Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Saudi Arabia Puts New Face Forward
Aired December 04, 2002 - 09:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Saudi Arabia wants America to know that it is a full partner, it believes, in the war on terror and not, as has been portrayed in recent weeks, a conduit for terrorists -- we have had a visitor today all day.
Let's listen to this sound byte right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: ... the United States. Unfortunately, it's a feeding frenzy. It's Let's bash the Saudis time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: So, how effective will this Saudi public relations campaign be? Our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield is here with his take, playing off an interview that we just heard Bill do. Our viewers very interested in that, a lot of e-mail coming on that.
First of all, who is this guy, Adel al-Jubeir, and why is he the spokesman for the Saudi government?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Well, I think you saw it, and you saw it all over the tube in the last week. He is -- he is a kinder, gentler face of the Saudis. He's clean-shaven. He dresses Western, he speaks with an American accent. He spent time here. I'm remembering -- and I don't mean a political parallel, back in the days of the Cold War, the Soviets used to have a guy named Vladimir Posner who was brought up in New York, spoke English with a Brooklyn accent, that it was much better to have that kind of person make the case than a Russian speaking very dangerous language.
I think there is a cultural reason why he's there, and he speaks with a very soft voice, so he can make his points that way. He even uses the phrase "evil doers," which is unique to the vocabulary of, as far as I can tell, of George W. Bush, and I think he is really trying to say, Look, we and you share a lot in common. That's the message of the spin.
KAGAN: That is the message that he is trying to do, and yet I think there are a lot of Americans rolling their eyes about that.
GREENFIELD: Well, there are some -- you have to probe beneath the surface and ask, What's the reality? He said to Bill a few minutes ago that, Our problems are a lot like your problems. Well, no. In the wake of 9/11, President Bush went to mosques, he brought Islamic theologians in to assure them, and to tell Americans this is not an Islamic element. You didn't see a lot of rabbis and priests and ministers in Saudi Arabia because there aren't any. It is a very rigid theological state, where a particularly militant and tough brand of Islam, Wahabi Islam, is the dominant, in fact, the only creed. So the idea of some kind of moral equivalency here, I think, is a very dangerous and inaccurate road for the Saudis to take.
KAGAN: One thing that is clear, this is a culture that operates very differently from how we do here in the U.S., and one thing they are trying to address in that rapport is how they are handing this charity problem of this cash money flowing into places that seems to be just incredibly unaccountable.
GREENFIELD: Well, OK. The point that was made is, Well, we don't have audits because we don't have taxes because we are oil rich.
KAGAN: A lot of it is paid in cash.
GREENFIELD: But the fact is, that for months and indeed even in some cases going back before 9/11, groups critical of the Saudis have specifically raised questions about charities like -- pardon me if I look at my notes -- the Muslim World League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. The Saudi Joint Committee for Relief in Bosnia- Herzegovina, which has been charged to be a conduit for terrorists into Europe.
Now, the idea that the Saudis didn't know about these charges until recently is a difficult one to accept, I think.
KAGAN: And besides, going beyond the charity problem there is clearly problems even bigger than just where charity and cash money is going.
GREENFIELD: Well, I suggest there are two. One is a substantive problem, which is -- and I think it's very difficult for us, for Americans, to raise a question about anybody else's religious beliefs. We're a pluralistic society. But when that religious belief is rooted in a particular brand of Islam, not Islam itself, but the Wahabi brand of Islam, is extremely tough on Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and other Muslims, and in fact, we've learned in the last couple of days that the Saudi interior minister, one of the members of the ruling family, said to a Kuwaiti newspaper, It wasn't the 15 hijackers who did this -- 9/11 was the work of Zionists.
Now, if that's the view of one of the most important people in the Saudi government, the idea that this is just kind of a misunderstanding is tricky.
One other quick point. The U.S. Congress, which traditionally is tougher on other regimes than executives, and Colin Powell and George Bush have to deal with this reality. But the Congress, which is much more pro-Israel than any administration, much more suspicious about the Saudis, you have Richard Shelby, the Republican senator, saying the Saudis are in denial, and that heat is not going to let up.
KAGAN: One final quick point. Bill tried to nail down Adel al- Jubeir at the end, about Saudi cooperation militarily with the U.S. He said, We will make the right decision in the end.
GREENFIELD: That's what a diplomat says. I think the fact that senators are looking to Bahrain and other Gulf states to say why do we really have to make the Saudi country the base of our operations? It is an ongoing problem that spin is not going to solve.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, you can probably move that to Oman right now. We have heard that Qatar has these enormous warehouses right now that hold the largest tanks in the U.S. arsenal right now.
GREENFIELD: And there is the question of maybe there's oil other places too.
HEMMER: Don't you think it is naive of us to think that we can stop the charity contributions from going in certain locations? We're talking billions and billions of dollars, and it's not just Saudi Arabia. It's global.
KAGAN: Well, when they claim that they are cutting off accounts, 30-something accounts, $5.5 million -- I mean, that's the change in one Saudi's pocket.
