15 of 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens so why did the Saudis not get even a slap on the wrist?

Um, what? I’m not entirely sure I understand the question, but as compared to who? Afghanistan? We did go to war with Afghanistan.

@papayalily 15 Saudi hijackers + 9/11 = Go bomb Afghanistan and Iraq and ignore Saudi Arabia. 15 hijackers and no possible connection?

Because it wasn’t a state-sponsored act of war. It’s not as if the Saudi government engineered the plot (at least, not to my knowledge). What if 15 American members of a known terrorist organization planted a car bomb in Germany? Should Germany then go to war with the US?

Some of the attacks in the last few years have been done by American citizens. But I understand what you mean. It’s a war on an idea, really. There’s no person or country we can pinpoint. Interesting question.

We are addicted to Saudi Oil.

@Hypocrisy_Central Well, we bombed Afghanistan because we thought that Al Queda was hiding there due to it’s connection with the Taliban. We bombed Iraq because Bush wanted to get Saddam out of power. We didn’t bomb Saudi Arabia because, unlike with the Taliban (who often ARE the government in Afghanistan) it wasn’t the Saudi government who took part in 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Ha haaa… All I have to say is, imagine some British people hijacked some buses, loaded them with C4, and destroyed an important building in Quebec. Canada spends the next 10 years bombing the US and raping its untapped resources in “retaliation” with the help of Russia. What we would call freedom fighters (probably in the form of militia, remember those?) Canada would execute as terrorists. All of a sudden it’s not cool, isn’t it?

Just because they were from Saudi Arabia, doesn’t mean that’s what made them terrorists, directly. They were young muslims, and susceptible to the teachings of a lunatic.
7 of the first 12 US Presidents were from Virginia. That doesn’t mean that the state of Virginia was responsable for these men doing what they did.

@dpworkin – You got that right! :-) And they have us by the balls.

Going along with your assumptions… one factor that might/probably applies is that coming out of the gas crisis of the 70s, we made a deal with Saudi Arabia to treat them with kid gloves and to modernize their country in exchange for their promise never to choke the oil supply. So that’s probably why they’ve gotten such special treatment all these years.

They also provide us a place to land our military aircraft and stage our solders.

@augustlan ” Because it wasn’t a state-sponsored act of war. It’s not as if the Saudi government engineered the plot (at least, not to my knowledge).” Well the Al Qaeda was not in official capacity in Afghanistan either. They were no more official than all the militias that operate here on US soil. And if it was Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia that carried out the attack why go after suspected Al Qaeda in Afghanistan?

Abu Zubaydah, whom most probably don’t remember, was a suspected high value terrorist wounded and captured in Pakistan of all places. To loosen his tongue he was whisked secretly to Afghanistan where he was threatened to be handed over to the Saudis because they would torture him to make him talk. Every one else would have just been packed off to Gitmo, but rather then just sending him, Zubaydah, to Gitmo along with the falafel seller who had the bad luck of servicing Bin Laden’s 5th lieutenant from the left they gave him “special” treatment; they posed as Saudis who would torture him if he did not tell the Americans what they wanted to know. And in backdoor torture fashion the US with held pain medication when is tongue got slow nothing like bribing a man in pain, wonder if I can “convince” someone to sign over their car to me that way?. The interesting thing is instead of being terrified as the US thought he was glad to see them and started speaking freely with the “fake Saudi agents”. Zubaydah then asked his interrogators to call a senior member of the Saudi royal family. And Zubaydah provided a private home number and a cell phone number from memory. Interesting huh? Why would a “high value” terrorist have home and private cell numbers to members of the Royal Family? The men was Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, one of King Fahd’s nephews, and it was later learned he was in the US at the time of the attack. And while being denied pain meds and slipped a thiopental sodium drip (a so-called truth serum) he laid out details of how he and the Al Qaeda hierarchy had been supported at high levels inside the Saudi and Pakistan governments. The CIA backdoor tortured this out of him far more credible than Iraq’s WMD maybe? If they, the CIA, can go of flimsy intel to start a war in Iraq and not even follow up on what Zubaydah told them? Go figure?

@dpworkin Larvae for you, that is about right.

@unused_bagels The logic of your answer is way above the heads of many, they won’t or can’t get it. Larvae for you.

@filmfann *_” Just because they were from Saudi Arabia, doesn’t mean that’s what made them terrorists, directly.” Just because the head of Al Qaeda was supposedly hiding in Afghanistan don’t mean the Taliban attacked the Twin Towers either but they got bombed for it, so what is the difference?

@ChazMaz Larvae for you. That is part of it, to feel better about being put on his knees with his lips on the oil pipe Uncle Sam wants to keep them happy just long enough to put a garrison there ala Darth Vader to play Arab against Arab while really being the boot lackey of Israel.

@Hypocrisy_Central The Taliban actively supported the planners of 9/11. Saudi Arabia didn’t.

Israel spies on the US more than any other country, why not stop supporting them then !!

Although it wasn’t a state-sponsored act of war, the widespread totalitarian ideology called Wahhabism is ultimately responsible for breeding terrorist nutcases like Bin Laden and the 15 Saudi hijackers.

Wahhabism is a ultra-conservative Sunni Islamic sect, which preaches intolerance and hatred and controls every minute of people’s lives. Text books in Saudi elementary schools tell kids to hate Israel and the United States. Madrassas poising the brains of innocent children. And we are taking the princes to dinner enjoying SUVs guzzling Saudi-Arabian oil.

The system of gender apartheid is appalling. Although Saudi women make up 70% of those enrolled in universities, for social reasons, women make up just 5% of the workforce in Saudi Arabia, the lowest proportion in the world. Women are constantly harassed by the “religious” police. Prior to 2008, women were not allowed to enter hotels and furnished apartments without a chaperon or mahram.

Women are treated like children or cattle. Are we surprised that systems like this create terrorists. If young men don’t learn to respect women, how can they learn to respect diversity including the western culture.

Why did the Saudis not get even a slap on the wrist?

Because the US is not ready to make a serious transition into green technologies. As soon as the dependency on Saudi oil ends politicians will put more pressure on the Saudi dictators. Like South Africa during the time of apartheid before Mandela became president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_apartheid_in_Saudi_Arabia