以下の文はイントレピッド・レポートに７月７日に掲載されたウェイン・マドセンの記事を訳したものです。（もともと Wayne Madsen Report に掲載されたものが転載されたもので著作権もこのサイトに属します。 Copyright © 2014 WayneMadenReport.com ）
‘Bandar Bush’ is back calling the shots on ISIL’s advance through Iraq
by Wayne Madsen
「バンダル・ブッシュ」復活、イラクでのISIL侵攻を推進http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/13495
（アクセス ２０１４年７月９日）
２０１４年７月７日
バンダル・ビン・スルタン王子は現在では「イスラム国」または「イスラム・カリフ帝国」と名を変えているイラクとレバントのイスラム国（ISIL)創設の影の親玉だ。去年の４月にサウジ諜報局長の地位を解かれた彼がアブドゥラー国王に助言を与える影響の大きな地位に復帰した。彼の新しい職位名は「国王顧問とその特使」である。
バンダルは実際サウジ国政の中枢から離れたことはない。諜報局長を４月に解任された後もサウジ国家安全保障委員会の書記長であり続けた。この地位はスーザン・ライスが就いているホワイトハウス国家安全保障担当補佐官と国家安全保障委員会事務局長のようなものだ。
バンダルがサウード家内で優位の復帰をすると同時にアブドゥラー国王が先ごろ副国防大臣の地位を解かれたハーレッド・ビン・バンダル・ビン・アブドゥル・アジズを新サウジ諜報局長に任命した。ハーレドがたった４５日勤めた副国防大臣の地位を解雇された後、サウジ諜報局長に任命されるまで２日しかかからなかった。この人事異動は、バグダッドに向かって進撃を続けるISISへのコントロールを改めて推進するにあたり、サウジの国防と諜報の主要高官らが同じ認識を持っていることを保障するためである。
しかし、サウード家はシリアの内戦でISILが活動を始めたときからずっと彼らにとって主要な資金提供者であった。その一方でアル・ヌスラ戦線は主にカタールから資金を得ていた。だが、アル・ヌスラ戦線はISILのライバルなどではなく、イラクの北部と西部に戦力を拡大するISILを支援することを誓約している。
サウジアラビアの実質的な目的は、イラクとシリアを揺るがし、それによってヌーリ・アル・マリキとバッシャール・アル・アサド政権がそれぞれ転覆されて、サウジに恩義のあるスンニ急進派政権が取って代わることだ。
バンダルはシリアのいわゆる「穏健派」反政府勢力ではなくシリア反乱軍の急進的聖戦主義者に武器と資金を供与してきたことは広く知られている。彼はバラク・オバマ大統領とアブドゥラー国王が３月２８日にリヤドで会談した後にサウジ諜報局長の地位を退くことを強いられた。
バンダルの職務であったサウジのシリア反乱軍との主要な調整役は内務大臣のモハメッド・ビン・ナイエフ王子に移された。これらの職務は現在ハーレッド王子が行っている。モハメッド王子は米国が後援する自由シリア軍（FSA)へのサウジの支援に働きかけた。自由シリア軍はシリア内戦で２番手の弱い勢力となっている。その人員の多くは追放された元アサド政権の役人であり、イスタンブールのレストランやホテルにいるほうがシリアの前線にいるより居心地がいいのだ。
しかしISILがシリア東部とイラクで成功した後、サウジはISILの主要調整役であったバンダルを復帰させて、このグループのリーダーをサウジのより強固な支配下に置くことにした。
バンダルがサウード家内で優位の復帰をすると同時にアブドゥラー国王が先ごろ副国防大臣の地位を解かれたハーレッド・ビン・バンダル・ビン・アブドゥル・アジズを新サウジ諜報局長に任命した。ハーレドがたった４５日勤めた副国防大臣の地位を解雇された後、サウジ諜報局長に任命されるまで２日しかかからなかった。この人事異動は、バグダッドに向かって進撃を続けるISISへのコントロールを改めて推進するにあたり、サウジの国防と諜報の主要高官らが同じ認識を持っていることを保障するためである。
しかし、サウード家はシリアの内戦でISILが活動を始めたときからずっと彼らにとって主要な資金提供者であった。その一方でアル・ヌスラ戦線は主にカタールから資金を得ていた。だが、アル・ヌスラ戦線はISILのライバルなどではなく、イラクの北部と西部に戦力を拡大するISILを支援することを誓約している。
サウジアラビアの実質的な目的は、イラクとシリアを揺るがし、それによってヌーリ・アル・マリキとバッシャール・アル・アサド政権がそれぞれ転覆されて、サウジに恩義のあるスンニ急進派政権が取って代わることだ。
バンダルはシリアのいわゆる「穏健派」反政府勢力ではなくシリア反乱軍の急進的聖戦主義者に武器と資金を供与してきたことは広く知られている。彼はバラク・オバマ大統領とアブドゥラー国王が３月２８日にリヤドで会談した後にサウジ諜報局長の地位を退くことを強いられた。
バンダルの職務であったサウジのシリア反乱軍との主要な調整役は内務大臣のモハメッド・ビン・ナイエフ王子に移された。これらの職務は現在ハーレッド王子が行っている。モハメッド王子は米国が後援する自由シリア軍（FSA)へのサウジの支援に働きかけた。自由シリア軍はシリア内戦で２番手の弱い勢力となっている。その人員の多くは追放された元アサド政権の役人であり、イスタンブールのレストランやホテルにいるほうがシリアの前線にいるより居心地がいいのだ。
しかしISILがシリア東部とイラクで成功した後、サウジはISILの主要調整役であったバンダルを復帰させて、このグループのリーダーをサウジのより強固な支配下に置くことにした。
バンダルと聖戦主義テロリストとの繋がりは長期にわたる。バンダルがソチ・オリンピック前にモスクワを訪れた際にはロシアがアサド政権を支援することやめればロシアに高収益が見込める武器取引をすると持ちかけた。バンダルはさらに、もしロシアがこのサウジの提案を拒否するのであればサウジが支援するコーカサス地方のイスラム主義テロリストがソチでの冬季オリンピックでテロ攻撃を自由に開始するであろうとプーチンに述べた。プーチンはバンダルにクレムリンの彼のオフィスから出て行くよう命じたと報告されている。
また、サウジから資金を供与されているチェチェンとダゲスタンのイスラム主義テロリストがウクライナで活動しており、ロシア語を話すウクライナ東部の分離主義者と戦っているという報告もある。
ウクライナでイスラム主義テロリストらがイスラエルの準軍事部隊に参加してキエフ政府の東部ウクライナに対する軍事行動を支援したといういくつかの事例もある。シリアではモサドがISIL部隊と協調してシリア国軍に対する攻撃をゴラン高原の北部地域などで行ったと報告されている。
バンダルの名前は、今でも機密文書になっている２８ページのサウジアラビアの９．１１攻撃での役割に関する９・１１合同議会調査報告書に記載されていると報告されている。この２８ページの機密を解除する試みはブレナンとCIAと共にオバマ大統領府からの強い反対を受けた。
元上院ボブ・グラハム（民主党・フロリダ州）はこの報告書が書かれたときに上院諜報委員会 の議長を務めており、この２８ページを公開することを提唱していた。グラハムが昨年完全公開を要求するためにホワイトハウスを訪れた際には冷たくあしらわれた、と信頼できる筋がWMR（ウェイン・マドセン・レポート）に語った。グラハムはホワイトハウスの下級職員と会うようにと突き放された。
CIA長官のジョン O．ブレナンはサウジ愛好家で元リヤドのCIA駐在所長である。彼は、私たちの情報源によれば、サウジ政府内でバンダルが重要な地位に復帰するのを背後で推し進めた。千人ほどのアメリカ兵と顧問団がイラクに派遣されたのはマリキ政府が崩壊するのを防ぐのではなく、親サウジ、スンニ派を強力に代表することになるマリキ後の次の政権への移行を支援するためである。
アメリカの軍事要員らがイラクにいるのはまた、バグダッドにある巨大な米大使館施設や石油産業の利権を含む米国がこの国に持つ資産を保護するためである。
バンダルが解雇されたときには、シリアの反乱勢力に占拠された拠点を彼が訪問した際に暗殺された、または負傷したなどの根拠のない様々な報道がなされた。別の報道では、アメリカの政治有力一家に近しい関係から親しみをこめて「バンダル・ブッシュ」と呼ばれている彼が、サウジ家内部の確執によって毒殺され、これはサウード家内のスダリ氏族の長であるバンダルの影響を抹殺することを目的としているとされた。この氏族はトゥルキ王子と元サウジ諜報局長で、アブドゥラー王亡き後には確実に王位を継承するサルマン皇太子も属している。
バンダルがアブドゥラー国王の顧問という顕著な地位に復帰したのは、この地域でのサウジとイスラエルの基本計画を遂行するためだ。リヤド＝エルサレム枢軸はイラクの国としての存在は終わるべきだということで同意している。イスラエルのべンヤミン・ネタニヤフ首相はイラク北部が独立したクルディスタンとなることを最近公的に承認した。ISIL軍のイラクへの進攻によって、長い間イラクでのクルド国家樹立に反対してきたトルコは、この案を支持しないのならばクルディスタンがISILの支配下に置かれかねないと考えるようになった。
トルコ政府はまた、非合法であったクルド労働者党（PKK) との交渉を始めた。トルコからはテロリスト団体と見なされていたPKKも今はISILがイラクのクルディスタンを奪取するのに対抗するためのパートナーになる可能性があると見られるようになった。
進攻し続けるISILはイスラエルが西岸の支配を続けなくてはいけない理由について強力な議論を可能にした。ISILが「イラクとレバントのイスラム国」からより無限定な「イスラム国」に変え、最近のISILのリーダーで自称「カリフ」のアブ・バカー・アル・バグダディの公式声明からしても、ISILのイスラム・カリフ国計画はヨルダン、レバノン、パレスチナ、そしてそれよりも広い地域を含むと見られている。バグダディは中央アフリカ共和国からミャンマーまでがイスラム反乱を起こすことを呼びかけている。
ネタニヤフにすれば、ISILの攻撃は彼に政治的な武器を与えたことになる。それは西岸の支配を続ける為だけでなく新しくできたパレスチナのファタハとハマスの統一政府を妨害する上でもだ。
バンダルの目的はシリアとイラクの現政府を抹殺してイランからこの地域で唯二つの同盟国を奪い去ることだ。急進的なスンニ・カリフがバグダッドを支配することでISILはイランとの国境を越えて、イランの石油産業の中心地であるフーゼスタン地方でイランのアラブ少数派の反乱を起こす構えだ。
ISILがイラク南部の油田とイラク・クルディスタンと国境を接する油田の一部を支配下に置き、サウジの代理がイランの石油地方を乗っ取ることによってサウジアラビアは中東のほとんどの石油埋蔵量を効果的に支配することができることになる。リヤドへのこの政治的経済的勢力の移行は、カタールとそのムスリム同胞団と緊密な政府をサウジと地域の覇権を真剣に競う相手という地位から追い落とすことにもなる。
ワシントンでバンダル側についているのはブレナンだけではなくジョン・マッケイン上院議員（共和党・アリゾナ）もいる。彼は２月にミュンヘン安全保障会議に出席した際に「サウジとバンダル王子を神に感謝」と述べた。マッケインはその前にCNNで述べてた似たような発言を繰り返した。２０１２年にマッケインは極秘でトルコからシリアに渡りイスラム急進派と写真に納まっている。これらの急進派のなかの数人は現在ISILと共にイラクで戦っている。
**ウェイン・マドセンはワシントンを本拠とする調査ジャーナリスト。
‘Bandar Bush’ is back calling the shots on ISIL’s advance through Iraq
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the godfather behind the creation of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the “Islamic
State” or “Islamic Caliphate,” has returned to an influential position
advising King Abdullah after being sacked as Saudi intelligence chief
last April. Bandar’s new title is “adviser to the King and his special
envoy.”
Bandar had never actually left the Saudi inner circle. After being dismissed as intelligence chief in April, he retained his position as secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, a position similar to that held by Susan Rice as the White House National Security Adviser and director of the National Security Council.
Bandar’s restoration to favor within the House of Saud came as King Abdullah appointed the recently-fired deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, as the new chief of Saudi intelligence. It took only two days for Khaled from being fired as deputy defense minister, a job he held for only 45 days, to being named as Saudi intelligence chief. The shuffle came about to ensure that key Saudi defense and intelligence officials are on the same page when it comes to reasserting control over ISIL as it continues to advance toward Baghdad.
However, the House of Saud has been a major bank roller of ISIL since the beginning of their roles in Syria’s civil war. The Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), on the other hand, has been mainly funded by Qatar. However, the Al Nusra Front, far from being a rival to ISIL, has pledged its support for the group as its forces spread across northern and western Iraq.
The actual aim of Saudi Arabia is to destabilize Iraq and Syria, hoping that the Nouri al-Maliki and Bashar al Assad governments, respectively, will be overthrown and replaced with radical Sunni regimes beholden to the Saudis.
Bandar, who is widely credied for arming and financing radical jihadists in the Syrian opposition rebel army against so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition forces, was forced out as Saudi intelligence chief after President Barack Obama met with King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 28. Bandar’s duties as the chief Saudi interlocutor with Syria’s rebels was transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Those duties will now be assumed by Prince Khaled. Prince Mohammed helped steer Saudi support to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has become a second-tier and weak player in the Syrian civil war. FSA officials, many of whom are exiled former government officials in the Assad government, are more comfortable in Istanbul hotels and restaurants than on the front lines in Syria. However, after the success of ISIL in eastern Syria and Iraq, the Saudis decided to bring back ISIl’s main interlocutor, Prince Bandar, to bring the group’s leadership under firmer Saudi control.
