{"id":14386,"date":"2013-09-07T13:30:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T17:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=14386"},"modified":"2019-02-23T20:42:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T01:42:09","slug":"iran-contra-redux-prince-bandar-heads-secret-saudi-cia-effort-to-aid-syrian-rebels-topple-assad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2013\/09\/07\/iran-contra-redux-prince-bandar-heads-secret-saudi-cia-effort-to-aid-syrian-rebels-topple-assad\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels, Topple Assad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Democracy Now<\/em> has two related video interviews.&nbsp; The first is <a title=\"Democracy Now interview\" href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2013\/9\/6\/iran_contra_redux_prince_bandar_heads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels, Topple Assad<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center\">\n    <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/embed\/story\/2013\/9\/6\/iran_contra_redux_prince_bandar_heads\" style=\"border:thick ridge #009900\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<pre>\r\n<\/pre>\n<blockquote><p>\nThe Wall Street Journal recently revealed new details about how Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud \u2014 Saudi\u2019s former ambassador to the United States \u2014 is leading the effort to prop up the Syrian rebels. Intelligence agents from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Jordan and other allied states are working at a secret joint operations center in Jordan to train and arm hand-picked Syrian rebels. The Journal also reports Prince Bandar has been jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime. &#8220;Really what he\u2019s doing is he\u2019s reprising a role that he played in the 1980s when he worked with the Reagan administration to arrange money and arms for mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan and also worked with the CIA in Nicaragua to support the Contras,&#8221; says Wall Street Journal reporter Adam Entous. &#8220;So in many ways this is a very familiar position for Prince Bandar, and it\u2019s amazing to see the extent to which veterans of the CIA were excited to see him come back because, in the words of a diplomat who knows Bandar, he brings the Arabic term wasta, which means under-the-table clout. You know his checks are not going to bounce and that he\u2019ll be able to deliver the money from the Saudis.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<pre>\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>The second part of the interview is titled <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/blog\/2013\/9\/6\/us_russian_tensions_heighten_over_syria_roots_of_conflict_stem_from_nato_bombing_of_libya\" title=\"Democracy Now interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S.-Russian Tensions Heighten over Syria; Roots of Conflict Stem from NATO Bombing of Libya<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center\">\n   <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/embed\/blog\/2013\/9\/6\/us_russian_tensions_heighten_over_syria_roots_of_conflict_stem_from_nato_bombing_of_libya\" style=\"border:thick ridge #009900\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<pre>\r\n<\/pre>\n<blockquote><p>\nPart two of our conversation with Wall Street Journal national security correspondent Adam Entous. He discusses his latest article, &#8220;U.S. Decided Not to Horse-Trade with Russia on Assad.&#8221; Entous writes: &#8220;President Barack Obama\u2019s 15 seconds of face time with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, while American and Russian warships patrolled the eastern Mediterranean, spoke to a deep chill that has created one of the biggest complications to the U.S.&#8217;s plan to strike Syria.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<pre>\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>The links you find on the <em>Democracy Now<\/em> web site look like they might merit some serious follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democracy Now has two related video interviews.&nbsp; The first is Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels, Topple Assad. The Wall Street Journal recently revealed new details about how Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud \u2014 Saudi\u2019s former ambassador to the United States \u2014 is leading the effort to prop up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14386"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26646,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14386\/revisions\/26646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}