Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & Bin Laden

The blogosphere has been on the Saudis' case for a long time over their role in al-Qaeda and beyond. Now doubts about the Saudis are going mainstream, and similar doubts are growing about Pakistan and the role of its ISI intelligence service. They too have been on the blogosphere's hit list for quite a while now, but a combination of recent events and the work of a French anti-Idiotarian intellectual are beginning to bring their role into mainstream consciousness as well.

Dan Darling & I are currently engaged in a research project into "The Saudi-Pakistani-Bin Laden Triangle," and we'll be drawing together sources and analysis to paint a more complete picture for our readers. In the meantime, we thought it might be a useful service to hand our readers some advance sources and reading materials...

• Gerald Posner's article in TIME Magazine claims that captured al-Qaeda bigwig Abu Zubaydah has described a "Saudi-Pakistani-bin Laden triangle" underpinning al-Qaeda's operations.

• Of course, TIME Magazine's recent "Inside the Kingdom" feature won't help the Saudi cause, either.

• Instapundit links and summarizes Rachel Ehrenfeld's article on the Saudi role. She has a book out entitled Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed — and How to Stop It.

• It will be hard for her to top James Adams' The Financing of Terror, however; it's one of the few must-read books on this subject, even though it doesn't address the Saudi issue directly.

• The New Yorker makes reference to the role of Pakistan's ISI in an article about French anti-anti-Americans, and cites Bernard Henri-Levy's explosive book "Who Killed Daniel Pearl?" It theorizes that Pearl died in Pakistan because he was getting too close to the truth about the ISI and al-Qaeda. More background can be found in the Washington Post article "Doubts about an Ally," written by Henri-Levy himself.

• Recent arrests in Pakistan are adding fuel to the fire.

• Team Agonist has links to the Hindustan Times, and also Professor Juan Cole with his history of the ISI over the last few decades and links to original source documents. The CIA's reliance on the ISI in Afghanistan is a topic Dan & I will address in our article, too - I see it as just one more consequence of a fundamental flaw in the CIA's approach from the mid-70s to September 11.