Bandar has had long ties to Jihadist terrorism. Bandar, on a pre-Sochi Olympics trip to Moscow, offered Russia a lucrative weapons deal if Russia ceased its support for Assad. Bandar also told Putin that if Russia rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer, Saudi-backed Islamist terrorists in the Caucasus region would be free to launch terrorist attacks on the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Putin reportedly ordered Bandar out of his office in the Kremlin. There are also reports that Saudi-financed Islamist terrorists from Chechnya and Dagestan have been active in Ukraine fighting against Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. In some cases, Islamist terrorists have joined Israeli paramilitary units in Ukraine in support of the Kiev governments military actions against eastern Ukraine. In Syria, there have been reports of Mossad coordination with ISIL units in attacks against Syrian government forces, including in the region north of the Golan Heights.
Bandar’s name is reportedly contained in the still-classified 28 pages from the Joint Congressional 9/11 Inquiry report on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attack. Attempts to have the 28 pages declassified has met with strong opposition from Brennan and the CIA, as well as the Obama White House. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time the report was written, has called for the 28 pages to be made public. A reliable source told WMR that Graham was cold-shouldered when he visited the White House last year to press for full disclosure. Graham was shuffled off to meet with a low-level White House staffer.
CIA Director John O. Brennan, a Saudophile and former CIA station chief in Riyadh, is, according to our sources, behind the restoration of Bandar to a key position in the Saudi government. Some 1,000 U.S. troops and advisers have been dispatched to Iraq not to prevent the Maliki government from falling but to assist in the transition to a post-Maliki government that will have strong pro-Saudi and Sunni representation. The U.S. military personnel are also in Iraq to protect U.S. assets in the country, including the massive U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad and U.S. oil industry interests.
There were varying unsubstantiated reports at the time of Bandar’s dismissal that he had been assassinated or wounded while visiting rebel-held positions in Syria. Other reports stated that Bandar, affectionately known by the Bush family as “Bandar Bush” because of his close ties to the American political dynasty, was poisoned in an internal Saudi feud aimed at eliminating the influence of Bandar, the chief of the Sudairi clan within the House of Saud. The clan also includes Prince Turki, also a former Saudi intelligence chief, and Crown Prince Salman, the heir apparent to the throne after King Abdullah dies.
Bandar was brought back into a significant position as adviser to King Abdullah in order to carry out the Saudi and Israeli master plan for the region. The Riyadh-Jerusalem axis has agreed that Iraq as a nation must cease to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently publicly endorsed an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The advance of ISIL forces into Iraq has convinced Turkey, long opposed to Kurdish statehood in Iraq, to support the idea or possibly face ISIL in charge of Kurdistan. The Turkish government has also started negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey but now seen as a potential partner for Turkey against an ISIL takeover of Iraqi Kurdistan.
An ISIL on the move also gives Israel a powerful argument for why it must remain in charge of the West Bank. With ISIL changing its name from “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” to the more all-encompassing “Islamic State,” there is a belief, backed by recent public statements by ISIL leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that ISIl’s plans for an Islamic caliphate include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond. Baghdadi has called for an Islamic revolt from the Central African Republic to Myanmar. For Netanyahu, ISIl’s offensive gives him political ammunition for not only maintaining control over the West Bank but in sabotaging the new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas.
Bandar’s goal is to eliminate the current governments of Syria and Iraq, thus depriving Iran of its only two allies in the region. With a radical Sunni caliphate in charge in Baghdad, ISIL will be poised to cross the Iranian border and start a rebellion among Iran’s Arab minority in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran’s oil industry. With ISIL gaining control of Iraq’s southern oil fields as well as part of the fields bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the takeover by a Saudi proxy of Iran’s oil province would give Saudi Arabia effective control over much of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The shift of political and economic clout to Riyadh would also eliminate Qatar and its Muslim Brotherhood-aligned government as a serious rival to Saudi regional hegemony.
Bandar not only has Brennan in his corner in Washington but also Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who, while attending the February Munich Security Conference, said, “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar.” McCain echoed similar comments he made earlier on CNN. In 2012, McCain covertly crossed into Syria from Turkey and was photographed with radical Islamists, some of whom are now fighting with ISIL in Iraq.
Bandar had never actually left the Saudi inner circle. After being dismissed as intelligence chief in April, he retained his position as secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, a position similar to that held by Susan Rice as the White House National Security Adviser and director of the National Security Council.
Bandar’s restoration to favor within the House of Saud came as King Abdullah appointed the recently-fired deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, as the new chief of Saudi intelligence. It took only two days for Khaled from being fired as deputy defense minister, a job he held for only 45 days, to being named as Saudi intelligence chief. The shuffle came about to ensure that key Saudi defense and intelligence officials are on the same page when it comes to reasserting control over ISIL as it continues to advance toward Baghdad.
However, the House of Saud has been a major bank roller of ISIL since the beginning of their roles in Syria’s civil war. The Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), on the other hand, has been mainly funded by Qatar. However, the Al Nusra Front, far from being a rival to ISIL, has pledged its support for the group as its forces spread across northern and western Iraq.
The actual aim of Saudi Arabia is to destabilize Iraq and Syria, hoping that the Nouri al-Maliki and Bashar al Assad governments, respectively, will be overthrown and replaced with radical Sunni regimes beholden to the Saudis.
Bandar, who is widely credied for arming and financing radical jihadists in the Syrian opposition rebel army against so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition forces, was forced out as Saudi intelligence chief after President Barack Obama met with King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 28. Bandar’s duties as the chief Saudi interlocutor with Syria’s rebels was transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Those duties will now be assumed by Prince Khaled. Prince Mohammed helped steer Saudi support to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has become a second-tier and weak player in the Syrian civil war. FSA officials, many of whom are exiled former government officials in the Assad government, are more comfortable in Istanbul hotels and restaurants than on the front lines in Syria. However, after the success of ISIL in eastern Syria and Iraq, the Saudis decided to bring back ISIl’s main interlocutor, Prince Bandar, to bring the group’s leadership under firmer Saudi control.
Bandar has had long ties to Jihadist terrorism. Bandar, on a pre-Sochi Olympics trip to Moscow, offered Russia a lucrative weapons deal if Russia ceased its support for Assad. Bandar also told Putin that if Russia rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer, Saudi-backed Islamist terrorists in the Caucasus region would be free to launch terrorist attacks on the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Putin reportedly ordered Bandar out of his office in the Kremlin. There are also reports that Saudi-financed Islamist terrorists from Chechnya and Dagestan have been active in Ukraine fighting against Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. In some cases, Islamist terrorists have joined Israeli paramilitary units in Ukraine in support of the Kiev governments military actions against eastern Ukraine. In Syria, there have been reports of Mossad coordination with ISIL units in attacks against Syrian government forces, including in the region north of the Golan Heights.
Bandar’s name is reportedly contained in the still-classified 28 pages from the Joint Congressional 9/11 Inquiry report on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attack. Attempts to have the 28 pages declassified has met with strong opposition from Brennan and the CIA, as well as the Obama White House. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time the report was written, has called for the 28 pages to be made public. A reliable source told WMR that Graham was cold-shouldered when he visited the White House last year to press for full disclosure. Graham was shuffled off to meet with a low-level White House staffer.
CIA Director John O. Brennan, a Saudophile and former CIA station chief in Riyadh, is, according to our sources, behind the restoration of Bandar to a key position in the Saudi government. Some 1,000 U.S. troops and advisers have been dispatched to Iraq not to prevent the Maliki government from falling but to assist in the transition to a post-Maliki government that will have strong pro-Saudi and Sunni representation. The U.S. military personnel are also in Iraq to protect U.S. assets in the country, including the massive U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad and U.S. oil industry interests.
There were varying unsubstantiated reports at the time of Bandar’s dismissal that he had been assassinated or wounded while visiting rebel-held positions in Syria. Other reports stated that Bandar, affectionately known by the Bush family as “Bandar Bush” because of his close ties to the American political dynasty, was poisoned in an internal Saudi feud aimed at eliminating the influence of Bandar, the chief of the Sudairi clan within the House of Saud. The clan also includes Prince Turki, also a former Saudi intelligence chief, and Crown Prince Salman, the heir apparent to the throne after King Abdullah dies.
Bandar was brought back into a significant position as adviser to King Abdullah in order to carry out the Saudi and Israeli master plan for the region. The Riyadh-Jerusalem axis has agreed that Iraq as a nation must cease to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently publicly endorsed an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The advance of ISIL forces into Iraq has convinced Turkey, long opposed to Kurdish statehood in Iraq, to support the idea or possibly face ISIL in charge of Kurdistan. The Turkish government has also started negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey but now seen as a potential partner for Turkey against an ISIL takeover of Iraqi Kurdistan.
An ISIL on the move also gives Israel a powerful argument for why it must remain in charge of the West Bank. With ISIL changing its name from “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” to the more all-encompassing “Islamic State,” there is a belief, backed by recent public statements by ISIL leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that ISIl’s plans for an Islamic caliphate include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond. Baghdadi has called for an Islamic revolt from the Central African Republic to Myanmar. For Netanyahu, ISIl’s offensive gives him political ammunition for not only maintaining control over the West Bank but in sabotaging the new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas.
