27 Comments

1. Rick Ballard:

“Will this hasten change in Saudi Arabia?”

It all depends on who is left standing after the traditional period of mourning and murder is completed. This explains the lingering handshake in Crawford at any rate. Prince Abdullah is going to find it difficult to gain the throne against Sultan and Naif. I wish him well in his efforts because both Sultan and Naif have contributed heavily to Arab “charities” that provided relief to the families of Palestinian “martyrs”. Put differently, they both have purchased suicide bombers.

It may be that Abdullah has already neutralized his half-brothers but we won’t know for sure until he actually claims the throne. Even then – he has to survive in order to rule.

May 27, 2005 - 8:51 pm 2. Ron Wrght:

NOPE!

Not until we have a, “Come to Jesus Meeting with the House of Saud.” They made a deal with the Devil (The Whabies) to remain in power. In exchange the House of Saud has spent billions exporting this ideology of hate, murder, and torture – Islamofascism.

They have funded and supported the spread of the radical madrassas around the world. These factories churn out new recruits faster than we can eliminate them. This is no religion as we know it.

This is a cult which programs its young people at an early age to hate all things of the West. This is no different than the cults of Jim Jones and David Koresh. Did you know that most of the suicidal car bombers of late in Iraq have been of Saudi origin?

May 27, 2005 - 9:06 pm 3. Coisty:

I just watched the BBC World Service news and there was no mention of this. Of course, one can never believe what the BBC, never mind the House of Saud, have to say about world events.

May 27, 2005 - 9:13 pm 4. Coisty:

Ron Wright – “Did you know that most of the suicidal car bombers of late in Iraq have been of Saudi origin?”

No. That’s news to me. And I’m a news junkie.

May 27, 2005 - 9:16 pm 5. Charlie (Colorado):

Assuming it is true, it won’t change much — the old boy’s been an invalid for ten years.

May 27, 2005 - 9:52 pm 6. Kevin P:

Roger;

Let me see, King Fahd is dead, there will probably be a struggle for the throne, this is the middle east, this is the home of Mecca, the most holy city in all of Islam, The house of Saud has been playing a byzantine game of balance between trying to export a radical form of Muslim religion while maintaining a relationship with the west that is one of the main targets of the doctrine they export.And oh yeah, there is a war in the region and decades old dictatorships in the region have been collapsing. In other words, I have no friggin idea what will happen. The options could go from a smooth transition where little changes to democratic reform, to a bloody civil war that could set the entire region on fire. But who wants to bet that the Jackson trial will get more coverage in the MSM.

May 27, 2005 - 10:24 pm 7. Syl:

Hasten change? What change? The more things change in the Kingdom, the more, well you know.

Municipal elections were held for the first time ever, but women were not allowed to vote.

But, never fear, to make up for not allowing women to vote the Saudi’s have now ruled that obtaining an international drivers license is forbidden to them as well. So no more sneaking across the border for joy rides.

At the main mosque in Mecca women must now be covered head to toe. That wasn’t the case just a few short years ago.

I think of all the countries in the M.E., it’s reasonable to assume the Kingdom will be the slowest to change.

Even if they manage to stem the spread of Wahhabi Islam (which I doubt will happen any time soon), I expect they will remain quite conservative.

Though, of course, the immediate future is an unknowable to us. Anything is possible and a power struggle could reduce the influence of the more vile princes. We can always hope. But hope is all we have since I doubt very much there’s much America can do about it.

May 27, 2005 - 11:32 pm 8. Ron Wrght:

Coisty,

Our blog is still down. I posted this and it took me few minutes to find it again. Assuming you consider the WaPo as a reliable source:

Martyrs’ In Iraq Mostly Saudis

Web Sites Track Suicide Bombings

By Susan B. Glasser

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page A01

[...]

Read More

Here’s another bit of trivia not common knowledge:

Terrorists’ backgrounds defy conventional wisdom

Expert: Not all al Qaeda poor, uneducated, devout

By Henry Schuster

CNN

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Posted: 11:06 AM EDT (1506 GMT)

[...]

[Marc] Sageman has emerged as something of an intellectual bomb thrower, producing a groundbreaking study about Islamic terrorists and their terror networks that challenges conventional beliefs.

His research shows that many of these terrorists — including the September 11 hijackers and other al Qaeda members — tend to be fairly well educated and affluent, and don’t come from deeply religious backgrounds.

[...]

Read More

May 27, 2005 - 11:36 pm 9. Syl:

Coisty, I don’t know the breakdown by nationality of the suicide bombers in Iraq. But the vast majority are foreign. Any Iraqi’s that have been martyred have been martyred against their will. Including a boy with Down syndrome, a cow and a dog.

May 27, 2005 - 11:40 pm 10. Syl:

Ooops. X-Posted. thanks for the link.

May 27, 2005 - 11:40 pm 11. Terrye:

I still have not seen confirmation of this but I did hear that the reason Bush took the old man’s hand had to do with the King’s unsteadiness.

Arafat dies and now this. If true it might help with a change but it seems that the Kingdom is an otherwordly place very resistant to change. In fact as Syl mentions, it seems that in some ways they have become more strident.

And I too heard that most of the suicide bombers are Saudis. When those 22 people were killed on that base in northern Iraq, their murderer was a Saudi medical student.

Yep, the Wahabis have suicide bombers and we decadent westerners have peace corps and unicef.

