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Washington continues to billet US military personnel in Saudi Arabia despite the lack of OPEC influence on US oil needs. Crown Prince Abdullah showed up in Washington as part of a world tour dubbed his "coming out party". Oil purchasing countries were visited in an attempt to increase Saud family market share of international oil sales. Ron Chernow in a New York Times editorial reports: "In a world flooded with oil, it [OPEC] has seemed to surrender its formidable powers to the marketplace. ... The great and most lasting threat to the cartel is the ... amazing ability of technology to take a finite resource and convert it into something infinite. The upshot of such innovation is that analysts have radically revised their sense of the earth's oil-bearing potential. Supplies today are dictated not by the amount discovered but by what can be profitably produced at a given price. On September 25, 1998 a Saudi crown prince [Abdullah] presided over a one-hour "tea party" to explore possible cooperation with chief executives from seven American companies. ... Saudis have watched jealously as Mexico and Venezuela have angled to supplant them as the foremost supplier to the United States, the largest oil consumer. ... The Middle East oil states would also like to profit from the new technologies patented by American companies and to enlist their worldwide refining and marketing apparatus to sell oil." P139 Abdullah and Ambassador Prince Bandar begged for help from the large US based oil companies. There are some who argue the Persian Gulf could be even more marginalized if Washington turns increasingly to Venezuela and Mexico while denying the Gulf countries access to the most advanced production technologies. The Saud family are in a very shaky position since their dwindling oil royalties coupled with their political instability are causing unrest among the population they control. Could Bandar and Abdullah also be attempting to use political clout of the major US oil companies to insure continued support Saud family hegemony. If so, yet again, the US military garrisoned in Saudi Arabia could become cannon fodder for Washington Saud family oil special interest groups. SAUDI PRINCE EYES A US FEMALE UPI reports; "A lawsuit has been filed against a prince in the Saudi Arabian royal family and a member of his entourage who allegedly attacked a Dallas woman last week. The suit filed by attorney Windle Turley alleges that 21-year-old Walleed Abjullah Jabar gouged out the right eye of 20-year old Andrea Corvin, an employee of the Four Seasons Hotel where the royal family was staying."P140 Apparently Whaleed and his friends forgot they were not in Saudi Arabia where such attacks on US women by Saudi princes are common and unpunished. When the US women in Saudi Arabia complain of such abuses the State Department ignores them. What type of men would take out the eye of a girl? We do not know if the State Department will give Prince Jabar the usual retroactive diplomatic immunity. We do know that Prince Tallal has a large interest in the Four Seasons Hotel chain. "FAMILY VALUES" PROMOTED BY MICHAEL JACKSON AND PRINCE TALAL Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, half brother of King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, has a dynamic 36 year old son named Prince Alwaleed Al Saud. August of 1995 Prince Alwaleed allegedly sent his Boeing 727 to fetch Michael Jackson for lunch on his 283 foot Riviera yacht. Michael Jackson and King Fahd's nephew Prince Waleed bin Talal recently had a news conference. They said they are joining together to promote "family values". Michael Jackson said their relationship was "a long-awaited dream come true". Jackson said he had discovered during the course of his relationship with King Fahd's nephew somebody who shared the same aspirations. The two posed for a photo opportunity, declined to answer questions and then left together. Allegedly their relationship was consummated when they found they shared the basic instinct of caring for their fellow man. Khalid al-Monsour as advisor to King Fahd's nephew said; "shared humanistic vision to promote cultural diversity based on a philosophy of respect for family values" was what brought them together. Their Kingdom of Entertainment joint venture will allegedly promote "love and understanding between parents and their children. We want to find useful ways to channel the energy of children" -- said al-Mansour. Saud family Princes are known to take several wives. Both Michael Jackson and King Fahd's nephew are known as successful business persons. We wish them the best of luck.  PRINCE TALAL'S BOAT IN ST TROPEZ PRINCE TALAL BIN ABDUL AZIZ BECOMES DEADBEAT AND IS SUED Wall Street Journal reports; "Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud had promised to provide almost $18 million toward construction of the Hotel Aquamarina --- the prince signed a contract in which he agreed to contribute $15.7 million to the project through the Saudi Group --- the prince never followed through on promises to advance funds to enable construction to begin. --- Prince Talal's attorney Fred Dutton of Washington, wasn't available for comment."P141 PRINCE WALID BIN TALAL, A PLUS IN A FAMILY OF MINUSES! The New York Times reports: " 'I know that people would like to say that this Saudi prince is like all the others.' he (Prince Walid) said bitterly - an apparent reference to the royal corruption that business people and diplomats say is endemic in Saudi Arabia. Still, in a series of interviews, Prince Walid acknowledges that one early source of his investment capital was 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in 'commissions' paid by foreign and Saudi businesses. Even last year, he acknowledged, such commissions accounted for $40 million of his $500 million in income. The commissions are a form of commercial lubricant common in the Middle East, as elsewhere. A company that wants to win contracts in Saudi Arabia often hires a prince or other prominent Saudi as an agent. While executives complain that they often see very little work in return, they still pay - out of the perception that it is difficult, if not impossible, to win lucrative contracts in Saudi Arabia without a high-level connection. Prince Walid said the money paid to him, at least, had always been hard-earned. 