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Arabia
The Saudi Connection
2003-12-07
What’s "The root cause of Islamic Terrorism?"
Here’s the answer. Ten pages, so link and read it all

...
Starting in the late 1980s--after the dual shocks of the Iranian revolution and the Soviet war in Afghanistan--Saudi Arabia’s quasi-official charities became the primary source of funds for the fast-growing jihad movement. In some 20 countries, the money was used to run paramilitary training camps, purchase weapons, and recruit new members.

The charities were part of an extraordinary $70 billion Saudi campaign to spread their fundamentalist Wahhabi sect worldwide. The money helped lay the foundation for hundreds of radical mosques, schools, and Islamic centers that have acted as support networks for the jihad movement, officials say.

U.S. intelligence officials knew about Saudi Arabia’s role in funding terrorism by 1996, yet for years Washington did almost nothing to stop it. Examining the Saudi role in terrorism, a senior intelligence analyst says, was "virtually taboo." Even after the embassy bombings in Africa, moves by counterterrorism officials to act against the Saudis were repeatedly rebuffed by senior staff at the State Department and elsewhere who felt that other foreign policy interests outweighed fighting terrorism.
Posted by:tipper.

#15  omigawd .com you've got to be as old as I am.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-7 10:49:34 PM  

#14  B - add three more words and I'll agree: in 20 years.

KathyK - Okay, I agree with your point, but stick with the statement that there'll be plenty of time later for stringing up our Vichyists. The Wilson affair is a classic example of internal infighting and policy subversion - someone should pay with his career for that stunt. As for Plame, old Joe has really become a carnival barker and she's become Gypsy Rose Lee. Truly a craven and lewd performance by both - not to mention disingenuous and dishonest.

AP - Amen. To all of your comments.

OP - And I'm sorry I didn't acknowledge your points - you're right. The Int'l version of stringing them up is important work, too. Can you see an eventual multilateralist role in administering the assets seized? I'm 100% certain that, once they realize what we must do and that we have the will to do it, they'll immediately hop on-board. Not for the oil, nooooo, but because we will need their guidance. We are but poor cowboys and have, only lately, come to understand that imperial designs can be so, uh, good for the world. Yeah, that's the ticket. "Yes. We, too, want peace piece - of the province."
Posted by: .com   2003-12-7 9:53:33 PM  

#13  three words and the WOT is over: fuel cell technology.
Posted by: B   2003-12-7 6:52:04 PM  

#12  .com is right. I need to get into the whole article, but winning the WoT goes in choking off the resources that feeds the terrorists, and that resource is money and the money flows through Saudi Arabia and Iran. If we put our collective wills to it, we could squash them like bugs in a year.

That said, there is something else we need to do, and that is to look inside ourselves with some introspection to see how we collectively let this cancer grow under our very noses for years. The 1973 oil embargo was a wakeup call, but we elected not to wake up. And I mean not just the US but Europe, too. And the rest of the world. Having our human heads up our collective asses is going to get more and more expensive every year, every month.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-12-7 4:07:01 PM  

#11  .com has it exactly right -- much as the gummint whacked Al Capone on tax evasion, not murder, we need to whack the Wahabbis by taking their money, not their lives. Denying the former makes the latter worthless.
Posted by: Steve White   2003-12-7 3:29:45 PM  

#10  .com,
Not a matter of 'blame game'as much as being able to more effectively counteract our fifth column types by pointing out their backers.
For instance, Joseph Wilson (of yellowcake and Plame fame) works for the Saudi-funded Middle East Institute. That doesn't necessarily discredit anything he says but might make someone at least wonder at some of his motives.
Posted by: Kathy K   2003-12-7 2:30:34 PM  

#9  OP (everyone) - look at this map. You can ignore all of the other natural resources of SA (CIA Fact Book backs me up) cuz it's oil that provides all the money.

Saudi Arabia Resources and Processing Map

Without money, it all dies - Wahhabism support of all types and from all sources. Think it through. No fat job for Joe Avg Saudi = no zakat. If you're a Royal, will you continue to donate to your favorite turban when you know there is no more coming? What is in the bank today is all there will ever be? Will you turn over investment-level sums of cash to your favorite turban so he can run jihad off the interest - knowing that your nest-egg could be frozen any time the Swiss (or whomever) get enough pressure or the urge to cooperate?

I've been through this over and over for some time now - it's much simpler than you think.
Posted by: .com   2003-12-7 1:23:22 PM  

#8  It's not just taking out the Eastern Province. We have to destroy Wahabism - totally, completely, irreversibly. That requires bringing down the House of Saud, doing some SERIOUS house-cleaning in the mosques and madrassas, and doing some deep pummeling of those that try to stop us - including the Phrench and their complicit partners. That, and that alone, will allow us to live in peace for another few years, until the NEXT asshat with a plan to rule the world steps up.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-12-7 1:07:03 PM  

#7  Read the whole thing before you scream...

Yup. Focus on the blame game, folks. Form a coupla dozen committees and root them out. Beat that symptom bloody. Great sport. Get it out of your systems. Filling, yes, but ultimately unsatisfying because the problem is still there.

Barry - you have a hard-on for Baker. Fine. Indulge yourself - just remember you are actually wasting time. I understand the feeling - the urge, but there'll be plenty of time later for stringing 'em up. If you just gotta party, okay, but keep the real target in mind... and set your alarm clock for an early start tomorrow.

Back on-target: stop the money and you stop 90% of everything else. Start saying the unsayable. Get Un-PC. Get hardass with Congress and Dubya. Gut State - they are our institutional hurdle.

Get a woodie for taking the oil, the funding source, away from the asshats. Think about it - nothing else will work. They didn't create it. It's just ugly serendipity. Get hardcore and prepare yourself and those around you for what has to be done.

In the end, when all the shouting is over, you know this is what we'll have to do. Let's get past that and do it. :-}
Posted by: .com   2003-12-7 11:42:26 AM  

#6  Well, James Baker and many who work for his firm lobby for the Saudis.
What about the ex-ambassadors to SA? They have a nice pension i'm led to believe. Didn't dhimmi Carter write Arafat's op-ed piece that appeared in the NYT some time ago? So now we have an idea where some of that money went.
Posted by: Barry   2003-12-7 10:59:09 AM  

#5  Mark, it might be possible to get some of that list via public domain info. Hmmm... I think I'll look around.
Posted by: Kathy K   2003-12-7 10:41:52 AM  

#4  I'm writing to US NEWS & World to suggest they publish the names of each and every former memeber of the US gov't who has in any way shape or form taken money from or otherwise gone onto the Saudi payroll since leaving their gov't job. I want to know the names of all the Americans who were effectively paid to look the other way while the House of Saud and the Islamic "charities" paved the way for Osama and his ilk. I think the result will be biparitsan: Dems and Pubs will be implicated and exposed as whores. As well they should be.
Posted by: Mark   2003-12-7 10:15:48 AM  

#3  This is like a lite version of the missing 80 pages... with enough repetition and circulation it will eventually become obvious, even to Geo41, that the real key, cutting to the bone in one swing of the scimitar, is to take their money-maker away from them: the Eastern Province. I've written about this more than a few times - twice very recently - and no one ever bites. *sniff, sniff* The mental exercise of the ramifications is pretty engaging - or so I thought - and it doesn't get much simpler nor more obvious, IMO. Must be my breath. ;->
Posted by: .com   2003-12-7 9:06:38 AM  

#2  ... and this is why the Kissinger doctrine is dead.
Posted by: Dishman   2003-12-7 3:36:15 AM  

#1  Again, Tipper goes for the throat. Read it, it takes about a 1/2 hr. Everything you thought you knew about our SA buds brought to light. But nothing you don't already suspect.

.com, your calls on 43 to dis 41 ring true.
Posted by: Lucky   2003-12-7 2:52:38 AM  

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