With friends like these...

President Bush and his BFF, Prince Bandar.


Saudi Arabia: the oil-rich Sunni nation ruled by a repressive
monarchy with close ties to the Bush family, the original
home of Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 9/11 hijackers,
and now according to the LA Times, the source of most
of the foreign fighters killing our soldiers in Iraq.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S.
troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are
from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and
Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa,
according to official U.S. military figures made
available to The Times by the senior officer.
Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S.
detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have
carried out more suicide bombings than those of
any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first
time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown
on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's
Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come
here as suicide bombers. In the last six months,
such bombings have killed or injured 4,000
Iraqis.

Did I mention that Saudi Arabia is the top Middle-Eastern
ally in the Bush Administration’s War on Terror?

The situation has left the U.S. military in the
awkward position of battling an enemy whose
top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at
best has not been able to prevent its citizens
from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at
worst shares complicity in sending extremists to
commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians
and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The problem casts a spotlight on the tangled web
of alliances and enmities that underlie the
political relations between Muslim nations and
the U.S.

Great. Next you’ll be telling me that our good friends in
Pakistan support Al-Qaeda too.

D'oh!