"No Blood For Oil"

In the Ace of Spades blog, CBD writes,

...we have the intelligence-gathering capability that can assist our allies against the Iranian regime. And we have the logistical capacity to move huge quantities of whatever may be needed; whether that is resupply of armaments or oilfield and refinery equipment remains to be seen. And we have air power and anti-missile technology that Iran would find difficult, if not impossible to counter.

Notice what is missing? Troops! Aside from naval support and airpower, we should not...must not...put boots on the ground in the Middle East. "No Blood For Oil" may sound like a leftist screech, but in this case, it is 100% correct.

Read more here.

Bigger than Pearl Harbor?

In PJ Media, Roger L. Simon explains why he believes President Trump

Must Punish the Mullahs Severely for Attack on Saudi Oil Fields.

The raid on the Saudi oil fields was at least as big as Pearl Harbor, possibly bigger, if you think about it, especially in terms of the amount of physical damage done. Whether this was accomplished directly by Iran or by one of its proxies or whether drone or cruise missiles or both were involved are distinctions without a difference. It happened and the repercussions, financial and otherwise, are already being felt.

...At this point too, it would be unwise, in fact, counter-indicated, for Trump to talk to Iran's leadership. Our president--at the behest of the French president, who looks like a fool at the moment-- was rumored to be meeting with Rouhani at the U. N., even though the Iranian president is nothing but a figurehead. (An American president should be meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei, the country's Supreme Leader, and dictator.) Furthermore, this isn't like talking with Kim Jung-un, who fired some missiles into the ocean for show. The weapons here were fired directly at the world's largest oil refinery with disastrous results. What the mullahs--a regime of religious psychopaths--will do next is anybody's guess, but stopping their behavior without making them pay in the strongest way seems impossible now.

This absolutely should not mean putting American boots on the ground under any circumstances. It should be an air obliteration of anything associated with the mullahs and their Revolutionary Guard, including oil fields, ports, factories, military installations, and nuclear sites. Keep doing it until they scream. Leave the results for the Iranian people to sort out when we're done.

Read more here.

It's a start!

Saudi Arabia King Salman has issued a decree allowing women to drive cars. Read more here.

Feminists going to protest in Saudi Arabia

hat tip 90 Miles from Tyranny

Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel against Iran?

Bookworm reports,

There’s land if the Palestinians want it. Did you know that President al-Sisi in Egypt has offered the Palestinians a state that would include Gaza plus 618 adjacent square miles in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula? This offer reflects the fact that the Egyptians, like the Jordanians, Saudis, and every other Sunni Arab state around can’t stand the Palestinians.

With Iran looming on the Iranian, the Sunni nations are becoming more aware that Israel is their bulwark against Iran. If they can get rid of the Palestinian issue — and get the troublesome Palestinians out of their countries — they can unite to face off against Iran. You can read more here.

Obama protects America's enemies, as did Bush.

Paul Sperry wrote in the New York Post,

Paul Sperry writes in the New York Post:
Now we know why the missing 28 pages on 9/11 were kept under lock and key for 15 years: They show the hijackers got help across America from Saudi diplomats and spies in the run-up to the attacks. Because of the coverup, a Saudi terror support network may still be in place inside the United States.

A CIA memorandum dated July 2, 2002, stated unequivocally that the connections found between the hijackers, the Saudi embassy in Washington and Saudi consulate in Los Angeles are “incontrovertible evidence that there is support for these terrorists within the Saudi government.”

“Numerous” FBI files also fingered two Saudi government employees who assisted the 9/11 hijackers as “Saudi intelligence officers,” the newly declassified documents reveal.

Though much is still redacted, they also show the Saudi government’s ties to the hijackers and other al Qaeda suspects were so extensive that the FBI’s Washington field office created a special squad to investigate the Saudi angle.

But this special focus on Saudi Arabia occurred belatedly, only after the 9/11 attacks, “due to Saudi Arabia’s status as an American ‘ally.’ ” Astoundingly, investigative resources were not dedicated to Saudi involvement in financing and supporting terrorism prior to 9/11.

The explosive information was locked up in a top-secret, highly secured room in the basement of the US Capitol for the past 15 years, ostensibly to protect the Kingdom from embarrassment. (The Post helped get the declassification ball rolling with the December 2013 piece, “Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup.”)

Of course, this week Obama vetoed a bill that would have allowed 9-11 victim's families

What are they afraid of?

writes in PJ Media,

WASHINGTON — Families of the victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack along with supporters of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) came to the White House on Tuesday to protest President Obama’s threat to veto the legislation.

If signed into law, the JASTA bill would allow U.S. courts to rule on cases that deal with claims against a foreign state for “injuries, death, or damages” that happen within the U.S. from terrorism that is carried out by a foreign state or foreign official.

After the release of the 28 classified pages of the 9/11 commission report, families of 9/11 victims argued that the bill would bring them justice because they could sue Saudi Arabia for alleged involvement in the attacks.

Most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

...Bruce Todd, who attended the protest, criticized Obama for not supporting the bill.

