Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country

[n2doc]

How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shia'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them."

The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit.

In Mosul, Shia shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shia Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by Isis fighters as "spoils of war". Simply to be identified as Shia or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940.

There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa'ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar's words, saying that they constituted "a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed".

more

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-how-saudi-arabia-helped-isis-take-over-the-north-of-the-country-9602312.html

[grahamhgreen]

1. Our involvement in the 1400 year old Sunni / Shia conflict only makes things worse.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. An excellent article. Highly recommend.

Might I suggest a cross post in Foreign Affairs group?

Sadly, the majority of Americans do not understand/follow foreign politics, esp. in the Middle East.

[johnnyreb]

3. Hunh! This brings to mind other stuff about our recent war to destabilize the Saudi neighbor;

Bandar -- now Abdullah's national security adviser -- said Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision."
"If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/01/saudiarabia.terrorism/index.html

A criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office - which is understood to have discovered the payments but not whether they were illegal - was controversially dropped "in the interests of national security" last year, after Tony Blair warned that the Saudis, vital allies in the war on terror and a stabilising force in the Middle East, would stop sharing anti-terrorist intelligence if the inquiry continued.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1554076/We-did-it-their-way.html

Bandar's wife made several payments to two of the Saudi 9/11 hijackers who also coincidentally held accounts with Riggs Bank.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/06/07/343906/-Bandar-Bush-Fingered-In-2-Billion-Bribery-Probe

U.S. Supreme Court green lights 9/11 victims lawsuit against Saudi Arabia
July 8 2014
In a decision largely unreported by the national media, the U.S. Supreme Court last week denied Saudi Arabia’s appeal that it be dropped as a defendant in a civil lawsuit alleging it bankrolled al Qaeda in the years before 9/11.
The justices ruled without comment. The long-running case, brought by thousands of 9/11 victims, relatives and others, now proceeds toward trial against Saudi Arabia and other defendants.
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2014/07/u-s-supreme-court-green-lights-911-victims-lawsuit-against-saudi-arabia/

Recent family statements:
"It all ties together about financing power, leading back to the Saudis,"
"It is all one big cover-up."
a "coverup beyond belief."
"The US Government unfortunately chose not to stand by the families and survivors of 9/11. All we can say is that we were very, very disappointed"

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi as, of course, was bin Laden. With American airspace still closed, dozens of Saudi royals and members of bin Laden's extended family were airlifted back to Riyadh, most after only perfunctory questioning by the FBI. And just two days after the attacks, President Bush was smoking a cigar on the Truman balcony of the White House with Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador and man about Washington, in the company of Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512262024552884

Saudi Arabia, which helped to fund the 1991 war against Iraq,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/10/iraq.brianwhitaker