Lawrence Klayman - Greg Palast - Mike Ruppert - Larry King & Bandar bin Sultan - Michael Moore TV - William Clark - Salman Rushdie - John Pilger TV - The Guardian - Michael Springman - Wikileaks - Robert Fisk - The Observer - Frank Gardner TV - Basmah bint Saud - Richard Dawkins - Stephen Kinzer - Noam Chomsky - Michael Scheuer - Jimmy Carter - Muhammad Rez Pahlavi - Iraq: Conflict & Hope TV - Christopher Hitchens - Iain Stewart TV – Terry Hayes - Abby Martin & The Empire Files - Frontline TV - Simon Reeve: This World: Saudi: The Family in Crisis aka House of Saud 2004 - The Corbett Report - Royal Inquest TV - House of Saud: A Family at War TV - Inside the Real Saudi Arabia TV - Dispatches TV - Panorama: The Khashoggi Murder Tapes TV - Secret Wars Uncovered TV - Adam Curtis TV - Julian Assange - The Kingdom: The World's Most Powerful Prince TV - The Terror Routes 2011 -
Certain countries have been targets of the United States ... Yet the biggest country involved in terrorism is Saudi Arabia. They finance it. And we have treated them with kid gloves. We have treated them as if they are not involved in terrorism at all. Is that because of groups like Carlyle that have significant investment with Saudi Arabian interests? Is that because George W Bush’s father is in fact part of the Carlyle Group and is close to the bin Laden family? Lawrence Klayman
Were the Bushes too close to the Saudis? Greg Palast, Bush Family Fortunes, 2004
The story of two dynasties – the Bushes but also the Saudis. ibid.
I received a phone call from a high-placed member of the US Intelligence Agency. He tells me that while there’s always been constraints on investigating Saudis, under George Bush it’s gotten much worse. After the elections the agencies were told to ‘back off’ investigating the bin Ladens and Saudi royals, and that angered agents. Greg Palast, BBC Newsnight
1998 and 2000: Former President George H W Bush travels to Saudi Arabia on behalf of the privately owned Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the US. While there he meets privately with the Saudi royal family and the bin Laden family.
January 2001: The Bush administration orders the FBI and Intelligence agencies to ‘back off’ investigations involving the bin Laden family. Mike Ruppert, The Truth & Lies of 9/11
Larry King: Bandar, do you know the Bin Laden family?
Prince Bandar bin Sultan: I do very well.
Larry King: What are they like?
Prince Bandar bin Sultan: They are really lovely human beings. Larry King Live
Prince Bandar was so close to the Bushes they considered him a member of the family. They even had a nickname for him – Bandar Bush. Two nights after 9/11 George Bush invited Bandar Bush to the White House for a private dinner and a talk, even though bin Laden was a Saudi, and Saudi money had funded Al Qaeda, and 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi. Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004
The United States intervened secretly in 1973 when OPEC was evaluating this proposal, and said please don’t do that. And they were talking to Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, why don’t you sell these in dollars only? And they worked closely with the British on this. And we will sort of a quid pro quo – we’ll protect you, we’ll sell you military arms, we’ll keep you in power, as long as you keep selling oil in dollars. William Clark, author Petrodollar Warfare
The mistake of the West was to put the Sauds on the throne of Saudi Arabia and give them control of the world’s oil fortune, which they then used to propagate Wahhabi Islam. Salman Rushdie
In 1985 Margaret Thatcher negotiated what was called the Arms Deal of the Century. The customer was Saudi Arabia, the medieval keeper of much of the world’s oil ... The deal ... was said to be £30 billion in exports of fighter aircraft, missiles and ships. John Pilger, Flying the Flag (Arming the World), 1994
Huge bribes were paid by the Saudis ... Hundreds of millions of dollars in individual bribes, commissions. The Serious Fraud Squad was about to name names, and Blair stood up and said, Well, because of national security we’re ending this investigation ... It’s a huge scandal. John Pilger, lecture Freedom Next Time
Arms Firm’s £60 million slush fund: Police launch inquiry into allegations of gifts and payments to Saudis. The Guardian front page
In Saudi Arabia I was repeatedly ordered by high level State department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants. These were essentially people who had no ties either to Saudi Arabia or to their own country. I complained bitterly at the time there. I returned to the US: I complained to the State Department here, to the General Accounting Office, to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and to the Inspector General’s office. I was met with silence. What I was protesting was in reality an effort to bring recruits, rounded up by Osama bin Laden, to the US for terrorist training by the CIA. They would then be returned to Afghanistan to fight against the then Soviets. Michael Springman, US Consulate Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, under watch of George H W Bush
The Saudi Government is still one of the major supporters of terrorism around the world. Wikileaks US diplomatic cable 20 October 2005
Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt. Robert Fisk, The Independent 5th March 2011
There are those who say that the Gulf kingdoms will remain secure for years to come. Don’t count on it. Watch Saudi Arabia. Robert Fisk, article Independent online 31st December 2012, ‘Could Saudi Arabia Be Next?’
UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring. The Observer 29th May 2011
This is how a lot of young people spend their Friday nights – having fun, a bit of music, a bit of drag racing. Frank Gardner’s Return to Saudi Arabia, BBC 2013
This is a country absorbing the shockwaves of the Arab Spring. ibid.
Saudi Arabia is a family business ... One of the last absolute monarchies on Earth. ibid.
Women’s rights are the key battle in the government’s struggle with conservatives over change. ibid.
The alliance formed here between ruler and religion still exists today. ibid.
The regime’s iron fist remains just as crucial to its survival. ibid.
Saudis pay no taxes, they’ve got heavily subsidised water and electricity, they’ve got interest free loans, they get free education, free health care, free university fees. ibid.
Saudi is the spiritual birth-place of Al Qaeda. ibid.
A population that has got used to not working. ibid.
Saudi youth is more likely to party than protest on the streets. ibid.
Today in Saudi, women are either at the mercy of their husbands or at the mercy of judges who tend to side with the husbands. The only circumstance that a woman can ask for a divorce or a ‘khali’ is when her husband is in total agreement with her or if she comes from a very powerful family who decide to back her up. Basmah bint Saud
I would like to find a way in which people in Saudi Arabia could learn that they can be something other than a Muslim. Some people may not realize this. Of course, there is the problem that you can get in trouble or get stoned. Richard Dawkins
Successive American presidents have turned a blind eye to piles of evidence that Saudi money is being used to foment holy war against America. Stephen Kinzer
Washington still refuses to provide evidence to support the claims in 1990 that a huge Iraqi military build-up on the Saudi border justified war. Noam Chomsky
An inconvenient Amnesty International release of November 2 reported that Saudi security forces tortured and abused hundreds of Yemeni ‘guest’ workers, also expelling 750,000 of them, ‘for no apparent reason other than their nationality or their suspected opposition to the Saudi Arabian government’s position in the gulf crisis’. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
Most dramatically, and perhaps least noticed, is the violence inside Saudi Arabia itself. Michael Scheuer
Saudi Arabia was, until just a few years ago, probably one of the most safe countries on earth. And now the paper is daily full of activities and shootouts between Islamists who supported Osama bin Laden and the government there. Michael Scheuer
Saudi Arabia has become a firm friend of the United States. As its influence dramatically expands in the world, Saudi Arabia has been not only a firm supporter of the peace process but a moderating and conciliatory force on a wide range of global issues. Jimmy Carter, letter to Congress on Middle East Arms Sales 12 May 1978
The Saudis have never shown any respect for human rights, either now or in the past. Even a petty burglar faces having one of his hands chopped off. The liberal press in America prefers to ignore all this, although they don’t hesitate to blacken the reputation of Iran. Muhammad Reza Pahlavi