Laurent Murawiec has been forced out of RAND:
Analyst who criticized Saudis leaves RAND
By JANINE ZACHARIA
Washington, DC
A think-tank analyst has resigned after a critical briefing he gave to Pentagon advisers about Saudi Arabia and other comments he reportedly made about Saudis became public.
"The straight story is I resigned from RAND," Laurent Murawiec told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. The resignation was effective Wednesday.
David Egner, a spokesman for the US-government funded RAND think tank, said: "Laurent Murawiec has resigned from RAND and is no longer a RAND employee. His departure had nothing to do with his July 10 presentation to the Defense Policy Board."
Two US officials said that Murawiec had been forced out.
Asked if US officials had requested that RAND dismiss Murawiec, Egner said: "RAND has received absolutely no pressure from anyone to take any action involving Mr. Murawiec."
In the July 10 briefing, Murawiec told the Defense Policy Board, a non-governmental grouping of former senior officials and intellectuals, that "the Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader."
He recommended that the US target Saudi oil fields and financial assets if Riyadh does not fight terrorism. The White House immediately distanced itself from Murawiec's comments, made clear they do not reflect US policy, and praised Saudi Arabia as a long-standing friend and ally.
Even though Murawiec was speaking as a private individual to other private individuals, the Saudis -- who are struggling to repair their image in the US since September 11 -- loudly protested the contents of the briefing after a story ran about it in the Washington Post on August 5.
In late August, a Gulf-based Web site, www.ITP.net, put on-line what it said was an interview it had conducted with Murawiec.
"My experience of your part of the world is that most people hate the guts of the Saudis," Murawiec said in a recording that could not be authenticated by The Post. "Not to put too fine a point about it, Everybody knows that they are a bunch of lazy **** who are arrogant, too big for their shoes, who behave themselves in a disgusting manner consistently.
"And I've been told that by people in your region for 20 years."
Murawiec says he did not grant an interview to the journalist who recorded their telephone conversation. He said the reporters at ITP.net are "liars." "I gave no interview to that guy. Someone, without my authorization, taped things that I might or might not have said somewhere," he said.
RAND president and CEO James Thompson and executive vice president Michael Rich released a statement on August 23 saying: "The comments on the tape recording on the Web site ITP.net are offensive and repugnant, and RAND repudiates them in the strongest terms."
Murawiec told The Post that his July 10 briefing "offended lots of people, lots of powerful people in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and their friends here [in Washington]," and that he was merely echoing what US officials think about Saudi Arabia, but are afraid to articulate in public.
RAND receives most of its funding from the US government. A small portion -- less than one percent of its $160 million in research revenue in the last fiscal year -- came from Arab nations, Egner said
jpost.com |
