December
30 , 2005
How Washington
Sold Its Soul for Saudi Crude
The above is the subtitle of
Robert Baer’s book “Sleeping With The
Devil”, ranked as bestseller by the New York
Times. His earlier bestseller “See No Evil”
has been made into the film “Syriana”,
which is drawing large crowds these days despite
the fact that it deviates from the usual film formulae.
I had reviewed that film in these columns a couple
of weeks back.
Baer, who retired in December 1997 from a senior
career post 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 US 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 1954. Founded in 1928 by Hassan
al-Banna of Egypt, the Ikhwan stands for the purification
of Islam and for 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 US intelligence agencies, the
CIA in particular, were hardly watching closely
these developments, Baer regrets, and mentions the
fact that Muhammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11
attackers, hailed from a neighborhood in Cairo that
is thick with Ikhwan.
Baer views Ikhwan as the real threat to the West.
“With America’s complicity, the Saudis
have provided aid, shelter, and material comfort
to the 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 the
most important Arab country than it had ever been.
The objectives of Ikhwan overlap those of Al Qaeda.
“The press kept calling the 9/11 attackers
Al Qaeda, thanks to Osama bin Laden’s relentless
publicity machine, but they were Muslim Brothers
through and through”.
Baer discloses that Saudi Arabia has transferred
half a billion dollars to al Qaeda. Anti-West, anti-US
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 financial liability of Saudia in the Gulf
War.)
Baer points out that the bulk of the enormous petrodollars
accruing to the royal family are plowed back into
the US 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 of the Saudi regime.
The rage in the mosques and streets of Arabia cannot
fuel yet a change in the regime, contends Baer.
In addition to the indigenous security forces, the
US 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 US-Saudi arrangement appears to
be in harmony and in mutual interest. But, Baer
documents with chilling clarity how the US 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 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 frustrations of the
common man and this nexus have, in all probability,
encouraged the imams to preach hatred.
“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 Aramco 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
Bin Laden calling the royal family a bunch of thieves
and the US their ally. The US has encouraged Saudi
royals to run a kleptocracy. 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 – all free of cost. Touched by such
corruptive measures, he has grown lazy and keeps
increasing his demands for government doles.
The House of Saud, Baer maintains, is headed towards
dissolution. “An invasion and a revolution
might be the only things that can save the industrial
West from a prolonged, wrenching depression”,
concludes Baer.
- arifhussaini@hotmail.com (714)921-9634