“I think [Obama] does not have an ounce of humanity in him. He certainly does not deserve to be the president of a country that stands for the idea of justice and a Constitution,” he said.

Read more here.

Protecting American national security or protecting Saudi Arabia?

Lee Smith writes in The Weekly Standard,

It's Obama's standard operating procedure — denigrate allies while ignoring the threats posed by adversaries. Our partners in the Middle East and elsewhere must think that Washington has lost its mind. The reality is worse — America is not able or willing to lead at this point because for the last seven years we've been governed by a man consumed with contempt for the rest of the world, and especially for America's allies.

Go here to read about what might be in the 28 classified pages from the 9-11 report.

Will the Saudis risk ruining their economy if Congress votes to demand release of 28 pages of the 9-11 report?

Upwards of $750,000. That is how much money Saudi Arabia is threatening to dump from its holdings of US debt. Obama is going there on Wednesday. Matt Egan and John Defterios report for CNN Money,

Sources told CNN that Saudi Arabia recently threatened to sell off American assets if Congress passes a bill that would allow 9/11 victims to sue foreign governments.

A source familiar with the Saudi asset portfolio told CNNMoney the government is "serious" about this. "If Congress goes ahead with passage of that legislation, there has to be a response," the source said.

...Terry Strada, whose husband died in the 9/11 attacks, believes the Saudi asset dump threat speaks volumes.
"They would be ruining their entire economy to just not have what's in the 28 pages released? It tells you they're a little bit afraid of what's in there," Strada told CNN.

Read more here.

Largest oil refinery in the US is now owned by Saudi Arabia

Did you know that the largest oil refinery in the United States is now owned by a Saudi company? Charles Kennedy of Oil Price.com writes in USA Today about the refinery, which is located in Port Arthur, Texas.

Saudi Arabia wins a temporary victory over American fracking com[panies

Zero Hedge brings us

news that North Dakota's largest producer, Whiting Petroleum, would suspend all fracking, and that Continental Resources has effectively done the same after reporting that it no longer has any fracking crews working in the Bakken shale.

...The Denver-based company said it would stop fracking and completing wells as of April 1. Most of its $500 million budget will be spent to mothball drilling and fracking operations in the first half of the year. After June, Whiting said it plans to spend only $160 million, mostly on maintenance.

Rival producers Hess Corp and Continental Resources Inc have also slashed their budgets for the year, though neither has cut as much as Whiting.

...One thing is certain: the cuts will drag down production and likely reverberate in the economy of North Dakota, the second-largest U.S. oil producing state after Texas, which currently pumps 1.1 million barrels per day. It means that after the 250,000 oil workers already laid off (according to Credit Suisse estimates), tens of thousands of new pink slips to highly paid workers are about to be handed out.

Read more here.

How have falling oil prices affected the finances of Saudi Arabia?

How have falling oil prices affected the finances of Saudi Arabia? Captain Capitalism writes,

First we have economic growth. This is NOT GDP, though the graph will look that way. It is YEAR OVER YEAR economic growth, ie- GDP growth. In 2011 and 2012 Saudi Arabia's economy was booming, logging a near one third growth rate for both years. Not 1/3%. 33%. Growth collapsed quickly in 2013 and 2014, entering a NEGATIVE 13% GDP for 2015. Of course, Western nations aren't accustomed to such volatility in their growth rates, but it still doesn't change the fact 2015 was a devastating year for Saudi Arabia.

Read more here.

Good cop/Bad cop

Mark Steyn writes,

Millenarian Iran wants to nuke us. Wahhabist Saudi Arabia wants to own us.

The House of Saud has advanced quite a long way toward the goal. Nevertheless, the idea that de facto acceptance of Iranian nukes plus giving them money, arms, technology and global legitimacy will assist Teheran to "change for the better" is stupid. As I said to John Oakley, Iran has spent 35 years declining to accept the most basic norms of state-to-state relations and using all means at its disposal to act extra-territorially. We have just substantially enhanced their means to act extra-territorially and cemented the regime in place.

Besides, Obama isn't thinking about any of that. He isn't weighing who's more likely to moderate their particular virulent strain of Islamic imperialism - any more than he cares whether what replaced Mubarak was better or worse. He was opposed to Mubarak because Mubarak was a designated American ally, just as he was opposed to Gaddafi because George W Bush turned him. That's why, in a choice between a pro-American theocratic dump and an anti-American theocratic dump, he instinctively favors the latter. The "student radical" here isn't me, it's Obama - aided by the quintessential superannuated "student radical" John Kerry.

Read more here.

Divide and conquer

Walter Russell Meade writes in The American Interest about how ISIS thrives on ethnic strife. Now Sunnis and Shiites in Saudi Arabia are squaring off against each other. Read about it here.

Arms race

Bill Sanderson reports in the New York Post,

Saudi Arabia will join the nuclear club by buying “off the shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, US officials told a London newspaper.

The Saudis — who financed much of Pakistan’s nuke program — are fearful of international efforts to keep its enemy Iran from acquiring a bomb, the Sunday Times of London reports. The Saudis think the deal, backed by President Obama, will actually accelerate Iran’s nuke push.

