Won't try to recap much, but wily and kinda kewl Saudi ambassador was one of the players. He was quite up to indelicate Qs about corruption, Waha'abi Fundamentalism and its export, the SA "crew" on the airliners - and ~"how much of $B400 may or may nor have been squandered? by Fahd n'friends" ie - is SA bankrupt-like? Cagey but not evasive of the obvious. Natch the Frontline crew were not allowed into SA, certainly not to dial-up bin-L's billionaire family and cousins. Natch.

But over & over the unstated (almost formulated) message was: were we to have an attack of Capitalist-shame (is that an oxymoron?), pull out, leave 'em to the local wolves.?.

(All this with the refrain - bin-L be a larger Nemesis of Fahd's Family of Fellow Feeders than.. his vendetta to get us away from the Holy-smoke Stuff.) An intricate dance between a 'progressive-facing' govt. in SA vs stone-age-facing religious sect = the vox populi: seems best characterization of what Fahd must umm 'balance' <|> They'd have to be scared or stupid.. I very much doubt the latter.

IF Fahd crumbles: T'would be Algeria, Chechnya, East Timor deja vu.-- the foreign mercenaries + Fundamentalists (of whom Waha'abi are Brothers in Draconian Lugubrious Solemnity\ufffd) would soon have a mini-Taleban dispensing Terror-Theology 101.

{sigh} Oh what a tangled web we weave.. when we settle for 17.2 mpg avge. for the whole current crop of UAVs; will take SA oil at any (Real compounded Cost), even drill in back yards, sanctuaries and maybe Central Park - before stifling appetites for funny-looking cars.. bought on maxed-out CCs.

So Be It, as they say..


A.