Our FRIENDS-Saudis Are Supplying Nearly HALF Of Foreign Fighters In Iraq (LAT)

[kpete]

Saudis' role in Iraq insurgency outlined
Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a U.S. official says.
By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer
July 15, 2007



— Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudi15jul15,0,3818698,full.story?coll=la-home-center

[bluerum]

1. What a sweet deal for OPEC and the bush crime syndicate. eom

[rainy]

2. Webb just mentioned this on MTP Tim Russert and Tim never let the point

sink in. Webb made many good points that were overlooked by the host while the big mouth Graham kept on blabbering on.

[madokie]

4. I think jimbo was ready to slap sen graham near the end of that exchange

[seemslikeadream]

3. Jeux sans frontieres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F98k3eXec4


Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane



Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again



Suki plays with Leo,





Sacha plays with Britt





Adolf builts a bonfire,



Enrico plays with it



- Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside



- Whistling tunes we're kissing baboons in the jungle



It's a knockout
If looks could kill, they probably will



In games without frontiers - war without tears



If looks could kill, they probably will



In games without frontiers - war without tears



Games without frontiers - war without tears



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching's is blue



They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu



Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games



Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names



- Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside



- Whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle



It's a knockout
If looks could kill they probably will



In games without frontiers - war without tears



If looks could kill they probably will



In games without frontiers - war without tears



Games without frontiers - war without tears



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres



Jeux sans frontieres

[riderinthestorm]

5. Wake up America! Ask the ? why is it too "sensitive" to point out this fun little factoid???

"Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity."

[Grandrose]

6. K&R

Should we be surprised? Not. Think 911!:think: :kick:

[seafan]

7. Senior military official: "Ask the State Department. This is a political juggernaut."

Clips not to be missed from this LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudi15jul15,0,3818698,full.story?coll=la-home-world">piece today.... once again, Bush coddles his relationship with the Saudis while lying to the American people and our brave soldiers.


Saudis' role in Iraq insurgency outlined

By Ned Parker
July 15, 2007

The situation has left the U.S. military in the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The problem casts a spotlight on the tangled web of alliances and enmities that underlie the political relations between Muslim nations and the U.S.

Now, a group that calls itself Al Qaeda in Iraq is the greatest short-term threat to Iraq's security, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said Wednesday.

The group, one of several Sunni Muslim insurgent groups operating in Baghdad and beyond, relies on foreigners to carry out suicide attacks because Iraqis are less likely to undertake such strikes, which the movement hopes will provoke sectarian violence, Bergner said. Despite its name, the extent of the group's links to Bin Laden's network, based along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, is unclear.

The Saudi government does not dispute that some of its youths are ending up as suicide bombers in Iraq, but says it has done everything it can to stop the bloodshed.

"Saudis are actually being misused. Someone is helping them come to Iraq. Someone is helping them inside Iraq. Someone is recruiting them to be suicide bombers. We have no idea who these people are. We aren't getting any formal information from the Iraqi government," said Gen. Mansour Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry.

Others contend that Saudi Arabia is allowing fighters sympathetic to Al Qaeda to go to Iraq so they won't create havoc at home.

Iraqi Shiite lawmaker Sami Askari, an advisor to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, accused Saudi officials of a deliberate policy to sow chaos in Baghdad.

"The fact of the matter is that Saudi Arabia has strong intelligence resources, and it would be hard to think that they are not aware of what is going on," he said.

Askari also alleged that imams at Saudi mosques call for jihad, or holy war, against Iraq's Shiites and that the government had funded groups causing unrest in Iraq's largely Shiite south. Sunni extremists regard Shiites as unbelievers.

But some Iraqi Shiite leaders say the Saudi royal family sees the Baghdad government as a proxy for its regional rival, Shiite-ruled Iran, and wants to unseat it.

U.S. officials had not shared with Iraqi officials information gleaned from Saudi detainees, but this has started to change, said an Iraqi source, who asked not to be identified. For example, U.S. officials provided information about Saudi fighters and suicide bombers to Iraqi security officials who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week.

The close relationship between the U.S. and oil-rich Saudi Arabia has become increasingly difficult.

Saudi leaders in early February undercut U.S. diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute by brokering, in Mecca, an agreement to form a Fatah-Hamas "unity" government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And King Abdullah took Americans by surprise by declaring at an Arab League gathering that the U.S. presence in Iraq was illegitimate.

U.S. officials remain sensitive about the relationship. Asked why U.S. officials in Iraq had not publicly criticized Saudi Arabia the way they had Iran or Syria, the senior military officer said, "Ask the State Department. This is a political juggernaut."

Last week when U.S. military spokesman Bergner declared Al Qaeda in Iraq the country's No. 1 threat, he released a profile of a thwarted suicide bomber, but said he had not received clearance to reveal his nationality. The bomber was a Saudi national, the senior military officer said Saturday.

[seafan]

8. When will the truth FINALLY wash over the land?

[LaurenG]

9. This makes me think things that only tin foil hatters think

I guess I may need to borrow one.

:tinfoilhat:

[Coventina]

10. Shhhhh! Don't you know that saying bad things about the Saudis

makes you an "ugly American"?

[progressoid]

11. Golly, that makes me wonder if the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi too?

:shrug:

:sarcasm: