Whitehouse Photo by David Bohrer

The Vice President's Trip to the Middle East: March 10 - March 16, 2002

Vice President Dick Cheney and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia extend courtesies to each other as they enter the area where the two leaders will stand during an arrival ceremony in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, March 16.

It is hard to believe that Saudi Arabia was not at the center of the 9/11 attack it is harder still to understand how Bush and Cheney can maintain such close ties with the Saudis. Here we have Vice President Dick Cheney and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia falling all over each other. Many believe that Crown Prince Abdullah was behind the attack on the United States. Bowing and scraping to Abdullah is an insult to every American that died in the Saudi Arabian attack on the United States.

Why would Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia use terrorists to attack the United States? Although Abdullah is recognized as Crown Prince it is far from certain that he will follow Fahd as King. The is much speculation that on Fahd's death the Sudeiri Seven faction of the Royal family will move to put one of their own on the throne. the Sudeiri Seven are the seven sons that King Saud had with with his primary wife Hassa al Sudeiri. My best guess is that on the death of King Fahd his brother Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz, father of Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, will sweep Abdullah aside and become King of Arabia. The Sudeiri are the single greatest block of power in Arabia and with the exception of Prince Salman they are strongly Pro-US. Abdullah realized that to fight Prince Sultan and the Sudeiri Seven faction he needed to neutralize the power of their American connections.

Not long after 9/11 Crown Prince Abdullah made his move. King Fahd had been in semi-retirement since a major stroke in 1996 and Prince Abdullah ruled as regent. Not satisfied with being Regent Abdullah ordered an assassination attempt of King Fahd at his palace in Jeddah mid July of 2002. Fahd's bodyguard were able to turn back the al-Qaeda Muaheddin. Significantly one of the dead assassins was a member of the devoutly Salafist Uteiba tribe with ties to Prince Abdullah. The attempt failed and Fahd lived. Coming out of retirement Fahd took back the day to day control of the Government.

We now are boxed it to some extent. We can take no actions against Saudi Arabia because the power is back in the hands of the Pro-USA faction. So we make nice with the Saudi Arabians despite the blood on their hand. Still I an amazed to see Cheney and Abdullah acting like best friends.