What's new

If Arab Oil Runs Out

PracticalGuy

FULL MEMBER
Joined
Apr 25, 2010
Messages
180
Reaction score
0
If Arab Oil Runs Out
leave a comment »

As’ad Abu Khalil on the perversions brought by Arab oil.

What has oil madness brought to the Arab person? What can we say about the accumulated billions that have gone to support the Western banks and corporations hostile to our interests, or to buy arms for America to use to support those servile regimes, or for the sake of subjugating those who raise their voices against Israel. Is there anyone among us who will yearn for Arab oil and its political actions, if the oil runs out?
If Arab oil runs out, there would be a great deal of change in our Arab world. If the oil runs out, there wouldn’t be clusters of men flocking to the Janadriya Festival screaming of manhood saying good things about a king who finds it hard to speak correct Arabic. If Arab oil runs out, there wouldn’t be the Arab national missionary, Ma’n Bashur, to endure the hardship of travel in order to take part in the glorification of a government whose job is to fight nationalism and to strengthen regionalism and the Bedouins and tribalism and factions. If the oil runs out, no one would come to the Janadriya Festival, except for Abdullah and his sons – unwillingly. If the oil runs out, a corps of senior religious officials in the Kingdom would become a television laughingstock and a reason for the intellectuals to show the ugliness of these people and a target of real enlightenment – not the false enlightenment of the entourage of this or that Emir.

If Arab oil runs out, the sermons of the mosques of the Shi’a and Sunni would join together equally to condemn the doctrine of primness and fanaticism and hostility towards the Saudi women with abundant money. If the oil runs out, the dark extremists could never speak in the name of Islam, and repress the dream and tolerance and the true brotherhood of man. If it ran out, their historical splendor and luster would be returned to Mecca and Medina and debate and discussion would return to them. Poetry and prose in all their forms would return to the season of the Haj as it was before the rise of Mohammed Bin Abd-al-Wahab. If oil runs out, religious scholars would speak the truth and would condemn doctrines of fanaticism supported with oil money. If Arab oil runs out, we wouldn’t be talking about the Saudi age – the first and the second – and the imperialistic policies of the West wouldn’t depend on the Saudi regime. There would be a great change in the Arab world, and the media would stop calling the Saudi king by the title “Servant of the two Holy Places.” Servant of the two Holy Places? And who gave him the right? And how does he serve the two Holy Places? And what about his service for American and Israeli interests? Doesn’t that deserve a special title too? If the oil runs out, they would call the Saudi king the servant of dates and perfume – no more – that is if the monarchy continued which wouldn’t survive without the benefits of oil. If Arab oil runs out, Saudi women would drive cars and buses and vehicles, uncovered or with hijab or veiled, if they wanted. If oil ran out, Saudi women would leave their marital jails for the open society and freedom.

If Arab oil runs out, our contemporary history wouldn’t be as it is now. If oil ran out earlier, the Egyptian army wouldn’t have been immersed and exhausted in the destructive Yemen war. If oil had run out earlier, the sheikhdoms and emirates and sultanates and kingdoms drawn by imperial pens would be republics. If the oil had run out, the Palestinian revolution, with all its organizations, wouldn’t have been corrupted with oil money, and Yasir Arafat and Abu al-Said wouldn’t have been able to impose the logic of backward Gulf Arab regimes on the national Palestinian movement in accordance with the vision of successive American administrations. If Arab oil had run out, Arab revolutionaries in the 1960s would have ignited the Arab region, and would’ve made the earth tremble under the feet of the freedom fighters – not opportunists. If the oil had run out, the revolution of Thafar would have triumphed and established a less oppressive government than the government of Kaboos or his father who rule with power from God (and with such odd behavior, as Fred Halliday wrote about in his valuable book “Arabia Without Sultans”). If the oil had run out, the Marxist regime in South Yemen would have flourished and spread out over the Arabian Peninsula and spread ideas of progress and freedom.

If Arab oil runs out today or tomorrow, a lot will change in our Arab world and hypocrisy will be shown for what it is. If the oil runs out, Shakir al-Nablusi would stop praising the poetry of Khalid al-Faisal and Jihad Fadil would stop praising the poetry of Abd-al Aziz al-Khooja and Samir A’ta allah would stop praising the Emir Muqrin Bin Abd-al Aziz and Jihad al-Khazin would stop praising every Arab emir who passes through London or New York. If the oil had run out, Om Kalthoum wouldn’t have sung for Abdullah Faisal, and others wouldn’t have sung the poetry of Manea’ Said al-A’tiba. If oil runs out, the Arab world wouldn’t allow Walid Bin Talal – investor of the News Corps company which owns the Fox News network specializing in hatred of the Arabs and Islam – to decide for us taste in art and music. If oil runs out, our media’s dehumanization of women in a very humiliating and vulgar way and Wahhabi fanaticism would fade away. If Arab oil runs out, Arab media would be exposed and the financing of the Video Clip (the cheap and silly Video Clip) would stop. If oil runs out, who knows? Samir A’tallah would write the memoir of the sins of the Saud family and their scandals. If Arab oil runs out, Arab liberalism will come out. If the oil runs out, the Arab liberals would come out screaming angrily calling for the fall of all the Gulf governments. If oil runs out, the liberals would say that the biggest obstacle facing the freedom of the individual is the continuation of the oppressive oil regimes, especially in Saudi Arabia. If the oil runs out, they would speak their minds frankly, and the Arab newspapers would be full of the news of sons of Sultan Bin Abd-al-Aziz and their bribes which fills the Western media. If the oil runs out, the Lebanese writers would speak their minds frankly in the lectures of Khalid Bin Sultan in the military academies – the one who everyone made fun of who dealt with him in the First Gulf War and who hired Patrick Seale to write his biography as he wrote the non-critical biography of Hafiz al-Asad. If the oil runs out, the Arab liberals would write volumes about the methods of torture used by Emir Nayf bin Abd-al-Aziz and people would write about the shameless “wild nights” of King Fahd. If the oil runs out, the appeasement coming from the pens of Lebanese media would disappear. If the oil runs out, would Ibrahim al-A’ris have said that the initiative of Abdullah Bin Abd-al-Aziz in a dialogue with Shimon Peres that it was the greatest initiative in human history? If the oil runs out, would anyone agree with “the initiative of Emir Abdullah” which he received from the Zionist Thomas Friedman? A Zionist composing an initiative for the Arabs, and then it is adopted by an Arab king and imposed on all Arab regimes! If the oil runs out, the Arab media collectively will call for the necessity to remove all regimes from the remnants of Western colonialism with characteristics from the Middle Ages. If Arab oil runs out, the Wahhabi liberals would discover that the oppression in the governments is a characteristic of all Arab regimes, not only Libya, Sudan, and Syria – that is, the opponents of the Saudis. If the oil runs out, Hazim Sayyigh would have been perplexed and looked finally to the Wahhabi way of democracy saying that “Free elections are not necessary if they produce enemies to Israel and al-Saud.” If the oil runs out, the Wahhabi liberals and the writers who appease the regimes would have noticed that the stoning of the lovers and the beheading of people do not agree with individual liberties and human rights. If Arab oil runs out, the real Saudi gifts in music and dance – other than the male arda dance – and cinema and theatre will appear. If the oil runs out, fun would appear in Saudi Arabia and Ra’s al-Khaima and Oman and decoration would fill A’jman and al-Fajira.

If the oil runs out, all the Western policies would change and forums and hearings in Congress would be held to look into the miserable human rights situation in the kingdom. If the oil runs out, Western banks would be empty of Arab fortunes which finance some of the economies which continue to support Israel with weapons to kill our women and children and old people. If the oil runs out, Bush and Chirac would have never danced with the oil sheikhs. If the oil runs out, no poetry would have been written to praise the dates and the extreme heat and no plans would’ve been made to take over the sand dunes in the Peninsula. If Arab oil runs out, the Security Council would hold a special session to look into the nature of the unjust and oppressive Saudi regime and the International Criminal Court would have dragged the kings of al-Saud to the court with the accusation of oppressing men, women and children. If the oil runs out, the human rights organizations would have looked into the issue of slavery of men and women in the palaces of al-Saud and al-Shakhboot. If the oil had run out, we wouldn’t have seen businessmen, intellectuals and journalists from East and West lining up to be blessed by the oil princes. If Arab oil had run out, Wahhabism would have turned into a small fanatical group on the margins of their religion, of every religion. If oil had run out, al-ijtihad would have developed (which the Sunnis never closed the doors to, as Wail Halak proved in his serious historical studies) and the life of the believers would have been easier. If the oil had run out, we wouldn’t have seen the pictures of vulgar spending of the Gulf Emirs in the magazines and the demand for gold painting would go away. If Arab oil had run out, the Kadafi foundation would have never been able to advertise itself and the Green Book would have been only a magnet for dust. If Arab oil had run out, no one would have praised the wisdom of the King of Saudi Arabia, and his highness would never have received awards from these hypocrites from the East and West. If Arab oil had run out, the power of the Saudis and Shakhboot would be equal to the power of the government of Djibouti or less. If the oil had run out, none of the Western officials would have stopped in Riyadh during their shuttle trips. If the oil had run out, all the international foundations and forums would never have accepted the membership of Saudi Arabia because of horrible violations of human rights and the pictures of the princes of al-Saud would have appeared on the Most Wanted list – if the oil had run out.

