In this article I want to explore some different aspects of the secretive country Saudi Arabia.
If you are an information junkie then you may have noticed that Saudi Arabia is a country which the former U.S President Bush Senior became too close to, a feeling that the current U.S President Obama does not share.

During the Presidential campaigning of 2008 , Barack Obama was talking at a rally on various Mid-East aspects, and at one point stated , 'Now let's make this clear...The Saudis are not our friends...'
(truthfully I can't remember if it was an Army base visit or a general election speech)
It is something which was said yet I cannot find reference of it on the internet. At the time I was aware, as many are , that the Saudis had defense deals and intelligence sharing with the U.S and the U.K. 
The biggest defense deal that Britain has with the Saudis is the Al-Yamamah deal, which is the biggest deal done by any British Government or company in history, valued at 43 Billion pounds sterling. The deal was struck and signed in the late 1980's during the U.K Thatcher Conservative Government era.

British defense manufacturers BaE Systems were found to have 'kept the Saudis sweet' by delivering up to one billion pounds sterling into the Saudi Royal Prince Bandar's American bank account.
The U.K's Serious Fraud Office carried out an investigation into the bribes paid to Prince Bandar, and eventually after many years of pursuit, the defense group BaE was fined 40 million pounds in the U.K and 400 million U.S dollars for giving false statements in February 2009. This is only the icing on the cake.
During the period of the investigation the Saudis were also being investigated over the billion-pound bribes, but the British Government were told very quickly by the Saudis that if the investigation into Prince Bandar was not stopped then the Saudis would stop their intelligence sharing with Britain, and there would be  'Blood on the streets of London'.
(see video below)

BaE Systems investigated for serious fraud over U.K-Saudi Al-Yamamah jet deal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvA5AUl6UeU

This was just one story that Britain carried, yet another news report I recorded in 2005 from FOX News on the Saudi funding of terror groups and training camps was not covered by the British media and has not been touched on in the last 5 years. It is though the Saudis do not exist.
In the same FOX news report it is revealed that the U.S knew where Osama Bin Laden was down to the nearest metre on a map. But America's military didn't take the opportunity to take Bin Laden down because at the time Bin Laden was also seen with United Arab Emirates sheiks and officials, and the U.S was in a jet-fighter deal with the UAE, and didn't want to risk losing the UAE jet fighter deal by killing Bin Laden and possibly the UAE officials who were with Bin Laden at the time.
(see video below)

U.S Allow Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden to Escape
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwEGN2b7o28

Is the priority of the U.S to securitize business deals at the risk of losing the one and possibly only chance to eliminate the number one wanted man in the World- who the U.S Government claimed was responsible for the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks? Below is another link to another article which delves into the Saudi connection and funding of terror groups.  This single paragraph in the article underlines the issue:-
'Over the past decade, according to a 2002 report to the United Nations Security Council, al Qaeda and its fellow jihadists collected between $300 million and $500 million -most of it from Saudi charities and private donors...'
(see full article below)

The Saudi Terror Funding Connection
http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/extra/saudi_connection.htm

But this is also just the top layer of the cake. What is in the middle and underneath the top layer is what really needs to be explored by those who want to know more about the Middle East and Saudi Arabia.
If you take a look at the video 'The House of Saud' you can learn much more about the history of the region, into the family which had a vision to turn Saudi Arabia into a competitive World player, and where the family
name 'Saud' was given to the country which became 'Saudi Arabia'. The video explores the roots of wahhabism- the extreme age-old version of Islamic religion, which was spread through Saudi Arabian towns and cities. The video also looks into the Saudi oil industry and their wealth built up over the decades, to be the empire which makes one billion dollars per day from oil sales today...
(see The House of Saud video below)

The House of Saud ( 2 hours)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4383835181717429209

But I don't just want you to look at the facts and then forget what I have put together here.
The information contained within this article has never been put together before in one single report.
The reality is that both the U.S and the U.K are in a dangerous love-hate relationship with the Saudis. You will rarely see or hear anything on the Saudis- there is more attention given to Iran's nuclear power programme, or the Taliban, and a possible war between North and South Korea, and the Israel-Palestine issue.
Saudi Arabia called for Israel to be destroyed only a few decades ago, long before Iran was in the spotlight.
Saudi Arabia has been filtering money through charities onto terror training groups.   
Saudi Arabia is an exporter of wahhabism, extremist Islamic religious belief, and was known as a nation strongly against Western countries or foreigners.

So why does the U.S and the U.K media focus on Iran being an exporter of weapons to Hezbollah, which is largely seen as untrue? Why do we hear so much on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and the Yemen, yet very rarely will focus on Saudi Arabia? The almost complete media blackout of Saudi activities is something to be concerned about.
Future generations will grow up hearing much of the Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani wars, and will not be able to fully unravel the full picture of the Middle East. Do the Saudis have the power to silence media? It was the Saudis after all who threatened Britain to withdraw the investigation into the Prince Bandar/BaE Systems bribes, saying they would cut intelligence sharing with the U.K and that would lead to 'blood on the streets of London...'
(don't step on our toes if you don't want to see another 7/7 ?)

Many analyists will say that the U.S and the U.K are just letting the Saudi issue die away and become a mystery, as they fear losing lucrative defense deals, intelligence sharing and military co-operation with the Saudis.
It is for you the investigative body to look into this for yourself , and you will find out that it is not easy to discover information of the Saudis, nor will you notice any politicians talk boldly on the Saudi issue on your nightly t.v news.

I hope this article helps you start your own research into the Saudis, and learn for yourself more than you will find on your mainstream television news channels...

I would also say that your mainstream news, although sometimes accurate will not deviate from their programming, and if the stories of the day are Afghanistan and Pakistan then remember that you are not being told the complete picture- you are being spoon fed the chosen stories which the papers and the networks know can grab attention.
During the height of the Iraq war I recall non-stop day-by-day coverage of bombings in Iraq and nothing else, which led me to turn the television and investigate for myself.
And since 2005 I have found out so much more information than is available on any television networks, and has allowed me to expand my knowledge a thousand times more.

Do you want the Saudi connection to be buried, and corruption be allowed to go on without scrutiny?  It is up to people to learn as much as possible from independent research or investigation on the Mid East, and to keep the Saudi connection in context to the whole region and in relation to the war- and also keep in mind that when business, money and war come together you will find corruption in the middle- and nobody wants to own up to their
wrongdoings...nor to be investigated by snoopy Westerners...

Again, I hope this article helps you understand the Saudi side of the story, a big part of the picture which is kept far too silent in my opinion. This is not however meant to place blame on the Saudis, as war profiteering and the dirty tricks played by the U.S and the U.K have been an embarrassment to our nations, and people should always condemn corruption and war, regardless of who drops the first bombs...

Russell S.Wyllie