"Nayef has tracked Shia' dissidents in Lebanon, ... We backed those crackdown with enthusiasm"

FLC

"... By intervening forcefully in Bahrain, the Saudis have now more or less taken control of the island’s future... they are the power behind the throne. This sends a clear signal to the two Shia powers in the gulf, Iran and Iraq, not to interfere in the business of the peninsula. It also sent a clear signal to Obama not to support reform in the Kingdom’s backyard.... 

 

For Nayef and other Saudi hard liners, demands for clipping the power of the secret police, the mukhabarat, in Arab states are direct threats to their authority. From the MOI’s inverted pyramid headquarters in Riyadh, Nayef has tracked down al-Qaeda and its sympathizers with a ruthless zeal. He has done the same to Iranian backed Shia dissidents in Lebanon’s Hezbollah. We backed those crackdowns with enthusiasm. Now it appears he is increasingly calling the shots in Riyadh....  The Saudi leadership also believes they have seen this American movie before. Jimmy Carter threw the Shah under the bus in 1978 and we got the Islamic Republic of Iran. George Bush toppled Saddam in 2003 and we got a Shia government in Iraq. The princes think America is naïve at best, untrustworthy at worst. So they are circling the wagons and telling their fellow monarchs in the Gulf and King Abdallah in Jordan to do the same..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 9:33 AM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian