Gag Order

How Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar muscled Tony Blair into silence.

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 30, 2008 | Updated: 5:49  p.m. ET Jul 30, 2008

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  • Posted By: Outsidebox @ 09/06/2008 8:34:37 AM

    By all means, we need to become energy independent as soon as possible. Idealy, we should this tomorrow. Unfortunately, to change our hydrocarbon economy to a alternative energy economy will take time. Mr. Pickens has a good idea to use natural gas as bridge for the conversion. We must also realize that our economy will always need some oil. That said there is no excuse not to become energy independent as soon as that goal can be accomplished. We need to build Nuclear power plants to generate our electricity, this would keep us from freezing to death in the dark. We need to drill every where we can to produce our own sources of oil, I would like to point out that ethanol is not a viable alternative to hydrocarbons, because as we have see, when you divert grain that we eat and feed our livestock, to ethanol to burn in our cars, food prices go up, this is stupid. We need to develop solar, wind, geothermal and whatever other technology we can come up with to make us energy independent, urgent, like yesterday. It is also stupid for our Congressional leadership to put Caribu breeding grounds as a priority over our energy security. We need that oil as soon as we can get it.

  • Posted By: revolutionary @ 09/03/2008 8:54:33 PM

    This is part of the attempted rehabilitation of Blair the proven liar and war criminal.

  • Posted By: revolutionary @ 09/03/2008 8:53:13 PM

    This is part of the attemted rehabilitation of Blair the proven liar and war criminal.

  • Posted By: pfvll @ 08/22/2008 7:37:44 PM

    This is not about co-operation on security, or terrorism - these are merely excuses which are acceptable to the public.. It's about oil. With the Saudis pressuring us on one hand and the Russians (over Georgia and Poland) on the other, how long is it before we have to accept something really nasty in order to maintain access to oil. The UK and USA must, as a matter of wartime level urgency, make themselves independent of external energy sources NOW, whatever the cost. Those saying it can't be done are listening to the oil companies. It can. Nuclear power, biofuels, deep geothermal heat sources - all are known technologies with their part to play. Only our Governments are stopping us by their lack of foresight and indecision.

  • Posted By: flambeth @ 08/13/2008 4:13:54 PM

    " The Saudis have rules ,don't breake them." I was told this by my manager when I started to work for a Saudi company in 1996. It is still true today as it was then. Bribes are vehicle for bussines there just as it is in Chicago, Il.

  • Posted By: colorao64 @ 08/06/2008 1:26:33 PM

    WE WILL NEVER BE FREE, UNTIL WE FREE OURSELVES FROM OIL. I PRAY FOR THE DAY WHEN GM, FORD AND CHRYSLER, GO BANKRUPT. I KNOW THAT THIS MAY SEEM CRUEL, AND SELF-DEFEATING, BUT LOOK AT THE ISSUES, AND THEIR ROLE, IN ALL THIS, AND YOU KNOW WHERE I'M COMING FROM.
    ALSO I AM TO BLAME, AND I AM WILLING TO SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES. FREDOM NOW!

  • Posted By: colorao64 @ 08/06/2008 1:23:10 PM

    This incident along with many other such incidents, clearly demonstrates, that we need to as "completely" as possible, cut ourselves off from oil, and develop as soon as possible (not ten years from now) new energy sources. The oil that we have, should be used for the military, and essential industries. I am willing to walk, ride a bike, run, etc. so that we can get away from the use of oil, and its by products. Let freedom ring!

  • Posted By: Bobbles @ 08/05/2008 9:48:23 PM

    Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, the US and the UK have used money bribes for years to persuade other countries to order their products, have you forgotten the Lockheed Scandals.In this case the end justifies the means, BAE got the order and the fee paid was not unreasonable. Its about time the purists and do gooders realised that Business is about winning.

  • Posted By: mjiooss @ 08/05/2008 8:15:41 AM

    To help eliminate Middle East oil problems, our U.S. has to become more independent by developing nuclear plants, drilling for oil on land or offshore, and producing more coal.

  • Posted By: Trooper101st @ 08/03/2008 7:58:41 AM

    Bandar is a double dealing thief. He fits right in with Bush&Co. The Saudi's are part of the problem. How much $ went to terror organizations over the last 10 yrs. Maybe we should bomb THEM and TAKE thier oil!!

