Doubts about Loyalty of Saudi Forces Trigger U.S. Reassessment (Le Figaro, France)
"The
American intelligence services express particular concern 'on the question of
the reliability of the Saudi armed forces' in the context of the 'internal
struggle over the King’s succession.' … The assassination by Islamic State
commanders of a Saudi general sent to the northern border to assess the loyalty
of units judged unreliable reveals the scale of the problem. … The attack by IS
across the border against General Oudah al-Belawi was well planned. … It was based on specific
information provided from within the army."
Since the terrorist attacks that struck their French
partner, the role of Saudi Arabia - another American ally - in the export of
"Wahhabism" and "neo-Salafism"
which are spreading across the globe and the suburbs of Europe like a poison,
is at the heart of the reflections and dilemmas of the Obama Administration as
well as of Washington's national security community.
According to a source close to American intelligence who
confided to Le Figaro and wishes to emphasize that Americans "are at
France’s side to help," a period of strategic reassessment is in effect in
Washington on the role of the Saudis in the promotion of jihadist terrorism.
"While five or six years ago, the links between the
promotion of Saudi Wahhabism and groups like al-Qaeda were generally seen as
remote, today such ties are widely accepted, leading to a change in strategy
that recognizes that the propagation of Wahhabism and neo-Salafism
is a major long-term threat that must be defeated," said the source.
Assessing the extent
of the 'Salafist virus'
The American intelligence services express particular
concern "on the question of the reliability of the Saudi armed
forces" in the context of the "internal struggle over the King’s
succession." Since the time of Roosevelt, the Americans have served as
protectors of the Saudi royal family. But the advance of Islamic State's
ideology within the Kingdom’s military institutions is considered of "very
great concern."
"The assassination by Islamic State commanders of a
Saudi general sent to the northern border to assess the loyalty of units judged
unreliable reveals the scale of the problem," continues Le Figaro’s source
close to U.S. intelligence. An evaluation of the "scale of the Salafist
virus within the ranks" is "in progress." The attack by IS
across the border against General Oudah al-Belawi was well planned, he said. "It was based on
specific information provided from within the army." …
These developments mark a real dilemma for an America that
since the Roosevelt era has remained faithful to its alliance with the Saudi
royal family despite a large number of crises. The most serious was September
11, 2001 when questions were raised about Saudi involvement in organizing the
attack, before the issue was hastily buried in the name of realpolitik.
Dependent on Saudi oil and tied to their relationship with
the royal family, the Americans were reluctant to call into question their
alliance with Riyadh and decided to keep secret information they hold on the
Saudi role.
"There is an internal battle over the succession
underway in Saudi Arabia and the Americans are involved because they wish to
preserve, as they have always done, the stability of the royal family … It is
no longer only about oil. We know Saudi Arabia is part of the problem, but we
don't want regime change as we believe the situation would be much worse and
play into the hands of the Islamic State," explained our intelligence
contact.
In response to the Syrian civil war and what they see as
America’s failure to stop it, the Saudis began supporting the Islamic State and
other radical Sunni groups engaged in the battle against President Bashar
al-Assad and the Shiite regime in Iraq, which is perceived as a puppet of
Riyadh's great Shiite enemy Tehran. But the Saudi government recently made an
aggressive U-turn, joining the U.S. coalition set up to take apart Daesh. A 700-kilometer wall is under construction on the
northern border.
"There's a real recognition … in Riyadh that this could
have really serious domestic repercussions for the country," Texas A&M University Professor
Gregory Gause recently told NPR. At the beginning of
2014, Saudi Arabia put IS on its list of terrorist organizations.
"There's also an effort on the part of the religious
establishment … to try to delegitimize ISIS. That, of course, is a harder thing
to do because at the practical level, the way ISIS governs the territory it
controls is not all that different from - at least in theory - the way the
Saudi religious establishment thinks Islam requires you to govern any
territory," Gause said.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
That is likely why a strong political impulse has emerged in
Congress to reveal the "dark scenes" of Saudi politics. Last week,
former Senator Bob Graham, who chaired the Senate’s Select Committee on
Intelligence after September 11, solemnly called for the declassification of 28
pages from the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the September 11 Attacks
which were excised from the public version. At a press conference, flanked by
Republican representative Walter Jones and Democratic representative Stephen
Lynch, Graham confirmed that the secret pages "point the finger at Saudi
Arabia as the principal financier [video above]. This is a very important issue … it
may seem stale to some, but it is as current as the headlines that we will read
today," said the former Democratic senator, referring to the massacre at
Charlie Hebdo. These pages were classified "for
national security reasons. But not making them public is the real danger to
national security," Graham said, denouncing a "general tendency"
to keep Americans in the dark. In April 2014, Barack Obama confided to families
of September 11 victims that he was in favor of declassifying these famous
pages. Interviewed by Le Figaro about the Administration's position, the White
House this Friday held that at this stage, it had no details to communicate.
