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As we have been saying here for four years now.
By Nick Fielding and Sarah Baxter in the Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):
[...] Yet wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of worldwide terror networks. “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” said Stuart Levey, the US Treasury official in charge of tracking terror financing.Extremist clerics provide a stream of recruits to some of the world’s nastiest trouble spots.
An analysis by NBC News suggested that the Saudis make up 55% of foreign fighters in Iraq. They are also among the most uncompromising and militant.
Half the foreign fighters held by the US at Camp Cropper near Baghdad are Saudis. They are kept in yellow jumpsuits in a separate, windowless compound after they attempted to impose sharia on the other detainees and preached an extreme form of Wahhabist Islam.
In recent months, Saudi religious scholars have caused consternation in Iraq and Iran by issuing fatwas calling for the destruction of the great Shi’ite shrines in Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, some of which have already been bombed. And while prominent members of the ruling al-Saud dynasty regularly express their abhorrence of terrorism, leading figures within the kingdom who advocate extremism are tolerated.
Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaidan, the chief justice, who oversees terrorist trials, was recorded on tape in a mosque in 2004, encouraging young men to fight in Iraq. “Entering Iraq has become risky now,” he cautioned. “It requires avoiding those evil satellites and those drone aircraft, which own every corner of the skies over Iraq. If someone knows that he is capable of entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise up the word of God, then he is free to do so.”
[...]
In the past the Saudis openly supported Islamic militants. Osama Bin Laden was originally treated as a favourite son of the regime and feted as a hero for fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Huge charitable organisations such as the International Islamic Relief Organisation and the al-Haramain Foundation – accused in American court documents of having links to extremist groups – flourished, sometimes with patronage from senior Saudi royals.
The 1991 Gulf war was a wake-up call for the Saudis. Bin Laden began making vitriolic attacks on the Saudi royal family for cooperating with the US and demanded the expulsion of foreign troops from Arabia. His citizenship was revoked in 1994. The 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, which killed 19 US servicemen and one Saudi, was a warning that he could strike within the kingdom.
As long as foreigners were the principal targets, the Saudis turned a blind eye to terror. Even the September 11 attacks of 2001, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, could not shake their complacency. Despite promises to crack down on radical imams, Saudi mosques continued to preach hatred of America.
The mood began to change in 2003 and 2004, when Al-Qaeda mounted a series of terrorist attacks within the kingdom that threatened to become an insurgency. “They finally acknowledged at the highest levels that they had a problem and it was coming for them,” said Rachel Bronson, the author of Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia.
Assassination attempts against security officials caused some of the royals to fear for their own safety. In May 2004 Islamic terrorists struck two oil industry installations and a foreigners’ housing compound in Khobar, taking 50 hostages and killing 22 of them.
The Saudi authorities began to cooperate more with the FBI, clamp down on extremist charities, monitor mosques and keep a watchful eye on fighters returning from Iraq.
Only last month Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s leading cleric, criticised gullible Saudis for becoming “convenient knights for whoever wants to exploit their zeal, even to the point of turning them into walking bombs”.
And last week in London, King Abdullah warned young British Muslims not to become involved with extremists.
Yet the Saudis’ ambivalence towards terrorism has not gone away. Money for foreign fighters and terror groups still pours out of the kingdom, but it now tends to be carried in cash by couriers rather than sent through the wires, where it can be stopped and identified more easily.
A National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad, a nongovernmental organisation that was intended to regulate private aid abroad to guard against terrorist financing, has still not been created three years after it was trumpeted by the Saudi embassy in Washington.
Hundreds of Islamic militants have been arrested but many have been released after undergoing reeducation programmes led by Muslim clerics.
According to the daily Alwa-tan [sic], the interior ministry has given 115m riyals (£14.7m) to detainees and their families to help them to repay debts, to assist families with health care and housing, to pay for weddings and to buy a car on their release. The most needy prisoners’ families receive 2,000-3,000 riyals (£286 to £384) a month.
