Former Bush Aide: Saudis Lurking Behind Scenes in War on Terrorism
by Chad Groening
February 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - A former special assistant to President Bush says the United States needs to accept the reality that Saudi Arabia must be treated as an adversary -- not as an ally -- in the war on terrorism.David Frum hopes the Bush Administration takes heed to what he and co-author Richard Perle have written in their new book An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror. For one thing, the former Bush speechwriter says America must understand that Saudi Arabia has been active on the terror front for some time.
"Over the past two decades, they've spent tens of billions of dollars to build a network of extremist institutions across the world," Frum says. "They stretch, by the way, right here into North America." He cites one example, in Richardson, Texas, where he says "some of the most extreme and violent of the radical Islamic movement got a base, raised a lot of money, and sent it back to the Middle East."
Frum says the Saudis restrict religious freedom in their own country, but foment Islamic terror on American soil. "They live in the most religiously oppressive society in the world," he says, offering an example.
"Aides tell me that the President of the United States was not allowed to say grace before Thanksgiving dinner when his army was defending Saudi Arabia from Iraq in 1991," he says, "and yet they take advantage of American freedom to infiltrate American institutions like the military and the prisons where Saudi-funded chaplains are teaching this poisonous brand of religion that encourages hatred and murder."
But Frum contends the U.S. can put economic pressure on the Saudis to change. "That regime is in desperate economic trouble," he explains. "The standards of living [there] have collapsed because of economic mismanagement [and] oil is becoming more and more abundant all over the world."
The author says the vast supply of oil from nations like Iraq is going to cut into Saudi Arabia's power -- and will effectively place the U.S. in a much better position "to tell them we expect these changes."
