Posted on 10/17/2001 10:37:46 AM PDT by veronica
Saudis Alarmed by Spate of U.S. Media Attacks
By Mariam Isa
RIYADH (Reuters) - Prominent Saudis are alarmed at a spate of scathing articles about the kingdom which have appeared in top U.S. publications this week, saying they may further damage ties already strained by the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Newspaper and magazine articles in the United States have accused the ruling family and other rich Saudis of funneling millions of dollars to "terrorist" Muslim groups -- including Osama bin Laden -- in return for political support.
One American commentator even suggested, albeit tongue in cheek, that the United States should bomb Saudi Arabia if it was serious about punishing the supporters of last month's suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
"The articles are biased and bent on provoking the situation more and more, rather than healing anything," Salah al-Hejailan, a top Saudi lawyer, told Reuters. "I think they are very destructive to the (U.S.-Saudi) relationship. It's very frustrating because they are sensational and biased," he said.
Analysts say the 50-year-old strategic alliance between the world's largest industrial power and the conservative desert kingdom -- the world's largest oil producer and a key market for many Western export businesses -- is already being tested by the U.S. military campaign against Afghanistan.
CALLS FOR HEALTHIER RELATIONSHIP
Many recent U.S. editorials have resurrected an oil-boom cartoon stereotype of wealthy Saudis not practicing the piety they preach and buying U.S. military might to help prop up an allegedly corrupt regime.
"The frank criticism and candid opinion contained in your October 14 editorial 'Regarding Saudi Arabia' is to be welcomed for its honesty," Saudi businessman Hassan Youssef Yassin said in a letter to the New York Times.
"But I fear that the person who stands most to gain from it is Osama bin Laden. Among his stated goals is the intention to sever the warm relationship that exists between Saudi Arabia and America," he said.
The newspaper had said both countries should try to fashion a healthier relationship based on greater frankness and honesty. U.S. officials in the kingdom, worried about growing public anger against Western support for the attacks on Afghanistan, also say that the articles are not helping to foster trust. Many Saudi officials are becoming convinced that there is a coordinated media campaign against the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam 14 centuries ago.
Some articles criticized Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, for barring the launch of attacks against Muslim Afghans from its soil -- a move most ordinary Saudis would strongly oppose.
Other articles have alleged that the Saudi government has refused to cooperate with Washington's investigation into the hijacked airliner attacks, in which nearly 5,400 people died.
The U.S. government says Saudi Arabia is fully co-operating by sharing intelligence and adding its weight to the global crackdown on the financing of terrorism. "Relationships between governments can change overnight. It takes generations to repair what happens between people... America should take that into account," Hejailan said.
Was this in the news or editorial section?
This is what we're fighting to protect--the right for media to sensationalize, the right for a late night comedian to make a stupid statement
If they feel these comments are factually wrong, then they should correct the media. Correcting them over an interpretation of the facts--not going to happen. Everyone has an opinion--and in the U.S. of A. we get to state it.
We want their oil, and they want our money.
Oh we ARE, you arrogant clymer.
And you believe this based on?
OK.
This is a reaction of how this sensitive arab "feels".
Now if he can identify which criticisms are unfounded, or untrue, that would be useful.
Or he suggesting that no criticism is tolerated?
Mecca and Medina, to say nothing of the vast oil wealth of Arabia, belong by historical right to the Hashemite King of Jordan. H.M. King Abdullah is pro-Western, moderate, and humane.
After we destroy Afghanistan, forget about it. If we are going to do any nation building, it ought to involve extirpation of the Wahhabi scum from the Arabian peninsula, and restoration of the Hashemite dynasty to the united thrones of Jordan and Arabia. Call it Greater Arabia, and put Hussein and Assad on notice that Iraq and Syria will be its next provinces if they so much as look cross-eyed at us.
-ccm
(Attacks on the Saudis, media or otherwise, are warranted at this point.)
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