Ali Sa’d Al-Mussa, a lecturer at King Khaled University in Abha, protested: “I’m afraid that holding [extremist] views leads to earning a prize or, worse, a steady income.”
Former detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are also benefiting. To celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid, 55 prisoners were temporarily released last month and given the equivalent of £1,300 each to spend with their families.
School textbooks still teach the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antiSemitic forgery, and preach hatred towards Christians, Jews and other religions, including Shi’ite Muslims, who are considered heretics.
Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, said: “The Saudi education system has over 5m children using these books. If only one in 1,000 take these teachings to heart and seek to act on them violently, there will be 5,000 terrorists.”
In frustration, Arlen Specter, the Republican senator for Pennsylvania, introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act 10 days ago, calling for strong encouragement of the Saudi government to “end its support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage or in any other way aid and abet terrorism”.
The act, however, is expected to die when it reaches the Senate foreign relations committee: the Bush administration is counting on Saudi Arabia to help stabilise Iraq, curtail Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions and give a push to the Israeli and Palestinian peace process at a conference due to be held this month in Annapolis, Maryland.
“Do we really want to take on the Saudis at the moment?” asks Bronson. “We’ve got enough problems as it is.”
Short-sighted.
Posted by Robert at November 4, 2007 7:38 AM
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Heaven forbid that we should make the Saudis responsible for their demonic religion, and it's outcomes.
Posted by: Crusader![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 4, 2007 8:47 AM
"The act, however, is expected to die when it reaches the Senate foreign relations committee: the Bush administration is counting on Saudi Arabia to help stabilise Iraq, curtail Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions and give a push to the Israeli and Palestinian peace process at a conference due to be held this month in Annapolis, Maryland."
Bush is an idiot. Does this make any sense?
Really what more can any of us say...
Bush for the Dhimmi award this year.
He has to win it this year. Start the campaign today!
at November 4, 2007 8:54 AM
"School textbooks still teach the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antiSemitic forgery, and preach hatred towards Christians, Jews and other religions, including Shi’ite Muslims, who are considered heretics."
....just one of the reasons we must close the Saudi funded Islamic schools located on our own Soil.....
Ban Muslim Immigration...
Posted by: exsgtbrown at November 4, 2007 9:05 AM
sometime in future wahabis in saudi arabia will have to be taken out. it will be better if shias do it. in order to accomplish it, we will have to find alternate energy sources or reduce our consumption.
Posted by: swimmer at November 4, 2007 9:08 AM
"In frustration, Arlen Specter, the Republican senator for Pennsylvania, introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act 10 days ago, calling for strong encouragement of the Saudi government to “end its support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage or in any other way aid and abet terrorism”."
Nothing is said about the consequences of the Saudis ignoring this Act, which is exactly what they'll do. Why should they pay any more attention to what would amount to an American fatwah, than we pay to theirs?
This so-called Act is nothing at all, whether it passes or not.
Posted by: Abscedere at November 4, 2007 9:08 AM
"Half the foreign fighters held by the US at Camp Cropper near Baghdad are Saudis."
from the article
More weasel words. "Fighters" indeed, as tho they were boxers there for a Golden Gloves championship, or karate black belts there for a martial arts tournament. They aren't soldiers, serving a recognized government, or belonging to a recognized military unit, or wearing any recognized uniform. What is their name, rank, and serial number?
No, they are criminals -- murderers and saboteurs -- and as such are not protected by any international agreements. As such, once caught they should be tried, convicted, and hanged, in short order. There's no need to "hold" them for very long. Maybe the news of a number of them being hanged each day would discourage further recruitment.
at November 4, 2007 9:31 AM
Re: Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror: The desert kingdom supplies the cash and the killers
Yes. JihadWatch has been pointing to Saudi-A-Totolitarian-Gas-Station ("family owned and operated") for a long time. Guess what? You're right. It's ironic that both JihadWatch and Amnesty International (they focus on exploitation of "guest workers", apartheid, Arab racism, etc. in Saudi-A-Gas-Station as JW focuses on Jihad)are both pointing to the gas station as the problem.
at November 4, 2007 9:35 AM
I am getting this kit: http://www.greasecar.com
for my old Mercedes. No more of my money goes for Saudi oil, and my fuel is free - waste oil from restaurants.
at November 4, 2007 9:56 AM
"You eight hours? Me too. Russia’s a big country and you’re a big country. Takes him eight hours to fly home. Not Coke, diet Coke. ... Russia’s big and so is China. Yo Blair, what’re you doing? Are you leaving?"