If Arab oil runs out, Arab women would breathe freedom and they would get rid of religious edicts of oppression, injustice and mistreatment. They would walk without fear and the religious police wouldn’t dare to harass them in the streets and squares. If the oil runs out, love and flirting wouldn’t be considered forbidden and lovers would never be stoned. If the oil runs out, a woman would walk hand in hand with a man, not behind him with her head down. If the oil runs out, a woman would be allowed to travel freely without permission from a man, no matter what his relation to her. The seeds of unrest are financed by oil money. If the oil runs out, Lebanese men and women would not go to the oil countries to compete in humiliating appeasement. If the oil runs out, all these books praising desert poetry wouldn’t be published and the officials in the Arab countries wouldn’t have run to the airport every time an Emir from Saudi Arabia goes to their country, no matter how young he is. If the oil had run out, the Emir Sultan bin Fahd wouldn’t have managed one sports club and “Azouz”, the spiritual guide to Sa’d Hariri wouldn’t have occupied any government position, this guy who suffered hallucinations and was madly in love with the American actress Jasmine Blyth as she mockingly relates.

If the oil had run out, Eastern and Western businessmen wouldn’t have praised the wisdom of Rashid and Zayid’s sons. If the oil runs out, nobody would go after awards named after the oil sheikhs who have no connection whatsoever with knowledge or science.

If Arab oil had run out, the Arab system would have built a new foundation and the elections, no matter how small in our world, would not be affected to this extent by oil money. If Arab oil had run out, Mohammad Dahlan would never have found business opportunities in the Emirates and Montenegro. If the oil had run out, the Arab League would not be prisoner to the whims of the black oil sheikhs and kings. If the oil had run out, the US wouldn’t have been able to spend such a huge amount against Communism and the enlightenment there in the 1970s and 80s and the Emir Turki would have been unable to establish an international army of fundamentalist and fanatics. If the oil had run out, al-Azhar would have been an expression of diversity and tolerance in religion, not fanaticism and quackery to be willing held hostage by the government, and the sheikh of al-Azhar wouldn’t have honored Shimon Peres. If the oil had run out, Strida Ja’ja’ wouldn’t have praised the wisdom and depth of the Emir of Kuwait, the one who dealt with invasion by Iraq with tears and screams. If Arab oil had run out, the book “Cities of Salt” would have been in the curriculum of all Arab countries and Arab students would have learned about Abd-ar-Rahman Munif. If Arab oil had run out, the case of the kidnapping and killing of Nasir Said would have become an international issue like the case of the kidnapping of Mahdi bin Baraka. If the oil had run out, the titles like sultan, king, sheikh, emir, crown prince and servant of the two holy places would have disappeared from the dictionary of addressing people.

If Arab oil had run out, OPEC would not be an instrument to serve the economic and political interests of Western colonialism and they wouldn’t have harangued us with talk about the “oil weapon” which was only an instrument in the hands of the US that used it to serve Israel. The oil weapon? That lie from the days of very loud declaration in 1973 when the Arab oil governments were selling it on the market to the US and its allies. If the oil runs out, an Arab committee of intellectuals, writers, and journalists would be formed to confront the danger of extreme Wahhabism and fanaticism.

