Francis Report 11-02

Dave Francis

Saudi Arabia continues to look like a bad bet. Morally, it is impossible to side with these guys. We back them for the oil, and that may have been a good idea, who knows? No matter. There is no changing the past, but the US commitment to the Saudi's, and the Saudi royal family needs serious re-examination. Now, this is one of bin Ladin's goals, and I don't want to do anything to even appear to reward this guy, so maybe our relationship with Saudi Arabia will need to be cooled over time, but the US has been too good a friend to this regime for too long a time.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto leader of the Saudi royal family has said, "US and Saudi relations are at a crossroads." In a letter to President Bush, he wrote, ""a time comes when peoples and nations part" and that "it is time for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to look at their separate interests."

It is time to take him up on his offer. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the Saudi's have been blocking our ability to get the job done militarily. There is a high tech base in Riyadh, that we built and use to defend the Saudi's against attack, but they refuse to allow us to use it in our war against Afghanistan.

To date, more than 80 countries have blocked assets of suspected terrorists. The Saudis have refused to cooperate.

According to intelligence sources, 1996 was a key year in Saudi Arabia. Since then, the Saudi Royal family has been more and more distant from the US, and has been appeasing the radical fundamentalists in an attempt to buy them off. One intelligence officer is quoted as saying that," .since 1996, the Saudi's have gone over to the dark side."

There is at the time, a bitter power struggle within the Saudi Royal family to replace King Fahd, the head of the family. The King is ill, and since a stroke in 1995 has been almost totally incapacitated. Crown Prince Abdullah, the Kings brother is the most likely successor, and he is no friend to the US.

The House of Saud has major problems at home. They have largely squandered the incredible wealth provided by the kingdoms oil, and the locals are angry. More than half the population is under 18, uneducated and unemployed.

The country is run by thousands of princes of the royal family, and adheres to a strict form of Islam, Wahhabism. The royals largely ignore the rules however, and are frequently seen in Monaco, Paris, and other party spots, drinking and whoring like Texas cowboys. The cynicism and disaffectation of the royals is startling, if you are familiar with the normal life of a Saudi subject. In an interview with Frontline, broadcast on October 9th, Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US since 1983, replied to a question about corruption by saying, ""If you tell me that building this whole country . . . we misused or got corrupted with fifty billion, I'll tell you, 'Yes.'. . . So what? We did not invent corruption, nor did those dissidents, who are so genius, discover it."

Besides greed and avarice, the Saudi government is also typified by just plain ugliness. In a report issued recently, it was reported that "Customs officials routinely open mail and shipments to search for contraband, including non-Muslim materials, such as Bibles and religious videotapes. In certain areas, both the Mutawwa'in (religious police) and religious vigilantes acting on their own harassed, assaulted, and detained citizens and foreigners."

In December 2000, authorities broke up a private Christian worship service of 12 Filipino citizens, arrested 6 of the Filipinos, and detained 3 of those arrested for nearly 2 months. On April 20, a Christian man reportedly was stopped at a routine police checkpoint while driving a woman from a Christian service. After discovering religious materials in the car, the police detained the man.

It isn't just Christians that are suffering either. The Saudis are Sunni Muslims, of the Wahhabi sect, and theirs is the only kind of Islam they respect and protect. Muslims from other sects fall under the heel of the Mutawwa'in also. Groups such as the Shi'a minority find themselves imprisoned and discouraged from practicing their religion by the government. The numbers aren't available, because the Saudis simply won't tell, so we have no statistical data on the state of the Shi'a minority.

There is also a bit of old fashioned witchcraft at work. A published report about religious freedoms in the kingdom says, "Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced, often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles; however, under Shari'a, (Islamic law) the practice of magic is regarded as the worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is accepted and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," including the practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving physical harm or apostasy. "

One of the most terrible things in Saudi Arabia is the justice system. We have all heard about speedy trials, with swift execution, and I mean execution, of the guilty, and a lot of us have nodded our heads in, if not agreement, some sort of longing satisfaction that somewhere the appeals process seems to be under control. One thing is disturbing though. I think even the most fervent supporters of the death penalty are in favor of a fair trial, and Saudi Arabia has a bit of a different standard than ours. See, Islamic, religious courts rule them, and their courts rules of evidence are different than ours. In Saudi Arabia, if you aren't a Muslim, in good standing, your testimony isn't considered in the evidence. That means if you are accused, and can prove you were in another place when the crime happened, you can testify, but they don't pay attention to your testimony. On the other hand, if a non-Muslim is the accuser, your accusation isn't considered. Distributing the Bible is a criminal offense, with the possibility of punishments including the death penalty.

