Videos of Al Arabiya interview of Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz at the link.
| Prince Bandar bin Sultan | Prince Bandar bin Sultan | Saudi Princes | Home Front | 20050802 |
| Arabia |
| Saudis To Palestinians: Stop Being Losers And Cut A Deal |
| 2020-10-07 |
| [HOTAIR] Videos of Al Arabiya interview of Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz at the link. |
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| Terror Networks |
| ‘The snake’s head’ and the Khobar bombing |
| 2018-08-14 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The revolutionary Khomeinist movement succeeded in reviving many fundamentalist movements. After Khomeini's arrival in Tehran, Bin Laden described Khomeini as "great", wishing to achieve a similar dream in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... Starting in the 1980s, Bin Laden gained knowledge from the experiences of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and Imad Mughniyah who later become an ally for assisting in bombings, including the Khobar operation in 1996. The cooperation between Iran, its branches, affiliates and al-Qaeda is familiar to Americans. When Saudi Arabia insisted on conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the bombing, a long story unfolded, as recounted by Prince Bandar bin Sultan. He bitterly narrated the suspicious deal between the Clinton team and Iran to tamper with the investigation and kill it after leads showed Iran's explicit involvement in supporting the perpetrators of the bombings in question. |
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| Arabia | |
| Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan visits Royal Court media, research center | |
| 2018-02-28 | |
 [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi advisor Saud al-Qahtani welcomed the visit of Prince Bandar bin Sultan to the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Royal Court in Riyadh.The visit lasted 12 hours, during which a number of briefings were presented and Prince Bandar bin Sultan gave a four-hour historical lecture on politics and security. "I and my colleagues were honored by the presence of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a political legend, at the Center for Studies and Media Affairs " al-Qahtani wrote on Twitter. "Prince Bandar bin Sultan honored us with the following words of encouragement in the Register of Senior Visitors, which is an honor on all of our publications at the Royal Court center," he added. Prince Bandar bin Sultan is a former ambassador of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to Washington. His daughter is Princess Reema bint Bandar, currently President of the Saudi Federation for Community Sports while his son Prince Khalid bin Bandar is the current Saudi ambassador to Germany.
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE ZIONIST CONSPIRACY AGAINST OBAMA SPEAKS OUT |
| 2015-08-10 |
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States between 1981 and 2005, has written a damning column in which he compares the Iran nuclear deal to the failed nuclear deal with North Korea -- and concludes it will have even worse consequences. Writing for the London-based Arabic news Web site Elaph, Badar suggests that President Obama is knowingly making a bad deal, while President Bill Clinton had made a deal with North Korea with the best intentions and the best information he had. The new deal will "wreak havoc" in the Middle East, which is already destabilized due to Iranian actions, Bandar writes. |
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| Arabia |
| Saudi Prince Not Pleased with Champ's Agreement |
| 2015-07-16 |
| Unexpectedly. Will Champ lecture him like he does the MSM? Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former ambassador to Washington, has said in an opinion piece for Elaph newspaper that the United States moved forward with the Iran nuclear deal despite predictions of the situation developing into a North Korean-style scenario. In a column published by the London-based Arabic news website Elaph, the former chief of intelligence said the nuclear deal "will wreak havoc in the Middle East," a region already plagued by major conflicts. President Clinton's decision was based on strategic foreign policy analysts, top secret national intelligence, and the desire "to save the people of North Korea from starvation," wrote Prince Bandar, in reference to the 1994 "Agreed Framework" between North Korea and the United States that aimed to freeze the country's nuclear power program. The agreement finally broke down in 2003 when North Korea announced its withdrawal from the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and later declared it had manufactured nuclear weapons. The country now has as many as 20 nuclear warheads, according to Chinese intelligence. President Clinton "would not have made that decision" had he known it was based on "a major intelligence failure" and "wrong foreign policy analysis," wrote Prince Bandar, nephew of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz. One would hope you are correct, Prince, but when you're building your legacy or trying to get your roommate elected President, sometimes you do weird things. But "President Obama made his decision to go ahead with the Iran nuclear deal fully aware that the strategic foreign policy analysis, the national intelligence information, and America's allies in the region's intelligence all predict not only the same outcome of the North Korean nuclear deal but worse - with the billions of dollars that Iran will have access to," Prince Bandar stated. So how long will it take for Champ's deal to unravel? |
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| Iraq |
