Contrary to Previous Reports, Cheney Was ‘Basically Summoned’ By Saudi Crown Prince

[TomInTib]

Last weekend, Vice President Cheney traveled to Saudi Arabia in a visit that “was originally portrayed as U.S. outreach to its oil-rich Arab ally.” Cheney made the trip purportedly to discuss a “range of regional issues,” Cheney’s spokeswoman said. The Associated Press reported that Cheney was “seen as a US diplomatic push to stem surging violence in Iraq.”

But today’s Washington Post reports that the push for the meeting came from the Saudis, not the other way around:

Saudi Arabia is so concerned about the damage that the conflict in Iraq is doing across the region that it basically summoned Vice President Cheney for talks over the weekend, according to U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.

What does it say about the nature of U.S.-Saudi relations when the Vice President can be “summoned” by the Saudi Crown Prince?

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/28/cheney-saudi/

[CJCRANE]

1. Well, they said the "grown-ups" were in charge...

just didn't tell you which country the "grown-ups" were from...

[Botany]

2. who is your daddy?

[msedano]

42. Unless some editor flopped that photo...

Cheney is being disrespected by being seated to the left of the monarch. Wonder if the Saudis flew the stars and stripes according to US etiquette?

In the lower photo, note shrub stands at the saudi's right.

http://readraza.com/hawk/index.htm

[iconoclastic cat]

3. How do you "summon" Cheney?

Eye of Newt?

[Benhurst]

6. Whatever incantation is used, you should stand within

a magic circle.

[Buck Laser]

8. No, something like "Get your ass over here, dumbfuck!" nt

[JohnyCanuck]

33. And leave the shotgun at home. n/t

[Sapere aude]

13. Dude! We own the oil, now get your ass over here.

[cassiepriam]

45. They own Cheney, body and soul.

[NickB79]

15. Eye of Sauron

Oil is their "precious".

[jazzjunkysue]

34. Doesn't the evil emperor sit in the big chair and think real hard?

[htuttle]

4. "Is there a problem?... Usually there is a problem when one of you requests a visit."

[truthisfreedom]

5. You've nailed it there, sir.

Chilling.

[Barrett808]

7. "I see plans within plans."

"You are transparent to me."

[anotherdrew]

17. perfect! the spice must flow!

just re-watched a good long version this weekend. Lynch nailed it.

[Cobalt-60]

19. How would you like to spend the rest of your life

in a pain amplifier?
nice choice.

[jazzjunkysue]

31. Thanks for the nightmares. Scotch, please. n/t.

[AntiFascist]

37. It's those damn fremen n/t

[jus_the_facts]

9. They've lined up more terraists from there and Pakistan to do another 9/11....

....then instead of blame on Afghanistan and Iraq it's Iran and Syria this time...D'UH! :eyes:

[Tummler]

10. "Bathe him, and bring him to me!"

:scared:








:puke:

[Hekate]

43. "Baste him and bring him to me. Stick a fork in him, he's done."

:rofl:

Hekate

[Peace Patriot]

11. Whoa, the Washington Post printed THAT?

I smell serious insurrection in the corridors of power (i.e., the corporate board rooms)!

Funny, what popped into my head immediately was another day, another time--seems like centuries ago--when the Bushites first stormtroopered into DC, and all were bowing and scraping before their awesome rightwing mandate (--squeak-in; didn't even win, as it turns out). Early in that prayerful event--the dawn of fascist rule in the United States--a young woman disappeared, a Washington intern--Chandra Levy--and everybody suspected Congressman Gary Condit, who had been having an affair with her. I was always puzzled by the Washington press corps' total lack of interest in who Condit met with, on the day she disappeared (May 1, 2001). Dick Cheney. Condit was a "blue dog" Democrat--that disreputable lot--and, three days after Levy's disappearance, Condit voted for Bush-Cheney's first tax cut for the rich, in a very close vote. I was following these events at the time, and it seemed to me that that was at least worth mentioning in the news (indeed, worth serious investigation). Not one whisper. Nothing. Until late in the summer--four months after her disappearance, and two months after Condit had revealed his schedule of that day--when Newsweek let Cheney plant his version of the meeting in their magazine, at a propitious moment--just after it was revealed to the public that she had disappeared a bit later in the day--pinpointing her disappearance to the time of Condit's meeting with Cheney, or just afterwards. (They originally said she disappeared around 10 am; later they pushed it to noon/early afternoon; the Condit/Cheney meeting was at noon.) It therefore had become even more important how long the meeting was, and who was there, etc. Dick Cheney was Condit's only alibi! The late-in-the-day version of events by Cheney that appeared in Newsweek (short 20 minute meeting, aides present, routine political discussion) was accompanied by the casual disclosure (all of this was from Cheney's aides) that no one--not the FBI, not the DC police, no one in authority--had ever questioned Cheney or his aides about the meeting. Not even to determine IF it had taken place (let alone other details).

