Know thy King

Sourav Banerjee

Following the demise of King Abdullah hardly a month

ago, one of his younger brothers, Salman bin Abdulaziz
Al Saud sworn in as the new King of the world's top oil
exporter Saudi Arabia, who by default is also the
custodian of the two holy mosques as well as the head
of the House of Saud.
The whos who at the helm of global capital and power
including US President Barack Obama, George HW
Bush, Secretary of State John Kerry, CIA director John
Brennan, former Secretaries of State James Baker and
Condoleezza Rice, Britains Prince Charles et al shot
diplomatic obituaries and also were prompt enough to
congratulate the new Master of the kingdom of liquid
gold that lubricates and runs the world.
Braving every criticism and controversy, Britain kept
the Union Flag at half-mast over the nations most
important political landmarks, including the Palace of
Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street and
Buckingham Palace, as a tribute to the deceased Saudi
King Abdullah. As a pay-back to Abdullahs staunch
support for the current Egyptian regime, its President
Abdel Fatah al-Sisi declared seven days of mourning
four days longer than the usual mourning periods.
Bahrain, Jordan and the Palestinian territories too
observed days of mourning.

India however, wasnt lagging behind in paying homage

to the Master in order to get blessed, as it had flown
Vice President Hamid Ansari down to Kings funeral in
Riyadh to convey the countrys deepest grief on the
nonagenarian Kings sad demise.
But now, after days of grief let us come back to senses,
as with the new ruler on the throne, it is an imperative
to evaluate its political implications in consultation with
history, before we pin our hope for a new era of reform
in the war-torn region as well as the world on our new
King.
Who is he?
The 79-year-old King Salman has been the defence
minister of Saudi Arabia since 2011 and also, the crown
prince since 2012. Salman was also appointed deputy
prime minister of Saudi Arabia in the same year.
What is bugging?
Ironically, contrary to the praises heaped by scores of
statesmen, King Salman has been a huge patron of
terrorism globally for decades. Evidences available are
plenty, and it is no more a secret despite a staunch
mainstream media silence. Heres why I am getting
paranoid.
Investors Business Daily (a weekly business newspaper
headquartered in California, USA) notes:

Former CIA official Bruce Riedel astutely pointed

out, Salman was the regimes lead fundraiser for
mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as for
Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan struggles of the
1990s. In Why America Slept, author Gerald Posner
claims that Salmans son Ahmed bin Salman also had
ties to al-Qaida and even prior knowledge of the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
According to a Washingtons Blog hardnosed report
published in Global Research a peer review
political journal published from Canada, Salman once
ran a Saudi charity Saudi High Commission for
Relief to Bosnia and Herzegovina owing allegiance
to al-Qaida, and has been named a defendant in two
lawsuits accusing the Saudi royal family of helping the
9/11 terrorists, one of which the US Supreme Court
recently reconsidered after years of Saudi lobby funded
media blackout.
According to a UN-sponsored investigation, Salman
between 1992 and 1995 transferred more than $120
million from commission accounts as well as his own
personal accounts to the Vienna-based Bosnian aid
organisation Third World Relief Agency (TWRA),
another al-Qaida front and main illegal weapons
supplier to al-Qaida fighters in the Balkans, before its
closure in 2011.

A 1996 CIA report mentions, We continue to have

evidence that even high ranking members of the
collecting or monitoring agencies in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and Pakistan such as the Saudi High
Commission (SHC) are involved in illicit activities,
including support for terrorists. In 1997, SHC
employee Saber Lahmar is arrested for plotting to blow
up the US embassy in Saravejo.
Former CIA officer Robert Baer has reported that an
international raid of SHCs Sarajevo offices in 2001, led
by NATO forces, unearthed a terrorist plot against
America, and seized a large cache of fundamentalist
literature including before-and-after photographs of al
Qaeda attacks, instructions on how to fake US State
Department badges, and maps of important government
buildings across Washington.
By 2001, the organization had collected around $600
million for humanitarian and religious purposes, a
major chunk of which allegedly went to facilitating
arms shipments, despite a UN arms embargo on Bosnia
and other Yugoslav successor states from 1991 to 1996.
A defector from al Qaeda while deposing before the UN
for lawyers representing the families of 9/11 victims,
alleged that both Salmans SHC and the TWRA
provided essential support to al Qaeda in Bosnia,
including to his 107-man combat unit.

In November 2002, Prince Salman patronised a

fundraising gala for three Saudi charities the
International Islamic Relief Organization, al-Haramain
Foundation, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
which were under Washingtons scanner since 9/11,
and later forced to close or sanctioned over allegations
of financing terrorism.
One of the closest allies of the new king has been Saudi
cleric Saleh al- Moghamsy, a radical anti-Semite,
Islamic supremacist who in 2012 declared Osama bin
Laden had more sanctity and honor in the eyes of
Allah, simply for being a Muslim, than Jews,
Christians, Zoroastrians, apostates, and atheists. Such
was the relationship with Moghamsy that the new Saudi
king recently served as head of the supervisory board
for a Medina research centre directed by Moghamsy. A
year after Moghamsys offensive comments, Salman
sponsored and attended a large cultural festival
organized by the preacher. Moghamsy also advises two
of Salmans sons .
According to another US based journal Washington
Free Beacon, Salman was also associated with Safar
Hawali, a one-time mentor of Osama bin Laden. Rachel
Bronson in her book, Thicker Than Oil: Americas
Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, claimed Salman
also helped recruit fighters for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an
Afghan Salafist fighter who served as a mentor to both

Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh

Mohammed.
If these are not enough; hardly flashed in the
mainstream media, the US governments Joint Task
Force Guantanamo once enlisted SHC as suspected
terrorist and terrorist support entities. The Defence
Intelligence Agency also once accused the SHC of
shipping both aid and weapons to Mohamed Farrah
Aidid, the al Qaeda-linked Somali warlord depicted as a
villain in the movie Black Hawk Down. Somalia was
subject to a United Nations arms embargo starting in
January 1992.
The board of trustees for the Prince Salman Youth
Center, which Salman himself chairs, includes a Saudi
billionaire Saleh Abdullah Kamel aka golden chain,
whose name surfaced on a purported list of al Qaedas
earliest supporters.
Whats now?
Devils are on prowl, and civilisation is in serious peril,
while West wages Global War on Terrorism a
humanitarian endeavour with a responsibility to
protect humanity and peace. But all said and done,
peace remains only in a piece of paper because the
business must go on.

Muslim countries possess more than 60 per cent of total

oil reserves, Saudi being the largest. In contrast, the US
has barely 2 per cent of total oil reserves, five times less
than Iraq, let alone other major European and Asian
countries which has to completely depend on Middle
East for oil. (See Michel Chossudovsky, The
Demonization of Muslims and the Battle for Oil, Global
Research, January 4, 2007).
So, King is indispensable. Whoever needs oil must
submit before him. In a capitalist economy poor have
no choice while the King reigns.
It is high time we being a responsible human being
should collectively refuse to accept all the unholy
alliances and challenge the war criminals and the
powerful corporate lobby groups which encourages
indiscriminate killing of men, women and children in
order to retain vast natural resources, naturally meant
for all of us. The big hypocrisy must be exposed before
it destroys the commitment of people towards their
fellow human beings.