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/31/2008 10:56:23 AM

    Try this for understanding. You are a nomadic people who live in tents and graze sheep in a desert. You multiply your kind and organize into tribes. You have little or no money because there is little to produce currency but wool and mutton. You eat with your hands because there is no industry to make eating utensils. You find your philosophy in the stars which shine brightly in the desert night. One day, you are inundated with the riches of the world which are produced from a black ooze which pours endlessly from the ground. You have only one book in your library with godly admonitions about everything in the desert and no universities, no schools, and no other source of information other than what you can buy from abroad, sending your students there to bring back some knowledge of what has been outside your borders in the past centuries of your nomadic life. You are reluctant to change much of anything, but are required to deal with unlimited riches that you are ill prepared to deal with. Your work ethic is still one where work by men is disdained, as it was in the old days. Your ethics still hark back to the back stabbing days of intertribal and intra-tribal brutality and survival of the fittest in a deprived environment. I could go on and on, but this is the reason for what we see in Saudi Arabia and why they deal with others the way that they do because of the still misunderstood nature of the awesome wealth that has descended upon them. They are locked in a mix of thanks to their God for the bounty which he has provided them, along with damnation of the devil who has saturated them with this strange affliction. Good luck in your dealings with these fascinating people, and good luck to them in their quest for understanding. Hopefully the understanding will arrive before the money plays out. Meantime, they still produce Ben Ladens to try to drag the rest of the world into a cruel desert wasteland where human understanding dies of malnourishment.

    • Posted By: R Lawrence @ 08/01/2008 2:15:41 PM

      Olderwiser, you have assessed and charictarized this desert desert monkeys perfectly. I could not have done it better. Thank you. Bush and company have been in bed with these oil rats from day one and it has resulted in total and absolute theft of global wealth and the killing of thousands of people. These desert animals will continue to control and terrorize the planet until we free ourselves from the need of their oil. Hopefully, we will find leaders in the West that will stand up to the need for alternative energy and develop energy that will free us from these ugly allien reptiles in the deserts of the Middle East.

  • Posted By: berenger @ 08/01/2008 9:18:39 AM

    A house divided eventually falls. The world is becoming a more even intellectual playing field.What do you think will happen when all these human beings in the Middle East realize that American Weapons have radioactive material in them "depleted uranium" its not depleted. Even the bullets. The USA is spreading radioactive dust all over Iraq.

  • Posted By: geno_3245 @ 08/01/2008 1:30:27 AM

    This proves even more that the Saudis forced us to invade iraq.

    In the end, just look which country has benefited most by the events of 9-11 & 7-7

  • Posted By: BlairSupporter @ 07/30/2008 7:19:54 PM

    I have to wonder if Mr Blair should just have allowed our fellow citizens to be attacked (if that were the result of this). I am a proud supporter of Mr Blair, and think he was the best Prime Minister we have had for decades in so many ways. But the way the Left in Britain still blame him PERSONALLY for every death in Iraq and in 7/7 because he "recruited for Islamists" by invading Iraq, perhaps he should have let them learn their lesson!

    • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/30/2008 8:59:54 PM

      I would also have supported Mr. Blair if I were a British citizen. We in the United States admire him for his eloquence. We are also grateful for his help in translating Mr. Bush's attempts to speak the English language on the many occasions when they stood side by side. Many other heads of state did not do this and we were always left wondering what he really meant to say. Soon, we will have an eloquent leader, too. Cheers.

      • Posted By: Merg @ 07/31/2008 3:44:32 PM

        Who is this 'We' you refer to. You do not speak for the vast majority of Americans who despise both Bush and to a lesser extent Blair.

        • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/31/2008 5:30:07 PM

          Gosh, Merg, I know a lot of people who said that they were grateful for Blair translating Bush's babble into the King's english. Those were the "we" that I referred to. But let me rephrase that just for you." We in the United States who admire him are grateful for his eloquence, though we do not intend to include those who tend to despise Mr. Blair, though not nearly as much as they despise Mr. Bush, who richly deserves all the despise he can get". It's a little strained, but I tried to do you justice because I think that you are wonderful. Let me know if I need to work this over a little more or not.

          • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/31/2008 5:32:39 PM

            By the way, Merg, how vast is that majority that you mentioned. Got any numbers on that?

            • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/31/2008 7:37:40 PM

              The Bush part's easy. I'd give it about a 90 per cent despise, 5% hate, 4% loathe, and maybe a 1% love somewhere out there, mostly relatives and fraternity mates.

