Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels, Topple Assad
Topics
Guests
Adam Entous,
national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
He wrote the recent article on longtime Saudi ambassador in Washington,
Prince Bandar bin Sultan: "A Veteran Saudi Power Player Works to Build
Support to Topple Assad." His latest is "U.S. Decided Not to Horse-Trade
With Russia on Assad."
DONATE →
This is viewer supported news
The Wall Street Journal recently revealed new details about how
Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud — Saudi’s former ambassador to the
United States — is leading the effort to prop up the Syrian rebels.
Intelligence agents from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Jordan and
other allied states are working at a secret joint operations center in
Jordan to train and arm hand-picked Syrian rebels. The Journal also
reports Prince Bandar has been jetting from covert command centers near
the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in
Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime. "Really what he’s doing
is he’s reprising a role that he played in the 1980s when he worked with
the Reagan administration to arrange money and arms for mujahideen
fighters in Afghanistan and also worked with the CIA
in Nicaragua to support the Contras," says Wall Street Journal reporter
Adam Entous. "So in many ways this is a very familiar position for
Prince Bandar, and it’s amazing to see the extent to which veterans of
the CIA were excited to see him come back
because, in the words of a diplomat who knows Bandar, he brings the
Arabic term wasta, which means under-the-table clout. You know his
checks are not going to bounce and that he’ll be able to deliver the
money from the Saudis."
Watch Part Two of Interview, 'U.S.-Russian Tensions Heighten over Syria; Roots of Conflict Stem from NATO Bombing of Libya'
Watch Part Two of Interview, 'U.S.-Russian Tensions Heighten over Syria; Roots of Conflict Stem from NATO Bombing of Libya'
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: At
the G-20 Summit in Saint Petersburg, Russian and China officials, as
well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, are urging the United States
not to bomb Syria in response to last month’s chemical weapons attack.
The U.N.’s Ban Ki-moon said, quote, "Let us remember: Every day that we
lose is a day when scores of innocent civilians die. There is no
military solution." Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly said a U.S. strike
without authorization from the U.N. Security Council would be illegal.
But on Thursday the Obama administration declared there is, quote, "no
viable path forward" in the U.N. Security Council on Syria. U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has accused Russia of
holding the U.N. Security Council hostage.SAMANTHA POWER: I was present in the meeting where the U.K. laid down the resolution. And everything in that meeting, in word and in body language, suggests that that resolution has no prospect of being adopted by Russia, in particular. And our view—again, our considered view, after months of efforts on chemical weapons and after two-and-a-half years of efforts on Geneva, on the humanitarian situation, is that there is no viable path forward in the Security Council.AMY GOODMAN: That’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
No comments:
Post a Comment