PERFIDIOUS PRINCES
Mon May 20, 2:39 AM ET
CBS News reported that a videotape of Daniel Pearl's final hours - including his on-camera beheading - is being used to entice recruits to radical Islam.
The tape, disseminated on the Internet from Web sites originating in Saudi Arabia, is titled: "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl."
CBS termed it "a recruiting poster for America's enemies" aimed at young Saudis.
"The audience for this Web site [is] young Saudis: college students, high school students and unemployed Saudis," according to dissident Saudi journalist Ali al-Ahmed, who discovered the site and brought it to CBS's attention.
The network has come under fire from some quarters for airing short excepts of the videotape itself.
But CBS performed a valuable service by doing so.
For the report presents a necessary question: What sort of people would be enticed by such a disgusting spectacle to enlist in a war of hatred against the West?
Those infected by the disease of Wahhabism, a brand of medieval, radical Islam that preaches hatred of the West - and which pervades the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.
It is a movement that inspired Osama bin Laden - a Saudi citizen - and led to the creation of al Qaeda.
It explains why 15 of the 19 murderers of Sept. 11 were Saudi citizens - as are the bulk of the terrorist prisoners currently being held at Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo.
It explains why the Saudi government has distributed $135 million to Palestinian terrorist movements - to the families of anti-Israel suicide bombers.
It explains why a Saudi government official, Ambassador to Britain Ghazi Algosaibi, publishes poetry heaping praise on Palestinian suicide bombers.
And it explains why the Saudis obstructed U.S. efforts to bring to justice the killers who bombed Khobar Towers.
Even before 9/11, the Saudis sought to explain their financial support of terrorist groups - including al Qaeda - as an exercise in political pragmatism.
Crown Prince Abdullah suggested that failure to appease people like bin Laden would lead to an Iran-style revolution: That is, we've got to pay off the thugs if Saudi Arabia is to survive as a "moderate" American ally.
But can a government that supports extremists bent on destroying America ever serve America's interests?
Post-9/11, it has become clear that the House of Saud is at the root of radical Islam's war agains the West.
Clear, that is, except to Washington - where too many, especially within the State Department, believe that Riyadh is a reliable U.S. ally.
That notion was reinforced by President Bush, who recently forged a "strong personal bond" with Abdullah.
This even though that Abdullah had threatened to wage energy war on America - and to evict U.S. forces from Saudi bases during the middle of American air strikes against the Taliban.
Face it: Saudi Arabia has long been on the wrong side of anti-Western terrorism. Only now is the post-9/11 spotlight beginning to shine on Riyadh's complicity.
But the Saudis have yet to be called to account for their role in the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans.
President Bush caught political heat in some quarters when he announced his doctrine on terrorism: "Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists. If you harbor, fund or sponsor a terrorist, you're a terrorist."
But the only reason to criticize that approach is if it isn't applied to the most guilty parties - specifically, the House of Saud.
IT is simply not possible to support both Washington and al Qaeda. Yet the Saudis have been allowed to pretend to do so, without facing the consequences of their role as the financial reservoir of Islamic terrorism.
That the terrorists know their sick video of the butchering of Daniel Pearl will strike a chord of approval among young Saudis and induce them to join the jihad speaks to the evil fanaticism of Saudi Wahhabism.
The Pearl tape is a weapon aimed directly at America.
More than that, it's a brutal wake-up call that sends an important message about U.S.-Saudi relations: If Riyadh cannot break its ties to terror, then America must break its ties to Saudi Arabua.