Morocco jails three Saudis for terrorism

[Enlightenment]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2789233.stm

The men plotted to launch suicide attacks against US and UK warships as they transitted the Straits of Gibraltar.

From all apperances Saudi is exporting about as much terror as oil. Anyone here disagree that taking out the trash in Saudi is way overdue?

[AdmiralKanos]

Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia exports terrorism; Osama is a Saudi, after all. But Shrubby has close ties with them, at least for now. The Bin-Ladens, after all, were the only people in America outside of the military who were allowed to violate the no-fly restriction in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 IIRC.

[Enlightenment]

I have heard from sources of dubious repute[1] that, when confronted with the prospect of publically outed by the US government for connections to al Qaida, the Saudi government reportedly told the US to shut up lest the Saudis cut off ties to the US and form an alliance with Iraq.

Assuming it's true:

1) With friends like these, who needs enemies?

2) Conquoring Iraq makes somewhat more sense as it would both limit the Saudis freedom of movement and ensure that al Qaida Arabia couldn't bankrole (and benefit from) the Iraqi WMD program.



[1] Reportedly from a book on US-Saudi relations. Heard second-hand.

[Sea Skimmer]

Many terrorists and a lot of funding come from Saudi Arabia. But the highest levels of government are generally pro American, which makes an attack an unlikely proposition. And since terrorist aren't basing out of the country, it's questionable what an invasion would accomplish. People could move their assets out of the country pretty quickly, and there's not much that can be done about people leaving to go join organizations. What it would accomplish, if the US seized all of the countries oil assets, would be to cut off a lot of long-term support.

I don’t see anything happening until the king finally gets around to dieing though, and then there would be the question of who replaces him. A strong pro American King who can actually live in the country could accomplish most of what an invasion could

But thats unlikely to happen. I expect there will be some form of US action against SA within the next five years if they stay on there current path. It might be a major invasion, or it might be a small scale action that knocks out one leader in favor of another.

[The Dark]

When 9/11 happened, it hurt US-Saudi relations so badly that a Saudi princess was arrested in Orlando for (IIRC) beating her maid. Normally it would probably have been overlooked as a diplomatic gesture, but this time it wasn't. I think our relations with them are semi-permanently harmed (a couple generations, most likely), and a lot will depend on whether the rational side of the bin Saud family keeps the throne or if the Wahhabist side of the bin Saud royal family takes over.

[Stormbringer]

From all apperances Saudi is exporting about as much terror as oil. Anyone here disagree that taking out the trash in Saudi is way overdue?

We need to make them clean house at the very least. They won't go after the terrorists themselves or clamp down on the people supporting it. We have to deal with them sooner or later, hopefully sooner.

[Knife]

If/when Iraq gets turned into a more democratic (notice the more) nation, the whole atmosphere in the ME will change and alot of relationships will change to reflect that. Our dependance on SA is slightly smaller than their dependence on us, when Iraq and even Iran become more friendly as I think they will in the next couple of years, SA importance will become less and less important to the point where we might not need them as much as they would wish.