Selling Out To Saudi Terrorists

The Nation: Saudis Fund Terrorism, But Get Military Equipment From U.S.

(The Nation)  This column was written by Robert Scheer.

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Go figure: From the White House comes the news that self-styled anti-terrorism crusader George Bush wants to sell $20 billion in high-tech military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the source of most of the financing, and fifteen of the nineteen hijackers, for the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The justification can't be that this is yet another boondoggle for the military-industrial complex — the big winner in the war on terror — so we are told instead that the Sunni-dominated Saudi kingdom needs this weaponry to withstand a future challenge from those dastardly Shiite fellows in Iran.

Yes, the very same extremists whose surrogates are now, as a consequence of the U.S. invasion, pretending to be the indigenous government of Iraq. Recall that the Shiite militants who rule Tehran, along with the Sunni nuts around Osama bin Laden, were both the sworn enemy of Saddam Hussein. Now both of those forces are the main players, according to the Bush Administration, vying for power in "liberated" Iraq, and our president is in the inane position of playing one group of fanatics against the other in the name of securing Iraq as a democratic haven.

White House officials told The New York Times that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates intend to use the occasion of their joint visit to Saudi Arabia "to press the Saudis to do more to help Iraq's Shiite-dominated government." Huh? Why in the world would the Sunnis, who control Saudi Arabia and are frightened to their bones of Shiites throughout the Gulf, be party to consolidating Shiite power in Iraq?

To complete the circle of madness, White House officials tell reporters that the hope of the latest arms sale program is that the Saudis will be so thrilled with their new weapons that they will stop funding the Sunni insurgents who are currently killing Americans. The absurdity of this position is that it makes the Saudis the big winners in the war on terror and yet expects them to cut out behavior that has played so effectively to the kingdom's advantage. The nation that was most directly responsible for spawning the original al Qaeda attacks on the U.S., and which has since helped finance the violence in Iraq, is now being rewarded with a long-sought weapons modernization package. Thus, a new generation of deadly toys finds its way into the volatile Mideast.

Embarrassing facts undermining Bush's insistence that Iraq is the key battleground in the war on terror are that al Qaeda, which was not allowed a presence in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, is now said by Bush to be behind the insurgency and that half of the foreign suicide bombers have been Saudi nationals. Why would the Saudis now move to stem the flow of terrorists across their border when Bush is rewarding them so handsomely for their past support of terrorism? After all, this administration has never demanded an accounting from the Saudis for the kingdom's support of the Taliban government when it was coddling Saudi terrorist financer Osama bin Laden. Nor has Bush's camp ordered any serious examination of just how fifteen Saudi "soldiers" were recruited, and provided with legitimate Saudi passports and American visas, to commit the mayhem for which the Iraqi people have been so severely punished.

While the $20 billion weapons package will no doubt be supported vigorously by lobbyists for a defense industry that stands to make a financial killing from the deal, it is expected to meet opposition in Congress, particularly from those who fear the impact of this new weaponry on the security of Israel. No problem — "senior officials" in the White House assured the Times that the Saudi arms package would be balanced with a $30.4 billion military aid package for Israel. Then, of course, some large amount of military "aid," to the tune of $13 billion, will also have to be extended to Egypt to keep the dictator in Cairo on board.

What a deal! The Saudis pony up billions in cash, American taxpayers come up with an amount more than twice as high to keep the Israelis and Egyptians happy, and U.S. war profiteers, Bush's most reliable core constituency group, make out like bandits. Hey, it's only money, and the only real cost might be to folks who get caught in the line of fire of those weapons in wars to come for generations. But not to worry: Most of them don't vote in U.S. elections anyway.

[Syndicate]

Some of the financing came from America and some of the terrorist have been Americans. So America is a terrorist state. Gotta love liberal logic.

[festes81]

Mr. Sheer: Thanks for the cogent article on Americans funding terrorists, terrorist governments and American war profiteers sponsored by our current gov't. administration. Too bad you and other media journalists (and I use the term loosely) haven't followed this line through out the whole pre- and post- 9/11 debacle. There was plenty of evidence such as the Saudi family in meetings with gov't reps immediately prior to the WTC attack, the Saudi air planes that were allowed to leave this country the day of the attacks when all other planes were grounded, the close link between the Cheney/Bush admin. for decades, the Cheney link of Halliburton and Saudi oil, the Saudi's funding of terrorism for decades, the shell game of arms deals between all pro-American middle east countries, and on and on and on.... But I guess you guys gotta start somewhere, sometime, Eh? What a sorry excuse for a journalistic profession you guys have proved to be. You have contributed more to the dumbing down of American society than you have to illuminate it. But once again, any education is better than no education of the American people. Gosh, thanks.
Posted by nvhorseman at 01:35 PM : Aug 01, 2007


Hopefully people will read what's been written here and many many other places and begin to piece things together and realize how much damage is being done to the world in general by this administration. Unfortunately, most people have no memory

[festes81]

Some of the financing came from America and some of the terrorist have been Americans. So America is a terrorist state. Gotta love liberal logic.
Posted by cbscrash07 at 02:32 PM : Aug 01, 2007

If you had good reading comprehension (and the rest of the fascist *** who love war propaganda), you'd see that he isn't saying America is a terrorist state. They are saying the Bush administration has a lot of curious ties to the terrorists. Too many to even think of having him as a president, but he is and we have to deal with him... thankfully not for too much longer.

[ericmichael1]

The Saudi ruling family is a direct enemy of hardcore Al Qaida and Shia terrorist groups as well.

They may not be the U.S.'s full friend, but at the very least the enemy of my enemy is my friend. For the moment.

[gretagreen]

I think we are fighting the Saudis' war in Iraq. They want to make sure that the Sunnis are in control; they do not want them to share control with the Shiite or the Kurds.

I think this is the reason our administration will not even consider partitioning Iraq. Clearly, the Iraqis are not all the same, and there are strong factions of each religious group that could not bear being governed by members of another religious group. I think some kind of partition deal could be brokered if we'd just half try.

I'd like to see peacekeepers put in so our military can leave, and negotiaters help the Iraqis come up with a partition plan.

It appears that Bush & Cheney, et al. care very much about the Saudis. I wonder why. Would I be a Bush hater to suggest the reason is greed (oil and money)?

[sskane]

?

[xzavierbrown]

Leave it to Robert Scheer to just whine his arse again..

so meaning is

we do our own dirty deeds..Scheer whines
we let other people do our dirty deeds..Scheer whine
Other do thier dirty deeds against us..Scheer whines

so what is Scheer's agenda??whinning and quotas.

[xzavierbrown]

Bottomline Mr Scheer...can we wipe out the true source of terrorism??would you write a misguiding opinion if we do wipe out the true source of terrorism?

WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION?whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat?

what is your point?

[sparks224]

"WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION?whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat?"
"what is your point?"
Posted by xzavierbrown


How about if we start by NOT selling weapons to the terrorists.

The point is that the Saudis are not our friends; they are George W and Dick Cheney%u2019s friends.

[sjc_1]

Saudi Arabia is and always has been two faced about everything. This should tell you something about the Saudi family relationship with the Bush family. It is about money and making more of it. It does not matter that the so called "friend" is two faced, they are rich and this is business!

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by sjc_1 at 04:43 PM : Aug 01, 2007
+ report abuse

****so does that mean you okay with 'invading saudi arabia'? all I hear is blame blame blame..from a liberal 2nd grade teacher all the way to a liberal DNC politician..

Hollywood already flooded the market with these 'blames'..what i am still waiting for is SOLUTIONS..(not appeasements BUT SOLUTIONS) to the problem.

[xzavierbrown]

The point is that the Saudis are not our friends; they are George W and *** Cheney%u2019s friends.



Posted by sparks224 at 04:36 PM : Aug 01, 2007


******

okay that is good..if I am going to write a book to add to several other books on the same subject..now if we can only stop exploiting the "blame" and finally do something about it.

Hey, i got my bicycle ready..are you ready?

[sparks224]

"...now if we can only stop exploiting the "blame" and finally do something about it."
Posted by xzavierbrown

Yes, let's do something about it by NOT selling weapons to the terrorists.

[wogerwabbit]

hey xzavier, I think you forgot today's prozac.

[brianp55]

No, the Saudi royal family is NOT our friends and we are not theirs, but we do need them in our corner. This has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with our economy. I really don't think this has much to do with Bush or Cheney. To them, I'm sure that Bush is simply viewed as a "useful idiot". I see nothing wrong with selling them this military hardware.

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by sparks224 at 06:03 PM : Aug 01, 2007
+ report abuse

******

so we dont sell arms to these rag heads to fight thier own mess..so it means you want us to deal with our own mess..are you ready to nuke saudi arabia??or simply just take all arabs and muslims out of this country and deport them. your choice.

you cant have one and not have another.

[hungry1968]

what i am still waiting for is SOLUTIONS..(not appeasements BUT SOLUTIONS) to the problem.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 04:50 PM : Aug 01, 2007


1. Get our troops out of harms way. They don't need to die in support of the Iraqi government that obviously could care less how the country turns out. (Evidenced by their 40 day vacation.)

2. Bring our troops home and use them to bolster security at our ports, borders, and border crossings. The intelligence and MP divisions can then also look for wanted terrorists, and if they happen upon any illegals aliens, they can then detain and deport them too.

3. Use the $2 billion a week that we're just wasting frivolously, and use it to pay for radiation scanning, x-ray, and biological detection equipment at the above mentioned ports and borders. (You know - use OUR money to protect US. That's a great idea, huh?)

4. Restore the funding for the VA hospitals and disabled veterans groups that the Bush administration cut by hundreds of millions. (So much for supporting the troops.)

5. Pass major legislation to protect Americans identities. My information was compromised last year when a person from the VA lost a laptop computer. That information could have been intercepted by anyone and our identities stolen. What would happen if a terrorist stole those identities and made millions of dollars to buy weapons?

That's a start X. And it's 10 times more than the Bush administration has done so far to date.

[hungry1968]

I see nothing wrong with selling them this military hardware.
Posted by brianp55 at 06:54 PM : Aug 01, 2007


We gave weapons to the Taliban to fight the Soviet Union. When we invaded after 9/11, they used those weapons against our troops.

We gave weapons to Iraq to fight Iran in their war. Later the USS Stark was attacked with two American provided Exocet missiles killing over 30 sailors.

We also sold arms to Iran - one of our oldest enemies - to finance the Contra's in Nicaragua. Those weapons could very well be used against our troops - RIGHT NOW - in Iraq. They will certainly be used against our troops if Bush decides to invade them.

So we'll sell them weapons today, and have them used against our own troops in 10 years.

It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me...

[gkc99]

Let's see-the "freely elected government of Iraq" is now the enemy to be brought down by Saudi financed and armed Sunni militias, with huge support from the Bushits, yet our troops are still propping up that very same Iraq government because Bushit says we must?

We run Saddam out of town, then arm the same people who backed Saddam, because the people who benefited by our running Saddam out of town are now the big worry?

This kind of internal contradiction with no apparent awareness of it is a clear symptom of insanity. Bushit and chums have got to go, and soon. Pelosi, grow a pair, would you?

[tylenol6]

Sounds like Bushite and Cheney need to make some
big bucks for themselves and their buddies by this
war profiteering. Remember, our dictatator still
dosen't have the oil iraqi law signed as a done deal
yet,since iraq is still a mess. They have to make
money some way. What a bunch of MORONS....

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by hungry1968 at 08:47 P

1. Get our troops out of harms way.
Fine by me..don%u2019t be surprised when those mullahs control those oil fields and you have to pay up the arse for your gasoline..remember don%u2019t whine.

2. Bring our troops home and use them to bolster security at our ports, borders, and border crossings.
Do you really think the ACLU would allow you to racially profile?

3. Use the $2 billion a week that we're just wasting frivolously, and use it to pay for radiation scanning, x-ray, and biological detection equipment at the above mentioned ports and borders.
Hey I agree with that 100% just don%u2019t whine when you don%u2019t get your imported stuff fast enough.
4. Restore the funding for the VA hospitals and disabled veterans groups that the Bush administration cut by hundreds of millions.
I agree with you 100%

5. Pass major legislation to protect Americans identities.
When you mention Americans, I hope you are not including terrorists who entered this country illegally with one intention and when caught do you understand the uproar from the anti-gitmo people on this one

what you suggested is nice and workable. the problem is,would your brethren allow it. There are a lot of inconvenience and sacrifice involved that pampered liberals might not bite.

[hungry1968]

what you suggested is nice and workable. the problem is,would your brethren allow it. There are a lot of inconvenience and sacrifice involved that pampered liberals might not bite.
Posted by xzavierbrown at 11:37 PM : Aug 01, 2007


Are you kidding? This is what the "left" and "liberals" have been advocating all along. While you "righties" are only concerned with shipping our troops over to Iraq to become moving targets, and our tax money over to iraq, so they can use it to fill the coffers of Haliburton, the left is worried about AMERICA - you know. OUR HOMELAND.

As far as the mullahs controlling the oil fields, we should also be using some of that $2 billion a week that were wasting on Iraq, and use it to help fund research into alternative energy sources. I know that's against you righties mantra of "anything big oil wants, big oil gets", but your methods of supporting big oil have failed. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's true. (By the way - your policies of big HMO's and big Pharmacy companies have failed too.)

"2. Do you really think the ACLU would allow you to racially profile?"
I never once said anything about racially profiling - did I. Those are your words. I'm talking about inspecting ships and freighters and their inventories entering this country, and making sure those people that depart those boats, have proper ID and are allowed to be here.

[hungry1968]

(cont.)

"3. Hey I agree with that 100% just don%u2019t whine when you don%u2019t get your imported stuff fast enough."
With 160,000 troops helping to inspect the inbound freight coming into this country, how much of a delay do you really think there would be? A couple of hours - maybe?

"5. When you mention Americans, I hope you are not including terrorists who entered this country illegally with one intention and when caught do you understand the uproar from the anti-gitmo people on this one."
If you listened to anything I said, I said use our troops, that are currently in harms way needlessly in Iraq, to help get the illegal aliens and terrorists out of this country. I'm talking about passing legislation to help AMERICANS. I know you righties think that we're supposed to dedicate all of our personnel, time, money, and resources to Iraq, but most of us on the left disagree. We think that money should be spent on OUR safety and security - not SOMEONE ELSE!!!

[kesac4650]

The author makes a pretty broad claim about Saudis financing Terror. H makes that claim without any proof or justification.
He also mentioned the 15 Saudis "on the back of the bus" on 9/11. We have tapes of bin Laden that tell us that those peole had no idea what their mission was, they were dupes until the end.
Saudi has had their own bouts with Terrorists, and have dispatched quite a few.
The weapons that we are discussing selling to Saudi Arabia are not the sort of things Terrorists could use, and the author knows that.
Once again we have an opinion writer, practicing intentional deceit for no other purpose than to get a paycheck.

[harp1963]

You know, at least Ronald Reagan could pretend he had a brain. This group of bozos we currently have just do one dumb thing after another. The only thing that we know for sure is that this group loves money and power and will do anything for more.

What a sad state our country has fallen into. The leadership we have is so despised around the world they encourage attacks against us and now we're sending high tech military arms to the nation that supports the terrorists. Not only are these losers we call our leaders motivating them to hate us, they are arming them too. George Washington must be rolling over in his grave constantly.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Fine by me..don%u2019t be surprised when those mullahs control those oil fields and you have to pay up the arse for your gasoline..remember don%u2019t whine. Posted by xzavierbrown"

So now it is no longer a "War on Terror", as Bush claimed as his reason for ordering all this death and destruction.

Its almost funny, when we posited at the start of these "wars" that Bush was lying, and all this was was nothing more an oil grab, people like yourself resorted to name calling, defending Bush with every lie, and twist of logic and fact you could think of, even advocating turning it into an anti Islam religious war.

Now you finally admit what we knew years ago, it is an illegal oil grab.

Now that we all know Bush lied, and in doing so perpetrated acts of treason, putting the lives of US soldiers into harm's way just for the sake of the profits of his oil friends, maybe now we can begin to hold him accountable.

By the way, because they dictate the pump price by manipulating the supply, you're going to pay, as you put it, "up the arse" for it anyway.

[navyretired2]

I agree with most everything you posted Hungry. We've had our tiffs here in the past but I think we basically want the exact same things, with slight differences on how we'd expect to achieve them.

Some of those things:

Bush out. (I'll add Dems out too, since I don't have faith in either...basically we need a reduction in "big party" partisan ownership)
VA care restored.
US border security.
MAJOR reductions in national debt.
Responsible government that represents the people.
Troops home!
And probably the most crucial of all, highly reduced dependency on fossil fuels.

If we as a nation were to work toward these goals, the "real" war on terror that should be taking place, would get a natural boost. I don't have faith in the current "Department of an illusion of Homeland Security."

[pepperp1]

This has got to be the brain child of that Chicken Hawk Cheney, no one else would suggest something this dumb, was it not also Cheney who armed Iraqs Hussein we can see how well http worked out Dicky.

Let uses all remember who did attack us on 911 it was a Saudi Prince named Osama and his fellow countrymen the hijackers.

[pepperp1]

This has got to be the brain child of that Chicken Hawk Cheney, no one else would suggest something this dumb, was it not also Cheney who armed Iraqs Hussein we can see how well http worked out Dicky.

Let uses all remember who did attack us on 911 it was a Saudi Prince named Osama and his fellow countrymen the hijackers.

[pepperp1]

This has got to be the brain child of that Chicken Hawk Cheney, no one else would suggest something this dumb, was it not also Cheney who armed Iraqs Hussein we can see how well http worked out Dicky.

Let uses all remember who did attack us on 911 it was a Saudi Prince named Osama and his fellow countrymen the hijackers.

[bwessels]

It is a complicated game. One of Bin Laden's primary goals is to overthrow the Saudi government. Recruiting mostly Saudis for 9/11 was a deliberate decision. Shiite Iran is building nuclear weapons: this is clearly a message to them. Hopes for a "moderate" Shiite government in Iraq are slim, but there a few good alternatives. Partitioning leaves Kurdistan, soon to battle our ally Turkey, the Sunni Triangle, a smaller terrorist state, and the Shiite south, soon controlled or conquered by Iran. This debacle has no good answer, but the Saudis are the least of our problems. I abhor this administration, but this doesn't seem like a bad move. Boosting arms to Israel and Egypt while hoping for peace there seems foolish, though.

[cozenofsky]

Go Figure? OK, I used to be confused by the Bushies until I found out about the "Project for the New American Century"(PNAC) ...the NeoCon plan, published before 9/11 and signed by Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and a host of NeoCon central players.

Here's a quote from the PNAC document (a note on what they think would speed the building of American military might): "...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event %u2013 like a new Pearl Harbor." http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

So, let's figure.... could it be that Bin Laden is in fact an agent provocateur (off payroll) ...in effect working to help the neocon plan by providing a "catastrophic and catalyzing event %u2013 like a new Pearl Harbor"?

How many seconds after Cheney heard that the first airplane had hit the WTC towers did it take for him to realize that this was the "new Pearl Harbor" that would carry through the NeoCon plan? 10 seconds? ...less? ....no fighters scambled to cover attack from the other missing airliners?

So isn't Al Queda a perfect fit for the role of agent provocateur? Who is really responsible for the total failures of 9/11?

Yeah.... go figure.

DEF- agent provocateur: a secret agent who incites suspected persons to commit illegal acts.

[tucano2]

Regan/Poindexter/North...Bush/Cheney/Rove...each of these two sets of anti-Americans transfered American-made weapons to be used eventually to kill Americans.

[catt42701]

I've believed that the Suadis were behind the terrorism for a long time but it seems that our government and administration can't see what is obvious. It's a Sunni insurgency, not Shiite, and Saudi are very rigidly Sunni.

[xzavierbrown]

Posted by cozenofsky at 11:59 AM : Aug 02, 2007
+ report abuse

*****

there is only 2 ways to get rid of this problem you just enligthened us with..

1. stop smoking crack
2. get a job

you have way too much time on your hand. most conspiracy theorists are a bunch of smoked out hippies who gets a hard on try to dig for secrets...THEN REALIZING..that they had spent so much time and effort that they became loosers who blames the govt. for all thier failures in life when they get old

[sjc_1]

Most of the hijackers in 9/11 were Saudis an now they want to sell (give) them billions of dollars in weapons. The Saudis fund one of the most radical sects that preach hatred of the west and the killing them is what is right and we give them billions of dollars on weapons. Iran is going to use this as yet another reason why they need to defend themselves with even MORE advanced weapons. The cold war was not enough for the Republican Military Industrial Complex, now they want start another escalation with the middle east and India.

[twylacrat]

The Bushes and the Bin Ladens have been in bed for generations. Look it up!