SEPTEMBER 11th Background--in five parts.

[thomaspainerevisited]

(THOMAS PAINE REVISITED’S COMMENTS INVOLVING THE SEPTEMBER 11TH TRAGEDY)
This is taken from a document that is multi-colored and with pictures; since that document is large, please skip anything that doesn’t make sense because it probably doesn’t, that is, without the big document. I provide this information as grist for thought and to give a little honesty to the debate. I include at the end of this stuff a list of a few scholarly books that all but spelled out that there was trouble brewing between the USA policy and Saudi citizens long before we were bombed. I ask that you make up your own mind as to America’s own culpability. Well, read the books I list below as well as others material on Saudi Arabia and our relationship with the Desert Kingdom.

THIS POST IS BROKEN UP INTO FOUR PARTS, THAT IS, SO I CAN POST IT ON ARIANNA’S SITE
This information was earlier placed on “overthrowthegov.com,” but I reiterate that it is the citizen’s duty to peacefully seek change---to exhaust every means at one’s disposal.

PERSPECTIVE INTRO: (SKIP THIS IF YOU WANT TO GET TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER FAST, )
Of course, Americans should be angry with those who killed United States and world citizens. On a personal note, my anger is not easily cooled after hearing witnessed accounts of ‘human beings’ (loved ones) freefalling (on fire) and hitting the pavement below the New York’s Twin Towers. From “any” ethical standpoint, I think that it is nearly impossible to justify killing civilians to achieve political ends- this essentially defines terrorism. Yet, as a historian, it is my task to try to answer the question “why,” that is, and try to dump my own emotionalism. I may mute this emotionalism (somewhat) when I recall that the birth of our nation was, in part, a result of terrorism. Tory men often died horrible deaths after being ‘tarred and feathered,’ that is, because these men were unwilling to swear allegiance to America and forsake England. Tories need not have been soldiers, but only civilians with ‘unpopular’ loyalties. Well, who knew the loyalties of the people who died in the Twin Towers? This being said, it is clear that the terrorists were willing to kill men, women, and children (civilians) indiscriminately. This is the hardest thing for this soldier to stomach. Yet, why did the terrorists do what they did? For example, during W.W.II, trained Kamikazes believed in their mission. If we simply say that the attackers simply died to kill Americas or destroy America, such broad fuzzy constructions answer very little. Do they serve as deflections? PERHAPS! We shouldn’t simply say that the Third Reich, the Khmer Rouge, and Saddam’s Iraq (ETC) were/are evil. We should try to understand bad thingies—past, present, and future. To understand the rational for killing does not mean that one accepts that rational. Again, we should question, for asking questions may permit future solutions and prevent further tragedies.
Well, from “our” side, we have heard {(through many of our officials)} that the Saudi Arabian men who rammed American planes into the Pentagon and NY’s Twin Towers were simply doing this because they were deranged Islamic holy warriors. You know, knuckleheads who follow some Usama bin Laden (U.B.L.) dude in a mean spirited, women battering, sadistic, and backward brand of religious faith. Well, even if every thingy on this score is absolutely true, I know that there is more to this than we see on the nightly schmooze casts. Two years ago this fledgling historian spent the better part of four months digging through the Arabian story (see below after this). As an aside, I find it both incredible and disturbing that a few men armed only with knives should have threatened so much, for a lot of scary thingies exist in the world. Yet, I also find it post September 11th Orwellian type disturbing when I see companies (quickly) talking about selling computer-photographic combo monstrosities that instantaneously track individuals. I think that this is terrible; I think that this --in part-- enables the terrorists to win a big victory over civilization. A retina scanner should suffice, and used sparingly. Well, the question remains: why were these men attacking America?
I’m sorry to say that --in some measure-- what happened on September 11th constituted a train wreck that has been a long time in coming. No one seemed to hear the whistle or see the light, that is, as the locomotive was drawing nearer and nearer to the crossing. For the royal Saudi family, Bahrain seems to be a place were God doesn’t see private acts of vice, so it is a favorite Saudi muckity-muck vacation spot. Unfortunately, it seems that Saudi Arabia (like China) has been a moral blind spot on America’s radar screen, and ‘We The People’ were caught by surprise as a result. Part of the fault involves our ‘own’ past policymakers and businessmen; they doesn’t got a ‘Get Out Of Blame Free Card’ in their hands. Of course, this does not (by any stretch of the imagination- whatsoever) absolve killing innocent men, women, and children.
Well, I always think the American people deserve the truth, so I’ll do the following. I’ll share with you a paper that I wrote several years ago. Perhaps it’s fair or unfair. Yet, know that everything below is drawn from scholarly material- long before the tragedy occurred. I doubt any ‘real’ thinking person can dismiss ‘every point.’ Take this information for what you will, and be free to criticize anything in this two-year-old meandering. However, be warned, it’s not a comfortable document. Actually, your author’s anger goes in many directions, that is, when I think of September 11th. I’ve got bags of anger!
A LITTLE MORE PERSPECTIVE:
On a personal note, I found the most pathetic & shameful things to have come out of the September 11th tragedy to involve one American stabbing another American to death, that is, after an argument ensued between these two men involving the Middle East (ON NPR.) This is terribly sick and un-American, for soldiers --like me-- serve to protect American values, and what is more fundamentally American than civil discourse unthreatened by reprisal- violent or otherwise. (Free speech is more fundamental than being secure in one’s own residence, papers, and effects, that is, the right to prohibit arbitrary intrusion by (warrantless) agents of any would be police state. Why? Without free speech, both the above stipulated protections and little or no democratic self-correction and long-term growth are possible. TRULY!)
Well, the mindlessly un-American chucklehead who killed the other guy spat on every American servicemen and servicewomen; he spat on every civil rights leader; he spat on every fireman, policeman, and citizen that died in New York. Actually, he spat on --the best of-- 200 years of American struggle. Except for a person shouting “FIRE!” in the crowded theatre, except for the man seeking to induce immediate violent action against a specific person or persons, except for certain pornographic (commercially) banned speech or evil defamation (etc), for over two hundred years America has wisely listened to its own collective wisdom regarding speech. In this, our collective wisdom makes crystal clear that little freedom can truly exist where political speech is coerced into silence, punished, or prohibited. The unpopular and popular, the traditional and the radical, the new and the old, all opinions may serve our nation if they have merit. Each person must decide if they have value. A past unorthodox radical once uttered (nearly) each and every modern political orthodox thought, and ‘the beat (still) goes on.’ Thanks Sonny! Our job is not to hermetically seal, quash, or squish, but to foster; our job is to actually endeavor to ponder, to endeavor to discuss, and to accept or reject. If we actually engage in the democratic process, if we ‘truly’ --can and do-- express our collective sentiments through our representative form of government, then Americans honor past sacrifices and heroes. Please remember, if you mindlessly align with this or that team (etc) because it better fills certain stomachs, if you do not engage in the democratic process beyond this, if you try to quash speech, then you are but one part of a growing problem that leaves little room for growth-- and civility. Maybe, just maybe, the guy who is punches another in the snoot for expressing his opinion, or who sues him into the dust instead of refuting contentions, is admitting that his own position is bankrupt. (Maybe the lack of questioning uncomfortable stuff enabled Nietzsche’s impact. Really! See above).

