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| Ivo Skoric on Thu, 27 Sep 2001 23:57:14 +0200 (CEST) |
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| [Nettime-bold] (Fwd) Fw: War on Terrorism: Saudi Arabia - Saudis turn their b |
Exploring Saudi-Taliban connection (Osama never call Saudi
Arabia by that name, though: he rather calls it The Land of Two
Holy Places - despising Saudi royal family).
ivo
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:12:46 -0400
> >Subject: War on Terrorism: Saudi Arabia - Saudis turn their backs on the
> >Taliban, a monster they helped create
> >
> >
> >
> > War on Terrorism: Saudi Arabia -
> > Saudis turn their backs on the
> > Taliban, a monster they helped
> > create
> >
> >
> > The Independent - United Kingdom,
> > Sep 26, 2001
> > BY ROBERT FISK MIDDLE EAST
> > CORRESPONDENT
> >
> >
> > THE SAUDIS, who helped to create
> > the Taliban regime in
> > Afghanistan, thereby spawning a
> > baby that turned into a monster,
> > severed all diplomatic ties with
> > the Kabul government yesterday.
> >
> >
> > Their decision, which ended seven
> > years of shameless Saudi support
> > for the most obscurantist and
> > cruel regime in the region, came
> > scarcely a month after the Saudi
> > Royal Family fired the man who
> > did more than any individual to
> > cement the Taliban's power in
> > Afghanistan: Prince Turki bin
> > Feisel al-Saud, the head of the
> > Saudi secret service.
> >
> >
> > Saudi Arabia's break with the
> > Taliban ends a relationship that
> > embarrassed the Saudis as much as
> > it infuriated the United States -
> > even though it was studiously
> > ignored by US administrations and
> > the American media.
> >
> >
> > The links began in 1994 when
> > Saudi and other Arab princes flew
> > to Afghanistan's second city of
> > Kandahar for a hunting
> > expedition, bringing with them
> > jeeps, money and an entire mobile
> > phone system for their Afghan
> > hosts. Among them was Prince
> > Turki, who was not only a close
> > acquaintance of Osama bin Laden
> > but had enthusiastically embraced
> > Mr bin Laden's original call for
> > Arab fighters to join the war
> > against the Russians in 1980.
> >
> >
> > Prince Turki had first promoted
> > the Wahhabi Sunni Muslim Taliban
> > - reared in the ignorance of the
> > Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan
> > - as adherents to the al-Saud
> > family sect and a counter-balance
> > to the Shia Muslim Hazara tribe
> > of Afghanistan, which was
> > supported by Iran. Wahhabism, a
> > form of "pure" Islam first
> > preached in the 18th century by
> > Abdul Wahab - whose daughter's
> > marriage to an al-Saud sealed the
> > alliance between the theological
> > zealot and the future rulers of
> > Saudi Arabia - enforced strict
> > sharia religious law, which was
> > applied with obsessional relish
> > by the Pashtun- speaking Taliban.
> >
> >
> > The Saudis had few doubts about
> > supporting them. Mr bin Laden's
> > flight from Sudan to Afghanistan
> > in 1995 placed him under Taliban,
> > and therefore Saudi, control.
> >
> >
> > There are many accounts of the
> > Arab hunt for game birds -
> > bustards in this case - around
> > Kandahar and of the Arab princes'
> > generosity to the Taliban.
> > According to the Pakistani
> > journalist Ahmad Rashid, whose
> > 20- year study of Afghanistan,
> > Taliban, is probably the most
> > authoritative source on the
> > subject, the head of the
> > Pakistani Jema'a Ulema Islami
> > (Group of Islamic Religious
> > Scholars), Maulana Faz-lur
> > Rehman, organised the Arabs'
> > trip.
> >
> >
> > Within 18 months, Prince Turki
> > had returned to Kandahar, this
> > time to provide millions of
> > dollars, vehicles and petrol for
> > the Taliban assault on Kabul -
> > the battle that finally drove the
> > feuding and largely secular
> > mujahedin guerrillas out of the
> > city and led to the imposition of
> > the ruthless religious laws that
> > within months destroyed culture,
> > entertainment, science and
> > women's rights in most of
> > Afghanistan. The involvement of
> > two Saudi companies in a gas
> > pipeline project across the
> > country provided further reason
> > for the Saudis to pursue their
> > friendship.
> >
> >
> > The Saudi religious leaders, the
> > ulema, had insisted that the
> > Royal Family should support the
> > Taliban after they themselves had
> > been forced to approve the
> > presence of half a million US
> > troops in the land of Mecca and
> > Medina five years earlier. The
> > ulema, including Sheikh Abdul
> > Aziz bin Baz, the Grand Mufti and
> > chairman of the Council of Senior
> > Preachers, demanded Saudi support
> > for the Taliban and preached in
> > favour of its rule in Afghanistan
> > in the madrassahs (religious
> > schools) and mosques across Saudi
> > Arabia.
> >
> >
> > In April 1997, Mullah Rabbani,
> > the Taliban leader, arrived in
> > Riyadh to announce that "Saudi
> > Arabia is the centre of the
> > Muslim world [and] we would like
> > to have Saudi assistance. King
> > Fahd expressed happiness at the
> > good measures [sic] taken by the
> > Taliban and over the imposition
> > of Sharia [law] in our country."
> > According to Mr Rashid, the
> > Saudis were now extremely
> > reluctant to demand the return of
> > Mr bin Laden.
> >
> >
> > Ironically, the Iranians, who
> > have always opposed the Taliban
> > and their regime, had by 1996
> > found themselves in a position
> > remarkably similar to that in
> > which the US finds itself today.
> > The Taliban had given sanctuary
> > to Ahl-e-Sunnah Wal Jamaar, head
> > of an opposition "terrorist"
> > group that had been recruiting
> > among Iranians around Khorasan,
> > many of them from Iran's Baluchi,
> > Turkmen and Afghan minorities.
> > The Taliban gave the Iranians the
> > same reply as they have done in
> > response to demands for Mr bin
> > Laden's expulsion: he is a Muslim
> > "guest" and cannot be asked to
> > leave.
> >
> >
> > The state visit by Mohammad
> > Khatami, the Iranian President,
> > to Saudi Arabia in May 1999
> > doomed the Saudi- Taliban
> > relationship. The Saudis had
> > grown to distrust the Taliban's
> > other prop, Pakistan, and were
> > appalled at the massacre of
> > Iranian diplomats by the Taliban
> > in Mazar-I-Sharif in 1998. When
> > Prince Turki paid one more visit
> > to Kabul last year to demand the
> > expulsion of Mr bin Laden, he was
> > brusquely told to leave.
> >
> >
> > But the ghost of Wahhabism
> > continued to haunt Afghanistan.
> > In Saudi Arabia, there had long
> > been rumours that members of the
> > Royal Family were in the habit of
> > "marrying" a new wife each year
> > and discarding an older wife to
> > make room for her. In Kabul, the
> > Taliban are now reported to have
> > adopted similar mores. Several
> > families have said that squads of
> > armed Taliban men have turned up
> > at their door to take a daughter
> > for an arranged marriage - to a
> > husband who will then divorce
> > another of his wives. Whether the
> > habit was picked up from the
> > Saudis, the kingdom has already
> > done its best to make a final
> > break with the Taliban. By
> > cutting diplomatic ties with
> > Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia is
> > hoping the world will forget how
> > culpable it was in the whole
> > Taliban catastrophe.
> >
> >
> > All Material Subject to Copyright
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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