Saudi Arabia Archives
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March 12, 2005
NYSun:
Saudi Arabia has funneled tens of thousands of dollars into the "outreach" programs of Columbia University's Middle East Institute, which until last week was training some of the city's public-school teachers in how to teach students about Middle East politics.
Since 2002, the government-owned Saudi Aramco has given the institute annual grants of $15,000 for unspecified outreach activities. The institute's outreach activities have included a 15-week teacher-training course on Middle East politics led by Columbia faculty members and graduate students...
A Columbia spokeswoman, Susan Brown, denied the money from Saudi Aramco was used to finance the program that the institute coordinated for the city's Department of Education...
Mr. Khalidi, 56, [head of the Middle East Institute] refuses to speak to the Sun. A message was left last night with an individual who answered the phone at his residence. Mr. Khalidi did not return the message.
The institute at the Morningside Heights campus has won annual certification as one of the country's 19 Middle East National Resource Centers, which each receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies from the federal Department of Education...
Posted at 10:59 AM
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February 07, 2005
From this:
What is happening in some American mosques, including a few in the Chicago area, is deeply disturbing. In certain Islamic schools, textbooks spit vitriol against Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims: "Be disassociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion." In mosque publications, America is the "Abode of the Infidel." The idea of human and civil rights is heresy. Working women are immoral.
These views are extreme, they promote violence and they are being espoused right under our noses. We knew this was happening in France, Germany and England but we didn't know the extent of the problem here. It is not happening in all mosques or Islamic schools, by any means, but in those select ones funded by the Saudi government to disseminate the fanatic Wahhabi-style Islam that has its demagogic roots in Saudi Arabia.
The Center for Religious Freedom just issued a discomfiting report looking at the spread of hate propaganda in America by Saudi Arabia. The center collected 200 books and other publications from mosques across the country and spent the past two years analyzing them...
Their press release is here. The PDF of the report is here. Note that former CIA chief James Woolsey is the head of this organization, so take it for what it's worth.
Posted at 10:45 AM
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November 22, 2004
Hey Josh, here's your ticket for Little Rock. Just go to the Clinton library with a tape recorder or a notepad and stand at the only computer there that lists the donors. Then, collate those results and get linked to by Drudge: "Saudis, Arabs Funneled Millions to President Clinton's Library".
In earlier news, Rush admits that both Dems and Repubs have their hands in the Saudi till.
UPDATE: The NY Sun link now only works for subscribers. It's currently available here.
Posted at 02:25 PM
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November 18, 2004
From March 30, 2002's "Saudis Pledge up to $20 Million for Clinton Library":
Disgraced ex-president Bill Clinton, whose disdain for national security over the last eight years is widely believed to have rendered the U.S. vulnerable to last fall's terrorist attacks, is set to collect millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
Estimates of Clinton's expected Saudi jackpot range from "less than $1 million to $20 million," according to columnist Robert Novak, who cites high-ranking members of the Saudi royal family as the source for the information.
In addition to the hijackers, al-Qaeda terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is a Saudi national, and most of his family now live in the country.
Ostensibly U.S. allies, Saudi leaders have refused to allow American pilots to use U.S.-built air bases in the country to fight the war on terrorism, and have been described as uncooperative in 9/11-related investigations.
On Thursday Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah planted a kiss on the cheek of a top Iraqi official during a Mideast Arab summit, in a move widely seen as a slap at the Bush administration, which has identified Iraq as a member of the "axis of evil."
From this November 18, 2004 report:
Earlier reports said the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments were among the early donors to Mr. Clinton's library. Asked if the Saudis and Kuwaitis had backed the museum financially, [The president of the Clinton foundation, James "Skip" Rutherford] urged a reporter to ask those governments or consult the display, which will not be accessible to the public until tomorrow...