** The following (1998) paper speaks to the dangers American soldiers faced in Saudi Arabia; however, I feel the foregoing information holds broader lessons that directly relate to September 11th - etc. ** Unlike a Dragnet, I omit many names below!

[thomaspainerevisited]

YE OLD PAP(Part II)

On November 6, 1995, the Royal Saudi National Guard or OPM-SANG building was bombed (ever hear about it?); five American’s lost their lives. Seven months later, on June 25, 1996, the US’s Khobar Towers facility in Dhahran was bombed; this blast took the lives of nineteen US servicemen. On February 12 1997, Representative (lets say) Wigglesnort seemed to be surprised that FBI investigators received little cooperation in Dhahran. It is the author’s contention that the lack of protection afforded US servicemen in Dhahran and in Riyadh was little more than a failure of common sense, and that the US government has been both woefully ignorant of the signs that would indicate future terrorist actions being directed against US personnel in Saudi Arabia- and around the world. (Of course, terrorism reached American shores in 2001.)
The level of ignorance concerning the threat US personnel faced in Saudi Arabia can be amply demonstrated by Ambassador (lets say) Dreamaday’s statement before the terrorist bombing took place at the joint US-Saudi facility in Riyadh. Even after the United States facility was informed of two previous bomb threats in April and in June of 1995 before the bomb exploded on November 12, 1995 by way of a fax machine, Ambassador Dreamaday told individuals that the warnings were not to be taken seriously, “Because of all the places in the world, Saudi Arabia was deemed one of the safest.” ((ABSOLUTY GARGANTUAN STUPIDITY. See below!))
A string of historical events occurred in Saudi Arabia during the early 1990s that endangered US military personnel. Even if US citizens and military personnel follow the dress code standards set by the US Embassy, they may be assaulted or taken into custody by Saudi Arabia’s religious police, the Mutaween. (One whacked me with a stick for sitting down and showing the bottoms of my feet; it’s a ‘no-no’ Saudi land you know. OH, this was my fault.) Beyond the isolated threat of the Mutaween, one of the most important dangers to US personnel involved a deep seated and negative reaction to the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia.
Violence in Saudi Arabia is often related to anything that may challenge the traditional conception of women in Saudi society. In Saudi Arabia, control over women is nearly absolute. A man can divorce his wife by stating three times “I divorce thee.” The prophet Mohammed did not proclaim the cloistering of women from the larger society, but the Saudi Arabian social system’s survival is dependent upon the cloistering of women. A male Saudis’ family’s wealth has been traditionally dependent upon the consanguineous marriage, and within consanguineous marriages dowries and bloodlines are transferred within a particular tribe. So powerful is this social practice that in 1993 fifty-four percent of Saudi Arabian women were wed within kinship groups, despite the abnormally high number of birth defects produced in these consanguineous marriages.
As US forces in Operation Desert Storm entered Saudi Arabia, wartime needs for additional personnel and the introduction of liberated females –by Saudi Islamic standards- created a challenge to the old social order. If King Fahd’s request that female volunteers serve as workers in the Ministry of Health, that request must be placed within the context of an influx of (more) liberated female Kuwaiti refugees, and the presence of US female military personnel who wore T-shirts, carried rifles, and drove automobiles. Such circumstances created a context for revolt in the desert kingdom.
In Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, forty-five Saudi women were influence by the non-cloistered and liberated foreign women. The female drivers took the unheard action of driving fourteen cars in downtown Riyadh demonstrating for the right to drive. Well, a women’s ability to drive meant that women might be freed to select their own mates, and this challenged the age old kinship system: the social fabric that existed in Saudi Arabia. Saudi clerics believed that the revaluation of the women’s role in society was the first step towards a revolution against Islam. (Of course, their serving secular interests--Raw Power--SURPRISE!) Less critical challenges to the fabric of Saudi society have always created explosive problems directed against agents of modernization.
In the 1960s, King Faisal allowed television and Islamic education programs for women. For this little bit of progressivism, Faisal quelled dissent of Wahhibist clerks by banning Christmas trees, by raising the pay of clerics, and by granting the clerics greater press censorship powers. Nevertheless, King Faisal’s paltry steps towards modernization called forth bombings of government buildings in 1967 by Yemenis tribesmen, and members of the Royal Saudi Air Force attempted to shoot down King Faisal’s private airplane. Faisal was only able to moderate the clash between moderates and conservatives by the erection of a controlled state (some say a police state), and by taking power from the Hejazii progressives and placing increased power in the hands of Saudi Nejdis, Wahhibist traditionalists. Unlike the reaction that Faisal faced to his own limited steps toward modernization, the impact of female American soldiers and Kuwaiti female refugees nearly incited a popular revolution in downtown Riyadh.
In November 1990, the women who led the protest convoy called forth not only the wrath of the fundamentalists clerics, but twenty-thousand Saudi men plus a full compliment of Mutaween (religious police) gathered outside the Governors Palace to demand punishment for those they deemed unveiled prostitutes and whores. To the (I say: false belief) Islamicists, these women infidels needed to be killed. Not only did the cleric’s reprisals for modernization involve these (so called) radical women, but the religious police forcefully entered into King Fahd’s English language translator’s home and (I say allegedly) caught the translator in a drunken mixed sex party. The revolt against the women drivers was so intense that regular Saudi police were afraid to challenge the Islamic protesters for the fear of creating Islamic martyrs. In 1991, the religious police went so far as to capture a Saudi feminist and inject her twenty times with an unknown substance before she died. Things were so out of hand that Saudi officials permitted the beheading of a man who received a bible in the mail. (Ka-blamm!) America had started an internal Islamic jihad or holy war: a spiritual [power grab] struggle against infidels and their ways. Attacking symbols of western culture, fundamentalists fired weapons at satellite dishes claiming that they spread western values and AIDS. Saudi Arabia’s King Fadh feigned that he was ill, and he withdrew from public view. (Hey, “storming Norman Schwarzkopf” didn’t catch the seriousness. OH, do ya think this had anything to do with later Tally Bran women thwacking junk? Hey, Bobby Riggs and I think so! OH, I throw in Billie Jean King, for you can’t mention Bobby without mentioning Billie, that is, at least if you’re a social type historian.)

