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How The Saudis Wag The Washington Dog

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Andrew Levine via Counterpunch.org,

American diplomacy favors (majority) white, English-speaking countries (the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and non-Hispanic European settler states (Canada, Australia and New Zealand again, but also Apartheid South Africa and, of course, Israel).

South Africa eventually fell out of favor, thanks in part to boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts in Western countries.

Similar efforts now underway directed towards Israel are beginning to change public opinion too; though elite opinion, in the United States and the other settler states especially, has, so far, hardly budged.

Thanks to its lobby and its strategic location, Israel is still, for America, the most favored nation of all.

Western European countries are also favored, though to a lesser extent – thanks, again, to cultural affinities and historical ties. Those that sent large numbers of emigrants to North America generally have a leg up. France didn’t send many emigrants, but it is also favored, at least some of the time, for philosophical and historical affinities dating back to the American and French Revolutions.

With Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, there are no deep or longstanding cultural and historical ties; quite the contrary. Nevertheless, those nations, Saudi Arabia especially, receive favored treatment too.

The events surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden provide a window into this strange and revealing state of affairs.

*  *  *

When Barack Obama lied about how Navy Seals murdered bin Laden, he blew apart a carefully constructed cover story concocted in Washington and Islamabad intended to conceal the role of Pakistani intelligence and the Pakistani military.

According to Seymour Hersh’s account in The London Review of Books, bin Laden had been in Pakistani custody at least since 2006. American intelligence learned of this some four years later, when a “walk-in” gave them information that checked out.

The raid itself took place a year after that, in time for the 2012 Presidential election in the United States.

The Pakistanis had reasons for keeping bin Laden in custody and out of American hands. It gave them leverage with the Taliban and with the remnants of Al Qaeda, as well as with other radical Islamist groups.

The Saudis wanted bin Laden kept in Pakistan too; away from the Americans. According to Hersh, they paid Pakistan generously for their trouble.

Hersh’s article does not dwell on their motives, but, in interviews he has given after his article went on line, he is less reticent.

The Saudis didn’t want the United States to get its hands on bin Laden because they didn’t want him to talk about Saudi involvement in 9/11 and other operations directed against Western interests.

This is only a conjecture, but it makes eminently good sense. It isn’t even news. Like the fact that the Israeli arsenal includes nuclear weapons, everybody knows about the Saudis’ role, but nobody in official circles or in the media that toes its line talks about it.

Since his article appeared, official Washington and mainstream media line have gone after Hersh with a degree of vehemence reminiscent of their attack on Edward Snowden.

They hate it when their bumbling is revealed, almost as much as when the hypocrisy of their claims to respect human rights and the rule of law is exposed.

But, for all the sound and fury, they have not effectively rebutted a single one of Hersh’s contentions – nor, for that matter, any of Snowden’s.

If Hersh is right, as he surely is, then two of America’s closest allies were, to say the least, not acting the way that allies should.

Capturing bin Laden was officially – and probably also really – a high priority for the United States.   Pakistan and Saudi Arabia kept him from being captured.

However, none of this appears to have harmed U.S.-Pakistani or U.S.-Saudi relations.

The rulers of both countries depend on American support to survive.   And yet, when they choose, they defy their protector with impunity. Israel isn’t the only country that wags the dog.

Pakistan gets carte blanche because, like Israel, it has the Bomb. Keeping the Bomb out of the hands of anyone who might use it – especially, against the United States or its interests abroad — is, understandably and legitimately, a goal of American diplomacy.

And so, the United States will do what it must to keep the Pakistani military and intelligence communities happy and on board.

This is not easy: the Pakistanis have been involved with radical Islamists from Day One. By all accounts, contacts survive to this day.

The United States encouraged these connections, especially when the prospect of getting the Soviet Union bogged down in Afghanistan clouded the thinking of diplomats in the Carter and Reagan administrations.

But, since even before the Americans became involved, the Pakistanis have been going their own way in Afghanistan – partly for cultural and historical reasons of their own, and partly to keep India at bay.

For all these reasons, the Americans have found it expedient to buy off the leaders of the Pakistani military and intelligence communities.   Therefore, whenever possible, in light of the totality of their concerns, they give them what they want. What the Pakistanis wanted with the bin Laden killing was plausible deniability.

This was the point of the story that Obama blew. Therefore when he, or his political operatives, decided that, with the 2012 election looming, the moment was opportune to announce bin Laden’s death, they had to concoct a different story that would also keep the Pakistani role secret.

The one they made up had the added benefit of reinforcing the swashbuckling image that the Navy Seals, Obama’s Murder Incorporated, try to project. Hollywood got the message, and made the most of it.   So did the Obama campaign.

But, for reasons Hersh explains, the fable they concocted was transparently implausible; a point not lost on observers at the time.

To point this out, back in the day, was to risk being taken for a “conspiracy theorist” – or, worse, a Romney supporter.

Now that a definitive account of what happened has appeared, it is plain who the real conspirators were.

And so, by now, only the willfully blind – and the Washington press corps — believe the tale Obama told.

Needless to say, it is not exactly news when Obama lies; in the “man bites dog” sense, it would be news if he didn’t.

And neither is the duplicity of Pakistan’s military and intelligence leadership surprising.   Politics in the Indian sub-continent is as devious and convoluted as anywhere in the world.

In Pakistan, as in Iraq and Syria, the stewards of the American empire – the ones who worked for Bush and Cheney, and the ones who have worked for Obama and his hapless Secretaries of State — are in way over their heads. They are like the proverbial bull in the china shop; powerful and therefore destructive, but ultimately clueless.

American obeisance to the wishes of the Saudi royal family is not unusual either.  The United States has been toadying up to them since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. They have oil, and we want to control what they do with it.

However, the fact that the American public, and its counterparts in other Western countries, goes along, almost without dissent, is puzzling in the extreme.

The American way, after all, is to villainize first, and ask questions later.

The Saudi royals, and the ruling potentates in the other Gulf kingdoms, are prime candidates for villainization. They are characters out of central casting.

One would think that a public that loathes, or has been made to loathe, Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad – and that still goes livid at the very thought of the Iranian Ayatollahs and Saddam Hussein — would be out with pitchforks demanding the heads of each and every member of the Saudi ruling class.

They were, after all, if not the perpetrators, at least the protectors of the perpetrators, of 9/11, a “day of infamy,” our propaganda system tells us, equal only to the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

And yet the public’s ire seldom turns the Saudis’ way.

This is all the more remarkable because they have neither a Bomb nor a domestic lobby that the entire American political class fears.

All they have is a massive public relations operation. Evidently, the flacks they hire know their trade. No matter how much money they are paid, they earn every cent.

* * *

Ironically, the Saudis’ hold over America’s political and economic elites is an unintended consequence of American diplomacy in the days when the United States was, or seemed to be, on the side of the angels.

When Britain or France wanted Middle Eastern oil – in Iraq or Iran, for example, — they took it. They were colonial powers; this is what colonial powers do.

Before World War II, American diplomats cultivated a different image. Washington’s cupidity may have been no less than London’s or Paris’; but, in the White House and at Foggy Bottom, the idea was to present the United States as, of all things, an anti-colonial power.

Never mind Puerto Rico or the Philippines or, for that matter, Hawaii and the several other Pacific islands that the U.S. Navy coveted; and never mind America’s obvious collusion – before, during, and after World War II — with the British and French empires.

It is true, though, that in the Middle East, American domination took a different form. When American oil companies wanted Middle Eastern oil, they didn’t seize it; they bought it from the rulers of the peoples who live on top of it.

And, if there weren’t rulers willing or able to sell, the Americans created them.

The House of Saud made out like bandits. For the oil companies, it was a small price to pay.

The U.S. got control of the oil without having to administer rebellious colonies. Meanwhile, local elites got rich.   All they had to do for the money was give the Americans free rein and enforce the order that made American domination possible – with American help, of course, and with arms purchased from American corporations.

And so, until reality made the pretense unsustainable, the U.S. could present itself, throughout the Middle East, as a defender of anti-colonial, independence movements.

As other Gulf states broke free from British rule, the U.S. took over, applying the same model. This worked well — for a while.

Before long, though, the Saudi regime, and he others, became too big to fail.

This is why, even as the Clinton State Department floundered about cluelessly when the Arab Spring erupted, the prospect of allowing those regimes to fall was never seriously considered.   For official Washington, this was as unthinkable as allowing nuclear Pakistan to “go rogue,” or not kowtowing to the Israel lobby.

When there is a disconnect between public and elite opinion, elites generally win, but not always: not when too many people care too much. American elites, eager to maintain the status quo, like the PR people the Saudis hire to keep public opinion from getting out of control, therefore have their work cut out for them.

Some of the reasons for this reflect poorly on the moral probity of public opinion in the West.

In their appearance, manner and demeanor, the Saudi ruling class epitomizes the Western idea of the Arab.

Even before Europeans inserted themselves into the Arab world, Arabs have occupied a special place in the imaginations of Western peoples.

Like many of the other peoples of the East, they were deemed mysterious and exotic, highly sexualized, and vaguely dangerous.

But, unlike Turks and Persians or the peoples of South Asia and the Far East, and like Africans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australasia, Arabs were never quite regarded as fully human.

The Saudi PR machine therefore has deeply racialized attitudes to counter. The Saudis epitomize “the other”; this makes them a hard sell.

They also epitomize the retrograde, which makes them a hard sell for reasons that have nothing to do with racial or cultural stereotypes — and everything to do with modern political morality.

There is hardly a reactionary trend in the Muslim world that the Saudis haven’t supported financially; and there are few that they did not actually instigate or help shape.

Also, there are few places on earth where human rights and gender equality are less respected, or where liberal and democratic norms hold less sway, than in Saudi Arabia.

Elites in that country and in the other Gulf monarchies are rich and idle because they are sitting on top of vast oil reserves, and because they have accumulated so much wealth that they can exploit “guest workers” in the ways that masters exploit slaves. No one holds them to account for this or anything else untoward that they do.

In a world that permits, indeed encourages, private ownership of natural resources and the limitless accumulation of wealth — and that is largely indifferent to the harm petroleum extraction does — they won the lottery.

This could make them objects of envy, of course; and envy tinged with racial animosity is a lethal brew. Yet, for all practical purposes, the Saudis get a pass – not just in Western elite circles and within the political class of Western countries, but in Western public opinion too.

It has been this way ever since the phasing out of the short-lived Arab oil embargo brought on by American support for Israel in its 1973 war against Egypt.

The Saudis’ immunity from public rancor is all the more amazing because it would be easy to rationalize – indeed, to justify – turning them into objects of scorn.

Inasmuch as our moral intuitions took shape over many centuries, under conditions in which nearly everything everyone wanted was in short supply, we are inclined to think that, where the distribution of income and wealth are concerned, principles of fair play apply; and therefore that “free riding” on the contributions of others is morally reprehensible.

