Saudis Aid Terror; U.S. Should Switch From Oil

Re “Saudi Aid to War on Terror Is Criticized,” Oct. 13: President Bush made it unequivocal: You’re either for us or against us. There are no gray areas in the war against terrorism. At the same time, the administration has been playing diplomatic footsie with the Saudis, who have done everything in their power to thwart American attempts to break these terrorist organizations that operate in and are financed by Saudi businessmen. After all, six of the terrorists obtained their visas in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis hampered the American investigation into the 1996 terrorist bombing of the U.S. military barracks and have refused to aid the U.S. in freezing terrorist-linked bank accounts.

To add insult to injury, a Saudi prince had the audacity to issue a statement, after visiting the World Trade Center devastation and handing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani a check for $10 million, that the U.S. should change its policies in the Middle East. The Saudis’ duplicitous friendship is now exposed. They are against us.

Aaron Shuster

Los Angeles

*

Saudi businessmen contribute “tens of millions” of dollars annually to the terrorists, and that’s a “bare minimum.” The same is certainly true of Iran, Iraq and Libya. In each of those nations, oil is the only source of money. The industrialized world subsidizes terrorism with every tankful. It’s time for a Manhattan Project II to develop a hydrogen-based fuel cell. Otherwise, we will fight this war again and again.

Not only will fuel cells end our current indirect subsidy of terrorism, they will also insulate us against future oil shocks if and when our oil is cut off by anti-American fundamentalist regimes (as occurred in 1973). We’ll need to share our new technology with the rest of the industrialized nations so that they no longer subsidize terrorism (and so that our markets are protected).

I hope the president, a former oilman, has the courage to move our economy beyond the petroleum-based, internal-combustion engine. If not, his challenger in 2004 should make powerful use of this issue.

Dan Schechter

Los Alamitos