[api] Hume Horan on the US-Saudi relationship
Russil Wvong
Saudi money, but not Hume Horan:
This effective admission of bribery goes far to explain why the usual laws,
regulations and rights do not apply when Saudi Arabia is involved. Hume
Horan, himself a former U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom, is the great and
noble exception to this pattern.
[http://www.danielpipes.org/article/995]
So I thought Horan's comments about the US-Saudi relationship on a
TV panel in November were interesting. I've edited the transcript a
little for clarity.
... MATTHEWS: Let's go to Hume Horan, the former ambassador to
Saudi Arabia. Do you see anything hard here beyond what Jim Zogby
[of the Arab American Institute] says in terms of the possibilities
here?
HUME HORAN, FMR. U.S. AMB. TO SAUDI ARABIA: Princess Haifa has got
a very good point, that after all, her father was killed by a
radical Islamist. And the kind of paper trail that we've got does
not suggest any intentional complicity whatsoever. However, I
would say that Princess Haifa, just being a princess, is going to
get a certain amount of publicity. The world loves to write about
princesses and Saudi princesses and terrorism.
And in addition, I think the Saudis and the princess, they're all
on the receiving end of a certain amount of pent-up frustration on
the part of Americans because of Saudi grudging cooperation and
foot dragging on other issues in our bilateral relations.
MATTHEWS: But you as an expert do not see the smoking gun here.
HORAN: No, I don't even see a gun, perhaps, at least with regard
to Princess Haifa.
... MATTHEWS: Gordon, let's take a look at something--an
interesting exchange, which has gotten new relevance today. It was
a conversation I had on this program with Saudi Prince Bandar
himself on HARDBALL. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Your government has been very smart to sort of buy off
the younger generation, give them all the money they need to go
prophetize around the world and do their dirty will and leave them
alone. They're paying protection money in a sense.
BANDAR: You know what? This is bullshit, to be honest with you.
Don't think America is too great and American media is too
important to be ignorant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: ... What do you think of that Hume Horan? Is that a
typical response from the royal family, don't even think about
something--that there might be an entangled relationship between
our royal family and the Wahhabi system, and the hatred being
spewed around the world by the Wahhabi school system?
HORAN: Let me tell you quite frankly, that one of the problems in
handling Muslim extremists in Saudi Arabia is that there's a kind
of power vacuum at the top. And I believe that the crown Prince
Abdullah would take a harder line, but he's just a crown
prince. And as a result, in this vacuum, so to speak, these
extreme types are able to pour in and run about and do their
damage and cause damage to Saudi Arabia's good name, Saudi
Arabia's internal security and our security.
... MATTHEWS: All the people watching want to know one thing, is
Saudi Arabia our friend or our enemy? Is it a friend?
ZOGBY: It's a friend.
MATTHEWS: Hume Horan, is that true?
ZOGBY: And if you're a friend, then what you do with a friend is
you treat it differently. But when these guys start piling on,
what they're saying in effect is that they got an agenda that goes
beyond the friendship and the relationship.
MATTHEWS: Hume Horan, do you think the Saudi Arabians are two
facing us? One face says we want to sell you oil. We love the Bush
family. We love going to the ranch. The other face says we want to
make sure our kids don't cause us any trouble so we'll buy them
off so they'll attack other countries like this one.
HORAN: There are two faces to this relationship, and let me put it
this way.
MATTHEWS: But what are the two faces?
HORAN: The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are one of history's most
peculiar odd couples. We're so different and yet, we have been so
important one to the other. I think on this matter of terrorism,
instead of sort of using them as a public punching bag, remember,
these Islamists are as much of a threat to the Saudis and are
primarily a threat to the Saudis, incidentally only to us...
MATTHEWS: But why did their 15 people attack us and not the Saudi
royal family? Why did the hijackers not hijack something over in
Saudi Arabia instead of us?
ZOGBY: In part to destroy the relationship...
HORAN: Yes.
ZOGBY: ... between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and some of our guys
here at home seem to be playing right into what Osama bin Laden's
goal was, unfortunately.
[www.msnbc.com/news/840106.asp]
Horan's comment about the Islamists being primarily a threat to the
Saudis and only incidentally to the United States is consistent with
an article by Michael Scott Doran in the current issue of Foreign
Affairs: from Osama bin Laden's point of view, the Saudi government
is the "near enemy". Bin Laden only attacked the "far enemy", the
United States, after previous attempts against the "near enemies"
had failed. Interestingly, bin Laden also considers Israel to be
a "far enemy". The first priority is to take over an Arab country.
A couple other mentions of Horan:
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu:8080/hyper-lists/classics-l/00-10-01/0521.html
http://www.doglegs.net/cclovett/arabists_ppt.htm
An oral history excerpt describing Horan's experience in Jordan in 1970:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2002_01-03/horan_brown/horan_brown.html
Russil Wvong
Vancouver, Canada
alt.politics.international FAQ: www.geocities.com/rwvong/future/apifaq.html