In existing capitalism – and, indeed, in all class divided societies – plenty of free riding nevertheless occurs. It is so commonplace that people often don’t notice it or don’t care. Sometimes, though, when people get something for nothing, it can be enough over the top to cause consternation. When the free riders stand out conspicuously, the level of consternation is typically enhanced.

Saudi Arabia’s feudal rulers, and their counterparts in other Gulf states, are about as over the top as it gets.

Other than maintaining the profoundly oppressive order that makes the status quo possible in the territories they control, it is hard to think of any contributions, productive or otherwise, that they make to justify the riches they receive.

But, as finance has superseded industry as the driving force behind the world’s overripe capitalist system, Western publics have become more accustomed than they used to be to rewarding unproductive people.

The robber barons of old, and the “industrialists” who succeeded them, at least played a role in increasing society’s wealth. The enterprises from which their riches derived made things. The money people at the cutting edge of capitalism today make money out of money, an activity even more useless than collecting rents for drilling rights.

Yet, hostility is seldom directed towards them. Quite the contrary: the richer they are, the more they are esteemed.

Could the sort of confused and obsequious thinking that has made hedge fund managers the heroes of our age account, in part, for how Saudi elites escape vilification? Is this yet another situation where, if you are rich enough, everything is forgiven?

No doubt, this is part of the explanation. But a government intent on keeping public and elite opinion on the same page is a more important factor.   Add on a lavishly funded PR campaign and an entire category of miscreants gets off scot-free.

That there is no group of people on earth today to whom the epithet “malefactors of great wealth” more justly applies hardly matters. The Western public may not like them much or respect them; but, so long as they don’t flaunt their wealth too blatantly, hardly anyone complains when Western politicians let them call the shots.

Meanwhile, Islamophobia rages and a gullible public lives in mortal fear of terrorist bogeymen.   And yet the Saudi elite gets a pass, notwithstanding the fact that nearly all the perpetrators of 9/11 — of the event that, more than any other, boosted Islamophobia and got the so-called war on terror going — were Saudi nationals. It is an amazing phenomenon.

* * *

In real democracies, governments would do what the citizens who put them in office want them to do. The United States and other Western democracies make a mockery of that ideal. But, even so, there are limits; governments cannot defy public opinion on matters of great moment indefinitely.

It is also the case, at least in the United States, that public opinion is affected significantly by the very government that is supposed to do what the people want – and therefore, ultimately, by the demands of the corporate and financial forces that corrupt democracy.

This is why propaganda matters. Keeping public opinion in line is a function, perhaps the main one, of propaganda systems. In America in the Age of Obama, that is one of the few things that works well.

We underestimate its effectiveness at our peril.

Enabling the Saudi ruling class, and the rulers of the other Gulf states, to direct American foreign policy to the extent that they do, and to get away with whatever they please, is hardly the least of it; but neither is it the only cause for concern.

 

 

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Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:11 | 6131411 ted41776
ted41776's picture

why is the head bopping up and down?

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:14 | 6131414 CH1
CH1's picture

The ZH Hate Squad in 3, 2....

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:23 | 6131435 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

Let me be the first....

When I have a hard time falling asleep at night, I just visualize fields full of dead rotting corpses of Saudi's, as far as the eye can see. Fortunately in dreams, the smell is not there, just the wonderful vision...

 

Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em all.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:51 | 6131502 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

You will probably live to see that day. The house of saud will go once the petrodollar goes. Once they aren't recieving the military aid and handouts, their serfs will overthrow them. Those Islamic militia types they have been secretly funding for years WILL come after them eventually and their military will likely flee like the Iraqi army does. They are used to enforcing laws on passive compliant peasants, and won't fare any better than the Iraqis against a determined foe. Those Saudi royals not lucky enough to be near their gulf streams will likely get the gaddafi treatment.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:26 | 6131579 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

We only disagree on WHEN, carl.

"...The house of saud will go once the petrodollar goes..."

The House of Saud is currently at war with itself over which sub-clan gets the marbles. It's prett clear what faction is 'winning', but the underdogs are quite fanatical and insane. They refuse to lose - period. Saudi leadership is yet another slow-motion train wreck - they had no plan for transition of power after the King died except for grabbing everyting that wasn't nailed down. The Wahhabi Sunni underlings are mostly content to sit back and let the royals kill each other.

"...Once they aren't recieving the military aid and handouts, their serfs will overthrow them..."

Well, we know the common Saudi isn't willing to die for the new Crown Prince. The ground troop's favorite tactic to defend SA at the Yemeni border for the last few weeks has been to flee anytime they are attacked by Yemeni forces. The serfs that really threaten the SA government is their own minority Shia. That is growing to explosive levels with SA's upcomming execution of Shia leader Skeikh al-Nimr for “disobeying the ruler, inciting sectarian strife and encouraging, leading and participating in demonstrations.” Saudi Shia will go full retard. They're extremely pissed right now about the Wahhabi bombing of a Shia mosque last Friday during prayers that killed 21 people. The Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian and Yemei Shia are very sympathetic with their cause. The U.S. could simply demand they not execute the cleric, but - hey, anything to stoke the Sunni - Shia ethnic cleansing.

"...Those Islamic militia types they have been secretly funding for years WILL come after them eventually and their military will likely flee like the Iraqi army does..."

So even if their own people don't kick their ass, al Nusra and fake ISIS will be comin' back home looking for some back pay and payback. 

"...Those Saudi royals not lucky enough to be near their gulf streams will likely get the gaddafi treatment..."

