Bandar still alive, insiders say
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20120824/NEWS/120829914
ASPEN - Prince Bandar bin Sultan, chief of Saudi Arabia's intelligence
agency and still an Aspen property owner, is apparently alive and well
despite rumors in early August that he had been assassinated in an
explosion.
A spokesman for the U.S.
State Department on Wednesday said recent stories reporting that Bandar,
63, had been killed were not true.
David
Ottaway, who retired from the Washington Post in 2006 after 30 years of
covering Saudi Arabia, also says the stories were false.
"If
Bandar had died, the government would have announced it," Ottaway said.
"It would not be possible to hide such a death, even in Saudi Arabia. I
do not believe he has died, but I have not seen him in public since he
took his new job."
Ottaway is the
author of the 2008 book "The King's Messenger: Prince Bandar bin Sultan
and America's Tangled Relationship with Saudi Arabia."
"The
Iranians are constantly putting out stories through their agents of
some mishap about Bandar that have been all false so far," Ottaway wrote
Thursday in response to an email query.
Additionally,
David Ignatius, a veteran foreign-affairs columnist with the Washington
Post, reported on Aug. 5 that the rumors of Bandar's death were false.
This week, Ignatius confirmed that his source on Bandar was solid.
"Yes,
before I wrote my piece on Aug. 5, I talked with a source who
confirmed, based on personal knowledge, Prince Bandar had been in
regular phone contact with foreign officials that week to discuss
intelligence matters," Ignatius wrote in response to an email query.
Further
evidence of Bandar's continued existence also came on Aug. 14, when the
Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that noted that
Bandar was in attendance at the Islamic Solidarity Summit being held in
Mecca.
And on Aug. 15, the Qatar News
Agency reported that Bandar had escorted the emir of Qatar to the
airport in Jeddah after the first day of the summit.
Bandar, who served as Saudi ambassador to the U.S. from 1983 to 2005, built a lavish estate in Aspen in 1991.
In
June, he sold his main home and another nearby residence in the
Starwood neighborhood to hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson for $49
million. In 2007, Bandar sold another Starwood home for $36 million.
But
Bandar owned four homes in Starwood, and he still owns a relatively
modest 5,200-square-foot home valued at $5.2 million by the Pitkin
County assessor.
The home is listed
as being owned by Bricol NV, an entity controlled by Bandar and managed
by attorney William Jordan III, who did not respond to a request for
comment.
After several years of
keeping a low profile, Bandar suddenly made international headlines in
the past five weeks and became the subject of wide speculation, perhaps
as the result of a deliberate misinformation campaign.
The
tale starts on July 18, when a suicide bomber was able to detonate an
explosion at Syria's National Security Headquarters in Damascus, killing
the Syrian defense minister and the deputy defense minister, who was
also President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law. The Free Syrian Army
claimed responsibility.
The next day,
July 19, Bandar, already secretary general of the Saudi National
Security Council, also was named chief of intelligence by King Abdullah.
That prompted speculation by some
media outlets that Bandar's additional intelligence role was a reward
for the Syrian bombing. The Saudis have urged military intervention in
the Syrian conflict against the Assad regime.
On
July 22, Iran's English-language Press TV ran a story headlined "Blast
hits Saudi intelligence building, killing deputy spy chief."
The
Press TV story said Bandar's deputy had been killed. The Iranian story
said that Yemen's al-Fajr Press had quoted eyewitnesses to the bombing,
which has not been reported in the Western media.
On
July 29, the website of the Voltaire Network, a pro-Syrian nonprofit
organization, upped the ante and ran a story headlined "Syria reportedly
eliminated Bandar bin Sultan in retaliation for Damascus bombing."
"Though
not yet announced by the Saudi authorities, the death of Prince Bandar
bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been confirmed to Voltaire Network
by unofficial sources," the story claimed.
The next day, the Voltaire Network appeared to walk the story back a notch.
"Strangely,
Saudi authorities have not responded to inquiries by the media,
refusing to confirm or deny the death of their newly appointed chief of
the intelligence services. Clearly, regardless of whether the prince is
dead or alive, such muteness denotes a serious disarray within the Saudi
royal family," an article stated.
But by then, the rumor of Bandar's death was off to the races.
On
July 31, The International Business Times News ran a story with the
headline "Prince Bandar bin Sultan: Is the Saudi spy chief dead or
alive?"
The same day, Iran's Press
TV ran a report titled "Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar assassinated,
report says" and cited the Voltaire Network as the source.
The
managing editor of The Aspen Times noticed the stories and ran a short
column on Aug. 1 labeled "commentary" about the rumors of Bandar's
death.
The next day, the Times
published a second commentary on the "Bandar mystery," admitting the
paper was "utterly clueless on this one."
Iran's
Press TV saw the Times commentaries, and an Iranian television host
noted during an interview on Aug. 4 that "We've also got the local paper
in Aspen, Colo., wondering what is the fate of one of their famous
residents, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, who owns a condo in Aspen, who
hasn't been seen for the last week or two. There are reports that he
succumbed to an attack on his headquarters."
But the same day, some push-back on the rumor came from Saudi Arabia.
A
piece by Ali Bluwi in Arab News - said to be aligned with the Saudi
royal family - denounced the rumors of Bandar's death Aug. 4 as "Iranian
and Syrian propaganda."
The article said the source of the rumors was the man behind the Voltaire Network, Thierry Meyssan.
"Usually
there is a lot of fabricated news about personalities of Bandar's
caliber, and that has been the case now," the article stated.
The next day, the Voltaire Network acknowledged the Aug. 4 story in Arab News.
"Taking
note of the information relayed by Arab News on the activities of
Prince Bandar, Voltaire Network wishes him a speedy recovery and
expressed the hope that no formal commitments will crop up to interfere
with his convalescence," a story on Voltairenet.org said.
Also
on Aug. 5, Post columnist Ignatius wrote that the rumor of Bandar's
death "was rebutted Friday by a source who said that Bandar had been in
telephone contact with non-Saudis."
Then came the official statements from the Saudi and Qatar governments placing Bandar in Mecca and Jeddah in mid-August.
Since
then, the speculation about Bandar's death has quieted, but there have
been no stories confirming that he is, in fact, alive.
Wednesday's
statement from a State Department spokesperson appears to be the first
acknowledgment from a U.S. official that the reports earlier this month
of Bandar's death were in fact false.
Moscow ‘rejects’ Saudi ‘offer’ to drop Assad for rich arms deal
Russia Today — August 8, 2013
Moscow
has said “no” to Saudi Arabia’s alleged proposal of a rich arms deal
and protection of Russia’s gas interests in the Middle East in exchange
for abandoning Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Arab and
European diplomats.
The proposal of $15 billion in weapons
contracts was allegedly made during the July 31 meeting between Russian
President Vladimir Putin and influential intelligence chief Prince
Bandar bin Sultan, Reuters reported.
Neither Moscow nor Riyadh has officially commented on the agenda of the talks, but a Thursday AFP report revealed new details of the negotiations.
According to an undisclosed European diplomat, Prince Bandar proposed the deal and told Putin that “whatever regime comes after” Assad will be “completely” in Riyadh’s hands. The Prince reportedly stated that if the deal was accepted, Saudi Arabia would not sign any contracts damaging Russian interests by allowing Gulf countries to transport its gas across Syria to Europe.
The terms included Moscow dropping its support of President Bashar Assad, as well as not opposing any future Security Council resolutions on Syria.
“President Putin listened politely to his interlocutor and let him know that his country would not change its strategy,” a separate Arab diplomat told AFP.
Bandar bin Sultan then told Russian officials that the only option left in Syria is a military one – and that they should forget about the Geneva-2 international peace conference because the opposition would not attend, the source said. Efforts to bring about the conference – which has been put forth by the US and Moscow – have so far been fruitless, mainly because of the absence of unity within the opposition ranks.
Neither Moscow nor Riyadh has officially commented on the agenda of the talks, but a Thursday AFP report revealed new details of the negotiations.
According to an undisclosed European diplomat, Prince Bandar proposed the deal and told Putin that “whatever regime comes after” Assad will be “completely” in Riyadh’s hands. The Prince reportedly stated that if the deal was accepted, Saudi Arabia would not sign any contracts damaging Russian interests by allowing Gulf countries to transport its gas across Syria to Europe.
The terms included Moscow dropping its support of President Bashar Assad, as well as not opposing any future Security Council resolutions on Syria.
“President Putin listened politely to his interlocutor and let him know that his country would not change its strategy,” a separate Arab diplomat told AFP.
Bandar bin Sultan then told Russian officials that the only option left in Syria is a military one – and that they should forget about the Geneva-2 international peace conference because the opposition would not attend, the source said. Efforts to bring about the conference – which has been put forth by the US and Moscow – have so far been fruitless, mainly because of the absence of unity within the opposition ranks.
Russia and Saudi Arabia – which
traditionally buys its military hardware from the US – have had a
massive arms contract frozen since 2008. Back then, the sides agreed
that Moscow would supply a huge assortment of equipment, including 150
T-90 tanks and more than 150 attack helicopters, to the Gulf state.
According
to sources within Russian arms exporters, the status of the deal has
not changed following the talks. The insider added that Russia has not
received any offers to purchase weapons from Saudi Arabia.
“We know nothing about such intentions of the Saudi side,” a senior source in military-technical cooperation told RIA Novosti news agency.
“We know nothing about such intentions of the Saudi side,” a senior source in military-technical cooperation told RIA Novosti news agency.
Some Russian experts say Saudi Arabia
acted as a US proxy in the alleged proposal, as it has been doing for
the past two years of the Syrian conflict.
“Any direct involvement in the
region by either the US or any former European colonial powers is
perceived as an affront. But with the given arrangement, any initiatives
by the influential, authoritarian regional super power (and Saudi
Arabia is undoubtedly that) are taken for granted,” political analyst Igor Khokhlov told RT.
“The situation is nothing new,” he added. “Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar’s Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s were being sponsored by the
USA and Saudi Arabia in equal shares. But the Saudi role allowed the US
to present the conflict as a war of liberation – not as a clash of two
superpowers in the farthest reaches of the world.”
Others believe the media reports of a
Saudi offer is nothing more than a hoax aimed at highlighting Russia’s
stance on Syria in a negative way, adding that such a method is no way
to “conduct diplomacy.”
“Clearly, this is stove-piping,” director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Vitaly Naumkin, told Interfax news agency. “Its
purpose is either to influence the position of the Syrian authorities
or, more likely, to discredit Russia. To sow doubt on the fact that
Moscow has a serious and reasoned position on Syria, and to create the
impression that Russia may change its point of view in exchange for
Saudi promises.”
Naumkin reminded that similar attempts were made previously. There were reports in 2009 of that Barack Obama told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Washington would change its position on Iran if Moscow ended the halting of a US missile shield program in Eastern Europe.
The meeting between Putin and Bandar came amid tension between the two states over the conflict in Syria, with Russia accusing the Saudis of “financing and arming terrorists and extremist groups” fighting against Assad.
Naumkin reminded that similar attempts were made previously. There were reports in 2009 of that Barack Obama told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Washington would change its position on Iran if Moscow ended the halting of a US missile shield program in Eastern Europe.
The meeting between Putin and Bandar came amid tension between the two states over the conflict in Syria, with Russia accusing the Saudis of “financing and arming terrorists and extremist groups” fighting against Assad.
RUSIA TOLAK RAYUAN SAUDI UNTUK TINGGALKAN SYRIA
http://cahyono-adi.blogspot.com/2013/08/rusia-tolak-rayuan-saudi-untuk.html#.Ugd60lIxVkg
Rusia menolak rayuan Saudi untuk meninggalkan sekutunya, Syria, meski
Saudi mengiming-imingi imbalan besar. Imbalan tersebut berupa paket
pembelian senjata miliaran dolar serta jaminan kepentingan bisnia gas
Rusia di Timur Tengah. Demikian laporan media Rusia, Russia Today, Jumat (9/8), mengutip keterangan beberapa diplomat Rusia dan Arab.
Proposal pembelian senjata senilai $15 miliar serta jaminan kepentingan bisnis tersebut disampaikan oleh kepala inteligen Saudi Bandar bin Sultan saat menemui Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin tgl 31 Juli lalu. Baik pejabat Rusia maupun Saudi bungkam mengenai informasi tersebut, namun kantor berita Perancis AFP hari Kamis (8/8) melaporkan secara mendetil pertemuan tersebut.