--Bushspeak from the microphone was accidentally on thing
Imam Shemam. Sunni, Shia, they’re all Muslims. They’ll have to learn to get over it. Abdullah likes to hold hands and so does Laura. I like Laura better if you know what I mean, heh, heh. They’ve got sand and so do we. We can’t say Islamofascism or Condi says we’ll lose. I’ve looked into Abdullah’s eyes. He’s a good man. Trust me. Fifteen more months and its somebody else’s legacy.
at November 4, 2007 10:01 AM
"Only last month Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s leading cleric, criticised gullible Saudis for becoming 'convenient knights for whoever wants to exploit their zeal, even to the point of turning them into walking bombs.'
And last week in London, King Abdullah warned young British Muslims not to become involved with extremists."
-- from the article above
The only "extremists," the only ones who want "to exploit [gullible Saudis'] zeal" which the Saudi regime deplores, are those who attack the Al-Saud regime and its symbols. That is what those famous "re-education" efforts in Saudi prisons are all about -- not changing attitudes toward Infidels. The clerics busily turning would-be or terrorists into people fit for realease are not telling those imprisoned they should give up violent Jihad. They may indeed continue it against all the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others they wish. But what they must not do, what evil men -- those "extremists" -- have led them to do, is to become takfiris, who dare to call other Muslims, and especially the nice rulers and owners of Saudi Arabia (had a certain battle in the Nejd gone differently in 1920, it might now be called "Shammari Arabia"), "Infidels."
What? Can Saudi Arabia, the bankroller of mosques and madrasas world-wide, the employer of a small army of Western hirelings, and the country that has plowed 100 billion dollars into efforts to spread Islam world-wide, to remove all barriers to that spread of Islam, so that it may not only spread but eventually come to dominate, everywhere, and Muslims, everywhere, to rule? Can those Saudis be called "Infidels"?
Only "extremists" would convince innocent young Saudi men, eager to please Allah and Muhammad, eager to attack Infidels, that the rulers of Saudi Arabia are Infidels. So don't ever think the Al-Saud are Infidels. Remember to forget about the suites in Monte Carlo hotels with the solid gold bathroom fixtures, and the villas in Marbella, and the yachts all over the Mediterranean, the gambling and the boatloads of call girls and the drugs (keep a list, check it twice, of Saudi princes and princelings and princelettes quietly treated in assorted clinics and asylums, to the great financial delight of doctors and nurses, some of whom are asked to accompany those princesses and princelings back to Saudi Arabia). They are true Muslims.
However decadent their private lives, however un-Islamic, they are doing all they can, employing that money weapon as best they can, to subvert Western legal and political institutions, to make sure that Muslims that are now settled deep within the West have everything they need to lead "Muslim" lives and to conduct campaigns of Da'wa among the local Infidels, to prevent sensible policies of taxation of oil and gasoline from being adopted by oil-consuming nations (their efforts at taxing gasoline and oil so as to dampen demand, and to recapture oligopolistic rents, and to encourage investment in other forms of energy, have long been effectively opposed by the Saudis, who have discovered that the most effective way to achieve this ambitious goal is simply to buy up influence in Washington) -- they are true Muslims. That's what they want those innocent young Saudi boys to understand. Go ahead. Fight the Infidels in Iraq and in the Balkans, and in New York and Washington, and give money to non-Saudi Muslims doing the same in Amsterdam or Paris or Moscow. But whatever you do, leave the Al-Saud -- who for Islam are only doing the best they can -- alone.
Posted by: Hugh at November 4, 2007 10:08 AM
The toxic House of Saud is currently funding hate in America, forget funding hate in Saudi Arabia.
