"If you see something say something" is an expression that has now gone global. Yet the very root cause of what nearly became mass murder in Times Square and that has already taken the lives of thousands on 9/11, has been left to fester, studiously unnoticed, by acquiescent American administrations often bordering on the complicit.
The failed Times Square bomb attempt provided prima facie evidence of Pakistani involvement in plots to conduct attacks on American soil. Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States was moved to comment, "The element of threat is definitely different from the last few months". An American official as quoted in the New York Times observed, "Last week's incident makes it more urgent " to bring stability to the tribal areas where militancy thrives and into Karachi, the biggest city where radical religious schools known as madrasas are popular.
It is these very madrasas that have become the source of the lethal proselytizing that has destabilized much of the world. Faisal Shahzad, the failed Time Square bomber may not have personally attended a madrasas but it is the madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere, their glorification of jihad, their vilification of the West who along with their moneyed sponsors have laid the groundwork for much of the world's current destabilization and temporal tension between civilizations.
And who are the sponsors? One could readily look to the Saudi Royal Family through their ardent sponsorship, through their oil wealth, nurturing radical Saudi clerics who adhere to the vision and tenets of the Saudi Imam Juhayman ak Uteybi, whose followers seized the Grand Mosque of Mecca in 1979.
Since that time billions upon billions have flowed to madrasas and community centers around the world teaching a virulent hatred of Western civilization, radicalizing Afghanistan, swaths of Pakistan, ranging from Europe to the Philippines and Indonesia and near every corner of the world.
And while entire nations were being radicalized our government has been somnolent, if not complicity silent. Certainly virtually nothing of consequence was attempted during the two Bush administrations to contain the spew of hatred. Holding the Saudis to account would have been unthinkable during those years with Saudi money sloshing around Washington, into the think tanks and its moneyed corners (think of the likes of the Carlyle Group with its deep links to Saudi finance, of which Pres. George H.W. Bush was to serve as a director, while others climbed on board the gravy train becoming affiliated with Carlyle including James Baker III former Secretary of State, ex Budget Chief Richard Darman, former S.E.C. Chair Arthur Levitt, as well as Frank Carlucci former Secretary of Defense under President Reagan not to speak of President George W. Bush who was a director of one of Carlyle's subsidiaries, Caterair).
During the Clinton years Saudi munificence extended to millions of dollar donations to the Clinton Presidential Library. Given the Saudi largesse, little or nothing was done by our government to contain the propagation of teachings among thousands upon thousands of young minds being formed to hate and destroy.
The issue continued to be exacerbated by senior administration officials from the State Department on up, as well as senior military personnel who were bedazzled when received by Saudi royalty who in dulcet tones assured that all is being done to diminish support of Saudi radical institutions and to liberalize the day to day lives of the Saudi population. To that end 50% of Saudi Arabia's population, its women, have yet to be permitted to drive. This being but one example.
While this has been going on for decades, Saudi Arabia, through OPEC, is extorting billions from the world's consumers through the manipulation of the price of oil, the very source of the monies being funneled to madrasas around the world. Concurrently American taxpayers are paying over $80 million a day keeping a flotilla of naval vessels in the Arabian Gulf protecting the Saudi coastline and standing by to dissuade any Iranian ambitions against Saudi Arabia. (Please see "Al Qaeda in the Service of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties" 10.30.06).
Has it stopped and has Saudi Arabia pulled back its poison? Are the occasional protestations and proclamations of willingness to cease and desist for real? Well consider the following: Just a few week ago the Times of London reported that "Saudis fund Balkan Muslims Spreading Hate of the West."
"That Saudi Arabia is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for Jihad in Afghanistan...Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilize the Balkans... Fundamentalist Saudi organizations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities." Given Saudi real time funding and intentions in the Balkans the question becomes clear. Can one assume that given Saudi policies in the Balkans, is Pakistan or Afghanistan not far behind, or perhaps even leading the pack ?
Talk about a smoking car bomb in Times Square? This is the real thing. Do we have a problem in Pakistan? Yes. But it seems the core lies in Riyadh. And there they know how to play us like a violin. We see it, but instead of saying something we sing their tune.