'War president'
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| Sun, 09-12-2004 - 12:26pm |
His campaign says vote Republican or die - but he lets al-Qaida off the hook
Craig Unger
Saturday September 11, 2004
The Guardian
A poll just after the Republican convention showed that 27% of the voters preferred Bush to Kerry when it came to national security. Increasingly, it is becoming clear that if Bush wins in November it will be because of the fear factor.
Yet the truth is that Bush is actually soft on terror. When it comes to going after the men who were behind 9/11 and who continue to wage a jihad against the US, Bush has repeatedly turned a blind eye to the forces behind terrorism, shielded the people who funded al-Qaida, obstructed investigations and diverted resources from the battle against it.
One key reason is the Bush-Saudi relationship, the like of which is unprecedented in US politics. Even after the success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the subject is largely taboo in the American media. Never before has a president of the US - much less two from the same family - had such close ties with another foreign power.
Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US and a powerful member of the royal family, has been a close friend of George Bush Snr for more than 20 years. Nicknamed Bandar Bush, he drops by the Bush residences in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Crawford, Texas, not to mention the White House. He and Bush senior go on hunting trips together.
Then there's the money. More than $1.4bn of financial transactions have gone from the House of Saud to corporations and institutions tied to the Bushes and their allies - largely to companies such as the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, and HarkenEnergy. So what does all that influence buy the Saudis?
Let's go to the White House on September 13 2001. Just 48 hours after 9/11, the toxic rubble at the World Trade Centre site was still ablaze. The estimated death count, later lowered significantly, was thought to be as high as 40,000.
On that afternoon, Bandar met on the Truman balcony with President Bush and the two men lit up Cohiba cigars. At the time, the White House knew that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. It knew that Osama bin Laden was Saudi. And, as the 9/11 commission concluded, it knew that Saudi Arabia was "the primary source of money for al-Qaida", which was largely funded by wealthy Saudis via Islamist charities.
President Bush was in the presence of the ambassador from the country that is the guardian of Wahhabi Islam, the fundamentalist sect which helped produce al-Qaida. This is where the war on terror and a massive investigation into the greatest crime in US history should have begun.
But, given the intimate relationship between the two families - and, of course, the fact that the Saudis help fuel America's 165m automobiles - this was not just a meeting between the president of the US and the ambassador of a country that harboured and financed terrorists. The Saudis were special.
Because Bush and Bandar were the only two people present, we do not know exactly what was said. But we do know that the president failed to join the issue of the Saudi role in terror or how to stop the funding of terrorism through Islamist charities and financial institutions.
That same afternoon, the first of 11 chartered planes began to pick up more than 140 Saudis scattered throughout the US. Saudi Arabia and the president's defenders have mounted a massive PR campaign to minimise the damage of the Saudi evacuation. But the facts in the 9/11 commission report remain unchanged. The Saudi evacuation flights were not the fantasies of conspiratorialists. They actually took place. The departures were approved by the White House and the vast majority of Saudi passengers were not interviewed by the FBI.
This was the biggest crime in US history. But, in the midst of a grave national security crisis, rather than investigating it the White House and the FBI spent their limited resources helping evacuate the Saudis.
Over the next two years, the 9/11 commission found, the Bush administration failed "to develop a strategy to counter Saudi terrorist financing". As a result, our Saudi allies were half-hearted in cooperating on terrorist financing and, the commission concluded: "the US government still has not determined with any precision how much al-Qaida raises or from whom, or how it spends its money."
Now, thanks to Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia and the Failure of America's War on Terror, a new book by Senator Bob Graham, we know that the Saudis may have played an even bigger role in 9/11 than previously reported. As a member of the Senate intelligence committee, Graham said he learned that "evidence of official Saudi support" for at least two of the 19 hijackers was "incontrovertible".
As co-chairman of the joint House-Senate panel investigating 9/11, Graham found his efforts to get to the bottom of the Saudi role in 9/11 again and again were quashed by the Bush administration. When his committee tried to subpoena a key witness who happened to be an FBI informant, the FBI refused to cooperate. "It was the only time in my senatorial experience that the FBI has refused to deliver a congressional subpoena," Graham told Salon.com in a recent interview. "The FBI wasn't acting on its own," he added, "but had been directed by the White House not to cooperate."
In the end, 27 pages of the report on the role of the Saudis in 9/11 were classified by the White House and not released to the public. According to Graham, the Bush administration may have censored the material because it did not want the public to be aware of Saudi support for the 9/11 terrorists. "There has been a long-term special relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia," he said, "and that relationship has probably reached a new high under the George W Bush administration, in part because of the long and close family relationship that the Bushes have had with the Saudi royal family."
Graham writes: "It was as if the president's loyalty lay more with Saudi Arabia than with America's safety."