And, from Rush:
We know that Marc Rich paid a lot of money. We don't know how much George Soros paid, but we also know that the Saudi royal family contributed a great deal of money to the Clinton library. Now, isn't it interesting that you never hear about the Saudi royal family being involved with Democrat presidents. You don't get documentaries and books produced and written about the close ties between Democrat presidents and the Saudi royal family. A dirty little secret, ladies and gentlemen, is that the Saudi royal family has helped to finance most of the presidential libraries probably in my lifetime, and it's one of the reasons that there is such a close bond between presidents and ex-presidents and the Saudi royal family, all presidents, doesn't matter what party...
To read about far lesser lights that aren't even willing to be as honest as Rush in this instance, see this.
During the Blogging Across America tour, I visited Little Rock and saw the artist's conception of the Clinton Library. I summarized Bubba here. Perhaps after touring the library the next stop will be to the Hot Springs Showmen's Association.
Posted at 05:55 PM
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September 25, 2004
From WND:
"Saudi Arabia is working hard to shut down the facilitators and financial supporters of terrorism, and they have captured or killed many first-tier leaders of the al-Qaida organization in Saudi Arabia," the White House said in a Sept. 11 statement. "Today, because Saudi Arabia has seen the danger and joined the war on terror, the American people are safer."
...But U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia has failed to stop financing to al-Qaida. Despite U.S. appeals, Saudi charities continue to relay funds to al-Qaida abroad, particularly in financing Arab operatives in Africa and Chechnya...
Posted at 02:56 PM
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September 03, 2004
From Long Island's Newsday:
Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost two-thirds of its workers in the World Trade Center attack, has sued Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting al-Qaida prior to the Sept. 11 attack through financing, safe houses, weapons and money laundering.
The company, in a $7 billion lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also named dozens of other defendants, including numerous banks and Islamic charities, in a bid to hold them accountable for its losses in the terrorism attack.
That report references the earlier, larger suit against our allies in Saudi Arabia. Details on that start in 'CIA's Woolsey Tells Court: Iraq Involved in 9/11'; that post links to excerpts from the earlier complaint.
Note the headline to this AP report; the original AP report's headline appears to be "Cantor Fitzgerald Sues Saudis for Losses". Reuters (also in USA Today and CNN) doesn't include the Saudis in their headline, only al Qaeda.
And, remember, Citizen, the Saudis are now conducting raids so we don't need to worry about them anymore.
Posted at 08:51 PM
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July 02, 2004
The WaPo article on yesterday's raid at an Islamic institute puts things in a rather odd way:
Federal agents yesterday swarmed into an Islamic institute in Northern Virginia that has been the target of a joint U.S.-Saudi crackdown over allegations that it promoted an intolerant brand of Islam...
Last I looked, promoting intolerance per se is not a crime. I certainly hope the WaPo just got that wrong.
While arresting and deporting people based on visa violations may or may not be a pretext, one hopes that the Feds have evidence of a tangible connection between those at the Institute and terrorists or planned terrorist activities.
Based on past reports, there might just be. However, just being intolerant is not yet a crime.
Posted at 04:01 PM
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July 01, 2004
From Fox:
Officials from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (search ) were serving a search warrant Thursday on an Islamic center in Fairfax, Va., as part of a terrorism probe, four government officials told Fox News...
...The key part [of the search] is a probe into the possibility of terrorism financing.
Another part is the search for evidence that people associated with the organization may be helping — and perhaps harboring — illegal aliens...
The Defense Department used to do business with the school — an arm of the Saudi government — to recruit chaplains to run Pentagon programs for Muslim soldiers. The institute is part of Saudi Arabia's state-run university system and is funded and controlled by the kingdom's Ministry of Higher Education.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the institute's published curriculum calls for studying "the ruinous effect" of Christian beliefs. Lecturers have included a cleric who congressional investigators say was a spiritual adviser to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. And the Muslim-American activist who helped arrange for the institute to train Muslim lay leaders, Abdur Rahman Alamoudi (search), was indicted in October for taking from Libya money that prosecutors suspect was intended to finance terrorism...
And, from January, there's "U.S. has quietly expelled dozens
of Saudi diplomats":
The Saudi diplomats, in a determination made by the FBI and Homeland Security Department, were said to have abused their diplomatic privileges in the United States. The sources said most of the diplomats were responsible for operations of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America [IIASA] located in Fairfax, Va.
