Veracity of Tabari's Islamic History - 11

syed-mohsin naquvi wrote:


Subject: Re: from Tabari? DID MUAWIYYAH ORDER THE CURSING OF IMAMA ALI?

If you do not like the Iranian Revolution, I have no problem there. You have your likes and dislikes and I have mine. Let us talk about the basic principles of right and wrong.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
===================================================


Dear Syed Sahab,

Disliking Khomeini and his so-called Islamic Revolution in Iran doesn't mean that I support the below mentioned acts, rather I hate these acts with extreme prejudice. It would be amazing to learn that the same Neocon Lobby who was chummy with Irani Cutthroat Ayatullahs were closer to Saudis as well and that too during Iran-Iraq War and even more amazing is the fact that they were chummy with Saddam as well.

1- King's Ransom by Seymour M. Hersh How vulnerable are the Saudi royals? 16 October 2001 [appeared in The New Yorker] Seymour Hersh is a freelance journalist.

http://www.doublestandards.org/king.html

Seymour M. Hersh, Annals of National Security, "King’s Ransom," The New Yorker, October 22, 2001, p. 35


http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/10/22/011022fa_FACT1

The New Yorker’s archives are not yet fully available online. The full text of all articles published before May, 2006, can be found in “The Complete New Yorker,” which is available for purchase on DVD and hard drive. Many New Yorker stories published since December, 2000, are available through Nexis. Individual back issues may be purchased from our customer-service department at 1-800-825-2510.

Since 1994 or earlier, the National Security Agency has been collecting electronic intercepts of conversations between members of the Saudi Arabian royal family, which is he aded by King Fahd. The intercepts depict a regime increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country's religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channelling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.

The intercepts have demonstrated to analysts that by 1996 Saudi money was supporting Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and Central Asia, and throughout the Persian Gulf region. "Ninety-six is the key year," one American intelligence official told me. "Bin Laden hooked up to all the bad guys – it's like the Grand Alliance – and had a capability for conducting large-scale operations." The Saudi regime, he said, had "gone to the dark side."

2- House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties (Hardcover)by Craig Unger (Author)

http://www.liberaloasis.com/unger.htm

http://www.amazon.com/House-Bush-Saud-Relationship-Dynasties/dp/074325337X

Interview of Craig Unger [author] on a book is an eye opener for Muslims that includes Saudis too.

Investigative journalist Craig Unger has been reporting on the connection between the Bushes and the Saudi royals since the Iran-Contra scandal broke, for publications such as The New Yorker, Esquire and Vanity Fair.

Now he has published the important book, "House of Bush, House of Saud," which explores how deeply intertwined the two dynastic families are, and how it may be hurting the war on terror.

"House of Bush, House of Saud" is the LiberalOasis Book of the Month for April '04. You can order the book here, and excerpts are available at Salon.com. Craig Unger joined LiberalOasis for an exclusive interview on March 27, 2004. The following is an edited transcript.

3- Tale of Two Saudi Diplomat's Love Affair with Neo-Cons:

Introduction of Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud [Former Saudi Diplomat in USA]

The Prince: The Secret Story of the World's Most Intriguing Royal, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan The Secret Story of the Most Intriguing Saudi Royal - Prince Bandar Bin Simpson, William ISBN: 0060899867 Hardback ReganBooks In stock (immediate despatch A portrait of one of the most enigmatic yet influential powerbrokers in America - Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. For the last two and a half decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia have had a very special relationship - through war, oil crises, and global terrorism. At a time when understanding our friends is as important as knowing our enemies, understanding Prince Bandar bin Sultan may be the key to figuring out the Saudis. As the illegitimate son of a Saudi prince and a servant girl, Prince Bandar overcame his unrecognized beginnings to rise through the ranks of the Royal Saudi Air Force. Through his work with President Carter on the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia and his vital behind-the-scenes help in getting the Panama Canal Treaty through Congress, Bandar became one of Saudi Arabia's brightest diplomatic stars - leading to his appointment as the Ambassador to the United States.

As Ambassador, Bandar worked with President Reagan and CIA Director Bill Casey to win the Cold War with Saudi petrodollars. Seemingly in the thick of some of the most important world events of the last twenty-five years, Bandar played a key role in the Iran-Contra affair; convinced President Gorbachev to withdraw the Soviet military from Afghanistan; and negotiated an end to the Iran-Iraq war among others. A Machiavellian manipulator and a master tactician on the global chessboard, Bandar has had unmatched access to the Oval Office. George H. W. Bush took The Prince and his family fishing; Nancy Reagan used him to convey messages to her husband's Cabinet; Colin Powell would drop by to play racquetball. During the Gulf War, Prince Bandar even became a de facto member of the National Security Council.

In this biography, William Simpson pulls back the curtain for the first time on the fascinating and startling life of a man of contradictions - equally at home in the royal palace in Riyadh as on the ski slopes of Aspen or playing hardball politics with international heads of state; a super-wealthy playboy yet a devoted family man; an expert in subterfuge and misdirection, yet a straight talker trusted the world over; a man of peace and yet the biggest arms dealer in the world - who emerged throughout the 1980s and '90s as one of the driving forces behind American foreign policy. [read more]

http://bookshop.blackwell.com/jsp/id/9780060899868/The_Prince_The_Secret_Story_of_the_Worlds_Most_Intriguing_Royal_.html;jsessionid=E0F35278CC6F9AF047ED486BFF13893B.bobcatp2

4- John Singlaub, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, William Casey, King Fahd:

"Many of those involved in the Reagan Administration's war against Nicaragua shared a common desire to consolidate support for right-wing guerillas... .

