WikiLeaks: Saudi king urged US to attack Iran

Editor

Dhu al-Qa'dah 24, 1431 2010-11-01

Editor's Desk

by Editor (Editor's Desk, Crescent International Vol. 39, No. 9, Dhu al-Qa'dah, 1431)

As Crescent was about to go to press, WikiLeaks released some 250,000 secret cables between US diplomats and the State Department up to the year 2009. Among them was one dealing with a plea to Washington from Saudi king Abdullah, currently undergoing medical treatment in the US, to attack Iran. The cable is dated April 2008. Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir also communicated this to the State Department.

Hitherto it was believed Bandar bin Sultan, the upstart former Saudi ambassador to Washington, was behind such calls because of his close ties to the Zionists. Now it has emerged the aging and soon-to-be-departed king was himself behind the call to attack Iran. “Finish the snake while there is time,” is how Abdullah put it to the Americans.

Abdullah also had harsh words for Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari. Other bits of information that have emerged include US attempts to snatch Pakistan’s nuclear fuel (confirming the long-held view that Washington is after Pakistan’s nuclear weapons), continued Saudi funding of terror groups (but no missiles fired at Riyadh!), and the US urging its diplomats to provide intelligence information.

Intelligence gathering by US diplomats, though illegal, is nothing new but the leaked documents confirm what many had known for decades: American diplomats are not really diplomats; they use diplomatic cover to spy on other countries.

Should ordinary Americans still wonder why the world hates them so much?