Saudi Arabia: seeking security (catch all)

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...t-steve-kroft/

The link above is to the 60 minutes video and transcript on the missing 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report not released to the public.



The increased focus on potential Saudi officials supporting the 9/11 mass murderers and the increasing political pressure to declassify these 28 pages is driving a wider wedge between Saudi and the U.S. Saudi is threatening economic nuclear option if the papers are declassified.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...ongress-passes

Saudi Arabia Threatens To Liquidate Its Treasury Holdings If Congress Probes Its Role In Sept 11 Attacks








http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...11_report.html

Your Guide to the 28 Classified Pages About Saudi Arabia and 9/11 That Obama Might Release



http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...lassified.html

Why are 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Investigation into 9/11 still classified?



We all can read between the lines and see where our biases take us. Still, assuming the Saudi officials are innocent, keeping this secret has simply made it worse. And if some of the officials are guilty, then they need to be held responsible. Beyond this sad story is an even larger story of a potentially fraying alliance and Saudi's readiness to employ economic power on the world stage to coerce. Not the first time, but this may indicate the U.S. doesn't have the level of power and influence it had previously to shape events globally now.

Bill..you bring up an interesting use of the word economic nuclear option....if one looks closely at the current oil debate the Saudi's have been using oil pricing as their nuclear option and if we see their stand yesterday at Doha....then they are driving against three targets...1) US shale oil, 2) Russia and 3) Iran and they are willing to drive the price down to the 10-15 USD ranges to achieve their goals...

Obama's comment of a "cold peace" may haunt him in the coming years as of this moment there will never be a "cold peace" between KSA and Iran and we are yet to see if KSA takes the step and enters Syria which some including myself say is not a question of "if"...but "when" and that "when" is not far away if Assad keeps up his terror civilian bombing campaign in the middle of this so called cessation of hostilities....

That they must now get bank loans to fill their budget does not seem to bother them...depicts just how serious they are and you are right the US has absolutely no influence and I am surprised that Obama is even going to the coming GCC meeting especially after this Goldberg interview.

BTW...Kerry also has no further creditability in the ME after his two statements that Iran is pulling their mercenaries and troops out of Syria... a DoS should always state facts...not "his wishes" especially in the ME....

BTW....reference the 28 pages...I would rather have a far more detailed analysis of the 9/11 investigation that did not dig into exactly what did the NSA truly know and yet did not pass on to other federal agencies......many have alluded to the fact that the NSA did in fact monitor a number of the participants and yet we have heard nothing about that and it was not part of the 9/11 investigation as NSA "classified it at the TS/SCI SIGINT levels.

Yet the 9/11 panel let it pass.

That analysis is actually far more important as it points to some current recent failures within the US IC.

[OUTLAW 09]

BTW.....instead of this Saudi debate we need urgently a debate on just why the Obama WH has looked the other way with Iran and Hezbollah that are since 1979 1) a terror sponsoring country and 2) Hezbollah a terror organization--and elements of IRGC as well.......as they have also a large number of US personnel "blood on their hands".......

Commander of #IRGC ground forces saying they sent their forces to #Syria for training, and #USA is their main enemy.

[OUTLAW 09]

Many are overlooking the simple fact that the current KSA royal family is in a generational shift and the younger group has been preaching that KSA must be more forceful in stating their FP and security needs.

AND this group is both forward thinking and vocal in their statements.

IMHO....the threat to sell off over 700B in US assets was not just a verbal threat but seriously meant as a true wake up call to the US.

If one thinks it through....the Saudi's could use the 700B to cushion the price of oil at 5USDs per barrel while the rest of the oil producing countries ie the US would truly suffer.....my father was a SVP for a major oil company in the US and in the gas crisis in 1973...he made an interesting comment...if oil gets to 10USD we will be still making a profit and oil will flow...Saudi's have once or twice alluded to the cost of production being 2/3USDs per barrel.

While that massive of a sell off would effect the global finance world...KSA would still be selling oil......

We are now seeing them nuzzle up to Turkey, we see Turkey nuzzling up to Israel as does KSA and we still have the Saudi Palestine Peace proposal on the Arab League table....Obama and Iran are doing far more to motivate KSA than we are willing to fully understand.....

Turkey and Saudi embrace as Iran rises and US disengages
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tu...lder-vz2vln5fs …

If I were the Russians instead of accusing the US of "hybrid warfare against them" I would seriously look at KSA as Putin does not understand in the least Saudi security needs......AND Putin seems to have forgotten that it was the Saudi's that drove down the oil price in the 90s that collapsed the Soviet Union.

No Agreement in Doha, Ruble Falls; Bastrykin Claims US Wages 'Hybrid War' on Russia
http://www.interpretermag.com/russia...18-2016/#13383 …

[CrowBat]

[B]Commander of #IRGC ground forces saying they sent their forces to #Syria for training, and #USA is their main enemy.

