NEWS: Richard Clarke; Instability in Saudi Arabia more Worrysome than Iraq

Popular author and former counter terrorism advisor Richard Clarke who made headlines with his book has stated at a book release in Spain that the instability in Saudi Arabia is more worrysome than the situation in Iraq. Clarke warns thats a similar situation to what transpired following the fall of U.S. backed Shah in Iran in the 70's could happen now in Saudi Arabia.


The House of Saud refers to the royal family of Saudi Arabiaa. The history of the House of Saud has been marked by a desire to unify the Arabian Peninsula and to spread a more pure and simple view of Islam embodied by Wahhabism. The House of Saud is currently ruled by King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz since 1982. With the house of Saud full of more radical and extreme princes all willing to vie for leadership after the current moderate leaders demise, it would and will be quite an interesting series of events should it happen in the near future.

additional reading on the House of Saud:
The fall of the House of Saud.

[edit on 6-7-2004 by worldwatcher]

With the house of Saud full of more radical and extreme princes

If such radicals were to take the place of the current 'moderate' leadership, could that equal another target for war?
I wonder where that would go, with regard to Saudi Arabia, and other OPEC countries considering switching to the Euro for pricing oil, as opposed to the American dollar.

I wouldn't say he is a "popular" author, and I wouldn't call him an "advisor" in reference to terrorism, either. What I would call him is a below average former government employee trying to make big bucks on a book sell.

Having said that, it doesn't take a former government employee to tell us that Saudi Arabia is not our friend. Certainly with Hussein gone from Iraq, concerns over Saudi Arabia goes up a notch in the ranking.

It is no secret thatthe House of Saud has a delicate balancing act, paying lip service to us, paying lip service to the citizenry of Saudi Arabia; eventually they'll slip and fall. Those who take control will certainly be less than warm in attitude toward the west.

it's an interesting situation...two ways to look at it.

either they hate us/west so much that they stop selling us their oil...puts us in a crisis..

or they continue to sell our their oil, albeit at higher prices, and make their pockets fatter.

i think they will still continue to deal with us, but perhaps on terms more favorable to them than to us. Should the current house of Saud fall while Bush is in office, it would be fascinating to see how it all plays out.

lol tc, i purposedly put in the words "popular author" to egg a few on
i certainly didn't read his book, but it's not to say he didn't create quite a buzz when he released it.

The Bush and the Saud clan are know to be deep in business. This fact ties them together and makes the Saud clan even more a target.

[edit on 7-6-2004 by Hoaks]

[edit on 7-6-2004 by Hoaks]

let the sAUDI ARABIans with all their oil money finance and bring troops into iraq instead of having our kids die to save their lazy rich derrieres.

We saved their butts in the first iraq was and they pay us back with higher gas prices and financing terrorists who are now coming back to saudi arabia to roost by overthrowing the royal saudi family.

iraq and saudi arabia will be in anarchy in the future lets get out now our kids are to valuable to die for these enemies of the usa

[Edited on 7-6-2004 by bigal66]

As a former resident of Saudi Arabia (not a citizen), I can tell you I was scared #less when I heard we were pulling out of there.... It will only take a few years for the nutballs to come into power fully, and then all hell will break loose in the middle east. We're going to see another war on Isreal by combined arab forces, culminating in some very scary warfare, with biologics, and likely even a few Isreali tactical nukes...

And the Euro bit is a key factor here, as well as Russia hopping into bed with the Saudis... This will form the basis for the renewing of the Cold War, but with different players..... This is indeed the calm before the storm of some scary times ahead...whether you like or believe Clarke or not...

Gazrok, you terrify me my friend. My father does business in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He has been telling me for years, that's it's only a matter of time and you ain't seen nothing yet.

What is the Western press missing? Are the Wahhabi really ready to overthrow the House of Saud? Is the US under obligation to support the royal family with military?

As long as the US and UK, etc continue to back and support the Saudi Royal Family, Saudi Arabia will continue to be.

Mr. Clarke is well aware of this.



seekerof

Originally posted by Seekerof
As long as the US and UK, etc continue to back and support the Saudi Royal Family, Saudi Arabia will continue to be.

Mr. Clarke is well aware of this.

seekerof

Perhaps, but I find with all this martyrdom of late, it is plausible that they could catch the bug too, not care if the US and UK try to take them out.

I think this would be an opportunistic time for them to do it as well. What with our military tied up with a few other things.

The fact is, is that no one can really tell what will happen.