President Bush in Saudi Land: Questions to Ask While Holding King Abdullah's Hand

President Bush will be visiting Saudi Arabia in the next days and meeting with King Abdullah. It will the first opportunity for both men since walking hand in hand at the President's Crawford, Texas, ranch back in April 2005. Before and since little has changed. This administration, under President Bush has persisted on showing fawning obsequiousness toward Saudi officialdom. This, in stark contrast to the American public who view that relationship very differently. Therefore, hereby, a list of questions, some pragmatic, some visceral, that the president might ask while strolling with King Abdullah. Perhaps they will signal to His Majesty that the administration's "heads you win, tails we lose" coin toss game with the Saudis has run its course:

- Early in 2007 with the price of oil hovering about $50/bbl, you as the putative leader of OPEC, organized a production cut of 1.7 million barrels a day from OPEC's production quotas. Since then the price of oil has escalated by 100% touching $100/bbl just last week. Such an increase in price is unprecedented and is beginning to wreck havoc on world economies, especially the poorer nations. Obviously the 500,000 barrels production a day that were reinstated in November are a far cry from what is needed. Why, in spite of this dramatic price escalation have you not at the very least reinstated the full 1.7 million barrels of production?

- In late September of 2006 your oil Minister Ali al-Naimi advised the world at large, with prices near $60/bbl, that "the oil industry is convinced that the price of oil is reasonable". This after his comments in 2004 "the market desires a $35/bbl because it is frightened of [the price rising] to $50," going on to say the Saudis too were "frightened" of that price because it might damage the world economy. Now with oil prices touching $100 barrel, how do you reconcile his statements to actual realities?

- Your Highness, you will remember back the last time we strolled along holding hands at the ranch in Crawford. At that time you agreed to increasing your production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009 thereby bringing the world's economies and oil production into closer equilibrium You graciously advised that you would commit $50 billion toward achieving that goal. It was a gesture I found especially moving . Though $50 billion isn't quite what it used to be at today's oil prices, could you tell me how far along you are on this important project?

- Your Highness, back in the '70s your national oil company, Saudi Aramco, fashioned a comprehensive plan calling for Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production capacity to 20 million barrels a day by the 1990's. Do you still have a copy of this study?

- Your Highness, my people at our Energy Department and my good friend Matt Simmons are somewhat confused. They tell me they know so little about your true production capabilities. That you have let it be known that Saudi Arabia holds 260 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. Then in March of last year the head of reservoir management at Saudi Aramco, estimated the kingdom's reserves were almost three times greater, being closer to 716 billion barrels and possibly as great as a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) barrels. You see, we feel strongly that the lack of transparency in oil markets and the poor quality of information available generally, and especially from you as the most important producer in the world, contribute enormously to volatility and uncertainties. Therefore we would be especially grateful were you to lift the veil of secrecy and share data on your output and reserves setting an example for oil producers everywhere. Could we count on your cooperation in this matter as it is a key to our economic planning and that of so many others?

- Saudi Arabia has accumulated enormous wealth through the sale of oil especially so at current prices. A portion of that wealth is funding the Saudi Sovereign Investment Fund with some $900 billion, with much more to come in the years ahead. These funds are so huge and their aims and objectives so opaque that they are creating great concern in financial communities both in my country and around the world. Operational secrecy seems to be their order of the day. My SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has speculated that government investment funds could use the "vast amount of covert information" their intelligence services collect, making them "the ultimate insider trading tool." Given that insider trading is anathema to free markets, given the size and importance of your Sovereign Fund, would you be prepared to allay our and the financial community's concerns and set an example to other Sovereign Funds by opening your Fund's activities to candid public disclosure?

- Your Highness, just the other day three of our naval vessels were confronted in the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian armed speedboats. Our sailors were clearly in harm's way, and thankfully no casualties were suffered by our men and women. These ships were part of a larger naval force protecting the Strait of Hormuz and extending into the Arabian/Persian Gulf protecting you coastline as well. One could almost say they serve as guarantors of your independence -- no telling what the Iranians would do if we sailed away. This naval force is there to our mutual interest. We both want the oil to flow through the shipping lanes, but in that you are the ones profiting and we are the ones paying for the oil, don't you think you also should share in the upkeep of the task force? After all helping to protect your coast and the shipping lanes that ply your oil, is costing our treasury alone, some $100 million a day, or near $35 billion/year. Don't you agree, Your Highness, it would only be fair to share this burden with our citizenry who are currently footing this bill, while paying over $3.00 per gallon of gasoline?

- While we are placing our soldiers and sailors in harm's way to help guarantee your independence and to provide your oil with unencumbered access to world markets, you continue to dispense billions of your oil revenue either directly or indirectly to fund imams, mosques, cultural centers, Madrassas', both in Saudi Arabia and throughout the world ,preaching sadly venomous hatred of Shiites, Christians, Hindus and Jews. A recent report by the U.S. Commision on International Religious Freedom released in November, highlighted the lack of progress on efforts to halt the exportation of extremist ideology, a root cause for terrorism and political disequilibrium around the world. About the same time, The New York Times reported (as you know, hardly a mouthpiece of my administration), that your subjects are the largest contingent by far of foreign insurgent/suicide bombers in Iraq, and that according to American military officials "Saudi citizens provide the majority of financing for Al Queda in Mesopotania." As King, your Highness, what can you do to bring an end to this grave blemish on your nation?

- While we are on this unhappy note, Your Highness, I understand you recently released 1,500 Al Queda operatives. According to Saudi officialdom these individuals were counseled and seemingly purged of their "takfir" ideology which holds that there are separate rules that allows believers to kill, to lie to and steal from nonbelievers. As a condition of their release they were required to sign a statement promising only to refrain from jihad within the Arabian Peninsular. Please excuse my bluntness, Your Highness, a question I am reluctant to ask but my staff has been so insistent- does this mean they have higher authority to attack within our cities and fly planes into our buildings?

- And, oh yes Your Highness, another thing. Last March you issued a declaration that the American presence in Iraq is an "illegal foreign occupation." You know I immediately checked with my Dad and he doesn't recall a similar declaration being made before, during or after Gulf War I, when Saddam Hussein had aggressive designs toward Saudi Arabia and where many of our soldiers fought and died to protect the House of Saud. But then he is getting on in years and perhaps his memory is fading. What is your recollection about references to "foreign occupation" then?

- On a final and a fundamentally important note, we as two nations have a long history of cooperation and yet we must begin to deal with the important differences that separate our societies. According to that same report by the U.S. Commision on Religious Freedom that I mentioned previously, grave concern is expressed in the report about Saudi Arabia's violations of religious rights, especially those of Shiite Muslims, non Moslem religious groups and women. These are issues of great concern to my fellow citizens. There is the recent example of the "Qatif Girl" and her 200 lash sentence (commuted by King Abdullah after international uproar) and the 'arrest' of the blogger Fouad al-Farhan. Our views on these issues are so different that it has become critical to both our nations to bridge these differences, if we are to have any chance of building a future together in this precarious world. Should you agree, how then Your Highness, can we best undertake this task?

Comments

[sculptor]

I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to talk like that with somebody that has you by the short hairs. ;-) Maybe, if a couple of decades ago we'd decided as a nation to achieve energy independence then we'd would not have to be speculating about what the magic words are that would pry the Saudi hands out of our wallets. ;-(

[nomoredead]

The solution to this problem is here. Watch the CNN video on the Trinity electric hybrid that can get 150 miles per gallon. Just think what will be developed in the next 5 years. Solar recharging hybrids ??? What if the money wasted on foreign military bases and Iraq were diverted for just one year to fund the purchase by americans of these vehicles. The gov could use the Iraq money to change postal, police or any public vehicle over right away. We need oil to be $150 per barrel and gas $6 per gallon for americans to wake up.

[willo]

Saudi Arabia is about as far from democracy as you can get. It is psycho's like Bush enabling these monstrous tyrants.
Getting the Saudi's to crank up oil production is not a solution but part of the problem. We have to wean ourselves from oil like an addict would from heroin.
This country is in dire need of intelligent honest executives. If one happened to appear and started to get some traction they would murder him.

[scampy123]

$80bn arms order from Saudi but no democracy.
Palestinians starving in Gaza because they voted in democratic elections but got the wrong result.
What kind of democracy would satisfy Bush I mean Cheney in Saudi?
Benazir sent to her death in Pakistan to try the Bush Cheney democracy?
Iraq and Afghan democracy where Bush Cheney pick the leaders?
Will Obama be able to clean up the mess left by these bastards?

[PepperzMom]

None of those questions will ever even make to the vague state of mind he has....the questions are too relevant and too well written for Shrub to even understand what he's saying...