Menurut laporan tersebut Pangeran Bandar meminta Putin untuk menyetujui Arab Saudi untuk menentukan masa depan kepemimpinan Syria setelah Bashar al Assad. Dan sebagai imbalannya Saudi berjanji untuk tidak melakukan kontrak bisnis yang merugikan kepentingan Rusia dengan cara mengalirkan migas negara-negara Teluk ke Eropa melalui Syria. Adapun syarat yang diajukan Bandar adalah agar Rusia menghentikan
dukungannya terhadap regim Bashar al Assad, termasuk tidak memblok resolusi DK PBB yang akan diterapkan terhadap Syria.
“Presiden Putin mendengarkan dengan tenang perkataan lawan bicaranya dan menjelaskan bahwa sikap negara Rusia tidak berubah," tulis AFP mengutip pernyataan seorang diplomat Arab.
Bandar bin Sultan selanjutnya mengatakan kepada para pejabat Rusia bahwa solusi yang tersisa atas konflik Syria adalah penyelesaian militer seraya menambahkan bahwa pemberontak tidak akan hadir dalam pertemuan Genewa II, sehingga rencana tersebut dipastikan akan batal.
Sejauh ini rencana perundingan Genewa II memang diragukan akan berlangsung seperti diharapkan karena ketidak kompakan pemberontak dan posisi mereka yang tengah berada di bawah angin yang membuat perundingan dianggap tidak akan menguntungkan mereka dan negara-negara sponsornya.
Saudi Arabia yang secara tradisi mengandalkan persenjataannya dari Amerika, sejak tahun 2008 memiliki sejumah besar kontrak pembelian senjata dari Rusia yang dibekukan, di antaranya pembelian 150 tank T-90 dan 150 helikopter serbu. Dengan gagalnya pertemuan Bandar-Putin tersebut, dipastikan kontrak tersebut tidak berubah statusnya.
Beberapa pengamat politik Rusia menganggap upaya Pangeran Bandar tersebut hanya kepanjangan tangan Amerika belaka, sebagaimana telah dilakukan beberapa kali sebelumnya sejak konflik Syria pecah lebih dari 2 tahun lalu.
"Situasinya tidak berbeda dengan dahulu. Pemimpin mujahidin Afghanistan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar didukung oleh USA dan Saudi Arabia bersama-sama. Namun peran Saudi memungkinkan Amerika mengkampanyekan perang Afganistan sebagai "perang pembebasan", bukan perang antar 2 negara superpower,” kata analis politik Igor Khokhlov kepada Russia Today.
Pengamat lainnya menganggap upaya Pangeran Bandar sebagai langkah "tipuan" untuk mengesankan adanya ketidakstabilan sikap Rusia atas Syria.
Hubungan Rusia-Saudi sendiri kini berada dalam kondisi "dingin" setelah kedua pihak saling menuduh dalam konflik Syria. Terakhir Rusia menuduh Saudi telah membiayai dan mempersenjatai para teroris di Syria.
REF:
"Moscow ‘rejects’ Saudi ‘offer’ to drop Assad for rich arms deal"; Russia Today; 8 AgustUS 2013
Foreign Policy: A Prince's Mysterious Disappearance
Partner content from:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130747807
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130747807
Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz
al-Saud, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, gets into his
car. The prince has recently returned from a two-year period spent in
hiding.
Simon Henderson is the Baker fellow and the director of the
Gulf and Energy Policy Program at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. He is author of After King Abdullah: Succession in Saudi Arabia.
For
a generation, Prince Bandar bin Sultan was Riyadh's man in Washington.
As the Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005, he was
even dubbed "Bandar Bush" for his close ties to that powerful American
political dynasty. After leaving Washington, apparently burned out, he
returned to Saudi Arabia to head the newly established Saudi National
Security Council, the function of which was not, and still is not,
clear. However, he continued to sneak back into the United States
periodically because the king quickly decided he preferred Bandar over
his successor, Prince Turki al-Faisal, as his channel to the White House
— a situation that eventually led Turki to resign in protest.
And
then, around 2008, Bandar vanished from the public eye. Exactly what
caused Bandar to fall out of political favor remains unclear, but he had
acquired no shortage of enemies, even within the royal family, over his
long tenure as the principal contact between Saudi Arabia and its most
important ally.
Bandar's disappearance prompted a number of
conspiracy theories. The Iranian media, for example, has rather
creatively accused him of masterminding al Qaeda's activities in Iraq
and al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni Islamist groups in Lebanon in an attempt to undermine Hezbollah.
But now, Bandar is back. A brief Saudi Press Agency story last week : "Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, Chief of Saudi Intelligence, welcomed Prince Bandar home at the airport."
Prince
Muqrin was joined in welcoming Bandar by a virtual who's who of Saudi
political figures: Prince Khalid bin Sultan, assistant minister of
defense and aviation and inspector general for military affairs; Prince
Muhammad bin Naif, assistant minister of interior for security affairs;
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd, state minister and president of the Court of
the Presidency of the Cabinet; Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Sultan,
advisor to the crown prince; Prince Salman bin Sultan, assistant
secretary-general of the National Security Council. According to the
Saudi Press Agency, "more senior princes" were also in attendance.
That's
one helluva welcome, by any standard. By Saudi standards, it is
enormous: an uncle, a half brother, three significant cousins, and a
nephew, never mind the unnamed senior princes. The report said he had
arrived "from abroad," but gave no further details. There wasn't even a
photo, though one report says he has lost a considerable amount of
weight.
So what's going on? First, a word of caution. There is
an old saw that people who actually know what is going on in the Saudi
royal family don't talk about it — and people who talk about it don't
know what is going on. All too often, this saying is a convenient device
used by those close to the House of Saud to undermine reports critical
about Saudi Arabia, but it's also an important reminder that we'll never
know as much as we'd like about the kingdom's opaque politics.
Bandar
has struggled with his health for years, recently undergoing two
operations at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The most prosaic
explanation for his return is that, after convalescing in Morocco, where
his father, Crown Prince Sultan, is vacationing, he has recovered and
has now come home. His most likely ailment is a bad back, though two
biographies in recent years have reported that Bandar has also had
problems with alcohol and depression. David B. Ottaway, in , described him as a "." And his (probably now former) friend William Simpson, in , identified the mid-1990s as Bandar's "first period of full-blown depression."
But
there appears to be more to Bandar's return to the kingdom than just
improved health. The buzz, from a well-placed source close to the royal
family, is that it has to do with the internal politics of the House of
Saud and the vexing questions of royal succession: Who will take the
throne after King Abdullah, and who will be the king after that?