Posted at 01:26 PM
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June 09, 2004
Break out the non-alchoholic champagne and slaughter a goat!
Oh, wait, you say, "Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric..."
Note also that the poll was conducted last year, but the poll's taker has just decided to release it. And, especially note that the poll was taken shortly after 36 people were killed in Riyadh by terrorists.
Posted at 09:15 PM
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May 03, 2004
From WND:
A top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government...
The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida...
[Douglass] has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across the country. She's also advised state education boards on curriculum standards dealing with world religion, and has helped train thousands of public school teachers on Islamic instruction...
...up until last year Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism...
See also the earlier article 'Report: Saudis funded infiltration of U.S. military':
Saudi Arabia has funded the indoctrination of U.S. soldiers and inmates to an ideology adopted by Al Qaida.
Research conducted by the Washington-based Institute of World Politics has asserted that Saudi Arabia poured tens of millions of dollars into spreading Al Qaida-related ideology among American soldiers and inmates. The report said the Saudi aim was to form insurgency cells throughout the United States that support a Wahabi agenda...
For more, see 'Military probes hiring of clerics'.
And, consider CAIR's Saudi-funded 'Library Project.' For instance, see 'Dhimmitude in the libraries: an antidote'.
Posted at 04:23 PM
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July 16, 2003
From the I'll-Believe-It-When-I-See-It department:
...Crown Prince Abdullah has issued new regulations prohibiting any reference to jihad, or holy war, in radio and television broadcasts.
The royals are also drafting new regulations that the Wahhabi clergy will most probably consider sacrilegious. The new rules would actually remove elements of Wahhabi doctrine — Islam's strictest interpretation of the Koran — as it is presently taught in mosques and schools around the kingdom.
Security chiefs of the 22 Arab League nations, meeting in Tunis last week, quickly agreed on the existence of a direct link between al Qaeda terrorist attacks and a clergy that promotes holy war in holy places.
Mohammed bin Al Kuman, chairman of the Arab League's council of interior (internal security) ministers, said the most urgent need was for moderate clerics who can see that Islam has been hijacked by extremists who preach hatred of the United States and Israel in particular, Western values in general.
The Saudis previously banned "strange preachers" from mosques, and have taken other steps. Arnaud de Borchgrave finishes this article with "The House of Saud has finally shed its blinkers. Not a moment too soon." I think it's a bit too early to tell whether this is just window dressing or the real deal. Indeed.
Posted at 12:39 AM
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June 17, 2003
From this:
At a news conference called here to claim that the Saudi Arabian government was cracking down on terrorism, a top Saudi Arabian official yesterday refused to condemn the terrorist group Hamas.
Adel Al-Jubeir’s refusal to condemn Hamas came on a day when the Bush administration was blaming the terrorist group for the recent attacks on Israel...
...[Al-Jubeir] also denied that the Saudi government directly funded Hamas, although he said some money could indirectly go to its "political wing..."
[A] critic of the Saudi government, Ali Al-Ahmed, who runs the Saudi Institute here, said there is no doubt of the Saudi link to Hamas, and said he was not surprised either that Mr. Al-Jubeir did not condemn the group.
"He can’t. He’d be fried back home. He wouldn’t be the spokesman any longer," he said.
Posted at 10:28 PM
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May 10, 2003
From this:
U.S. authorities expelled a Saudi consular official and Muslim leader who had been living in Southern California, saying he was suspected of having terrorist links.
Fahad al Thumairy, 32, was detained at Los Angeles International Airport earlier in the week after arriving from Frankfurt and was deported Thursday...
Al Thumairy's diplomatic visa was revoked in March, and his name was added to a list of travelers who should not be allowed to enter the United States because of suspected links to terrorism. Officials would not immediately provide details on the alleged connection...
He was also the imam at the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, which has one of the largest Muslim congregations in the region. The mosque, built with financing from the Saudi government...
A google search of fahd/fahad al thumairy/thumairi comes up empty.