May 28, 2005 - 4:23 am 12. Ray:

Arab News reports that he is in the hospital and doing well. This sounds like the recent Paris hospital stay of Arafat–Dead, but doing well.

This is a good time for a run at democracy.

May 28, 2005 - 4:47 am 13. Macker:

Can anyone say the Republic of Eastern Arabia?

May 28, 2005 - 5:40 am 14. Rick Ballard:

Ray,

Current reports say he is “stable”. When you reach 65F you are very stable – for a day or two.

I’d bet he’s dead as a door nail – which means that the “strict adherents” to Islamic law are breaking it rather flagrantly. Big surprise.

May 28, 2005 - 5:51 am 15. ahem:

There will only be change if there’s an element in the Saudi royal family that’s been waiting patiently for its moment. And we don’t know that–although we can hope.

May 28, 2005 - 6:03 am 16. Rick Ballard:

Terrye,

Prince Abdullah is neither very old nor infirm. He does need’s W’s support, if he becomes king, in order to hold the throne as king with any degree of stability. I’m sure that his boot on the neck of the people will probably be lightest of the thugbrothers and I understand the necessity of dealing with such thugs but this guy is just a bit oilier and slicker than his half-brothers. He has a 10th or 11th century vision of leadership rather than an 8th century one so I guess we can call him a progressive.

Wretchard has analysis up with some quotes that are worth reading.

May 28, 2005 - 6:14 am 17. dougf:

He has a 10th or 11th century vision of leadership rather than an 8th century one so I guess we can call him a progressive.–RB

Well marginally better than the rest he may be,but advancing by 2 or even 3 centuries is not all that shabby.At that rate in another 100 years or so Saudi would be up to maybe the 1700’s.

May 28, 2005 - 6:31 am 18. PeterUK:

Reports say he is clinically dead,http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.159874842&par=0

Why do I think it is going to resemble the events around the baptismal scene in GodfatherII ?

May 28, 2005 - 6:34 am 19. Ron Wrght:

Rick and Kevin P

I agree with you. See my comment over at Wretchard’s place:

The chickens are coming home to roost for the House of Saud. The Sauds have lived high on the hog at the expense of the Saudi people.

The House of Saud made a deal with the Devil (Whabbies) to remain in power. They use this cult like religion of Islamofascism to control the people. However they are the biggest hypocrits.

Read More

May 28, 2005 - 7:13 am 20. PJ:

This will either be a good thing…or the beginning of the real war.

BTW I heard on some lifestyle show that the Saudi royals who spent a couple of weeks on a luxury yacht there left about half a million dollars for a tip to the crew. No wonder their people love them so!

May 28, 2005 - 9:21 am 21. Ron Wrght:

PJ

Spot on! They put on a game face of being pious, devout, and Allah loving. But in private and while out of the country they can party with the best of the party animals. Read some of the reports of the revelling in Monaco. Bastards!

They use the facade of a religion to control the people. When you are the authority that interprets the holy scriptures, represses any forms of alternative information, treats women as slaves and animals, use the clerics to keep the people in line lest they be branded as infidels, you have a pretty good gig going (read male dominated hegemony of the 12th Century).

Does this sound similar to Martin Luther’s day and the Protestant Reformation with the Catholic Church? The printing press put a stop to the filtering and control of information (ed., read Internet and the Blogos).

Only problem is OBL sees this hypocracy and comes gunning for you which causes your AH to pucker – you need us infidels (US) for protection.

May 28, 2005 - 11:04 am 22. David Thomson:

Is there even one outsider who clearly understands the situation? We continue receiving contradictory reports concerning King Fahdís health. I think heís probably dead and the top royals have yet to figure out how to share the power. Is this good or bad? I have no way of knowing. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

May 28, 2005 - 2:37 pm 23. Rick Ballard:

I go for the “stiffer’n board” rather than the “pining for the fjords” explanation based on the oil future markets. There are a few Saudi “princes” (proper pronunciation ellides the n as well as the e) who are not above a little speculation based on insider information.

May 28, 2005 - 2:51 pm 24. Rosemary:

That is odd. I was just saying I don’t trust USA papers, and this is why!

I read about 7 papers, and all of them had the headline, “King Fahd in Stable Condition.” Today is Saturday, right? Well, where’s the report from this so-called anonamous source??? LOL.

The Washington Times (UPI) say he’s dead. The rest say he’s in stable condition. I guess if you’re dead, you can’t get more stable than that.

Will things change? Yes. They will get worse. The Wahabbis will take over. They will not allow anything else. They were only quiet out of respect for the king.

Now what? Full out war? After all, that’s all I hear from people who do not understand the mission. Why didn’t we go after Saudi Arabia? Well, maybe now we will. I hope we don’t have to, though.

May 28, 2005 - 4:11 pm 25. Rosemary:

“anonymous”

May 28, 2005 - 4:12 pm 26. PeterUK:

My guess is that he is at somewhat lower temperature than room temperature,they have probably had to brush the frost off him when he was holding an audience.

May 28, 2005 - 4:44 pm 27. Ray:

King Fahd is dead, but feeling much better, having had an early morning meeting with Prince Abdullah, who mentioned that early elections would allow women to vote.

Prince Abdullah also suggested that young Wahabis should apply for free travel to Iraq in order to participate in the emerging democratic revolution ocurring in Iraq.

May 28, 2005 - 7:13 pm

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