SAUDI ARABIA’S JIHAD IN THE M-E AND THE WORLD. (Part VI)

6^th of 6 parts

Conclusions

In December 2006, the Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James Baker III proposed the conventional Saudi-based conception for US policy in the Middle East. This would mean the ongoing abandonment by America of both the Middle East's largest Christian population in Egypt, by single-mindedly endorsing the Washington-Cairo strategic relationship, and its most politically significant Christian population in Lebanon in favor of renewing the US-Syrian dialogue. This morally decadent policy, bereft of historical memory, draws upon Saudi lobbying, chicanery, and bribery. The end of Oriental Christianity would be tragically realized by the collaboration of the "Christian" West with the Islamic jihad. One is reminded of American policy toward the Serbian people, whereby, according to one commentator, there lurks "the cynical expectation that feeding local Muslims with the morsels of Balkan Christendom will keep the global beast at bay".³⁶ Meanwhile Christians have been expelled from Kosovo and the Saudi-financed Islamic KLA has expanded its power. As when America desisted from occupying Baghdad in the 1991 Gulf War, or when it supported the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs in the 1990s post-Yugoslavian turmoil, Saudi hands seemed to be shaping Washington's policy in Islamic-significant theatres of war.³⁷

Apparent here is the American mind-set of expediency and appeasement in dealing with Saudi Arabia. James Baker, himself a close friend of Prince Bandar and intimately involved politically and financially with the Saudis for decades, cannot exercise independent judgment in evaluating US interests. His law firm of Baker, Botts is representing the House of Saud in the financial suit filed by families of the victims of 9/11. Here is Baker defending the Saudis for a monstrous crime they were involved in against American citizens, on American soil. The moral turpitude of his position is matched by political impertinence with his report calling upon Washington to have Israel "return the Golan Heights to Syria" and agree to Palestinian refugee return. It is clear that Israeli capitulation to the Arab world, the converse of America's abandonment of the Jewish state, is seen as the key to strengthening Washington's role in the Middle East. The "Saudization" of Washington's policy could hardly be more blatant, shameful, and ultimately ineffective.³⁸

In this regard, former president Jimmy Carter was also a focus of the Saudi role in America when, for example, King Fahd granted a gift of $7.6 million to the Carter Center at Emory University. His nephew Prince Al-Walid bin-Talal gave at least $5 million. Carter, known for his support of a Palestinian homeland back in 1977 and for being extremely sympathetic to the PLO and accommodating to Hamas thereafter, while always bitterly disparaging of Israel's settlement policy in the territories, viewed the Saudis as friends and allies of the United States.³⁹

A few days before the Baker report was issued, Vice-President Richard Cheney visited King Abdullah in Riyadh. The Saudi monarch was less interested in discussing the question of Iraq, which was the primary purpose of Cheney's visit, than the stalemate on the Israeli-Palestinian track. The Saudis clearly wanted to extricate Hamas, their proxy, from international isolation and American sanctions. It is, moreover, a Saudi goal to prevent Hamas from falling completely under the influence of Iran.

Meanwhile, the Saudis portray temperance and victimization in their political rhetoric to obfuscate their authentic policy position. In October, 2006, King Abdullah stated: "We are fighting terrorism and extremism in our midst. Why would we be funding it somewhere else?"⁴⁰ The Saudis have a different definition of terrorism than some other people do. For them it is not terrorism but rather holy war and martyrdom, eliminating evil and untruth, establishing justice, cleansing Palestine of infidel Jews, fighting the crusading West. Remember: One man's freedom-fighter is another man's terrorist.

In the latter part of 2006, the Saudis were preoccupied with promoting peace with Israel, based on Abdullah's Beirut Summit plan of 2002, and cajoling Syria to do the same. These diversionary tactics, lacking permanent significance or political coherence, buttress the Saudis' political image in the United States while achieving nothing concrete for peace, Israel, or the Arab world. In the aftermath of the summer war of 2006 between Israel and Hizbullah, the United States reportedly blocked the transfer of weapons and technology to Israel. Marginalizing Israel's strategic stature was Washington's way to assuage Saudi Arabia, hoping for more cooperation from Riyadh concerning the Iraqi imbroglio.⁴¹ Meanwhile a unilateral Israeli cease-fire regarding the Gaza Strip in mid-December 2006, while Palestinian missile fire continued to rain down on the western Negev, specifically Sderot, and Ashkelon, pointed to the long-reach of Saudi influence on Middle Eastern developments.

