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U.S. advisers see Saudis as enemies
Briefing at Pentagon recommends ultimatum over links to terrorism
Thomas E. Ricks The Washington Post
International Herald Tribune, Wednesday, August 7, 2002
http://www.iht.com/articles/66973.html
WASHINGTON A recent briefing given to a top Pentagon advisory board described Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States, and recommended that U.S. officials give it an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and its financial assets invested in the United States.
“The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader,” stated the explosive briefing.
It was presented July 10 to the Defense Policy Board, a group of prominent intellectuals and former senior officials who advise the Pentagon on defense policy.
“Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies,” said the briefing prepared by Laurent Murawiec, an analyst for the Rand Corporation. A talking point attached to the last of 24 briefing slides went even further, describing Saudi Arabia as “the kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent” in the Middle East.
The briefing did not represent the views of the board or official government policy, and in fact runs counter to the present stance of the U.S. government that Saudi Arabia is a major ally in the region. Yet it also represents a point of view that has growing currency within the Bush administration, especially on the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney and in the Pentagon’s civilian leadership, and among neoconservative writers and thinkers closely allied with administration policymakers.
[...]
One administration official said earlier that opinion about Saudi Arabia was changing rapidly within the U.S. government. “People used to rationalize Saudi behavior,” he said. “You don’t hear that anymore. There’s no doubt that people are recognizing reality and recognizing that Saudi Arabia is a problem.”
[...]
The decision to bring the anti-Saudi analysis before the Defense Policy Board also appears tied to the growing debate over whether to launch a U.S. military attack to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. The chairman of the board is a former Pentagon official, Richard Perle, one of the most prominent advocates in Washington of just such an invasion.
The briefing argued that removing Saddam would spur change in Saudi Arabia, which, it maintained, is the larger problem because of its role in financing and supporting radical Islamic movements.
[...]
Of the two dozen people who attended the Defense Policy Board meeting, only a former secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, spoke up to object to the anti-Saudi conclusions of the briefing, according to people who were there.
Some board members clearly agreed with Kissinger’s dismissal of the briefing and others did not. One person summarized Kissinger’s remarks as saying, “The Saudis are pro-American, they have to operate in a difficult region, and ultimately we can manage them.” Kissinger declined to comment on the meeting. He said his consulting business did not advise the Saudi government and had no clients that did large amounts of business in Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t consider Saudi Arabia to be a strategic adversary of the United States,” Kissinger said. “They are doing some things I don’t approve of, but I don’t consider them a strategic adversary.”
Other members of the board include the former vice president, Dan Quayle; two former defense secretaries, James Schlesinger and Harold Brown; two former House speakers, Newt Gingrich and Thomas Foley; and several retired senior military officers, including two former vice chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Admirals David Jeremiah and William Owens.
In the 1980s, the United States and Saudi Arabia played major roles in supporting the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, pouring billions of dollars into procuring weapons and other logistical support for the mujahidin.
At the end of the decade, the relationship became even closer when the U.S. military stationed a half-million troops on Saudi territory to repel Hussein’s invasions of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Several thousand U.S. troops have remained on Saudi soil, mainly to run air operations in the region. Their presence has been cited by Osama bin Laden as a major reason for his attacks on the United States.
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