When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia publically beheaded the dissident Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr earlier this month, the Obama administration said not a word.
The mystery behind that silence may just have been resolved, with a front page New York Times exposé about the extent of Saudi cooperation with and support for the American effort against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
President Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria’s beleaguered non-Islamist rebels in 2013. The spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation: Saudi Arabia, the ally the United States has counted on for half a century for financial support and discretion in Middle East conflict zones.
The CIA and Saudi intelligence have “an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore,” the New York Times reports, through which the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the Americans train the rebels on AK-47 assault rifles and tank-destroying missiles.
The support for the Syrian rebels is only the latest chapter in the decades-long relationship between Saudi spy services and the United States, an alliance that has endured through the Iran-contra scandal, support for the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan and proxy fights in Africa. It is not the first time, the report states, that “Saudi Arabia has simply written checks underwriting American covert activities.”
“In addition to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves and role as the spiritual anchor of the Sunni Muslim world, the long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam, Wahhabism, that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is fighting,” the report continues. “Although the Saudis have been public about their help arming rebel groups in Syria, the extent of their partnership with the C.I.A.’s covert action campaign and their direct financial support had not been disclosed.”