Jan Markell

America’s Worst “Best Ally”—Saudi Arabia

By Jan Markell

Delusions abound today. One of them is that Saudi Arabia is our "good Middle East ally and friend." But reality reveals that they are not pro-West, they are not pro-American, and they are not "moderates" in the region. So why have American presidents and diplomats wined and dined them for years and consulted them when shaping American foreign policy? They are another evil empire, and fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists hailed from Saudi Arabia because they had been brainwashed by violent Wahhabi Islamic fundamentalism.

This week the Justice Department accused a 23-year old Virginia native, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, of plotting to assassinate President Bush. He had been sent to a Saudi jail months ago even though he and his family are U.S. citizens. The media's reaction was typical: It centered on Ali's claims of torture by the Saudis, and lauded the fact that he was valedictorian of his jihad high school outside of Washington, D.C.

What few are talking about is that his U.S. high school operates under the authority of the Saudi government. The school teaches an extremist form of the Wahhabi faith, and has direct ties to at least three others terrorists--two of them former students. The obvious question everyone should be asking is, does this high school create an environment in which terrorism can thrive in our homeland? The Saudis opened the school in 1984 to instruct children of Saudi diplomats in the religion of their homeland.

The mother of the young man, herself enjoying all the luxuries and comforts of America, stated that Ahmed was tortured on orders of the American government because we are "monsters." The father also derided America. Though they are wealthy people, I am still willing to take a collection to send them all back to their burka-wearing, women-abusing, religiously-intolerant gulag called Saudi Arabia. Deportation should be on everyone's mind but you can bet it hasn't entered the thoughts of any U.S. official.

How about shutting down this school? It's clearly a training ground for terrorists. Look, we're at war! The Saudis are a part of the problem, not the solution. Recently the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh called President Bush a Nazi and suggested Bush's grandfather helped bring Hitler to power. Let's have a few less Texas barbecues for the Saudi royals with the red carpet laid out.

The world's biggest con artists are the Saudis and America is the willing target. The U.S. media, other than some alternative sources, pay little attention to what the mullahs in both American and Saudi mosques say about our nation. And what they say in English doesn't square with what they say in Arabic! As I reported on my radio program last weekend, "Freedom House," run by former CIA Director James Woolsey, revealed some literature now being passed out in American mosques, financed by Saudi Arabia, as reported in "The Washington Times." The propaganda tells Saudis in America to "behave as if you were on a mission behind enemy lines." More than 200 similar publications were found in U.S. mosques, and all are pro-Wahhabi, anti-Christian, anti-American, and anti-Semitic.

Our government needs to declare Saudi Arabia our "hate-monger ally," not one of America's "best allies." Once again, we are standing in the way of our own self-preservation.