(and this poster has been saying it for six years)
And the toxic House of Saud has owned almost every president for the last thirty years.
At what point do we bomb Saudi Arabia ? And with extreme prejudice ?
These bastards are killing our men in Iraq and have been killing them.
Some things are, until they are over, unforgiveable.
And to see Saudis funded in our schools and graduate schools.
Stupid stupid stupid stupid.
Posted by: dgene at November 4, 2007 10:12 AM
(not Ronnie Reagan, bless him), but starting with Peanuts Jimmie)
Posted by: dgene at November 4, 2007 10:25 AM
Wahabists are not allies-- they're part of what Diane West calls the "Cold Jihad."
Wahabists are to Zawahiri, as Mao was to Tojo.
Perhaps one can think of Abdullah as todays Chiang Kai-shek.
After defeating Shinto-fascism, Truman didn't embrace Mao.
The West needs to awaken to the Wahabist Cold Jihad (especially their Eurabia immigrant jihad) even as we battle al-Qaeda's hot war.
Posted by: Terp Mole at November 4, 2007 10:28 AM
From Article: “He became more ambitious and more passionate about defending the land of Islam and dying as a martyr, like his brother.”
The 'land of Islam', not defending the land of their brothers, the Iraqi people, but of Islam.
Islam, through the thoughts and writings of it's
chief propagandists, 'claim all the world for Allah, and Islam'. The only obstacle to actually taking possession of whole world, is those darn infidels.
They keep getting in the way. The people who live in dar al-harb, like it that way and don't want to give it up. That presents a big problem in the world take over business. And there is competition. Globalist, secret and semi secret societies, megalomaniacs like
Putin, Bush, that strange guy Kim from NK, Rosy O, and lots of others, also want world domination.
The jihadis job is to eliminate the competition so
that Allahs word rules, and muslims can take control of the land Allah gave them...all of it.
Makes sense to me. But in order to believe that, muslims have to take the word of another megalomaniac, who was often delirious, from the aftermath of epileptic seizures, had severe headaches, and a power and wealth gathering mentality at the same time. As long as dar al-harb exists, there will be jihad in some form or another. Eliminate the competition. 'The source of power is elimination'. 'Eliminating' everything not pertinent to the goal. Jihadi's understand that idea perfectly, that's what 'Fight them till all...', means. Till all worship Allah alone, in all the world. This idea started jihad, and this idea has sustained jihad for 1400 years. They have never quite eliminated dar al-harb, but they keep trying...
at November 4, 2007 10:37 AM
Islam, at its core, is Arab "Hakko ichiu" and the center of it all is Saudi-A-Totolitarian-Gas-Station. "Islam is the engine of Arab Imperialism". There are many similarities of Arab Islam with Nazism and the Japanese Hakko ichiu beliefs. Sooner or later they all do the ritual thing, the trance and then do the Banzai dance.
I know that some are critical re the use of wiki, but this article sums up Hakko ichuu very well. Weather it's Islam, Nazism or other purple dreams-look out. The purple dream here is definately centered in Saudi-A-Gas-Station.
Posted by: Frank at November 4, 2007 10:51 AM
A polygamist nation that is not involved in constant war has a problem. As an exaggerated example: if 25% of the men each have four wives there are no wives for the other 75%. So they have to get rid of the excess young men somehow in order for the old men to have more wives. Bingo, have them blow themselves up.
Posted by: justask at November 4, 2007 10:56 AM
And last week in London, King Abdullah warned young British Muslims not to become involved with extremists."
-- from the article above
Hugh-
They are afraid that the bread they cast upon the waters is coming back to the gas station. "Hey look. Isn't that the bread we cast upon the waters? That was supposed to go to the Kuffirs".
Posted by: Frank at November 4, 2007 11:02 AM
Maybe they don't own Fred. Maybe he'll treat them as they should be - a brutal enemy that attacked the U.S. on 9/11 just as Japan did on 12/7/41. Why weren't they bombed in reprisal for their murderous deed? Obviously - oil! We could've bombed everything but the oil and seized it. It would've been justice and made things right. It would've shown these muslim creatures that that the U.S. means business instead of appeasment, that George and his oil men friends prefer. It's to bad. It would mean a different world today. The muslims know and respect the 'big stick'.
