Latest Saudi revelations raise very large questions

When even the Most Equal Comrade's regime has to get real:

Following a dramatic deterioration in official diplomatic channels between the US and Saudi Arabia when over the weekend the Saudis threatened the U.S. with dumping billions in Treasuries if Congress were to pass a bill probing into their alleged support of Sept 11 terrorists in the aftermath of last weekend's 60 Minutes report on the classified "28 pages" from the Septemeber 11 commission, moments ago the Obama administration made a stunning admission, when for the first time it revealed on the record that the Saudis were the original source of funding for Al Qaeda.

As Politico reports, Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, while speaking to David Axelrod in Monday's edition of "The Axe Files" podcast said that the government of Saudi Arabia had paid "insufficient attention" to money that was being funneled into terror groups and fueled the rise of Al Qaeda when he was asked about the validity of the accusation that the Saudi government was complicit in sponsoring terrorism.

At first, he tried to tone down what amount to the first official admission of Saudi involvement in September 11, saying "I think that it’s complicated in the sense that, it’s not that it was Saudi government policy to support Al Qaeda, but there were a number of very wealthy individuals in Saudi Arabia who would contribute, sometimes directly, to extremist groups. Sometimes to charities that were kind of, ended up being ways to launder money to these groups." 

But moments later the truth came out when he said "So a lot of the money, the seed money if you will, for what became Al Qaeda, came out of Saudi Arabia," he added. 

And then the punchline came out when Axelrod asked if "that happen without the government’s awareness?" To which Rhodes responded that he doesn’t believe the government was “actively trying to prevent that from happening."

In other words, the Saudi government knew that "a number of very wealthy Saudi individuals" were funneling funds into what would become the organization blamed for the attack on the twin towers.

This is Saudi Arabia we're talking about, the one player in the Middle East that has always been considered indispensable, something of a ballast to the dynamics of the region. Consider its role in the current Syrian situation, standing with Western powers in asserting that Assad should go. Consider its outreach to Israel regarding the Iranian nuclear program.

Consider the influence its oil has imbued it with.

Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, are in Saudi Arabia. It is the destination of all who undertake the hajj.

 We should have been able to smell this before now. Treating Saudi Arabia like the grownup in the Middle East room has required a lot of nose-holding. Women's status there is no better than it is in, say, Iran. You'd get in huge trouble for trying to get a Bible through customs. The legal system there calls for amputation and merciless flogging for violations for which Western nations fine people, or incarcerate them for brief periods of time.


We now have to ask more uncomfortable questions about Islam. The first is, who does one trust in that world? 

And then look at the immigration policies of pretty much all Western nations. Do even the well-behaved, well-educated types among the multitudes flooding into our countries have some aim beyond just getting a place to live, getting a job, and enjoying life?

And as for such types, they, too, have to ask themselves some hard questions about the true nature and full doctrine of this religion they practice. Can they live with us and let us be who and what we are? Or are they compelled to work for an objective at odds with that premise?