Our relationship with the Saudis is just one more thing that is putting us (and their own 'subjects') in great danger. Doesn't matter who it is, Democrat or Republican, it seems... and while a good portion of it does have to do with oil, I think part of it is that they know where the bodies are buried, as you said (sort of).

Then again... a lot of money relationships back and forth as well.. lots of Saudi investment in things in the US, and probably many other places in the world. Ah well, that's capitalism for you, I guess.

Why briefcases, by the way, I wonder? Seems it would be more efficient to at least carry that much material around in suitcases. It's not as if he has to actually carry any of them himself or anything.

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This could be fairly significant.  I think the House of Saud is very frightened of being deposed.  Remember, we are the "great Satan" over there (not without some justification), and Prince Bandar is known to be joined at the hip to Dubya.  I don't think the Saudi Royal family has any intention of distancing itself from Dubya, but they may want to present that impression to the legions of Saudis who are not happy with either the Saudi Royal family, or their coziness with Bush.

Prince Turki's deployment to replace Bandar is a signal that the relations between the US and the Saudis are on a steep downward path, no doubt a part of the results of the Bush regime's destabilization program in the MidEast.

Methinks very expensive oil coming very soon now.

Denial is our most dangerous adversary.

Turki is one of the Sudairi Seven.  He also has a disturbing number of ties to Osama bin Laden, which would require me to write an entire diary to explain but click here to start.

And forget the Osama stuff, why would Abdullah send Turki outside the country? Sounds to me like Fahd is in rough shape and something's about to go down.

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

During the BCCI scandal Adham spoke to a Saudi audience in 1992 and said that BCCI was more than a bank...it was a bank that owned banks, and it was a bank to allow the third world to get around the restrictions of the first world monitoring and forbidding.

He then claimed that Pakistan had a nuclear weapon. Previously, when the level of money laundering for drug and arms and more became known, Adham had hired the asst. of White House Chief of Staff John Sununu who had just quit his position (conveniently) to open a private practice. Adham paid Edward M. Rogers, Jr. the asst., $600k over two years.

But when Bush Sr. was asked for a reaction of Adham's statement about Pakistan's nuclear weapon (that BCCI helped to create.), Bush Sr. got word to the White House press corp that he knew nothing about Kamal Adham.

"The Reagan Administration, intent on continuing military aid to Pakistan during the Afghanistan War ( military aid to OBL, too,  as we now know), turned a blind eye, since U.S. law prohibited aid for military sales to nonnuclear countries known to be developing nuclear weapons...

In 1988/89, Bush was constrained to certify that Pakistan still did not 'possess a nuclear explosive device,' to continue justifying aid to Pakistan...at that time the third largest recipient of American aid...

...when Russia pulled out of Afghanistran, suddenly Bush made sure US aid was cut off."

 (which may explain some of the issues with the ISI)

According to the authors, Adham also knew that the White House was aware of all of BCCI's activities, and had known for a while...because the CIA was using BCCI too...