Posted by: countywolf at November 4, 2007 11:28 AM
The Saudi education system has over 5m children using these books. If only one in 1,000 take these teachings to heart and seek to act on them violently, there will be 5,000 terrorists.”
And if one in 100, then we'll have 50,000 terrorists.
And then there will also be the much larger percentage who support the terrorists in principle, and might help them in various ways, but would not directly strap on a bomb. How many supporters? If only 10 percent of the students, that's 500,000.
“Do we really want to take on the Saudis at the moment?” asks Bronson. “We’ve got enough problems as it is.”
Maybe. Or maybe he needs to take another look at the concept of multi-tasking.
Posted by: traeh at November 4, 2007 11:46 AM
IN order to placate the clerics the Saudi ruling family has been for decades committed to the financial support of Islamic terrorism & Wahhabi proselytizing for the sin of allowing foreign infidels into the sacred shrine to put down the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. That was the deal that kept the Saudi family in power and that gave birth to Al-Qaeda.
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8671&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No
This has not, obviously, been dealt with effectively. The US has been cursed with incredibly incompetent presidents (Carter, Clinton & Bush) in the face of the Islamic threat.
at November 4, 2007 12:11 PM
As long as America needs Saudi oil, we will have to placate the bastards. No American President is going to do otherwise until Saudi petroleum reserves are no longer a resource we desire. Energy independence---exploring for much more oil here at home, going nuclear, researching truly viable alternative energy sources---is the route that must be taken so that someday we can tell the corrupt and despicable Saudis to kiss off, with the parting gift being a warning that Mecca and Medina can be made to look like the surface of the moon.
Posted by: Wellington at November 4, 2007 12:17 PM
Tommie Lee Jones played "Two Face" in Batman Forever; so the next time a Saudi Royal visits Buckingham Palace they may want to play something from that movie score.
Posted by: champ at November 4, 2007 12:32 PM
Gosh-takes only FOUR YEARS for someone,apart from
Jihadwatch, to realise Saudi Arabia is funding Hub
of Terror!
What else will these 'lightening brains' come up
with-that American Foreign Policy has been a Disaster for Decades??
See that a Conservative Minister has resigned for
daring to say 'Enoch Powell was Right about Immigration ' in the U.K. Unfortunately, these Inconvenient Truths will be furiously denied & swept under the dirty Saudi carpet by Politicians and Presidents alike. Only when the Ship of State is actually sinking-King Rats Bush & Blair having abandoned it-will there be much wailing and gnashing of teeth from those left on board...
at November 4, 2007 1:24 PM
Saudi Arabia's current status is a direct result of the House of Saud's deal with the Wahhabi clerics during the 1979 takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Juhayman al-Uteybi and several hundred followers of his Muslim fundamentalist sect. Under this accord, as Yaroslav Trofimov writes in his indispensable new book, The Siege of Mecca, the senior ulema decided that
"The House of Saud, despite all its failings, had to be shored up in its hour of need. As King Khalid requested, they would sign a fatwa, reaffirming the regime's Islamic legitimacy. But from now on, the Saudi rulers would have to live up to their Islamic obligations. There should be no more women on TV, no more licentious movies, no more alcohol. The social liberalization that had begun under King Faisal should be halted and, where possible, should be rolled back. And billions of Saudi petrodollars should be put to good use, spreading the rigid Wahhabi Islam around the planet. ... the ulema essentally asked al-Saud to adopt Juhayman's agenda in return for getting rid of Juhayman himself."
Juhayman was accordingly defeated (with an assist by the French) and lost his head -- but won his point. The fancy mosque that went up in the early '80s not far from where I live (and at which one of the notorious "Flying Imams" preaches) probably wouldn't be there but for him.
Posted by: Papa Whiskey at November 4, 2007 2:44 PM
The link in the foregoing post to Trofimov's book appears to be bad. The URL is:
Posted by: Papa Whiskey at November 4, 2007 2:47 PM
This was a great article, which hit home one of the themes I've been trying to bring attention to for months now - that the Saudis are not just the ones cutting the checks for Al Qaeda and like-minded jihadists around the globe, they are the ones actually pulling the trigger in attack after attack.
For all the gory details, check out:
www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
Of course, these folks still buy into the standard tripe about the Saudi royals being moderates who can be enticed or threatened into cracking down on the Wahhabis. The royals and the Wahhabis are in fact completely and intractably intertwined. How many more Americans will die before we commit to the only reasonable response - defending ourselves?
Posted by: Bill in Chicago at November 4, 2007 2:55 PM
Also, just who is paying the bills of this Rachel Bronson character? I'd sure like to know.
She reminds me of Charles Lindbergh, who went to visit Nazi Germany seven times in the years leading up to WWII, each time returning to the U.S. to sing their praises - how disciplined and upright they were! And that's giving her the benefit of the doubt, for sure.
Posted by: Bill in Chicago at November 4, 2007 2:58 PM
"Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror: The desert kingdom supplies the cash and the killers"
...in other news, the world is round.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 4, 2007 3:22 PM
As someone who fears Islamic terrorism I take offense to this article. Saudi Arabia is not the hub of world terrorism. It is the United States. It is the US that funds these people. The US that seeks to hand over large chunks of Europe(kosovo,bosnia) to jihadists. It is the US that seeks Turkish membership in the EU ensuring the death of Europe. Muslims are violent by nature.Yet it is silly to blame them. Just like a pit bull that is trained to kill and escapes and mauls a child, you can't blame the dog it is in its nature to behave like that, you blame the owner. I blame the US. Until the US collapses or someone like RON Paul gets elected who will dismantle the empire we will face extinction.
Posted by: pissedoffcanadian at November 4, 2007 4:26 PM
What!? How absurd!
I read at Jihad Watch that El Presidente Jorge Bush has CERTIFIED that the Saudis are an anti-terrorism ally in the War on Terror!
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/018518.php
Posted by: Kay at November 4, 2007 5:42 PM
Saudi Arabia is a hub of terror...Yet we bombed IRAQ.
Says a lot about our foreign policy.
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at November 4, 2007 5:46 PM
pissedoffCanadian, blame yourself.
Or have you started car pooling, riding your bike to work, walking, riding a moped? Have you planted a victory garden? Bought a couple of chickens for your yard?
That is what it will take, you know. Pointing the finger only makes you feel innocent. Do something real, like decreasing your dependence upon these people.
Posted by: Kay at November 4, 2007 5:55 PM
Humiliate the common Saudi, at the grassroot level, to encourage their own people to rid the world of the present Saudi leadership.
Humiliate the Pakistani people into realizing the pro-Western General Musharraf and former Prime Minister Bhutto (is she pro-Western? I don't know) are in fact the best people to lead Pakistan to a better future.
Humiliate the majority of sane, rational Islamic people on this earth into realizing that religion of theirs is retarded, and one step away from idiotic, asinine.
If I had the resources of a President of the United States at my disposal, this is my strategy. I'd turn the Islamic religion into what the Mayan and Aztec religion is today. Eight years of work form my administration would definitely leave the world a better place to live and work, for everyone.
Basically, in a nutshell, these are my thoughts; my strategy and goals.
Posted by: mergatroid at November 4, 2007 5:58 PM
pissedoffcanadian: Kind of angry, aren't you? Not very accurate either. The US the hub of world terrorism? Oh, Christ, not another kick-America-first Canadian. This is getting tedious. Look, America makes mistakes, but the great power at any time in history has things to consider and act upon that other political entities have the luxury of not even having to think about.
