Ralph Peters's 5/5/08 OpEd is a Must read:

Submitted by GWK (United States), May 7, 2008 at 15:51

This figures! -- Ralph Peters also warned about this; His 5/5/08 OpEd is a must read:

May 5, 2008 -- WANT to know a key reason why you're being robbed at the gas pump? Well, my fellow Americans, you're being punished - for giving Iraqis a chance at democracy.

The Saudis ordered President Bush not to remove Saddam. The last thing that the despotic bigots in Riyadh wanted was change in the Middle East - especially change that empowered common men and women, Shia Arabs and Kurds.

But our president believed that the Saudis were not only America's friends, but his personal pals. He defied our Saudi masters. Silly him.

These past several years, the furious Saudis have been perfectly willing to help the new Iraq fail, hoping a disaster would lead back to rule by a Sunni Arab strongman. But the Iraqi government's starting to look like a going concern, after all.

So our president's old pals are teaching us a lesson - by limiting oil supplies. When Vice President Dick Cheney went to Saudi Arabia to beg for an increase in output, he got the bum's rush.

The Saudis aren't worried about our reaction. They know they'll always have regiments of paid protectors in Washington. They haven't just corrupted a few American public figures - they've built an entire Saudi cheerleading industry on the banks of the Potomac and beyond.

If our think tanks and universities had to list their funding sources on the cover of every "study" they publish, you'd be stunned. The Saudis and the Persian Gulf emirates have poured money into "nonpartisan" centers, faculties and department chairs from Massachusetts Avenue to Cambridge, Mass. (If you think mortgage brokers are greedy, you've never seen an intellectual offered a grant.)

Think those institutions have published many studies criticizing the Saudi royal family or the Emir of Qatar? Or defending Israel's right to exist?

If Congress really wants to improve our national security, let's try a baby step first: Pass a law requiring every think tank or college that accepts money from foreign governments, overseas institutions or ruling-dynasty members to register its employees as lobbyists.

Let's get this out into the sunlight so we can all savor the stink.

Another Saudi approach is to invite influential Americans to visit the kingdom as special guests: They literally get the royal treatment. Our political high-rollers and opinion-makers enjoy posh perks in Saudi Arabia - including lucrative contracts, cash hand-outs and party favors.

I've been terribly dismayed to see figures I respect - but who don't know the Middle East from East Orange - fall for Saudi pampering and the line that "We want change, of course, but we have to change gradually."

(more at: http://www.nypost.com/seven/05052008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/saudi_stick_up_109492.htm)

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