Posted at 02:21 PM
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April 06, 2003
Glenn links to this update of the story of the S.A. diplomat who might be an AQ conspirator. Apparently, the Saudis want to question him, but they don't know where he is.
Posted at 03:12 PM
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March 28, 2003
From this:
Authorities in Ivory Coast are investigating what they say was the murder of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the West African country.
Ivory Coast police say the body of Saudi Ambassador Mohammed Ahmed Al Rasheed was discovered by his driver early Friday morning.
Police sources say the unclothed corpse was found in a puddle of blood in the stairwell of the high rise apartment building where the Saudi diplomat lived, in Abidjan's central business district.
Ivorian officials called the killing bizarre, since the building is in a high security area adjacent to the United States Embassy. Furthermore, police believe it happened during curfew hours.
Perhaps his chess-playing got out of hand. Or, his opponent wasn't just a chess player but was hired for another sort of job. Or, maybe someone wanted to make it look like he'd been taken out by a chess player.
UPDATE: There's more information here.
Posted at 10:17 AM
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March 26, 2003
Again? Shark blog links to this Der Spiegel story and this Reuters story about a Saudi attache who had contact with Islamists who were later arrested for planning a terrorist attack. Whence followed a typical Saudi reaction.
Posted at 10:48 PM
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February 18, 2003
According to this:
Saudi Arabia, which has often denied having an al-Qaida presence on its soil, announced yesterday that at least 90 citizens will be prosecuted for links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Prince Nayef, the interior minister, told Okaz newspaper that a further 250 suspects were still being questioned, though 150 others had been released...
One of those released was 21-year-old Saud Abdulaziz al-Rasheed, whose arrest had been demanded by the US on the grounds of suspected links to the September 11 hijackers.
Public announcements about al-Qaida arrests have often sought to counter US accusations that the kingdom was dragging its feet in the "war on terrorism"...
Posted at 11:19 PM
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February 08, 2003
From the article Saudis Plan to End U.S. Presence:
Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States, to enact what Saudi officials call the first significant democratic reforms at home, and to rein in the conservative clergy that has shared power in the kingdom.
Senior members of the royal family say the decisions, reached in the past month, are the result of a continuing debate over Saudi Arabia's future and have not yet been publicly announced...
Saudi officials said the departure of American soldiers would set the stage for an announcement that Saudis — but probably not women, at least initially — would begin electing representatives to provincial assemblies and then to a national assembly, Saudi officials said.
The goal would be the gradual expansion, over six years, of democratic writ until a fully democratic national assembly emerged, a senior official said.
The debate over the need for reform is described by Saudi royal family members as part of the post-Sept. 11 reckoning to head off foreign and domestic pressures that threaten the royal family and its dominion over the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula.
The reported decisions have enthusiastic support from Saudi Arabia's influential business community, and from the second tier of senior princes in their 50's and 60's who have had the most contact with the West. Among those family members are Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Princeton-educated foreign minister, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, son of the defense minister and a former F-15 fighter pilot who has been ambassador to the United States since 1983...
American specialists on Saudi Arabia said it appeared that Abdullah was seeking a national consensus to maneuver around the most conservative elements of the clergy by appealing to the influential Saudi business establishment, the military and tribal leaders. The aim, Saudi officials said, is to create an Islamic parliament that would be able to wrest some control over social policy — even basic questions like whether women can drive — away from the puritanical religious establishment...
"Eventually, we became the culprits under this system," the prince added. "And now, we have exhausted every inch of that coalition" with religious leaders. "It is time to move on to the next generation."
If they're sincere about this, this could be good news. But, they're going to need a lot of help to avoid this backfiring, and resulting in a Khomeini-style situation. Getting U.S. troops out of S.A. would be good news, as it would undercut the fundamentalists.
Posted at 02:47 PM
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December 18, 2002
It's official!
Posted at 10:05 PM
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November 25, 2002
Publicly or privately, the Saudis need to realize that a large part of their citizenry and a small but very rich and influential part of their rulers are extremists and need to be dealt with. To a certain extent, they appear to be realizing this; Drudge links to the article "Saudi clerics told to stop anti-U.S. sermons... ". (Both my readers found out about this two days ago. But I digress).
Shutting down the zealot preachers might work with the citizenry somewhat, but on the other hand it might just lead to secret mosques or groups being used to preach the now forbidden anti-Western messages.
The Saudis need to be very careful about not being too close to the U.S. and thereby precipitating a Khomeini-style revolution. And, they need to worry about being the victims of terrorist acts if they don't pay protection money. But, at the same time they need to fess up, as some in the administration are now suggesting. The plan outlined there sounds similar to my plan, only without the nuclear part. Excerpt:
"There may be tens of millions of dollars spent to fund terrorism, but there are hundreds of millions of dollars spent to propagate extreme, intolerant religious views that are highly critical of Western values, and that is our most bedeviling problem," a senior U.S. official said. "When money goes to the propagation of uncompromising, unforgiving, hostile views of other faiths, and they broadcast that, it is more likely than not the money is going to be used for violence."
This points out that in addition to having to throw our military and economic weight around to prevent the funding of terrorism and extreme religious views, we also need to provide an alternative. What we really need, and what we definitely aren't getting, is a PR campaign to sell the West and classic liberalism as either a good thing, or as something that must be tolerated.
Too much money and thought is spent on planning to invade this or that country or figuring out where terrorists might strike next and how to prevent it.
Too little money and thought is spent advancing the idea of Muslims tolerating non-Muslims and the West. Hollywood, instead of being a universally negative force, could perhaps pay for some of its sins by doing things like producing news inserts for its overseas movies. These would not be blatant propaganda, but instead would present an honest view of the West and attempt to sell the West or at least tolerance for it. As I pointed out previously, the Internet could help here too.
This campaign would have to be very subtle. I mean that as in "intelligently subtle," not as in "smarmy politically correct inoffensive crap subtle." Otherwise, it would be used against us: "Now you infidels are trying to poison our minds with your filthy propaganda, etc. etc."
It should also be accompanied by well-respected religious leaders who are either pro-West or at least tolerant of the West. If there aren't any such leaders, then we need to create them. They must discredit the zealots. If they're just bought and paid for Western shills, that will be discovered and this will backfire. So, they must be above reproach and they must be doing it from ideological grounds. Remember that these terrorist acts are justified by saying that such and such religious leader said that it was OK to attack American citizens. If there is no religious justification for terrorist attacks, the number of attacks will sharply decrease.
By the way, here are two articles on psyops in Iraq: one and two.
What I'm talking about is more PR than psyops. If we can sell Pepsi there, we can sell the West.
By the way, I don't think Prince Bandar would be stupid enough to openly funnel money to terrorists. If he knew he was funnelling money to terrorists, he would have probably used a Swiss account or cash. I think either they thought it was just going to a needy Saudi, or they were set up or duped.
UPDATE: Tom Friedman suggests an internal ideological change as well. If you don't want to sign up for the NYT, see here.
Posted at 10:45 PM
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November 22, 2002
According to
this article:
The FBI is investigating whether the Saudi Arabian government—using the bank account of the wife of a senior Saudi diplomat—sent tens of thousands of dollars to two Saudi students in the United States who provided assistance to two of the September 11 hijackers...
The account is that of the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former U.S. spokesman for S.A. Even if the name's not familiar, you've probably seen him on the TV.
So, were they just donating money to a poor college student who duped them? Were they being blackmailed? Certainly, one would expect a special Swiss slush fund to have been used, rather than an account of someone high up. So, were they set up by someone else in their government? Or, were they intentionally sending money to terrorists, and they didn't care who found out?
In
other news:
RIYADH, 23 November 2002 — Mosques are meant only for prayers, guidance and other pious activities: they should not be misused as a political platform, imams and khatibs have been told... The minister pointed out that the order was prompted by reports of some strange preachers making unwelcome speeches at the mosques.
Malaysia did
something similar a few weeks back.
Posted at 11:55 PM
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