If Arab oil had run out, secular ideas would have flourished and spread. If the oil had run out, revolutions would have come to pass and unions and leftist movements. If the oil runs out, the Asian workers would be free in the Gulf countries. If the oil runs out, gold and diamond watches would disappear from the wrists of many Lebanese journalists. If the oil runs out, Arab students’ knowledge of sciences, humanities, and arts would increase. If the oil had run out, we would have studied the books of Ibn Timia and Ibn Qim al-Jouzia as they are, without Wahhabi “refinement.” If Arab oil runs out, the Arab media would be more free and empty of the news of the princes and kings and their “genius.” If the oil runs out, the “Arab” media would disappear from London and go back to its country with its tail between its legs. If Arab oil runs out, Arab satellites would be free from the control of al-Saud which imposes either vulgarity which makes women a commodity or religious fanaticism.

If Arab oil runs out, the Arab media and intellectuals would remember the poor in our area and their news and suffering would fill the airwaves, we would have competed in offering social services and fighting poverty, and joining the World Trade Organization wouldn’t have been our aim that is more important in our priorities than freeing Palestine. If Arab oil runs out, we would re-shape the culture and politics in the Arab world and the “culture of oil” which marketed the worshipping of the white European man and commoditized women and trade in girls and boys and the social classes and the despising of the poor and the glorifying of polygamy and imposed prohibitions and restrictions on people while allow it to the ruling families and serving Western imperialism and prohibiting discussion and debate and restricting the limits in religious interpretation and education – all this would disappear. If Arab oil runs out, artistic activities would flourish all over the Arab world and a lot of the prohibited things would disappear. If Arab oil runs out, the mentality of inheritance in the governments and positions based on blood ties would become extinct. If the oil runs out, the borders and walls between many sheikhdoms and emirates would disappear.

If Arab oil runs out, what will happen to many of these nightclubs and brothels in the West which wouldn’t have continued to survive for years if it wasn’t for the Arab oil money. Wasn’t the Playboy Club in London a playground for the Arab oil sheikhs and princes to the extent that an Arab, who is Lebanese of course, who specialized in Arab royal indulgences, was appointed to oversee it? And this man was very respected and appreciated in the Arab media in the 1970s. If Arab oil runs out, human trafficking in the south of France, which is supervised by Lebanese with the skills of the Lebanese of whom their green homeland is proud, would have to declare bankruptcy.

But, if Arab oil runs out, where would Lebanese politicians go on Haj? And what about Hariri’s successors? Will they make free decisions or be committed to the orders of Sultan and Emir and the rest of them? Who will Ibn al-Faqih Ibrahim Shams al-Deen appease? Who is going to finance the leader of the southern Shi’a from al-Hazmia, Ahmed al-Asa’d? If Arab oil runs out, would the kicked out mufti of Sour, Ali al-Amin, go to give a speech on culture at the Janadariyya Festival? If Arab oil had run out, the magazine al-Huadith wouldn’t have continued after the 1970s most probably. If the oil runs out, would Tariq al-Hamid find anyone who would publish his thoughts? If the oil runs out, to whom is Fouad Abd-al-Basat al-Senora going to send his prayers like the one published in the special issue of the “History of the Arabs and the World” about the Saudi king? If the oil runs out, would Munir al-Hafi find someone to publish his hypocrisies and appeasements to the Saudi ambassador or to publish his fancy volumes about the Saudi role in Lebanon? If the oil runs out, who would appoint Yasir Abd Rabo and who will open the pulpit for him to serve US-Saudi-Israeli plans? If oil runs out, who will give the orders to the writers in the Arab newspapers around the world, especially the Lebanese? If the oil runs out, what will happen to Fouad Mattar – who started out as the mouthpiece of Nasser then turned to mouthpiece of Saddam and wrote a biography of Saddam, then he turned to active Saudi-Wahhabi mouthpiece, poor Fouad Mattar if the oil dries up.

And if Arab oil runs out, would the artists of the Arab world work very hard to entertain the sheikhs and oil princes in private parties where the media is not invited?

We have the right to dream and to picture a different Arab world. Is anyone going to regret the transformation of the Saudi Shura council that was appointed by the king to an elected council that would express the hopes of men and women in Saudi Arabia which would change its family name? Is anyone going to miss the members of the corps of high religious officials and the frightening fatwas which are against logic and knowledge? Is there anyone who will miss Sheikh Mo’s supervision of poetry festivals? On the contrary, we will find that Arab men and women will find happiness, great happiness, at what comes out of the land, like water and vegetables and fruits. The water, maybe the water would prevail instead of oil. What’s the harm of glorifying the source of “every living thing”? Arab oil, if it runs out, we will leave our houses and huts in welcome saying hallelujah and clapping. If it runs out. Ah, I wish it would! Extreme bitter plants are better for us than oil.”

If Arab Oil Runs Out P U L S E
 
Well Saudia Arabia under this king has been progressing so i guess it will survive just fine and it also has gold mines.The real deepshit countries would be UAE, Iraq, Iran etc.
 
Well Saudia Arabia under this king has been progressing so i guess it will survive just fine and it also has gold mines.The real deepshit countries would be UAE, Iraq, Iran etc.

well, saudis might have a few buildings and roads, but i doubt if they have the capabitlity to run their country without oil. but in case of iraq and especially iran, i believe they are different from saudis/kwitis and UAE, they will manage to run their countries even without oil.
 
Saudi's are blessed with not just oil my friends, stop day dreaming

First of all oil is not going to finish anytime soon so this thread will become useless. Secondly if their oil reserves finish, they have Natural Gas (just another black gold).

If Natural gas finishes they will have gold reserves, if that finishes they will have other minerals to work on.

They just cannot be emptied with natural reserves blessed by Allah.
Better stop dreaming and come back to life :)

This isn't gonnai happen in 21st century
 
Nothing would happen to Arab, they are working quite successfully to change their economy from oil based to diversify it.For ex. they have their own NASHDAQ DUBAI to earn, besides this they have made a good shopping paradise for tourist. They are also investing heavily in outside markets. So i dont think there would be any big change when oil wells run empty.
 
Chances are there will be a breakthrough technology getting more popular which will replace the oil and would be cheaper and reduce the pollution before the oil runs out.
 
Nothing would happen to Arab, they are working quite successfully to change their economy from oil based to diversify it.For ex. they have their own NASHDAQ DUBAI to earn, besides this they have made a good shopping paradise for tourist. They are also investing heavily in outside markets. So i dont think there would be any big change when oil wells run empty.

Agreed!

Saudi's got a lot of potential to run their industries. They have vast land with proven natural reserves and cash money in hands. Their construction companies can be flourished and has potential to become leading international contractars and help generate revenue and contribute towards the country's economy. Their steel industry has a lot of potential. Tourism in Jeddah is already gaining a lot of popularity and they have wonderful beaches there.

Around 4 million pilgrims visit the holy land of makkah each year during Hajj season and many more for Umrah purposes. This country having signifance in Islam countries will always have the sympthy of other countries and they will always help her incase if poverty thrives.

This country just cannot die with hunger :no:
Wake up!
 
Saudi King halts oil exploration to save wealth​

Saudi King halts oil exploration to save wealth - Emirates Business 24|7


Monarch's instruction is part of an ongoing strategy to save the country’s natural resources.
By Nadim Kawach
Published Sunday, July 04, 2010

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered a halt to oil exploration operations to save the Gulf country’s massive hydrocarbon wealth for the future generations, the official Saudi media reported yesterday.

Addressing Saudi students sent for studies in the United States, the Monarch said his instructions were part of an ongoing strategy to save the country’s natural resources and ensure part of them are left for the future.

“I will reveal to you something that will make you laugh…..I was heading a cabinet meeting and told them (Ministers) to pray to God the Almighty to give it a long life,” King Abdullah told the surprised students.


“They asked me what that was but I again asked them to pray to God…then I told them it was oil…I told them that I have ordered a halt to all oil explorations so part of this wealth is left for our sons and successors God willing.”

Saudi Arabia already controls around 265 billion barrels in extractable crude deposits, more than a fifth of the world’s total proven oil reserves.

But officials believe the real oil deposits in place are far larger than those that can be recovered by present drilling and production technology.



According to state-owned Saudi Aramco, which controls the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon sector, oil reserves in place are estimated at around 722 billion barrels, of which nearly 110 billion barrels have been produced since Aramco began pumping crude 70 years ago. The amount that can be pumped with present technology is around 265 billion barrels, said Mohammed Saggaf, Manager of Saudi Aramco’s Advanced Research Centre.

“Saudi Aramco’s long-term goal is two-fold…we want to increase total oil in place to 900 billion barrels by 2020 and to push the limits of recovery from around 50 per cent to 70 per cent in our major producing fields, using both improved conventional recovery and enhanced oil recovery,” he said.