'This had nothing to do with influence.' he said. In return for what was usually a 30 percent cut on a contract, he explained, his firm provided services that included 'handling all government relations, from A to Z.' ... Now, like every other grandson of King Saud - they number in the several hundreds - the Prince receives a monthly royal stipend of $15,000. ... He is proud of his charity ... 'It is a religious duty as a man. And No. 2, it is my duty as a member of the royal family.' Among his guests at lunch, a meal prepared by Lebanese chefs and usually including eight main courses, are five impoverished and usually elderly women selected each day from among those to whom he has given money and in answer to personal appeals. Veiled, the women sit at a separate table and are later visited by the Prince."P142 By virtue of being somewhat of a success story among other degenerate princes, Prince Walid has time and time again said that he is different than the others. In order to enhance his own image he has had to acknowledge the rampant corruption of the other princes where words like charity and honesty are nonexistent. He seems to have a need to convince people of his virtues. It is curious when Prince Talal mentions how he helps "impoverished" women of Riyahd. A woman asked Ambassador Bandar's person, First Secretary Adel Jubair, during a recent Saudi Arabian Washington symposium about the poverty she saw in Saudi Arabia. Mr Jubair immediately said there was no such thing as poverty in Saudi Arabia. He said she is completely wrong to think their are "impoverished" people in Saudi Arabia. Either Prince Walid or Adel are misrepresenting the truth. KING FAHD'S NEPHEW CAUGHT IN A PARIS PROSTITUTION RING! London Times reports: "Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, 51-year-old photographer who is suspected of recruiting young women to the prostitution network, was charged with 'aggravated pimping'. ... The investigators allegedly found a list of 89 young women, including 14 minors ... M Bourgeois is suspected of luring young women into the call-girl-network, allegedly by claiming that he was taking publicity photographs for a cosmetics company and with the promise of minor film roles. A dozen of the women, many of whom were penniless aspiring models or actresses from Northern and Eastern Europe ... M Bourgeois had the women pose for obscene photographs. The resulting 'album' was allegedly shown to wealthy clients, and meetings were then arranged in Paris or on the Cote d'Azure. ... some of the women were recruited by being persuaded that prostitution was the quickest route to a glamorous job in films or modeling, but others were allegedly blackmailed with the threat that the photographs taken by M Bourgeois would be sent to their families if they did not co-operate. ... (It) may well have operated with the covert blessing of the French secret services. ... Also on trial is Hazih al Ladki, a Lebanese businessman who worked as a secretary to the nephew of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and is suspected of acting as a go-between in negotiations. ... The alleged involvement of Gulf princes has made the case politically sensitive because the Gulf oil states are important purchasers of French military hardware."P143 We have seen this pattern of behavior by Saudi princes in our prior issues. If their pattern follows the Saud family princes involved wanted the youngest girls, the minors. Some of the prior girls could have been abducted as sex slaves in the princely palaces. We do not know if US Government secret services are involved in the US child abductions by Saudis. There have been rumors. We have mentioned in prior issues that it is believed part of the vital interest status package confidentially negotiated between Ambassador Prince Bandar by President Bush. LOUDOUN SAUDI ARABIAN GOVERNMENT COMPOUND COMPTROLLER IS ARRESTED ALLEGEDLY FOR MONEY LAUNDERING Washington Post reports: "Ismail Selim Elbarasse, 51, an accountant from Falls Church (Virginia), is in prison in New York for refusing to appear before a grand jury investigating money-laundering. Agents are reviewing the funds handled by Elbarasse, including bank accounts shared with Marzook. Before he was jailed, Elbarasse worked as comptroller of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a Saudi financed school under construction in Loudoun County (Virginia, near Dulles Airport)."P144 We are on record for being in favor of an Islamic Center in Loudoun County. We are not in favor of it being own by any government, especially one controlled by Saudi princes. We did not expect the Saudi princes to start their scandals in Loudoun before the compound was constructed. We fear the worst for the Loudoun citizens, especially the children who are desired by the Saudi princes. Dulles airport and awaiting private princely planes are just minutes away from the Saudi Arabian Government compound. SAUDI PRINCELY ASSOCIATE MR. SAID AYAS AS A "BUSINESSMAN" Houston Chronicle reports: "The operators of U.S. Videotel (5555 San Felipe #1200, Houston) - an electronic information service launched in Texas that has been on financial life support for several years - are pulling the plug. ... Since it was launched in 1987 in Houston and later in Dallas-Fortworth, the U.S. Videotel Network has been bankrolled by a private firm named Encode International. While company officials have kept the identity on Encode's owner a secret, sources have told the Chronicle it is controlled by a wealthy businessman named Said Ayas ... Encode sunk an estimated $50 million into U.S. Videotel."P145 We do not know why Said Ayas has to be secretive since his trail of business disasters makes him very visible in the business community as well as the criminal courts
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