Under their system, the testimony of women is considered less worthy than that of a man. The testimony of one man is considered equal to that of two women. In the case of a divorce, the father gets the children after the age of 7 for a boy, and 9 for a girl. If the father is deceased, the father's family gets them. The mother has no rights.

American interests are at best, temporarily served by such a regime. It is crucial to the world economy to have a stable price of oil, but if that stability is built on the shifting sands of Saudi Arabia, that stability is illusory. Some estimates say the price of oil could quadruple if there was a disruption in the government in Saudi Arabia, and that worst-case scenario may be true. If it is true, an ostrich-like policy of sticking our head in the sand is not a good idea. Better to confront the problem, solve it, and get on with life than to wait for the inevitable crisis.

Algeria keeps coming up in reports. Al Qaeda has active, successful recruitment all over the country, and the government isn't particularly able to weed them out.

Lotfi Raissi, 27, an Algerian pilot is wanted on a U.S. warrant for providing false information on an application for a pilot's license and failing to disclose a 1993 criminal conviction in Britain for theft. The real reason he is wanted in the US is because flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix on June 23 with one of the hijackers, Hani Hanjour. Raissi is being held in Belmarsh Prison in London, while extradition proceedings continue against him. He has not been formally charged with a crime, and denies any ties to terrorism. The United States has until Raissi's next court appearance, scheduled for Nov. 27, to present it's extradition case against him.

Two other Algerians also will be appearing in court that day in England. Thirty six year old Amar Makhlulif, also known as Abu Doha, is wanted by the United States in connection with the millennium plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport. The other, Mustapha Labsi, 32, is wanted in France because of an attack on a police station in 1996.

In Bosnia, six Algerians are still under arrest in an investigation by the Supreme Court there. They are suspected of being involved in terrorist planning against the west. At least one has direct links to al Qaeda.

Another Algerian, Ahmed Rassam was arrested while trying to bring explosives to the US from Canada. The four devices he carried were made with what was probably home made nitroglycerine, and identical in makeup to the device used to attack the World Trade Center in the first attempt. While searching Rassam's apartment in Montreal, Canadian authorities found a map of Southern California, with three airports circled in ink.

Rassam arrived in Montreal on February 20, 1994 with a fake French passport, but was allowed into Canada when he claimed refugee status. Eleven days later, he was drawing a welfare check from the Canadian government. In June, 1995, Rassam missed his refugee status hearing in Canadian immigration court, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was picked up in August, but released with the promise that he would meet with immigration officials monthly.

In Quebec, no background check is done to issue a passport, and you can acquire one with only a baptismal certificate as identification. This is the kind of thing that terrorists use to exploit the system. Rassam forged a certificate in the name of Benni Norris. It was as Norris that he planned to escape after the bombing. He had a ticket in his possession for a flight to Chicago, then to New York, then on to London. That plan was foiled by his arrest in December of 1999 coming into America with the explosives. He was convicted in federal court, and is facing a possible 130 years in prison. His sentencing is set for early 2002.

A little reported fact in the US is that the Algerians have based themselves in Montreal, a city that shares their native language of French, and has easy access to the USA. There is a very active Algerian wing of Al Qaeda in Montreal, and the RCMP has been working feverishly to dismantle it.

The Algerians aren't the only terrorists that like Canada. Due to proximity to the USA and an incredible lack of Security, Canada has "become home to the largest number of terrorists in the world." according to one Canadian official. Ben Wattenberg, of the American Enterprise Institute characterized it this way, "Canada has become a haven and a jumping-off point for terrorists with America in their bombsights."

Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Times that Pakistan is supplying the Taliban with weapons. The supplies move across the border in trucks, at night, and find their way to Kandahar. Pakistan, a US ally in the current struggle, has a rogue element in the government, most seriously inside its security organ, the ISI. Elements of the ISI are clearly loyal to the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden in particular. While Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf fired ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, who was considered disloyal to the Pakistani government; the ISI is rife with officers who are helping the Taliban. "The Taliban is a creature of the ISI" one Pakistani official is quoted as saying. Gertz reports have substantiated reports coming from Indian sources since early October. The Indian reports go further, stating that the military supplies have been disguised as UN Humanitarian Aid.

In an overlooked statement released just a few days before the September 11 attacks, the CIA reported that Iran is actively trying to build atomic warheads. Israeli officials estimate that like Iraq, Iran is about five years away from being able to make an a-bomb. Lack of fissile materials seems to be Iran's main obstacle.

In the port city of Bushehr, the Iranians are completing construction of a reactor that could be used to enrich uranium. Considering the recent events, these kinds of things present some hard decisions to the US government. Do we allow governments that are nominally hostile to the US access to things which, though used ostensibly for normal, peaceful purposes, can be used to develop weapons of mass destruction?

DJF
St. Petersburg, Russia
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