Thursday, July 22, 2004

I find the information that a member of the House of Saud has helped Bin Laden to be important and explosive.  Watch the US and Arab media ignore it.  This is the first direct evidence we have of direct cooperation in recent years between at least a member of the royal family and Bin Laden.  Yet, the Report does not deviate from the history of US government support for the Saudi government.  9-11 Report, page 374: "There are signs that Saudi Arabia’s royal family is trying to build a consensus for political reform, though uncertain about how fast and how far to go.Crown Prince Abdullah wants the Kingdom to join the World Trade Organization to accelerate economic liberalization. He has embraced the Arab Human Development Report, which was highly critical of the Arab world’s political, economic, and social failings and called for greater economic and political reform. Cooperation with Saudi Arabia against Islamist terrorism is very much in the U.S. interest."  And why is Saudi membership in WTO good for the war on terrorism?