[thomaspainerevisited]

The snowball effect of events enabled a leading religious figures in Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul Azis bin Baz to align himself with young clerics who demanded that the King submit every government action for clerical inspection, that is, so the Sheiks or religious officials in Saudi Arabia could determine if Fahd’s proposals were acceptable when compared to the clerics interpretation of the Shuri’a- Saudi Arabia’s Islamic law. In essence, America was fostering an essential change in Saudi Arabia’s government structure and its internal power arrangements. (I cut out a bit here of boring stuff. OH, I didn’t want to get into trouble. HA!).
In Saudi Arabia Sheik Safar al-Hawaili and Salaman al- ‘Auda are well known, and they helped to foster a hatred for the West. Since 1990, cassette tapes containing the religious teachings of al-Hawaili, al-Auda, and Mohhamed al’ Mas’ari spread; they were eagerly listened to after King Fahd failed to inform his people that US forces were entering Saudi Arabia (WHY?); he also failed to tell his people about the impending war with Iraq. (WHY? Our landing is a time bomb! DU!) 1n 1992 and in 1994, Air Force personnel stationed within Saudi Arabia were not informed about spreading anti-American sentiments; they simply strolled through the streets of Riyadh and other places unaware that hostile voices had been effectively and virulently disseminated throughout Saudi Arabia since 1990. It was not a secret that these tapes were having a profound effect upon Saudi society, for in 1990 King Fahd publicly stated: “Has it come to the point where we depend on criticisms and cassette tapes that do us no good.” In 1992 alone, a single cassette store in Riyadh sold over sixty-thousand (consumer driven) anti-Western [anti-American]) religious tapes in a single month. (Hello! Hello! Hello!)
The danger was growing or US forces in Saudi Arabia when King Fahd imprisoned the leading fundamentalist clergyman Safar Hawaili’s and Salaman al-‘Auda. Hawaili was the Dean of the Islamic college at the University of Mecca, and ‘Auda was though to be the most influential Islamic teacher in Saudi Arabia. {What if the police locked up Billy Gram, Pat Robertson, Bill Gates, Allen Greenspan, and other top religious leaders in America? Remember, arresting clerics in the holy heart of Islam (Saudi Arabia) is somewhat equivalent to beating up Elvis in front of a couple of million female teenagers- during the 1960s. They take their religion seriously in Saudi. DU!} These two influential clerics helped to establish a conspiratorial view (of course) of the West’s relationship with King Fahd. In furtherance of Hawaili’s conspiratorial messages, he informs his listeners that despite Christians and Arabs having the same Messiah, Americans have sided with the Jews. Hawaili also fixates on the influence of religious presidential candidate Pat Robertson and the televangelist Jerry Falwell. While he strongly opposes women’s rights, Hawaili links Jerry Falwell’s and Pat Robertson’s mixture of Christian Zionist beliefs with their public discussions involving Armageddon. For Hawaili, it is Falwell’s and Robertson’s evil influences that will a future apocalypse for the believers of Islam. Hawaili also professes that Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush shared Robertson’s and Falwell’s belief in Armageddon. {You can sense a bit of jealously here, for these clerics never had access to a world wide satellite audience. Hey, it’s about power!} Similarly, Salaman al‘Auda noted that every one of William Jefferson Clinton’ policy advisors, Madeline Albright, William Cohen, Samuel Berger, Dennis Ross, and Martin Idndyk were all Jews who were formulating Middle Eastern policy. (Here’s that race junk! Actually, being Jewish is following the Jewish faith, but not for racists.)
A contemporary writer on Saudi Arabia, Mamoun Fandy, believed that after Operation Desert Storm America’s continuing support of Israel’s Likud party and its continuing sanctions against Iraq proved (in many Islamic hearts) the existence of a conspiracy by the majority of the population of the Middle East. Therefore, it is a tacit understanding that either the King is unknowingly or willingly aiding/abetting in the destruction of the Islamic people. It is also pointed out that U.B.L, the man whom is believed to have bombed several US facilities overseas, has issued a call to war with the West that use al-Hawaili or al- ‘Auda’s words, especially involving Saudi Arabia’s movement towards normalizing relations with Israel.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that on June 25 1996, Israel’s Minister Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher met in Jerusalem in preparation of an Arab-Israeli Peace Summit right before Riyadh was bombed. Both men made opening statements at a joint press conference before departing to meet with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Yassar Arafat on the 26th of June. New rounds of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were interrupted by the bombing that took place in Dhahran Saudi Arabia on the 26th of June, 1996. U.B.L is credited with the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in December 1995.
There is a clear religious reason for anti-American sentiments that go beyond the American conspiracies of al-‘Auda and al-Hauaili. For (some) Islamic believers, accepting a “usurious relationship,” that is, accepting money and paying interest upon that money is a sin as great as having sex with your mother or committing adultery with thirty-six women. Since the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia has turned into a debtor nation, and in 1994 the Spenglegarb Administration has restructured Saudi’s debt repayments on a long-term basis, so that it can finance future arm sales without canceling any future weapons systems. (Hello!) Moreover, between 1988 and 1992, Saudi has shifted its arms purchases so that America was (now it has become) its major supplier. However, these weapons only increase Saudi’s dependence upon US technical assistance and foster the US’s long-term presence in Arabia- a big headache- DU! Saudi officers are very angry at this circumstance, and a top Saudi advisor has said that the US does not realize what it is doing by shoving weapons down Saudi throats, since the arms purchases from the US only increase Arabia’s debt and dependence. Nowhere else in the developing world has a country paid so much for so few arms per dollar. This unknown officer is not without his counterpart, for Safar al-Hawaili claims that the US is using Saddam to shove unnecessary and expensive weapons down out throats. U.B.L not only was angered by the arrest of Salaman al-‘Auda and Safar al-Hawaili, but he claimed that they are particularly effective because they speak the truth about the US-Saudi military alliance. (Of course U.B.L was seeking his own power base. DU!) According to one passage your author has found, even Kuwaiti elites believe that the continuing survival of Saddam Hussein allows the Americans to shove weapons down everyone’s throat in the region. Well, believe it or not, it’s the mantra of many people in the Middle East! If true, who was making the money?