The destruction of the West, America included, appears to be the long-term religious and strategic goal of Saudi Arabia. This can be achieved through a combination of ways: Economic, by the oil weapon (charging a price of $65 for a barrel of oil that costs $4.00 to produce) to flatten the West's industrial power; political, by penetrating Washington's Establishment and influencing its foreign policy in the Middle East; demographic, by generating Muslim population growth in Europe and America; diplomatic, by employing international bodies to strengthen Muslim and Arab forces in the world against all other countries and peoples; and military and para-military, by acquiring military capabilities, perhaps nuclear, and supporting militant struggle and terrorism against Western targets. Interestingly, the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal stated in February 2007 that his country was seeking Russian cooperation for the development of nuclear energy. While Saudi Arabia is compelled to consider Shiite Iran as a formidable religious and strategic rival, this very onerous problem has not deflected Saudi efforts to pursue the global struggle against America, its allies and friends, and the West as a whole.

In the post-October War period of 1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger intimated that America might use military force to take over the Gulf oilfields, the Saudis' included. The 1973-1974 oil embargo imposed on the United States and the danger to the industrial world as a whole evoked consideration for this policy option. Others argued that occupying the oil fields or destroying them would unleash Arab retribution of awesome proportions.⁴² But as the future unfolded, attacks struck American cities without America attacking the Arabian oil fields.

In March, 2002, with 9/11 fresh in mind, the Pentagon determined that Saudi Arabia is not an ally in the war against terrorism. Envoys from 27 countries, but not from Saudi Arabia, attended a meeting on this matter with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.⁴³ In the summer, a secret Rand Corporation briefing at the Pentagon labeled Saudi Arabia "an enemy" and recommended aggressive US actions against it. The Rand team called upon the Bush Administration to tell the Saudis to stop their rhetoric against the United States and Israel, and to dismantle its Islamic "charities". If not – and all other things considered – then America should target Saudi oil, Saudi assets in the United States, and its holy cities.⁴⁴

A change in Washington's Middle East and global political paradigm toward Saudi Arabia requires a truly monumental decision from the White House. If it comes, US policy may take actions that have been unthinkable, by and large, over the span of many decades. These could include the following measures:

1. Considering and treating Islam as an anti-American militant missionary creed.

2. Limiting and restricting the construction of mosques in America.

3. Supporting and funding Christian communities throughout the Middle East, especially in Egypt and Lebanon.

4. Planning and executing attacks against Islamic sites under special circumstances.

In addition, American support for the State of Israel, while a traditionally central feature of Washington's Middle East policies, ought to be upgraded in a public, consistent, and strategic fashion as never before.

With a new spiritual resolve and stiffened political posture, the United States could turn the tables on the Saudis both within and beyond mainland America.

Afterthought

The seventeenth-century religiously militant doctrine of Wahhabism – "perfidious, vindictive, and fanatical" as described by an English diplomat in the Persian Gulf area in the nineteenth-century – is the Islamic foundation of the Saud House and Saudi policy. The then Saud ruler declared to the Englishman: "We abominate your religion" [Christianity]. And added: "When the question is one of religion we kill everybody; but in politics we make exceptions."⁴⁵ This bold and humiliating statement conveys the spirit and thrust of Saudi Wahhabism and its agencies, appendages, and allies around the globe until today. The Saudis, having spent an estimated $87 billion from 1973 to 2002 to promote the Wahhabi da`wa (preaching and missionizing) worldwide, and $500 million for al-Qai`dah's terrorist campaign during 1992-2002, proudly demand global triumph.⁴⁶ Though admittedly astounding, and undoubtedly still incredible to many, the long-term doctrinaire Wahhabi historical perspective aspires to nothing less than the Islamicization of America itself at the very end of the road.

Knowing the enemy is the secret to thwarting and defeating him in time.

