism was introduced in the early 1950′s. Saudi sponsored charities, al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and the International Islamic Relief Organization associated with Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, built numerous mosques and madrassas. These Saudi NGO’s offered education, humanitarian aid, and other charitable programs. Both organizations were subsequently accused of supporting and financing terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda. […]
     Saudi money often ends up in [the] hands of militants. Saudi-sponsored NGOs operating in sub-Saharan Africa have been unmistakably linked to global terrorist groups. [T]he Somalia office of the Saudi-sponsored charity al-Haramain has been connected to al-Qaeda and the group Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI) that has terrorized the Horn of Africa.’ […]
     There are numerous imams in the United States and Europe preaching a form of Sunni fundamentalism practiced in Saudi Arabia that justifies armed jihad. Saudi Arabia has financed over 4,000 mosques, religious schools, and cultural centers around the world in recent years. Across America there are over 2,000 mosques and Islamic centers, an increase of almost 50 percent since the year 2000, and over 100 percent since 1990.
     In a 2007 Citizen Warrior article, author Mark Silverberg stated that for American Muslim moderates, the harsh reality of having their religion hijacked by Wahhabi radicals is something they have yet to confront. “Radical Islamic groups have now taken over leadership of the ‘mainstream’ Islamic institutions in the United States and anyone who pretends otherwise is deliberately engaging in self-deception […]”
— John Price (Former U.S. Ambassador)
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