NBC: Saudi envoy to U.S. offers resignation (Bandar Bush Resigns)

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8366298/

Prince Bandar's health problems, including depression, are blamed



BREAKING NEWS
By Robert Windrem
Investigative producer
NBC News
Updated: 3:01 p.m. ET June 26, 2005

A senior western diplomat in Riyadh has confirmed to NBC News that Prince Bandar bin Sultan has tendered his resignation to Crown Prince Abdullah in recent days. “You can feel comfortable reporting that,” said the diplomat.

Bandar, the long time Saudi ambassador to the United States and a key figure in the Saudi decision to permit U.S. bases in the Kingdom during the Gulf War, resigned, said the diplomat because of recurring health problems, depression being the most significant.

There have been persistent reports of Bandar's battle with depression over the last several years. Bandar is also reported to have had problems with over use of antidepressants.
“He has not been as engaged in Washington as he has been in the past,” the diplomat said.

He added that there has been no formal announcement of the resignation because the Crown Prince has not yet accepted it, but attempts to get Bandar to reconsider have failed.

[deadparrot]

1. Oh, Bandar...

we hardly knew thee...

[Roland99]

2. Depressed over what? * spurn him lately?

[rzemanfl]

5. It was the hand-holding thing, Bandar's feelings are hurt. n/t

[tabasco]

3. He should take a new job selling used cars.

I wouldn't buy one from him, though.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. Fahrenheit 9/11...

Larry King: Do you know the bin Ladens?

Bandar Bush: YES! They're LOVELY people!

Pretty much sums it all up.

:grr:

[funflower]

21. He's talking about Osama's 53 siblings.

[Benhurst]

6. Good Riddance. He's a war criminal. He should be sent to

the Hague.

[staticstopper]

9. Weird that he would be the first to crack.

This is a good sign.

It does not help that Big Dog has taken over the roll of strange adopted sons of bfee.

That and his Colorado buddy (and cross the street neighbor) HST kicked the bucket.

Maybe he has seen enough and wants out? But just like the Mafia -they will keep pulling him back in.

[randr]

7. Bandars comments following 9/11

Does anyone remember the insulting speech he gave admonishing Americans?
I have looked for the transcript to no avail.
Any help?

[Beelzebud]

8. Guilt over his association in the 9/11 plot is probably fueling depression

My advice to him: Eat a bullet.

[Henny Penny]

27. No, no .... ease your conscience Bandar by spilling the beans!

You will feel much better then.

[Cocoa]

10. I wonder what the real story is

obviously we can't take the official Saudi version at face value.

I'm curious about the "persistent reports" of Bandar's depression, has anyone heard about that before?

[BlueStateBlue]

11. Not me

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. News to me.

Never heard about that drug problem either? I wonder how common this problem is among the other members of Bu$hCo? Wasn't it Poppy that had half the WH looped on drugs? That depression stuff must be very contagious.

[Cocoa]

13. it could be a smear too

of course Bandar could in fact be suffering from depression, it's not a rare condition, why couldn't he be?

But consider the source. This could easily be a lie by the Saudis, for some motive that will never be known to us, since Saudi politics are so obscure.

[Disturbed]

15. Maybe he should have joined..

Tom Cruise and the Scientology Cult and had his bad ingrams deleted.

Remember that Shrub showed Bandar the War On Iraq Plans labeled, "No Foreign Eyes". This guy was in on the illegal Invasion of Iraq from the get go. Maybe the next thing is that we will read that he commited suicide.

[Spazito]

14. Call me cynical but I smell something else is causing this

resignation. Possibly something is going to break re Bandar Bush and this is the usual tactic to mitigate whatever it is. The sudden revelation re the drugs and depression smells as well. It will be interesting to watch this development, imo.

[scarletlib]

16. remember a few weeks ago the king was taken to the

hospital and rumors were flying that he was either already dead or about to die. well, that story fell off the radar screen. who has an update on that situation?

I'm no expert on saudi politics but i have heard that the family is divided into 2 branches. one is more progressive and favors a more pro western outlook--bandar was a member of that branch. the other branch is definitely anti-western, etc.

bandar resigning is not a good sign. i'm pretty sure an internal power struggle is intensifying inside the family.

[leftchick]

17. perhaps he has a conscience?

I know I could not live with myself being an errand boy for the international terrorist bush cabal.

[phoebe]

18. Very interesting.. Bandar has been in the BFEE's pocket for decades

this STINKS to high heaven. Something is definitely "up"..

He knows too much. Anyone know what the extradition procedures are with Saudi Arabia when the time is right?

