| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Saudis Plan to End U.S. Presence |
| 2003-02-08 |
| Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States, to enact what Saudi officials call the first significant democratic reforms at home, and to rein in the conservative clergy that has shared power in the kingdom. Senior members of the royal family say the decisions, reached in the last month, are a result of a continuing debate over Saudi Arabia's future and have not yet been publicly announced. But these princes say Crown Prince Abdullah will ask President Bush to withdraw all American armed forces from the kingdom as soon as the campaign to disarm Iraq has concluded. A spokesman for the royal family said he could not comment. Pentagon officials asked about the Saudi decisions said they had not heard of any plan so specific as a complete American withdrawal. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers involved were Saudis, members of both parties in Congress have urged broad reform in the conservative kingdom. Until Abdullah actually issues the decrees, it remains to be seen whether he will be the first son of Saudi Arabia's modern unifier, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, to undertake significant political change. The presence of foreign — especially American — forces since the Persian Gulf war of 1991 has been a contentious issue in Saudi Arabia and has spurred the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, the now disowned scion of one of the kingdom's wealthiest families, and his followers in Al Qaeda. Saudi officials said the departure of American soldiers would set the stage for an announcement that Saudis — but probably not women, at least initially — would begin electing representatives to provincial assemblies and then to a national assembly, Saudi officials said. The goal would be the gradual expansion, over six years, of democratic writ until a fully democratic national assembly emerged, a senior official said. The debate over the need for reform is described by Saudi royal family members as part of the post-Sept. 11 reckoning to head off foreign and domestic pressures that threaten the royal family and its dominion over the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula. This is something that should make the Bush team happy. Assuming the Frenchies and Germans don't manage to derail it, taking Iraq will give us a strategic presence in the area — though only marginally better than that provided by Qatar and Kuwait, at first. It should leave us independent of the Soddy oil threat. It will also get Soddy opposition to us and our heathen ways out in the open. The top-down democratization I take with a grain of salt. The process is designed to maintain the power of the princelings, and that'll maintain the power of the holy men. Without individual liberties, which they're not even thinking of, democracy's nothing but a dangerous toy. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Check out the Saudi "reformers" at www.as-sahwah.com The Wahabis jailed Sheiks al-Hawali and al-Awdah from 1994-5, after they attended Teheran's annual jihad conference. Now, Hawali lives in Mecca, while al-Awdah operates a website www.islamtoday.net on behalf of the House of Saud's notorious terror front: Al-Haramain Foundation. The Fatwas, particularly the Mufti Sahibs Haj' incitement against Islam's "enemies" ("Jews and Crusaders"),say it all. While the Wahabis use "permissible lying" (taqiyyah) to pose a pragmatic posture, there is no theological differences between al-Qaeda ut-Jihad and the House of Saud. We will either nuke Mecca, Medina and Riyadh now, or later when the Wahabis have paid for WMD programs across Islamania. In fact, later is really not an option. |
| Posted by: Anon 2003-02-08 23:58:36 |