If that is the case, no wonder the Bush-Cheney ticket is counting on fear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1302097,00.html

I started a thread on this subject a week ago and it garnered 1 irrelevant response from Bush's cheering section on this board. “It's pretty sad that Kerry has to call in Joe Lockhart to try to salvage his campaign.”
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-elpoliticsto&msg=3917.1
Let's see if they have something to say now about the concerns raised by Sen. Graham and others.
Have the well-documented and extensive, long standing Bush family - Saudi connections influenced investigations surrounding the 911 attacks? 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals after all.
That’s a question many would like answered, but as hard as it is for me to comprehend, it’s not been a front burner issue in this campaign yet.
As the Germans learned with Hitler, you get what you vote for, and if you refuse to recognize the writing on the wall--you deserve it!
Yes, I have noticed that even liberal media doesnot talk about Bush's ties with Saudis. Even I hesitate to think that Bush has actually ignored the hand of Saudi's in 9/11 on purpose. But as more and more evidence is brought to light, people will look at Bush for what he really is. I am not knew to politicians who are uncaring to public safety, just that American politician were not in that category.
Yep, it sure does let the air out of the baloon; a let down for all.
http://www.lebanonwire.com/0303/03031517DS.asp
Commentary
Broad Saudi reforms are on the horizon
Nawaf Obaid
Real reform is afoot in Saudi Arabia. The instability of the world after Sept. 11, 2001 has fostered unprecedented introspection and debate among the senior Saudi leadership (Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Sultan, Prince Nayef, and Prince Salman). Potential war in Iraq, skyrocketing population growth, rising unemployment and a string of assassinations and uncovered terrorist plots in the kingdom have given impetus to the royal family to take a critical look at the problems confronting their society. The preliminary result is an ambitious plan of economic, educational, and human rights reforms, to be announced, along with Cabinet changes, by early June.
The first volley in this venture will be a Cabinet shakeup. Younger, reform-oriented and Western-educated technocrats will be brought into the government, taking over key positions such as the Commerce Ministry (which will handle WTO accession in the coming years) and a newly created Information Technology Ministry. These individuals can be expected to push liberal economic policies and to favor Western-style civil institutions.
In addition to addressing issues of corruption and accountability, other major economic reforms are planned. A recent petition signed by 101 Saudi academics, economists, and lawyers called for increased transparency and efficiency in the economy. The crown prince received the group and has planned specific initiatives to address its concerns. For instance, the inefficient Post and Telegraphs Ministry will be dismantled, its telecommunications operations devolving to Saudi Telecom, a private corporation. Saudi Telecom is the first entity in 20 years to be privatized under the new Saudi privatization plan. Much more needs to be done to fully liberate the potential of the Saudi economy, but these are steps in the right direction.
The royal family has also reached a consensus with the powerful religious establishment to reform the kingdom’s education system. English will be introduced in elementary, rather than middle school, and while religion will remain a pillar of the curricula, its study will be condensed to make room for more social sciences and languages. These reforms will be made over the opposition of extremist religious groups.
While still in their infancy, plans to strengthen human rights in the kingdom are gaining momentum. Last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch was granted full access to the Saudi judicial system, including its prisons. While the report may make demands that the Saudi government will be unable to fulfill in the immediate future, the fact that it is willing to listen to outside criticism of its policies is exceptional. In any case, laws ensuring prisoners’ rights are expected soon, as is an overhaul of the kingdom’s prison facilities to conform to international norms. Also slated is a mechanism for reporting and addressing human rights abuses. A long-sought Saudi Journalists’ Association was approved last week to protect the rights of reporters in the kingdom.
Finally, the senior leadership has reached a consensus to open key economic sectors to Saudi women, including the telecommunications, transportation and service industries.
Although greater political participation is expected, major reforms on this front will not occur immediately. The Interior Ministry recently commissioned a marketing firm to poll Saudis about their primary concerns: 92 percent wanted increased economic opportunities, 87 percent desired educational reform, and 53 percent wanted women to have more rights and opportunities. Only 13 percent considered increased political rights an important change. Thus, the leadership has determined to tackle issues of political participation after economic and educational reforms gain momentum. To help the government identify concerns of its citizens in the future, it has established a permanent polling office. A law allowing private Saudi public opinion firms to operate in the kingdom is also on the agenda.
Reform has been discussed for decades in Saudi Arabia, but this time the leadership realizes that time is running out. After five months of intense debate, the senior members of the royal family have concluded that only bold reforms can ensure the kingdom a stable and prosperous place in the 21st century. If successful, these reforms will strengthen the Saudi government and put it in a better position to weather any storm that upcoming regional instability might create.
Nawaf Obaid is a Saudi oil and security analyst. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star
Copyright©Daily Star
I think the attacks within Saudi Arabia was more influential. Finally, the royal family realized their reign was in jeapordy.
I think the people of Saudi Arabia are starting to get fed up with the ruling family as well.