Pure Stupidity? Something Else?

[Max Sawicky]

Pure guesswork, given my especial non-expertise on
this question, but I imagine OBL simps inside of S.A.
in the useful idiot category, hedging their bets and not
actively conspiring against the S.A. regime.  The regime
hedging as well, not wanting to alienate basically harmless,
well-connected types by jumping all over them.  I suppose they
are on the lookout for true conspirators inside the country, insofar
as they are not internally compromised by such types.

Another argument -- the Saudi elite are all mostly related
to each other, right?  You don't take after errant family
members with the same viciousness you would someone else.

This is a long-standing situation, and I think if there
was more of this internal policing we would have
heard more about it.  I also note the spate of
non-official complaints about this from elite U.S. media
sources, such as Friedman in the NYT.  Hence my
suspicion that the Saudi policy on support for the U.S.
is to provide as little as they can get away with.

mbs


>There is no lack of evidence that
>individual Saudi's are part of the OBL/al qaida network, and we
>could reasonably guess that the Saudi state is not turning its own
>country upside-down in a hunt for OBL cronies...  mbs

I believe that it is--the overthrow of the Saudi government is, after 
all, one of the principal aims of Al-Qaeda, isn't it?
Brad DeLong