The US Congressional Report with its 28 missing pages that allegedly accuse the Kingdom of cooperating with terrorists can be seen as a way of blackmailing Saudi Arabia. What the American administration did not expect was the bold position taken by the Saudi government.
The Saudi foreign minister went to America and demanded that the full report be released; he also agreed to have a previously-questioned suspect questioned a second time. Both of these were intelligent steps by the Saudi government, and it is no exaggeration if I say that they weakened the force of the missing pages and showed them to be false.
We are all aware that some people will do anything to attract attention and will use any method to do so. The TV interview with the Libyan president who spoke against us was another part of the same campaign. Most people see clearly that the Libyan president has become an American tool in the anti-Saudi campaign.
As far as the Congressional Report is concerned, we must give it no more importance than it deserves and work with it. I do not believe in forming committees because we have seen too many times that committees achieve nothing and are a waste of time. There ought to be a committee to follow up on what other committees are doing and have done and also make it easy to take the necessary steps to serve the country’s best interests. Furthermore, these procedures should not be exposed to government bureaucracy. The committee’s principal job would be to make bold responses with these responses being available to all — Saudis as well as non-Saudis.
The current situation should make us stand together and work. This cannot be done if we are busy with American blackmail. America has used Sept. 11 in order to put pressure on the Kingdom, especially regarding the Palestinian issue. Working diligently to change the domestic situation is better than making efforts to counter the media campaign. We ought to confront both media campaigns and domestic reform. Establishing a special committee to investigate congressional allegations is something we should do because it would oblige us to address some of our domestic problems.
Arab News From the Local Press 26 August 2003
