Russian Expert James Carden Asks, Why Mourn King Abdullah?

If the volume of condolences for the death of Saudi King Abdullah meant anything, one could easily believe the world had lost a great leader, writes James Carden, a former member of the State Department’s U.S.-Russia Bilateral Commission, citing the fulsome praise of Secretary of State John Kerry, President Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Carden’s article was published in the Jan. 27 The American Conservative.

Carden then cuts to the chase and reports that, beyond the Saudis’ obscene brutalities,

“There is Saudi Arabia’s role in providing material support for the 9/11 atrocity that took the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans. Obama continues to protect the Saudis by refusing to release the 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission report having to do with Saudi Arabia’s funding of and complicity in the attacks. This despite his own promises to the 9/11 families that he would do so. Efforts by U.S. Congressmen Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) to force the administration to release the redacted pages are ongoing.  In addition, former Senator and Intelligence Committee chairman Bob Graham (D-FL) has also called on the administration to release the 28 redacted pages, whose content, he says, ‘points a finger in the direction of Saudi Arabia.’

“Meanwhile, the Saudis continue to fund—to the tune of billions of dollars a year—the propagation of the most sinister and violent branch of Islam throughout the world, leading to, among other things, the ritual slaughter of a staff of cartoonists in the very heart of Europe, hostage taking in Sydney, and murderous rampages in Ottawa and Brussels, to say nothing of a series of subway bombings in Madrid, London, and Moscow.

“It is by now blindingly clear that the regime in Riyadh will resort to the most medieval of measures towards anyone within or without its borders who is not in thrall to the violent tenets of Wahhabi Islam.  So the question remains: why does our own government pretend that this is not so?

“The expression of even a modicum of sorrow, even if disingenuous, by Western leaders is far more than the death of King Abdullah deserves.”

In Congress, moves to declassify the 28 pages continue. Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) announced that he has again requested permission to read the classified 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11.  Grayson’s December 2014 request was denied by former Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers, an unprecedented action.  There are currently five cosponors to Rep. Walter Jones’ H. Res. 14, demanding the declassification of the 28 pages:  Reps. John  Conyers, (D-MI), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL).