THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 33, January 26, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A SAUDI PRINCE'S THREAT TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD THE MIDDLE EAST & THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT: THE DEMANDS OF A SAUDI
PRINCE WHO HAS A HISTORY OF ISLAMIST RADICALISM VIS-A-VIS THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT -- PRINCE TURKI
AL-FAISAL'S INSTRUCTIONS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA ON WHAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT MUST DO DO IN ORDER TO
CONTINUE PLAYING A LEADERSHIP ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST & KEEP ITS STRATEGIC ALLIANCES INTACT, ESPECIALLY
ITS SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA -- TURKI'S DEMAND THAT THERE BE A DRASTIC
REVISION IN U.S. POLICIES VIS-A-VIS ISRAEL & PALESTINE
FULL STORY:
His Royal Highness Prince Turki al-Faisal, a leading Saudi powerbroker, is threatening the U.S. government.
Born in 1945 in Mecca to the future King Faisal, his official biography informs us Turki studied at the Ta'if Model
Elementary and Intermediate School, the Lawrenceville School, and Georgetown University. His career began in 1973
as an advisor in the Royal Court. He served as Director General of the Saudi Kingdom's main foreign intelligence
service for nearly a quarter-century, from 1977 to 2001, leaving that office just before 9/11. Between 2002 and 2007, he
represented his government as Ambassador to London and Washington. In retirement, he is Chairman of the King
Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh and Co-Chair of the C100 Group, an affiliate of the World
Economic Forum.
These credentials help gauge the import of the remarkable op-ed Turki published on January 23, 2009, in London's
Financial Times, "Saudi Arabia's Patience Is Running Out." He begins it by recalling his own efforts over the
decades to promote Arab-Israeli peace, and especially the Abdullah Plan of 2002. "But after Israel launched its
bloody attack on Gaza," he writes, "these pleas for optimism and co-operation now seem a distant memory." Then
comes a threat: "Unless the new U.S. administration takes forceful steps to prevent any further suffering and
slaughter of Palestinians, the peace process, the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and the stability of the region are at risk."
He goes on to whack George W. Bush in a way not exactly usual for a former Saudi ambassador: "Not only has the
Bush administration left a sickening legacy in the region, but it has also, through an arrogant attitude about the
butchery in Gaza, contributed to the slaughter of innocents." Then comes the threat again, restated more directly:
"If the U.S. wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep its strategic alliances intact --
especially its ‘special relationship' with Saudi Arabia -- it will have to revise drastically its policies vis-à-vis Israel
and Palestine."
Turki goes on to instruct in detail the new administration on what to do:
Condemn Israel's atrocities against the Palestinians and
support a UN resolution to that effect;
Condemn the Israeli actions that led to this conflict, from
settlement building in the West Bank to the blockade of
Gaza and the targeted killings and arbitrary arrests of
Palestinians;
Declare America's intention to work for a Middle East free
of weapons of mass destruction, with a security umbrella
for countries that sign up and sanctions for those that do
not;
Call for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from
Shab‘ah Farms in Lebanon;
Encourage Israeli-Syrian negotiations for peace; and
support a UN resolution guaranteeing Iraq's territorial
integrity.
Turki maintains that Obama should strongly promote the Abdullah peace initiative.
Finally, Turki notes that Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on "Saudi Arabia to lead a jihad against Israel [that]
would, if pursued, create unprecedented chaos and bloodshed." He soothingly notes that, "So far, the Kingdom has
resisted these calls," but then reiterates his threat a third time:
". . . every day this restraint becomes more difficult to
maintain. … Eventually, the Kingdom will not be able to
prevent its citizens from joining the worldwide revolt
against Israel."
What to make of this extraordinary threat? Not much.
As a Financial Times article on Turki's op-ed notes:
"The Prince's article recalls the letters that King Abdullah,
as Crown Prince, sent to George W. Bush in 2001, warning
that the Kingdom would review relations with the U.S.,
unless the administration adopted a forceful push for
Middle East peace. The letters rang alarm bells in
Washington, but were soon overshadowed by the
September 11, 2001, attacks, which involved a group of
Saudis. It was only after Riyadh launched its own campaign
against terrorism two years later and started addressing the
root causes of radicalism that ties with the U.S. improved
again."
In other words, we've experienced such a threat before, to little effect.
For all his years at the apex of the Saudi establishment, Turki left his final position ignominiously in 2006. Here is a
contemporary account of his exit, from the Washington Post:
"Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the
United States, flew out of Washington yesterday after
informing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his staff
that he would be leaving the post after only 15 months on
the job, according to U.S. officials and foreign envoys. …
Turki, a long-serving former intelligence chief, told his staff
yesterday afternoon that he wanted to spend more time
with his family, according to Arab diplomats. Colleagues
said they were shocked at the decision. The exit [occurred]
without the fanfare, parties, and tributes that normally
accompany a leading envoy's departure, much less a public
statement."
Turki has a history of Islamist radicalism and hot-headedness vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict. In a speech earlier this
month at a forum on relations between the Persian Gulf region and the United States, he addressed Obama:
"The Bush administration has left you [with] a disgusting
legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and
bloodshed of innocents in Gaza. Enough is enough; today,
we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and
for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza."
"Seek martyrdom"? Sounds like the revolutionary Iranian regime, not the staid Saudi monarchy.
Turki's threats could conceivably sway the Obama administration, but the new President's comments about the recent
Gaza hostilities suggest he is going in a decidedly different direction, having laid down three markers that Hamas must
fulfill, before it can be accepted as a diplomatic partner ("recognize Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide
by past agreements"). In the words of a Washington Post analysis, thus far, "Obama appears to have hewed
closely to the line held by the Bush administration."
© Daniel Pipes 2009
Originally Published in Front Page Magazine, January 26, 2009
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, January 26, 2009
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/6151
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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