Our action in the Balkans since they imploded in the early 1990s is due directly to the incapacity of Europe (once again) to solve any of its problems. When Yugoslavia dissolved, we told the Europeans that this was a problem in their own back yard and they should fix it. Well, UN peacekeepers, ineffective Dutch soldiers, four wars in eight years, etc., left us no choice by 1999 to end the carnage-----in part, though I doubt this has dawned on you, because the unity of NATO was at issue. Of course, the Russians and the Serbs didn't like what we did, but sometimes life leaves you with only lousy options and you have to choose the least bad option among them, and since most of the world is dysfunctional and insipid, America as the great power has to step in on far more occasions than I as an American would like it to. Don't blame America here. Blame the stupid world.
And I'm sure it hasn't dawned on you either that American promotion of Turkey into the EU is pro forma stuff because the last thing America wants is a Turkey with excuses aplenty to sever its ties with Israel or cut off our logistical supply to our forces in the Middle East. For God's sake, criticize my country if you like, but do it more responsibly than by calling America the "hub of world terrorism." Without America and the American military in the past hundred years, the world, dark as it has been and is now because of totalitarian ideologies like Nazism, Marxism and Islam, would be far, far darker. And please in the future try to bring a little more sophistication to an understanding of world affairs. Think realpolitik. As an example, I wonder if you've ever given any thought to the fact that any American President couldn't tell the Saudis where to stick it, not just because America and the West still depend on Saudi oil, but so does the second largest economy on earth-------Japan. Wake up and grow up. I'm done here.
Posted by: Wellington at November 4, 2007 6:05 PM
pissedoffcanadian,
"Until the US collapses"?
Careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
Posted by: PMK at November 4, 2007 6:13 PM
"after they attempted to impose sharia on the other detainees and preached an extreme form of Wahhabist Islam."
from the article
What part of Wahhabism is considered moderate and what part extreme?
"Bush administration is counting on Saudi Arabia to help stabilise Iraq, curtail Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions and give a push to the Israeli and Palestinian peace process at a conference due to be held this month in Annapolis, Maryland."
from the article
We might as well ask a fox to stabilize a henhouse.
Curtail Iran's ambitions? How - by going nuclear themselves?
They'll "give a push" to the peace process? Where? Over a cliff, maybe?
"And the toxic House of Saud has owned almost every president for the last thirty years."
by dgene
Double that. It's been more than sixty years that the Sauds have owned our presidents, not thirty. FDR, the patron saint of Democrats and the guy who "courted" Stalin, also made nice with the Saudis, setting up another "special relationship".
It was just less obvious during the Cold War.
at November 4, 2007 6:28 PM
Tell the Saudi's to leave our Booze and Whores alone and GO HOME.
We could institute an immediate crash course for energy independence overnight. Take out the Saudi Oil Fields ourselfs. Coupled with a full Blockade of the Gulf from stand off range. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out.
As for our Troops in Iraq. Support their withdrawing, by all means necessary, to the Eastern Med.
It would stop the flow of petro dollars, starve Iran, Get us out if Iraq with Honor while cleaning up alot of other problems along the way.
Every nation state in the region would be reduced Conventionally with no hope of re-supply, A Bath tub rendered to floating toy boats. No cash flow and a population so filled with hate it will not matter to them who they kill. At that point it will not matter if the established Goverments fail or not.It will be a self inflicted bloodbath for all that cannot get near us. While death awaits those who do.
There is really nothing to stop us from this course,that a little help from our friends, could ensure.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at November 4, 2007 7:28 PM
"Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror"
Obvious redundancy at its finest.
Posted by: awake at November 4, 2007 8:05 PM
People, it is time to conserve.
With the fall of the dollar, the rise in the price of the barrel, we are making them even more wealthy.
Well, I'm starting to carpool, myself. I feel like it is a start, anyway.
at November 4, 2007 8:39 PM
They need to institute a "shoot any Saudis found fighting in Iraq" Rule Of Engagement.
This pussyfooting is suicidal.
They are serious.
We are tipoeing.
Posted by: profitsbeard at November 4, 2007 8:48 PM
As Gomer Pyle used to say:
Surprise! Surprise!
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at November 4, 2007 8:58 PM
We need energy independence now!
