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Schwartz on Turki and Adel al-Jubeir, Family Security Matters, December 27, 2006
Al-Jubeir May Replace Turki: What Meaning for Americans?
Author: Stephen Schwartz
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: December 27, 2006
Date: December 27, 2006
We at FSM have watched with interest and
anticipation the many recent happenings at the Royal Saudi Embassy in
Washington, D.C., first brought to our attention by FSM Contributing
Editor Stephen Schwartz in these pages. Schwartz now contemplates the
possible successor to the diplomatic changes, Adel al-Jubeir, and
wonders if this is good or bad news for Americans.
Al-Jubeir May Replace Turki: What Meaning for Americans?
By Stephen Schwartz
As the year comes to a close, we think first
of our troops and other coalition fighters on the front line of the
global anti-terror war, in Iraq and Afghanistan. No other issue
surpasses that, for Americans concerned for our safety and future.
Right now, the kingdom of Saudi
Arabia is important to Americans – not because of the price of gas, but
because of the role of extreme Saudi Islamists, who adhere to the state
cult of Wahhabism, in attacks on our troops and their partners in Iraq.
The Baker-Hamilton Iraq report,
thin as it was, had the virtue of admitting that “funding for the Sunni
insurgency [sic] comes from private individuals in Saudi Arabia.” Such
terror backers allegedly include Yasin al-Qadi, a rich Saudi who was
named a specially designated global terrorist by the U.S. Treasury
Department in October 2001. Al-Qadi continues to operate unmolested in
the kingdom.
According to the Saudi newspaper
al-Watan, 2,000 Saudi subjects have been killed in Iraq since
the beginning of the anti-Saddam intervention in 2003. This is an
extraordinary news item, for the following reasons:
The number of Saudis killed in the Iraq war
is two thirds the number of Americans killed there, which now hovers
around 3,000. Saudi personnel are clearly the backbone of the Sunni
terror force on the ground in Iraq.
-
The Saudi newspaper claimed that 40 percent of the dead were suicide terrorists or jihad combatants, and admitted that all were slain in sectarian conflicts.
-
With at least 2,000 Saudis dead in Iraq since 2003 (a number that may be understated), the total of Saudi jihadists in Iraq must be much larger. If only 6,000 Saudis have gone north of the border in four years of war, they would certainly constitute, once trained in terror methods, a fearsome armed body for the disruption of Iraq. Many would be veterans of previous such activities.
What connection might exist between this
remarkable bit of information and the possible accession of Adel
al-Jubeir to the Royal Saudi Embassy in Washington – and how may it
affect Americans?
The brusque departure of Prince Turki
al-Faisal from the ambassador’s post, as described in this column two
weeks ago, seemed to have been precipitated by a media float of rumors
that the Saudis would carry out a “massive” invasion of Iraq to protect
the Sunnis there, and that Saudis thus sent to fight in Iraq could not
be prevented from attacking U.S. troops, as well.
This outrageous threat was delivered in
The Washington Post by a now-former Saudi Embassy consultant named
Nawaf Obaid, who was immediately fired by Turki. Turki then
resigned. Rumors of a Saudi intervention in Iraq spread like a virus to
The New York Times, the main fever center of the MSM.
On December 21, in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia,
came reports that Turki’s replacement would be Adel al-Jubeir, a
long-experienced spokesman for the embassy in Washington.
Would al-Jubeir's appointment be good or bad
for Americans?
Al-Jubeir has most recently worked as
foreign-affairs advisor to Saudi King Abdullah. That is a good sign
because Abdullah has made significant gestures toward reform of the
kingdom and, most important, toward ending the Sunni terror in Iraq:
On December 20, one day
before the Jubeir news, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, the
brother of ex-ambassador Turki, stated firmly in Riyadh, “The kingdom
has said it will stand at an equal distance from all Iraqi groups and
does not describe itself as the guardian of any group or sect.”
Such an attitude is
supported by other declarations, included repeated official remarks by
Saudi King Abdullah himself. As recently as December 12, media reported
Abdullah publicly expressing his profound grief over the sectarian and
ethnic bloodshed in Iraq.
Al-Jubeir, as ambassador, and King Abdullah,
can do a great deal to restore U.S.-Saudi relations, which have been
undeniably harmed since the revelation of “15 out of 19” – that 15 of
the 19 suicide terror pilots on September 11, 2001, were Saudis.
To restore good U.S.-Saudi relations, King
Abdullah must, first, help protect our troops and our coalition allies
in Iraq. He must prevent Saudi money from funding jihad in Iraq, and
Saudi volunteers from going north to fight. He must also take further
steps to cut off all state links with the Wahhabi cult and the campaign
for world Wahhabi jihad.
Al-Jubeir can secure the future of his
country by honestly and loyally supporting a program for a new,
pluralistic, and normal Arabian kingdom, which will regain the country’s
global respect and help repair the image of Islam. But for all of us
as Americans, the safety of the coalition in Iraq, and its Iraqi allies,
must come first.