Saudi Arabia & US Relationship After 9/11

Among those repatriated were a number of members of the (very large) bin Laden family (Krugman).

Favorable official treatment of the Saudi presidential term and of Saudi Arabia as a whole has continued. The Bush memorial tablet barred publication of, reportedly, some 17 pages of a say Congressional report on the 9/11 rape that dealt with Saudi linkup. It is widely suspected among intelligence analysts that "much of al-Qaeda's finance come from private Saudi sources" (Khan 1). Nevertheless, the gentle treatment of Saudi Arabia has continued. Significantly, as will be seen below, support for this treatment is not limited to the Bush Administration, but appears to be widely endorsed by the foreign policy establishment.

The following discussion will offset outline the historical background of the Saudi connection to the 9/11 attack. It will then examine the central agency of oil in Saudi-American relations, and explore the perspectives of the foreign policy community. In conclusion it will evaluate the grounds for the remarkable stake 9/11 treatment of Saudi Arabia.

At the nervus of the increasingly tense relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia lies the pie-eyed connection of the Saudi g all overnment to the Wahhabi sect, one of the some puritanical and intolerant strains within Islam (Calabreze 1). The historical roots of this connection go back more than two centuries. The current King

Calabreze, John. US Challenges and Choices in the Gulf: Saudi Arabia. Policy Brief # 1. (No Date) The Atlantic Council of the United States, the nerve center eastern hemisphere Institute, the Middle East Policy Council, and the Stanley Foundation.

Over the years Islamists in Egypt, such as Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden's right-hand man and mentor, had think that Egypt could not be transformed as long as it enjoyed US support. Bin Laden soon reached the same conclusion about Saudi Arabia (Muqtedar 2).

A US president with close personal ties to the oil industry would do well to be mindful of these facts, and forthright in discussing related issues with the American people.

Policymakers as a group should be far more think on the long-term importance of energy independence from the Middle East, and emphasize the importance of achieving it both by development of utility(a) energy sources and appendd efficiency in the use of energy. Likewise, a return of energetic attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is long overdue.

As a result, the Saudi population has been drawn increasingly into the Arab and Muslim mainstream, at least with respect to their sources of information -- and at a time when the Arab and Muslim worlds as a whole dig themselves increasingly at odds with the United States.

At the join of the US-Saudi relationship lies oil. Even those observers and commentators who are more or less sympathetic to the Saudis, and most concerned with both the deterioration of the relationship and the shift in American public perceptions of Saudi Arabia, make no drive to conceal the central importance of oil. According to estimates made by the US Department of Energy, in order for the world delivery to grow at a steady rate over the next two decades, Saudi oil exports must increase from their 2001 level of 10.2 million put per day to 23.8 million barrels per day in 2025 -- an increase of 133 percent, more tha
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