I was open-mouthed. I knew that the corporate news monopolies had gotten bad. I hadn't realized how bad.

Even if they didn't know that she disappeared around noon/early afternoon, the fact that she disappeared mid-morning and the next thing her lover did was to meet with Dick Cheney (at noon), would inspire questions, would it not? (--and suspicions, for instance, did Cheney know about Condit's several mistresses, and was Condit being blackmailed to be cooperative in Congress?)

I have no idea what was being covered up (although I'm fairly sure that something WAS being covered up)--but the DEFERENCE to Cheney was astonishing in itself. That no one had asked him about the meeting. That he was above being questioned. Or--if his aides were lying about that (a possibility)--that no one in the press corps asked about it, or mentioned it. (I had to dig around, and put these facts and time-lines together for myself.) Also, there was a big Congressional investigation of the FBI going on at that time (summer '01). Condit was on the committee doing the investigation! Looking back, I suspect that the FBI was already being purged by the Bushites. John O'Neil--who was on the Yemen Al Qaeda money trail--got purged; also, Colleen Rowley's routine request to get into Zacharias Moussoui's computer was being denied. We were in the leadup to 9/11. The FBI lab kept Chandra Levy's computer under wraps for three months--then suddenly, late in the summer, announced the change in her supposed disappearance time (connected to her MapQuest searches) (--which gave Cheney lots of lead time to devise his version of the meeting).

Anyway, contrast this deference--and Cheney's untouchability--with WaPo (DC's chief Cheney worshiper) ratting him out on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

We really can't know why they did it. Journalism is not their strength. (I mean, they didn't do it because it's news and the American people have a right to know.) Still, it's a refreshing change. And it's interesting to follow the cracks of the crumbling Bush Junta and its aiders and abettors. (Why would WaPo want this known? Are they trying to bolster their credibility as a real newspaper? Or did they have some other more devious motive? And what of the sources? "US officials and foreign diplomats." Are they telling the truth, that the Saudi sultans are so concerned about Iraq? Or is that also a cover story? Cheney doesn't do anything that is not about lots of money, and oil. Mideast security ain't the whole story, I'd guess. Stay tuned.)

[Demeter]

20. Good Work Keeping Track of This!

Too bad we can't get somebody paid to do this kind of oversight....

Theat's the trouble with these criminals: it's a spiderweb of invisible, sticky threads that all run to the source. Tracking them takes time, and patience and luck, and then what can we do with the information?

[Peace Patriot]

25. I think we're doing what can be done with it right here, in a forum that

everyone can access, to post what they know, or read what others know. Lots of people don't trust the corporate news monopolies any more, and are turning to the internet for a wider range of information, to follow up their own hunches, and to educate themselves. This is where the expose of the 2004 fraudulent election occurred, right here at DU (or one big part of it). Now many millions have gotten the word. It spread like wildfire after a certain point. (And I thought the reaction of the people was interesting and heartening--the huge Absentee Ballot vote in the recent midterms (50% of the state of California voted by AB, and it was big all over the country)--ordinary voters trying to find a way around the rigged electronics. That's a mighty big constituency for election reform.)

I do know what you mean about the invisible spiderweb. I've also done some research on the Plame/Brewster-Jennings outings--and, wow, as invisible spiderwebs go, that one takes the prize. But I wouldn't despair. I see all kinds of signs that our smothered and almost dead political culture is coming back to life. I don't think we can expect WaPo to start doing real investigations--they are too corrupt. But there are a whole lot of people jumping into the void created by corporate news monopolies, in numerous alternative forms of publication. And educating and informing the public is probably of equal importance to restoring our right to vote. Both place power where it belongs, with the people. The power of knowledge, and the power to steer our government's course by voting.

