- This Week: "Saudi Time Bomb?," Thursday at 9 p.m. on PBS
- Inside Frontline: The Saudi Ambassador, part 2
- Web Highlights: Extended coverage and more...
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+ This Week ...
In late August, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah sent a letter to President Bush exposing a potential rift between the U.S. and its crucial Persian Gulf ally. "A time comes when people and nations part," he wrote. "We are at a crossroads. It is time for the United States and Saudi Arabia to look at their separate interests. Those governments that don't feel the pulse of their people and respond to it will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran."
The issue in August was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But since Sept. 11, a whole new set of tensions has unsettled the U.S.-Saudi relationship, and Saudi Arabia has found itself under the intense glare of American media scrutiny as reports emerge that the Saudis have been slow to cooperate with the U.S. war on terrorism. We've all read or heard by now about the Saudi government's reluctance to identify the 15 Saudi citizens who were among the Sept. 11 hijackers; about the alleged financial ties between wealthy Saudi citizens and Osama bin Laden, himself a member of a powerful Saudi family; about the Saudi-based charities that support religious schools throughout the Islamic world, which are said to serve as recruiting centers for holy war against the West; and about the fundamentalist form of Islam, known as Wahhabism, that is taught in these schools and has its home in Saudi Arabia.
Yet the full story of how the U.S. and Saudi Arabia reached the present crossroads (if that's what it is) is a complex one, suggesting the delicate balancing act the Saudi government must perform.
This Thursday night at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE and The New York Times delve into the U.S.-Saudi alliance, internal Saudi politics, and Saudi Arabia's central role in the world of Islamic fundamentalism today. Our report tries to get at some difficult questions. Not only whether the U.S. can rely on the Saudis in the fight against terrorism, but what those 15 Saudi hijackers tell us about Saudi society. Is there significant unrest within Saudi Arabia today? Could the Saudi ruling family go the way of the Shah? Is that Osama bin Laden's true goal?
We hope you'll join us on Thursday night, and that you'll join the discussion on our website following the broadcast.
Wen Stephenson
Website Managing Editor
FRONTLINE
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+ Inside Frontline ...
[It's no secret that the Saudi government guards its public image carefully. So what happens when one of its most prominent representatives, Prince Bandar bin Sultan -- ambassador to the U.S. and dean of the Washington diplomatic corps -- speaks candidly on camera in a FRONTLINE interview? Louis Wiley, FRONTLINE's executive editor, offers this brief account.]
....
When FRONTLINE first obtained an interview in Washington with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi ambassador to the U.S., in late September, we hoped we might get his help in gaining access to a country that doesn't like too many journalists wandering around. We broadcast pieces of what the ambassador had to say in "Looking for Answers" on Oct. 11, including his view that even if $50 billion was skimmed off the $400 billion Saudi development plan, "So what? We did not invent corruption." The ambassador was summoned back to Saudi Arabia and hasn't made any public statements since our interview. (You'll find the edited transcript of the interview on our website here: http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/terrorism/interviews/bandar.html )
After that interview we made formal application to go to Saudi Arabia to see for ourselves what was going on. And guess what, Saudi Arabia would not let us visit with our new questions. Our repeated requests for visas were met with promises but no action.
This Thursday in "Saudi Time Bomb?" we use some of the Bandar material not yet broadcast. The interview took place on Sept. 20, and while Bandar did address the issue of Saudi charities in general, neither the prince or any representative of the Saudi government was made available to answer allegations that have subsequently been made by the U.S. government concerning specific Saudi charities and their alleged support (direct or indirect) of Al Qaeda and terrorism.
--Louis Wiley
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+ Web Highlights ...
"SAUDI TIME BOMB?"
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/saudi/
These features, and more, will be available on our website by the time of the broadcast on Thursday, Nov. 15:
- A chronology of key developments in Saudi history and U.S.-Saudi relations during the past century.
- A look at the life of Haroun Fazul, who at 16 left his home in the Comoros Islands off East Africa to study in a Wahhabi school in Pakistan, where he became a member of Al Qaeda and went on to blow up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Extended interviews exploring the schism between religious conservatives and pro-Westerners in Saudi Arabia's ruling elite.
Plus,
+ Live Discussion ...
Join FRONTLINE's Martin Smith, producer of "Saudi Time Bomb?," on Friday, Nov. 16, at 11 a.m. ET, for a Washington Post "Live Online" discussion.
For details, see
http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/01/tv_frontline111601.htm
... or check FRONTLINE's website following the broadcast.
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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. National sponsorship of FRONTLINE is provided by EarthLink and NPR. Additional funding is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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