Ruth King

In May 2004, fifty-two former United States diplomats, Foreign Service officers and retired military officials (another twenty quickly signed on) addressed an open letter to President Bush protesting the administration's Mideast policy, which, they said, damaged United States prestige and credibility by supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinian Arabs.

As Joel Mowbray wrote in FrontpageMagazine.com the very next day: "Blame for the trouble in the entire region—of which Israel holds less than one percent of the territory and less than two percent of the population—is pinned on "Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, (and) its harsh military measures in occupied territories."

The prime mover behind the letter was Andrew Killgore, who served in Qatar (now pronounced to rhyme with gutter by the talking heads) from 1977 until 1980. He said he was inspired by a similar letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair from 52 former British diplomats. Mr. Killgore publishes the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs whose internet links include worthy organizations such as Al Awda Right to Return, American Muslim Alliance, True Torah Jews-Jews Against Zionism, Birzeit University-Palestine Information....well, you get the picture.

The British diplomats warned that Britain's policies on the Arab-Israel conflict and Iraq were doomed to failure, were "one sided and illegal" and would cost "yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood." The reference to Israeli blood was a bow to public relations; according to an article published in the UK Daily Telegraph on February 2004, many of the signatories were paid by pro-Arab organizations and "hold positions in companies seeking lucrative Middle East contracts, while others have unpaid positions with pro-Arab organizations." They all vociferously denied that their lucrative contracts had anything whatsoever to do with their letter, and they swore up and down that their only loyalty was to queen and crown. And who would not believe these knights of Britain?

But what about Killgore's cronies? Some of them are also unflinchingly loyal to the crowns...of Saudi Arabia and the other oil kingdoms, that is. Like their British counterparts, many are on the take from Arab nations or companies.

Daniel Pipes has made a yeoman effort to expose the diplomats and public servants bribed by the oil kingdoms. In The New York Post of December 11, 2002 (“What Riyadh Buys in Washington”) he quotes Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States: "If the reputation . . . builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." Among those "friends" the Saudis garnered, Pipes names Spiro Agnew, Jimmy Carter, Clark Clifford, John B. Connally and William Simon.

One of the most reliable Israel bashers to have signed on the letter is former Congressman Paul Findley, Republican of Illinois, defeated in 1983. Findley founded The Council for the National Interest, a "think tank" with Saudi funds. The website states: "Our goals include a total withdrawal of Israel from all occupied territory, a shared Jerusalem, an end to Israeli acts of aggression and provocation against her neighbors, American recognition of the independent state of Palestine, and a reduction of U.S. aid to Israel." One hopes his Arab friends rewarded him handsomely for his speech at a seminar named "Liberating America from Israel:" Said Findley: "Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society." Or, even more outrageous, in February 2002: "it is vivid to most of the world -- the real ground zero of terrorism is in Palestine, not Manhattan." (By which Findley did not mean that Palestinian Arab terror is the fount of world terror -- with which we could agree -- but that Israel, whose very name he cannot bring himself to use, is responsible for world terror.)

Edward Walker, (also a signatory) has served extensively in the Middle East, including ambassadorships to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He was also ambassador to Israel, which did not change his perspective. Walker is the president of the Middle East Institute, which he told the Washington Post, received $200,000 of its $1.5-million budget from Saudi donors.

Another signatory, Raymond Close, Chief of Station in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1971 to 1979 resigned a post with the CIA in order to go into business with Arab friends and facilitated the transfer of arms from Saudi Arabia to the Taliban. You have to wonder how he interpreted information for the CIA.

Signatory Eugene Bird, former Counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, is well compensated by Saudi Arabia, and so is his wife who runs a program which brings two articulate Moslems and one perfidious Israeli to campuses to undermine Israel's claim to a united Jerusalem. Bird is president of the Council for the National Interest, and in a March 17th, 2004 meeting of that Arab front, he said of AIPAC: "The worst effect of having such a powerful lobby has been the shuttering of debate on both policies and relationships with the Arab and Muslim world. Did this lead indirectly to 9/11? Many think so. Did this lead directly to the president deciding to invade Iraq? Many will say so in private." Bird even manages to pin the blame for the abuses at Abu Ghraib on Israel: "We know that the Israeli intelligence was operating in Baghdad after the war was over. The question should be: Were there any foreign interrogators among those that were recommending very, very bad treatment for the prisoners?"

