Kerry: US-Saudi Friendship Strong as Ever

That's a far different claim than "Saudi Gvt is sponsoring Al Qaeda". It's also untrue in and of itself.

I've read a ton of this stuff. So I'll say that it's incredibly unlikely, for 3 reasons.

Saudi Arabia actually revoked Bin Ladens Citizenship, well before his first attacks in the 90's on American Embassies in East Africa, since then, he was basically a stateless refugee, living in Africa, Afghanistan etc... Al Qaeda's 2nd in command, and now leader Ayman Zawahiri, is Egyptian. There's simply no connection. AQ's largest current incarnation, like AQI (now ISIS), was headed by a Jordanian militant who barely even had ties to Bin Laden. AQAP, is being actively fought by the Saudi Government, with military force.

Al Qaeda can best be described as an initially egyptian organization, which has now grown to include disgruntled jihadist groups through the levant and iraq. But to claim that Saudi Arabia had or has any role in sponsoring terrorism for state purposes is insane. It gains them nothing and loses everything, and this would contradict it's other foreign policy goals that it's actively working toward, as well as it's role in the world oil economy.

I'd imagine that those pages simply link some government official to Bin Ladin somehow. Who knows how corrupt it got. But obviously, judging by their actions, Saudi Arabian Royalty doesn't want terrorism to continue.

That's not to say they aren't batshit insane and immoral in other ways. That's also not to say that Al Qaeda, or the ideology they embody, isn't highly operative in Saudi Arabia. Personally I think we need to stop doing business with them ASAP, once we find another way to get energy.

But there's no reason to suspect Saudi Arabian Gvt as being some secret terrorist financier. Especially given the fact that these groups are constantly broke.

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