[Peace-discuss] [ufpj-activist] [syriadiscussion:4586] U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels

Mon Jan 25 09:37:46 EST 2016

we'll be there!
please sign this, which UFPJ just joined
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11735

On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 9:33 AM, medea benjamin <medea.benjamin at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes, and I hope you all try to come to the Saudi Summit we are doing in DC
> on March 5-6. We need to learn, analyze, discuss and come up with campaigns
> to address this insane US-Saudi relationship. You can sign up here:
> www.codepink.org/2016SaudiSummit
> Thanks,
> Medea
>
> On Jan 25, 2016, at 12:37 AM, "Alice Slater" <alicejslater at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Let’s not forget the 9/11 coverup of Saudi complicity in the destruction
> of the towers, and Senator Bob Graham’s futile attempt to get the 28 pages
> of redacted material of the Senate’s 911 Commission’s report onthe
> destruction of the World Trade towers released to the public.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/middleeast/florida-ex-senator-pursues-claims-of-saudi-ties-to-sept-11-attacks.html?_r=0
>
>
> *From:* syriadiscussion at googlegroups.com [mailto:syriadiscussion@
> googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *David Swanson
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 24, 2016 9:39 PM
> *To:* Karen Aram
> *Cc:* Robert Naiman; Michael Eisenscher; Peace-discuss List;
> peace-discuss at anti-war.net; syriadiscussion at googlegroups.com; UFPJ
> Activist List
> *Subject:* Re: [ufpj-activist] [syriadiscussion:4585] U.S. Relies Heavily
> on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels
>
> I thought the key revelation was that Bernie's dream solution of having
> Saudi pony up the $$ for f--ing up the region further had already come true
> and we didn't even know it. What's left to solve now?
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 9:36 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> It is good that the NYT's publishes articles by Mark Mazzetti, who has
> taken on CIA abuses for a while now.
>
>
>
> As to why the Saudi's give money to the CIA & what and who the US provides
> with financial assistance, and sells weapons.
>
>
>
> I suggest reading "Legacy of Ashes, History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner,
> published in 2007-2008. CIA  requiring money from Saudi as well as other
> nations which include China, and Taiwan, the Jordanian King on our payroll,
> this has been going on since the CIA gun running in the 70's. See: pages
> 158,434,445,462,493-94,533. Some of us with AWARE have discussed this issue
> at length.
> ------------------------------
> *From:* ufpj-activist <ufpj-activist-bounces+karenaram=
> hotmail.com at lists.mayfirst.org> on behalf of Robert Naiman <
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> *Sent:* Sunday, January 24, 2016 5:26 PM
> *To:* Michael Eisenscher
> *Cc:* syriadiscussion at googlegroups.com; UFPJ Activist List
> *Subject:* Re: [ufpj-activist] [syriadiscussion:4581] U.S. Relies Heavily
> on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels
>
> This is a fascinating and useful piece. It shows how deep the thing is
> that we're up against.
>
> [...]
> The roots of the relationship run deep. In the late 1970s, the Saudis
> organized what was known as the “Safari Club” — a coalition of nations
> including Morocco, Egypt and France — that ran covert operations around
> Africa at a time when Congress had clipped the C.I.A.’s wings over years of
> abuses.
> [...]
>
> That was under Carter, Mr. "Human rights will be the soul of our foreign
> policy."
>
> On the plus side: the fact that the NYT is reporting this suggests that
> this may be moving from "taboo" to "something we can possibly talk about."
>
> Let's try to turn this into an action item:
>
> While the Obama administration saw this coalition as a selling point in
> Congress, some, including Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, raised
> questions about why the C.I.A. needed Saudi money for the operation,
> according to one former American official. Mr. Wyden declined to be
> interviewed, but his office released a statement calling for more
> transparency. “Senior officials have said publicly that the U.S. is trying
> to build up the battlefield capabilities of the anti-Assad opposition, but
> they haven’t provided the public with details about how this is being done,
> which U.S. agencies are involved, or which foreign partners those agencies
> are working with,” the statement said.
>
>
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>
> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>
>
> Just Foreign Policy <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>
>
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>
> Just Foreign Policy is an independent and non-partisan membership
> organization. We are dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy to serve
> the interests and reflect ...
>
>
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 2:10 PM, Michael Eisenscher <
> m_eisenscher at uslaboragainstwar.org> wrote:
> *U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels*
>
> JAN. 23, 2016
>
> *By MARK MAZZETTI
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/mark_mazzetti/index.html> and MATT
> APUZZO
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/matt_apuzzo/index.html>*
>
> *http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/middleeast/us-relies-heavily-on-saudi-money-to-support-syrian-rebels.html?emc=edit_th_20160124&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=30295955
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/middleeast/us-relies-heavily-on-saudi-money-to-support-syrian-rebels.html?emc=edit_th_20160124&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=30295955>*
> Photo
> Shiite Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan, protested the Saudis’ beheading of a
> dissident cleric this month. The Obama administration did not publicly
> condemn it. Credit Rizwan Tabassum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
>
> WASHINGTON — When President Obama secretly authorized the Central
> Intelligence Agency
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> to
> begin arming Syria
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>’s
> embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing
> partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the
> C.I.A.
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/central_intelligence_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org> has
> relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the
> Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/saudiarabia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>
> .
>
> Since then, the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an
> unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans
> have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former
> administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large
> sums of money, and the C.I.A takes the lead in training the rebels on AK-47
> assault rifles and tank-destroying missiles.
>
> The support for the Syrian rebels is only the latest chapter in the
> decadeslong relationship between the spy services of Saudi Arabia
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/saudiarabia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> and
> the United States, an alliance that has endured through the Iran-contra
> scandal, support for the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan and
> proxy fights in Africa. Sometimes, as in Syria
> <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/syria/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>,
> the two countries have worked in concert. In others, Saudi Arabia has
> simply written checks underwriting American covert activities.
>
> The joint arming and training program, which other Middle East nations
> contribute money to, continues as America’s relations with Saudi Arabia —
> and the kingdom’s place in the region — are in flux. The old ties of cheap
> oil and geopolitics that have long bound the countries together have
> loosened as America’s dependence on foreign oil declines and the Obama
> administration tiptoes toward a diplomatic rapprochement with Iran.
>
> And yet the alliance persists, kept afloat on a sea of Saudi money and a
> recognition of mutual self-interest. In addition to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil
> reserves and role as the spiritual anchor of the Sunni Muslim world, the
> long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been
> reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its
> treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam,
> Wahhabism
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/world/middleeast/isis-abu-bakr-baghdadi-caliph-wahhabi.html>,
> that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is
> fighting. The Obama administration did not publicly condemn Saudi Arabia’s beheading
> this month
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-executes-47-sheikh-nimr-shiite-cleric.html?ref=todayspaper> of
> a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had challenged the
> royal family.
>
> Although the Saudis have been public about their help arming rebel groups
> in Syria, the extent of their partnership with the C.I.A.’s covert action
> campaign and their direct financial support had not been disclosed. Details
> were pieced together in interviews with a half-dozen current and former
> American officials and sources from several Persian Gulf countries. Most
> spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
> discuss the program.
>
> From the moment the C.I.A. operation was started, Saudi money supported it.
>
> “They understand that they have to have us, and we understand that we have
> to have them,” said Mike Rogers, the former Republican congressman from
> Michigan who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
> <http://intelligence.house.gov/> when the C.I.A. operation began. Mr.
> Rogers declined to discuss details of the classified program.
>
> American officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi
> contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the
> program to arm the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad’s military. But
> estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at
> several billion dollars.
> Photo
> King Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Barack Obama in September at the
> White House.CreditGary Cameron/Reuters
>
> The White House has embraced the covert financing from Saudi Arabia — and
> from Qatar, Jordan and Turkey — at a time when Mr. Obama has pushed gulf
> nations to take a greater security role in the region.
>
> Spokesmen for both the C.I.A. and the Saudi Embassy in Washington declined
> to comment.
>
> When Mr. Obama signed off on arming the rebels
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/us/politics/pressure-led-to-obamas-decision-on-syrian-arms.html> in
> the spring of 2013, it was partly to try to gain control of the apparent
> free-for-all in the region. The Qataris and the Saudis had been funneling
> weapons into Syria for more than a year. The Qataris had even smuggled in shipments
> of Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired missiles
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/world/middleeast/sending-missiles-to-syrian-rebels-qatar-muscles-in.html> over
> the border from Turkey.