[Spookcatcher]

Well... the first thing Ronnie did was insure that the drug "Aricept" would not be sold as a Generic for decades, even though it costs only as much as an asprin to produce. Then GHW Bush went in to tuck him in that first night and give him his stuffed chimp "Bonzo" that he always slept with, and proceded to tell Ronnie that sleeping under a solar panelled roof would give you headaches and cause cancer, and also like when you were a boy scout the light of the hot sun through the panels could burn a hole in the carpet and start a fire. True story...also we need to train and sell Saddam Hussein Chemical and Biological weapons because he is he hates those Russian Commies and he hates Iran just like you.

[newsweek1945]

'dullah, if you're really my friend, could you allow me to stay here? The people of my former country are sort of tired of my meaningless attempts at rhetoric and bullshit. Please, I'll attack any of your enemies, please!!

[factanonverba]

In the 1950s the United States signed a treaty with Saudi Arabia or more appropriately with the Saud family. The US agreed to protect the interests of the Saud family, that is their maintenance in power, in return for American access to Saudi oil fields. That treaty, never ratified by the US Senate because it is in reality a quid pro quo, has seen a number of revisions in the intervening years. Kissinger and then Reagan made adjustments. I am sure both Bush, Clinton and Bush also made adjustments. It is hard to know what exactly our commitments to the Saud family is but the commitment is clearly not to the people of Saudi Arabia.
In the end that will probably come back to bite us in the ass. I know this about Saudi Arabia: it is very young- half the population is under 20. And a third of all Saudis live in poverty. That combination is rather worrisome.

[factanonverba]

You seem to think that Saudis can turn on a spigot and let the oil flow. That shows a clear misunderstanding of how an oil field works. To begin with, most Middle Eastern oil fields outside Saudi Arabia have peaked production. Only Iraqi and Saudi fields remain on the upward sides of the parabolic curve. Iran peaked in 1978, Kuwait in 2005. The problem is that Saudi Arabia can not pump more oil to make up for that short-fall. Worldwide the problem is even greater: Indonesia is now a net importer. Britain will become a net importer by 2012. The North Sea was the greatest oil find since the 1950s and will be gone by 2030. In Saudi Arabia since 1967 only one major discovery has taken place. The problem is as much a demand problem as it is a supply one.
The fact is plain and simple: we need to find and develop other sources of energy to replace our reliance on hydrocarbons. One barrel of oil represents 25,000 hours of man power. That's how valuable oil is to us and yet we waste it on transportation of moving one person in his own vehicle. Until the price of oil makes cars too expensive as a daily transport, it is unlikely that we will devote the necessary investment to develop fully other sources of energy.
Right now humanity is throwing itself quite a party, that party is only able to occur because we are using the energy (that ultimately comes from the Sun) that has been stored up in the Earth converted from solar energy to liquid form by first plants and then animals who consumed those plants then died and whose sediments were trapped in the Earth and heated by the Earth's core for the past two billion years. In the space of four or five human lifetimes we have consumed that energy. Oil is being depleted, we need to face that fact. What it means that oil is gone is a question that humanity will have to answer sometime in the second half of this century.

[DC]

Iraq production is out. Demand is still increasing (The current war adds to this.) The Saudi vast reserves are being rapidly depleted and indications are at a much higher rate that presumed. Against that the daily out put has increased.

Oil is a world commodity, priced by the world markets -- not the Saudi King Abullah.

[SubparDude]

Oh yes, and one last thing, PrinceyDude, that Swiss Account number still works, eh? Seeya in Crawferd.

[doubleplusgood]

..and here's what he'd say: Let me remind you George, that this is MY country's oil.. I can burn it, sell it for $1000/bbl or give it away to China if I want.. You could always not buy it? Free market, right? Not my fault if you built a whole economy on MY resource.. Come to think on it, maybe you better kiss ass a bit more. You might have made cartels illegal in your country, but over here: not so much. We are a sovereign nation after all.. If you don't like how we behave maybe you could impose sanctions? Let's be clear also: My family and I directly or with influence control this entire region of the planet- we are Arabs first and nations second.. and the only people we're really scared of coming to steal our oil, is the US. On the whole human rights thing: You're kidding right?: You ought to talk.

Now stop complaining, you've done pretty well out of the whole deal.

[research]

Saudis: the people who cultivated and funded the terrorists of 9/11

And BushCo's best friends for life.

[AMolinaro]

A bunch of questions about oil and then one tacked on about human rights at the end...

You do realize it's foreign policy thinking along these very lines that is responsible for a great deal of the troubles in the Middle East.

[nammy50]

The first thing Ronald Reagan did when taking up residency of the White House was to remove the solar panels from the roof. (Carter had them installed.)

Enough said.