SAUDI ARABIA

Washington-Ryad: Dangerous Connections

An RFI Interview with Robert Baer, author and former CIA Agent in the Middle East

Robert Baer was agent of the CIA in the Middle East for more than 20 years, from 1976 to
1997. He has just published ?Or Noir et Maison Blanche? [Black Gold and White House] in
Editions JC Lattès.

RFI : You describe the relationship of dependence established between the United States and Saudi
Arabia, because the United States, you say, are dependent on the petrodollars?
Robert Baer : Yes, the United States is completely dependent on Saudi oil. They need Saudi
Arabia to stabilize oil prices. In the event of a crisis in Venezuela or Nigeria, it is Saudi Arabia
which compensates for the difference. It is the only country in the world to have such a big
capacity of overproduction and without that Americans would pay their oil two or three times
higher?

RFI : Can't the United States function without Saudi oil?
RB : No, they cannot do without Saudi oil. Even if it accounts for only 10% of importations this
oil is necessary to stabilize the market?

RFI : There is not only oil. Saudi Arabia is also a large provider of contracts for big American groups
such as Carlyle, Halliburton?
RB: Carlyle, McDonell Douglas, Boeing? All these companies, particularly in periods of crisis,
depend on Saudi Arabia to buy their weapons: Abrams tanks, F-16 fighters, Awac planes?
Without these orders the American industry of armament would be in serious jeopardy.

RFI : One comes out from this book with the impression that Washington is for sale. Is it really the case?
RB : I think it is true. I think that many other countries are also for sale when these kinds of
money amounts are involved? This is the nature of politics? A Saudi official told me the
following story: In 1968, a Saudi businessman came to see president Nixon to congratulate him
for his election and he decided to leave a suitcase with one million dollars bills near the US
president?s office. He did it. Nobody ever called him back. Saudis concluded from that story ?
be it true or false ? that they believe Washington is for sale? It is a metaphor to describe what
happens in Washington? Washington is ruled by easy money?

RFI : This economic dependence has obviously political implications. It is even the heart of your book.
RB : The dependence of the Americans to cheap oil is like a dependence to drug. Like any
dependence, it affects your perception? We do not want to look at the facts. There is no doubt
for me and many people in the United States that, on a certain level, Saudi Arabia was involved
in the attacks of September 11? And yet the White House always refuses to admit it. It refuses
to release the 28 pages of the Congress report ? and refuses to put any pressure at all on Saudi
Arabia, only for economic reasons.

RFI : Did that change since September 11?
RB : Nothing has changed! Concerning the war, the Americans, or should I rather say the White
House, pointed their finger on Iraq whereas Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of
September 11, contrary to Saudi Arabia. And so far Arabia did not reveal any account about the
Saudi citizens involved in September 11.

RFI : You write that Saudi Arabia is "the preferred hideout of the world terrorism", because of the
financial support which it brings to a network of mosques propagating the Wahhabite ideology, i.e. a
rigorous, conservative and djihadist Islam.
RB : There were 15 Saudis out of the 19 hijackers in the attacks of September 11. All were
recruited in mosques whose imams are paid by the Saudi government. The cell of Hamburg was
financed by Saudis. The cell of San Diego also. And the brain of the attacks, Khaled Sheik
Mohamed, was himself also financed by Saudis.

RFI : How does this financing function? It is not a direct financing of the Saudi government, but rather
through Islamic charity associations.
RB : A great part comes from the Islamic charity organizations, but a part comes directly from
people inside Saudi Arabia and who have connections with the royal family. This doesn?t mean
there is a conspiracy on behalf of the government, but the fact that these people living in Saudi
Arabia are business associates of the Saudi princes push to questions? and we still do not have
any answer.

RFI : It is hard to understand that Saudi Arabia which maintains flourishing business connections with the
United States, also finances terrorist networks. What is the Saudi royal family?s interest?
RB : The Saudi royal family pays for its protection. A great number of the royal family members
are very Western-like and want to pursue a way of life which does not correspond to the
principles of Wahhabism. They give money to radical Wahhabits to keep them quiet. It is as
simple as that. We call that the protection money. Similar to the Maffia in the United States.

RFI : Another danger threatening the Saudi oil godsend: terrorism. According to you, it would need as
little as 10 kg of explosives well placed on the oil sites to plunge the world economy in a deep stagnation.
RB : With 20 or 30 kg of explosives you can immediately remove from the market six million
barrels for two years? People ask me: "Why would anybody do that?". Look at Iraq! The Iraqis
bomb their own oil wells rather than letting the West profit from it. Why couldn't that occur in
Saudi Arabia?

RFI : Your book even concludes with a form of provocation since you propose to invade and occupy by
force the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. This is the means, you say, "to save the West from a long and very
serious depression".
RB : What I say is that, in the absence of a reduction in oil consumption or changes in the
American economy, if the tendency continues, if the United States and the West continue to
consume as much oil and fundamentalism develops in Saudi Arabia, what is probable is one day
we could be forced to make this decision. It is as if another country threw nuclear waste in the
ocean and destroyed it, we should intervene. Or if somebody destroys the Amazonian forest.
Saudi oil is a global problem which does not relate only to Saudi Arabia.

KARIM LEBHOUR
RFI 05/09/2003