Bandar's talents for political deal-making have, supposedly, caused the
royal family to overlook his reputation for self-interested
decision-making and a certain lack of respect for many of his uncles.
Despite
an outward facade of stability, the House of Saud is in turmoil over
succession. King Abdullah is 87 this year, but his half brother and
designated successor, Crown Prince Sultan, is 86. To put it kindly,
though Sultan can still stand, life is essentially one long senior
moment — he will never be capable of running the country. The apparent
next in line is Sultan's full brother, Prince Nayef, 77, the hard-line
minister of interior, best known for publicly claiming the Sept. 11th attacks were carried out by Jews.
But
the turmoil goes far beyond the monarchy's top ranks. It is
increasingly apparent that Abdullah and the 19 other surviving sons of
King Abdul Aziz, the founder of "modern" Saudi Arabia who died in
1953, are either too old or do not have the experience or acumen to
manage the affairs of the kingdom for much longer. Succession has to go
to their sons, the grandsons of Abdul Aziz. However, an important
question looms: Which branch of the Saud family will emerge on top?
There
is, according to sources within the royal family, a deal emerging. The
sequence of events is not clear, but changes could start soon. First,
Crown Prince Sultan will give up his long-held post of defense minister,
handing the portfolio to his son (and Bandar's half brother), Prince
Khalid bin Sultan, currently the assistant minister and previously
commander of Arab forces during the 1991 liberation of Kuwait. Khalid's
epaulets are large, but his military credentials are weak — his
leadership during the recent skirmishes against rebels in the border
area with Yemen was marked by a series of tactical blunders. But
Sultan's entourage is insisting that Khalid replace his largely
incapacitated father.
A second change will be the retirement of
Prince Saud al-Faisal, 69, the son of the late King Faisal, as foreign
minister. Saud, an Arab nationalist, was once described in an official
as "very bright but perhaps not so bright as he thinks." He suffers from
Parkinson's disease as well as a bad back and in photos often appears
as though he is in agony.
The foreign-minister position will
go, the sources say, to Saud's younger brother Turki al-Faisal, 65 —
keeping it, in feudal style, in the hands of the al-Faisal branch of the
family. Prince Turki served for many years as the Saudi intelligence
chief until he was sacked in 2001 — 10 days before the Sept. 11th
attacks — and then later as a successful ambassador to Britain before
his short-lived and disastrous stint in Washington. Turki will once
again be rehabilitated because he has intellectual talents and worldly
connections that are in short supply in the royal family.
The changing of the guard will also reach the throne: Saud and Turki's 69-year-old brother
Khalid (not to be confused with the crown prince's militarily hapless
son Khalid) will most likely emerge as a future king. Khalid is a poet,
an , and a friend of Britain's Prince Charles. He previously served as
governor of the mountainous and politically volatile province of Asir
and is the current governor of the holy province of Mecca. Most
importantly for his political future, Khalid has emerged as a figure
respected by the various factions within the family, able to guide the
kingdom forward with a steady hand.
As always, there are a few
loose ends in this scenario. Prince Nayef is expected to be made crown
prince upon Sultan's death or even before. However, he is said to be
still recovering from a bout of cancer, which could mean he would not
become king. His full brother Salman, 74, the governor of Riyadh
province and every foreign ambassador's favorite to be king, is also
apparently disqualified by a weak heart.
Bandar's exact role
remains to be seen. As the son of a former slave girl in his father's
court, he lacks the pedigree to be king himself. But he is married to an
al-Faisal princess, and his connections in Washington make him a
valuable ally for any would-be monarch. Within the family, he can
explain the folly of internal royal dissension in a region increasingly
threatened by Iran. Amid all the rumors and innuendo, insiders agree on
one concrete fact: Bandar is back as a player in Saudi politics.
Recently Deceased Crown Prince Sultan and his son Bandar “Bush” Epitomize Highly Questionable Saudi 9/11 Connections
by Brian Romanoff Nor Cal Truth October 31, 2011
News of the Saudi Crown Prince passing in
the U.S. and his new successor to the post warrant a refresher on the
attempts to name them in 9/11 lawsuits years ago.
http://norcaltruth.org/2011/10/31/recently-deceased-crown-prince-sultan-and-his-son-bandar-bush-apitomize-highly-questionable-saudi-911-connections/
ONE BIG FAMILY
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, died just a weeks ago in
a New York hospital due to ill health. The world’s largest
oil-exporting nation has quickly found an heir to the Crown Prince, a
position directly under the most powerful of the King. The new Crown
Prince has been named as Nayef bin Abdul Aziz,
brother of the deceased Crown Prince Sultan. Both were half-brothers to
the current King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, and both are a part of
the powerful Sudairi Seven.
The recently deceased Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz
The old Crown Prince Sultan is the father of Prince Bandar. Bandar is known to many in the world as “Bandar Bush”
for his extremely close relationship with the Bush family. Bandar
served as the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S. from 1983 until
2005. The Royal family’s relationship with the Bush family goes back
even further.
"Bandar Bush" and Condoleezza Rice join the Saudi King and Bush at Bush's Texas property.
Prince Bandar has a history of involvement in scandals, undoubtebly
we only know so much. A biography of Prince Bandar was written by
William Simpson and praised by many, including Nelson Mandela and
Margaret Thatcher. The website for the book contains a brief description of Prince Bandar:
Prince Bandar worked with CIA Director Bill Casey to fund covert CIA operations with Saudi petrodollars. He played a key role in the Iran-Contra affair…
Digging into Iran-Contra and Prince Bandar, an article from Surrendering Islam sums it up well:
The CIA’s backing of the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan would become its largest covert operation in history, funded by an intricate series of clandestine and illegal activities, known as the Iran-Contra Affair, which involved the complicity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi regime…
The Saudis agreed to fund anti-communist guerrillas in Afghanistan, Angola, and elsewhere, who were supported by the Reagan administration, including the Contras of Nicaragua…
The Reagan administration used proceeds from arms sales to Iran to fund the right-wing Contras, in an effort to overturn Nicaragua’s left-wing, but democratically elected, Sandanista government. Both actions were contrary to acts of Congress…
Initially, in order to side-step Congress, the U.S. approached Prince Bandar to solicit Saudi aid in funding the Contras. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was the grandson of Ibn Saud, was appointed Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in 1983….
After Hezbollah bombed American facilities in Beirut and kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley, it was Casey and Bandar who agreed to assassinate Sheikh Fadlallah, the terrorist group’s leader. Control of the operation was handed to the Saudis, who turned to the services of an operative from Britain’s elite special forces. The plan backfired, however, when the car bomb took down an apartment building near Beirut, killing eighty innocent civilians. Fadlallah escaped unharmed. And, to cover their tracks, the Saudis provided Fadlallah with information identifying the operatives they had hired..
Bob Woodward asserted that Cheney and Rumsfeld informed Prince
Bandar of the decision to invade Iraq before Defense Sec. Colin Powell. Woodward told CBS 60 Minutes, “Saturday, Jan. 11 [2003], with the president’s permission,
Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney’s West Wing office, and the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map
of the war plan. And it says, ‘Top secret. No foreign.’ No foreign
means no foreigners are supposed to see this.” Defense Sec. Colin Powell
was informed of the decision on Jan. 13th, 2003.
Defense Sec. Rumsfeld and Prince Bandar Visit the Pentagon in February, 2001
It did not take long for questions to arise regarding his indirect involvment in 9/11.
Prince Bandar’s wife was embroiled in bad press due to her donated
money getting extremely close to a couple of the alleged hijackers. A
late 2002 article from the Guardian explains:
The possibility of a Saudi intelligence link emerged just hours after widespread reports of bank cheques indirectly linking two of the hijackers to a bank account under the name of a Saudi princess, the wife of the kingdom’s ambassador to Washington.
The Saudi embassy angrily denied the suggestion, calling it “untrue and irresponsible”. A spokesman said there was no evidence that cheques from Princess Haifa bint Faisal’s Washington account went to the hijackers Nawaq al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar.
A FBI investigation leaked over the weekend traced regular monthly bank-certified cheques worth $3,500 (£2,200) from the princess’s account to a Saudi woman called Majida Dwaikat starting in early 2000, which was when Mrs Dwaikat’s husband, Osama Basnan, befriended al-Hazmi and al-Midhar in San Diego.
Incidentally, those are the two alleged hijackers from 9/11 that
former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke seems to think the CIA was
hiding in order to “recruit” them for double agent work. An article from The Daily Beast in August, 2011 provides more details:
….Clarke offers an incendiary theory that, if true, would rewrite the history of the 9/11 attacks, suggesting that the CIA intentionally withheld information from the White House and FBI in 2000 and 2001 that two Saudi-born terrorists were on U.S. soil—terrorists who went on to become suicide hijackers on 9/11.
Clarke speculates—and readily admits he cannot prove—that the CIA withheld the information because the agency had been trying to recruit the terrorists, while they were living in Southern California under their own names, to work as CIA agents inside Al Qaeda. After the recruitment effort went sour, senior CIA officers continued to withhold the information from the White House for fear they would be accused of “malfeasance and misfeasance,” Clarke suggests.
Clarke’s theory addresses a central, enduring mystery about the 9/11 attacks— why the CIA failed for so long to tell the White House and senior officials at the FBI that the agency was aware that two Al Qaeda terrorists had arrived in the United States in January 2000, just days after attending a terrorist summit meeting in Malaysia that the CIA had secretly monitored.
“To this day, it is inexplicable why, when I had every other detail about everything related to terrorism, that the director didn’t tell me, that the director of the counterterrorism center didn’t tell me,” Clarke said in the interview for the documentary, referring to Tenet and Cofer Black. “They told us everything—except this.”
He said that if he had known anything about Hazmi and Mihdhar even days before 9/11, he would have ordered an immediate manhunt to find them—and that it would have succeeded, possibly disrupting the 9/11 plot.
“We would have conducted a massive sweep,” he said. “We would have conducted it publicly. We would have found those assholes. There’s no doubt in my mind, even with only a week left. They were using credit cards in their own names. They were staying in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, for heaven’s sake.” He said that “those guys would have been arrested within 24 hours.
Beyond Prince Bandar, the deceased Prince Sultan had many sons,
another of whom was secretly flown out of the U.S. in the days following
9/11. As detailed in a Tampa Bay Tribune article from Oct 5th, 2001:
Regarding the flights Colin Powell stated, “my understanding is that there was no sneaking out of the country; that the flights were well-known, and it was coordinated within the government.” The flights might have been discussed and arranged during the private meeting of Bandar, VP Cheney, Bush and Condoleezza Rice on September 13th. Richard Clarke has admitted to permitting the flights, though states he does not know the level of interrogation the flyers faced.
LAWSUIT SEEKS ANSWERS
Grossi said Tampa police intelligence detectives called him about 11 a.m. Sept. 13, needing help with a special situation: They had been watching three young Saudi men – at least one a student at the University of Tampa – at their south Tampa apartment, and the trio was scared and wanted to go home.Apparently arriving in the country “weeks before the attacks,” the son and two other Saudis were living an hour away from Sarasota in Tampa Bay, Florida. It is reported that they had come to the U.S. in order to learn English – and wanted to leave after 9/11 because they felt it was unsafe for them to stay. Close to 140 Saudis, a couple of dozen of which were bin Laden relatives, were reported to have been flown out of the country without heavy scrutiny or questioning by the FBI. This was during the unprecedented grounding of all flights nationwide following the attacks.
Jim Harf, director of [University of Tampa's] international programs, confirmed one of them is the son of Prince Sultan, the defense minister.
Regarding the flights Colin Powell stated, “my understanding is that there was no sneaking out of the country; that the flights were well-known, and it was coordinated within the government.” The flights might have been discussed and arranged during the private meeting of Bandar, VP Cheney, Bush and Condoleezza Rice on September 13th. Richard Clarke has admitted to permitting the flights, though states he does not know the level of interrogation the flyers faced.
LAWSUIT SEEKS ANSWERS
The late Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz held the third highest
position of Interior Minister to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the
9/11 attacks.
