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Reporting and Analysis
The
U.S.
- Saudi Relationship and al-Qaida's
Attack in Riyadh
Adel al-Jubeir, Foreign Policy Advisor to Crown
Prince Abdullah Speaks
On May 16, 2003 Saudi ruler, Crown Prince
Abdullah's Foreign Policy
Adviser, Adel al-Jubeir, spoke at length to the
assembled U.S.
media
representatives at the Saudi embassy in
Washington, DC. He made important
points about the relationship between the U.S.
and the Saudi government in
great detail. He was well dressed in suit and
tie, spoke good English with a
slight accent, and used idiom familiar to
Americans.
Owing to criticism of Saudi Arabia in the
U.S.
media,
particularly
after the attack in Riyadh, al-Jubeir disclosed
information which Saudi
officials do not usually reveal about the
Saudi-U.S. relationship.
Al-Jubeir's presentation, followed by
questions and answers, was
telecast live and uncut on
C-Span
and then
repeated twice later in the day.
Here are the main points:
1. A solid military relationship exists between
the U.S. and the Saudi
Arabian regime
2. The U.S. and the Saudis share intelligence and
access to suspects.
3. CIA
Director Tenet is fully satisfied with the
Saudi cooperation with the
U.S. in both intelligence and access to suspects.
4. There is TOTAL cooperation between the U.S.
and the Saudis against
"terrorism,"
5. An average of a DOZEN communications take
place every day between the two
regarding intelligence on terrorism.
6. Both the Saudis and the U.S. are the targets
of "terrorism."
7. The last month alone, the Saudis have
questioned "thousands" of suspects,
have HUNDREDS of people in detention, and of
these one hundred have been put
on trial.
8. The Saudi government froze Osama bin Laden's
assets in the ‘90s and since
9.11
numerous bank accounts of "suspects" have
been frozen.
9. Al-Qaida is challenging the LEGITIMACY of the
Saudi regime. It is an
"existential" struggle. The Saudi regime is on
the side of "modernity,"
"innovation" and "education" while al-Qaida wants
to take people back to the
"dark ages."
10. Al-Qaida is not a conventional organization;
it's a mind set with
clusters of cells working autonomously.
11. The common link between the "terrorists" who
are carrying out the attacks
is
"AFGHANISTAN
-
CHECHNYA
- BOSNIA."
12. We [here al-Jubeir identified the Saudi mind
set] "as Arabs and as
bedouins" cannot tolerate attacks on our
"guests."
13. President Saleh of Yemen deserves great
praise for his complete
cooperation in the
war against "terrorism."
14. We are carrying out "modernization" projects
and will even hold
"elections" if necessary to increase
participation in our system
15. Saudi government is giving funds to "Islamic
charities" in the U.S. There
is nothing wrong here because these are
"legitimate."
16. The case of Mr. Faqihi, the Saudi accountant
in Berlin, has been
overblown. [He answered this in detail.] He had
just given a couple of
hundred dollars for a fast breaking ceremony and
his business card was found
with someone who was a suspect in Germany.
17. In our religion, to kill one person, it is as
if one killed all of
humanity; hence we are against
terrorism.
[Other than the word "terrorists," the words
within quotation marks are Mr.
Jubeir's.]
ANALYSIS by the Editor
What Mr. Al-Jubeir left out of his
presentation is probably more
important than what he said. He did not point out
that in ISLAM there IS NO
MONARCHY. Only Caliphate based on the people's
consultation and consent is
permitted. Hence, Islamically the Saudi regime is
illegitimate.
Arabia should not be called "Saudi Arabia."
In Islam, the land belongs
to Allah and the Saudi family has no right to
name the land of the Prophet's
(pbuh) birth after its family name. Inheritance
of power from father to son
or other relatives (hereditary rule) is strictly
forbidden in Islam and
Muslim history is the history of the people
trying to overthrow such rule.