Signatory James Akins, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, engages in sycophancy so outrageous he falls into self-satire. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, he declared:" The Arabs have a record of religious tolerance which is not equaled or even approached by any European country."

But according to Daniel Pipes, John C. West set the gold standard when he funded his personal foundation with a $500,000 donation from a single Saudi prince, plus more from other Saudis, soon after he left the kingdom in 1981. West was South Carolina's governor from 1971 to 1975 before becoming envoy to Saudi Arabia under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. In 1977, a British cameraman witnessed the public beheading of a Saudi Arabian princess and her lover. He made a documentary entitled "The Death of a Princess". In May 1980, PBS scheduled the documentary but West went into overdrive to cancel the broadcast.. He was so successful that then Secretary of State Warren Christopher "appealed" to the network and Exxon withdrew support, causing PBS to cancel. As late as February 24, 2003 West called the war on Iraq an "absolute disaster. He went on to add: "Carter understood it very well, that you'll never have a stable Middle East peace until you resolve the Palestinian-Israeli problem, the root cause of terrorism today." Where have we heard that before?

There is one surprising non-signatory, former ambassador Wyche Fowler. Fowler is a former senator from Georgia appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia during President Clinton's second term. He has several consulting contracts from industries doing business in the Middle East and is the new chairman of the board of The Middle East Institute. We could not resist citing him here for his appearance on CNN where he stated: "Whether or not you agree or disagree with the most conservative form of Islam, Wahhabism, it does teach tolerance for Jews and Christians."

The Ambassadors, virtually to a person, describe Saudi Arabia as a peaceable kingdom whose moderate kings are gracious, generous, charitable, charming and hospitable. And, what could be more satisfying than to be rewarded financially for one's pre-existing disdain for Israel and Jews? While Israel bashers such as Robert Novak and Thomas Friedman don't get paid for it (as far as we know) these former career diplomats get big bucks.

Make no mistake, these scoundrels work hard. While the Saudi envoys oil their way around the corridors of power, it is these former American officials who do the fancy footwork. How else can one explain how only 6 months after September 11, 2001, Saudi Arabia, where almost all the terrorists were born, bred, educated, funded and encouraged, actually floated a so called "peace plan" for the Middle East. It was nothing more than another do-it-yourself suicide kit for Israel, but the respect, the downright enthusiasm with which it was received is tribute to the efficiency of these and other "Diplorabians" too numerous to name here.

As Matt Welch wrote in a devastating commentary in the National Post of August 2, 2000, "They are the former U.S. ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, and they have carved out a fine living insulting their own countrymen while shilling for one of the most corrupt regimes on Earth."

I cannot end this essay without paying tribute to the late Ambassador Hume Horan who was a noble exception to this disgraceful pattern. A scholar who spoke Arabic fluently, he was a Foreign Service officer in Iraq, Jordan, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. In 1987 he was appointed ambassador to Riyadh, where he incurred the wrath of King Fahd after rebuking the kingdom for the purchase of missiles from China. Fahd demanded that he end his tour after only nine months. Since then, there have been no American ambassadors in Saudi Arabia who speak Arabic. Many years later when speaking to an interviewer Horan said: "They made us kowtow. The American ambassador's influence ended in Riyadh and from then on, the Saudi ambassador in Washington dominated the U.S.-Saudi relationship." Of his colleagues he said: "There have been some people who really do go on the Saudi payroll, and they work as advisers and consultants. Prince Bandar is very good about massaging and promoting relationships like that. Money works wonders, and if you've got an awful lot of it, and a royal title--well, it's amusing to see how some Americans liquefy in front of a foreign potentate, just because he's called a prince." Hume Horan died in July. R.I.P.

What is worst of all is that in parroting the Saudi line that points to the Israel-Arab conflict as the root of international terrorism, these US foreign service officers embolden Israel's enemies and contribute to fostering the great evil of anti-Semitism.

Ruth King is on AFSI’s executive committee.