For the longest time, Saudi Arabia has been accused of state-sponsored terrorism especially in funding groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. For example, I can’t believe it is a coincidence that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Technically they may be our allies, but their actions have lead to the deaths of Americans in the past and more. Why did we invade Afghanistan and Iraq, but not Saudi Arabia, when that country seems to be more responsible for 9/11 than at least Iraq?
Edit: I also realize Bush and the Saudis were very close, which is obviously a big factor, but he’s not president anymore.
The fact that 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals doesn’t mean that the Saudi government or the Saudi state were sponsors of Al Qaeda. In fact AQ bitterly opposes the Saudi state and government, and the feeling is mutual.
It’s fair to say that attitudes adopted over time by the Saudi government , and policies it has pursued, have played a role in fostering a climate in which terrorism has flourished. But any US citizen can find a government A Bit Closer To Home of whom that could be said with equally justification.
They’re our buddies. Gotta keep the petrodollar going.
Plus, Saudi Arabia contains some of the holiest sites in Islam, like Mecca and Medina. You think Muslims are pissed at us now? Invading Saudi Arabia would stir up a hornet’s nest of Biblical proportions. One of Osama bin Laden’s stated reasons for 9/11 was our troop presence there after the Gulf War. Opinion polls of the region were very much against non-Muslim troops being there indefinitely (we left in 2003).
They sell us lots of oil. And the government of Saudi Arabia is officially against terrorist acts. The government of SA does not do enough to stop private SA funding of terrorism. After 9/11 a few rich and powerful Saudis met with accidental deaths, but what would really have helped would have been prosecutions.
What “state-sponsored terrorism” against the US has the Saudi government been responsible for.
Bin Laden and Al Qaeda hate them as much as they hate the Americans and the Jews.
Now, if you’re talking about “charities” to support blowing up some pizzerias in Israel or turn some Israeli schoolchildren into kosher hamburger that’s certainly reprehensible but not “terrorist” attacks against the US and frankly since Hamas stopped engaging in martyrdom operations I’m not sure if that really an issue any more.
The Saudi government was not behind al Qaeda. Officially, the government was opposed to al Qaeda. And al Qaeda was officially opposed to the Saudi government.
Unofficially, however, deals were made. Both sides remained official enemies while not taking any serious action against the other.
Well, except for the Riyadh Compound bombings, and the Muhaya bombings, and the time they blew up that police station, and the Yanbu attack, and the al-Khobar massacre, and when the Saudi army assassinated al-Qaeda leaders Khalid al-Haj and Abu Hazm, and the attack on the American consulate in Jeddah, and the suicide bombing at the Interior Ministry, and the Saudi crackdown on al-Qaeda of 2005, and…
Keep in mind here that the Saudi royal family is gigantic and includes thousands and thousands of members. I doubt that anyone in a leadership position in that government would support terrorism because, as noted, Al Qaeda hates the Sauds for allowing American troops into the country during the first Gulf War. The people in charge are at least somewhat pragmatic. But that still leaves a lot of room for other disaffected, well-connected rich people to funnel money to Al Qaeda because they don’t like what the people in charge are doing. To put it mildly this sounds like a complicated situation.
Saudi Arabia is indisputably a major source of terrorist funding. Just like the USA was for some time regarding the IRA. But in neither case was the government involved beyond not really breaking a rib to stop it for a long time.
But – but – situations in the MENA are never complicated!