RIYADH, 29 August 2004 — A prominent member of the Shoura Council has stressed the need for creating a pro-Saudi lobby in the US, Europe and the Far East for correcting the wrong image of the Kingdom.
Osama Al-Kurdi, member of the Shoura Council, told Arab News that a think tank on Saudi Arabia has already been set up in the US and there was need for more such lobbies in other countries to counter negative perceptions about the Kingdom.
He was speaking in the context of a massive advertising campaign which the Kingdom is planning to launch in 19 American states to counter the anti-Saudi media drive in that country. The campaign will be based on the report of the congressional commission on Sept. 11, which indicates the role played by the Kingdom as a “faithful ally” in the war against Al-Qaeda organization.
The theme of the ad campaign, which will run for 12 days till Sept. 6, is “Strong allies, committed friends”. This is the signature tune to a series of ads which the Saudi government has recently launched in the US media. It not only relies on the findings of the 9/11 commission report to refute the charges of supporting and funding the terror campaign but also underlines the reform measures carried out by the Kingdom.
The advertising campaign is deemed professionally produced and carefully targeted in some of the crucial swing electoral states. Al-Kurdi said he fully supports the initiative of the Saudi Embassy in the US in spearheading such a campaign. He pointed out that besides some members of the Congress, the Zionist lobby has been actively engaged in a hostile propaganda against the Kingdom. Only a well-organized PR campaign and setting up of pro-Saudi lobbies in different parts of the US could remove the wrong perceptions about the Kingdom, he said.
In this context, he referred to the Saudi Center founded in the US by Abdullah Al-Tayer in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Tayer, who lives in Fairfax, Virginia, launched the Saudi Center in order to educate Americans about the Kingdom. His strategy is to raise funds in the Kingdom for producing documentaries on Saudi Arabia. He would also like to offer scholarships to Saudi academics and journalists to spend sometime in the US.
The Zionist lobby, in collaboration with neoconservatives, has conducted a disinformation campaign through the US media that Saudi Arabia continues to sponsor terrorism. The creation of think tanks and pro-Saudi lobbies could rebut all such “non facts” spread against the Kingdom, Al-Kurdi added.