“Globally, the average ratio of recoverable reserves to oil in place is mostly 30 to 40 per cent, with a level of 50 per cent, Saudi Aramco is already doing much better than the average…however we intend to go further and push the limit to achieve recovery rates as high as 70 per cent…these are not dreams but are hard and fast targets.”

In a recent study, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), which groups Saudi Arabia, the UAE and eight other regional hydrocarbon producers, put the total Arab oil deposits in place at more than 2,700 billion barrels at an extraction rate of about 35 per cent.

“Assuming an extraction rate of 35 per cent, the Arab oil deposits in place could reach 2,738 billion barrels. This means the oil quantities that can not be extracted by present technology are around 1,809 billion barrels, which are nearly 645 billion barrels above the world’s proven oil resources….these quantities, if they can be extracted, will meet the world needs for 60 years …even if only 10 per cent of them could be extracted, they could be enough for seven years.”

OAPEC said four Gulf countries—UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq—controlled around 50 per cent of the world’s recoverable oil potential and more than 86 per cent of the total Arab crude reserves.

But it noted large quantities of oil and gas remained undiscovered or undeveloped in the region, totaling around 175 billion barrels of oil, 43,368 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 67 billion barrels of gas liquids.

Saudi Arabia pumps around eight million barrels per day of oil in line with OPEC’s collective quota agreement but its sustainable output capacity exceeds 12 million bpd, allowing it to hold over 70 per cent of the world’s idle capacity. At the current output level, its proven oil wealth could last nearly 90 years.

The Kingdom has just completed a $100 billion (Dh367 billion) investment programme launched over the past few years to expand its hydrocarbon industry and maintain its position as the world’s dominant oil power.

Aramco said the largest hydrocarbon investment programme in the Gulf Kingdom’s history has added nearly 3.8 million bpd to the country’s crude output capacity, including around two million bpd in 2009 alone.
 
Arab countries and infact the whole world need to start preparing for when oil runs out. Renewable energy needs to be more utilized.
 
The corrupt, feudal world of the House of Saud

Poor old Saudis. It takes quite a lot to evoke sympathy for the head-chopping, hand-severing, anti-feminist, misogynist, feudal, anti-democratic Saudis. These, after all, are the folks who bankrolled the Islamist resistance to the Soviet army in Afghanistan. This is the nation whose interior minister used to have cosy chats with Osama bin Laden in the Saudi embassy.

Indeed, this is the country that chose Osama to be its "prince" in the campaign against Soviet atheism – its own, real, princes not having the guts to lead the Arab "legion" against the Russians. And this is the country that provided 15 of the 19 suicide killers of 11 September 2001. And this is the country whose suicide bombers slaughtered yet more Westerners in Riyadh on Monday. If it's more than 90 dead, it will be al-Qa'ida's greatest triumph since 2001.

But after the latest blitz on Iraq, after the illegal (under international law) invasion of Iraq, and after the naive, dangerous mouthings of America's new colonial masters – I am thinking of the new stomach-in, chest-out musings of their most famous flop, Zionist ex-General Jay Garner – you can't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for the Saudis. After all, they were – like Saddam – created by the West.

The British accepted the Sauds once it was clear the Hashemites were out of the Hejaz, and Franklin D Roosevelt sanctified their rule aboard the USS Quincy. Winston Churchill's drinking spree with the Saudi monarch in Egypt brought an end to Britain's imperial adventure in the land of the Two Holy Places. When Churchill announced that "If it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol, I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them," Ibn Saud was not amused.

The Saud royal family is a real House that Jack built. Its thousands of princes – rakes of a most medieval kind – are sublimely unworthy of rule. They own a third of 60 per cent of the world's oil – they share this global treasure with four other families – and they have produced not only the greediest of sheikhs and the poorest of Gulf slums but the most ferociously Wahhabist, feudal anti-Western institution that has existed since the siege of Vienna. Oil money has corrupted the royal family. Its imams and religious "savants' have long ago decided that the Sauds are western stooges, weaned on prostitution, corruption and US bribes.