In August of 2002 a $1 trillion lawsuit
was filed against Prince Sultan and other Saudi-based organizations and
Princes. From a 2002 CNN article (the full CNN article incorrectly
states $116 trillion):
Calling themselves Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism, the plaintiffs are suing seven international banks; eight Islamic foundations, charities and their subsidiaries; individual terrorist financiers; the Saudi bin Laden Group; three Saudi princes; and the government of Sudan for allegedly bankrolling the terrorist al Qaeda network, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
The attorneys and investigators were able to obtain, through French intelligence, the translation of a secretly recorded meeting between representatives of bin Laden and three Saudi princes in which they sought to pay him hush money to keep him from attacking their enterprises in Saudi Arabia, Motley said.Among the allegations in the complaint, said attorney Ron Motley, are that certain members of the Saudi royal family have been active supporters of and helped fund al Qaeda and bin Laden.
Should it be any surprise that the law firm that defended Prince Sultan was the American law firm Baker Botts?
James Baker, a senior partner at Baker Botts served as Secretary of
State for George W. Bush from 1989 to 1992. He was a personal friend to
both the Bush family and the Saudi Royals for many decades prior to
2002. The appendix of Craig Unger’s book House of Bush House of Saud points out that:
Baker’s business links to the Saudis date back to 1981, when Khalid bin Mahfouz helped develop a seventy-five-story office building for the Texas Commerce Bank, in which Baker owned more than $7 million in stock.
James Baker is a senior counselor and partner at the Carlyle Group, which had many Saudi investors, including members of the bin Laden family.
The lawsuit had odds stacked against it from the beginning. Pressure
from the Saudis to drop the lawsuits came in subversive and overt
fashion. News in 2002 large that Saudi investors may “walk” from their
U.S. investments if the lawsuits proceeded was mainstream headlines. A Telegraph article from 2002:
Saudi’s richest investors are threatening to pull billions of dollars out of America in anger at suggestions they helped fund Osama bin Laden.
Bishr Bakheet of the Bakheet Financial Consultancy said: “Naming Prince Sultan is the equivalent of saying J Edgar Hoover was a communist spy. Assuming the court proceeds with this lawsuit, the Saudi investment community, already in shock, will start withdrawing their money. People are really going to walk out.”
This threat comes as foreign investment in the US dries up because of business scandals, lower corporate earnings and the collapse of the technology boom. According to government figures, foreigners put $124 billion into the US last year, down from $301 billion in 2000.
Economists say the reluctance of wealthy outsiders to expand their business interests in America is a major threat to the world’s largest economy.
Saudi investors have $750 billion in the US. A mass walkout would seriously impede the US’s attempts to pull away from recession.
During the trial, it was revealed that Prince Sultan had donated over
a $2 million dollars to organizations such as WAMY and the IIRO. Both
organizations were investigated and suspected of having funded Al Qaeda
operations, directly or indirectly.
In a 2002 New York Times article, Crown Prince Sultan (at the time Interior Minister) was described as one who:
…purchases the best weapons money can buy, including U.S. tanks, fighter planes, missiles and Awacs (airborne warning and control systems). Yet, in spite of billions spent, the Saudi military is considered inadequate, and much of the gear reportedly sits abandoned. Sultan, who has been dubbed Mr. 10 Percent, supposedly became extraordinarily wealthy from kickbacks from Western businesses that handled multibillion-dollar defense contracts.
From November 2003 to 2005 the Court dropped the case against a number of defendants, including Prince Sultan. From the Complete 9/11 Timeline:
In a series of rulings, a number of defendants are removed from a 9/11 lawsuit filed in August 2002.
One judge writes in a ruling, “Whatever their actions, they were performed in their official (government) capacities.” According to the court ruling, only the US president, not the courts, has the authority to label a foreign nation as a terrorist supporter. Judges rule that the plaintiffs failed to provide sufficient facts to overcome the kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s immunity.
Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi ambassador to Britain Prince Turki al-Faisal, and Prince Mohammed Al-Faisal Al-Saud, among others, are dismissed from the lawsuit, but the lawsuit is allowed to proceed against many more defendants, including the Saudi Binladin Group, the multibillion dollar bin Laden family company.
Diplomatic Immunity was going to keep the Prince and others from
answering too many questions. The executive branch of the US Government
could have had a say in moving around the Diplomatic status, and it
could have done so in the name of “public interest.”
Seeing that the Bush’s good family friends law firm Baker Botts was
defending the Prince in Court, it was not likely to happen that Bush
would move the Immunity to prosecute the Prince – even if the public was
interested.
The court case was eventually dropped in 2005 though the families
appealed, and in 2006 an appeals court decided in favor of the lower
Court’s decision. In 2008 the case was brought to a Federal Judge who in the end ruled in support of the appeals court.
In 2009 Obama’s Justice Department sided with the lower courts decisions in
not following through with a prosecution of the Saudis. A month later,
documents were leaked to prosecutors that detailed even more than what
had previously been disclosed. An article from the New York Times in 2009 explains:
Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles.
Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers’ copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material.
Allegations of Saudi links to terrorism have been the subject of years of government investigations and furious debate. Critics have said that some members of the Saudi ruling class pay off terrorist groups in part to keep them from being more active in their own country.
But the thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents compiled by lawyers for the Sept. 11 families and their insurers represented an unusually detailed look at some of the evidence.
Internal Treasury Department documents obtained by the lawyers under the Freedom of Information Act, for instance, said that a prominent Saudi charity, the International Islamic Relief Organization, heavily supported by members of the Saudi royal family, showed “support for terrorist organizations” at least through 2006.
In a 2011 lawsuit by Lloyds, an insurance agency from Europe, money
was sought out for damages it had paid out to individual victims of the
9/11 attacks by again suing Saudi based organizations. Within 2 weeks the case was voluntarily dropped.
The new lawsuit by Lloyds and the old one by the 9/11 family members
had named Nayef (sometimes spelled Naif) al Abdul Aziz as a defendant.
Nayef had been Director of the Saudi Joint Relief Committee which is
alleged to have sent over $70 million to Al Qaeda, directly or
indirectly.
From the Independent, detailing the latest (and short-lived) attempt by Lloyds:
Its complaint, which quotes heavily from US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks detailing investigations by the US authorities into al-Qa’ida, attempts to establish funding links between some Saudi charities, and the terror group, and implicate the Saudi government in that funding through its support of the charities.
The case singles out the activities of a charity, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC), which was alleged by UN officials to have been used as a cover by several al-Qa’ida operatives, including two men who acted as directors of the charity. It is alleged that at the time the SJRC was under the control of Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, half-brother of King Abdullah and the long-standing Saudi Interior minister. The claim states: “Between 1998 and 2000, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the SJRC, diverted more than $74m to al-Qa’ida members and loyalists affiliated with SJRC bureaus. Throughout this time, the Committee was under the supervision and control of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz.