I'm sure they spend as little time in Saudi Arabia as possible, nowadays. They probably had to fly IN to see horseface there. And they're probably relatively safe - they use Academi/Xe for bodyguards (like Porky and Yats) rather than their own 'elite' loyal troops. That's where Gaddafi went wrong.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:08 | 6131655 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

Ya, I wouldn't imagine they spend too much time in SA either, even though it's still relatively calm there. I sure as hell wouldn't. I've actually net and talked with a number of very wealthy Saudis a good any years ago, and had many drinks with them, while their body guards watched from a few feet away. No idea if they were Saudi royalty, but most Saudis that travel like that are. They would, and probably still do, drive across the causeway into Bahrain, where they could ditch their phony religious principles and drink like fish and fuck Thai hookers. It was always funny. We even had Saudi neighbors on some weekends, and you would see Asian girls coming and going all the time. Actually pretty fun people, but there was also an arrogance to them. The way they treated the workers and delivery/ service people was abhorrent. They view the Shia and non muslins who do the dirty work in those countries as slaves and treat them as such. They act like this despite being massively out numbered by the have-nots, and I suspect it will end badly for them. I am certainly glad I'm not over there anymore.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:02 | 6131734 TruxtonSpangler
TruxtonSpangler's picture

The Seymour Hersh narrative is also flase, just more limited hangout designed to embarass POTUS. Bin Laden was dead long before. SOme higher ups in CIA or similar wanted to slap POTUS so they fed Hersh a plausible but bogus story. It is yet another distraction.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 06:21 | 6131939 negative rates
negative rates's picture

All that needs payed now are the consequences, bitches!

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 06:25 | 6131943 eclectic syncretist
eclectic syncretist's picture

The Saudi's have a lot of control over the future of the Petrodollar, hence Obumblin's head bobbing kiss assiness shameful behaviour.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 06:31 | 6131948 negative rates
negative rates's picture

You still have a short while to work out that ring around the collar issue, GOOD LUCK.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:31 | 6132013 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

"The way they treated the workers and delivery/ service people was abhorrent."

That's what I hated most about them. And it beats me why they're arrogant. The White man discovered the oil in the lands they had been scrabbling an existence on, drilled, refined and distributed it. On which proceeds the ragheads became fabulously wealthy and used that wealth to build obscene palaces and such like. And got foreign lackeys to do every little thing for them.

If they had to rely on their own abilities they'd be scratching a living in tents, beheading one another and buggering little boys.


Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:43 | 6131712 Oh regional Indian
Oh regional Indian's picture

I think it really is getting elemental now. It's more like:

How Oil wags the Petrodollar Dog.

Or how Oil wags the golden dog.

Or how ...hmmm...what does gold wag again?

If I were to visualize this, it's like this whole bunch of oil-money mad people, riding Shahi-hulud, but with none of the grace and knowledge and wisdom of the Fremen.

The spice must be hoarded!

4 years on, nothing changes...some pictography below is really worth....well checking out I guess...the death of the first world before our very eyes...

https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/world/

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 03:43 | 6131864 samjam7
samjam7's picture

Upvote for you, thanks always very insightful your information on SA!!

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 10:28 | 6132375 RevIdahoSpud3
RevIdahoSpud3's picture

At the same time Gaddafi's bodyguard had a certain "something". Even now they may be contracting to appear in a new Bond film? I for one support the Shia. It's like a sports season that you don't follow and suddenly during the playoffs you choose a team.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 06:22 | 6131940 chumbawamba
chumbawamba's picture

You people are foolish.  These events are not happening in a carefully constructed vacuum of your liking, sad as I am to break that to you.  The Saudis already have their next political iteration in position.  The collapse of the petrodollar will just put it all into play.  Much as you'd like to believe, these are not stupid people.  And you use their product every day.

I am Chumbawamba.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:53 | 6131505 philipat
philipat's picture

I thought that OBL died many years earlier from kidney disease? It's difficult to know which conspiracy theory to believe sometimes but if the former is correct does that make this a false flag? What about that obseqious Navy Seal who appears on Fox to talk about when he shot OBL?

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:00 | 6131521 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

That's still my personal belief, he was long dead before this. And as for the seal on Fox News, he is allowed to talk his nonsense because it reinforces both the official narrative as well as Seymour hershs story, whichever you choose to believe, his BS fits the narrative. Plus, who exactly is going to disprove him, the Obama admin?

"That seal is full of shit, OBL died of kidney failure 10 years ago" is probably true, but it shoots both the official narrative, and the slightly more believable lie, down in flames. This story from hersh is perfect, since it satisfies a lot of skeptics who doubted the official story with a different story that still has the US 'finally getting their guy' with some minor intrigue thrown in. It's all a perfect storm of bullshit to obscure the real story. Or, my tin foil hat is getting too tight again, also a possibility.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:17 | 6131560 OpenThePodBayDoorHAL
OpenThePodBayDoorHAL's picture

I'm making over $7 K per month trying to figure out a way WW III is not the only way this shit gets sorted out. 

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:43 | 6131606 MrBoompi
MrBoompi's picture

Hersh is only as believable as his unnamed sources.  One would think the US would have provided proof of a body.  A fake burial at sea was just too much bullshit to swallow.  The US has lied too many times to expect us to believe anythng they say when it comes to the war on terror now.  "Fool me once, you never get fooled again" as the dumbass Bush once said.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:56 | 6131696 Pancho de Villa
Pancho de Villa's picture

Dropped piece by piece from a helicopter is almost as unbelieveable as "buried at sea", no?

