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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (149)	11/30/2002 2:45:01 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

So WHAT WAS the purpose of Clinton's August 2002 mystery meeting with Bandar.....???? August 2002: Clinton Aide Briefed on Upcoming Bush-Saudi Sitdown Monday, Aug. 26, 2002 10:38 a.m. EDT newsmax.com Clinton Aide Briefed on Upcoming Bush-Saudi Sitdown In yet another sign that ex-President Clinton remains active in delicate negotiations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the Web site ArabNews.com quoted a top Clinton national security aide Monday describing the contents of a secret communique scheduled to be delivered Tuesday to President Bush by Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan. "This is an important meeting and will bring Saudi-U.S. relations back to normal," a source identified as "a national security adviser to the Clinton administration" told the Saudi daily Okaz, ArabNews said. The Clinton official seemed privy to the full range of issues on Prince Bandar's agenda, telling Okaz that the Saudi diplomat wants to talk to Bush about "four major topics: Bilateral relations, war on Iraq, the Palestine issue and the fight against terrorism." The last time Bush met with top Saudi officials, on April 26, ex-President Clinton intervened directly, meeting in secret with Saudi Arabia's chief executive, Prince Abdullah, and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal just a day after they visited Bush's ranch. "To the dismay of White House planners, [Abdullah] saw an unscheduled and unexpected visitor: Bill Clinton," reported USA Today two weeks after NewsMax.com became the first news organization to reveal the Clinton-Saudi sitdown in print. - (See: Clinton in 3-Hour Mystery Meeting with Saudi Prince Abdullah) "[Bush] aides express exasperation about Clinton's impromptu session with Abdullah two weeks ago, at a time of delicate negotiations and evolving policy," the paper said. "No [Bush] administration official sat in on the meeting." The surprise Clinton-Abdullah confab took place at "a sensitive moment for the Middle East," during a visit where the Bush administration had taken great pains to "plot every detail of [Abdullah's] weekend trip to Texas," USA Today added. According to former Clinton spokesman George Stephanopoulos, the mystery meeting lasted from 12 midnight to 4 a.m. on April 27. The next day Prince al Faisal told the Fox News Channel that Abdullah and Clinton "talked about - of course, serious talk - the situation in the Middle East." Now, more than four months later, it seems that members of the former administration are still intent on playing a role in the delicate diplomacy. In contrast to the detailed description of Prince Bandar's agenda given to the Saudi press by the unnamed Clinton national security official, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described plans for the discussions only in broad terms. "He’s coming to talk about a variety of regional issues — the Middle East and many other topics," Fleischer told reporters when he announced the visit on Friday.