| How Saudi Arabia helped ISIS take over the north of the country |
| 2014-07-14 |
| [Independent] A speech by an ex-MI6 boss hints at a plan going back over a decade. How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shia'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them." The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit. In Mosul, Shia shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shia Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by Isis fighters as "spoils of war". Simply to be identified as Shia or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940. There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa'ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar's words, saying that they constituted "a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed". He does not doubt that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to which the authorities may have turned a blind eye, has played a central role in the Isis surge into Sunni areas of Iraq. He said: "Such things simply do not happen spontaneously." This sounds realistic since the tribal and communal leadership in Sunni majority provinces is much beholden to Saudi and Gulf paymasters, and would be unlikely to cooperate with Isis without their consent. As for Saudi Arabia, it may come to regret its support for the Sunni revolts in Syria and Iraq as jihadi social media begins to speak of the House of Saud as its next target. It is the unnamed head of Saudi General Intelligence quoted by Dearlove after 9/11 who is turning out to have analysed the potential threat to Saudi Arabia correctly and not Prince Bandar, which may explain why the latter was sacked earlier this year. Nor is this the only point on which Prince Bandar was dangerously mistaken. The rise of Isis is bad news for the Shia of Iraq but it is worse news for the Sunni whose leadership has been ceded to a pathologically bloodthirsty and intolerant movement, a sort of Islamic Khmer Rouge, which has no aim but war without end. The Sunni caliphate rules a large, impoverished and isolated area from which people are fleeing. Several million Sunni in and around Baghdad are vulnerable to attack and 255 Sunni prisoners have already been massacred. In the long term, Isis cannot win, but its mix of fanaticism and good organisation makes it difficult to dislodge. "God help the Shia," said Prince Bandar, but, partly thanks to him, the shattered Sunni communities of Iraq and Syria may need divine help even more than the Shia. |
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| Arabia | |
| Saudi Arabia's Family Feud | |
| 2014-07-09 | |
The usual somnolence of Ramadan in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is being broken this year by intense politicking within the royal family. Official Saudi work hours for the holy month are limited to just six hours a day, but key princes in the House of Saud are working long and late. Just after midnight local time on July 1, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced a "royal order" making Prince Bandar bin Sultan -- formerly the long-serving ambassador to Washington and later the intelligence chief -- King Abdullah's special envoy. Four minutes later, another SPA story announced that Bandar's cousin, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, had been made head of the Saudi intelligence agency. The two appointments have both domestic and international significance. The Islamic State's invasion of Iraq leaves Saudi Arabia's borders exposed to the chaos of what is left of the "Arab Spring." Bandar bin Sultan, who was replaced as intelligence chief in April after spending several years spearheading Saudi attempts to depose Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Light of the Alawites... , is now needed to make sure that the jihadists' successes in Iraq threaten Prime Minister  Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... without threatening the kingdom. At home, Khalid bin Bandar's elevation to the top position in the country's intelligence community came after he became the victim of a surprisingly public feud within the royal family that saw him pushed out as deputy defense minister a mere six weeks after his appointment. The turnover at the Saudi Defense Ministry will probably have prompted at least one foreign embassy in Riyadh reporting home to recall Oscar Wilde's line from the play The Importance of Being Earnest: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." Bandar's exit from the apparently dysfunctional ministry made him the fourth deputy defense minister to lose his job within the space of 15 months. Like his predecessors, he seems to have fallen afoul of a junior cousin, Muhammad bin Salman, a 30-something son of Crown Prince Salman, the defense minister and heir apparent. The elder Salman, who turns 78 this year, has been widely reported to be suffering from dementia -- the accounts run the gamut from memory issues to Alzheimer's -- making him personally incapable of running the Defense Ministry. Muhammad bin Salman has come out of nowhere, relatively speaking. While the major royal players below the level of King Abdullah and the other sons of the late Abdul Aziz, also known as Ibn Saud, are in their 50s and 60s, Muhammad's great -- and perhaps only -- strength is that he is liked and trusted by his father. Starting as a mere advisor, he was made head of the crown prince's court last year and he was further boosted this year to minister of state, which gives him a seat at the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers. He is the eldest son of Prince Salman's third wife, and his older half-kin include tourism chief and one-time astronaut Prince Sultan bin Salman and Deputy Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, though, significantly, neither is seen very often at their father's side. Although not officially part of the Defense Ministry, Muhammad uses his role as gatekeeper to his father to control decision-making on the kingdom's army, air force, and navy, and thwart what is now a long list of ex-deputy defense ministers. | |
