Lets take a moment and place these two leaks side by side.
WikiLeaks cables portray Saudi Arabia as a cash machine for terrorists
AND
Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal on WikiLeaks
Prince Turki bin Faisal, 65, the former intelligence chief and ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Washington.
The interesting thing about all of these leaks is that sometimes a few of them can be placed side by side and we can see inside the minds of our enemies, and our so called friends.
In this case of wikileak pairs, the Saudi kingdom is tagged, as we all knew, as the major funding for terrorists:
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton.
“More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,” says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” she said.
Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
There has been some progress. This year US officials reported that al-Qaida‘s fundraising ability had “deteriorated substantially” since a government crackdown. As a result Bin Laden’s group was “in its weakest state since 9/11” in Saudi Arabia. (I want details on the “deteriorated substantially” adverbs.)
And then a member of the Saudi Royal Family says this:
Turki also called upon the United States to renew the search for Osama bin Laden, which was discontinued because of the Iraq war. “Only when bin Laden is eliminated one way or another can the US and the rest of the world declare victory. Once you can declare victory, withdrawing your troops from Afghanistan becomes legitimate.”
Only a muslim could pull that comment off with a straight face given the evidence brought forward above. Even after is revealed that the Saudi’s are the major source for funding of terrorism including al-Quaida and bin Laden, then they turn around and say that “Only when bin Laden is eliminated one way or another can the US and the rest of the world declare victory. Once you can declare victory, withdrawing your troops from Afghanistan becomes legitimate.”
With friends like the Saudis…
Tags: Finance, Osama Bin laden, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism
