Global Terrorism and Saudi Arabia: Bandar’s Terror Network
Saudi Arabia has all the vices and none of the virtues of an oil rich
state like Venezuela. The country is governed by a family dictatorship
which tolerates no opposition and severely punishes human rights
advocates and political dissidents. Hundreds of billions in oil
revenues are controlled by the royal despotism and fuel speculative
investments the world over. The ruling elite relies on the purchase of
Western arms and US military bases for protection. The wealth of
productive nations is syphoned to enrich the conspicuous consumption of
the Saudi ruling family. The ruling elite finances the most fanatical,
retrograde, misogynist version of Islam, “Wahhabi” a sect of Sunni
Islam.
Faced with internal dissent from repressed subjects and religious
minorities, the Saudi dictatorship perceives threats and dangers from
all sides: overseas, secular, nationalists and Shia ruling governments;
internally, moderate Sunni nationalists, democrats and feminists;
within the royalist cliques, traditionalists and modernizers. In
response it has turned toward financing, training and arming an
international network of Islamic terrorists who are directed toward
attacking, invading and destroying regimes opposed to the Saudi
clerical-dictatorial regime.
The mastermind of the Saudi terror network is Bandar bin
Sultan, who has longstanding and deep ties to high level US political,
military and intelligence officials. Bandar was trained and
indoctrinated at Maxwell Air Force Base and Johns Hopkins University and
served as Saudi Ambassador to the US for over two decades (1983 –
2005). Between 2005 – 2011 he was Secretary of the National Security
Council and in 2012 he was appointed as Director General of the Saudi
Intelligence Agency. Early on Bandar became deeply immersed in
clandestine terror operations workingin liaison with the CIA. Among his numerous “dirty operations” with
the CIA during the 1980s, Bandar channeled $32 million dollars to the
Nicaragua Contra’s engaged in a terror campaign to overthrow the
revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua. During his tenure as
ambassador he was actively engaged in protecting Saudi royalty with ties
to the 9/11/01 bombing of the Triple Towers and the Pentagon.
Suspicion that Bandar and his allies in the Royal family had prior
knowledge of the bombings by Saudi terrorists (11 of the 19), is
suggested by the sudden flight of Saudi Royalty following the terrorist
act. US intelligence documents regarding the Saudi-Bandar connection
are under Congressional review.