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 02:03 | 6131801 philipat
philipat's picture

Yes, that is pretty much my take on things also. It's interesting that just this one Navy Seal was left alive (The rest allegedly died during traning mission "Accidents" etc.) to glorify the remaining potential for glory isn't it? He needs to keep an eye on his brakes as his usefulness wears off?

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:25 | 6131578 Robot Traders Mom
Robot Traders Mom's picture

Don't believe anything that benefits the US or their daddy, Israel. This Saudi 9-11/bin Laden bullshit is all just a distraction. Whatever this clown said about the 'Saudi having a hold over the US elite' is arguably the dumbest shit I've read in some time. It all lets Israel off the hook. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 02:48 | 6131832 Ofelas
Ofelas's picture

Sharon Oct 2001 "“Every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”

 


Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:22 | 6132001 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

Amen, bro.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:24 | 6132007 oudinot
oudinot's picture

Buster:  very intelligent take on world events; you are the type of white trash that gives American a bad name.

 

Fuck you and your genocidal dreams, fuckhead.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:26 | 6132110 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

Well, ok. Fuck 'em all except your relatives...

Better?

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 09:13 | 6132121 oudinot
oudinot's picture

You are a complete retard.

I would bet my bottom dollar you have never even been to the Middle East yet you feel strangely compelled to spew your ignorant, uninformed , genocidal verbal diarhorrea on the subject.

Fuck Off, simpleton.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:42 | 6132134 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

"When I have a hard time falling asleep at night, I just visualize fields full of dead rotting corpses of Americans, as far as the eye can see..."

FIFY

You better pray the rest of the world is both better at identifying the true enemy and more merciful towards that enemy's subjects, despite their having been nominally "elected" by said subjects.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:14 | 6131417 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

In real democracies, two wolves and a sheep vote on which episode of Lassie to watch. And they inevitably choose the Dancing Saudis episode.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:33 | 6131449 nmewn
nmewn's picture

The author is an idiot.

"In real democracies, governments would do what the citizens who put them in office want them to do."

All the author needs to do now is provide an example of where this "real democracy" exists in the world.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:36 | 6132125 oudinot
oudinot's picture

Perhaps, "Iceland?"

That's about it.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:49 | 6131496 Tarzan
Tarzan's picture

"In real democracies, governments would do what the citizens who put them in office want them to do"

 

In all democracies, the people eventually do get what they want...

unfortunately as with all mob rule, they get it "good and hard"

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:53 | 6131506 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

HL Mencken right? One of my favorite quotes of all time. We will all be getting it good and hard, that's for sure

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:58 | 6131790 Oracle of Kypseli
Oracle of Kypseli's picture

What system of government do you like?

BTW: In ancient Greek democracy, prisoners of war were sold to citizens as slaves for a long period.

Maybe you can do something similar in the US, like a politician caught in lying or cheating gets sold to a citizen to work in a farm.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:30 | 6132115 usednabused
usednabused's picture

Excellent point, what a way to solve the budget shortfall... lol.

Actually though, why not a law that any politician caught in any misdeeds gets their fucking hands chopped off? Sure as hell that would put an end to the -in your face- part of it, would limit the competition so we wouldn't have all those shitty commercials every fall, and would sure be a lot of fun to watch.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:17 | 6131420 BullyBearish
BullyBearish's picture

They can get away with ANYTHING:

"It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:19 | 6131425 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

Saudi Arabia wags the US dog?

That's a laugh, and anyway that's Israel's turf.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:34 | 6132023 conscious being
conscious being's picture

See CH1, denier of dancing Israelis, above. Your truthful comment is what he means by ZH hate. The ZH hasbra ideologue army stands by to stomp out Israeli truth whenever it appears to the best of their combined abilities.

Watch CH1 will soon be by to downvote this bit of truth.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:21 | 6131428 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Good article, but one of those things that is really hard to completely understand if one is not Zionist aware. I.e. how Zion runs, controls, plunders, and uses the DC US.

The Saudis take their orders from Zion just like the DC US, and they will probably survive longer than the DC US will.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..

 

"Once we squeeze all we can out of the United States, it can dry up and blow away." -- Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:46 | 6131492 dsty
dsty's picture

Good article for a one trick pony ziotard

Islamophobia, homophobia

bla bla bla

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:07 | 6131529 Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

The Saudis take their orders from the world's gasoline consumers, each and every day, just like the world's drug cartels take their orders from the world's drug consumers.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 02:06 | 6131805 Oracle of Kypseli
Oracle of Kypseli's picture

Many people have to drive to work everyday. Dope addicts are wasted and non productive. Not the same. You are tottaly off.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:49 | 6131495 Mini-Me
Mini-Me's picture

I've never understood why Obama bows in public to these cretins.  What gives?  

If we had a legitimate independent media in this country, maybe a journalist would ask him why he does this.  Instead, they've become nothing but White House stenographers.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:26 | 6131685 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:40 | 6131706 Pancho de Villa
Pancho de Villa's picture

Yes, he bows well, indeed

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:47 | 6131711 strannick
strannick's picture

Washington Dog(s) is right.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:03 | 6131737 TruxtonSpangler
TruxtonSpangler's picture

Just ask Reggie.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:43 | 6132034 saltoafronteira
saltoafronteira's picture

Is this some sort of initiation rite ? blowing the sheik's pipe ?

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:25 | 6131753 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

John Kerry has ketchup on the corner of his mouth. Someone grap a napkin. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 03:03 | 6131844 smacker
smacker's picture

Am I seeing things or what?

