Saudi Arabia Is a Key to Mideast Stability

Re “Read Between the Lines of Those 28 Missing Pages,” by Robert Scheer, Commentary, July 29:

Nothing would destabilize the Mideast region more than an attempt to overthrow the Saudi government. “Regime change” in the desert kingdom would play into the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists. Scheer’s belief that President Bush’s “business ties” with the oil-rich kingdom are behind the effort to classify information about its links to the 9/11 hijackers misses the point. No group would be happier to see the current government go than Al Qaeda itself, which has conducted operations and established cells in Riyadh and Mecca. The Saudis have arrested dozens of terrorists in the last three months.

Arabia is the sacred center of worldwide Islam. Unrest there translates into instability throughout the region. The House of Saud is the conservative guardian of the mosques of Mecca and Medina, sites of obligatory pilgrimage for the world’s Muslims. Trouble in the “land of the two mosques” would advance Al Qaeda’s plan to control the sacred center. We might start the process of revolution, but we could never control or contain it.

The Saudi opposition movement is no less fundamentalist than the present government, and it may have ties to Al Qaeda. If we attempted to overthrow the current Saudi regime, its successor could be worse and our enemies would rejoice.

Jean Rosenfeld

Pacific Palisades

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I would take Scheer’s opinions more seriously if he weren’t such a partisan. Let’s see ... President George Bush, the father, cozied up to the Saudis for financial gain. Now, President Bush is supposedly covering up for the Saudis.

Lest we forget the eight years in between -- exactly what changed during President Clinton’s two administrations, the years when Al Qaeda terrorists were plotting 9/11? The truth is that we’ve always “sold out” because of our dependence on Saudi oil.

Lois Tannenbaum

West Hills