...the Saudis ... are a divided nation themselves, the royal family is filled with divisions. .
That is true and it applies to nearly every country in the region. They all have significant (like 40%) segments in their populations which support Islamic fundamentalism. That is why the Saudis did what they did, ie allow Al Qaeda supporters to pump money into that organization.
When Bin laden came back a "hero of Islam" from the war in Afghanistan, the first thing he did was rally the support of the Islamic core in SA. His plan was simple and he stated it publicly: topple the government in SA, establish a power base, then export it to the rest of the middle east by destabilizing their governments and arming the FI (fundamental islamic) segments within the countries. It would be accomplished by starting a civil war, then overthrowing the government. If it sounds familiar, it is the scenario that now faces us in Iraq.
The point is with SA, their government chose to be cowards. When OBL tried to take down the government, they just kicked him out of the country. They should have locked him up forever, but they feared it would lead to civil war. What's worse, when he established Al qaeda as an operational terror force and began striking targets, the SA government made a deal with the devil to turn a blind eye to the people within their own country paying for it. In return, Al Qaeda did not strike SA targets unless they were purely US targets. The problem is that:
...the royal family is filled with divisions. They have been put on notice that they are not immune from the consequences of being supporters of terrorism. .
Is 100% false. In fact, the Saudis have been clearly told they can literally get away with murder as long as Bush is around to cover up what they are doing. Our intel tracked the money to Al qaeda back to the source a long time ago, we knew it was the Saudi's. Bush has never done jack about it. In fact, a report on terrorism which had about 33 pages worth of that proof was censored to remove it. A patriot on the inside leaked a summary of the contents, which is how it was found out. It was reported and the saudi Ambassador was in Washington the next day demanding an apology. The message was: "Plug the leak, George."
The Kobar Towers attack in SA against US citizens was clearly the work of Al Qaeda. The saudi's restricted the FBI, stonewalled the investigation, and then declared it was over after they tortured confessions out of a few locals. The FBI were never granted access to them and the FBI classifies that investigation as "OPEN" to this day because it was so obviously corrupt.
The message GWB has sent the Saudi's is: "I am so scred of losing your oil that we will let you get away with anything, and cover up your crimes." That is the prime reason I will vote ABB (anybody but Bush).
Our allies in the Saudi royal family are hunting down bad guys (al qaeda) because they are a common enemy. .
The saudi govt is doing what the governments of South America do when they help us fight the "war on drugs": offer up a few low-level players for publicity while the main rats are still running free. The royal family is certainly not pursuing the people who fund Al qaeda because they are them, as well as many other extremely wealthy and influential Saudis.
It's true some people will be caught and executed for "crimes", but after the Kobar Towers show, I am not at all convinced any of them will be Al Qaeda... and certainly not any actual major players. Those will be protected for the simple rason that the saudi government is afraid of civil war.
But we haven't gone too far.... our Saudi enemies best beware. .
We haven't actually gone anywhere as far as laying down the law to the saudi government.
We are not dicking around anymore. You better believe our enemies are praying to Allah for another Democratic administration.
Actually, we are dicking around as far as rooting out the source of Al Qaeda's life blood. It's alive and well and gushing out of SA. GWB will do nothing to interfere with the saudi government and their cowardly actions. As to whether a Democrat ould have the cajones to take a hard line stance against them? probably not.