Bandar’s goal is to eliminate the current governments of Syria and Iraq, thus depriving Iran of its only two allies in the region. With a radical Sunni caliphate in charge in Baghdad, ISIL will be poised to cross the Iranian border and start a rebellion among Iran’s Arab minority in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran’s oil industry. With ISIL gaining control of Iraq’s southern oil fields as well as part of the fields bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the takeover by a Saudi proxy of Iran’s oil province would give Saudi Arabia effective control over much of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The shift of political and economic clout to Riyadh would also eliminate Qatar and its Muslim Brotherhood-aligned government as a serious rival to Saudi regional hegemony.
Bandar not only has Brennan in his corner in Washington but also Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who, while attending the February Munich Security Conference, said, “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar.” McCain echoed similar comments he made earlier on CNN. In 2012, McCain covertly crossed into Syria from Turkey and was photographed with radical Islamists, some of whom are now fighting with ISIL in Iraq.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2014 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist
and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of
the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
This entry was posted in Special Reports. Bookmark the permalink.
- See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/13495#sthash.j1UIPNH7.dpuf‘Bandar Bush’ is back calling the shots on ISIL’s advance through Iraq
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the godfather behind the creation of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the “Islamic
State” or “Islamic Caliphate,” has returned to an influential position
advising King Abdullah after being sacked as Saudi intelligence chief
last April. Bandar’s new title is “adviser to the King and his special
envoy.”
Bandar had never actually left the Saudi inner circle. After being dismissed as intelligence chief in April, he retained his position as secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, a position similar to that held by Susan Rice as the White House National Security Adviser and director of the National Security Council.
Bandar’s restoration to favor within the House of Saud came as King Abdullah appointed the recently-fired deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, as the new chief of Saudi intelligence. It took only two days for Khaled from being fired as deputy defense minister, a job he held for only 45 days, to being named as Saudi intelligence chief. The shuffle came about to ensure that key Saudi defense and intelligence officials are on the same page when it comes to reasserting control over ISIL as it continues to advance toward Baghdad.
However, the House of Saud has been a major bank roller of ISIL since the beginning of their roles in Syria’s civil war. The Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), on the other hand, has been mainly funded by Qatar. However, the Al Nusra Front, far from being a rival to ISIL, has pledged its support for the group as its forces spread across northern and western Iraq.
The actual aim of Saudi Arabia is to destabilize Iraq and Syria, hoping that the Nouri al-Maliki and Bashar al Assad governments, respectively, will be overthrown and replaced with radical Sunni regimes beholden to the Saudis.
Bandar, who is widely credied for arming and financing radical jihadists in the Syrian opposition rebel army against so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition forces, was forced out as Saudi intelligence chief after President Barack Obama met with King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 28. Bandar’s duties as the chief Saudi interlocutor with Syria’s rebels was transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Those duties will now be assumed by Prince Khaled. Prince Mohammed helped steer Saudi support to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has become a second-tier and weak player in the Syrian civil war. FSA officials, many of whom are exiled former government officials in the Assad government, are more comfortable in Istanbul hotels and restaurants than on the front lines in Syria. However, after the success of ISIL in eastern Syria and Iraq, the Saudis decided to bring back ISIl’s main interlocutor, Prince Bandar, to bring the group’s leadership under firmer Saudi control.
Bandar has had long ties to Jihadist terrorism. Bandar, on a pre-Sochi Olympics trip to Moscow, offered Russia a lucrative weapons deal if Russia ceased its support for Assad. Bandar also told Putin that if Russia rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer, Saudi-backed Islamist terrorists in the Caucasus region would be free to launch terrorist attacks on the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Putin reportedly ordered Bandar out of his office in the Kremlin. There are also reports that Saudi-financed Islamist terrorists from Chechnya and Dagestan have been active in Ukraine fighting against Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. In some cases, Islamist terrorists have joined Israeli paramilitary units in Ukraine in support of the Kiev governments military actions against eastern Ukraine. In Syria, there have been reports of Mossad coordination with ISIL units in attacks against Syrian government forces, including in the region north of the Golan Heights.
Bandar’s name is reportedly contained in the still-classified 28 pages from the Joint Congressional 9/11 Inquiry report on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attack. Attempts to have the 28 pages declassified has met with strong opposition from Brennan and the CIA, as well as the Obama White House. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time the report was written, has called for the 28 pages to be made public. A reliable source told WMR that Graham was cold-shouldered when he visited the White House last year to press for full disclosure. Graham was shuffled off to meet with a low-level White House staffer.
