Editor's Letter
Saudi Deception Unmasked
F
or whatever reason — oil maybe? — the West has
allowed Saudi Arabia to operate under the political
radar as an enabler of terrorism. As a result, the U.S.
government's relationship with the kingdom is hypocritical.
After 9-11, President Bush said America would go after ter-
rorists and their supporters wherever they are and whoever
they might be. Yet he won't take on the
Saudis for fear that another govern-
ment in that Muslim nation would be
worse.
That's why the House of Saud
remains so powerful. Its influence on
the White House is unswerving and
dates back to Presidents Bill Clinton
and George H.W. Bush.
Against this backdrop, the Saudis
"stand at the epicenter of fomenting
and financing terrorism in so many
different ways:' says New York attorney
Neal Sher, an expert on the great Saudi cover-up. "Yet the U.S.
is very frustrated with them — at least law
enforcement is:'
I interviewed Sher in the Southfield offices
of the Jewish News and found his vantage
point compelling. The former director of the
U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations and former executive direc-
tor of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), Sher speaks with author-
ity and purpose. He visited Metro Detroit on
March 27-28 at the invitation of the Zionist
Organization of America-Michigan Region.
Washington Inertia
Saudi textbooks, fatwas and other propaganda disseminated
around the world via Saudi-financed madrassas and mosques
reinforce the hypocrisy. They preach anti-West and anti-
Semitic hatred, hailing as gospel the Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion, the lie that Hitler used to ignite the Holocaust.
The Saudis haven't even declared Hamas a terrorist organi-
zation.
The Saudi riddle has spurred constant tension in
Washington between the Treasury Department, which chases
terror financiers, and the State Department, which avoids ruf-
fling Saudi feathers.
The Saudi payroll boasts top D.C.-based law and lobby-
ing firms as well as former U.S. congressmen and diplomats,
some of whom are Jewish. Sher says this PR brigade shame-
lessly patrols the corridors of power, trying to coronate the
Saudi king as our most reliable ally in the war on terror.
Says Sher: "The Saudis work at PR very, very hard."
That proficiency explains why the Saudis are still influential
despite the relentless rise in oil prices over the past 35 years.
Saudi Sanctions?
Taking on the Saudis would be tough, but the
right thing to do. One tack is passage of U.S.
Senate Bill 2243, informally the Saudi Arabia
Accountability Act of 2007. Its companion House
resolution is 2976. This ZOA-backed bill is a
natural for AIPAC to rally for.
The bill urges the Saudi government to:
• end Saudi support for funders, inciters and
facilitators of terrorism,
•provide Saudi cooperation in the investiga-
tion of terrorist acts and
Expansive Terror Ties
• denounce Saudi sponsorship of extremist
Much like Palestinian Authority President
Wahhabi ideology. Failure to do so would trig-
Neal Sher: ins! ghtful
Mahmoud Abbas, Saudi King Abdullah has
ger sanctions, including restricted arms sales to
publicly condemned terror. But both Mideast
Saudi Arabia.
leaders have little to show for their hollow rhetoric. The dif-
The bill certainly is subject to further tweaks. It won't carry
ference is that the king can use crude oil as leverage in the
the weigh of legislation. But at a minimum, it spotlights Saudi
international political arena.
deceit and would put on record what we must confront.
Saudi Arabia's link to 9-11 is bad enough: Fifteen of the 19
The bill alone won't deter Saudi financing of terror. That
hijackers during that 2001 terrorist attack on America were
would require a massive effort by the House of Saud to crack
Saudis; don't for a second think their financing didn't have
down publicly on known sponsors and benefactors of terror.
Saudi roots.
Believe it or not, such a crackdown has begun, but only in
But the terror ties run deeper. More than half of the foreign baby steps, Sher says.
terrorists attacking coalition troops in Iraq are Saudis.
Our government must urge the Saudis to lengthen those
Further, the Saudis embraced Iraqi President Saddam
strides. Clearly, it behooves the American Zionist community,
Hussein's move to compensate families of Palestinian suicide
led by the influential power of AIPAC, to call on our govern-
bombers who murdered Israelis. A 2002 Israeli military strike ment to do just that. Until the Saudis feel intense political
into Ramallah, then seat of Yasser Arafat's West Bank head-
heat, their role in funding terror and spreading hate born in
quarters, discovered Palestinian Authority intelligence files
the Arabian sands won't diminish.
that validated the long-suspected Saudi connection to terror-
As Sher so bluntly put it, "The Saudis have the power and
ist compensation.
the ability to make this happen. Until now, they have demon-
"The Saudis were sending the money to various fronts:'
strated a decisive lack of will."
Sher confirmed, "and it went to families of the suicide bomb-
ers."
Not surprisingly, Arafat got irritated because the money
0
Have Americans permitted a thirst for oil
1-- tr
wasn't coming to him, but rather to Hamas. "The Saudis were
to
dictate foreign policy?
tO
playing games:' Sher said. "It's interesting on a lot of levels,
0
Z z Should Congress pass the Saudi Arabia
but the main thing is that it shows the Saudis were supporting
5 0 Accountability Act of 2007?
the families of terrorists directly — putting the Saudis in the
a. ci•
same category as Saddam."
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