Prince Nayef Bin Fawwaz Al Shalaan represents the next crisis between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Nayef, a member of the Saudi royal family, has been indicted in France
Whoa!
and the United States for allegedly heading one of the largest cocaine smuggling rings in the West. But Saudi Arabia has been protecting Nayef from justice and won't even discuss prosecuting the powerful prince.
He is a Royal Prince. The law is for commoners. We have nothing to discuss, move along now.
U.S. officials said after 20 years of tolerance,
read, condoning here
neither Paris nor Washington can ignore Nayef or his powerful patrons in the royal family. They said Nayef has been dealing in hard drugs since at least the early 1980s and has been using Saudi diplomatic passports and a Boeing 727 jet provided by the royal family for these sales.
The Saudis have s**t in their messkits big time on this one. They behead people for drug dealing in the MK.
What's worse is that the U.S. intelligence community believes Nayef has funneled much of the drug money to Al Qaida and other terrorist groups. Nayef's generous donations to terrorists has bought their cooperation as well as protection from prosecution by the Saudi royal family scared of confronting the huge pro-Al Qaida wing, officials said. Nayef's biggest supporter is his namesake, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz. The minister has been the point man between the royal family and Al Qaida. He has threatened Western governments not to raise the issue of the indicted prince. As a result, Nayef has been able to lead a ring of drug dealers operating in several countries in Europe, South America and North America. The ring has transported a range of drugs from South America and South Asia to Europe and the United States. "It doesn't happen without him," said Tom Raffanello, a senior investigator with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. "He is the key co-conspirator. He's the straw that stirs the drink. He made it happen."
Officials said that Nayef used his royal family jet to transport two tons of cocaine from Colombia to France. The cocaine arrived in a diplomatic container and thus avoided customs inspection. Still, several of Nayef's alleged aides have been captured and are scheduled for trial in Miami, Fla, in November. So far, the United States has declared Nayef a fugitive in violation of federal narcotics law. But Nayef has been protected by the Saudi royal family, which has thought nothing of threatening Western governments that seek to bring him to trial. Saudi Arabia does not have an extradition treaty with either France or the United States. For his part, Nayef has claimed that he was investigated by Saudi authorities and cleared of any suspicion. The prince admits to numerous trips and meetings in Europe and South America, but said his intention was to recruit investors for a deal for plastic pipes.There is a tremendous market for bongs, er irrigation piping
Nayef is no stranger to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. In 1984, the prince was indicted in Mississippi on narcotics charges. He never appeared in a U.S. court and has since been declared a fugitive in that case as well. This time, however, officials have determined that Nayef was not only lining his pockets from the drug deals but was providing Al Qaida and related terrorist groups with a significant portion of the profits. Nayef has not been indicted for terrorism in the latest case. "Later on in the investigation, we came to find out that he would use some or all of the profit to fund terrorism," Raffanello said. Had Nayef not been a powerful prince, he probably would have been dead long ago.
Not a bad idea now. He aids and abets, just like the Taliban.
Saudi law mandates beheading for drug smugglers; three convicted drug dealers were executed in the kingdom in September. But Nayef enjoys the backing of the top members of the royal family, particularly the interior minister. So, Riyad has threatened France with the cancellation of huge defense and security deals if the investigation against Nayef continues.
We will do a final examination for French vertibrae when we see how the French respond to this Saudi threat.
Officials said the threat involves an estimated $9 billion deal for the Paris-based Thales to sell a command, control, communications, computer and intelligence system to protect the borders of Saudi Arabia. The Thales proposal was to be decided by the Saudi Interior Ministry. Saudi Arabia has not threatened the United States in the same way. Instead, the Bush administration fears that U.S. pressure on Saudi Arabia to extradite or prosecute Nayef would result in the freezing of cooperation between the two countries regarding Al Qaida.
How much real cooperation are we getting now. Are we getting the answers we need, or are the Saudis throwing us bones?
For the first time ever, CIA and FBI agents have been obtaining data from the interrogations of Al Qaida operatives captured in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the intelligence exchange between the U.S. and Saudi intelligence communities has significantly expanded in 2004. But the idea that Riyad was engaged in clear support for Al Qaida terrorism could prove impossible to ignore. Several members of Congress are considering making the issue the key litmus test in Saudi-U.S. relations next year. "The Saudis swore up and down that they had nothing to do with 9/11," a congressional aide said. "If Riyad doesn't stop Nayef soon, we won't have any choice but to review our relationship."
The Saudis consider the US infidels. Lying to us is no skin off their collective fore, as Fred would say.