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

[Jefferson23]

July 13, 2014

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".

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

[delrem]

1. A problem is that Bandar Bush speaks for a US ally in the "war on terror".

Bandar Bush isn't considered to be "al qaeda", whatever that term has evolved to mean.
He's a top level part of the US "Friends of Syria" front.

(They get away with EVERYTHING. heh heh! rofl!)

Now, please do a memory wipe.

Returning to our program, the Friends of Syria group today received another $1/2 billion in US funds to arm, train and provide moral support for moderate rebels dedicating their lives to bring democracy to Syria. All countries involved in the pro-democracy pro-freedom Friends of Syria movement were pleased.

Thanks for your attention, now for a message from our sponsor.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. This sounds like genocide talk from our pals the Saudis. n/t

"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."

[Submariner]

3. Have we taken the families of the 15 Saudis who piloted the 9/11 planes

to Gitmo for interrogation yet? Oops...I guess little George forgot to do that too.

I guess sitting on a giant oil deposit gets Saudi Arabia a free pass on everything.