"Arming our false friends"

One of the last and least attractive acts of the Blair government was a decision to end a corruption probe into the sale of British arms to Saudi Arabia.  Team Blair did not want to risk losing future opportunities to sell more UK-made weaponry  to the oil-rich desert kingdom.  In the last couple of weeks the USA has announced plans to sell $20bn of arms to the Saudis.  An article in today's Wall Street Journal raises serious doubts about the wisdom of such sales.  Here are some key quotes from Bret Stephens' must-read piece about Saudi Arabia:

• "In 2003, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that al Qaeda had "tried to recruit Saudi Arabian Air Force pilots to carry out a suicide attack in Israel... using either F-15 jets or civilian aircraft." Israel also has serious concerns about the extent of al Qaeda's penetration of Saudi Arabia's National Guard."
• "A year ago, the Treasury Department named the director and two branches of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization "for facilitating fundraising for al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups." The chairman of the IIRO is Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti and a member of the cabinet; Prince Sultan has also been a major donor."
• "According to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times, 45% of all suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudis; collectively, they account for some 2,000 deaths in the past six months. Would it be too much for the U.S. to ask the Saudis to screen young men leaving the country with one-way tickets to Damascus? So far, the Saudi government has refused."
• "Back in 2002, a Rand Corporation analyst named Laurent Murawiec gave a briefing to the Pentagon's advisory Defense Policy Board, in which he described Saudi Arabia as the "kernel of evil... active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader." Every word of that is true. Yet the administration walked a mile to distance itself from his remarks and Mr. Murawiec lost his job."

Melanie Phillips is equally unimpressed with Washington's plan to equip "the religious fount of al Qaeda".  She notes: "'My enemy’s enemy is my friend’ is a principle that has always underpinned realpolitik. It is extremely stupid. My enemy’s enemy may also be… my enemy."

Comments

[powellite]

Much as I love our American cousins, the funding of a Wahabbist Government does nothing to help the fight against terrorism. Realpolitik makes strange bedfellows - this one, the strangist of them all...how can this be squared with the huge number of Saudis fighting coalition forces in Iraq?

[MikeA]

A very difficult balance to strike.
Do you support the current regime in Saudi with arms, money (not that they need any frankly), technical and political support. Or do you not support the Saudi regime and face the risk that they fall to an Al-Queda backed popular revolution.
On balance, better the devil you know, rather than an implacable enemy controlling 1/3 of the world's oil?
This is what guides British and American strategy here.
The Saudis are not our friends but at least we have a basis for a rational relationship with them, albeit with significant caveats. An Al-Queda guided and led Islamist Saudi government that seeks global Islamic revolution and the re-establishment of the Caliphate is frankly worse.

[Yet Another Anon]

Now that the Ba'athist regime in Iraq has been brought down, the most likely usage of Saudi military forces is in quelling some kind of revolutionary attempt by Al Qaeda or some other such group.

At 10% of GDP their spending on the Armed Forces is now excessive and moving towards half that would be a reasonable aspiration.

Given that Saudi Arabia is actually quite a wealthy country I would think that they are quite capable of procuring their own weaponry without British assistance and that probably it is best for the UK and US to stay out of internal Saudi affairs so as to avoid provoking any kind of upsurge in support for Al Qaeda while though information sharing to help them take action against Al Qaeda.

The House of Saud is far from perfect, but it is working to keep Saudi Arabia from falling into the hands of Al Qaeda.

It is also desirable to as much as possible switch Britain's economy away from liquid petroleum and gas and so avoid being in the situation in which potentially unstable states could be holding the UK to ransom for fuel and influencing British foreign policy.

[Simon Newman]

As I've said before, the weapons per se aren't a worry, weapons in Saudi hands are no threat to anyone unless they're electric shock batons being used for internal repression.

What is of concern is not guns and planes, but the Saudis' real weapon - money. Money buys influence in the West (through arms deals, among other things), money funds the global spread of radical Wahabbist Islam.

[Simon Newman]

BTW I don't think there's any evidence that the population of Arabia are foaming at the bit to install Al Qaeda in power.

[Henry Mayhew - Ukipper / delusional conservative]

The Saudis are OK. We should support them. There is a lot of change happening there at the moment. Although the Mutaween patrol up and down, shopkeepers often just pull the blinds at prayers and carry on.

Pulling support for the King would be absolutely disastrous. He is a great guy.

[Dontmakemelaugh]

The view of ED Thomas in his blog, Talking Hoarsely. Google blog search to read the links - can also be accessed through side bar on biased-bbc blog.

Libel ScandalYes, it's pretty shocking. So much seems to slip past the British blogosphere it's scary. I've long been suspicious about our strict libel laws, and now it seems they're being used in a meaningful way by the kind of person who'd like nothing better than to bring an end to all our laws in favour of Sharia law. You can find out about the attempt to stifle free speech at HotAir, here and here, and Mark Steyn has an opinion piece about it today. If you want to find a copy of "Alms for Jihad" however, you may have more difficulty...This a big story because:A)Cambridge University press has issued a craven apology rather than stand up for a respectable book by a respectable author. B)It's one of several such cases.c)It's using UK law to impinge on the freedoms enjoyed by US writers and readers.d)It's undermining national security by disengaging the public from matters which concern them, and creating an ever closer relationship between Islamist interests and the UK authorities.

[davod]

Alms for Jihad is available electronically here:
Alms for Jihad

Get it while you can.

[Dennis]

The assertion that it is unwise to sell arms to the Saudi regime ignores the basic fact that through the adminstrations of Raegan, Bush Sr, Thatcher, Clinton, Bush Jr & Blair the House of Saud has been a close ally & proverbial 'cash cow'.
The 'Bush' family has also had a long, well documented and lucrative relationship with the Saudi royal family.
The 'apparently new' discovery that leading Saudi officials have a link to Al-Qaeda betrays a wilful ignorance of the history regarding these matters.
The only thing it clearly demonstrates is the endemic 'moral bankruptcy' of our political class.
How can it be amazing to discover that Saudi officials share the same ideology as a rapidly growing sector of their populace?

[Dennis]

MikeA-'The Saudis are not our friends but at least we have a basis for a rational relationship with them'

I would only replace the word rational with financial and we would be singing from the same song sheet.

Yet another anon - 'The House of Saud is far from perfect, but it is working to keep Saudi Arabia from falling into the hands of Al Qaeda.'

I may dare to suggest that even our most pliant of Saudi royalty shares ideaology & sympathises with Osama and his hideous organisation.

[steevo]

Dennis, you found an article you're confident enough to return to our forum again? But you, a consistent anti-American left-winger talking about moral bankruptcy?

Do you think its long enough since your previous postings we won't know you? Al-Qaeda, the main terrorist force in Iraq was judged your "freedom fighters" not THAT long ago.

When you, out of anyone else in here start throwing out statements judging the intent of others, especially that hidden dark 'morally bankrupt' stuff, you better back it up in the same post.

"The 'Bush' family has also had a long, well documented and lucrative relationship with the Saudi royal family."

Prove it, beyond your own sick hatred and twisted realities!

Here we go again with B&A's Michael Moore.

[Yet Another Anon]

As I've said before, the weapons per se aren't a worry, weapons in Saudi hands are no threat to anyone unless they're electric shock batons being used for internal repression.
Saudi Arabia needs a lot of internal repression to keep pro Al Qaeda elements and other similar factions under control, if Al Qaeda succeeded in launching an attack either on Israel or on Iran using Saudi warplanes it could start either a full scale Muslim-Jewish or Sunni-Shia conflict in the region, this is what Al Qaeda wants to achieve, if they can't get Arab and other Muslim countries to start a Holy War through persuasion they want to manipulate them into one in moving to defend a counter attack against an Al Qaeda led attack - this would also put the US in the position of having either to choose sides between Saudi Arabia and Israel, or trying to mediate and maybe even getting involved militarily in stopping a struggle and possibly getting shot at by both sides - Al Qaeda know that even against a small Gulf state they cannot match them militarily, but through a strategy of engineering chaos they might hope to engineer wars and leave others to fight them.

[Kevin Sampson]

The arms sales to Saudi Arabia are not about fighting al Queda or stabilizing the SA government, they are about strengthening neighboring Sunni states in order to contain Iran.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/me_iran_07_13.asp

[Joanna]

Likely you're right, Kevin. There's another article, written by a conservative professor, that points out the convenient timing--the arms sales just as there are rumors of a rapprochement between Iran and the U.S.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-08-26-0088.html