Washington — American taxpayers will get a bill for billions of dollars for President Bush’s war on terrorism, but what most don’t realize is that they’ll be paying billions more to help protect Osama bin Laden.
That’s because while some of our “allies” like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and even said they support Bush’s campaign against those responsible, they are actually part of the problem.
Both refuse military assistance to the U.S.-led effort; and requests for intelligence gathering and help in collecting evidence to prosecute those responsible are being ignored.
Worse, these “allies” won’t shut off bin Laden’s money flow. Millions of dollars go to his Al Qaeda network from Islamic charities, royal benefactors and financial institutions in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf sheikdoms and Egypt.
Protests that these governments are doing all they’ve been asked is a subterfuge. Washington’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy means the Bush administration knows what not to ask for. So both play the cover-up game.
But one thing these fickle allies are giving Bush lots of is free advice. They are telling all who will listen that the real cause of Sept. 11 was American support for Israel, and only when that changes can terrorism be stopped. With friends like these, America can’t afford many more enemies.
Sadly, Bush has tacitly abetted their game by his misleading statements that both countries are cooperating and, worse, by appearing to distance the United States from Israel.
The only real support Bush has gotten from Egypt and Saudi Arabia has been for his endorsement of Palestinian statehood. Word in Washington is that before the next big push in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Colin Powell will unveil the administration’s vision of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, and Arab sources say they’ve been told to expect to like it.
Bush’s bold declaration “Either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists” is quickly turning into a case of “that may be what I said but it’s not what I meant.”
Echoing Arafat
Bush told a news conference last week that he “appreciate(s)” Saudi “actions.” Was he referring to the Saudi refusal to help wage the war, dry up funding for the terrorists or investigate those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks?
Bush also declared himself “heartened” by the Organization of Islamic Countries “statement of support for war against terror.”
He was right when he said the statement “spoke volumes about the attitude of Muslim nations,” but he wouldn’t have said that if he’d read the document, which neither endorsed nor opposed his campaign. However, OIC did implicitly warn against targeting terrorist sponsors such as Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Most of the document “echoed” Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s attacks on Israel, according to the Jordan Times. The communiqué accused Israel of “state terrorism” and declared attacks on Israel are the legitimate “right of the Arab and Islamic countries including the Palestinians and the Lebanese people to resist occupation.”
Some of those “resistance” fighters blew up American barracks and embassies in Lebanon, killing servicemen and diplomats, and were responsible for hijacking airliners and kidnapping Americans and westerners for years.
Thousands of American service men and women went into harm’s way a decade ago to rescue Saudi Arabia from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but now when we ask the Saudis for help it’s another story.
Only New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had the guts to speak truth to oil power and tell a Saudi prince what he could do with a $10 million check when it came tied to a statement virtually blaming Sept. 11 on Israel’s “slaughter” of “our Palestinian brethren.”
Notwithstanding bin Laden’s televised confession, the Saudi and Egyptian statements and the OIC communiqué, the real cause of Sept. 11 is those very Arab leaders who have made violence and hatred accepted norms and preferred instruments of policy.
Even the Washington Post, considered by many to be sympathetic to the Arab cause, said in an editorial last week, “The largest single ‘cause’ of Islamic extremism and terrorism is not Israel, nor U.S. policy in Iraq, but the very governments that now purport to support the United States while counseling it to lean on [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon and lay off Saddam Hussein. Egypt is the leading example.”
American taxpayers prop Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime with some $2 billion annually plus top-line military technology. This for a country whose state-controlled media make it clear the only enemy is Israel. But this week Mubarak, who has never faced an unrigged election and ruthlessly exterminated his rivals, called Israel a “dictatorship.”
Members of Congress have complained before about Egypt, but in the end they folded under administration insistence that Mubarak is a valuable ally. There is little proof to substantiate the claim.
Bush has shown courage in going after bin Laden and his terror network; now he has to demonstrate the same resolve in letting unfaithful allies know that if they want to be friends of the United States, it’s time they begin acting like friends.
Voters must begin asking their representatives in the Congress why so many of their tax dollars are going to prop and defend these leaders who preserve, protect and defend the terror network while blaming Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks and demanding America drop its old friend and only reliable ally in that part of the world. Silence is acquiescence.
Douglas M. Bloomfield is a Washington, D.C.-based syndicated columnist and a former chief lobbyist for AIPAC.
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