Ambassador

It would be hard to find a more telling symbol of the contradictory nature of Saudi-American relations than Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudis' new ambassador to the United States. As head of Saudi intelligence from 1977 until Aug. 31, 2001, he personally managed Riyadh's relations with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar of the Taliban. Anyone else who had dealings with even a small fraction of the notorious characters the prince has worked with over the years would never make it past the immigration counter at Dulles Airport, let alone to the most exclusive offices in Washington.

... at the very least, his appointment should stimulate serious discussion of the darker aspects of Saudi Arabia's historic relations with the world of Islamic extremists and terrorists. This is an issue that the Bush administration, like its predecessors, has been reluctant to confront. With Prince Turki as the official face of Saudi Arabia in Washington, the charade should at last be over.

Saudi Arabia is an unregenerate absolute monarchy whose kings and princes live lives of limitless luxury but are publicly dedicated to upholding and propagating the teachings of the puritanical and militantly intolerant Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam. It also happens to sit on top of vast petroleum reserves that the modern industrial world seems unable to learn to live without.

... What particularly frightened and galvanized Saudi Arabia's ruling Sunni royalty was the 1979 Shiite and republican revolution in Iran. Riyadh responded by subsidizing the export of its own Wahhabi brand of Sunni fundamentalism. Saudi billions poured into Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980's, financing local mujahedeen fighters and Arab adventurers, like Osama bin Laden, who flocked to join them. Saudi Arabia also financed hundreds of madrasas, or religious schools, that taught combative strains of Islam and sent graduates to Afghan training camps for instruction in armed jihad. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Riyadh started to view these foreign adventures as a useful safety valve for the increasingly independent and disillusioned Arab guerrilla veterans who might otherwise direct their energies and anger at the Western-allied Saudi royal regime. During these years, the Saudis also poured money into building a network of Wahhabi mosques, schools and bookstores in the impoverished Muslim suburbs of Western Europe.

Prince Turki's long tenure in the intelligence job abruptly ended less than two weeks before 9/11 under unexplained circumstances. Private lawsuits alleging links between Prince Turki and the 9/11 attacks have since been dismissed by an American court...

The New York Pravda goes on to opine that of course al-Faisal is completely Westernized, and so must have nothing to do with the cabal of Princes who carried out the 9/11/2001 attacks.

Him being the youngest son of King Faisal, and so most likely to end up with, you know, the shortest end of the stick. Relatively speaking, on the billion dollar scale, of course.

That wouldn't ever motivate Turki bin Faisal ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud to shake things up. Especially as head of Saudi Intelligence and contact of Osama himself.

Oh, one other nice thing about this Turki.

He was a buddy of Poppy Bu$h involved in the BCCI scam. You know, the one that young John Kerry exposed.

BCCI became the focus in 1991 of the world's worst financial scandal and what was called a "$20-billion-plus heist" (Beaty 1993). It was found by regulators in the United States and United Kingdom to be involved in money laundering, bribery, support of terrorism, arms trafficking, the sale of nuclear technologies, the commission and facilitation of tax evasion, smuggling, illegal immigration, and the illicit purchases of banks and real estate. The bank was found to be worthless, with at least $13 billion unaccounted for.

Investigators in the U.S. and UK revealed that BCCI had been organised to avoid centralized regulatory review and to commit fraud on a massive scale. The bank was found to have its own intelligence network, diplomatic corps, and shipping and commodities trading companies.

In Drugs, Oil and War, Peter Dale Scott wrote:

"BCCI's inside connection to the CIA appears to have been strengthened in 1976, when under CIA Director George Bush "the CIA strengthened its relationships with so-called friendly Arab intelligence agencies. One of the most important of these was Saudi Arabia's intelligence service [the Istakhbarat], run by Kamal Adham, Prince Turki [al-Faisal], Abdul-Raouf Khalil, all of whom were BCCI insiders."

Prince Turki was Osama bin Laden's friend and liaison for more than two decades. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan was directed by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's ISI, the CIA and oil interests (Unocal), and its fall (and 9/11) was directed by the same, and only after the Taliban regime refused to cooperate with larger interests.

Here are excerpts from Ahmed Rashid's Taliban, on Prince Turki:

"Bin Laden, Prince Turki and General [Hameed] Gul were to become firm friends and allies in a common cause."

"The ISI had long wanted Prince Turki Bin Faisal, the head of Istakhbarat, the Saudi Intelligence Service, to provide a Royal Prince to lead the Saudi contingent in order to show Muslims the commitment of the Royal Family to the jihad."

" ... the Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal, deferred Afghan policy to his younger brother, Prince Turki and Saudi intelligence."

...During Osama bin Laden's stay in a Dubai hospital, after the 9/11/2001 attacks, mind you, he met with CIA agents as well as Prince Turki. The Guardian (11/1/01) reported that bin Laden met with:

" ... several members of his family and Saudi personalities, including Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence."