- Dear Jeff,
-
- Australian ABC TV ran this Saudi Arabia story last night
(1-08-02) - see transcript below.
-
- The story was said (in the broadcast introduction - not
in the transcript below) to be prompted by recent reports from British
Intelligence/British Foreign Office that Saudi Arabia is about to
collapse into civil war and consequent warnings to British citizens in
Saudi Arabia.
-
- Apparently there are two different Royal Family factions at
one anothers throats, and a third dissident organisation, with Al-Queda
sympathies (possibly supported by a majority of Saudi citizens ???), who
wish to remove the entire Royal Family and kick out the US occupation forces.
-
- Such a war would probably suit those trying to gain control
of Saudi and other Mid Eastern Oil supplies ..................... [See
plan described below for US Forces to section off Eastern Saudi to
protect the oil resources whilst leaving the Saudis free to slaughter one
another over desert sand and religeous holy site politics.....................].
-
- About a week prior to 911 our ABC ran a story about
the dastardly nature of the Taliban regime - possibly a pre-emptive primer
for Australians to explain what followed - ie. 911 and the invasion of
Afghanistahn etc. - as we had heard virtually nothing previously about
them - in our media. This Saudi story might also be intended to explain
some intended near future events ???
-
- It is possible that events in the Middle East are being
accelerated with helping hands from covert intel organisations ???
No prizes for guessing who !!!
-
- The buzz here in the Western Australian sheep export
trade (to the Persian Gulf) is that the US has booked mid August berthing
for an armada of transport ships throughout the Gulf ports - this was done
late last year ................
-
- A bunch of Australian politicians (all parties) have
just returned from a fact finding mission to the Middle East where they
were convinced by someone that Saddam Hussein holds enough biochemical
warfare agents to destroy the entire USA.
-
- I have no info on whom was the source of this intel.
All parties have apparently therefore unanimously agreed that
Australia must take part in the invasion of Iraq to neutralise this
threat. Our Prime Minister stated this morning that Australia would help
the USA in said invasion. He would never make such a statement unless he
had the belief of all party political support.
-
- However at this time there is very definitely NO majority
support for such a war amoungst the Australian public. Similarly in
the UK there is a huge opposition to Blairs policy of "All The Way
With Dubbya". Therefore I suspect that some other despicable
or threatening event must be created first - to enable the spin
doctors to whip the public into a frenzy about the benefits of an Iraqi
(or general Midddle Eastern) invasion.
-
- We could expect a massive rise in the oil (and gold price)
from any serious internal disintegration of Saudi Arabia - coupled
with a huge impact on the Western-World economy because of a real
or imagined threat to oil supplies. This might just be the neccessary "justification"
event - designed to gain public support for invasion and war. The
prize being Middle Eastern Oil reserves and the removal of the enemies
of Israel .........
-
- At the same time it could be used (like 911) to explain
the collapse of the greenback and the US economy and thus would steer the
general population away from looking too closely at the real underlying
causes of this rapidly developing economic debacle.
-
- Regards,
-
- Harry Mason
- PERTH
- Western Australia
-
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- LATELINE
- Late night news & current affairs
-
- TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
- LOCATION:<http://www.abc.net.au/default.htm> abc.net.au
> <http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/default.htm>Lateline > <http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/archives.htm>Archives
- URL: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/s637989.htm
-
- Broadcast: 1/8/2002
- Fears of palace coup in Saudi Arabia
- As a Saudi dissident living in London, he heads the Movement
for Islamic Reform in Arabia. Like Osama bin Laden, Dr Saad al-Fagih went
to Afghanistan for the jihad against the Soviets and he shares something
else with bin Laden - a hatred of the royal family and its military ties
to the United States.
-
- ---------
- Compere: Tony Jones
- Reporter: Tony Jones
-
- As a Saudi dissident living in London, he heads the Movement
for Islamic Reform in Arabia. Like Osama bin Laden, Dr Saad al-Fagih went
to Afghanistan for the jihad against the Soviets and he shares something
else with bin Laden - a hatred of the royal family and its military ties
to the United States.
