America Must Explore Alternate Energy Sources and Cease Dealing with th

America Must Explore Alternate Energy Sources and Cease Dealing with the Corrupt Saudi Government When Mohammed al-Khilewi, a high-ranking official at the Saudi mission to the United Nations, defected to the United States in 1994, he reportedly brought with him fourteen thousand internal government documents. He claimed that these documents proved the Saudi royal family's corruption, human rights abuses, and financial and technical support for terrorist groups such as Hamas, an anti-Israeli group based in Lebanon, and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Al-Khilewi and his lawyer met with two FBI agents and an assistant United States attorney. "We gave them a sampling of the documents and put them on the table," Michael J. Wildes, al-Khilewi's lawyer, said. "But the agents refused to accept them" (Hersh). Al-Khilewi was granted political asylum and never heard from the American government again. He, his wife, and their three children still live in constant fear of reprisals from the long arm of Saudi intelligence. He now wears a bulletproof vest and is constantly bracketed by bodyguards and lives under a false identity. This is an example of the growing American tolerance for Saudi government transgressions. Saudi princes "squander billions of dollars [from the Saudi coffers] on palaces in Spain and at gaming tables in Monaco"(Cockburn) while the Saudi people suffer severe unemployment and inadequate education, a major issue in a nation in which 50 percent of the population is still in school. Religious dissidents are dealt with brutally and quickly in Saudi Arabia by the mutawwa'in&emdash;religious police&emdash;and Saudi women are kept as secluded and unprivileged as those in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. ... ...ays and human rights atrocities without fear of punishment. Works Cited Cockburn, Leslie, and Andrew Cockburn. "Royal Mess." New Yorker online. 28 Nov. 1994.Available<www.newyorker.com/FROM_THE_ARCHIVE/ARCHIVES/?011015fr_archive01> 30 Dec. 2001. Hersh, Seymour M. "King's Ransom." New Yorker online. 22 Oct. 2001. Available <http://newyorker.com/FACT/?011022fa_FACT1> 30 Dec. 2001. Ireland, Doug. "Taking the Bait." In These Times online. 12 Nov. 2001 <www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/25/feature1.shtml> 30 Dec. 2001. Mayer, Jane. "The House of bin-Laden." New Yorker online. 11 Nov. 2001. Available <www.newyorker.com/FACT/?011112fa_FACT3> 30 Dec. 2001 Surowiecki, James. "The Real Price of Oil." New Yorker online. 3 Dec. 2001. Available <www.newyorker.com/THE_TALK_OF_THE_TOWN/CONTENT/?011203ta_talk_surowiecki> 30 Dec. 2001