Word: saud
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...supposed Saudi prince, Ibrahim Bin Abdul Aziz Saud Masoud certainly had a name to befit a royal title. But what impressed Lieut. Colonel Oliver North even more was the prince's offer to donate a hefty sum of money to aid the Nicaraguan contras. North was so taken with the prince that he went to Ronald Reagan and National Security Council Adviser Robert McFarlane and told them of the expected donation. As matters turned out, there was no money and no prince: the would-be contra benefactor was Mousalreza Ibrahim Zadeh, an expatriate Iranian swindler who has pleaded guilty...
...ousted minister had apparently run afoul of the ruling House of Saud on several counts. By electing to pump Saudi oil as fast as he could at a time when there was already a plentiful world supply, Yamani sparked a price war that caused OPEC prices to plunge from some $30 per bbl. last December to less than $10 this spring. Yamani's goal was to flood the world with cheap oil and thereby drive high-cost producers in the U.S., Britain and elsewhere out of business. OPEC would then be free to raise prices once again...
Domestically, the ruling House of Saud faces some rising discontent from a middle class that remains shut out of political power. In what remains a largely feudal society with a complex system of consensus building, the technocrats and businessmen who emerged during the boom years lack modern forums in which to vent their views sufficiently. Many young Saudis, particularly those educated in the West, are increasingly frustrated by their elders' refusal to allow them any governmental voice...
...many women are striving to push their way into the 1980s. A growing number are refusing to wear a veil in public, and some run businesses and are entering professions and occupations in which they work side by side with men. At King Saud University, female students still attend classes on a separate campus and listen to lectures from male professors over closed-circuit TV. But beneath their veiled garments, many are outfitted in tight skirts, spike heels and snug-fitting tops and resemble nothing so much as Brooke Shields look- alikes. The coeds are becoming more aggressive...
Despite its myriad problems, the House of Saud remains firmly entrenched and popular. In a kingdom in which 5,000 princes have a vested interest in preserving the political system, the chances of major change seem remote. Nonetheless, Fahd is sometimes criticized as indecisive and too subservient to religious authorities. The health of the 64-year-old King, a diabetic who craves sweets, smokes cigarettes and is overweight, is a matter of concern. So is the condition of Crown Prince Abdullah, 62, the first in line of succession, who is reportedly scheduled to have coronary-bypass surgery...