-
- Dr al-Fagih is in our London studio. Dr Saad al-Fagih,
you've recently claimed that the Saudi regime is covering up or has covered
up a number of attacks against foreigners in recent days. What is happening
there?
-
- DR AL-FAGIH: A small correction. I was in Afghanistan
as a doctor, by the way.
-
- To answer the question, the Saudi regime is very keen
to let the world have the feeling or have the impression that it is stable
and it is not facing any danger or any challenge from within the country.
-
- So they want to find any scapegoat to explain any violence
going on inside the country and they used the Shiite explanation for the
Khobar bombing in 1996 and they were so successful that even the Americans
were deceived by it, even the Americans have bought the story of Shiite
sponsored by Iran who have been behind the Khobar bombing and they have
used the excuse of alcohol war, like mafia war, for the recent multiple
incidents, since October 2000, something like eight or nine incidents.
-
- They have blamed in a manufactured way, in a framing
way, some foreign elements - English, Belgian and Canadian as being behind
those bombings, only to cover up that the real reasons behind those actions
are elements inside the country from jihad groups who might not have direct
link with bin Laden, but regard him as godfather, and they are so scattered
and in a loose connection that it's impossible to eradicate them.
-
- TONY JONES: So you think something bigger is brewing,
because the British foreign office only a few days ago revealed to journalists
that they fear the real possibility that the royal family will be over
thrown in a sort of Palace coup?
-
- DR AL-FAGIH: Well, the major challenge facing the royal
family is within itself. The King has been mentally absent since 1996.
-
- They have not been able to sort the problem of the King
not being able to rule, and they have kept the King body as a safety-valve
to prevent the dispute in the royal family from erupting.
-
- Prince Abdullah, who is supposed to be the next in charge,
the next King, would not accept to appoint Prince Sultan as Crown Prince
and Prince Sultan insists that he should be the next in line for King Abdullah
to be.
-
- So they have not been able to sort this difference, and
they have been able to cover it up by keeping the King as if he is running
the country, in a false manner.
-
- Now, when the King literally dies, they have to face
this fact and they have to decide.
-
- Now, the chance for them sorting their differences, one
of them giving way to the other, is very remote, and that's why probably
the foreign office have expected some major thing happening in the coming
few weeks.
-
- TONY JONES: Is there any truth, do you think, to the
reports that some members of the royal family are in fact linked to or
very sympathetic with Al Qaeda?
- DR AL-FAGIH: No. Those rumours - we are not, we do not
have information to support them, but we would expect one wing of the royal
family in his expected conflict with the other, this conflict which could
be even bloody - I mean, Prince Abdullah is in charge of the national guard,
and Prince Sultan is in charge of the army, and either one will use his
own force to fight the other to fight for power.
-
- Now, they will use all elements of the population, of
the society, to be supporting them.
-
- So they might pretend at one time to be more Islamist,
more tribal, more interested in the business community, in order to guarantee
support of those parts of the society with them.
-
- And they know that bin Laden has big presence in the
country, so they might - when the dispute erupts, they might claim that
they are anti-American, that they are pro-jihad and pro-Islam, in that
manner.
-
- So having said that, others might say, "No, we are
pro American and we want American support in order to win this war".
So it's a very complex issue.
-
- Nobody knows which option they will take, but having
all this picture in our mind, we do not believe that Al Qaeda or Islamists
or even bin Laden will believe whatever Britain pretends by them.
-
- TONY JONES: There is very little uncensored news coming
out of Saudi Arabia. What reports are you getting about the real levels
of unrest in the country. There are reports of anti-American demonstrations
in many cities that are simply covered up.
-
- DR AL-FAGIH: Well, there has been a few demonstrations.
