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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (433481)	7/25/2003 2:17:58 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 769670

"Monarchy that siphons-off about 1/3 of the nation's income into the royal family coffers..." That statement is a little skewed. The Monarchy is the Nation. Things work very much like a traditional kingdom. If you have the favour of a Prince, or some one who has influence with a prince, you have influence and occupation. If not, there is a system of social welfare. Over the last five years or so they have been sending people to western schools to get business management education, so this is changing things some. "Actually, there is a split within the family (that's why they are keeping the King on life support) with one faction very pro Theocracy and radical Islam... and the other faction considered more 'pro Western'. The radical faction has been sending massive funds to Islamic fundamentalists, so there ARE direct ties to terrorist activities from within the government." The Saudi "family" is actually the largest "tribe" on the Penninsula, numbering probably in the millions. It is pretty much in favor of the supporting the Kingdom, as that is in the best interests of the tribe and for some other cultural reasons. There are also many who consider people like OBL heros and martyrs. OBL was/is a Saudi. Even these people consider themselves as having the natural and rightful position to rule.