GREENFIELD: Yes, I do.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 4, 2002 - 09:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Saudi Arabia wants America to know that it is a full partner, it believes, in the war on terror and not, as has been portrayed in recent weeks, a conduit for terrorists -- we have had a visitor today all day.
Let's listen to this sound byte right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: ... the United States. Unfortunately, it's a feeding frenzy. It's Let's bash the Saudis time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: So, how effective will this Saudi public relations campaign be? Our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield is here with his take, playing off an interview that we just heard Bill do. Our viewers very interested in that, a lot of e-mail coming on that.
First of all, who is this guy, Adel al-Jubeir, and why is he the spokesman for the Saudi government?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Well, I think you saw it, and you saw it all over the tube in the last week. He is -- he is a kinder, gentler face of the Saudis. He's clean-shaven. He dresses Western, he speaks with an American accent. He spent time here. I'm remembering -- and I don't mean a political parallel, back in the days of the Cold War, the Soviets used to have a guy named Vladimir Posner who was brought up in New York, spoke English with a Brooklyn accent, that it was much better to have that kind of person make the case than a Russian speaking very dangerous language.
I think there is a cultural reason why he's there, and he speaks with a very soft voice, so he can make his points that way. He even uses the phrase "evil doers," which is unique to the vocabulary of, as far as I can tell, of George W. Bush, and I think he is really trying to say, Look, we and you share a lot in common. That's the message of the spin.
KAGAN: That is the message that he is trying to do, and yet I think there are a lot of Americans rolling their eyes about that.
GREENFIELD: Well, there are some -- you have to probe beneath the surface and ask, What's the reality? He said to Bill a few minutes ago that, Our problems are a lot like your problems. Well, no. In the wake of 9/11, President Bush went to mosques, he brought Islamic theologians in to assure them, and to tell Americans this is not an Islamic element. You didn't see a lot of rabbis and priests and ministers in Saudi Arabia because there aren't any. It is a very rigid theological state, where a particularly militant and tough brand of Islam, Wahabi Islam, is the dominant, in fact, the only creed. So the idea of some kind of moral equivalency here, I think, is a very dangerous and inaccurate road for the Saudis to take.
KAGAN: One thing that is clear, this is a culture that operates very differently from how we do here in the U.S., and one thing they are trying to address in that rapport is how they are handing this charity problem of this cash money flowing into places that seems to be just incredibly unaccountable.
GREENFIELD: Well, OK. The point that was made is, Well, we don't have audits because we don't have taxes because we are oil rich.
KAGAN: A lot of it is paid in cash.
GREENFIELD: But the fact is, that for months and indeed even in some cases going back before 9/11, groups critical of the Saudis have specifically raised questions about charities like -- pardon me if I look at my notes -- the Muslim World League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. The Saudi Joint Committee for Relief in Bosnia- Herzegovina, which has been charged to be a conduit for terrorists into Europe.
Now, the idea that the Saudis didn't know about these charges until recently is a difficult one to accept, I think.
KAGAN: And besides, going beyond the charity problem there is clearly problems even bigger than just where charity and cash money is going.
GREENFIELD: Well, I suggest there are two. One is a substantive problem, which is -- and I think it's very difficult for us, for Americans, to raise a question about anybody else's religious beliefs. We're a pluralistic society. But when that religious belief is rooted in a particular brand of Islam, not Islam itself, but the Wahabi brand of Islam, is extremely tough on Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and other Muslims, and in fact, we've learned in the last couple of days that the Saudi interior minister, one of the members of the ruling family, said to a Kuwaiti newspaper, It wasn't the 15 hijackers who did this -- 9/11 was the work of Zionists.
Now, if that's the view of one of the most important people in the Saudi government, the idea that this is just kind of a misunderstanding is tricky.
One other quick point. The U.S. Congress, which traditionally is tougher on other regimes than executives, and Colin Powell and George Bush have to deal with this reality. But the Congress, which is much more pro-Israel than any administration, much more suspicious about the Saudis, you have Richard Shelby, the Republican senator, saying the Saudis are in denial, and that heat is not going to let up.
KAGAN: One final quick point. Bill tried to nail down Adel al- Jubeir at the end, about Saudi cooperation militarily with the U.S. He said, We will make the right decision in the end.
GREENFIELD: That's what a diplomat says. I think the fact that senators are looking to Bahrain and other Gulf states to say why do we really have to make the Saudi country the base of our operations? It is an ongoing problem that spin is not going to solve.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, you can probably move that to Oman right now. We have heard that Qatar has these enormous warehouses right now that hold the largest tanks in the U.S. arsenal right now.
GREENFIELD: And there is the question of maybe there's oil other places too.
HEMMER: Don't you think it is naive of us to think that we can stop the charity contributions from going in certain locations? We're talking billions and billions of dollars, and it's not just Saudi Arabia. It's global.
KAGAN: Well, when they claim that they are cutting off accounts, 30-something accounts, $5.5 million -- I mean, that's the change in one Saudi's pocket.
GREENFIELD: Yes, I do.
HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