Oh, what a surprise... isn't it?

Especially in the light of all the possible Western businessmen being so eager to go making billions in Iran: makes me wonder, how do they want to do so with an IRGC-regime in power?

Sure, IRGCs are as easy to bribe like all other Iranians. But, if that's going to make business with them anything like 'profitable'...?

Saudi's have once or twice alluded to the cost of production being 2/3USDs per barrel

That's the approx price they sell it at home. Means: their probable production price is not even half of that.

...AND Putin seems to have forgotten that it was the Saudi's that drove down the oil price in the 90s that collapsed the Soviet Union....

...and Iran to accept a cease-fire with Iraq... and then this was what bankrupted Iraq etc...

[OUTLAW 09]

The interesting "missing 28 pages" might in fact be about Saudi back channel funding BUT a far more critical aspect that is not being discussed here and CrowBat brought it up as did the IRGC Commander with his comment he is training for war with the US.

A well known ME analyst type has kept pounding away that there is far more Iranian involvement with IS/AQ than the Obama WH and his NSC truly wants us to understand.

AND it dates BEFORE 9/11........

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
"Iran never paid a price for [killing our soldiers in #Iraq], any more than it did for waging a global terrorist war against the West".

Appears in the Obama WH drive to implement the Iran Deal even Obama overlooked the simple fact that one of the most deadliest IEDs...the EFPs were manufactured and then smuggled into Iraq from Iran......notice not a single attempt by the Obama WH to punish Iran for this...instead Obama hopes for "moderates" and passes IRGC and Khamenei 150B USDs.

Iran’s Partnership with al-Qaeda and Unanswered Questions
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on September 19, 2015
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/...red-questions/

Also from 1992, Hizballah chief + IRGC officer Imad Mughniyeh was training al-Qaeda jihadis in the Bekaa, jointly did Khobar, etc

More than a decade BEFORE there was an Al Qaeda
Hezbollah carried out a suicide bombing against US embassy in #Beirut 33 years today, killed 60 US Marines & staff.

Then this yesterday.......
Saudi cash and #Iranian know how - al-Qa’ida and 9/11
http://observer.com/2016/04/uncoveri...truths-of-911/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

Well we are now just short of a Turkish and Saudi intervention into Syria....

https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2...a-meb-feb2016/


Kerry ‘blames opposition’ for continued Syria bombing via MEB Feb/2016

US Secretary of State John Kerry told Syrian aid workers, hours after the Geneva peace talks fell apart, that the country should expect another three months of bombing that would “decimate” the opposition.

During a conversation on the sidelines of this week’s Syria donor conference in London, sources say Kerry blamed the Syrian opposition for leaving the talks and paving the way for a joint offensive by the Syrian government and Russia on Aleppo.

“‘He said, ‘Don’t blame me – go and blame your opposition,’” one of the aid workers, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her organization, told Middle East Eye.

Kerry told reporters on Friday, as tens of thousands fled the Syrian government and Russian bombardment of Aleppo, that both Russia and Iran, another of Syria’s allies, have told him that they are prepared for a ceasefire in Syria.

He said he would know “whether or not these parties are serious” after a meeting of the International Syria Support Group – 17 nations including the US and Russia – scheduled to be held in Munich next week.

But Kerry left the aid workers with the distinct impression that the US is abandoning efforts to support rebel fighters.

Kerry told reporters on Friday, as tens of thousands fled the Syrian government and Russian bombardment of Aleppo, that both Russia and Iran, another of Syria’s allies, have told him that they are prepared for a ceasefire in Syria.

CAN anyone explain to me just why does Kerry believe he can trust anything Putin and Khamenei tell him...REMEMBER it was Kerry who stated twice that Iran was pulling out their troops..instead more flowed into Syrian...AND Putin stated he was withdrawing but sent more into Syria....

[davidbfpo]

A somewhat strange article on Open Democracy, partly as the title indicates the military is in focus and there is very little mention of them:https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/hesham-shafick/why-is-military-coup-in-saudi-arabia-possible?

Plus no distinction is made between the various military bodies, notably the Army and the National Guard.

What I did find interesting was the argument that:

First and formost, the kingdom has lost most of the historical roots of its legitimacy. Since the foundation of the modern kingdom, its legitimacy has been grounded on three main pillars: Sunnism, nationalism and kinship......As for the third pillar, theocratic legitimacy, it is about to fall, particularly after the kingdom’s decision to terminate the powers of the official Wahhabistagency that reinforces Islamic order – the 'Organisation for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue'.

I recall long ago a British diplomat talking at an event that the UK had two nightmares, a military coup in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - each with an Islamist or radical tinge. Somehow he'd forgotten Gadafy's coup in Libya, which had consequences for the UK and others.