[thomaspainerevisited]

Continued Part IV

In their examination of the attacks in Riyadh and Khobar Towers, members of the (HOODOO) Committee continued to undervalue the role that a very public anti-American ideology was being disseminated in Saudi at a fundamental level. Again, one Riyadh shop sold over 60,000 clerical tapes per month according to Salaman al-‘Auda—himself. Given a thirty-day month, even if one does not consider Saudi prayer breaks in an eight-hour day, that means that over 2,000 (consumer driven.) tapes were sold per day; 250 cassettes per hour; 4 per minute, or one about every 15 seconds. Speaking before the (HOOODOO), Colonel (Piffleschnockered) discussed the US’s need to acquire and train foreign agents- covert agents in foreign lands. BLACK OOPS STUFF! According to the Colonel, the US needs to use spies to penetrate terrorist networks so that terrorists can be stopped before a bomb could endanger a US facility. However, the Colonel’s solution of using covert foreign agents does not shed light on an obvious source of an indigenous (spreading) threat that should have put American policy makers on notice- the anti-American tapes. (Hey, the king was yelling about it----ON Saudi Arabian national television! This is a no brainier.)
Circumstances in Saudi have also increased the likelihood of terrorism stemming from (radical) Islamic influences that may be equal or greater than the impact of the tapes. Since 1993, the power of the fundamentalist clergy in Saudi has been growing among disaffected youths. In that year, gatherings of more than two people were prohibited with the minor exception of sports clubs and a few officially acknowledged meeting areas. Moreover, Saudi’s population growth rate for potential workers is the highest in the Middle East, but job opportunities are actually shrinking for youths because of King Fahd’s program to foster religious education does not prepare this generation to compete in an increasingly technological world. Why? With the US presence upsetting stuff, King Fahd upgraded his religious credentials by fostering (non-technical) Islamic education. Both unemployment and the 1994 ban on public meetings of more than two Saudi males have driven Saudi social activities in the Mosques. (A blind man could see a dangerous pattern brewing. Really! Ray Charles would have been hiding out, and Oedipus could have been on the lam.) In these mosques, the Islamic clergymen who are opposed to the King and America easily sway male youths. {OH, many probably later were at TORA BORA, and some probably did the ‘TORA-TORA-TORA’ suicide Japanese W.W.II (like) thingy on September 11th that killed many John/Jane Doe’s.}
Beyond the rational for violence being born in Saudi by its clerics, America’s involvement with King Fahd’s closed society (some say police state) has directly led to terrorist attack against US personnel. America’s investment in this ‘closed society’ is a long term US project. {Well, to be fair, you can’t blame –in part- the US for our support because Saudi Arabia is a weak fat nation open to coercion and attack during the Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca-etc. What would happen if we opened America’s borders each year to the world? I’m being fair.} Well, in his search to secure western oil, Harry Truman helped to build the SANG (or the Saudi Arabian National Guard) under the rubric of anti-Communism. SANG’s internal security mission involves crushing any popular uprising or large disturbance in Arabia. SANG coordinates with the Mutaween or religious police, and its internal security activities involve (reportedly) human rights violations that include: torture, the arrest and confinement of political prisoners, holding persons for more than 24 hour without a charge, and subjecting detainees to forced periods of sleep deprivation-etc. It was King Fahd’s internal security forces that arrested Salamon Al-‘Auda and Al-Hawaili, for among its many functions, SANG acts against Islamic clergy when they publicly speak out against King Fahd’s government and its relationship with the West. {OK, IMAGINE THIS. THE OGLIVIANS COME TO THE USA AND HELP BUILD A POLICE (STATE?) FORCE THAT ISN’T QUITE POPULAR OR PLEASANT AT TIMES, AND THAT POLICE FORCE EVEN ARRESTS RELIGIOUS LEADERS. DO THE HELPERS NEITHER “EXPECT” NOR BE MINDFUL OF AN ATTEMPT AT REPRISAL- WHATSOEVER? REMEMBER OUR IGNORANT (MAMMOTH) BRAINPOWER “AMBASTERDOR” SAYING EVERYTHINGYS COOL---OOPS. (MAMOTH BABY! AAARRRROOOGGGGAAAA!) OH, I NICKED THE TERM FROM SCRAWNY. HA! WELL, THE DANGER WAS COMMON SENSE. NO FOOLING!} If American’s in Saudi Arabia were threatened by the above factors, that threat manifested itself when Saudi’s attacked the joint US-Saudi OPM-SANG facility. There is ample reason for this circumstance.
According to Anthony H. Cordesman’s study produced for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the US State Department has not verified torture equipment, or other human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia’s internal security forces. According to BLABBY, this “is far” from a studied analysis. Walking the streets of Riyadh or Dhahran, BLABBY even observed policeman carrying cattle prods. (Hey, they weren’t camel jockeys. I’m being sarcastically screwy, and making fun of stupid bigotry.) The Federation of American Scientists state that between 1991 to 1993 the US Commerce Department issued contracts involving two-hundred and seventy million dollars worth of torture equipment and police items- in mixed loads. The Commerce Department’s (There it goes again!) category OA83C lumps police items with such items as plastic handcuffs with saps (a leather covered blackjack), thumb screws {I’d like to meet the US manufacturer representative of this item, and punch him square in the nosey. Sorry for my non-civility. If true, I guess if he didn’t do this, the Yashnerbells would corner the thumbscrew market. Well, is there such a thing as being an economic traitor? I say YEP!}, and keg irons. (I’ll bet the Mammoth type guys probably though such stuff warmed up the brewski----HA! AAAARRRROOOOOGGGGAAAA. OH, no alcohol in Saudi---a big ‘no-no’, you know.) Two thousand licenses were granted for electric devices alone. Considering that America’s involvement with Saudi’s ‘closed system’, its hardly surprising that native Saudi’s might attack Americans. Ambassador Dreamaday’s assurances were either totally ignorant or purposefully misleading. DU!
Within Saudi during 1995 the US Office of Program Manager in coordination with the US Army Material Command signed contracts with the Saudi government worth over 1.63 million dollars worth for training and equipping SANG employees. Saudi Prince Addullah planned in 1992 to double his SANG force by the year 2000. This would mean that SANG would reduce the ability of an opposing force in Arabia to put pressure on the government, or foment a successful coup in Saudi (Remember this isn’t a democracy. Remember, the only way to truly change the Saudi system of government is though force- whether we do or do not like those seeking power. DU!); this also strengthened Abdullah’s internal position against his possible rivals within the Saudi family. (Whose funding U.B.L? The House of Saud is evermore --thanks to us-- divided, but can it stand, for we calculate that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but will this serve US national interests in the end?) In 1994, America personnel attached to SANG included: 82 American military personnel, 175 civilian employees, and 1,200 employees of the US’s Vinnell Corporation. Moreover, Vinnell has extended its programs, its in-country support, beyond its Riyadh center of operations. It is perhaps no coincidence that a terrorist bombing in Riyadh (before Dhahran) came in the same year that the US was expanding it SANG operations. On November 13, 1995, a bomb went exploded outside of the OPM-SANG killing five Americans. The explosion killed no Saudis. In Anthony Cordsmen’s book entitled Saudi Arabia: Guarding the Desert Kingdom, the blast was timed to take place at 11:30 AM when Saudis were at prayer. After the blast, King Fahd’s government arrested and beheaded Khalid al-Sa’eed, Abulaziz al-Mi’thim, Riyadh al-Hajariand, and Muslih al-Shamrani. (Your author notes that these guys got expeditiously beheaded, so that (in TPR’S opinion) no embarrassing questions were raised. Perhaps! The FBI’s protest at not being able interview the “pre-chop” guys probably met with relief. My total guess- NOT! Well, I hear Mulder’s willowy kid is pissed at me and on assignment; Guadalupe Tortrots tells me I had better watch my ass. [See above!])

