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Russians baited into afghanistan 1979 by united states { March 30 1979 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002749.shtmlSome American policymakers were eager to lure the Soviets into a Vietnam-like entanglement. Gates recounts that at a key meeting on March 30, 1979, Under Secretary of Defense Walter Slocumbe wondered aloud whether 'there was value in keeping the Afghan insurgency going, "sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire."' Former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said in a 1998 interview with the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur,: 'We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.'
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10002749.shtml
Saudi King Abdullah expected to continue existing oil policy
By Finfacts Team
Aug 1, 2005, 14:41
Following the death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia this morning, Crown Prince Abdullah became King and his half-brother the Minister of Defence Prince Sultan became Crown Prince. Since the founding of Saudi Arabia in 1932, by King Abdullah's father King Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdul Rahman Ibn Faisal Al Saud (1876-1953), the Desert Kingdom has been ruled by himself and five sons including the newly installed King Abdullah.
The smooth succession from King Fahd, who ran the world’s largest oil exporter for 23 years, had been expected and should not cause undue concerns in the oil markets. Abdullah, who is aged 81, has been running the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995.
The 83-year-old King Fahd, who was admitted to hospital two months ago with pneumonia, is credited with modernising the kingdom and developing Saudi Arabia’s alliance with the US. In 1990, Fahd took the controversial decision of inviting US troops to protect Saudi Arabia after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Over the past decade, however, ties with the US deteriorated and the Saudi Monarchy has been subjected to a campaign of destabilisation by followers of the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.
Modernisation and Radicalisation
On Saturday August 4, 1990, the cable news network CNN reported that 170,000 Iraqi troops were massed on the Kuwaiti border with Saudi Arabia as President George Bush Snr. was in discussions with Saudi King Fahd on American military intervention in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The oil fields which had fuelled the dramatic transformation of the Desert Kingdom since the development of the oil industry began in 1938, lay south of the border. The Strategic Oil Storage Project which provided for the building of massive underground caverns at 5 sites throughout Saudi Arabia was still a work in progress. The aim of the project was to provide strategic supplies of oil in the event of catastrophic events at the oil fields. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had an opportunity to seriously undermine the Saudi Monarchy by capturing the oil fields and creating havoc in the Saudi economy and society by destroying a major desalination plant. It was high summer and most of the 19 million residents depended on the desalination plants for drinking water. Saddam Hussein didn't order his troops to cross the border and American Army units began arriving in Saudi Arabia in the following week.
Balancing a rapid economic modernisation programme while maintaining a very conservative religious based society is bound to have resulted in pressure points at some stage. The seeds of the current armed dissent were sown a quarter century ago.
In the year that hundreds of Saudi religious extremists took over the Grand Mosque in Makkah by armed force, US President Jimmy Carter signed a finding authorising a covert programme of assistance for groups opposing the Soviet backed communist Afghan government. In his 1996 memoir From the Shadows, former Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates revealed the $500 million in non-lethal aid which was designed to counter the billions the Soviets were providing their puppet regime. Some American policymakers were eager to lure the Soviets into a Vietnam-like entanglement. Gates recounts that at a key meeting on March 30, 1979, Under Secretary of Defense Walter Slocumbe wondered aloud whether 'there was value in keeping the Afghan insurgency going, "sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire."' Former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said in a 1998 interview with the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur,: 'We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.'
1979 was the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the seizure of the Grand Mosque was a serious jolt for the House of Saud. In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and soon became the target of a Jihad holy war funded by Saudi Arabia and the US. Thousands of Saudis including Osama bin Laden headed for Afghanistan and their return home coincided with the arrival of more than a half million American servicemen in the Kingdom. It is not surprising that many of the returnees had been further radicalised by their experience in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 men passed through the Afghan training camps. It is ironic that Jimmy Carter, a later winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, paved the way for the rise of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation. On the credit side, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was the beginning of the end of communism.
In 2003 and 2004, al-Qaeda launched several terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and questions were being increasingly raised about the ability of the Al-Saud family to survive against a backdrop of significant support for Osama bin Laden among the Saudi population. Today, the security situation has been stabilised and many terrorists have either been killed or captured. Public finances have also been significantly strengthened with the rise in the price of oil. Saudi Arabia however remains in a quandary in responding to the need for political and social reform. The Government fears that a fast track approach would precipitate revolution while too slow a process would provide support for extremists.
Municipal elections with men only allowed to vote, have been held in the past year, following pressure from the United States and domestic advocates to grant some political participation and freedom of expression.
The chaos in Iraq must surely give many Saudis pause for thought. Unlike Iraq, there are not ethnic tensions in the country. Among advocates of reform, it is doubtful that even among the most modernised, Western-educated technocrats, that there is strong support for a radical move away from Islamic political theory as the basis of the Saudi constitutional system. However, there must be a realignment of the pact between the House of Saud and the conservative religious establishment. The link with the extreme Wahhabi doctrine of Islam dates back to the mid-18th century and supporters of al-Qaeda can justifiably claim that they are the true believers. In the schools, the teaching of the Holy Quoran (Koran), accounts for about 40% of the curriculum and the emphasis is often on an extreme interpretation, in particular in fostering a negative attitude to what are termed non-believers.
The Government no longer has full control of the media with the rise of media services like Al Jazeera TV. Saudi society has undergone a rapid modernisation in the space of a few decades. There is still time for gradual change from the system of absolute monarchy but the clock is ticking.
© Copyright 2005 by Finfacts.com
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