Word: fahd
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...June 1998, King Fahd dispatched Turki to Kandahar to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. His instructions were to "ask him to hand over bin Laden." Turki argued that bin Laden was endangering Afghanistan's greater interests. Mullah Omar "agreed in principle," Turki says...
...been relatively low. Political tension has been injected into a fragile economy. On television, Saudis see what they believe is a ruthless, U.S.-backed Israeli army shooting their fellow Arabs in the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile, Abdullah has consolidated a hold on the power formally exercised by an ailing King Fahd. The Crown Prince and his advisers are more nationalist, more religiously conservative and less instinctively supportive of the U.S. than their predecessors. Abdullah's advocacy to Washington on the part of the Palestinians, for example, has had a particularly sharp edge...
...YEARS AGO IN TIME With the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia was thrust into a spotlight its royal family never sought. By agreeing to accept U.S. troops in exchange for protection (after a visit from then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney), KING FAHD knew he was also inviting in Western influence...
...Some Saudi liberals seek U.S. support for their campaign for change. 'We hope the American presence is not just protection for the status quo,' says a businessman. 'We assume it will bring an improvement in the integrity of the government.' From Washington's viewpoint, however, pushing Fahd and family down the fast track to Westernization and democratization is a likely prescription for a Shah [of Iran]-like disaster. Swift liberalizations could easily stir religious extremists to revolt. 'If there's an internal threat to the kingdom,' says a U.S. expert on Saudi Arabia, 'it's from fundamentalists on the right...
...connected to like-minded comrades inside the kingdom, from fellow veterans of the Afghan war to a network of fiery young mid-rank clerics who share his views on fighting America and destroying Israel. It was the upshot of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait that ignited their anger. King Fahd's agreement to act as host to U.S. troops, bin Laden charged, revealed the al Sauds' inability to defend the kingdom and its unholy dependence on infidels. Al Saud fundamentalism was not correct enough for bin Laden, who decried the government's corruption and crackdown on dissident clerics. "The core...