Why the House of Saud gets away with sex crimes and murder
But for the separate exertions of two British officers, Capt William HE Shakespear and Capt TE Lawrence, in the early years of the last century, the map of the vast oil-soaked Middle East would have been very different. Shakespear was in the British Foreign Office as the political agent in Kuwait in 1914 when he befriended Abd al-Aziz, better known as just Ibn Saud, the then Emir of Nejd. This led to a long and fruitful association with the British. With help from them, Ibn Saud disposed of all his rivals for control of the Arabian Peninsula and, in 1932, was able to proclaim himself King of Saudi Arabia, and protector of the holy shrines at Mecca and Medina.
In 1916, Capt Lawrence, then a junior intelligence officer, befriended Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Sharif of Mecca. In 1924, Shakespear's protégé defeated the Hashemites, occupied Hejaz and won control of the holy shrines at Mecca and Medina. Following the Anglo-French agreement, the defeated Hashemites were rehabilitated by giving them control of three new Arab states - Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
At that time it seemed that the Hashemites had done quite well. The Mosul oilfield in Iraq, discovered in 1918, was linked with the port of Haifa - 800km away - by pipeline and was producing surpluses for the new state of Iraq. The victorious Sauds now seemed like poor cousins.
However, in 1937, all that changed. American surveyors discovered oil in Dammam. Oil changed everything. It was the beginning of a long and profitable relationship with America, which continues till today. Oil made the Saudis rich, but American oil companies became richer. That was to change.
Following the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Saudi Arabia administered the world its first oil shock by increasing the price of oil from $2.90 a barrel to $11.65 a barrel. Two major oil shocks followed in 1980 and 2008.This gave the oil producers huge incomes to spend and much of the spending was done in the West, mostly in the form of expensive arms and the trappings of a modern life. But much was still left over and that was invested, for the most part, with American bankers, who promptly put the funds to work by lending them to American consumers. As of June 2015, Saudi Arabia had $672 billion in foreign reserves.
Ibn Saud was a much-married man. According to the Quran, a Muslim is permitted up to four wives at a time, but allowed to divorce and remarry as many times as possible. Ibn Saud married into almost every major tribe in Arabia and took 22 wives who gave him 45 sons and 50 daughters. His son, King Saud, surpassed the father's polygamy and had 53 sons and 54 daughters. By the Ibn Saud-established line of succession, future kings were to be only chosen from among his own sons. Multiply this several times with many of the sons with multiple partners and you have a huge extended royal family of over 15,000, but most of the power and wealth is vested with about 2,000. Only the sons and grandsons are allowed to bear the prefix His Royal Highness and the rest are just addressed as His Highness.
The Al Saud - the King of Saudi Arabia - holds almost absolute political power. The King appoints ministers to his cabinet who supervise their respective ministries in his name. The key ministries of defence, the interior, and foreign affairs are reserved for the Al Saud, as are most of the 13 regional governorships. Most portfolios, however, such as finance, labour, information, planning, petroleum affairs and industry, have traditionally been given to commoners, often with junior Al Saud members serving as their deputies. House of Saud family members also hold many of the kingdom's critical military and governmental departmental posts. Ultimate power in the kingdom has always rested upon the Al Saud, with the support of a pliant Ulema.
The Saudi royal family runs the state as a part of the royal estate. Saudi Arabia has a GDP of $746 billion and its oil-linked growth has averaged a little over 3 per cent per annum.
The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 92.5 per cent of Saudi budget revenues, 90 per cent of export earnings, and 55 per cent of the GDP. This puts Saudi Arabia among the top ten nations by GDP. The Saudi Riyal has also held its own against the US dollar. In 1970, the dollar fetched 4.50 riyals. It now fetches 3.74 riyals. This is as much a testimony to the size of the Saudi fortunes invested in the USA. This investment gives them vast power and great access in the cash crazy American business and political system. This access enables the Saudis to pull strings when one of their own gets into a sticky situation. Here is one that testifies to their power and reach. Los Angeles Police officers arrested Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud at his Beverly Glen mansion on Wednesday after his neighbours reported seeing a woman covered in blood screaming for help while attempting to climb over the eight-foot wall surrounding the prince's property. His Royal Highness Al-Saud was then booked on the suspicion of forcing one of his employees to engage in oral sex. The prince was briefly held on suspicion of false imprisonment, sexual assault and battery before posting $3,00,000 bail on Thursday afternoon.
Immediately upon posting bail, the prince reportedly emptied his $37 million mansion and fled the country on a private jet to avoid civil litigation and criminal charges.
But this is small stuff compared to what the then Saudi Ambassador to the USA, Prince Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, got away with. Following 9/11, Prince Bandar and his wife sent checks totalling $1,30,000 to a Saudi intelligence officer, Omar al-Bayoumi. He was the one who set up a forward operating base in Los Angeles for two of the Saudi hijackers - Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after they had arrived in the US in 2000. But this was never followed up. The Saudi royals know their way around the halls of power in Washington DC and how to trade favours for deals.
Seven of the Saudi princes are billionaires - this includes Prince Alwaheed Bin Talal Al Saud, who has a net worth of $20.4 billion. The other princes too live quite well. Being an absolute monarchy, the Saudi system is combination of a feudal fealty and a more modern political patronage. This means that at almost every level, and in every sphere, the Saudi princes make money by manipulating individual privileges, dispensing favours and creating obligations. The sheer number of royals makes the Saudi state a maze of often-conflicting interests that milks the economy to individual advantage.
As can well be imagined, the system is one where there are few equals. What we have is a vast pecking order that runs a state with the labour of 7.5 million expatriate professionals and workers. Saudi Arabia is a huge welfare state for its citizens, who can only be Saudi born and of Saudi parentage. The Saudi state has an 80 billion riyal or about $22 billion fund, which provides interest-free loans to Saudis who want to own own homes or start small businesses. Other benefits include an annual cost of living adjustment for government workers, a year of unemployment assistance for youth, and doubling to 15 individuals the size of families that are eligible for state aid.
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But all good things must end. Only one Hashemite ruler now survives. Iran is an Islamic Republic now. The countries where the monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, the emirates comprising the UAE, and Vatican City. The Pope is in an entirely different category. But how long will they last? Ex-King Farouk of Egypt once famously said: "The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left -the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds."