WASHINGTON, 9 September 2003 — The National Council on US-Arab Relations and the US-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee are currently holding their 12th annual Arab-US Policymakers Conference in Washington, D.C. The irony of the conference’s theme — “Strengthening Arab-US Relations” — may be seen as more a case of wishful thinking than actuality.
“Perhaps at no other time in recent memory has this goal been as urgent, or the need to address what is necessary to achieve it, been more appropriate,” said John Duke Anthony, president and CEO of the National Council on US-Arab Relations.
The speakers’ list is impressive, and includes Gen. Anthony Zinni, adviser to the secretary of state, peace envoy, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A high-level Saudi delegation was also invited to participate to offer a much-needed Mideast perspective.
Samar Fatany, senior announcer and radio journalist in the English Service at Radio Jeddah, expressed outrage to Arab News about a current book review in Time Magazine. The book, “Why America Slept” by Gerald Posner, alleges Al-Qaeda links to Saudi royalty and nationals — some of who are deceased.
“Saudi Ambassador to London Prince Turki Al-Faisal is accused of establishing relations with Osama Bin Laden. The prince strongly rejected this allegation and US officials have also dismissed the book’s claims,” said Fatany.
“The book also implicates three deceased princes who had nothing to do with politics,” she said. “We are shocked and saddened by the insensitive allegations against them. The late Prince Ahmad Ibn Salman was a kind man who loved people and was a good friend of America. To implicate him with such evil acts is totally unfair. And it is against all principles to malign the dead.”
Several of the American and Mideast experts spoke of the international dilemma caused by the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq.
Former US Ambassador Edward Gabriel said he was against the war from the start, “it wasn’t the right sequence of events for American foreign policy in the region.” But with the US troops now there, he said it would be “a severe blow to the region and our interest” for America to withdraw prematurely.
The US must decide if the Arabs are “friends or enemies — we can’t (continue to) change our minds on a daily basis. We must stick to a sustained policy with them.”
Gabriel slammed the current US government’s policy of bullying US allies that disagree with US foreign politics. “I don’t think sovereign nations should have to be ‘with us’ 100 percent of the time. He expressed surprise that President Bush did not introduce a “sustained policy (after the invasion of Iraq,) which I thought would be consistent with his neo-conservative policies.”
The Middle East region “needs a Marshall Plan” to get it out of its current quagmire, he said, adding the Arab world needs the US “to be a reliable ally and it must be consistent in supporting reform in the Arab world.”
Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the Analysis Division of the CIA, said he was dismayed that the US public seems unconcerned that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
“It is serious business. A false use of intelligence has brought a constitutional crisis to our country. One branch of government lied to another branch of the government, the Congress, to get their approval to go to war in Iraq.”
