If the Saudis were behind 9-11 ...

[jordan179]

Then our entire foreign policy from 2001 on has been insane, as it would mean that the main threat to American national security is Saudi Arabia.  If Saudi Arabia launched a war against us on 9-11-2001, starting that war with attacking civilian targets without a declaration of war and murdering civilians taken captive on the airliners, it means

Comments

[headnoises]

Problem- there's a difference between "Saudi Arabia was behind it" and "members of the (really freaking huge) royal family donated."

It's kind of like how what's his face, the KKK congress guy-- if he was still giving support to his old club, that doesn't mean "the US supports the Klan."

We *already know* that they give (personal, in theory) money, have for ages.

Over-decade-old article about it, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/world/flow-of-saudis-cash-to-hamas-is-scrutinized.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

There's more open source stuff available, too.

****

I don't trust this sudden push for what amounts to an official, formal and public slap in the face to Saudi Arabia; it has been no secret at all that members of the royal family are doing this sort of thing, even the New York Times freaking noticed-- so who gains by making it so the Saudi gov't is forced to formally defend its filth stinking "honor"? What do we have right now with the 'polite' lies, even after Obama screwing around, that is such a big threat to someone?

[baron_waste]

I'm not sure in what sense Saudi Arabia is an “ally.”  Against what?  Russia, maybe, as against the Soviets in the past, but aside from grudgingly letting us base forces there during the Gulf War, the entente has never amounted to much.  They view the USA with contempt, as junkies for what they're pushing, and would see no reason not to act against Israel's chief enabler and most useful tool.

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The Sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a-cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a-standing
On the radiator grille

Sharif don't like it
Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah
Sharif don't like it
Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah…

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound…

I still recall the “Nuke Their Ass and Take the Gas” t-shirts once available from Paladin Press and the like; or the burly US Marine jamming a Colt .45 into an Arab's face and saying, “HOW much is the oil, now?”

[headnoises]

Who said anything about them being an ally? They're an honor culture, not a guilt culture; the official public statements matter a lot more to them, while we're supposed to be able to look at the facts without it having to be an official announcement.

Russia is as good a guess as any for why news that's OVER A DECADE OLD is suddenly being pulled up. Maybe related to Syria?
Supposedly that mess is at least partly Saudi Arabia vs Iran.
F if I know who benefits the most.

[jordan179]

If the news be true, Let Saudi Arabia be destroyed, even if the Heavens fall. I hope that some Presidential candidate runs with it, and the Saudis suffer for their perfidy.

[luagha]

The recent Panama Papers file dump about shell companies and hiding illicit money is big on other countries but has only a very few and very distant US connections. Therefore, it is posited to be a CIA file dump to mess with our enemies and give them something to deal with.

Thus, they will dump some information to mess with us and give us something to deal with.

[jordan179]

Then extradite the guilty royals and punish them harshly. Or, if the Saudis refuse extraditions, punish their whole country harshly and take their oil, forever.

As for trusting or not trusting it, any country that supported 9-11 deserves severe punishment. Every year we let such insults go unavenged is a further threat to our security.

The spectacle of the richest and most presstigious Sunni nation being brought low, wrecked by American might and then deprived of the reources to rebuild, to spend their lies amidsst the ruins of their cities mourning what they lost, would be a salutary lesson to the whole Muslim world -- mess with America at your peril.

Getting the oil for ourselves would be but icing on the cake of vengeance.

[headnoises]

If someone funding (or participating in) terror on the USA, and their country refusing to turn over those who did it, means that we should consider ourselves in full-on WWII level "at war" with a country-- then that's the majority of the countries in the middle east. And other places.

I know you probably don't have a problem with that, and honestly neither do I, but dancing around and selectively doing it at the bidding of heaven-knows-who is a bad idea. When one's enemy suddenly gives you a good reason to do what you want, it's a traaaaaap.

[sianmink]

but isn't it true that the Royals are the Kingdom?

They need to get their shit sorted. If they do nothing, it means they approve the behavior.

[allaboutweather]

Kinda like "silence is approval"?