RIYADH BOMBING: The attack on western compounds in Riyadh has reopened a debate in the US which has been simmering since September 11th, 2001 - is Saudi Arabia a genuine ally in the war against terrorism?Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, reports from New York
The White House yesterday gently criticised the Gulf kingdom for not doing enough to prevent the deadly bombings, but insisted that Saudi authorities remained stalwart allies in the war on terrorism.
US President George W. Bush spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah by telephone on Tuesday night, and remains "pleased" with Saudi Arabia's overall performance, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said. Nevertheless, the American ambassador to Riyadh, Mr Robert Jordan, accused the Saudis yesterday on network news of not providing extra security sought by the US when it detected the threat of imminent attack two weeks ago.
An FBI team of 12 specialists send by Washington to Riyadh on Tuesday was reportedly cut down to six on Saudi concerns of too-close co-operation, further ruffling feathers in Washington.
For decades, Saudi Arabia has been America's most reliable ally in the region, with the interests of the world's largest oil producer and its greatest industrial power intersecting.
The long-serving Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was close to former President Bush who treated him almost like family, and the prince often hosted leading establishment figures such as Mr Henry Kissinger and Mr Bill Clinton at his exclusive Aspen resort home.
His collaboration with Washington extended to financing the Iran Contra operation under President Ronald Reagan to the tune of $32 million and to acting as intermediary for every president since Reagan with Middle East states.
Security co-operation was always a problem, however, for the Americans. In 1996, Saudi authorities restricted FBI access to suspects after the bombing of the Khobar Towers dormitory that killed 19 US service members. The relationship came under serious strain in recent years because of a combination of Saudi anger at the Bush administration's failure to rein in Israel's military in the occupied territories, and US suspicions of Saudi involvement in the September 11th attacks on the US.
On August 27th, 2001, Prince Bandar voiced Saudi serious concern about Israel to the White House, where he asked national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice how Americans would like it if the homes of all Timothy McVeigh's relations were razed as punishment for the Oklahoma bombing.
Two weeks later, the al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington caused a surge of anti-Saudi feeling in the US. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Prince Bandar helped the bin Laden family flee America in a private plane. There were reports that hundreds of millions of dollars had been given by Saudi interests to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, and a prominent Saudi minister blamed Jews for the suicide bombings.
America woke up to the fact that despite their friendship with the Saudi royal family, the population was strongly anti-America and a source of Islamist militancy, and that Saudi rulers maintained close ties with conservative clerics.
Nevertheless, Riyadh-Washington relations remained steady on the surface, close enough for the US to maintain a base there and to ask Saudi Arabia to help persuade France and other countries to back the UN resolution on Iraq last November. After Monday's bombing, charges that the establishment in Riyadh had been infiltrated by Osama bin Laden sympathisers are again being heard in the US media.
The attack greatly discomfited President Bush, who boasted last week that "Al-Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated. They're not a problem any more."
American officials hope that the result of the suicide bombings will be a crackdown on militants in Saudi Arabia. Republican Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the attacks would be "a wake-up call to the Saudis" .