Who is the New Saudi Ambassador and Why Don't We Care?

By Douglas Farah

I have waited in vain for someone in the major media to run something telling the American people who the new Saudi ambassador to the United States--Prince Turki al-Faisal--really is. Yet his naming has passed almost unnoticed and uncommented since it was made last month.

It is important to understand that Prince Turki not only has ties to U.S. intelligence dating back to the BCCI scandal of the 1980s. But more importantly, he was was head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years, and as such one of the chief propagators of the spread of wahhabism around the world. He also supported radical Islamic and wahhabist causes without hesitation or reserve. He resigned his intelligence position a month before 9-11, and, since 2002 was Saudi ambassador to Great Britain.

He was one of the primary architects and bagmen for the Saudi funding of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan. He supervised the purchase of some 400 pickup trucks for the Taliban's final push to victory in 1996, and worked closely with Pakistani intelligence to arm, train and supply the Taliban long after the Taliban took in Osama bin Laden as a special guest. He has helped spread around the world the wildly anti-Jewish hate literature that the Saudi government prints and Saudi intelligence helps distribute. This includes calls to kill all Jews, along with calls to wage war against Christianity. These are not passing references, but the heart of wahhabi teachings, which Prince Turki has overseen and spread.

While Prince Turki denies any sympathy for bin Laden, and states that he only met bin Laden in the 1990s on visits to Afghanistan, his support for the Taliban, his support for the Saudi diplomatic recognition and funding for the Taliban and the deep involvement of his intelligence operatives is forming and shaping the Taliban place him in very close proximity to al Qaeda. According to published accounts, Prince Turki's enthusiasm for the Taliban faded after a 1998 visit to Kandahar, Afghanistan, when Taliban leader Mullah Omar, insulted him and refused to discuss handing bin Laden over to the Saudis.

I find it hard to imagine why the Bush administration, despite the ties of the Bush family to Prince Turki (he worked with Bush I when Bush I was head of the CIA) accepting this appointment. Why would you accept a hate-spewing architect of one of your worst enemies as ambassador to your country? I find it even more interesting that no one is questioning this at all in the major media or in public forums. Even in a slow August no one seems to care. To continue reading, please go here.

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