Saudi Princes Assail U.S. Media for Linking Kingdom to Terrorism Douglas Jehl New York Times Service Friday, December 21, 2001
RIYADH Venting fresh frustration at how Saudi Arabia is being portrayed in the West, two of the kingdom's top officials have publicly assailed what they called unfair and biased news coverage, with the defense minister blaming what he called "Zionist and Jewish" pressure.
In remarks published Thursday in Saudi newspapers, the defense minister, Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz, and his son, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who is ambassador to Washington, spoke in unusually harsh terms in denouncing stories and editorials that have suggested that the kingdom has been complicit in terrorism.
Prince Bandar was quoted as sharply dismissing many of those reports, such as those that have portrayed Saudi Arabia as teaching hatred of non-Muslims in its schools and paying protection money to supporters of Osama bin Laden, a Saudi dissident. "The truth of the matter is, we think he's evil, bin Laden," Prince Bandar was quoted as saying late Tuesday in an interview broadcast on CNBC, the American cable network.
"We think people who follow him are evil. We have pain for what happened in America. We are condemning what happened. You guys are refusing to accept us."
The involvement of 15 Saudi hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks has focused much critical attention on the kingdom, and senior Saudi officials have complained repeatedly that many of the accounts were inaccurate. In a lengthy press release last week, the Saudi Embassy in Washington attempted a rebuttal, noting for example that President George W. Bush had declared as early as Sept. 24 that "the Saudi Arabians have been nothing but cooperative."
In trying to smooth over any disagreements, officials from both countries have found it convenient to blame the press, but in Saudi Arabia that blame has been particularly pointed at what most Saudis interpret to be a Jewish lobby that controls the American media. Some concerns are usually voiced in private, but Prince Sultan's comments can be seen as a faithful reflection of a much broader swath of Saudi sentiment.
"The media blitz against the kingdom is not in the interest of the United States," Prince Sultan was quoted as saying. "U.S.-Saudi ties are based on huge mutual interests."
Prince Sultan is the third-ranking official in the Saudi hierarchy, and his remarks seemed particularly significant because he is generally thought to be among the Saudi leaders with the closest ties to the United States. He blamed what he called "the campaign by some American and Western newspapers" for the kingdom's support for the Palestinians, as voiced in an unusually sharp message that Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz, the kingdom's day-to-day leader, sent to Mr. Bush in August over American support for Israel.
"You leave us no alternative except to pursue policies based on our national interest, regardless of their impact on you," Prince Bandar told Condoleeza Rice, the national security adviser, in delivering the message, according to an official familiar with the events.
In the comments reported Thursday, Prince Sultan was said to have described as "rational" Mr. Bush's initial reply to that warning, dispatched in a letter to Prince Abdullah. But the defense minister suggested that more recent moves by the Bush administration to back the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon had been influenced by Zionist pressure.
"International Zionism will never become our friend in any way, unless we become our own enemy," Prince Sultan was quoted as saying.
At the same time, however, Prince Sultan was quoted as saying that he regarded as genuine the videotape released by the Pentagon last week that showed Mr. bin Laden and a Saudi visitor discussing the Sept. 11 attack. A senior Saudi official has since identified the visitor as Khaled Hamdi, a disabled 38-year-old veteran of conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya who left Saudi Arabia 10 days after the attack.
"Some people had doubts - that the videotape was fake and fabricated by the United States," Prince Sultan was quoted as saying. "This is untrue. The videotape is genuine."
Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, complained that American news coverage emphasizing Mr. bin Laden's Saudi roots often neglected to note that he was treated harshly for his activities by the Saudi government, which revoked his citizenship in 1994. "You have to forgive me. The American media is either lazy or ignorant. This man - his family froze his assets, they disowned him, the government stripped him of his nationality."