[thomaspainerevisited]

Well, even if the bomber’s confessed that they smuggled explosive from Yemen, it was likely that the attack was not fomented by agents of foreign states. This argument is strengthened because the Saudi government originally claimed that other Middle Eastern countries were responsible for the blast. Yet, the four men’s tortured confessions still tended to confirm that they were not serving at the behest of others. (Trouble Brewing!) Since the early 1990’s, the US has fostered reasons for other countries outside the Saudi Kingdom to support those who would attack America with violent means.
The likelihood of Saudi Arabia’s neighbors becoming dangerous to US personnel increased as Saudi became more aggressive and belligerent toward its neighbors. (I guess all those arms didn’t have an effect. There’s that Mammoth brainpower again. AAAAAAAARRRRRRROOOOOOOOGGGGGGGAAAAAAA!)
In November 1991, Saudi troops (reportedly) attacked Qatar’s border posts. In 1995, Saudi sided with Qatar’s deposed leader Sheik al-Thai seeking to overthrow his son- the son deposed his father. Saudi was reportedly planning to send air cover (US F-15s/F-16s/British Tornadoes/French Mirages?) for a coup attempt that entailed the use of French Special Forces. Moreover, Saudi has blocked a one hundred thousand men Gulf Cooperation Force in an attempt to keep Qatar weak and vulnerable. (After this, someone and Mick Jagger sang “UNDER MY THUMB.”)
Saudi Arabia’s monarchy has additionally been very active in pressuring Kuwait’s Emir to curtail his national assembly’s toleration of political debate and dissent. (I think if we have a base, it should be in Kuwait. Ask your self why we can’t disengage. Are we in a downward spiral? Even a former Secretary of State though this: Eaglesandwich. Hey, he made sense a long time ago before all the stuff, or at the very least didn’t have his head in the Sand. Others had it somewhere else. Gots to be!) Similarly, in Bahrain and in the UAE, King Fahd has urged its leaders to crack down on its (more) secular Shi’ite population. In Bahrain, Fahd has recommended that the Emir take resolute --if not repressive measures-- against dissidents. Therefore, it the most basic terms, our involvement in Saudi Arabia has (at times) meant that the U.S. is aiding to quash freedom of political expression in a country that is connected to Dhahran by a 20 miles causeway. (Maybe this is why Iran is implicated in the bombing of Dhahran’s Khobar Towers facility? If true, that would be sad, for Iran seems to be the one big country trying hard to democratize in the region. Really!)
Saudi’s northern neighbor is Yemen; its citizens have one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. Since Yemen supported Iraq in the 1990-1992 Gulf War, Saudi Arabians expelled the Yemeni worker force, and (reportedly) tortured many of its citizens before they were forcefully expelled. King Fahd has also pressured international oil companies to terminate plans for operations in (poor old) Yemen. Moreover, Yemen claims that King Fahd has paid mercenaries to kill members of its parliament, and Yemenis blame Saudi for bombing its government instillations. Remember, the four who bombed OPM-SANG received their explosives in Yemen, and Yemen has strong kinship ties in Saudi Arabia. {Remember U.B.L. family is Yemeni. (See attempt on Faisal above.)} Moreover, the President of Yemen Ali Subdulah Saleh gave road construction contracts to U.B.L. After the (first) bombing at the New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 (OH, someone told me planes for the plane fiasco were captured at this time, but they might have been mistaken.), so ignorant was CIA operative (name omitted) of the situation that exited in the Middle East that he was shocked to learn that: “someone out there is trying to actually kill us.” DU! It’s behemoth Wooly Pachyderm stuff. AAARRRROOOOOGGGAAA! U.B.L may be that man (remember, this is still well over two years old). US officials particularly suspect him after he publicly requested in an open letter to King Fahd to use guerilla tactics to expel the US from Saudi. U.B.L. stated: “What matters is that in Riyadh and Khobar no Saudis were hurt, only American’s were killed.”
Jordan’s relationship with Saudi Arabia was severed after it supported Saddam Hussin during the Gulf War. King Fahd ended a Saudi-Jordanian Trans-Arabian pipeline project; he ‘had/has’ stopped all food supplies to Jordan involving the Hajj pilgrimage, and King Fahd claims that he will support anyone except Himas to challenge Yassar Arafat. In 1996, before the blast at the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran, Saudi border guards captured a shipment of explosives attempting to be carried into Saudi over the Jordanian boarder. (I do not know whom these explosives tolled for, but there was a lot of tollchalk trouble brewing! This is just a taste)

[thomaspainerevisited]

PART 6, I had to break it up further

