conversationpc wrote:The_Noble_Cause wrote:Ok, and as I do that you can thumb thru the last week's 148 pg report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which states unequivocally (yet again) that Saddam had no link to Al Qaeda.
The issue isn't necessarily whether Iraq had a link to Al Qaeda. It's partly do do with Iraq having a link to ANY terrorist organizations or individuals. It's well known that Saddam rewarded the families of the Palestinian homicide bombers.
Where do you stand on the United States' special relationship with Saudi Arabia, Dave?
Here's two articles about Saudi Arabia. The first details the amount of arms which America sold to Saudi Arabia in the years leading up to September 11th - despite the total lack of 'democracy' and 'freedom' in that country.
And the second explores how influential Saudi Arabia has been in the rise of Islamic terrorism.
This is from "US Arms Clients Profiles" -
http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/saudi_arabia.htm - and was written just before the September 11th attacks:
"Saudi Arabia is America’s top customer. Since 1990, the U.S. government has arranged for the delivery of more than $39.6 billion in foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, and an additional $394 million worth of arms were delivered to the Saudi regime through the State Department’s direct commercial sales program during that same period.
The United States has very close and long-running military ties to the Saudi regime dating back to 1945.
Despite the show of U.S. support demonstrated by this astounding quantity of arms sales, Saudi Arabia’s human rights record is very poor.
The government prohibits or restricts freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, and religion. Since Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, there is no method or right by which citizens can bring about government change."
This next article was written in 2003...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main ... do2201.xml
HOW SAUDI ARABIA SPREADS TERRORISM AND HATRED OF THE WEST
By Daniel Johnson(Filed: 22/07/2003)
According to Newsweek, a congressional joint intelligence inquiry has concluded that Saudi Arabia was deeply implicated in the attacks of September 11. A close associate of the al-Qa'eda hijackers, Omar al-Bayoumi, is alleged to have been working as a Saudi agent, operating from the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles.
The Bush administration has censored an entire section from the report, detailing the Saudi role in the events leading up to the attacks. These suppressed passages are said to explain how Saudi diplomats provided financial and logistical support for the terrorists.
In America, Saudi-funded charities spread hate propaganda against Jews and Christians. The Chicago office of the Islamic Benevolence Committee was used as a cover by bin Laden operatives until the authorities indicted its head for conspiracy and racketeering and blocked its bank accounts.
In the Middle East, Gold produces documentary evidence of how a committee established by another Saudi royal prince pumped money into Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including nursery schools for suicide bombers.
As David Gold concludes: "The Saudis were up to their necks in terrorism."
They are also in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which makes support for terrorism a violation of international law."
So is Bush putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to become a democracy? Introduce a Bill of Rights? Hunt down and punish the terrorist organisations who are operating within Saudi Arabia? Or who finance terrorist cells abroad?
No. Saudi Arabia is America's most valued ally and client in the Middle East. This isn't what I'd call "kicking terrorist ass".