
German intelligence: Saudi Arabia is playing a destabilizing role in the M.East - kevindeasis
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-is-playing-an-increasingly-destabilising-role-in-the-middle-east-german-intelligence-a6760911.html
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rbanffy
We could have just told them.

edit: I undertand it's a big step to see a government agency make an official
announcement that will have a lot of diplomatic fallout. The big news is that
the BND said it, not that someone was surprised by what they said.

Now, at least, se can all talk about the elephant in the room.

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gpvos
It's a big step (and fraught with diplomatic problems) that a government
agency is saying this openly. Have any other (major, Western) governments or
their agencies done so already?

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orbifold
It was mentioned by one of the candidates in the republican presidential
debate for example (I forgot who), so it definitely is part of the mainstream
discussion.

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lispm
German Vice Chancellor Gabriel:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/120...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/12035838/German-
vice-chancellor-accuses-Saudi-Arabia-of-funding-Islamic-extremism-in-the-
West.html)

[http://news.yahoo.com/german-vice-chancellor-warns-saudi-
ara...](http://news.yahoo.com/german-vice-chancellor-warns-saudi-arabia-over-
islamist-135521960.html)

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siculars
I have a question for all the folks out there who preach the "give them all
jobs" line to ending terrorism: What happens when oil has no value cause we
don't need it anymore? You know, the same oil that bankrolls half the paragon
countries on the planet like our good friends the Saudis.

In case you can't tell, I believe that line of reasoning is complete garbage.

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chrisbennet
Could clarify that a bit for me? Thx.

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KMag
I believe the GP is talking about the fact that most of the jihadi foot
solders are unemployed/under-employed with poor job prospects, and many are
unmarried with poor marriage prospects. For instance, Saudi Arabia for a time
had a program where they took convicted jihadis, gave them job training and
loans/grants for dowries (and maybe ran some kind of matchmaking service... I
forget the details) and saw significantly lowered re-arrest rates for jihadis
who got jobs and wives shortly after leaving prison.

Improving economic outlook reduces the pool of recruits, but the GP is
questioning the long-term macroeconomic outlook in the region, and in turn
questions the long-term viability of harming extremist recruiting by improving
job prospects for young unmarried men.

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PaulHoule
After 9/11 we should have taken over Saudi Arabia instead of Iraq since that
is where the money came from.

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mkaziz
You can't attack Saudi Arabia because that's tantamount to the attacking the
entire Muslim world. Not many Muslims I know have any love for the Saudi
regime, but almost all have a huge emotional connection to the holy cities of
Makkah and Medina that they don't even have for their own countries.

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restalis
The cultural cities usually were exempted from destruction. See the siege of
Leningrad (with targets being hospitals or bazaars but not bridges or other
cultural artifacts, when it would have been easy to rake the ground all over)
or the avoidance to target Kyoto (when almost every city over 30k people all
around Japan having been bombed at one time or another).

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_pmf_
I'm skeptical. Wouldn't it be more beneficial for them to have a stabilized
region under their control than a destabilized one? They have enough
economical power to pull this off, so I assume the destabilization is merely a
side effect of supporting the wrong groups due to religious association than a
dedicated effort at destabilization.

~~~
merpnderp
When Iran was supporting Shiite death squads in Iraq, I'm sure part of their
plan was to destabilize the US backed unity government in order to further
Shiite control of that government. Which looks like it pretty much worked.
Destabilizing the Yemen government would allow the Shiite rebels to gain more
power.

Discrediting the recognized government (can't really say legitimate to any
government over there), is an old strategy intended to grant leverage and the
eventual bargaining table.

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jazzyk
But the ultimate enabler of countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran is the US/West
by 1. making them rich through oil-buying (some of the money goes to fund
terrorism) and 2. selling them arms.

So the West is to blame indirectly (and directly), too.

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rsync
Obligatory:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o)

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shalnoff
is it a Hacker News, isn't it?

