Saudi King "despises" the corruption in Pakistan-has a 'colored' view of the country

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Saudi King "despises" the corruption in Pakistan and has a 'colored' view of the country

Published: Friday, Dec 3, 2010, 22:27 IST
By Sreejiraj Eluvangal | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA



One of the most suprising revelations of the Wikileaks is the extent to which the holy land of Islam — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — stands shoulder to shoulder with the US in the fight against Islamist terrorism.

The Saudi king, who lamented the hijacking of Islam by the terrorists, emerges as not only one of the most aggressive pursuers of terrorists, but also “despised” the corruption in fellow Islamic nation of Pakistan — according to ‘Wikileaked’ transcripts of a conversation between Obama’s special envoy to Af-Pak and a Saudi minister and Prince.

"Terrorists stole the most valuable things we have. They took our faith and our children and used them to attack us," a cable from the Riyadh embassy in May 2009 quoted Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Saudi assistant minister of the interior as telling Richard Holbrooke, who was appointed by Obama as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Indeed, the cable — which purports to report on a fairly lengthy conversation between the two sides — reveals surprising details on how much the holy land of Islam sided with the US on the war on terror, specifically on al-Qaeda — headed by the fellow Saudi royal Osama bin Laden.

“It had not been easy to see Saudi involvement in 9/11 and other terrorist incidents.. al-Qaeda was smart in wanting to hit both the US and Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda's strategic goal was to hurt the US and to take control of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina,” the Prince went on, sounding more worried than the Americansthemselves.

Saudi Arabia — arguably the biggest source of terrorist funding in the world — was fully aware of the goings on in its backyard, going by the revelations made by the Prince.

The Prince, however, pointed out that it was making it “as hard possible” for the terrorists.

Bin Nayef rather startlingly agreed that there were “radicals” in 90% of Saudi mosques in 2003 and his countrymen — as of 2009 — were still sending money to terrorists.

Pointing out that Saudi was trying to do its best in trying to plug the flow of funds, the Prince said the government was keeping news of its al-Qaeda crackdown away from the public.

“The Saudis are making arrests, but are not making this public,” the Riyadh embassy pointed out, “Instead, the Saudi goal is to make the public aware that donations could go to the wrong places. Nayef said that ‘if money wants to go’ to terrorist causes, ‘it will go,’ and that terrorist attacks were inexpensive, ‘but let's make it harder.’”

The Saudis have detected a pattern of individuals coming to the Kingdom for Hajj or Umrah and then traveling south to Yemen — a terrorist haven — for training before returning to their home
countries. Saudi forces have arrested Egyptians and Algerians, among others, who were attempting to do this.

Contrary to popular perception of being a big supporter of fellow Islamic nation of Pakistan, the Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz “despised the corruption he saw in Pakistan and this colored hisviews toward that country,” according to the Prince.

With no love lost between the King and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, the Saudis were betting on the Pak Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani — drawing some alarm from Holbrooke who clarified that the US was "100% opposed" to a military coup in Pakistan.

The Prince also clarified that any Pakistani citizen found to be funding terrorism from Saudi would be tried under the Islamic Shari'a law with judges belong to the strict Wahhabi sect.

This, he added, would bring the force of religion to work against religious extremism.


Saudi King "despises" the corruption in Pakistan and has a 'colored' view of the country - World - DNA