The biggest one was a few weeks ago after the Israeli invasion of the West
Bank.
-
- It was all against Israel, not against the regime itself.
It was opposite to the American consulate because the American consulate
was supposed to be supporting - was a symbol of support to Israel.
-
- Now, the point is the people are full of anger and full
of agitation and full of frustration. Everyone for his own reason.
-
- The Islamists for their own reason, the businessmen for
their own reason, the tribal men for their own reason, and they all have
one thing in common, that is, they are fed up with the royal family.
-
- But there is a strong psychological barrier preventing
people from acting in a massive manner, because of the very effective deception
by the regime to give the impression that it is in charge and very strong.
-
- It is in charge of every media you can imagine. It's
also in charge - even the Arab and many non-Arab media outside the country.
-
- So it is not letting even a slightest leak of other opinion
to the people to give them the real picture of what is going on in the
country.
-
- Once this psychological barrier is broken, either by
dispute in the royal family or by an act by Al Qaeda on a senior member
of the royal family, or by a financial collapse, you would expect a major
act by the people against the regime.
-
- TONY JONES: Could that evolve into the same sort of revolution
as we saw in Iran, a fundamentalist revolution perhaps led by Wahabi clerics,
who by some reports are now out of the control of the royal family?
-
- DR AL-FAGIH: Well, the condition of our country is more
complex than Iran. We would need time to have a sort of unified leadership.
Now there is - people are not experienced enough in politics.
-
- You have to keep in mind that until a few years ago,
the dictionary of politics is not there in the country. Nobody knows anything
about politics.
-
- People have learned about politics only after our movement
has moved outside the country and starting sending leaflets and statements
to the country, after the satellite stations starting acting, after the
Internet, so people have only very few years experience with politics.
-
- So there is a chance of organised takeover, but there
is also a chance of a great chaos in the country.
-
- We have three regions, which are ready to separate into
three separate countries, and we have also very serious and positive reports
about America considering plans to jump in and isolate the eastern province
as the oil region and let the holy areas be separated from the oil.
-
- That is an old contingency plan considered by the Americans
called isolating the oil from the religion. So everything is possible.
-
- We could have a smooth transfer of power and we could
have a chaos, or we could have even disintegration of the whole country.
-
- TONY JONES: We know that 15 of the hijackers on September
11 were Saudi nationals. More than one-third of those now detained at Guantanamo
Bay are Saudi nationals.
-
- You mentioned the link with Al Qaeda before. How strong
is really the sympathy for Al Qaeda and for Osama bin Laden in Saudi Arabia
today?
-
- DR AL-FAGIH: Because of the American policies in the
region before September 11, and also after September 11, the unlimited
support to Israel and continuous embargo on Iraq, what people see as alliance
between the Iraqi - between the Saudi royal family and Americans, to loot
the country's resources, because of those reasons, and because of the insistence
by Americans to keep their forces inside what they describe as the holy
land, the Arabian peninsula, and because America is not ready at all to
reduce those reasons for resentment among people in Arabia.
-
- The hatred to America is immense, and the hatred now
has included the royal family itself together with America because the
royal family has supported America in an unlimited manner, including in
the Palestinian issue.
-
- So the support to bin Laden is immense because of that
reason, and people see bin Laden as the only credible figure who can prove
that he stands face to face with America and causes enough pain and enough
suffering in America to compensate what they are having in the Arab and
Islamic region.
-
- And because they see failure after failure, treason after
treason, as they describe it, among the Arab leaders, especially the Saudi
leaders, they are dying for an example who will become almost like a Messiah,
who will save them from humiliation and continuous repeated loss.
-
- TONY JONES: I'm afraid on that rather bleak note we'll
have to leave it. Dr Saad Al-Fagih, thank you very much for joining us
tonight on Lateline.
-
-
- MULTIMEDIA
-
- <http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2002/08/20020801ll_saudi.ram>Watch
the Video
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- © 2002 Lateline. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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