Posted by: Wimbledon Womble at November 4, 2007 9:04 PM
From the article
Assassination attempts against security officials caused some of the royals to fear for their own safety. [...] The Saudi authorities began to cooperate more with the FBI, clamp down on extremist charities, monitor mosques and keep a watchful eye on fighters returning from Iraq.
Gee, I wonder if there is any connection between the "extremist charities" attempts to assassinate the royals, and the royals' sudden interest in "combating" the "extremist charities"? Nah, they're doing it because they share our values and ideals, like democracy, tolerance of other faiths, equality for women, etc., and they don't want the few extremists' twisted version of the Religion of Peace to be imposed on us infidels, their good friends and allies.
at November 4, 2007 10:20 PM
a pissed off canadian on pissedoffcanadian:
You should watch out for what you wish for. If the US collapses, Canada follows. And try and get some education on Islam and the forces and counter forces at work. Toronto isn't the center of the universe.
Posted by: sounder at November 4, 2007 10:21 PM
Everyone kicked around Tancredo for pointing out the obvious.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162795,00.html
We have a very, very, long way to go before we cast off the PC millstone hanging around our necks.
Posted by: kevin at November 4, 2007 10:42 PM
Ok. There ARE alternate fuels out there - even used corn oil from McD's- but the fbi agents wn't allow it - there have been cases of this.
It really is time to beat the oil cos. over the head about this.
Enough is enough.
As well, our dear gov. is in cahoots with the oil co. and maintaining the machinery going in Arabia.
Enough is ENOUGH!
Posted by: allat at November 4, 2007 11:22 PM
Be sure that IF the U.s. goes down, the entire free world will go down also. The U.S. is what keeps everybody else going - incld. those who have so much contempt and hate for the Americans.
God help us all!
Posted by: allat at November 4, 2007 11:25 PM
I don't care what anyone says.
I'm still voting for Tom Tancredo.
Posted by: Kay at November 5, 2007 12:03 AM
What the article does not say is that Saudi Arabia has bought off key current and former US politicians...... starting with White House.
Posted by: Alert at November 5, 2007 1:21 AM
"To celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid, 55 prisoners were temporarily released last month and given the equivalent of £1,300 each to spend with their families."
They have all checked back into prison after the furlough was over, right? Right?
at November 5, 2007 2:51 AM
Neal Boortz gets it right , once again...
"US State Department official Karen Hodges was given the impossible task of polishing the US image in the Muslim World. She has now resigned from what we all know to be an impossible job.
A day later, the White House is now apologizing for a comment that Donald Rumsfeld made three years ago, so that we don’t offend the Muslims. Rumsfeld said that oil wealth has made Muslims “against physical labor.” Rumsfeld says that oil wealth detaches Muslims "from the reality of the work, effort and investment that leads to wealth for the rest of the world.”
Thus far … where did he really get it wrong?
Then he really gets to the heart of the argument, "Too often Muslims are against physical labor, so they bring in Koreans and Pakistanis while their young people remain unemployed … An unemployed population is easy to recruit to radicalism." Do you hear that mentality, folks? Many Muslim countries want their people to remain poor because it is easier to indoctrinate them, to recruit them.
Now you have another explanation for our government schools. Just add the words “and ignorant” after “poor” and you’ll see the big picture. "
Posted by: exsgtbrown at November 5, 2007 5:51 AM
The good news is that within the last three weeks
Boeing announced a solar cell that increased the collection output from 12% to 40%! Try getting that kind of increase on your mutual funds.
Having been personally aquainted with solar engineering that was purchased and shelved in the 70's, I can tell you when it behooves the American corporations to dump the mideast oil they can and will do it.
The government awarded a prize (this spring to a company in Arkansas for a solar collection device in a fabric tape suitable for sewing into tents, greenhouses, etc.
Somewhere in the USA there is a twelve year old who is going to be p**o'd that his parents can't afford something he wants and will go out there and solve that expensive gas problem!
Capitalism will solve problems that no other system can.
at November 5, 2007 9:14 AM
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