CIA Director John O. Brennan, a Saudophile and former CIA station chief in Riyadh, is, according to our sources, behind the restoration of Bandar to a key position in the Saudi government. Some 1,000 U.S. troops and advisers have been dispatched to Iraq not to prevent the Maliki government from falling but to assist in the transition to a post-Maliki government that will have strong pro-Saudi and Sunni representation. The U.S. military personnel are also in Iraq to protect U.S. assets in the country, including the massive U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad and U.S. oil industry interests.
There were varying unsubstantiated reports at the time of Bandar’s dismissal that he had been assassinated or wounded while visiting rebel-held positions in Syria. Other reports stated that Bandar, affectionately known by the Bush family as “Bandar Bush” because of his close ties to the American political dynasty, was poisoned in an internal Saudi feud aimed at eliminating the influence of Bandar, the chief of the Sudairi clan within the House of Saud. The clan also includes Prince Turki, also a former Saudi intelligence chief, and Crown Prince Salman, the heir apparent to the throne after King Abdullah dies.
Bandar was brought back into a significant position as adviser to King Abdullah in order to carry out the Saudi and Israeli master plan for the region. The Riyadh-Jerusalem axis has agreed that Iraq as a nation must cease to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently publicly endorsed an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The advance of ISIL forces into Iraq has convinced Turkey, long opposed to Kurdish statehood in Iraq, to support the idea or possibly face ISIL in charge of Kurdistan. The Turkish government has also started negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey but now seen as a potential partner for Turkey against an ISIL takeover of Iraqi Kurdistan.
An ISIL on the move also gives Israel a powerful argument for why it must remain in charge of the West Bank. With ISIL changing its name from “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” to the more all-encompassing “Islamic State,” there is a belief, backed by recent public statements by ISIL leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that ISIl’s plans for an Islamic caliphate include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond. Baghdadi has called for an Islamic revolt from the Central African Republic to Myanmar. For Netanyahu, ISIl’s offensive gives him political ammunition for not only maintaining control over the West Bank but in sabotaging the new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas.
Bandar’s goal is to eliminate the current governments of Syria and Iraq, thus depriving Iran of its only two allies in the region. With a radical Sunni caliphate in charge in Baghdad, ISIL will be poised to cross the Iranian border and start a rebellion among Iran’s Arab minority in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran’s oil industry. With ISIL gaining control of Iraq’s southern oil fields as well as part of the fields bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the takeover by a Saudi proxy of Iran’s oil province would give Saudi Arabia effective control over much of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The shift of political and economic clout to Riyadh would also eliminate Qatar and its Muslim Brotherhood-aligned government as a serious rival to Saudi regional hegemony.
Bandar not only has Brennan in his corner in Washington but also Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who, while attending the February Munich Security Conference, said, “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar.” McCain echoed similar comments he made earlier on CNN. In 2012, McCain covertly crossed into Syria from Turkey and was photographed with radical Islamists, some of whom are now fighting with ISIL in Iraq.
Bandar had never actually left the Saudi inner circle. After being dismissed as intelligence chief in April, he retained his position as secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, a position similar to that held by Susan Rice as the White House National Security Adviser and director of the National Security Council.
Bandar’s restoration to favor within the House of Saud came as King Abdullah appointed the recently-fired deputy defense minister, Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, as the new chief of Saudi intelligence. It took only two days for Khaled from being fired as deputy defense minister, a job he held for only 45 days, to being named as Saudi intelligence chief. The shuffle came about to ensure that key Saudi defense and intelligence officials are on the same page when it comes to reasserting control over ISIL as it continues to advance toward Baghdad.
However, the House of Saud has been a major bank roller of ISIL since the beginning of their roles in Syria’s civil war. The Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), on the other hand, has been mainly funded by Qatar. However, the Al Nusra Front, far from being a rival to ISIL, has pledged its support for the group as its forces spread across northern and western Iraq.
The actual aim of Saudi Arabia is to destabilize Iraq and Syria, hoping that the Nouri al-Maliki and Bashar al Assad governments, respectively, will be overthrown and replaced with radical Sunni regimes beholden to the Saudis.
Bandar, who is widely credied for arming and financing radical jihadists in the Syrian opposition rebel army against so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition forces, was forced out as Saudi intelligence chief after President Barack Obama met with King Abdullah in Riyadh on March 28. Bandar’s duties as the chief Saudi interlocutor with Syria’s rebels was transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Those duties will now be assumed by Prince Khaled. Prince Mohammed helped steer Saudi support to the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has become a second-tier and weak player in the Syrian civil war. FSA officials, many of whom are exiled former government officials in the Assad government, are more comfortable in Istanbul hotels and restaurants than on the front lines in Syria. However, after the success of ISIL in eastern Syria and Iraq, the Saudis decided to bring back ISIl’s main interlocutor, Prince Bandar, to bring the group’s leadership under firmer Saudi control.
