April 17 , 2009
How Washington Sold Its Soul for Saudi Crude
The above is the subtitle of Robert Baer’s bestseller book “Sleeping With The Devil”. His earlier book “See No Evil” has been turned into the film “Syriana” that drew large crowds despite the fact that it deviated totally from the popular film formula.
Baer, who retired in December 1997 from a senior career job in the CIA, reveals in this 212-page book startling facts about the scramble for the crude and the unscrupulous conduct, selfish greed of the Saudi royals who are only marginally interested in the welfare of their people. The kingdom is seething with hatred towards the West, the U.S. in particular and the self-serving royal family. Baer is convinced that the majority of the people sympathize with Osama bin Laden and the subaltern Sheikhs have been filling his coffers with donations.
Arabia has become a haven for the Ikhwanul Muslameen, (Muslim Brothers) who were expelled from Egypt by Gamal Nasser in early fifties. Founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna of Egypt, the Ikhwan stands for the purification of Islam and ridding the oil-rich Arab countries of foreign influences. Ruthless monarchies like that of Saudia and dictatorships like that of Hafiz al Asad of Syria provided fertile ground for the Ikhwan to spread surreptitiously its tentacles throughout the Arab world. The U.S. intelligence agencies, the CIA in particular, were hardly watching closely these developments. Baer mentions the fact that Muhammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11 attackers, hailed from an area in Egypt that is thick with Ikhwan.
Baer views Ikhwan a much bigger threat to the West than Al Qaeda. “With America’s complicity, the Saudis have provided aid, shelter, and material comfort to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Incidentally, the Ikhwan has already emerged in recent elections, to the surprise of many Western watchers of the Arab world, as the chief opposition party in Egypt. It is closer now to power in that most important Arab country than it had ever been.
The objectives of Ikhwan overlap those of Al Qaeda.
Baer discloses that Saudi Arabia has transferred half a billion dollars to al Qaeda and the anti-West, anti-U.S. sentiments are expressed from pulpits in the mosques of even Mecca and Medina. A few years back I was surprised to hear such sermons in both places and couldn’t help wondering why an all-powerful government had allowed the expression of such views against America –the mainstay of the monarchy. Also, I noticed a visible decline in the standard of living of the common people than what it was a decade back. Some friends there attributed it to the Gulf War.
Baer points out that the bulk of the enormous petrodollars accruing to the royal family are plowed back into the U.S. economy through purchases of all sorts of defense equipment/‘toys’. The Saudis can’t even play with them; they can have just the pride of possession.
The crude is generating so much of money that ‘almost anyone who is anyone in Washington -from George Bush Sr. to Henry Kissinger, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney- has stuck a hand in the Saudi cookie jar.’ That makes them look the other away from the rampant corruption informing the Saudi regime.
The rage in the mosques and streets of Arabia cannot fuel yet a change in the regime. In addition to the indigenous security forces, the U.S. garrison is always there to crush all effective dissent.
The Saudi funded mosque schools, madressas, are the hot houses breeding extremists. Their suicidal forays abroad serve to divert attention from the royal family’s financial fulminations and profligacy.
Baer cites several instances in which money was squandered away in shameful ways and for petty personal pleasures.
Prima facie, the U.S.-Saudi arrangement appears to be in harmony and in mutual interest. But, Baer documents with chilling clarity how the U.S. addiction to cheap oil and the recycled petrodollars has made the authorities turn a blind eye to the Saudi culture of bribery, its abysmal human rights record, and its financial support of fundamentalist groups. It wasn’t surprising therefore that fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The rage continues to expand as the Arab street becomes aware of the manner in which the wealth of the nation is being dissipated by a bunch of leisure and pleasure loving princes.
It is not just Osama and his al Qaeda who want the royal family and the American garrisons out of the peninsula, but the indigenous Wahhabis and the Ikhwan are repeating the call. The frustration of the common man and this nexus have, in all probability, encouraged the ‘imams’, the clerics, to project themes that only add to the bitterness of the cup of the common man.
“The United States”, writes Baer. “has made a pact with the devil and was going to stick with it until the catastrophic end. As long as Sultan (Defense minister) kept buying American weapons and Armco kept banking our oil, no one in Washington cared what was happening in the Kingdom.”
True, and also true is the general recognition in the corridors of power in Washington that Saudi Arabia was “the heart that pumped our economic life blood.” The heart is becoming weak with Ben Laden calling the royal family a bunch of thieves and the U.S. their ally. The Royal family believes that money can fix any problem. The common man can be happy if he is properly fed, clothed and allowed to travel free of cost. Touched by such corrupting measures, he has grown lazy and keeps increasing his demands for government doles. Baer feels that this obnoxious arrangement catering to the greed of both parties might not be sustained for long. Sanity and logic will have to prevail and rectify the situation.
arifhussaini@hotmail.com
