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LONDON - Britain's head of overseas intelligence warned that Saudi Arabia likely would stop sharing vital information on terrorism if prosecutors pursued an investigation into alleged corruption in an arms deal, lawmakers disclosed Tuesday.
Ministers were told the inquiry into the BAE Systems PLC arms deal with Saudi Arabia could lead to a withdrawal of Saudi assistance on counterterrorism, according to the annual report of the Intelligence and Security committee. The committee scrutinizes the work of Britain's intelligence and security agencies….
"All relevant agencies were clear about the crucial importance of U.K.-Saudi co-operation in the fight against terrorism and the damage to U.K. interests -- and, potentially, U.K. lives -- if that co-operation were withdrawn," Goldsmith said….
The head of MI6, John Scarlett, told the committee that antagonizing Saudi Arabia risked losing vital intelligence.
"There were threats made to the existence of the co-operation (and) there was reason to take those threats seriously," he said. "Saudi Arabia is an absolutely key country ... they have turned themselves into a very important and powerful player in the world counterterrorism campaign."… -- from this news article
What "assistance on counterterrorism"? Every mosque, every madrasah, every Wahhabi preacher who replaces an Ahmadi one in the mosques of West Africa, or even in Europe (the Ahmadis, being milder, are good at converting people to Islam, but they are not good at keeping the Wahhabis from then taking over those mosques, and those converts, and turning them into the full-fledged, dangerous thing) that has been supported by the nearly $100 billion the Saudis have been allowed to spend in the Lands of the Infidels on spreading Islam also, of course, increases the number, and power, of Muslims.
And inevitably, many of those Muslims will wish to participate, directly or indirectly, in Jihad. The instrument of that Jihad need not necessarily be qitaal, or combat. Jihad can be pursued by other means than combat, or for that matter "terrorism" (what we have no trouble calling "terrorism" -- deliberate attacks on civilians to spread terror -- Muslims consider to be just another form of qitaal). Saudi Arabia does not offer assistance "in counterterrorism." It makes more likely, more possible, terror against Infidels, everywhere it spreads its unmerited money.
Perhaps MI6 operative has members so naive, or so malignant (like that Alistair Crooke fellow, the supporter and promoter of Hamas, who by now is quite possibly doing well as a "consultant" on the Middle East, and I'll leave it to you to guess who is paying his salary, and thereby earning his affection which, come to think of it, was already being offered to Hamas and similar groups even before his career as a "consultant" began) that they think the Saudis are "de-programming" terrorists successfully, and can help the Western world do the same.
Don't be ridiculous. All the Saudis do in their "de-programming" is bring in Al-Saud-financed clerics who tell the prisoners that the Al-Saud are loyal Muslims, that they are helping to spread Islam, that they are true to Islam, and any temporary assistance they get from the Americans or other Infidels is merely a case of using those Infidels for Muslim purposes, not of actually offering them real alliances or friendship.
And what the clerics say is, of course, true: the rulers of Saudi Arabia may be corrupt and many of them decadent beyond belief, but they are attempting (possibly even in a spirit of making up for that decadence) to spread Islam, to make Islam dominant. That kind of deprogramming has nothing that can be of assistance to real Infidels, who cannot possibly point to any Islamic texts that might lessen the hostility felt by captured Muslim terrorists for Infidels, always and everywhere.
Or perhaps the whole thing is merely blague, and MI6 is being blamed for what was a commercial decision. We want to make sales of planes and arms to Saudi Arabia, says BAE, and that's more important than that silly principle -- my god, get with the program -- that no one (including Saudi officials) should be above the law. In Great Britain, all kinds of members of the Al-Saud are seen to be above the law, this year, last year, five years ago, and five years hence: Above the Law.
Posted on 01/31/2008 1:02 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald