Seeker Blog

Richard Miniter reports on a “high-level Hudson Institute discussion of the best approach to entering rehab”…

Every time you squeeze the trigger on the gas pump, you are putting money into
the pockets of terrorists.

Trace back the snaking hose, past the pump and the oil refinery, and you will
find nearly two dozen oil kingdoms—all of which, to some degree or another, fund
al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and other jihadi groups.

With the exception of a few mature Western democracies like Canada, Norway and
the United States, writes New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, “the price of
oil and the path of freedom run in opposite directions.”
If the world did not buy their oil, the sheikhs couldn’t give terrorists enough
money for a car to put a car bomb in.

So the key strategic question is: Can we sever the link between oil and al
Qaeda?

Wrestling with the issue in a private room at the Four Seasons Restaurant
recently was former CIA director James Woolsey, former Reagan Administration
Education Secretary Bill Bennett, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, and Wall Street Journal
editorial writer Stephen Moore. The forum was the Hudson Institute’s Briefing
Series, the best ticket for high-end discussion in New York. The audience is as
interesting as the guests: hedge-fund managers, executives, journalists,
scholars and socialites.

The Saudis account for 1% of planet’s Muslims, but provide 90% of the funding
for Islamic institutions and charities world-wide. In keeping with Saudi
Arabia’s official version of Islam, the kingdom’s billions flow to mosques and
charities that espouse a Wahabi doctrine.

“When the Wahabis teach their doctrine, they are teaching al Qaeda’s doctrine,”
Woolsey said. “There is no substantial difference between al Qaeda’s doctrine
and the Wahabi doctrine.”

[more from 7-10-2007]