Bandar has had long ties to Jihadist terrorism. Bandar, on a pre-Sochi Olympics trip to Moscow, offered Russia a lucrative weapons deal if Russia ceased its support for Assad. Bandar also told Putin that if Russia rejected Saudi Arabia’s offer, Saudi-backed Islamist terrorists in the Caucasus region would be free to launch terrorist attacks on the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Putin reportedly ordered Bandar out of his office in the Kremlin. There are also reports that Saudi-financed Islamist terrorists from Chechnya and Dagestan have been active in Ukraine fighting against Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. In some cases, Islamist terrorists have joined Israeli paramilitary units in Ukraine in support of the Kiev governments military actions against eastern Ukraine. In Syria, there have been reports of Mossad coordination with ISIL units in attacks against Syrian government forces, including in the region north of the Golan Heights.
Bandar’s name is reportedly contained in the still-classified 28 pages from the Joint Congressional 9/11 Inquiry report on Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attack. Attempts to have the 28 pages declassified has met with strong opposition from Brennan and the CIA, as well as the Obama White House. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time the report was written, has called for the 28 pages to be made public. A reliable source told WMR that Graham was cold-shouldered when he visited the White House last year to press for full disclosure. Graham was shuffled off to meet with a low-level White House staffer.
CIA Director John O. Brennan, a Saudophile and former CIA station chief in Riyadh, is, according to our sources, behind the restoration of Bandar to a key position in the Saudi government. Some 1,000 U.S. troops and advisers have been dispatched to Iraq not to prevent the Maliki government from falling but to assist in the transition to a post-Maliki government that will have strong pro-Saudi and Sunni representation. The U.S. military personnel are also in Iraq to protect U.S. assets in the country, including the massive U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad and U.S. oil industry interests.
There were varying unsubstantiated reports at the time of Bandar’s dismissal that he had been assassinated or wounded while visiting rebel-held positions in Syria. Other reports stated that Bandar, affectionately known by the Bush family as “Bandar Bush” because of his close ties to the American political dynasty, was poisoned in an internal Saudi feud aimed at eliminating the influence of Bandar, the chief of the Sudairi clan within the House of Saud. The clan also includes Prince Turki, also a former Saudi intelligence chief, and Crown Prince Salman, the heir apparent to the throne after King Abdullah dies.
Bandar was brought back into a significant position as adviser to King Abdullah in order to carry out the Saudi and Israeli master plan for the region. The Riyadh-Jerusalem axis has agreed that Iraq as a nation must cease to exist. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently publicly endorsed an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The advance of ISIL forces into Iraq has convinced Turkey, long opposed to Kurdish statehood in Iraq, to support the idea or possibly face ISIL in charge of Kurdistan. The Turkish government has also started negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Turkey but now seen as a potential partner for Turkey against an ISIL takeover of Iraqi Kurdistan.
An ISIL on the move also gives Israel a powerful argument for why it must remain in charge of the West Bank. With ISIL changing its name from “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” to the more all-encompassing “Islamic State,” there is a belief, backed by recent public statements by ISIL leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that ISIl’s plans for an Islamic caliphate include Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and beyond. Baghdadi has called for an Islamic revolt from the Central African Republic to Myanmar. For Netanyahu, ISIl’s offensive gives him political ammunition for not only maintaining control over the West Bank but in sabotaging the new Palestinian unity government of Fatah and Hamas.
Bandar’s goal is to eliminate the current governments of Syria and Iraq, thus depriving Iran of its only two allies in the region. With a radical Sunni caliphate in charge in Baghdad, ISIL will be poised to cross the Iranian border and start a rebellion among Iran’s Arab minority in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran’s oil industry. With ISIL gaining control of Iraq’s southern oil fields as well as part of the fields bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, the takeover by a Saudi proxy of Iran’s oil province would give Saudi Arabia effective control over much of the Middle East’s oil reserves. The shift of political and economic clout to Riyadh would also eliminate Qatar and its Muslim Brotherhood-aligned government as a serious rival to Saudi regional hegemony.
Bandar not only has Brennan in his corner in Washington but also Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who, while attending the February Munich Security Conference, said, “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar.” McCain echoed similar comments he made earlier on CNN. In 2012, McCain covertly crossed into Syria from Turkey and was photographed with radical Islamists, some of whom are now fighting with ISIL in Iraq.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2014 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist
and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of
the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
This entry was posted in Special Reports. Bookmark the permalink.
- See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/13495#sthash.j1UIPNH7.dpuf