How many of you remember this little exchange of April 19, 2004?

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/19/lkl.00.html

snip

WOODWARD: That maybe I got it right or that it's down the middle or that it's fair. I wanted to respond to what Prince Bandar apparently has said.

KING: Yes, let's -- let's brief...

WOODWARD: Yes. Right.

KING: ... let you get up to date on that. In the book, you said that...

WOODWARD: That on January 11, a Saturday, Cheney and Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, called Bandar in, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs -- who, by the way, has said my account is correct, publicly -- and presented the war plan. And Don Rumsfeld is on the record, if you look on the Pentagon Web site, saying that he said, This war plan, you can take it to the bank. It's going to happen."

KING: And Bandar was there.

WOODWARD: And Bandar was there. And Cheney then said, When we start, not if but when we start, Saddam is toast. The president confirmed all of this when I interviewed him four or five months ago, so I don't know why Bandar is now denying what all the others...

KING: And how about...

WOODWARD: ... and the records show.

KING: What about the oil price thing?

WOODWARD: What I say in the book is, according to Bandar, the Saudis hoped to control oil prices in the 10 months running up to the election because if they skyrocketed, it would hurt the American economy.

KING: Now, just for the record, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett tells CNN there was no secret deal, no talk of bringing down prices in time for the election. The Saudi government also denies the story, saying the allegation that the kingdom manipulates the price of oil for political purposes or to affect elections is erroneous and has no basis in fact.

WOODWARD: In the book, it's one -- I'm sorry, it's two sentences, and I don't say there is a secret deal or any collaboration on this. I say that Bandar and the Saudis hoped to put prices -- now, I understand there's something on the wire from Bloomberg saying that, in fact, the Saudis have said this, that in the period before the election, they told the president directly that they wanted to keep oil prices low in a range. So...

more

[lovuian]

19. Sleepless Nights wonder whats haunting him!!!

We all have a concious and a unconscious and its the latter we have trouble controlling!!!

[rocktivity]

20. If anyone has a right to be medically depressed

he does.

:crazy:
rocknation

[daleo]

22. It is hard to believe someone connected to the BFEE could know guilt

So something must be up. Either Bush or the Saudis (or both) want him out of the way. Some news about him, or some bad development that he could verify must be in the offing. The 144 torture photos are coming - maybe it has to do with that.

[susu369]

23. Whoa....

this is a major story. There is something cookin' and it is just about to boil over.

[pfitz59]

24. The War of Saudi succession has begun.....

King is sick (dying?). Crown Prince very old. 400+ pretenders to the throne. World's largest oil reserves. Hostile neighbors. Rebellious tribes. And we think the Iraqi civil war is bad! Hoo boy... which way will this wind blow?

[acmavm]

25. Maybe his resignation isn't totally voluntary. Maybe he's in trouble for

his little public makeout sessions with bush**. Maybe he's perceived as being too close to a country that blasted the shit out of a Middle Eastern country who didn't (and hadn't) done anything to deserve it.

Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe he's going straight and he's giving Chimpy the shaft.

[leesa]

26. Awww. Is murdering people by helping to start wars depressing??

Or are we closer to exposing his crimes?

[Octafish]

28. Mission: Accomplished

Bandar got all of Osama's family 'n' supporters safely out of town.

New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis after 9/11

By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
Sunday 27 March 2005

Washington - The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights.

Now, newly released government records show previously undisclosed flights from Las Vegas and elsewhere and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure.

The F.B.I. gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, and several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed, the documents show.

The Saudi families, in Los Angeles and Orlando, requested the F.B.I. escorts because they said they were concerned for their safety in the wake of the attacks, and the F.B.I. - which was then beginning the biggest criminal investigation in its history - arranged to have agents escort them to their local airports, the documents show.

SNIP...

"I say baloney to any inference we red-carpeted any of this entourage," an F.B.I. official said in a 2003 internal note. Another F.B.I. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said this week regarding the airport escorts that "we'd do that for anybody if they felt they were threatened - we wouldn't characterize that as special treatment."

CONTINUED...

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9920

That truthout is really something.

[librechik]

29. oops--did somebody discover he's been molesting the twins???

happens that way sometimes (lol)

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

30. BBC has a different take

If the ailing Saudi King Fahd were to die, it is expected that Crown Prince Abdullah would become king and Prince Bandar's father, Prince Sultan, the current defence minister, would become crown prince.

Prince Bandar may wish to position himself for a new role in the post-Fahd era
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4633537.stm