Our leaders need to be empowered--by US. And, as this happens, I think we will see a lot more of the spiderweb become visible, with strategies devised to expose it, to prosecute perps, and to prevent such a fascist coup from ever happening again. Washington DC may be a mess, and the corporate news monopolies may be about to deflate like the great gasbags they are, but the American people are alive and well, with an amazing resilience in their fundamental beliefs in fairness, justice and democracy. People say, "I want my country back," but I think the truth is that we never lost it. We are just discovering that it's been here all along--silenced, disempowered, disenfranchised, having lost the lever of the peoples' power--the vote--but still tenaciously loyal to the idea of government of the people, by the people and for the people--an idea that is flourishing in South America these days, and other parts of the world, and that will be reborn here as well.

[petgoat]

26. Interesting Info on Cheney and Condit.

Some people note that the Modesto Bee newspaper was planning
a major investigation of the Chandra Levey case (Modesto was
her home town) which was then dropped when Laci Peterson
disappeared.

Haven't looked into it myself. Who was Condit? Well, among
other things, a senior member on the House Intelligence Commitee
in the months and years before 9/11 during which time its
chairman was Porter Goss.

[AntiFascist]

38. Sounds like collusion with CNN n/t

[nashville_brook]

36. damn -- this is why i read DU

[cassiepriam]

46. All paths lead back to the Bush cabal. Chilling.... nt

[Theres-a]

48. Exactly.

Great post,btw.

[Megahurtz]

12. They "Summon his Senses".

:sarcasm:

[Charlie Brown]

14. "What is thy bidding, my master?" nt

[AIJ Alom]

16. I guess they witnessed the drubbing senior Bush took in Abu

Dhabi.

[sarcasmo]

18. The real Man in charge. The Saudi Crown Prince.

[sweetheart]

21. more than that

They have imperial plans on the gulf, not a reaction, but a next year's expansion plans.

[mitchum]

22. And people still think that Israel is the ME country that drive US policy

I look forward to the fall of the house of Saud. Monstrous corrupt dirtbags.

[Joanne98]

23. I still say he's on a arms deal mission.....

WP will not talk about the money. Watch for business section reports of "good news" for defense companies!

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Does the Saudi Government have the power to force the United States

into a protracted war? I refuse to be a slave to the mistakes of greedy men. I live that way in my local town and I'll have a meltdown if I'm forced to live that way on a national level.

[petgoat]

27. Maybe the Saudis are concerned that the 28 pages that were

redacted from the Joint Committee's 9/11 report will be released.

Sources tell CBS the redacted section lays out a money trail between Saudi Arabia and supporters of al Qaeda, reports CBS White House Chief Correspondent John Roberts.

Among others, it singles out Omar al-Bayoumi, who gave financial assistance to 9-11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar.

The FBI charges al-Bayoumi, an official of the Saudi civil aviation authority, never lacked for money and is believed to have received funds from a charitable trust run by the wife of the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. The Saudis, for all their protestations of cooperating in the war on terror, still refuse to allow the FBI access to al-Bayoumi.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal called suggestions of such links "an outrage to any sense of fairness" and said his country had been "wrongfully and morbidly accused of complicity in the attacks."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/30/world/main565782.shtml

[BlueEyedSon]

28. That settles the issue of who Dick is working for

[truthisfreedom]

29. yeah, so now we know who our vice-president is employed by.

i was wondering who his handlers were.

[stubtoe]

30. Now this whole Saudi visit thing finally starts to make sense.

"Outreach" my rear end. Well, at least now we know who exactly pulls the strings.

[durtee librul]

32. Gee and here I thought he

was there to teach all the rich princes how to properly shoot skeet and pheasant while drinking fig wine.

[Anakin Skywalker]

35. Cheney is a Tool.

[AntiFascist]

39. When SA says jump, the Administration jumps...

if they want 9/11 framed as an attack on the US by Iraq, it is done!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

49. then asks what color.

sad, how they have sold out our country.

[lovuian]

40. Iran is knocking on Saudi doors

they are getting nervous that Bush & Cheney can't protect them

[NVMojo]

41. if you read Bob Woodward's last book, this would make more sense ...

especially around the first few chapters when the idiot son seeks him out for advice for his presidency.

[Quantess]

44. Recommended! Great thread.

[TomInTib]

47. kick