(Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, most recently Militant Islam Reaches America. You may visit his website by clicking here and purchase his books by clicking here.)
Their difference highlights a problem that needs addressing through Congressional legislation: undue Saudi influence deriving from the spread of its money.
Senators spoke out forthrightly and honestly on the issue raised by the princess' donations.
• Joseph I. Lieberman (Democrat of Connecticut): “Either [the Saudis] have to change or the relationship that we have with Saudi Arabia is going to change dramatically. For too many generations, certainly years, they have pacified and accommodated themselves to the most extreme fanatical elements of Islam.”
• John McCain (Republican of Arizona): “The list goes on and on of Saudi failures and the central role that they have played in one way or another in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism all over the world.”
• Mitch McConnell (Republican of Kentucky): “The Saudis are on all sides of every issue. We, in some ways, have had a good relationship with them over the years, and in other ways, it appears as if they're funding our enemies.”
• Richard C. Shelby (Republican of Alabama): The Saudis have got “a lot of answering to do in my judgment.”
The senators also criticized U.S. law enforcement's reluctance to deal with the problem of Saudi financing of terrorism. Lieberman noted that “The FBI and maybe other parts of our government have seemed to want to almost defend the Saudis, or not be as aggressive as they should be about the Saudis.” Charles E. Schumer (Democrat of New York) concurred: “It seems every time the Saudis are involved, we stop [doing a proper investigation].”
In contrast, the Bush administration offered excuses for the couple and glossed over the problems of law enforcement.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell poured cold water on the revelations: “I think it's unlikely that Prince Bandar or Her Royal Highness would do anything that would support terrorist activity” – a most unusual endorsement given that the FBI is actively investigating this matter.
The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, praised Saudi efforts to prevent the financing of terrorism as “very strong,” though he did concede that “there is always more to be done.”
The president's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, promoted the self-serving Saudi line that Osama bin Laden specifically recruited Saudi hijackers for the 9/11 attacks to “drive a wedge” between the United States and Saudi Arabia. (This idea is palpably false: that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudi was not a political ploy but the result of the fact, as Stephen Schwartz explains, that “Saudis are the largest national contingent by far in al Qaeda.”)
The most embarrassing display by the administration, however, came from the distaff side. Colin Powell's wife Alma and the president's mother Barbara – both of whom have a history of socializing with the princess – called Haifa al-Faisal to express what The New York Times delicately termed their “support and sympathy.”
Why this undue solicitude for Saudi feelings? This hedging by the Executive branch fits a pattern going back almost sixty years, to when President Roosevelt met the Saudi king in 1945.
Since then, U.S. politicians, diplomats, flag officers, and lobbyists have enjoyed a cozy relationship with their counterparts on the Saudi side. The tie is premised on Americans – Democrats and Republicans alike – being accommodating to the kingdom's wishes and in return, being plied with substantial sums of money, either at the time or after they leave government service.
A culture of corruption, in other words, pervades the upper reaches of the White House and several departments; it does not, however, extend to the Congress, perhaps because the Saudis do not understand the workings or importance of an elected body and so have not tried to buy it.
Effectively fighting the war on terror urgently requires the passing of legislation that breaks up the cozy power-money nexus in the Executive branch by making sure that U.S. officials cannot tap into Saudi funds after they retire from government service.
Such laws should be high on the new Congress' agenda when it convenes in January.