There appears to be a stainless/chrome pipe inserted up the ass of Obola in that picture.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 22:56 | 6131512 Arrowshot
Arrowshot's picture

Sorry but the whole premise goes off the rail when they state the Arab Springs messed everything up. The Arab Springs were a AlCIAda operation all the way up to Benghazi which was an arms shipment negotiation with the Turkish ambassador that went bad. After all, look how puffy Obamao got after the Egyptian Army waited long enough for the Muslim Brotherhood to reveal a lot about their members and then kicked their asses out. Imagine more than a few beheadings took place that might put the Saudi's to shame (and why is it they all of a sudden need an increased number of head choppers). Nope, the Arab Springs were all attempts to destablise the Mideast and plunder their gold as well as other resources after it all settles down. Problem is, the whole shit-show has metastisized and I think the individuals that started this crap are only nominally in control of events now.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:21 | 6131548 tony wilson and...
tony wilson and saturn zion devils's picture

if Hersh is right, as he surely is,

really really really
counterpunch mi6 balls tavistock sy op bollox

say more cia hershey a talmoo rabbi that screams it der trut eye tell ya.
tim osman was dead by christmas 2001 speak to anyone from ramstein airbase germany who was around 2001-2002.
this pull it sir prize prick like most friends of nuttyyahoo and ariel sharon is a fucking liar.
hersh and gnome chumpski live edward w said,hunter s thomson and gore vidal where all snuffed out.
funny that

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:17 | 6131561 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Yep. The Saudis are in a precarious position now that wealth extraction is reaching its limits. When the SHTF you certainly don't want to be the one holding the supplies.

Pretty sure they get toasted in the not so distant future.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 05:23 | 6131907 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Too many princes spread the  money too thin...

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:27 | 6131583 F0ster
F0ster's picture

Solution: Iran vs Saudi.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:28 | 6131760 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Methinks Saudi vs Israel. 

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:50 | 6131627 lolmao500
lolmao500's picture

Man up : invite them to the US, all the house of saud. Arrest them all and behead them on the white house lawn... for the lulz.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:48 | 6132038 saltoafronteira
saltoafronteira's picture

You invite them and some weeks later you have the american caliphate, say... Al-Amrika, and all the corrupt anglos lifting their asses in the oposite direction of Mecca, As long as these are rightfully paid by their new masters, have no doubt that the electric chair will be replaced by those more dramatic but equally barbaric swords (much cheaper, by the way).

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:53 | 6131631 amanfromMars
amanfromMars's picture

It is true, though, that in the Middle East, American domination took a different form. When American oil companies wanted Middle Eastern oil, they didn’t seize it; they bought it from the rulers of the peoples who live on top of it.

And, if there weren’t rulers willing or able to sell, the Americans created them.

The House of Saud made out like bandits. For the oil companies, it was a small price to pay.

The U.S. got control of the oil without having to administer rebellious colonies. Meanwhile, local elites got rich. All they had to do for the money was give the Americans free rein and enforce the order that made American domination possible – with American help, of course, and with arms purchased from American corporations.

That is the magical power of virtually worthless paper money. It buys/sells dreams to dreamers and nightmares to schemers. And with IT and efficient enough global mainstream media control, is it a sticky sweet gem of a cyber command and control operation which is doomed to failure and bound to implode spectacularly and explode catastrophically in too big to fail alternative narrative joint ventures/dark web enterprises, should such missionary explorers so choose to wish and doggedly explore with magically empowered exploits.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:52 | 6132046 conscious being
conscious being's picture

The power of American fiat is the power to expect death if you don't go along. Applies to individuals and sovereign nations. Just like the original paper fiat, Kubla Khan fiat in Mongol ruled China 800 years ago.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:59 | 6132060 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

+1, I'm impressed, few people know something about The Khan's Mighty Fiat That Straddled The World

the origin of that fiat money was in the control of borders and the chits proving you had paid the duties required for trade, import and export

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 09:39 | 6132242 falak pema
falak pema's picture

If you had the golden gerege then all duties disappeared as you were an elite-ist! 

The Polo family traveled from Acre to Dadu/Cambuluc under its protection. 

Just like during Roman times and having the seal of Rome in Palmyra or Jerusalem.

Imperialism is duty free for the imperially protected. For the others Kublai sent his brother Hulagu and you ended up as a skull in his pyramid for the dead as that was the price of not paying your dues. 

Seems we are still on that page; the Imperial corporates don't pay import/export as they are all offshored! 

The unwashed others pay with their corpses.

Mon, 05/25/2015 - 23:55 | 6131637 appocean
appocean's picture

Thanks for reminding me what the internet is all about.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:13 | 6131661 The Blank Stare
The Blank Stare's picture

They were, after all, if not the perpetrators, at least the protectors of the perpetrators, of 9/11,

 

When any writer comes out that the Saudi's did it, time to stop. Unless....it is possible to wire a 62 story building for demolition in a few hours.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 02:30 | 6131817 socalbeach
socalbeach's picture

The hijacked plane that crashed in Shankesville, PA tunneled under the earth heading towards NY, and caused WTC7 to collapse upon subterranean impact.  That explains why no major airplane debris was found in Shankesville, and also why WTC7 didn't collapse until 5:20PM that evening.  Jet aircraft traveling under the earth go much slower than those flying in the atmosphere.

So no explosives were necessary. 

3 planes, 3 building collapses.  Surprised NIST hasn't figured this out yet.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 03:00 | 6131842 smacker
smacker's picture

+1. Now it becomes clear.

I can't understand why nobody spotted that before.

"Truth will out"

/s

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 02:58 | 6131837 smacker
smacker's picture

The Saudis - being the alleged protectors of 9/11 perpetrators - is not inconsistent with the view that Israel was behind or involved in 9/11, at least in the wiring of buildings for controlled demolition.

It all depends on the relationship that exists between Saudi Arabia and Israel. This is a subject that merits far closer investigation because it might reveal far closer historical ties that extend into the modern day than is generally known.

There aren't too many theories to explain how two of the most powerful and influential countries in the Middle East - one Arab and one jewish - never have a cross word between them and appear to get along just fine.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:19 | 6131673 Ms No
Ms No's picture

Correct me if I'm wrong but... doesn't the house of Saud bank with the Zionist Swiss banks? 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:47 | 6131716 onmail
onmail's picture

NaPakistan is only a safe house for American trained mercenaries who, when revealed are labelled as terrorists.

America is playing a dangerous game with the whole world.

As their book says : "One who lives with the sword..."

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 00:48 | 6131719 Magooo
Magooo's picture

Please fuck off with these stories.

 

Anyone with a fucking brain knows the Saudis wag FUCK ALL.

 

Just ask Gaddafi and Saddam what happens when you think you can wag the Pit Bull. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:03 | 6131736 TheCentralScrut...
TheCentralScrutinizer's picture

If Osama Bin Laden was a "prisoner" of the Pakistani ISI (and the guards were removed from the compound before Seal Team 6 arrived, then WHY did the family members in the compound have weapons (that they shot at those SEALs??

That's not a prison.   That's a "guesthouse", and the inhabitants were armed to defend it.

That's the biggest hole in Hersh's story..    Why would ISI permit Bin Laden to have access to weapons if he were a "prisoner"?

No.. we caught the Pakis double dealing the US on the whereabouts of OBL..   and I can also believe the Saudis had something to do with OBL being maintained as a "Guest" of the ISI.

And I can agree that the Saudis do a lot of "wagging the tail"..   They had a "Faustian" bargain with Al Qaida.  But that agreement does NOT extend to ISIS.

And as Paveway correctly states, there is a constant power struggle within the Saudi Royal family, as well as wealthy non-royals, who are vying to replace them in power over Mecca and Medina.

I'm sure Obama is permitting the Pakistanis to save some face over why OBL was in hiding there, two miles away from the Pakis military academy.  But the Machiavellian choice we have now is whether to lend support to the Taliban and Al Qaida as a force to confront it's rival ISIS.   Because ISIS is a threat to Al Qaida, the Taliban, Hamas, as well as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.   All of the latter see ISIS as an upstart faction that threatens their OWN long-laid plans for restoration of an Islamic Caliphate.

Scrutinizer 

 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 01:16 | 6131746 Dumgoy
Dumgoy's picture

Great idea except it's not the Saudis, it's these dual citizens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijJipyk1ZFw

How many Saudi citizens in the US government?  None is a good guess.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:41 | 6132032 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Stop making sense or CH1 will be around under one guise or another to press your zionist control buttons.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:09 | 6131990 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Obama Sin Laden !

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:17 | 6131995 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

One can always distinguish authors who are truly unsupportive of an elitist oligarchical global state and those who simply feign their support in order to manipulate.

Think: When did the term "elite" start appearing in the media? It was only in the last few years.

Now think of your impression of the word "elite" prior to its use to describe a slice of monied people (regardless of their merits or deficiencies). The word elite used to have positive connotations, no? The word elite used to mean the best, of whatever classification system used.

It is clear that those, who wish to rule the world as a separate and distinct monied clan, BRANDED THEMSELVES as elite to use the positive connotation of the word and trick people into ceding a higher position in the world to them.

Any author who supports this manipulation of people's perceptions and kowtow to these elitist manipulators uses the word "elite" that the monied clan has propagandized. Those who are not toadies to these elitists do not use term "elite" to designate a propagandized class of supposedly superior humans as determined by their connection to fiat. Look at how frequently they are trying to fool us, even within the alternative media.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:47 | 6132011 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

Two things to also consider.

1. Maybe some day the term "elite" will actually evolve to mean corrupt and degenerate. This evolution already seems to be slowly happening now as the corruption of those who label themselves as "elite" becomes obvious to all.

2. Maybe the term "elite" is being used to manipulate us into a civil war between those connected to fiat and those connected to something vastly more valuable (humanity).

I recall the days when people were easily taken in by "greed is good". Now that is not the case. Our culture is evolving and we do not need violence to complete that change.

... and I am not talking about communism or socialism. Communism is a trap, a false ideology used to enslave people by making them believe that they are sacrificing for their fellow man. When in truth, it is simply the way, the elitists cull their own ranks and gain greater control of people. Marx was a fraud.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:43 | 6132136 falak pema
falak pema's picture

slight divergence : Marx was very good about explaining Capitalism's zeitgeist and failings, very bad on proposing solutions.

As he was ideologically biased in wanting to reverse the class pyramid to the point of being blind to the inevitability of creating another one even more vertical and more stifling for human freedoms. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:56 | 6132052 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

"Think: When did the term "elite" start appearing in the media? It was only in the last few years."

it's possibly relevant, nevertheless, the use of the word "elites" in sociology, history and similar is some one hundred years old

 

here a small article on that: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/03/elite.html . according to the author:


"The  word, borrowed directly from the French élite, comes ultimately from the Latin verb eligere (to choose). It’s the same source that gave us “elect.”

In English, “elite” refers to the choice part of something—the most respected, skillful, or influential members of a society or class or body.

With the Latin verb eligere in mind, we might refer to the elite as the chosen."

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:38 | 6131996 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

"Levine"...right. A clasical case of bait and switch. The Saudis do have undue influence on the USA and provided financing and patsies for 9/11.  But the real controllers of America and the real organizers of 9/11 were and remain Levine's co-ethnics. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 07:46 | 6132027 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

There were no dancing Saudi's filming the event of 9/11. We did not hear of Saudi nationals being sent a pager message not to go in to work at the trade center and Larry Silverstein is not a Saudi national who double collected on the insurance blackmail and coincidently did not go to his usual breakfast at the top of the trade center that day.

Did we not hear that a significant number of the supposed perpetrators of 9/11 were actually victims of identity theft and were still alive?

I do think that the Saudi kingdom believed it would benefit from chaos in the Middle East, just as the Israelis believe the same. Clearly Cheney's new Pearl Harbor accomplished many things for many people and was a long time in the planning.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:21 | 6132099 tony wilson and...
tony wilson and saturn zion devils's picture

9/11 September 11th - Jewish Agents - Mossad in America Pt 4 of 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFvCrXAQZ1s

Israel did 9/11 - All the Proof in the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUbTe50UUgM

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:21 | 6132100 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Maybe, maybe the message is now sinking home, after the dystopia of GWB's Iraq/Afghan Crusade fallout and subsequent Lehman financial mega dump and pump panic debt print, that in the great scheme of things spawned by Dear Henry's Pax Americana hegemony; the twin pillars of which were ME OIL and US Dollar printing; under the awesome unravelling of GWB's neo-con legacy --currently under way in Syrac as elsewhere-- those who represent PETRO in that 40 year old global handshake now have the upper hand over the kings of WS's "won't ever come down" beanstalk.

Its enuff to give Uncle Scrooge the jitters and make the Rambo/Terminator breed look like Flagada Jones! 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 08:45 | 6132138 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

The Sauds don't wag the dog. They just think they do. They're as big a dupe of Wall Street as anyone. In 15 years the oil will run out, the banksters will fiddle them out of their oil wealth and turn the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into just another failed Muslim state, an overgrown Nauru dependent on the kindness of strangers.

Who knows? Maybe then the Sauds, or their replacements, won't be above taking Jooish goold to warehouse Fakestinian "refugees" and niggers who dare defile the Land of Israel by setting foot there. The invading niggers and Arab squatters can enjoy the desert sun while they wait for extinction or for a more deserving nation like Germany to take Israel's Arabs in partial payment for long-overdue reparations to the Jewish people. 

After all, Israel will be left to clean up the mess left by the banksters in the Near East after the oil runs out. Someone had better make it worth her while. 

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 10:03 | 6132298 tony wilson and...
tony wilson and saturn zion devils's picture

hey wow are you nial ferguson the rothshield economist histry guy?
you are holding a lot of anger dere fella for a irish scottish jewish fella.

i suppose one can understand not having a complete penis and all.

ohh the talmud speaks in fork tongues.
blow jobs for babies i understand why nial is angry

the mohel, must suck the infant's bleeding penis with his mouth.

MISHNAH. WE PERFORM ALL THE REQUIREMENTS OF CIRCUMCISION ON THE SABBATH. WE CIRCUMCISE, UNCOVER [THE CORONA], SUCK [THE WOUND], AND PLACE A COMPRESS AND CUMMIN UPON IT. IF ONE DID NOT CRUSH [THE CUMMIM] ON THE EVE OF THE SABBATH, HE MUST CHEW [IT] WITH HIS TEETH AND APPLY [IT TO THE WOUND]

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 09:19 | 6132203 Basilian
Basilian's picture

The Saudis are required to deposit oil profits in American markets as part of the Petrol dollar deal. To say that the "Saudis" do anything without the blessing of the USA would be ignorant.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 09:19 | 6132204 Basilian
Basilian's picture

The Saudis are required to deposit oil profits in American markets as part of the Petrol dollar deal. To say that the "Saudis" do anything without the blessing of the USA would be ignorant.

Tue, 05/26/2015 - 10:22 | 6132325 RevIdahoSpud3
RevIdahoSpud3's picture

"If Hersh is right, as he surely is,". For starters, Hersh's conjectures regarding OBL conflict with Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto 14 years prior to his book telling the world OBL was dead? Was she covering for OBL as the Saudi's were paying her or her country to keep OBL safe? Or was she stating a fact? Most likely, she was stating a fact which was a conflict to those powers who needed OBL alive to promote the continuing search and need for MIC spending. OBL was the boogey man of the moment. Sources say this is why Bhutto was assassinated, to keep her from any further statements. The lesson learned is that "anyone" who goes against the "official" narrative is walking on thin ice. Consider that even the final ending of OBL was not the final ending. The final ending came when the Seal Team 6 who were responsible for his "death" were themselves eliminated by extra ordinary circumstances. Somewhat new to ZH I appreciate the overall objectiveness of the news presented and especially some commentary that accompanies the articles. This piece seems to lean towards the propaganda that is more usual from the official MSM. If I can easily doubt a premise in the article then I can doubt other points as well. So the Saudis are over the top? Really, because they behead about 30 people a week? At this point, who in current world history is not over the top, especially Israel, The US, Britain...virtually every nation on earth? Not the people of these nations but the Oligarchs from Lord Rothschild down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MBTd5QNGB0

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