Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts
Friday, July 27, 2007
Saudi Arms Deal Is Desperately Stupid
Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. On July 15th, the LA Times revealed that 45% of insurgents attacking our troops came from this despotic monarchy. 50% of the Saudi insurgents come in as suicide attackers.
Today, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia provided forged documents about Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki giving secret assistance to radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr in order to destabilize the goverment. The Saudis are arming the insurgency. They are funding the insurgency. Tomorrow, the NY Times reveals the reward they receive for destabilizing Iraq and the region.
— The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to total $20 billion over the next decade at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.
The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous. Senior officials who described the package on Friday said they believed that the administration had resolved those concerns, in part by promising Israel $30.4 billion in military aid over the next decade, a significant increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.
Saudi Arabia gets advanced weaponry, Israel gets more military goodies and this is designed to make the region more secure? When the next crisis in the middle east occurs, now you don't have to wonder why.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Hear About Those Saudi Fighters in Iraq?
About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia;15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.
He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.
In a non coincidence, George W. Bush tried (quite successfully) to make people believe that the 9/11 hijackers had something to do with Iraq (15 of 19 were Saudis, 0 Iraqis), he is now trying to make people believe that the violence in Iraq is coming from Iran, or from Al Qaeda never specifying that our ally is supplying the terrorists. It's funny how they keep bombing Shia though.We NEVER hear in the press or from the administration the role Saudi Arabia is playing in the destabilization of Iraq. One of the closest friends of the Bush clan is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who has the nickname "Bandar Bush" due to his close ties to the family. He is right now being accused of taking over £1 billion in bribes for securing Saudi Defense contracts for BAE, a defense firm in the UK. He also has been accused by the Iranians of financially backing the terrorist groups in Iraq, for what it's worth.
Our administration has been screaming at Iran to quit meddling in Iraq. There has been nary a peep about Saudi Arabia from our administration, or our congress. A Joe Liberman resolution escalating our diplomatic stand-off with Iran was introduced and passed in the Senate this week 97-0 because in our blinded eyes, Iran is the problem with our Iraq policy.
Geopolitics procludes the Bush administration from being honest about Saudi Arabia's responsibility for the carnage in Iraq. Will the media and the congress decide to challenge the propaganda, or enable it? It would be a real pity two years from now to be stuck in Iran based on a suicide attack against our troops committed by a Sunni from Bandar Bush land.
Truth and knowledge are our best defenses from this happening.
(H/T Editor & Publisher)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The BBC has an interesting report tonight about how once the Saudi Arabian government threatened to kill an upcoming military contract with English firms, Tony Blair killed an investigation into a 1980's deal by BAE systems, which allegedly bribed several Saudi middle men, in order to get the deal through.
What a lovely note to end your reign as Prime Minister on, eh Tony? It just goes to show that money rules the world over any high minded principles that people spout off. This investigation would have been over a Torie era deal as well. But, since Blair's one over-riding goal appears to be putting the Conservatives back in power, this does make sense in that light.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Apparently no hookers have stopped by his room and accidentally engaged in sex with him this time, but the son of the former President, and younger brother of Commander Cuckoo Bananas is in Saudi Arabia and he loves it there.
It’s a kind of tribal democracy that people don’t talk about very much,” he said. “So it hurts me quite a bit and causes me anguish over the ignorance outside about Saudi Arabia.”
Yes, it is a democracy, for citizens of Saudi Arabia, who happen to be born of the proper families, and are also men. Most American women tourists love Saudi Arabia, because they are freed from the chore of driving. Heck, and if you get lucky, you could become the third wife for a week-end of a charming guy, who will pay you with trinkets in return (virginal american muslim women may only apply). Then he can say "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you and don't call me, I'll call you".
If I go by the images of Saudi Arabia portrayed in movies, that of gun-toting mullahs, then I think I will have a very different impression of Saudi Arabia than the one that is balanced and based on reason and facts.”
The Saudi paper does end this piece on a philosophical note.
Indeed, not every system needs to be a Western-style Jeffersonian representative democracy, does it?
No, no it doesn't. Neil's older brother is putting that theory to the test in the USA. I wonder if Bandar Bush is giving him any pointers.
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