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| Arabia |
| Saudi Arabia names new intelligence chief |
| 2014-07-02 |
| King Abdullah named Prince Khalid bin Bandar to the post of chief of general intelligence in a decree on Monday. The Custodian of Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, has tapped the former deputy defence minister to lead the kingdom's intelligence services and revitalised the political career of a former spy chief and longtime ambassador to the United States by naming him to a new senior advisory post. King Abdullah named Prince Khalid bin Bandar to the post of chief of general intelligence in a decree on Monday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. Khalid was relieved of his post as deputy defence minister on Saturday, barely six weeks after he was appointed. Khalid was previously the governor of the Riyadh region, an important post he assumed in February 2013 that involves overseeing the capital and provides opportunities for direct contact with top officials and visiting dignitaries. He is the son of Prince Bandar, one of the eldest surviving sons of King Abdulaziz, the founder of the kingdom. The monarch also named the former intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, as adviser and special envoy to the king. Bandar was ambassador to the US for 22 years before becoming director-general of Saudi Intelligence Agency in July 2012. His brief in the latter role included oversight of Saudi policy in the Levant, including toward Syrian rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad. He was relieved of his post at the helm of the intelligence agency in April. |
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| Africa North | |
| Saudi king arrives in Cairo | |
| 2014-06-21 | |
| The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, arrived in Cairo late on Friday, state television reported, for a symbolic visit underlining the strong support the ageing monarch is showing for new President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Abdullah landed in Cairo on his way home from Morocco, and is the first foreign leader to visit Sisi since he took office less than two weeks ago. It is the 90-year-old king’s first visit to Cairo since the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat President Hosni Mubarak, a key ally of Saudi Arabia and the United States.
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| Arabia |
| Saudi Replaces Veteran Intelligence Chief Bandar bin Sultan |
| 2014-04-17 |
| [AnNahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has replaced intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom's pointman on the Syrian conflict, "at his own request," official news agency SPA announced Tuesday. In a royal decree, the powerful official was "exempted... from his position at his own request" and replaced by his deputy, Youssef al-Idrissi. Bandar, a former ambassador to the United States, is widely regarded as among the most influential powerbrokers in the Middle East. But the veteran intelligence supremo went abroad for several months for health reasons, with diplomats saying he had been sidelined in Saudi efforts to support rebels fighting Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Leveler of Latakia... 's regime. They said the file has been transferred to the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who cracked down on al-Qaeda following a wave of deadly attacks in the Gulf state between 2003 and 2006. Bandar's management of the Syria file had triggered American criticism, diplomats said. The prince himself reproached Washington for its decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, and for preventing its allies from providing rebels with much-needed weapons, according to diplomats. Media run by the Syrian regime and its allies in Leb have repeatedly lashed out at Bandar, accusing him of supporting Sunni Islamist bully boyz in Syria. |
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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Saudi 'Seeking Pakistan Arms for Syrian Rebels' |
| 2014-02-24 |
| [An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is in talks with Pakistain to provide anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets to Syrian rebels to try to tip the balance in the war to overthrow  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... , a Saudi source said Sunday. The United States has long opposed arming the rebels with such weapons, fearing they might end up in the hands of myrmidons, but Syrian opposition figures say the failure of Geneva peace talks seems to have led Washington to soften its opposition. Pakistain makes its own version of Chinese shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, known as Anza, and anti-tank rockets -- both of which Riyadh is trying to get for the rebels, said the source, who is close to Saudi decision-makers, requesting anonymity. The source pointed to a visit to Riyadh earlier this month by The Mighty Pak Army chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, who met Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz. Prince Salman himself last week led a large delegation to Pakistain, shortly after Saudi's chief diplomat Prince Saud al-Faisal visited the kingdom's key ally. Jordan will be providing facilities to store the weapons