Bandar bin Sultan

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الأمير بندر بن سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States, meets President George W. Bush in August 2002
House of Saud
Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (Arabic: الأمير بندر بن سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎, born 2 March 1949) is a Saudi politician and was Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. He was appointed Secretary-General of the National Security Council by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on 16 October 2005.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Political career 3 Terrorism funding 4 Controversy 5 Corruption allegations 6 After the ambassadorship 7 Private life 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Taif, Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar is a son of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia.

His mother was Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz's servant Khizaran a Sudanese worker living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.^[1] Under Sharia nevertheless, all sons have equal status and Bandar Bin Sultan received a modern education, and even married Princess Haifa bint Faisal, King Faisal's daughter, before he became the Saudi ambassador to the United States of America in 1983.^[2]

He attended the British Royal Air Force College Cranwell and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, where he served for seventeen years. He is a trained pilot, and has flown numerous fighter aircraft. He received additional training at Maxwell Air Force Base and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, before receiving a Masters in International Public Policy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.^[2]

Prince Bandar's diplomatic experience began in 1978, when he successfully lobbied the United States Congress to approve the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia. In 1983 he was appointed ambassador to the United States.

[edit] Political career

Prince Bandar has formed close relationships with several American presidents, notably George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, who gave him the affectionate and controversial nickname "Bandar Bush". [2] His friendship with Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, extends to the years before Cheney took office as the United States Vice President. Prince Bandar invited the Cheney family to his daughter's wedding in the 1990s, but they did not attend.^{[citation needed]}

The close relationship with the Bush family is also described in Craig Unger's book House of Bush, House of Saud and is highlighted in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

[edit] Terrorism funding

Bandar counts among those in the royal court who most zealously strive to confront Shi'a Muslims. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said on CNN that the Sunni terrorist group Fatah al-Islam was being funded by Saudi Arabia through Bandar bin Sultan, as a result of an agreement among Dick Cheney, Elliott Abrams and Bandar "whereby the Saudis would covertly fund the Sunni Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia Hezbollah". He also stated that the Lebanese government, led by the Sunni Future Movement, was providing support for the group. ^[3]

Bandar had previously, in 1985, funded a CIA-sponsored bombing of a Beirut neighborhood, which killed 80 civilians, in an attempt to assassinate the leading Shi'a Muslim cleric, Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah^[4].

[edit] Controversy

Prince Bandar has endured controversy over allegations in the book Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward that President George W. Bush informed him of the decision to invade Iraq ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Also, the book alleged a deal had been worked out to reduce oil prices just ahead of the November 2004 election. Bandar publicly endorsed President Bush.

On 26 June 2005, Prince Bandar reportedly submitted his resignation as ambassador to the United States for "personal reasons".^[5][6] Bandar's return to Saudi Arabia was announced weeks prior to the death of King Fahd upon which Bandar's father, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz became the nation's Crown Prince. It has been rumoured that Bandar's return was timed in order to secure a position in the new government.^[7] In October 2005 he became the kingdom's national security chief.

[edit] Corruption allegations

Bandar helped negotiate the 1985 Al Yamamah deal, a series of massive arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia worth GB£40 billion (US$80 billion), including the sale of more than 100 warplanes. After the deal was signed, British arms manufacturer British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) allegedly funnelled secret payments of at least GB£1 billion (US$2 billion) into two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington, in yearly instalments of up to GB£120 million (US$240 million) over at least 10 years. Bandar allegedly took money for personal use out of the accounts, as the purpose of one of the accounts was to pay the operating expenses of the prince's private Airbus A340. According to investigators, there was "no distinction between the accounts of the embassy, or official government accounts [...], and the accounts of the royal family." The payments were discovered during a Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was stopped in December 2006 by attorney general Lord Goldsmith.^{[8] [9]}

[edit] After the ambassadorship

According to UPI's Editor at Large Arnaud de Borchgrave (writing in late December 2006), Bandar met secretly with U.S. officials in 2006 after leaving the ambassadorship:^[10]

Since Turki [Prince Turki al-Faisal] became ambassador, Bandar made several secret trips to the U.S., ostensibly to visit his palatial Aspen mansion [...] But Bandar had permission to land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, ostensibly for refueling, which allowed him to move incognito to Camp David for meetings with National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley. Bandar also met with NSC Middle East Director Elliott Abrams, a prominent Neo-Conservative.

Bandar is more "truculent" toward Iran than is Turki, his successor as U.S. ambassador (2005–2006), according to de Borchgrave, and Bandar even persuaded other high Saudi government officials to his point of view, including King Abdullah, Defense Minister Sultan, and Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, to his point of view that (in de Borchgrave's description) "nothing short of military action would deter Iran from becoming the world's 10th nuclear power."^[10]

[edit] Private life

He is married to Princess Haifa bint Faisal. They have four sons and four daughters.

He was appointed Secretary-General of the National Security Council by King Abdullah on 16 October 2005.

On 12 July 2006, it was reported that Prince Bandar was seeking to sell his 56,000-square-foot mansion in Aspen, Colorado for US $135 million. The palatial vacation home, called Hala Ranch, is larger than the White House, is perched on a mountaintop of 95 acres, and includes 15 bedrooms along with 16 bathrooms featuring 24-karat gold fixtures. As of December 2006 the mansion was still listed for sale at $135 million.^[10] The purported reason for the sale is that Bandar is too busy to enjoy the mansion.^[11]

He owns Glympton Park, Oxfordshire.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official biography
• New Yorker biography
• Disinfopedia biography
• Bandar bin Sultan resigns from the BBC