The Saudi monarchy has squandered the
wealth of Arabia: Much of it is
now in Chase Manhattan Bank. This use of the
people's wealth as if it belongs
to the family of Saud is in direct violation of
the Qur'an,
the Hadith
and
the example of the
Sahaba
(companions of the
Prophet).
Mr. Jubeir admitted that U.S. troops had
come to Arabia at the
invitation of the Saudis. Again, this makes the
regime illegitimate because
the Qur'an has forbidden such presence in the
land of the Prophet (pbuh).
Most observers agree that the Riyadh
attack was a well planned attack
meant to show two things:
1. That there is an integral military
alliance between the U.S. and the
Saudis. The targets were the people who make the
Saudi security apparatus
viable and capable of crushing the uprising of
the Arabian people.
2. That the Saudi government, given the
choice between Islam and
America, will choose America.
CAN Al-QAIDA SUCCEED IN TOPPLING the
SAUDIS through SUCH ATTACKS?
Where the attackers and the oppressed
majority share the same faith and
aspirations, there is a chance that "terrorism"
can be effective. But in the
case of Al-Qaida, it might not work.
In modern times, "terrorism" was
effectively used first by the
guerrillas of Mao Tse Dong. For instance, Mao
knew that the villagers of
China were terrified of the power of landlords.
The villagers thought that
the landlords were so well-armed and powerful
that the situation could never
change. [Often the way out for such villagers was
to take opium and drop out
of any efforts at change.]
Mao took some drastic measures. His forces
struck suddenly at a number
of villages, captured the main landlords in a few
villages and strung them up
in the village square. Thus the mind set the
villagers had about the
invincibility of the landlords was shattered and
a general uprising began.
The people could see the "super" men hanging in
the village square.
Al-Qaida seems to be giving the same kind of
treatment to the symbols of
American power. The difference is that America's
power is much more than that
of any landlord. Al-Qaida has to sacrifice its
best fighters to be able to
get to the Americans and then seldom succeeds.
There is ANOTHER REASON WHY al-Qaida CANNOT
succeed at this stage. The
U.S. has planted well armed LOCAL MERCENARY
FORCES within each country it
controls. The financial and socio-economic
interests of these local forces
are the same as those of the U.S. power
structure. Thus they see any attack
on American interests as an attack on themselves.
As Mr. Adel Al-Jubeir said
so eloquently about the U.S.-Saudi regime
relationship:
"We are ONE. We are IN THE SAME BOAT ...."
"We will fight them whatever
the cost...."
The problem Al-Qaida faces is that the
Muslim masses, though fired up
against America, owing to
Palestine,
Afghanistan,
Iraq,
are basically
PEACEFUL people. In Saudi Arabia, they will make
hot speeches or their
leaders will give fatwas. In PAKISTAN they will
come out on the streets and
demonstrate. If the masses come out strongly
against the rulers, the local
mercenary forces will crush them, AS HAPPENED IN
ALGERIA EVEN AFTER THE
ISLAMISTS HAD WON THE ELECTIONS.
The Muslim MASSES are UNARMED and
PEACEFUL. The rulers are HEAVILY
armed. Hence an al-Qaida attack cannot lead to an
uprising of the people.
Al-Qaida's role seems to be to remove the
FEAR and AWE of America from
the hearts of the Muslim masses. Its attacks also
make the Muslim masses
aware of their HELPLESSNESS. That is a painful
kind of awakening but it is an
awakening. The Muslims masses are beginning to
realize that they can
demonstrate PEACEFULLY in their MILLIONS from
Morocco to
Sudan,
to Pakistan,
to Bangladesh to
Indonesia,
but peaceful means
could not (and did not) avert
an attack on Iraq.
Earlier Afghanistan was bombed during
Ramadan
and
the masses of the Muslim
world could only watch in horror. Is it
surprising that most Muslims rejoiced
on learning that Osama bin Laden (probably)
survived the horrific bombing of
Tora Bora, the like of which the world has never
seen, numerous
atom-bomb-like explosions dotting the Islamic
land.
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2003-05-17 Sat 13:28ct