The New York Times notes that “business” relations between the CIA and Saudi Arabia can be traced back to the end of 1970s, when sheikhs from Riyadh organized the so-called Safari Club - “a coalition of nations including Morocco, Egypt and France — that ran covert operations around Africa at a time when Congress had clipped the C.I.A.’s wings over years of abuses.”
There’s little doubt that this step was followed by the funding of CIA operations in Afghanistan, Angola and other parts of the world, and the subsequent creation of Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the likes of them, that have been heavily supplied with arms and money.
As for the war in Syria, the CIA
and Saudi Arabia back in 2013 agreed to conduct a joint operation under
the codename: Timber Sycamore, the prime goal of which was the toppling
of the legitimately elected Syrian president. Under this agreement, the
Saudis have been providing arms and resources, while the CIA trained
“insurgents” before deploying to the battlefield. The newspaper names
other “sponsors” of the CIA campaign: Turkey, Jordan and Qatar. Although
the exact amount of the “contribution” of each of the states to the
secret operation in Syria remains unknown, it is mentioned that Saudi
Arabia has been one of the main sponsors, providing billions of dollars.
Thanks to The New York Times, we can now confirm that in the period
from 2012 to 2014 Prince Bandar bin Sultan the then director general of
the Saudi Intelligence Agency bought Raytheon anti-tank TOW missiles to
arm extremist groups. Those groups have already joined al-Qaeda and now
are using this equipment against government forces in Syria. The CIA
station chief oversaw all of these operations, since he had better
business and personal relations with Saudi authorities than even the US
ambassador. These issues were discussed at least once a month in
Washington by Prince Bandar himself and the former director of the CIA.
Recently relations between
Washington and Riyadh have been in decline, since the US has became less
dependent on imports of oil and started rapprochement with Iran.
However, the criminal “alliance” is not going anywhere anytime soon,
since US covert operations in the region are still being sponsored by
Saudi Arabia. This fact explains why Washington keeps away from openly
criticizing Saudi Arabia for its continuous violation of human rights,
the treatment of women and support for the radical Islamic movement –
Wahhabism.
What’s curious is that Saudi
Arabia continues assisting the White House whenever there’s some “dirty
work” to be done, instructing representatives of the so-called “Syrian
opposition” on the eve of the Geneva talks, while preparing, together
with Turkey, Qatar and other “American allies” new provocations in Syria
and across the Middle East.
Vladimir Odintsov, political commentator, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”