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Arabia
Saudi princes plunder nation's wealth
2011-04-22
[Iran Press TV] Exposed documents show that thousands of relatives of Soddy Arabia's King Abdullah enjoy the monopoly of the kingdom's financial and commercial resources.

Classified evidence cited former United States Ambassador to Soddy Arabia William Wyche Fowler as saying that in the late 1990s Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud trusted Washington with secret information on the royal family's financial secrets, wrote German newspaper Die Welt.

The royal exposed the dominance of 7,000 Saudi princes on the country's oil and business enterprises.

Bin Talal, himself among the beneficiaries, is rated as the world's 26th richest person by the US business magazine Forbes.

Together with his wife and children, the 56-year-old lives in a 330-room palace in the capital, Riyadh, with walls made out of Italian alabaster.

The edifice is fitted with tennis courts, five luxurious kitchens, a movie theatre and a parking space holding 200 state-of-the-art luxury cars, namely Rolls-Royces, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and can accommodate 2,000 guests at the same time.

While a subject of criticism by Saudi clergymen and religious leaders, the royal has written columns in The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
about the implementation of reforms in the kingdom, defending the rights of women and disadvantaged people.

Soddy Arabia, the world's number one oil exporter, owns the biggest economy among the Arab nations.

The information comes out amid protests across the kingdom by the jobless, demanding their share of the country's oil-driven economy.

The protests rage despite a ban by the Interior Ministry on all kinds of demonstrations and public gatherings.
Posted by:Fred

#10  Arabs going crazy with power? I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU!
Posted by: Charles   2011-04-22 20:24  

#9  well it's not like the germans haven't had influence in the region before! Remember the nazis helped create the baath party
Posted by: chris   2011-04-22 19:51  

#8  I think you will find that the rulers of many other Muslim countries are doing the exact same thing. By right of conquest (and inheritance), sultans or emirs (or whatever) own their countries and all the subjects within. Most will dress it up with some verbal concessions to the democratic pieties of today. But the relationship of subject to sovereign isn't that much different from that which prevailed during Muhammad's era. In this respect, the primary difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia is that Iran's "princes" have only been around for 30 years.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2011-04-22 16:25  

#7  for many years now....this is a surprise?

Indeed, 746. Like so much else revealed by the stolen WikiLeaks archive, it's only a surprise to those who haven't been paying attention.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-04-22 13:16  

#6  Um, saudi princes have been running amok for many years now....this is a surprise? hello, wake up!
Posted by: 746   2011-04-22 12:22  

#5  "I bet Die Welt was fed this info by the Iranians." And thats how they roll. Remember that corrupt German that was getting money from the "oil for food" programme? And the POS UN leader who had a son also on the take? And der spegil crap media attacking Bush over taking that down?

I already bagged on the house of saud on this - it has gotten better where as their GDP to debt ratio. But I have a strong thing against Germany's media ever since then. They really want to see the Iran ultra crazy nutters win over the Sauds. They may have Merkel, but Germany is still as corrupt as hell. - they may also be going there.
Posted by: newc   2011-04-22 10:13  

#4  Well, there you go, Saudi Arabia isn't a nation. It's a royal family with territorial holdings. What part of "tribes with flags" didn't you understand, Iran Press?
Posted by: Mitch H.   2011-04-22 09:47  

#3  Not surprising there are uprisings in the middle east.
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-04-22 09:44  

#2  They're plundering our wealth too!
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-04-22 09:43  

#1  I bet Die Welt was fed this info by the Iranians.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-04-22 08:57  

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