By Ali Al-Ahmed
Washington DC – President Barack Obama is certainly not going to see the dismembered body of a beheaded convict in the center of the Saudi capital Riyadh, when arrives there today to meet the Saudi king Abdullah. Sadly, the risk is high that Obama is likely to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors by allowing the Saudi side to divert the agenda away from US- Saudi relations to other, less central issues such as the Palestinian Israeli conflict, or the Iranian nuclear program.
Obama must stand firm to keep the focus of his visit on issues of critical importance for the United States, specifically terrorism, in which Saudi Arabia plays a major rule as evidenced by the attacks on the U.S. soil on September 11th, and the hundreds of Saudi suicide bombers targeting American troops in Iraq, and Afghanistan in attacks that to date killed over 5,000 Americans.
Saudi Arabia is known to be the epicenter of Al-Qaeda terrorism and the Grand Central of Al-Qaeda terror financing as well as the country that provides the largest number of Al-Qaeda members and the ideology that sustains this gruesome organization. These facts have not changed much since 2001; in fact, they took a turn for the worse.
The recruiters of September 11 hijackers and suicide bombers in Iraq are still roaming the streets of Riyadh without fear from their Saudi friends or American justice. The Saudi role in terrorism since the attacks of September 11 grew several folds from 15 suicide hijackers in New York and Washington to hundreds of suicide bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan targeting American soldiers. Government supported clerics issued dozens of religious rulings (fatwas) lending legitimacy to killing Americans, Israelis, Iraqis without suffering any repercussions from Riyadh despite Saudi’s lip service to eradicating terror networks within the country. These rulings remain a key recruitment tool that keeps the river of death flowing from Saudi Arabia to other nations.
If we believe the Saudi ruling family’s claim that they have full control over the country, then they should bear full responsibility for terrorists who operate with impunity under their absolute monarchy. The question Obama should direct at Riyadh is this: Why hasn’t the Saudi government been held accountable for their system which produced an ideology of hatred through their government schools and clerics on their payroll?
It has been eight years since the September 11 attacks, but the Saudi government has not even changed the toxic language it the government school books that reads like an Al-Qaeda manifesto. The conclusion that invites itself is that the Saudi rulers are either incapable of defeating terror and dismantling the system that churns out dozens of suicide bombers, or they are fully involved in maintaining the factory of violence that gave birth to Osama Bin Laden .
Previous administration has ignored the Saudi threat, and gave the monarchy a clean bill of health – which did nothing to reduce the Saudi involvement with terrorism. It now falls to Barack Obama to seek justice for American deaths and eliminate threats to this homeland. The heart of Al-Qaeda beats in Saudi Arabia, and that threat is alive and well unless a serious and comprehensive approach to extinguish it is started with Riyadh.
Obama must realize that the terrorism issue can be a leverage through which he obtain further concessions from the Saudi rulers on energy, the peace process, and the Iranian nuclear program. He might be able also to push for real political reforms and improvement of human and women rights for the people of the country. It is no secret that the Saudi record on human rights remains dismal, and the country to this day bans women from basic rights such as driving, voting, and playing sports. Three days before Air Force One lands in Riyadh the body of a beheaded man was displayed in the streets as a chilling reminder of the medieval nature of the Saudi justice system.
Some US officials might believe America’s continued alliance with an absolute monarchy with medieval policies serves pragmatic political goals. Perhaps the U.S. should not be expected to sacrifice her interests in the name of improving human rights of people in Saudi Arabia. However, it is most certainly the job of US administration to hunt down those responsible for the September 11 attacks as well as hundreds of Americans soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hold accountable the government that allowed them to develop. That job starts in Riyadh. How many Americans and others have to die before the US government takes the Saudis to task for their support of terrorism?
The claims of Saudi cooperation with the United States in the region do not stand to scrutiny. The Saudi contribution in Iraq has been the hundreds of suicide bombers and the dozens of religious edicts by government clerics that helped well the ranks of Al-Qaeda and other violent groups targeting Americans and Iraqis. The Saudi government refuses to recognize the elected Iraqi government and to open an embassy in Bagdad. The Kingdom officials have no particular regard for Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai and have not offered any financial assistance to this impoverished Muslim nation. If Obama doesn’t tackle the issue of Saudi involvement and support for terrorists, we will not have to wait long until they show up again in New York, Washington DC, and other American cities.
Ali Al-Ahmed is the director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs.
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