  • Posted By: offshore250 @ 07/31/2008 11:47:48 AM

    When will the fools that run Washington and the sheep that are led around by the nose by the green wackos wake up and realize that we are in a fight that we cannot win unless we become indepandent of OPEC. To do that we only need to do one thing - emulate France and build nuclear. The French are very proud of the fact that do not burn coal or oil to produce electricity and have enough left over to EXPORT to other EU countries. We on the other hand, burn 42% of our energy to produce electricity and import 29% of our energy from OPEC. You do the math - and as a side benefit, we would also get a significant reduction of greenhouse gases. No Manhattan project needed, no T. Boone Pickens wind plan needed, no massive government subsidized alternative energy program needed, just good old nuclear, the kind used by not only France who is building more palnts but Finland, Japan, Korea and even Russia are building nuclear plants. Why not us? Why is Al Gore not pushing nuclear, he is the pope of lowering greemhouse gases? You would think the green wackos would be all over this. If it is good enough for these other environmentally conscious countries, why not us???

    • Posted By: Merg @ 07/31/2008 3:48:37 PM

      Because, unlike wind or solar, the inherent dangers and byproducts of nuclear energy are devastating. Quite obvious and simple really. Think Chernobyl.

    • Posted By: Merg @ 07/31/2008 3:39:39 PM

      Because, unlike wind or solar, the inherent dangers and byproducts of nuclear energy are devastating. Quite obvious and simple really. Think Chernobyl.

  • Posted By: BigCynicDotCom @ 07/31/2008 12:00:11 PM

    The Saudis threatened to *stop* cooperating with counterterrorism efforts? But they *are* sponsors of terrorism! Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, and the Saudi government secretly funds radical Muslim groups. We ought to invade Saudi Arabia!

    Wait. We already do occupy Saudi Arabia...

    • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/31/2008 1:53:05 PM

      We are locked in an embrace with Saudi Arabia. Our money is a poison to them. Their petroleum is a poison to us. We both will finally be free of this stifling embrace when they either run out of oil or we run out of money. Meantime, you are only permitted to watch. It hardly matters how hard you vote. The forces involved are too strong for anything but exhaustion on one side or the other. We are mere witnesses to this tragedy without a witness protection program.

  • Posted By: Bill in Chicago @ 07/31/2008 12:29:11 PM

    Yes, we're arming our own executioners:

    www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

    Isn't this sort of thing supposed to be treson?

  • Posted By: Bill in Chicago @ 07/31/2008 12:27:34 PM

    Yes, we're arming our own executioners:

    www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

    Isn't that supposed to be treason?

  • Posted By: gandolina @ 07/31/2008 11:38:22 AM

    If you can get a paycheck from a think tank and not know that the Bush League hasn't already been doing this for decades, then your naivete is displacing a job tha someone else should have.

    The Saudis have visibly been a pernicious drain on the U.S. every day since 9/11. We should all be wearing Hazmat suits anytime we are involved in any transaction with them.
    The day we call their bluff and leave them hanging in the desert breeze is the day we regain our balance of power.

    They only have one product ---oil. And are far more clueless stan the Clampetts about the consequences of what's that really means.

    Basically all the Saudis are economically proficient at is extortion and sheikdown. They are so hung up on bribes they can't get past the fact that bribery inevitably ends up being a zero sum proposition. And tha greed always makes you stupid.

    And if the royal family didn't have our troops as their mercenaries they won't even have that.
    How much worse could things go, if we just walked away and let the Saudis come up with some better government themselves?
    Why are we involved in protecting extortionists?
    Why are we involved in being the protection for a country that daily violates every single item on our Bill of Rights and lots more.

    gala1

  • Posted By: gandolina @ 07/31/2008 11:29:02 AM

    Comment: "Terrorism is being used to blackmail the West. You watch, it is only a matter of time before they do this in the U.S."

    If you can get a paycheck from a think tank and not know that the Bush League hasn't already been doing The Saudis have visibly been a pernicious drain on the U.S. every day since 9/11. We shoulthis for decades, then your naivete is displacing a job tha someone else should have.

    d all be wearing Hazmat suits anytime we are involved in any transaction with them.
    The day we call their bluff and leave them hanging in the desert breeze is the day we regain our balance of power.

    They only have one product oil. And if the royal family didn't have our troops as their mercenaries they won't even have that.
    How much worse could things go, if we just walked away and let the Saudis come up with some better government themselves?
    Why are we involved in protecting extortionists?
    Why are we involved in being the protection for a country that daily violates every single item on our Bill of Rights and lots more.

    -gala1

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