By Arnaud de Borchgrave
The Saudi royal family's once-limitless capacity for self-delusion is now running on empty. The most abrupt wake up call came in recent weeks with the discovery of al-Qaida training camps in the desert near several major Saudi cities. Camouflaged as seminaries, the pseudo-clerics doubled in brass as instructors for training in both weapons and insurgency attacks.
| "Paging Doctor Frankenstein!" |
Some 600 suspected terrorists and large quantities of guns and explosives have been captured, including hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades, 2,000 sticks of dynamite, and a shoulder-launched SAM-7 anti-aircraft missile. Large sums of cash from mosque charity boxes were also seized. Camel caravans from Yemen continue to smuggle weapons across hundreds of miles of empty desert. Internal security in Saudi Arabia is entirely in the hands of members of the House of Saud. Some 7,000 princes control all the kingdom's critical nerve centers, from air force squadrons to governors palaces, so the horrifying conclusion is that the royal family is not only divided, but certain princes sympathize with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist organization.
| I am so surprised to discover such a thing! |
The Saudi Wahhabi clergy gets a hefty slice of the national budget and raises billions through the zakat, a 2.5 percent levy of income required by the Koran of all true believers. Since 1979, the Wahhabi establishment has spent an estimated $70 billion on Islamist missionary work, ranging from the funding of some 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan to the construction of thousands of mosques and seminaries and community centers all over the Muslim and Western worlds. Jihad, or holy war, against Western heathens was the fundamentalist creed.
| The princes and the holy men embarked on a campaign directed toward eventual world domination, in fact... |
Sept. 11, 2001, with 15 of the 19 suicide bombers Saudi subjects, did not raise the House of Saud out its complacent torpor.
| In fact, they thought things were going well... |
Al-Qaida's May and November 2003 bombings of housing compounds in Riyadh finally rang a general alarm throughout the House of Saud. Some 2,000 Saudi Wahhabi clerics who were known to be preaching jihad at Friday prayers were detained and warned that if they didn't cease and desist they would be put behind bars. The government has also revoked the diplomatic passports of hundreds of Wahhabi "missionaries" who traveled the world to recruit anti-U.S. radicals for their cause. The crackdown on the clergy convinced a number of younger princes that their elders were betraying Islam.
| Believing your own propaganda is always a bad move, isn't it? |
Well concealed from prying Western eyes, the ruling family is currently in the throes of its worst crisis in 71 years of existence. The founder of the dynasty, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, married 235 women and kept 660 concubines. Their pictures and particulars were enclosed in a huge gold embossed album for occasional perusal during daylong Cabinet meetings that the king had a habit of interrupting. This reporter met with the founder in 1952 (he died in 1953) and courtiers were proud to brag about the monarch's gargantuan sexual appetites, proof of great strength. The family is 24,000-strong now (including girls and wives).
| A master race within the Arab master race... |
Crown Prince Abdullah, pending the passing of King Fahd, disabled by a stroke in 1995, is acting boss. A reformist by instinct of survival, Abdullah is still limited in his ability to bring about fundamental change. He has to contend with a number of royal factions, each with their own agendas that are not necessarily reformist. Abdullah is first deputy prime minister and commander of the National Guard, which is both Praetorian Guard and internal security force.
| Abdullah is a slow mover, who's trying to keep the gains made by the underground jihad, while reining it in so that it doesn't get Soddy Arabia whacked. He's bright enough to realize that will eventually happen... |
Prince Sultan, the Defense Minister, and second in line for the throne, is second deputy prime minister and inspector general. He controls the armed forces and is also minister of Aviation and chairman of Saudia, the national airline. There are a number of other powerful constituencies, such as Prince Nayef, the Interior minister, who cannot be pushed around by Abdullah. Nayef, who said last year Israel's Mossad engineered 9/11, is the closest to the Wahhabi clergy, oversees the religious police and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. One of Nayef's ranking officials was wounded last December in an assassination attempt. Nayef rejects democratization, arguing that "holy warriors" are not attacking Saudi Arabia because of its lack of democracy. They don't believe in democracy either, he said.
| They don't believe in Saudi princes, either. As an interior minister, Nayef's an incompetent. As a cleric, I don't know how he is. But he seems more cleric than interior minister. |
The inner workings of the House of Saud are more opaque than the Kremlin during the Cold War. But Westerners who have occupied senior positions in the kingdom for a number of years and speak Arabic say the current upheaval could easily lead to internecine conflict between rival factions who cannot seem to agree on what to do about reforms. The country's standard of living has dropped precipitously from a gross domestic product per capita of $15,000 in 1980 to $9,000 now.
| That's an indication of the princes' incompetence. Standards of living in the Gulf States are considerably higher. Kuwait's per capital GDP is twice that of Soddy Arabia. My guess is that's because Soddies spend twice as much time screwing around with religion than Kuwaitis do... |
|