....Bin Laden urges the Iraqi fighters to heed the lesson of the Afghans' historic post-Soviet debacle because "the same thing applies to Iraq today"; leaders are more interested in their own power and status than in making Islam and the ummah (Islamic community) victorious. And while bin Laden warns that Washington is using promises of money, military training and arms to entice the "Islamic Party and some fighting groups [to] support America against Muslims", he leaves no doubt that the Islamists' main enemy in Iraq is now Saudi Arabia, not the supposedly militarily defeated United States....
...Bin Laden goes on to claim that the Saudis are trying to co-opt some of the Sunni mujahideen in Iraq by allowing "some groups to confidently move in the Gulf to receive [financial] support". Riyadh is careful to avoid officially funding its Iraqi insurgent favorites, so its support "is channeled under the banner of raising donations by some unofficial scholars and preachers". Bin Laden warns that "many of them ... are loyal to the state and seek to implement [Riyadh's] policy by pulling the rug from under the honest mujahideen's feet" and forcing them to support a national-unity government that is designed to be the agent of the United States and Saudi Arabia.
He asks the Iraqi mujahideen how they can trust Saudi King Abdullah, who is the "malignant foe" of Islam, the "main US agent in the region" and a man who took it on himself "to tempt and tame every free, virtuous, and honest person with the aim of dragging him to the path of temptation and misguidance ... [and] the path of betraying the religion and nation and submitting to the will of the Crusader-Zionist alliance"....
...While it is clear in the December 29 tape that bin Laden rates the Saudis as the main obstacle to God's victory in Iraq, there is little indication of what he intends to do to destroy Riyadh's ability to stymie the mujahideen there as it did in Afghanistan....
...If bin Laden's assertions are true, and Saudi Arabia's Afghanistan-like intervention in Iraq continues to prevent the mujahideen unity bin Laden advocates, the al-Qaeda chief and his shura (consultative) council may soon confront the very unpalatable necessity of having to break with their traditional grand strategy and move to try to destroy the Saudi regime....
Anne Gearan and Terence Hunt report for the Associated Press on the Detroit Free Press (Jan 14, 2008, Bush Delivers Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia and Bush Seeks Stronger Ties With Arms Deal):
Anne Gearan's article:
...The administration was notifying Congress of its intent to sell $20 billion in weapons, including precision-guided bombs, to the Saudis. It is "a pretty big package, lots of pieces," national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters on Air Force One....
Terence Hunt's article:
...Coinciding with Bush's arrival, the administration officially notified Congress it will offer Saudi Arabia sophisticated Joint Direct Attack Munitions - or "smart bomb" - technology and related equipment. The deal envisions the transfer of 900 of the precision-guided bomb kits, worth $123 million, that would give Saudi forces highly accurate targeting abilities.
Some lawmakers fear the systems could be used against Israel but Congress appears unlikely to block the deal because of Saudi Arabia's cooperation in the war on terror and in deterring aggression from Iran.
The United States already has notified Congress of five other packages to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, including Patriot missiles. The total amount of eventual sales as part of the Gulf Security Dialogue is estimated at $20 billion, a figure subject to actual purchases....
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