Endnotes

1	See generally Sherifa Zuhur, Saudi Arabia: Islamic Threat, Political Reform, and the Global War on Terror, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, March 2005.
2	Dore Gold, Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism, Washington: Regnery, 2003, chapter 7.
3	Rand Project Air Force, Beyond al-Qai`dah, Part 1 – The Global Jihadist Movement, 2006, p. 45.
4	Mashrek International, December 1984, p. 33. Buddhism, like Judaism and Christianity, is also a target of Islam, as when the Taliban destroyed ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, in 2001.
5	Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, London: Oxford University Press, 1969, pp. 131, 247.
6	See Copts in Egypt: A Christian Minority Under Siege, editor-in-chief Martyn Thomas and co-editor-in-chief Adly A. Youssef, Zurich: G2W V&R, 2006.
7	Robert Lacey, The Kingdom, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981, pp. 393-98.
8	John Loftus, "The Muslim Brotherhood, Nazis, and Al-Qai`dah," 4 October 2004, from <http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/>.
9	Rasha Saad, "Labyrinths of the Sect," Al-Ahram Weekly, 19-25 October 2006.
10	Magdi Khalil, "The Muslim Brotherhood and the Copts", 20 April 2006, <http://mideastoutpost.com/archives/000262.html>.
11	Etienne Sakr (Abu Arz), "From Lahore to Taif: The Saudi Role in Lebanon", Political Paper [in Arabic], 18 March 2002, 9 pages.
12	Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, NY: Atheneum, 1990, pp. 272-279.
13	Lebanese Political Journal, 16 May 2005.
14	Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, 17 July 1986 and 11 August 1986.
15	"Saudi Imam Says: Goodbye to Peace Initiatives" [in Arabic], FBIS (Foreign Broadcasting Information Service), 19 April 2002.
16	Abraham Foxman, "The Myth of Moderation", The Jerusalem Post, 18 September 1981.
17	Yehudit Barsky, Hamas – The Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine, New York: American Jewish Committee, 2006, pp. 22-24.
18	Article by Khalil Ibrahim al-Saadat in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, reported by MEMRI, dispatch no. 367, 12 April 2002.
19	Ted Thornton, "The Middle East after September 11, 2001", History of the Middle East Database, Internet; and Uriya Shavit, "Al-Qai`dah's Saudi Origins," Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2006, from <http://www.meforum.org/article/999>.
20	Judith Miller, God Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996, p. 87; Bat Ye'or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2005, p. 116.
21	Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qai`dah and the Road to 9/11, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, pp. 100-104.
22	"Saudis Continue to Fund Al-Qai`dah", MENL (Middle East Newsline), Washington, 20 March 2002; and Daniel Pipes, "Make the Saudis Pay for Terror," New York Post, 15 April 2002.
23	Ely Karmon, "Al-Qa`ida and the War on Terror after the War in Iraq", MERIA, March 2006, pp. 9-10.
24	Dan Briody, The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.
25	Remarks by Chas W. Freeman, Jr. at the Middle East Policy Council meeting of the World Affairs Council of North Carolina, 7 May 2006.
26	Rachel Ehrenfeld, "Carter's Arab Financiers", The Washington Times, 21 December 2006.
27	The Looming Tower, pp. 309, 314.
28	MEMRI, special dispatch 360, "Saudi Arabia", 27 March 2002.
29	Olivier Roy, L'Islam mondialisé, nouvelle edition, Editions de Seuil, 2004, pp. 148-154.
30	David Wurmser, "The Saudi Connection", The Weekly Standard, 20 October, 2001; and also Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, "Prison Jihad", The Weekly Standard, 12 October 2006.
31	See for example, Calev Ben-David, "Nonie Darwish isn't Afraid", The Jerusalem Post, 8 December 2006.
32	Daniel Pipes, Militant Islam Reaches America, NY: W.W. Norton, 2002.
33	David Eberhart, "Franklin Graham Takes the Stage", NewsMax Magazine, December 2006, p. 57; and Jeff Jacoby, "The Boston Mosque's Saudi Connection", The Boston Globe, 10 January 2007.
34	By Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi in 2002, and journalist Mark Steyn in 2006.
35	James E. Akins, "The New Arabia", Foreign Affairs, 70, 3, Summer 1991, pp. 36-49; and William B. Quandt, Saudi Arabia in the 1980s: Foreign Policy, Security, and Oil, Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1981, chapter 9.
36	Srdja Trifkovic, "Kosovo and the Global War on Terrorism", Chronicles Online, 3 October 2006.
37	See Raphael Israeli, From Bosnia to Kosovo: The Re-Islamization of the Balkans, Shaarei Tikva (Israel): Ariel Center for Policy Research, Policy Paper 109, 2000, p. 27.
38	Michel Gurfinkiel, USA/Rapport Sur Baker, 26 December 2006, at <http://www.michelgurfinkiel.com/articles/96-Etats-Unis-Rapport-sur-Baker.html html>.
39	Jacob Laksin, "Jimmy Carter and the Arab Lobby", <FrontPageMagazine.com>, 18 December 2006.
40	"Saudi King Abdullah Talks to Barbara Walters", ABC News 20/20, 10 October 2006.
41	MENL, Tel Aviv, 26 December 2006.
42	J.B. Kelly, Arabia, the Gulf and the West, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980, pp. 494-95.
43	MENL, Washington, 14 March 2002.
44	Larry Everest and Leonard Innes, "The Saudi Arabia Debate: US Ally or Enemy?" Z Magazine Online, volume 15, no. 12, December 2002.
45	Lewis Pelly, Report on a Journey to Riyadh, originally 1866, Cambridge – Oleander: Naples/Falcon, 1978, pp. 53, 47.
46	Rachel Ehrenfeld, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed – And How to Stop It, Expanded Edition, Chicago and LA: Bonus Books, 2005, pp. 26 and 35; also pp. 196-201.

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