>
> The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at
> the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands
> of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the
> Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the
> Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012.
>
> By the summer of 2012, a freewheeling feel had taken hold along Turkey’s
> border with Syria as the gulf nations funneled cash and weapons to rebel
> groups — even some that American officials were concerned had ties to
> radical groups like Al Qaeda.
>
> The C.I.A. was mostly on the sidelines during this period, authorized by
> the White House under the Timber Sycamore training program to deliver
> nonlethal aid to the rebels but not weapons. In late 2012, according to two
> former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A.
> director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several
> gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them
> for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with
> C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey.
>
> Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly
> arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber
> Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the
> C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency,
> the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including
> TOW anti-tank missiles.
>
> The Qataris have also helped finance the training and allowed a Qatari
> base to be used as an additional training location. But American officials
> said Saudi Arabia was by far the largest contributor to the operation.
>
> While the Obama administration saw this coalition as a selling point in
> Congress, some, including Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, raised
> questions about why the C.I.A. needed Saudi money for the operation,
> according to one former American official. Mr. Wyden declined to be
> interviewed, but his office released a statement calling for more
> transparency. “Senior officials have said publicly that the U.S. is trying
> to build up the battlefield capabilities of the anti-Assad opposition, but
> they haven’t provided the public with details about how this is being done,
> which U.S. agencies are involved, or which foreign partners those agencies
> are working with,” the statement said.
>
> When relations among the countries involved in the training program are
> strained, it often falls to the United States to broker solutions. As the
> host, Jordan expects regular payments from the Saudis and the Americans.
> When the Saudis pay late, according to a former senior intelligence
> official, the Jordanians complain to C.I.A. officials.
>
> While the Saudis have financed previous C.I.A. missions with no strings
> attached, the money for Syria comes with expectations, current and former
> officials said. “They want a seat at the table, and a say in what the
> agenda of the table is going to be,” said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A.
> analyst and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
> <http://www.brookings.edu/>.
>
> The C.I.A. training program is separate from another program to arm Syrian
> rebels, one the Pentagon ran that has since ended. That program was
> designed to train rebels to combat Islamic State fighters in Syria, unlike
> the C.I.A.’s program, which focuses on rebel groups fighting the Syrian
> military.
> Photo
> Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a 2007 photo, directed Saudi spies to buy
> thousands of AK-47 assault rifles for Syrian rebels. CreditHassan
> Ammar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
>
> While the intelligence alliance is central to the Syria fight and has been
> important in the war against Al Qaeda, a constant irritant in
> American-Saudi relations is just how much Saudi citizens continue to
> support terrorist groups, analysts said.
>
> “The more that the argument becomes, ‘We need them as a counterterrorism
> partner,’ the less persuasive it is,” said William McCants, a former State
> Department counterterrorism adviser and the author of abook on the
> Islamic State <http://us.macmillan.com/theisisapocalypse/williammccants>.
> “If this is purely a conversation about counterterrorism cooperation, and
> if the Saudis are a big part of the problem in creating terrorism in the
> first place, then how persuasive of an argument is it?”
>
> In the near term, the alliance remains solid, strengthened by a bond
> between spy masters. Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi interior minister
> who took over the effort to arm the Syrian rebels from Prince Bandar, has
> known the C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, from the time Mr. Brennan was
> the agency’s Riyadh station chief in the 1990s. Former colleagues say the
> two men remain close, and Prince Mohammed has won friends in Washington
> with his aggressive moves to dismantle terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in
> the Arabian Peninsula.
>
> The job Mr. Brennan once held in Riyadh is, more than the ambassador’s,
> the true locus of American power in the kingdom. Former diplomats recall
> that the most important discussions always flowed through the C.I.A.
> station chief.
>
> Current and former intelligence officials say there is a benefit to this
> communication channel: The Saudis are far more responsive to American
> criticism when it is done in private, and this secret channel has done more
> to steer Saudi behavior toward America’s interests than any public
> chastising could have.
>
> The roots of the relationship run deep. In the late 1970s, the Saudis
> organized what was known as the “Safari Club” — a coalition of nations
> including Morocco, Egypt and France — that ran covert operations around
> Africa at a time when Congress had clipped the C.I.A.’s wings over years of
> abuses.
> Continue reading the main story
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/middleeast/us-relies-heavily-on-saudi-money-to-support-syrian-rebels.html?emc=edit_th_20160124&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=30295955#story-continues-11>
> The Big Four in Saudi Arabia’s Government
>
> Brief background information on the most powerful figures in the kingdom,
> and how they stand in the sometimes complicated order of succession.
>
> “And so the kingdom, with these countries, helped in some way, I believe,
> to keep the world safe at a time when the United States was not able to do
> that,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence,
> recalled in a speech at Georgetown University in 2002.
>
> In the 1980s, the Saudis helped finance C.I.A. operations in Angola, where
> the United States backed rebels against the Soviet-allied government. While
> the Saudis were staunchly anticommunist, Riyadh’s primary incentive seemed
> to be to solidify its C.I.A. ties. “They were buying good will,” recalled
> one former senior intelligence officer who was involved in the operation.
>
> In perhaps the most consequential episode, the Saudis helped arm the
> mujahedeen rebels to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. The United
> States committed hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the mission,
> and the Saudis matched it, dollar for dollar.
>
> The money flowed through a C.I.A.-run Swiss bank account. In the book “Charlie
> Wilson’s War
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/books/wilson-the-warrior.html>,” the
> journalist George Crile III describes how the C.I.A. arranged for the
> account to earn no interest, in keeping with the Islamic ban on usury.
>
> In 1984, when the Reagan administration sought help with its secret plan
> to sell arms to Iran to finance the contra rebels in Nicaragua, Robert C.
> McFarlane, the national security adviser, met with Prince Bandar, who was
> the Saudi ambassador to Washington at the time. The White House made it
> clear that the Saudis would “gain a considerable amount of favor” by
> cooperating, Mr. McFarlane later recalled.
>
> Prince Bandar pledged $1 million per month to help fund the contras, in
> recognition of the administration’s past support to the Saudis. The
> contributions continued after Congress cut off funding to the contras. By
> the end, the Saudis had contributed $32 million, paid through a Cayman
> Islands bank account.
>
> When the Iran-contra scandal broke, and questions arose about the Saudi
> role, the kingdom kept its secrets. Prince Bandar refused to cooperate with
> the investigation led by Lawrence E. Walsh
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/politics/lawrence-e-walsh-iran-contra-prosecutor-dies-at-102.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C&>,
> the independent counsel.
>
> In a letter, the prince declined to testify, explaining that his country’s
> “confidences and commitments, like our friendship, are given not just for
> the moment but the long run.”
> *Correction: January 24, 2016 *
>
> *An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the beheading
> of a Shiite cleric was public. While the execution was not kept secret, it
> was not carried out in open view.*
>
> C .J. Chivers contributed reporting.
>
> *Follow The New York Times’s politics and Washington coverage on*
> * Facebook* <https://www.facebook.com/nytpolitics>* and** Twitter*
> <http://twitter.com/nytpolitics>*, and sign up for the** First Draft
> politics newsletter* <http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/politics/>*.*
>
> A version of this article appears in print on January 24, 2016, on page A1
> of the New York edition with the headline: Saudis, the C.I.A. and the
> Arming of Syrian Rebels.
>
>
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> --
>
> *War Is A Lie: Second Edition will be published by Just World Books on
> April 5, 2016. Please buy it online that day.*
>
> *David Swanson *is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is
> director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for
> RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include *War Is A Lie
> <http://warisalie.org/>*. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org
> <http://davidswanson.org/> and WarIsACrime.org <http://warisacrime.org/>.
> He hosts Talk Nation Radio <http://davidswanson.org/taxonomy/term/41>. He
> is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee <http://davidswanson.org/node/4682>.
>
> Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson <http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson>
>  and FaceBook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319>.
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-- 

*War Is A Lie: Second Edition will be published by Just World Books on
April 5, 2016. Please buy it online that day.*

*David Swanson *is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is
director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org.
Swanson's books include *War Is A Lie <http://warisalie.org/>*. He blogs at
DavidSwanson.org <http://davidswanson.org/> and WarIsACrime.org
<http://warisacrime.org/>. He hosts Talk Nation Radio
<http://davidswanson.org/taxonomy/term/41>. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize
Nominee <http://davidswanson.org/node/4682>.

Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson <http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson>
and FaceBook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Swanson/297768373319#>.
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