Al-Qaeda and the House of Saud

From Sept 9. but a meaty piece by John Bradley.

The essence of the deal with the Devils:

Townsend implicitly acknowledged in Riyadh that, if bin Laden's goal was to overthrow the House of Saud and subsequently to gain the prestige that would come from the custodianship of Islam's two holy mosques and control of one-quarter of the world's known oil reserves, then the main US policy objective in response must be to guarantee the royal family's survival.

And that is the ballgame right there.