Saudi prince says Taliban leader could be U.S. ally

[sabra]

Source: Wash Times

Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal on Sunday recommended that the Obama administration work with a top Taliban leader who is behind suicide attacks in Afghanistan and was the likely target of a U.S. missile strike just last fall.

Jalaluddin Haqqani is "someone who could be reached out to … to negotiate and bring into the fold," Prince Turki, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., told a group of about 80 government and business leaders and journalists over dinner in Washington.

Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President Gerald Ford and President George H.W. Bush, also urged the U.S. to negotiate with some members of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, during remarks following Prince Turki's.

But Prince Turki's suggestion that the U.S. work with Haqqani is ironic since the warlord has been surviving in war-torn Afghanistan for decades now by shifting allegiances at opportune times. He was in the employ of the CIA during the Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980's, was a member of the Afghan government that was in power after the Soviets left, and then switched his allegiance to the Taliban as they rose to power in the mid-90's.

Read more: http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/potus-notes/2009/apr/27/saudi-prince-says-taliban-leader-could-be-us-ally/

[HereSince1628]

1. Hey, Turki ol Boy! Treasury notes are NOT shares in US decision making.

19/21 = 91% of the blame, we noticed, even as Bush kissed your man.

[aquart]

2. Our best buds, the Saudis.

[sufrommich]

3. Yes, because the US needs more friends like that. Not. nt

[Duer 157099]

4. Does "bring into the fold" = "give more weapons to"

Because that's how I read it.

Silly Saudis - Trix are for Bushies only

[IndianaGreen]

5. When are the Saudis going to stop financing the Taleban and the madrassas in Pakistan?

An important article from 1998 from the great war correspondent Robert Fisk:

Saudis secretly funding Taliban

Robert Fisk Middle East Correspondent

Wednesday, 2 September 1998

Prince Faisal bin Bandar, went to Riyadh "to seek ... assistance from the special forces of the Ministry of Interior". US intelligence officers "should have recognised the significance ... that this `extremist' group gained enormous popular support through propaganda that directly targeted US, French and British troops".

Obaid quotes a former senior Pakistani civil servant saying that in Afghanistan "the US provided the weapons and the know-how, the Saudis provided the funds, and we provided the training camps ... for the Islamic Legions in the early 1980s and then for the Taliban."

The Saudis and the US chose the Taliban, Obaid says, with the belief that they would be able to take over Afghanistan.

But it was the Taliban's supreme commander who would later demand "a removal of all US troops from Saudi Arabia". Ominously, Obaid adds, "this is the same call made by Wahhabi fundamentalists in the Kingdom before the Riyadh and Dhahran bombings. And if Mr bin Laden actually was behind these attacks, there is even more reason to fear Taliban-inspired terrorism."

Obaid goes on: "According to a high-ranking official in the ministry of justice, Sheikh Mohamed bin Jubier (current chairman of the Saudi Consultative Council), who has been called the `exporter' of the Wahhabi creed in the Muslim world, was a strong advocate of aiding the Taliban."

The connection should have been clear to US operatives in the region, as it was known that the Taliban were largely composed of Afghan refugees from Pakistani theological schools, whose clerics "received their degrees from Saudi Arabia and taught a strict form of Wahhabi theology and law".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/saudis-secretly-funding-taliban-1195453.html

[Hugabear]

6. Ah yes, we should listen to one of the masterminds behind 9-11

If Bush were still in office, there's a good chance that he'd be kissing Saudi ass and doing exactly what they said.

[yurbud]

10. Saudis had more to do with 9/11 than Taliban LINK:

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/03/foia-doc-shows-911commission-lied-about.html

[ohio2007]

7. nice to know the top dogs in Saudi Arabia are rubbing shoulders with the Taliban top dogs......wtf

screw the Saudi's and their band of brown shirts

[shadowknows69]

8. Why the hell not. This country is used to lying down with dogs.

And we have the fleas to prove it. Hell, we bark ourselves from time to time. Just get the troops fucking home.

[Akoto]

9. Oh yes, lets make friends with a habitual traitor. Nothing could go wrong! n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

11. And depending on the Saudis to define "trustworthy"

yeah, as if.