Ex-Kuwaiti Official Assails His Nation for Weak Support of U.S.
"He blamed his government's policy of "abdication" on Kuwait's militant Islamic groups and some of their charities, which he accused of having "hijacked" the country's foreign policy.
"I say that this country of ours is kidnapped, hijacked by groups that call
themselves Islamic but in truth use Islam as a cover and a garb for political
goals," he wrote in Asharq al-Awset, a popular Saudi- owned newspaper. "
THE GULF
From The New York Times
October 15, 2001
By JUDITH MILLER
In a stunning denunciation of what he
called a "shameful" betrayal of the United
States, a former Kuwaiti government minister
and member of the ruling family has scorned
what he called his country's "hesitant and
timid" support for America's war against
terrorism.
Writing in a London-based Arabic daily on Saturday, Sheik Saud Nasser
al-Sabah, Kuwait's former oil and information minister, criticized what he
described as his country's lackluster support for the American-led campaign
against Osama bin Laden and his associates. He blamed his government's
policy of "abdication" on Kuwait's militant Islamic groups and some of their
charities, which he accused of having "hijacked" the country's foreign policy.
"I say that this country of ours is kidnapped, hijacked by groups that call
themselves Islamic but in truth use Islam as a cover and a garb for political
goals," he wrote in Asharq al-Awset, a popular Saudi- owned newspaper.
Sheik Saud called such groups "a menace" not only to the future of Kuwait, but
to "the Arab world as a whole," and urged his fellow Kuwaitis and other Arabs
to be "brave" in opposing them.
"We should remove the veil of secrecy that protects these groups and their
financial and political activities in Kuwait and abroad," he wrote. If not, he
warned, "we will face more destruction and ruin."
A senior Bush administration official called Sheik Saud's request for stronger
support for the Untied States "most welcome" and said he hoped that there
would be more such appeals. But reluctant to criticize Kuwait — a key
American ally in the Persian Gulf region and an avowed member of the
anti-bin Laden coalition — he and other administration officials declined
comment tonight on Sheik Saud's charge that Kuwait was unwilling to rein in
the militant Islamic groups that provide financial aid and political comfort to
Mr. bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
Several independent Middle Eastern analysts, however, called Sheik Saud's
statements both unusual and courageous.
"This man of the Kuwaiti state, a man of power and influence, has shown how
Kuwait has ceded the ground to militant Islamists," said Fouad Ajami, a
professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International
Studies. "It is a remarkable look at Arab fears behind the scenes of power."
Sheik Saud's indictment of what he called his country's unwillingness to stand
solidly with the United States in its anti-terrorism campaign is all the more
unusual in that he remains influential in Kuwait and close to power, one Arab
analyst said.
"He knows who these militants are and what they want, because he tangled
with them as information minister, and often lost," the analyst said.
Sheik Saud was also Kuwait's ambassador to Washington when Iraqi forces
invaded and occupied his country in August 1990. His outrage may reflect the
gratitude he has long felt and the friendships he developed with Americans
during that period. The United States led the coalition that forced Iraq out of
Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
"What would have become of us had the United States adopted the same
hesitant position towards us that we have adopted of late?" Sheik Saud
lamented.
In his article, Sheik Saud criticized his government for letting the Kuwaiti
House of Finance and General Association for Religious Endowments provide
financial assistance "with no supervision and no oversight."
Similarly, he said, Jamiyyat al- Islah, or the Society of Reform, a major Kuwaiti
charity, had "forgotten its original mandate of charity" in pursuit of politics. He
said that Islamic militants dominated another charity, Jamiyyat Ihya al-Turath,
the Society for the Restoration of Tradition, which the government ostensibly
outlawed three years ago.
"But the government was never strong enough to enforce this ban," he wrote,
and the influence of such groups was "devouring" Kuwait from the inside.
Wolfgang Schwanitz, a researcher on Middle East policy at the German
Oriental Institute of Hamburg who is conducting research at Princeton, called
Sheik Saud's allegations about specific charities and Kuwaiti groups bold and
unusual.
"What he has done is publicly charge that there are financial institutions that
work independently of the central bank, and that these charities channel money
to causes, most of which are legitimate, but some of which, he says, are not,"
Mr. Schwanitz said. "It's very courageous, because he's taken on some very
politically powerful groups. Given the domestic strength of such groups, such a
statement is personally dangerous."
Mr. Ajami agreed, noting that it was "extremely rare to have a man of the
state take his state on." At the same time, he added, Sheik Saud was
expressing what many Arabs thought but were now afraid to say: "Where was
Islamist gratitude for America's role in preventing Muslims from being
slaughtered in Bosnia in 1995, and in Kosovo in 1999?
"American power was used three times between 1990 and 2000 to rescue
Muslims from ruin, but no Islamist has ever thanked them," Mr. Ajami said.
Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy, said the Arabs had been "remarkably silent" about the
American-led campaign against Mr. bin Laden. "It's obviously disappointing,"
he added.
While administration officials say that more than 40 countries have granted the
United States air-transit and landing rights, they also say that no Muslim
government is taking part in the attack on Afghanistan. This is in sharp
contrast to the situation a decade ago, when Arab forces helped eject Iraq's
army from Kuwait. While American forces are based in Kuwait, they have not
openly participated in the offensive against Afghanistan. But Kuwait has
declared support for the United States airstrikes on Al Qaeda bases and
Afghan military positions. And reports in the British press said that it had
offered the use of its bases.
Earlier this month, Kuwait stripped Mr. bin Laden's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu
Ghaith, of his citizenship. However, a week after the Sept. 11 attacks, the
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Amm published a fatwa, or a religious ruling, by
Mr. Abu Ghaith in which he called on Muslims to fight "Jews, Americans and
all their allies."
Sheik Saud said that Mr. Abu Ghaith was but "one in a band," and that Kuwait
needed to know "who are his partners who live among us." The spokesman, he
disclosed, was able to enter and leave Kuwait at will, "the last time only weeks
before the terrible events of Sept. 11." Stripping of him of his citizenship, he
added, "is not enough to uproot terror."
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