by Oui
Thu Dec 9th, 2021 at 04:24:23 PM EST
US-Saudi relations evolved around the price of a barrel of oil, interdependence and a funding of Jihadists and measures to counter Communism. The scourge of state sponsored terrorism until all hell broke loose on September 11th, 2001. The forces of evil and blow-back. Denial, obfuscation, buying PR and falsification on a grand scale. What is Truth or Untruth?
The Middle East has become an accelerator of proxy wars and settling grievances by violence. Not forgiven and not forgotten. The tribal society tries to survive by eliminating the perceived enemy. Unfortunately intellect and wealth seldom go hand in hand, perhaps to the contrary. Surplus wealth feeds corruption. Few players make foreign policy and democracy cannot renew itself to keep that same corruption outside of Parliament, Knesset or U.S. Congress.
Corruption and growth in military arms is the growth factor in economies of the 21th Century. No need to point fingers to Beijing, Moscow, Teheran, Abu Dhabi, London or New York. As long as there is an independent judicial system in place, this would be the last resort to prevent a slide back into a Banana Republic.
The continued contract signing of massive arms into the Gulf Region, the call to abide by Human Rights is quite shallow. The purse of the treasury, jobs and influence seem to win over political leaders quite easily. Recently I have written about the Middle East, JCPOA talks in Vienna, NATO push at the Eastern Front in Europe and I touched a few times on the Saudi bribery of Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
I wasn't aware of the role he played during the Reagan administration. the Iran-Contra Affair with Poindexter et al. Saudi Arabia played a key role in Afghanistan to fund the jihadists and continued in funding CIA Operations in Central America. The West and America are competing for the title of the Evil Empire. The stake in the heart of Democracy.
President George W. Bush meets with Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar bin Sultan (r), at the Bush ranch, August 27, 2002, in Crawford, Texas. Many Americans noted at the time the seeming supplicant position of their president. In 2005, King Abdullah appointed Bandar to lead the Saudi national security council.
Presidential Elections In 21st Century and Gary Webb | Oui @BooMan - Aug. 2012 |
Covert role of Saudi Arabia funding CIA Operations in Central America ... talking democracy??
The King's Messenger: Prince Bandar bin Sultan and America's Tangled Relationship with Saudi Arabia | Wilson Center - Sept. 28, 2013 | (video)
Prince Bandar, King Fahd and covert role of Saudi Arabia funding CIA Operations in Central- and South America.
The King's Messenger - excerpt
Iran/contra: The Underlying Facts
An Enemy of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
In the spring of 1988, the United States learned that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan had negotiated the purchase of medium-range ballistic missiles from Communist China in response to a U.S. suspension of arms sales to the country. Ambassador Horan received instructions to inform the King of Washington's concerns about the deal. After confirming the strongly worded message with the State Department, Horan sent word to the Royal Household.
However, he was soon told the U.S. had sent a different message to the Saudis at the same time and that the King was displeased with Horan's comments. Former Under Secretary of State Philip Habib was sent to meet with the King and resolve the conflict. Instead, the King showed his anger toward Horan in a meeting with the American officials and the Ambassador decided to leave the country.
The career diplomat was further humiliated when the State Department asked him to request Saudi approval for his predecessor to return to the ambassadorial post. The experience also made it difficult for him to serve again in the Middle East. Horan was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning in November 2000.
Saudi Arabia and the Reagan Doctrine | MERIP - Nov./Dec. 1988 |
President Reagan came to office with a bold commitment to roll back Soviet gains in the Third World without risking the trauma or cost of another Vietnam-style intervention. The "Reagan Doctrine," as his policy came to be known, ironically took its cue from Soviet support in the 1970s for leftist insurgencies in Africa and Central America. But the beneficiaries of the Reagan Doctrine were anti-communist resistance and counterrevolutionary insurgencies in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua.
Outside of the Afghanistan effort, however, the policy has never enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. Financing, arming, training and directing such movements has consistently strained the resources of the CIA and the lobbying abilities of the administration. As a result, the White House put a premium on finding foreign allies on whom it could offload some of the responsibility for these operations. Aside from sharing the burden, such an arrangement would help the administration cloak its role from both a meddling Congress and a divided American public.
Those allies, in turn, sought not only to advance their own anti-communist agenda, but also to bolster their influence in Washington by doing its bidding in the Third World. Thus Argentina's military junta organized and trained the fledgling Nicaraguan Contra movement until the Falklands War; South Africa has been the main backer of UNITA in opposition to the Marxist-oriented MPLA in Angola; and Pakistan has served as the major conduit of foreign supplies to the Afghan rebels.
In the Middle East, two regional adversaries also diverted resources to help Washington with the expectation of winning return favors. Thanks to its technical and military expertise and experience in covert operations, Israel has proven a particularly active agent of US policy in Central America, Africa and the Middle East, most notoriously in support of the Contras and the arms-for-hostage deals with Iran.
Saudi Arabia, for its part, has also made a major commitment to covert support of Reagan administration foreign policy objectives. One goal clearly was to neutralize or at least limit the power of the Israel lobby in the United States. It opened up its bank accounts to Washington, sending petrodollars to the Third World to stoke the fires of anti-communist rebellion.
US Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels | NY Times - Jan. 23, 2016 |
Syria: The story of the conflict | BBC News - March 2016 |
Bandar bin Sultan's Botched Syrian Intervention | ME Forum - Winter 2014 |
Previous diary on attack on Grand Mosque in Makkah - The Masjid Al Haram Seizure 1979.
Makkah Siege of 1979 - Turning Point in Saudi Arabia
Pleasantly surprised by a four parts documentary on the history of the Middle East on Dutch television. Instead of the usual political propaganda, some excellent Arabists to narrate the story of Abdul Nasser from the Suez Crisis of 1956 - the War with Israel in 1967 up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979).
During the secular leadership of Nasser in Egypt during the 1950s, his effort to create equality for the masses through a Arab socialism with land reform got him much praise. Nasser gave people hope of independence from foreign influence. President Dwight Eisenhower played an important role during the Suez Crisis to make clear to the British and French that the era of their empires ended after World War II.
My diaries ...
Major Policy Shift On Saudi Relations and MbS
The Butcher of Christians and Shiites Speaks Out
Call by President Joe Biden to all nations across the World to unite as true democracy ... the shmuck or arrogance of it!
Global Views of Biden's Democracy Summit | Carnegie Endowment |
The upcoming Summit for Democracy is an opportunity for the United States to help galvanize commitments to democratic values in many countries where democracy is struggling. Equally important, the summit could allow the United States to demonstrate its own commitment to democracy after the norm-breaking presidency of Donald Trump and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
However, the Biden administration has not been able to stem the emergence of antidemocratic forces in the United States. In the backdrop of this week's summit, the country faces a continuing assault on its own democratic institutions. Nineteen states have passed laws that will make it more difficult for Americans to vote. Other efforts abound to subvert election results through partisan election administration. One October 2021 poll found that 52 percent of Americans believe that U.S. democracy is under "major threat." Can the summit help to build Americans' confidence in the durability and resilience of U.S. democracy?
Pakistan to skip US Summit on Democracy | Pakistan Today |
Call by Joe Biden to avoid meeting at the Beijing Olympic Games ...