Saudi Arabia has talked for years about acquiring a bomb from the Pakistanis. “The House of Saud has now made the strategic decision to move forward,” a former US defense official said.

Egypt-Saudi invasion of Yemen imminent

The American Interest informs us this morning that an Egypt-Saudi invasion of Yemen is imminent.

the AP reports:

Egyptian security and military officials say Saudi Arabia and Egypt will lead a ground operation in Yemen against Shiite rebels and their allies after a campaign of airstrikes to weaken them.

American Interest adds:

The Egyptians’ decision to return to Yemen, which is essentially their Vietnam, is extremely significant. It reflects both enormous fear on the part of the Sunni powers and the strength of the Saudi-led alliance.

Events in Yemen continue to accelerate much faster than many experts predicted, and the potential for widespread sectarian war between Sunni and Shi’a grows more acute by the day. In some ways this portends even more trouble than ISIS’s fight against Iran’s proxies in Syria and Iraq: that fight is both bloody and strategically important, but ISIS is also an enemy of the Sunni powers (whose rule it wants to overthrow). Now, the Saudis and their allies are clearly prepared to confront Iran’s allies head-on.

The price of the Obama Administration’s comprehensive failure of strategy in the Middle East may be very high.

Thanks to Instapundit

Those who live by the sword will die by the sword

Raymond Ibrahim writes today at PJ Media that Saudi Arabia is building a 600 mile ditch and wall to keep out members of the Islamic State.

From the start, the Arabian kingdom has been a supporter of the Islamic State. It was not long, however, before IS made clear that Saudi Arabia was one of its primary targets, calling on its allies and supporters in the kingdom to kill and drive out the Saud tribe.

Nor is this the first time the Saudis see those whom they nurtured — ideologically and logistically — turn on them. Back in the 1980s, the Saudis were chief supporters of the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and helped create al-Qaeda.

But once the “distant” infidel was subdued, al-Qaeda and its Saudi-born leader Osama bin Laden came home to roost, doing the inevitable: pointing the accusatory finger at the Saudi monarchy for not being Islamic enough, including for its reliance on the great American infidel during the First Gulf War.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia is not only a chief disseminator and supporter of the Salafi ideology most associated with jihad, but the Arabian kingdom itself was forged in large measure by articulating and calling for holy war in the 19th and -20th centuries, including against Turks and fellow Arab tribes (both Muslim).

The Saudi argument then was the very same argument now being made by the Islamic State — that the rulers of Islam’s holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina (in this case, the Ottoman Turks) were not “Islamic” enough.

Such is the double-edged sword of jihad. All Islamic governments, regimes, and kingdoms must always try to direct this potent instrument of war against enemies or neutral targets — preferably ones far away from their borders (Afghanistan, America, etc.). For they know that the longer the jihad waxes in strength and goes uncontained, the more it becomes like an all-consuming fire indiscriminately scorching all in its path.

And this explains why Saudi Arabia is a chief funder and supporter of external jihads: to send its own zealots out of its borders to fight distant infidels (a “better them than me” mentality). It also explains why nations like Saudi Arabia, which were forged by the jihad, continually find themselves threatened by the jihad — or, to paraphrase a young Jewish rabbi: “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”

Read more here.

Bloggers who write truth in Saudi Arabia

Raif Badawi

The publicity has been all about the killings in France. But what about Raif Badawi, the blogger in Saudia Arabia who has been sentenced to fifty "very severe" lashes per week for the next twenty weeks, then a prison term of ten more years. Why, because he started a blog

to reject any repression in the name of religion… a goal that we will reach in a peaceful, law-abiding way.”

He is alleged to have criticized the Wahhabi clergy who run his country hand in hand with the royal family. Muslims seem not to be able to handle questions, reasoned criticism or satire. …

Read more here.

Schooling the world's petrotyrants

IBD editorializes that:

the petrotyranny model of using oil as a weapon against smaller neighbors and the U.S. is effectively dead. Over the past decade, all of the states that have staked their futures on the power of oil have effectively burned their bridges to other models for building their economies.

The editorial shows how Iran, Russia, and Venezuela

share one thing in common: a strategy of high oil prices and low production, plus a willingness to interfere with markets to make them into power games.

But as it turns out, that strategy was another kind of dependency. And the Saudis, egged on by the shale revolution, have just ended it.

Market manipulation is peculiar. In 1998, the Saudis tried to cut output to keep crude prices from falling further. It didn't work. From that, they learned a valuable right lesson: Nothing is bigger than market forces.

Now, the world's remaining petrotyrants are about to be schooled as well.

Read more here.

Training "moderate" rebels in "moderate" Saudia Arabia

Andrew McCarthy writes:

Our government, nearly $18 trillion in debt, will expend another $500 million to school 5,000 “moderate Islamists” in military tactics that cannot win the war in Syria but could eventually be used in the jihad against the United States. Welcome to Libya . . . the Sequel.

Oh, and did I mention that the training of these “moderate” rebels will take place in “moderate” Saudi Arabia?

Read more here.