The details of the case may be uploaded online. Following a
comment-thread on an article that investigative journalist Russ baker
wrote, Russ mentions he has obtained the court filings of the case and will post them online as possible.
The 9/11 families still seek answers. The Saudi Royals have so far
escaped trial despite having so many connections to the alleged
hijackers.
SECRETS STILL KEPT
Keep in mind the 28 pages of the joint Congressional report on the
attacks of 9/11 blacked out by George W. Bush. Those pages were said to contain information regarding
“specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11
hijackers while they were in the United States.” It is widely assumed
that the information that was redacted in those 28 pages concentrated on
the Saudis.
Senator and 9/11 Joint Inquiry Co-Chairman Bob Graham has called for a
deeper 9/11 investigation based upon the Saudi connections. Bob Graham
recently visited MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan to discuss this during the
10th anniversary.
“In the final report of the congressional inquiry, there was a chapter related primarily to the Saudi role in 9/11 that was totally censored, every word of the chapter has been withheld from the public,” Graham says on MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show.
“Some of the other questions we ought to be asking are if we know that the Saudis who lived in San Diego and now apparently in Sarasota received substantial assistance, what about the Saudis who lived in Phoenix, Arizona? Or Arlington, Virginia? … What was happening in those places?”
“I believe these are questions for which there are definitive answers, but the American people and largely their elected representatives have been denied that information.”
Henry Kissinger, who was appointed at first to chair the 9/11
Commission, chose to step down from that position rather than disclose
his business relationships to the Saudis. It was reported that a slip in
the vetting procedures was to blame:
In a surprising break from usual procedures regarding high-profile presidential appointments, White House lawyers never vetted Kissinger for conflicts of interest. The Washington Post says that after the resignations of Kissinger and Mitchell, the commission “has lost time” and “is in disarray, which is no small trick given that it has yet to meet.”
Kissinger claims he did no current work for any oil companies or Mideast clients, but several corporations with heavy investments in Saudi Arabia, such as ABB Group, a Swiss-Swedish engineering firm, and Boeing Corp., pay him consulting fees of at least $250,000 a year. A Boeing spokesman said its “long-standing” relationship with Kissinger involved advice on deals in East Asia, not Saudi Arabia. Boeing sold $7.2 billion worth of aircraft to Saudi Arabia in 1995.
(The article saying that Prince Sultan “bought the best weapons money can buy..tanks, fighter planes, missiles..” comes to mind.)
Though Kissinger stepped down, Philip Zelikow arose and prevailed in
keeping Saud investigations limited to the 9/11 Commission
staff. One series of events of many is detailed by The Complete 9/11 Timeline:
Two investigators on the 9/11 Commission, Mike Jacobson and Dana Leseman, compile a list of interviews they want to do to investigate leads indicating that two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, were linked to elements of the Saudi government. The list is submitted to Philip Zelikow, the commission’s executive director, for approval. However, a few days later Zelikow replies that the twenty interviews requested is too much, and they can only do half the interviews. Leseman, a former Justice Department lawyer, is unhappy with this, as it is traditional to demand the widest range of documents and interviews early on, so that reductions can be made later in negotiations if need be.
After blocking important interviews, Zelikow blocked important documents:
9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow prevents two investigators, Mike Jacobson and Dana Leseman, from viewing a key document they need for their work. Jacobson and Leseman are working on the ‘Saudi Connection’ section of the commission’s investigation, researching leads that there may have been a link between two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, and elements of the government of Saudi Arabia. Zelikow is also involved in another, related dispute with Leseman at this time.
The disagreements between Zelikow and Dana Leseman, a 9/11 Commission investigator, lead to her being fired by Zelikow:
9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow fires one of the commission’s investigators, Dana Leseman, with whom he has had a number of conflicts. Leseman and a colleague were researching a possible link between two of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, and elements of the government of Saudi Arabia.
Was Zelikow protecting CIA Brass, the Bush family, the Saudis…?
Zelikow and the 9/11 Commission Report failed.
9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey stated, “there are ample reasons to
suspect that there may be some alternative to what we outlined in our
version….”
Max Cleland, another 9/11 Commission member resigned saying, “I, as a
member of the intelligence community, cannot look any American in the
eye, especially family members of victims, and say the 9/11 Commission
had full access. This investigation is now compromised.”
This article is barely scratching the surface of the 9/11 Saudi connections to 9/11.
For instance: The late Crown Prince Sultan had employed one Omar
al-Bayoumi before Omar moved to the U.S. in 1994. Al-Bayoumi was
receiving paychecks from a Saudi aviation company with extensive ties to
the Suadi Ministry of Defense, while he was living in California. Which
two alleged hijackers did al-Bayoumi meet at a restaurant after they
flew into the LA airport in January, 2000, from Kuala Lumpur? None other
than Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi! Accroding to an FBI document obtained by Intelwire (PDF here), Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi lived with Omar al-Bayoumi for a while as well.
These are same two alleged hijackers that were possibly
receiving money from the late Crown Prince’s son Bandar’s wife, the same
two that Zelikow seemed to go to lengths to protect, the same two who
Richard Clarke alledges CIA brass were hiding from him in order to
recruit them for double-agent work, and that’s not all.
Al-Bayoumi was likely a Saudi spy and handler for a few of the
alleged 9/11 hijackers, though this could not be proved by the
Congressional inquiry or 9/11 Commission Report. Still, Bob Graham and
others described al-Bayoumi as,
“someone who had been put on the ground in San Diego by his government
to keep an eye on the activities of the relatively large Saudi community
in Southern California.”
Though the Crown Prince is deceased but his son Bandar and brother
Nayef continue to reign. Other brothers and sons also flourish in the
Kingdom. The Saudi Arabia web of dealings, especially with the Bush’s,
are far from completely known and deserve more attention.
The power-structure remains unchanged today.
The Obama Administration has failed to follow through on its
promises to the 9/11 family members who say they were “misled” by him,
at best.
SERANGAN BALASAN SYRIA/IRAN TEWASKAN PANGERAN BANDAR?
http://cahyono-adi.blogspot.com/2012/07/serangan-balasan-syriairan-tewaskan.html#more
Baik serangan maupun kematian pemimpin tertinggi inteligen Saudi ini belum mendapatkan konfirmasi dari penguasa Saudi. Media-media barat juga menutup rapat-rapat kabar serangan tersebut. Namun media Iran, juga media-media independen ramai-ramai memberitakan kabar tersebut.
Menurut media online Perancis Voltaire Network (voltairenet.org), serangan terhadap kantor inteligen Saudi tersebut merupakan aksi balasan atas serangan bom yang menewaskan 4 pejabat tinggi keamanan Syria di Damaskus tgl 18 Juli 2012.
Voltaire Network benar. Bahkan serangan balasan itu bukan yang pertama. Sebelumnya dikabarkan konvoi menhan Israel Ehud Barak diserang roket yang ditembakkan dari Syria, namun tidak melukai Barak namun cukup untuk membuatnya "shock".
Sebagaimana diberitakan di media-media independen dan media-media massa Iran, sebuah serangan bom telah menghancurkan markas inteligen Arab Saudi di Riyadh, 23 Juli lalu, menewaskan orang kedua badan inteligen Saudi, Mashaal al-Qarni dan diduga kuat melukai parah dan kemudian menewaskan Pangeran Bandar bin Sultan, pimpinan tertinggi badan inteligen Saudi yang baru diangkat oleh Raja Saudi tgl 19 Juli lalu, atau selang sehari setelah serangan bom di Damaskus Syria yang menewaskan 4 pejabat tinggi keamanan Syria.
Kabar tentang serangan tersebut sama sekali tidak mendapat tempat di media-media "mapan" internasional. Pun pemerintah Saudi tidak memberikan komentarnya tentang peristiwa tersebut, tidak membantah dan juga tidak membenarkannya, meski faktanya Pangeran Bandar dan Al Qarni tidak pernah lagi muncul di hadapan publik setelah peristiwa serangan tersebut.
Adalah DEBKAfile, media online Isreal yang dikenal dekat dengan kalangan inteligen Israel dan barat, yang pertama kali melaporkan serangan bom tersebut tgl 26 Juli lalu, disusul oleh media-media massa Iran serta media-media independen internasional.
Pangeran Bandar, salah seorang pejabat tinggi Arab Saudi paling senior dan dikenal memiliki hubungan luas dengan para pemimpin barat, termasuk dua Presiden Bush senior dan junior. Ia juga pernah terlibat kasus suap terbesar sepanjang sejarah dengan menerima komisi senilai miliaran dolar dari perusahaan produsen senjata Inggris. Namun kasus ini menguap begitu saja.
Mantan dubes Saudi untuk Amerika, Pangeran Bandar adalah putra dari raja Saudi terdahulu. Ia diangkat sebagai kepala inteligen Saudi hanya sehari setelah serangan bom di Damaskus tgl 18 Juli, menambah jabatan strategis lainnya setelah sebelumnya menduduki jabatan sebagai Ketua Dewan Keamanan Nasional Saudi sejak tahun 2005. Kemungkinan pengangkatan itu sebagai balas jasa atas perannya dalam serangan di Damaskus, tidak heran jika ia menjadi sasaran paling dicari Syria dan sekutunya, Iran, untuk balas dendam. Bandar yang menjalin hubungan dekat dengan inteligen Israel juga diduga kuat berada di balik kematian pejabat-pejabat Palestina dan Hizbollah yang tewas melalui serangan terorisme.
Para analis inteligen meragukan Syria memiliki kemampuan untuk menembus sistem keamanan super ketat keluarga kerajaan Saudi. Namun Iran memiliki kemampuan tersebut. Antara tahun 2003-2004 Iran berhasil melakukan serangkaian serangan bom di Saudi Arabia dengan menggunakan Al Qaida sebagai operatornya. Salah seorang anggota Al Qaida yang menjalankan operasi tersebut adalah Saif al-Adal, yang kini menetap di Pakistan. Kemampuan Iran memperalat Al Qaida untuk menyerang Saudi merupakan kesuksesan besar inteligen Iran mengingat secara idiologis Al Qaida yang salafis dan binaan CIA-Saudi, memusuhi Iran yang Shiah.
Arti strategis Syria bagi Iran membuat Iran akan melakukan apapun untuk mempertahankan regim Bashar al Assad. Selain itu kemampuan Iran melakukan serangan ke jantung Saudi menjadi peringatan bahwa "tangan Iran cukup panjang untuk menghukum musuh-musuhnya". Pemboman Damaskus tgl 18 Juli telah memaksa konflik Syria melebar keluar.
Kabar tentang meninggalnya Pangeran Bandar akibat serangan yang melukainya muncul hari MInggu, 29 Juli lalu. Kabar ini menggema sangat keras meski tidak ada konfirmasi resmi, justru karena momentumnya yang sangat "tepat": pemboman Damaskus tgl 18 Juli, pengangkatan Pangeran Bandar sebagai kepala inteligen tgl 19 Juli, dan serangan bom Riyadh empat hari kemudian. Diamnya pemerintah Saudi semakin menambah kuat kabar kematian tersebut.
KOMANDAN-KOMANDAN PEMBERONTAK TEWAS DI ALEPPO
Sementara itu media massa Perancis, "Le Figaro", hari Senin (30/7) melaporkan bahwa sebagian besar komandan pemberontak di Aleppo telah tewas dalam pertempuran melawan pasukan pemerintah Syria di kota terbesar Syria tersebut.
Reporter Adrian Golms, yang memasuki Aleppo melalui perbatasan Turki melaporkan terjadinya perang hebat di kawasan Salah al-Din, Aleppo, yang menewaskan "sejumlah besar komandan pemberontak".
Menurut laporan tersebut para pemberontak, yang sebagiannya adalah sisa-sisa pasukan pemberontak yang terdesak di Damaskus dan Homs, berhasil merebut beberapa kawasan kota Aleppo meski gagal merebut sebagian kawasan lainnya dari pasukan keamanan Syria. Mereka juga gagal memaksa penduduk untuk membantu mereka menghadapi serangan militer Syria yang mengepung Aleppo.
Ref:
"Saudi silence on intelligence chief Bandar’s fate denotes panic"; DEBKAfile Special Report, 31 Juli 201
"Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar assassinated, report says"; Press TV; 31 Juli 2012
"Large Number of Armed Groups’ Leaders killed by Syrian Army in Aleppo"; almanar.com.lb; 31 Juli 2012