# Why hasn't Saudi Arabia faced consequences for their role in terrorism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585 "2014-08-15T05:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/21 "2014-08-15T14:09:44Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 But – but – situations in the MENA are **never** complicated! John McCain - is that you?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/22 "2014-08-15T14:16:18Z")
It sort of complicates things when backers of extremist Muslim organizations turn out to be half-brothers, sons, or cousins of the King. And there’s jealousy involved too, i.e. “Why does my half-brother get to be Crown Prince? Why not me?” ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/23 "2014-08-15T14:47:12Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > It sort of complicates things when backers of extremist Muslim organizations turn out to be half-brothers, sons, or cousins of the King. And there’s jealousy involved too, i.e. “Why does my half-brother get to be Crown Prince? Why not me?” Yes. Saudi isn’t so much a State as The Ewings writ very large. But ostensibly the government has been cracking down on funding. But dark rumours about what their intelligence services get up to regarding Sunni terrorist groups abound. But when it comes down to it we’ve all been inadvertently arming ISIS. Either via the Iraqi Army or via the Syrian rebels. Read one ISIS commander quote the other day - to paraphrase. ‘We like it when the USA gives sophisticated weapons to other groups. We either get them by intimidation or bribery.’ Plus he might have added, through supposedly moderate groups joining them. We’re just so clueless sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![EndlessEntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f9ae1b/32.png) [@EndlessEntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EndlessEntropy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/24 "2014-08-15T14:51:02Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > 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. Hm, so then it’s possible that there is just a power struggle in Saudi Arabia between the wahhabists and state. Also there are those 28 pages of the 9/11 report that still haven’t been released. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/25 "2014-08-15T14:56:48Z")
I’m wondering what consequences the OP thinks Saudi Arabia should be facing? Would it be the same ones the US faced for giving weapons to terrorists in Afghanistan, funding rebels in Nicaragua, overthrowing the Iranian government etc.? ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/26 "2014-08-15T15:04:21Z")
> [@EndlessEntropy](#): > > Hm, so then it’s possible that there is just a power struggle in Saudi Arabia between the wahhabists and state. > > Also there are those 28 pages of the 9/11 report that still haven’t been released. [The Missing Pages](http://www.ibtimes.com/911-link-saudi-arabia-topic-28-redacted-pages-government-report-congressmen-push-release-1501202) > [@](#): > > But earlier this year, Reps. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., were given access to the 28 redacted pages of the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry (JICI) of 9/11 issued in late 2002, which have been thought to hold some answers about the Saudi connection to the attack. > > “I was absolutely shocked by what I read,” Jones told International Business Times. “What was so surprising was that those whom we thought we could trust really disappointed me. I cannot go into it any more than that. I had to sign an oath that what I read had to remain confidential. But the information I read disappointed me greatly.” > [@](#): > > “It does not deal with national security per se; it is more about relationships,” he said. “The information is critical to our foreign policy moving forward and should thus be available to the American people. If the 9/11 hijackers had outside help – particularly from one or more foreign governments – the press and the public have a right to know what our government has or has not done to bring justice to the perpetrators." ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585/27 "2014-08-15T16:09:05Z")
Saudi Arabia is not just a large oil producer. They are also essentially the entire spare production capacity in the world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hasnt-saudi-arabia-faced-consequences-for-their-role-in-terrorism/695585.md?page=1)