before they are delivered to rebels within Syria, the same source said. AFP could not obtain confirmation from officials in Saudi, Pakistain or Jordan. The head of the Syrian opposition, Ahmad Jarba, promised during a flying visit to northern Syria last week that "powerful arms will be arriving soon." "The United States could allow their allies provide the rebels with anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons following the failure of Geneva talks and the renewed tension with Russia," said the head of the Gulf Research Centre, Abdel Aziz al-Sager. Providing those weapons to the rebels "relieves pressure on the U.S. in the short-term," said Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "But the long-term political worry is that Manpads (Man-portable air-defense systems) will leak and be used to bring down a civilian airliner somewhere in the world." Rebels have long said that anti-aircraft rockets would help them defend themselves against Syrian warplanes, which regularly bomb rebel-held areas with barrels loaded with TNT and other ordinance. The nearly-three-year conflict in Syria has torn the country apart, killing more than 140,000 people, including some 50,000 civilians, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Saudi Arabia has a strong influence on Syria's southern front, where it coordinates with Jordan, and has helped unite the rebel fighters in the area, according to Syrian opposition sources. On the other hand, Qatar and Turkey are responsible for coordinating with the rebels on the northern front, said an official of the Syrian opposition, requesting anonymity. Saudi Arabia has come to eclipse Qatar as the main supporter of the Syrian rebels, a development illustrated by the election last July of Ahmad Jarba, who has strong Saudi links, to lead the Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella opposition group. The trend appeared to continue with the dismissal last week of General Selim Idriss, the top commander of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , who was considered close to Qatar, according to an opposition source. The main criticism of Idriss was "bad distribution of weapons" and "errors in battle," said another opposition source. Idriss, who has refused his dismissal, has been replaced by Brigadier General Abdel Ilah al-Bashir, the leader of the rebel military council for the region of Quneitra in southern Syria. On its internal front, Saudi Arabia has sidelined intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who had been leading Riyadh's efforts concerning Syria, according to a Western diplomat. Diplomats have said that the file has been passed to the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, known for his successful crackdown on Al-Qaeda following a wave of deadly attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006. Bandar's management had triggered American criticism, diplomats said. The Saudi royal himself has reproached Washington for its decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, and for preventing its allies from providing rebels with much-needed weapons, diplomats added. |
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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |
| Understanding The Olympic Terror Threat | |
| 2014-01-26 | |
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republiccurrently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... , and the Caucasus in Russia's backyard, according to FARS News Agency. You might recall Bandar bin Sultan as the infamous "Bandar Bush" in earlier times, but that's another column. Last August, Bandar was in Moscow to specifically discuss the Syrian issue. At that time, Bandar tried to bribe Putin into changing his policy on Syria by promising him "a safe and secure winter Olympics in Sochi" if he would stop the material support of Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Light of the Alawites... . He offered Russia other incentives in exchange for withdrawing his support for Assad, "including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for the Syrian government," as noted by the FARS News Agency. The future of Syria, in the eyes of Putin, is not negotiable. I have written many times that Syria is Putin's red line in the sand and that Syria, not Iran, will be the tripwire for World War III. Yet, the U.S., Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Israel and others are hell-bent on toppling Assad by all available means, which leads back to the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi. The Saudis fund and support the various terrorist groups in Syria and elsewhere. Bandar is personally in charge of all matters related to Syria and the initiatives to oust Assad in favor of a Moslem Brüderbund leadership. He also openly states that he can control terrorist actions in Sochi, meaning that he can either give them an operational green or a red light. His reach is also said to include the Chechen terrorists, which should cause a number of pundits on both sides of the theoretical political divide to rethink what we were told about the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the Saudi national, visited by Mrs. Obama, who quietly disappeared into the night. That, however, is reserved for another column. From Benghazi to Sochi, perhaps via Boston, it's all about a larger global realignment of power where the Moslem Brüderbund is installed in countries across the Middle East to destabilize the region. Whether it's Sochi, Benghazi or even Boston, the lie is bigger, the stakes are higher, the agenda is much deeper than most can imagine. Terrorism is a nation-state proxy war by other means. | |
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