Discord in the House of Saud

[IndianaGreen]

Discord in the House of Saud
By Lawrence Smallman

Wednesday 21 January 2004, 3:28 Makka Time, 0:28 GMT

A Saudi prince who was kidnapped in Switzerland, smuggled back to the kingdom and placed under house arrest is threatening to take senior ministers to court.

Speaking exclusively to Aljazeera on Wednesday, Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abd al-Aziz described in detail how he was seized in Geneva and taken back to Saudi Arabia against his will last June.

The king's nephew is currently under house arrest in the Saudi capital but still plans to take the State Minister Prince Abd al-Aziz bin Fahd and Islamic Affairs Minister Shaikh Salih Al al-Shaikh to court.

The kidnapped prince said five masked men had stormed his office in Geneva while he was meeting with another member of the royal family, beat, bound and gagged him before loading him on to a private jet.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3775C3B4-762F-4ED1-A623-2AFF06E93BAD.htm

[Warpy]

1. Oh, my!

This is much more important than the Chimp lying his way through a SOTU speech!

One wonders which faction this particular princeling is with. I strongly suspect he's with the bin Laden supporters and might have been meeting with another in exile.

The House of Saud is huge and divided by many factions. Accession to the throne though assassination is the rule rather than the exception. As soon as the old king dies, all hell will break loose.

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. There have been rumors for some time that Fahd is actually dead, just

kept on life support while the US oilngun boizz argue about the most cost-effective way to seize the oil, or "protect their interests" or "liberate" Arabia, whichever term you prefer.

[Valjean]

2. Civil War

Civil War is unfortunate in Saudi Arabia. It will come from within the house of Saud or from the Muhabi Clerics.

If the clerics take over, guess who will be their head man??? None other than Osama Bin Ladin.

Saudi Arabia is a bed of shit. It's a choice between supporting bad people who cooperate with you and bad people who shit on you. If the shit hits the fan, they may have to invade Saudi Arabia next.

[Snow]

4. I have never understood both the size of the royal family

nor its lack of history. I am intimantely acquainted with a royal family that has a history of ruling for over 500 years, but does not nor ever did have the - what - thousands? - of people in line of succession that the Sauds apparently do.

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. google. The history of the house of Saud is very interesting

[bhairava]

6. More kingdoms than Arabia had such a structure

Arabia has a history. The house of Saud has a history. I refuse to name the myriad examples in history so I'll only mention one. There was this empire in Asia you might have heard of it, the Middle Kingdom.... You may also read of such formations in the Bible. Not so unusual at all.

[Snow]

8. Hmmm, that got some responses.....

But the Sauds as rulers of Arabia don't date back very far - 3 generations? - Or am I blatantly showing mmy ignorance? No disrespect, but I don't look to the bible for history - little too much else mixed in there. Middle Kingdom - you mean China? I'll confess to some modest familiarity. Still, hearing about someone with the title of, say, 'prince' and learning that he's like #237 in line of succession is a little odd.

I will take up the suggestion of the other poster to google the sauds and educate myself a bit, though - thanks.

[legin]

7. It's probably a good idea

to find out something about this factions stuff, because it means the u.s. and undoubtably many other countries are going to use it to stick their oar in.

And there is a lot of oil at stake.

[legin]

9. The following is not informed opinion

There was an interesting and long article posted in I/P a fair while ago.

Fahd is a vegetable and the country is being run by another close family member. This other guy lives in a tent in the desert so he probably doesn't like the opulence bit. Neither does this guy who was arrested:

"Al-Faqih claims Prince Sultan was seized in Geneva for his public criticism of royal family extravagance and dubious investments – particularly King Fahd's financial relationship with Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri."

It seems a bit odd.

And on a different topic I'm a little worried about these London based Saudi newspapers and the "leading Saudi reformist, London-based Dr Saad al-Faqih".