Sleeping with the Devil book on Saudi Arabia

Madmax asked a few days ago about Robert Baer's book "Sleeping with the Devil" and why some passages were blacked out. The former CIA agent was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio today and said that the CIA made that happen, although he was surprised that they let many other things go through. He left the blacked out portions in the book to show the reader where text had been taken out.

Other tidbits: He says another 9/11 will happen. The Saudi government has been involved in aiding the hijackers and has not provided us any help in pursuing them. The United States is so heavily addicted to oil that the administration chooses to go along with them about everything. Harken and Halliburton considerations are at play here too.

The Saudi royal family is at war within itself and their economy is precarious. The oil money has gone mainly for buying arms and keeping the royals in their fantastic lifestyles. (Story showing how out of touch they are: One got the French to move a railroad track because he dislike having it near his palace in France, where he hadn't even stayed for years.) Meanwhile, the unemployed young people learn in the mosques to hate America.

Saudi Arabia is the only producer that can fill in when production is limited in other nations, so world energy prices are highly dependent on them. He sees a danger that the Saudi oil fields could be taken out by Saudi militants or al Qaeda, and if so oil could go to $150/barrel. In short, it's a real mess.

I can't wait to get hold of this book.

My intent here is not to dispute any facts from Dragonlady or Robert Baer. They probably represent many truths about the Saudis but the real devil here is the country that feeds the beast. Yes, it is the good old USA and its insatiable and growing thirst for fossil energy. Recently, the Saudis have been quite difficult about which corporate giants (Exxon-Mobil et al) will be allowed to further develop their petroleum & natural gas resources. They rejected all bids on three recent gas program proposals and will reevaluate where to go in the future because they want more control than said giants were willing to concede.

In the meantime, the USA has placed most of its development and investment money (not to mention military) in Qatar where there are huge reserves of natural gas (ref., 60 Minutes, CBS, 8/3/2003). What does this mean for the future of the region? Qatar will probably develop the same social ills that have befallen Saudi Arabia. Those include overpopulation and increasing infrastucture demands which lead to young impressionable, unemployed males etc., etc.. And the cycle keeps repeating itself over and over again. When will the world learn?

And actively trying to kick out Chavez (?) in Venezuala. Cheney and Condaleezza Rice's old company, Chevron, is big in the Nigerian delta, and other new drilling zones in southwest Africa.

But speaking of books on Saudi Arabia, I read one a few years ago, "Behind the Veil, an Australian Nurse in Saudi Arabia", and just looked it up only to find it's out of print and no longer available. Wonder how many copies got bought by Saudis?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1862542678/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/104-2692562-4900742?v=glance

The book went pretty deep into details of daily life. Saudi Arabia sounded like a totally whacked-out place.

I don't think Saudi Arabia intentionally funnelled money to 9-11 terrorists or orchestrated the 9-11 attacks. I firmly believe the "foreign government" mentioned in the 9-11 report is Israel, not Saudi Arabia.