Other dangers were patently obvious long before the blast took place at Dhahran. The view that foreign soldiers are little more than expendable hirelings with the equivalent status as guest workers has plagued the Saudi relationship. (Hey, I liked the chow. I’m being screwy!) In the US Snignort Committee’s, Mr. X (name omitted), asserted that he found it distressing that Saudi was not grateful for America’s protection during the Gulf War. This person further remarked that Saudi was a close ally of the US. Yet, the Bedouin tribes who compromise Saudi’s military officer corps often pay little attention either to rank or position. Deference is primarily granted to higher or equivalent status lineages, and this is within Saudi Society. Moreover, it is the Bedouin tradition that loyalty is granted when a person receives something, and that loyalty is granted only so long as that person receives and keeps receiving material rewards. (Hey, pay some of these truly poor schleps, and they’ll do practically anything. Sounds kind of familiar HU?) The US presence is the reverse of the Bedouin practice, for individual soldiers have (/had) their quarters and food provided by the Saudis. Such an arrangement makes one more of a guest worker in the eyes of the Saudis. No matter what the average foreign worker can produce, he is still only a guest worker. This problem is compounded by the fact that in Saudi slavery was abolished only in 1962. In this vein, workers are (reportedly) taken as hostages; workers are (reportedly) forced to sign contracts for lower wages, and these workers are (reportedly) blocked from any recourse against employers by government/legal officials. (IF THE THIRD COUNTRY NATIONALS WEREN’T FIBBING, THE ABOVE JUST ISN’T REPORTEDLY. OH, Isn’t it possible that U.B.L may be granted refuge by many people? DU!) Well, the distance between expectations of being owed loyalty in MR. X’s remarks falls short. The distain for manual labor is so deep that Saudi employers are forced to hire foreign workers because Saudis (often) refuse anything resembling manual labor. Further violating Bedouin tradition of material loyalty on the macro level is the fact that the people of Saudi received US loans during the Gulf War amounting to twenty-five billion dollars, exactly what Saudi Arabia paid the US for Operation Desert Storm. (GARGANTUAN OOPS. Considering that we seem to want to stay there, our Mammoths are again crying out: AAARRRROOOOGGGGAAAA!) Worst still, Saudi has fallen into debt since the Gulf War began. King Fahd tried to hide this fact, and Riyadh did not produce a budget in 1991. Another sign that is antithetical or cooperation between the US involves the gatekeepers in Saudi Arabia. The factors of princes serve to limit access to those princes. The whole structure of familial relationships serves to prohibit a cooperative arrangement. (Again, why can we not draw down? OH, Royal princes fly the fighter planes, so no one turns around and bombs the palace. Really! If you note Faisal’s problems above, this doesn’t even seem to always work. Well, at least historically.)
Each of these factors above signals the possibility of a successful terrorist threat. It is not surprising that the Dhahran site commander could not get the cooperation of his Saudi counterpart, that is, after he requested that a protective barrier be moved back. After this plea, the Saudi commander in Dhahran simply walked away. (They don’t flash the middle finger, i.e., the bird, in Saudi.) This is not surprising, for American soldiers have traditionally been little more than pawns on Saudi’s chessboard. Chinese Dong Feng Ho ballistic missiles were placed near US facilities without the US’s knowledge. A (HUMAN SHIELD) nurse (I can truly & honestly sympathize—YEP!) stumbled onto the Chinese missiles as she took a walk in the desert outside a US compound. No one is saying anything about OPM-SANG, no major American figure is willing to disturb our Saudi ‘friends’. (OH, do we have a bought and paid for press? YEP! Well, it seems no media outlet is researching or candid on a heck of a Salem’s Lot. Well (?) Hey, after I’m finished with this, I’m done looking into other areas, for I’ve had enough for now. I’ve got other important work to finish.) Several US top dudes made our position quite clear. Our purpose is to protect our interests in Middle East oil.
In summation, terrorism was likely due to America’s presence in Saudi Arabia. The American presence has threatened Saudi’s social structure, its economy, its ability to change its system government; it has affected Saudi’s internal power balances, and its relations (I must believe) to its neighbors. Within the desert kingdom, signs of future violence stem from Islam’s historic reaction against modernization and western values. Furthermore, the very public nature of (Saudi women’s short lived) dissent, the arrest of Islamic clerics, and the growth of radical youth should have placed US officials on notice. (JOHN BELUSHI Says: “BUT NO!”) Even after the detonation of the bomb at OPM-SANG, US officials were either not cognizant of the reality that existed in Saudi Arabia, or they were unwilling to speak up due to Americas stated interest in Middle Eastern oil. (Well, draw your own conclusions & opinions. Yet, be a little gentle, for you probably like your S.U.V. and ‘our’ foreign fuel driven economy.) Nevertheless, the deafening silence of American officials regarding our relationship with the Saudis was demonstrated within a HOOZITZ investigation of the Khobar Towers bombing. On (someday) Colonel (Lets say Digbat [him again?]) stated: “I doubt someone is going to sit here I uniform and testify about it.” Colonel Digbat then stated: “But I think---” Of course, Digbat’s sentence was abruptly interrupted. After the blast at Khobar Towers, an unkempt man stood outside the building and quoted a passage from the Koran. He stated: “Wherever ye are, death will find you, even I ye are in towers built up strong and high.” {I’m sure everyone reading this finds this a bit creepy.} Trapped in the logic of the Saudi-US relationship, (Lets say) a soldier named Fuzzy could change nothing, that is, even if Fuzzy knew that if an explosion occurred it would take place at building 131. (Hey, some Blabby guy even told them about the glass problem, but some FBI/CIA thingy knew everything in a blink.) Well, Fuzzie was right, he survived the blast that took the lives of nineteen servicemen at building 131. (It was a nice place.) What have top American’s in the (HOOZITZ) said about the bombing? Not much.

HEY, unless we grow up, someday it won’t be a dozen or so poorly trained halfwits boarding jetliners with knives; it will be massive, and coordinated. Hey, even our business moguls and our media elite---along with their families--- can’t remain unscathed. OH, every John/Jane Doe will be similarly screwed. Hey, do you think I’m just pulling your leg? Well, I’m not. Revenge, man, is that powerful stuff. Honest!

WELL THAT’S MY ORIGINAL RAMBLINGS FROM A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO- with comment.
(I pulled out the footnotes- it’s all re-re-paraphrased anyway.)

Anything remotely connected --except on blurb about some shield (see rhyme)-- to my past soldiering was and is omitted. Chicken HU? Moreover, the above is drawn from bits and tiny pieces, that is, from several places in the below books. Remember, you have to seek out info. If you think I’m lying, then check these books out. OH, this information isn’t just for celebrities, policy analysts, etc., but for everyone. Really!

Guarding the Desert Kingdom: By: Anthony H. Cordesman. (It’s a good book!).
The Saudi File: By: Jerichow Anders. (CLAIMED TORTURE EQUIPEMENT, ETC)
Saudi Arabia: The Coming Storm: By: Peter W.Wilson. (Prophetic Title. DU!)
Saudi Arabia and the politics of dissent: By: Mamoun Fandy. (Cool, and telling)
State Department Dispatches: Vol 7 Issue 27, p335, 3p.
Terrorism and the superpower: PBS. (Good Flick).

[magistre]

Is your point to educate or exhaust?

[thomaspainerevisited]

Education is exhaustive, but we live in soundbite world, so who is truly educated? Actually, the shiny and seemingly novel always shine above hard to understand or the complex. Life is not that simple. I only attempt to paint a picture, and with all the words--- it's still incredibly incomplete.

Thomas Paine Revisited

[Syd]

The particulars surrounding 9/11 are disturbing, to say the least. Will we ever really know what happened or will we ever have answers to our questions?

I hate to think we could actually be living in a country that could allow such a thing to happen, if that's how it was. But how do you explain things like not being able to find any part of a 747 plane in the wreckage of the Pentagon? If a 747 didn't land in the Pentagon, where did it land? There are many, many other questions, but that is one of them...

[thomaspainerevisited]

I never studied the aftermath of 911. You'll get comspiracy theorists that spout just about everything. I try to stick to the basics. Readers of my stuff, which took over half a century ago will have to make up there own minds--from official documents. PS, I don't think 911 was planned, but the government knew more than they are telling. Why else did so many people get, so to speak, out of Dodge.


TPR

[Syd]

I never studied the aftermath of 911. You'll get comspiracy theorists that spout just about everything. I try to stick to the basics. Readers of my stuff, which took over half a century ago will have to make up there own minds--from official documents. PS, I don't think 911 was planned, but the government knew more than they are telling. Why else did so many people get, so to speak, out of Dodge.
TPR

Yes, very strange....

[cherie]

Hi Thomas. I took your advice and started reading the "off topic" forum here. Thanks.
Okay...I read this thread today, but I'm going to have to read it again and think before I respond to it. Most things I read or hear concerning 9/11 are after the fact. I did see a speech by Noam Chomsky on "terrorism". Very interesting. I'll have to think of what that DVD was called, something about "morality"....too tired to remember now.

[cherie]

Speaking of Noam Chomsky, here is an excerpt from an interview he did in 2001 right after 9/11:

Question from Geraldine Fincannon: We are a nation which would advance the destiny of all lives and share the wealth existing in our country with all its inhabitants and those of the world. Isn’t this the real bone of contention between our country and the radical Moslems who send terrorists to do horrible deeds in our country?

Noam Chomsky: It has nothing to do with money. They have been very clear about what they want. Bin Laden himself has had many interviews with western journalists, many of them are broadcast in just the last week. Two long ones were broadcast by the BBC. What he and the others have been saying for 20 years is consistent, and it’s also consistent with their actions so we should take it seriously. They say their main targets are the corrupt brutal regimes of the Middle East, which from their point of view are not properly Islamic and they want to defend Muslim rights against infidels anywhere in the world. So they’ve been fighting in Chechnya, Bosnia, North Africa, Kashmir, the Philippines, all over.

They turned against the United States when the United States established permanent military bases in Saudi Arabia about 10 years ago. They regard that very much like the Russian occupation of Afghanistan they fought against. Apart from the Islamic fanaticism, what they say has considerable resonance in the region, including very pro-American wealthy sectors. The Wall Street Journal has been doing a particularly good job in surveying those opinions beginning September 14. When they condemn the United States for its anti-democratic stands for supporting brutal regimes and corrupt regimes, they are saying what people in the streets think and there’s a reason for it. The same is true when they condemn U.S. policies towards Iraq and Israel.

They know, even if we choose not to, that the United States has been devastating the civilian society of Iraq while strengthening Sadam Hussein, and it’s been supporting a very harsh military occupation that is now in its 35th year in Israel, over the Palestinians. The U.S. has been pretty much alone in the world in imposing that very cruel domination with economic and military and diplomatic assistance. That’s quite well known there and even the most pro-American wealthy Muslim businessmen bankers have the same feelings others do. When Bin Laden talks about these things there is a resonance. They may hate him. Most of them do hate him because they overwhelmingly oppose his terrorist violence and his Islamic fanaticism, but a good part of the message does reflect what people believe and with justification.

If you want to read more go to:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080909

Also, the DVD I was mentioning in my earlier post is "Distorted Morality - America's War on Terror"

[dewey189]

Yet you still hear from the neocon crowd that they hate us for our freedoms. When will they face reality?

[thomaspainerevisited]

Yet you still hear from the neocon crowd that they hate us for our freedoms. When will they face reality?
They hate us for our power; they in part hate us for our greater freedom. Yet, as you have seen, there is more to this story.

TPR

[dewey189]

From what I've read that's not true at all. They hate us for our meddling foreign policy.

[thomaspainerevisited]

From what I've read that's not true at all. They hate us for our meddling foreign policy.
It's a mix, but we don't admit stupidity or grievous mistakes--seemingly ever! Why? Well, we can bullshit enough or spin enough to have uncomfortable facts vanish.

TPR

[gaiacomm]

I am a Neocon!

[thomaspainerevisited]

I am a Neocon!I'm not a neoCon--I'm a realist. Leaders love power; leaders hate being dictated to; leaders thus hate powerful nations that set the agenda; therefore, many hate America no matter our policies. This does not excuse mistakes or misdeeds done by our leaders in the past--or present. The Saudi problem was unique--in our level to be unaware. Nevertheless, we are not isolationist, and were we many would still hate America because it differs from many shades and shapes of totalitarian environments. Problem is is that we are becoming what we beheld as evil--slowly.

Tommorow I may argue the opposite.
See, I want you to think; I'm not trying to convince you that one view is correct versus another. Life is complicated; it's a mix.

TPR

[gaiacomm]

I'm not a neoCon--I'm a realist. Leaders love power; leaders hate being dictated to; leaders thus hate powerful nations that set the agenda; therefore, many hate America no matter our policies. This does not excuse mistakes or misdeeds done by our leaders in the past--or present. The Saudi problem was unique--in our level to be unaware. Nevertheless, we are not isolationist, and were we many would still hate America because it differs from many shades and shapes of totalitarian environments. Problem is is that we are becoming what we beheld as evil--slowly.

Tommorow I may argue the opposite.
See, I want you to think; I'm not trying to convince you that one view is correct versus another. Life is complicated; it's a mix.

TPR


I agree with you. Now what can you really do to help correct the problems? Do you have any authority? If not then it is OK to dream!

[thomaspainerevisited]

I agree with you. Now what can you really do to help correct the problems? Do you have any authority? If not then it is OK to dream!The only authority I have is in the truth of my words, which would be actual authority if I was wise and my words meant something in our culture, that is, over the it's not what you know-- but blow, phenomenon. All is status! OH, I am a romantic, which means that attempt to see things that might be. I've learned --as Willam James and George Orwell-- that belief becomes its own reality (horrific or progressive)--if enough dream of more than hedonism, and if we learn to value truth and not simply find awe in those who garner power-- from words. What we need to do is to listen to our own rationality. Doubt me in everything I say; yet, seek for yourself the worthiness of each sentence. If we did this, then maybe the truly wise would be both noticed and heard. You might say I'm on an ego grip. Yet, if words mattered, the primary concern you would have with the wise is to have access to their council--not that they tell you what to think.


TPR

[gaiacomm]

I read your words and I understand. I hope that you can make a difference because the world needs thinkers and action people like you to get our Freedoms back and rid ourseleves of the infection of lies that seems to run in our river of truths,

Bush and others unfortuantely will not tell us all the truth of 911 until we can capture a weak one that will talk under pressure. Until then we wait!

[thomaspainerevisited]

Bump Up to the Top....

[magistre]

"Conspiracy theorist" I find it funny because I've been around long enough to see this "term" and the "knee-jerk reaction" to it inculcated within the American people. Its been going on for a very long time.

As far as "9/11" goes: (it was a 757 that struck the Pentagon); however, one thing is not opinion, the 757 was carrying 11,000+ gals. of jet fuel-what happened to it? It should have created one hell of a fire-ball. Did anyone see that happen? Neither did I! :p