But among the neo-conservatives who now drive the Bush administration – the Perles and the Wolfowitzes and the Cohens – Saudi Arabia has long been the financial flip-side of Saddam. Who, after all, bankrolled Saddam's rise to power? Who financed his insane eight-year war with Iran – complete with the chemical warfare of which we are now so appalled? Who, indeed, sent the young Muslims off to fight the Soviet army in Afghanistan? The Saudis. Let us forget – as Messrs Perle, Wolfowitz and Cohen would wish us to forget – they did so with our blessing and encouragement.

And ever since 11 September 2001 – I stress the complete date lest we mix it up with September 1982 (the massacre of 1,700 Palestinians at Sabra and Chatila) or that other 11 September that marked the Kissinger-inspired coup against Salvador Allende – the neo-conservatives in the US administration have been reminding us of the inherent evil of the Saudi regime. It was, after all, Mr Perle, who arranged for a Rand Corporation analyst – the extremely odd Mr Laurent Maurawiec – to tell a Pentagon "advisory board" (heaven knows what they "advise" on) that "the Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader." Saudi Arabia was "the kernel of evil."

Ever since, there has been a campaign to denigrate the House of Saud. The most recent was an article by an ex-CIA Middle East "field officer", Robert Baer, who wrote a long and detailed article in The Atlantic Monthly about the imminent collapse of the House of Saud. He described, with devastating accuracy, the near-fatal stroke of King Fahd in 1995 – a seizure which left the elderly Crown Prince Abdullah to rule in place of the still-surviving Fahd.

"From all over Riyadh came the thump-thump of helicopters" as the princes converged on the royal hospital bed; even more so when Fahd seemed on the verge of death in Switzerland last year when – in Switzerland myself – I was awoken by the same "thump-thump' and the screech of royal jets as the princes arrived yet again to demand a slice of the royal pudding. In truth, there are now too many princes – £19,000 a month is not enough for a princely lifestyle and the number of princes, at 15,000, is getting too big to manage. Soon there will be 30,000 – 60,000 in another generation.:woot:

Isn't this just what Osama bin Laden always talked about? Odd, isn't it, that Osama's hatreds and Baer's cynicism should coalesce in the Saudi royal family? Osama would like to turn Saudi Arabia into a real Islamic nation and some of his descriptions of Saudi corruption – made personally to me – sound remarkably like the bile of Messrs Perle and Baer. Indeed, the most revolting symbol of corruption produced by Baer is the image of King Fahd, recovering from heart surgery, defecating in the royal swimming pool in front of his entire family.

But fear not, I say. For as Baer wickedly points out, American business is locked into the Saudi royal family. The Carlyle group has been a principal benefactor of Saudi largesse. Frank Carlucci (national security adviser and Secretary of Defence under Reagan) was a chairman, James Baker (Bush Snr's Secretary of State) is a senior counsellor, and Arthur Levitt (Clinton's head of the Securities and Exchange commission) is also an adviser. The current chairman of Carlyle is our own dear John Major.

Halliburton – run by Dick Cheney until he became Vice President – is now benefiting from Iraqi "reconstruction", but is also a major beneficiary of Saudi Arabia, taking a $140m contract to develop an oilfield in 2001. Chevron Texaco is a partner with Saudi Aramco in new oil ventures – formerly on the board was Condoleezza Rice, America's favourite National Security Adviser. And so it goes on. And if you think it doesn't, check the roles of Carla Hills (George Bush Snr's trade representative) and Nicholas Brady, his Treasury Secretary, on the board of a company exploiting, along with the Saudis, Azerbaijan's oil wealth.

So here's a guess. No matter what happens in Saudi Arabia, America will go on backing the House of Saud. Unless they collapse. In which case, the US can take over the Saudi oil fields from its nearby bases in Iraq. If it was 12 minutes' flying time to Iraq's oil reserves, it's the same if they take off from Basra to "secure" Saudi Arabia's oil fields, most of them in territory inhabited by Shia Muslims – whose mentors will (so we hope) be in Iran and southern Iraq.

You can see the way the wind is going. We have Iraq. Forget Saudi Arabia. Until we realise that Osama bin Laden may be installed in Mecca and Medina and Riyadh. And then we'll say, but hang on a moment, didn't we beat him in Afghanistan? Either way, we'll keep the oil – however many victims Osama kills along the way.
 
The damage that country has done to some part of the world is over. That oil that is being pumped is not Saudi oil anymore. They get kit-kats and Bushy hugs and kisses.
 
Back
Top Bottom