"Gen. John Singlaub set up committees within the World Anti-Communist League for eight different guerilla groups.... Singlaub also drafted a memo outlining a contra international of sorts with its own arms company, financed by a series of technology transfers among Israel, South Africa and China. Once this flow of technology was in place, they wrote, ;The United States then has at its disposal a large and continuous supply of Soviet technology and weapons to channel to Freedom Fighters worldwide. ... [The Singlaub memo] was later found in Oliver North s safe.

"Even the Saudis got into the act, with a proposal to establish offshore companies to serve a multiplicity of purposes. Palestinian- American businessman Sam Bamieh says he was approached by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, and at a separate time, by a member of the embassy's staff, and asked "to set up a company, an offshore company, whereby we will supply goods and services to different anti-communist movements in different parts of the world."...

"Bamieh said that the offshore company would buy the oil from Saudi Arabia - which nominally adheres to the UN oil embargo against the apartheid regime - and resell it to South Africa at a markup of 75 cents to one dollar a barrel. He said while he was discussing this with Bandar in Cannes in February 1984, Bandar sought to reassure him it was in line with U.S. policy by telling him that CIA Director Casey and King Fahd were at that very moment discussing the same topic in a yacht in the Mediterranean [Adnan Khashoggi's perhaps?]. (This was later confirmed.) Bamieh said he refused the request, even though Bandar told him such a company could make $50 to $100 million in annual profits."

Jane Hunter, "Tricontranental, " Report on the Americas, September-October 1988, p. 15.

December 19, 2000 Behind Colin Powell's Legend Powell's Iran-Contra Role

Back at the Pentagon, Colin Powell might have felt at ease in the familiar environs. But Washington was indeed about to become "Ground Zero."

Behind Colin Powell's Legend: Part Two By Robert Parry & Norman Solomon

Powell's Second Scandal

Greasing the Skids

In the next phase of the evolving Iran operation -- the direct delivery of U.S. missiles -- Powell would play an even bigger role.

http://consortiumnews.com/2000/121900a.html

http://consortiumnews.com/2000/121900b.html

http://consortiumnews.com/2000/121900c.html

Please also refer my humble comment on Pepe Escobar's forum:

VINNELL CORP, SAUDI ARABIA & IRAQ

http://forum.atimes.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=221

SAUDI US RELATIONS:

U.S.-SAUDI ARABIAN RELATIONS

Saudi Arabia's unique role in the Arab and Islamic worlds, its possession of the world's largest reserves of oil, and its strategic location make its friendship important to the United States. Diplomatic relations were established in 1933; the U.S. embassy opened in Jeddah in 1944 and moved to Riyadh in 1984. The Jeddah embassy became a U.S. consulate. Meanwhile, a U.S. consulate opened in Dhahran in 1944.

The United States and Saudi Arabia share a common concern about regional security, oil exports and imports, and sustainable development. Close consultations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have developed on international, economic, and development issues such as the Middle East peace process and shared interests in the Gulf. The continued availability of reliable sources of oil, particularly from Saudi Arabia, remains important to the prosperity of the United States as well as to Europe and Japan. Saudi Arabia is often the leading source of imported oil for the United States, providing about 20% of total U.S. crude imports and 10% of U.S. consumption. The U.S. is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner, and Saudi Arabia is the largest U.S. export market in the Middle East.

In addition to economic ties, a longstanding security relationship continues to be important in U.S.-Saudi relations. A U.S. military training mission established at Dhahran in 1953 provides training and support in the use of weapons and other security-related services to the Saudi armed forces. The United States has sold Saudi Arabia military aircraft (F-15s, AWACS, and UH-60 Blackhawks), air defense weaponry (Patriot and Hawk missiles), armored vehicles (M1A2 Abrams tanks and M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles), and other equipment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has had a long-term role in military and civilian construction activities in the Kingdom.

The Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom demonstrated U.S.-Saudi cooperation in the areas of cultural accommodation, as well as in military operations. For example, the U.S. military issued general orders prohibiting the consumption of alcohol and setting guidelines for off-duty behavior and attire. Saudi Arabia accommodated U.S. culture and its military procedures by allowing U.S. servicewomen to serve in their varied roles throughout the kingdom--a major step for a highly patriarchal society. In August 2003, following the U.S.-led war in Iraq in March and April 2003, United States withdrew its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s relations with the United States were strained after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which 15 of the suicide bombers were Saudi citizens. On May 12, suicide bombers killed 35 people, including nine Americans, in attacks at three housing compounds for Westerners in Riyadh. On November 8, terrorists attacked another compound housing foreign workers from mainly Arab countries. At least 18 people, including 5 children died in this attack, and more than 100 were injured.

Currently, Saudi Arabia is an important partner in the campaign against terrorism, providing assistance in the military, diplomatic, and financial arenas. Counterterrorism cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States increased significantly after the May 12, 2003 bombings in Riyadh.

http://www.state.gov/p/nea/ci/c2419.htm