by Neil MacFarquhar
11/6/01
Prince Mamdouh bin Abdel Aziz is holding court in a glass tent with wall-to-wall beige carpeting erected in the garden behind his low-slung mansion, recalling the night a decade ago when Osama bin Laden attended an evening salon to describe his exploits fighting in Afghanistan.

by Tom Friedman
10/30/01
In April 1988 Saudi Arabia asked the U.S. to withdraw its newly appointed ambassador, Hume Horan, after only six months. News reports said King Fahd just didn't like the U.S. envoy. What the Saudis didn't like about him, though, was that he was the best Arabic speaker in the State Department, and had used his language skills to engage all kinds of Saudis, including the kingdom's conservative religious leaders who were critical of the ruling family. The Saudis didn't want someone so adroit at penetrating their society, so -- of course -- we withdrew Mr. Horan.

by Elaine Sciolino
11/4/01
The question is asked quietly by policy makers inside Washington's official corridors, and loudly by television and newspaper experts: Is Saudi Arabia heading for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution?

by Elaine Sciolino and Neil MacFarquhar
10/25/01
Fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11 were from Saudi Arabia, Federal authorities have said, a disclosure that is likely to complicate an already tangled and difficult relationship between Washington and Riyadh.

by Jane Perlez
10/11/01
Saudi Arabia has so far refused to freeze the assets of Osama bin Laden and his associates, and has proved unwilling to cooperate fully on the investigation of the hijacking suspects in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Bush administration officials said today.

The failure of a critical ally in the Muslim world to address the major concerns of Washington has put the relationship under increasing pressure.

by Neela Banerjee
10/14/01
Here are the nightmares, the worst confluence of misguided decisions and startling violence, that politicians and oil executives ponder briefly and then shoo away:

That sympathizers of Osama bin Laden sink three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and choke off the narrow, bow-shaped channel that funnels 14 million barrels a day from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. That the United States attacks Iraq, and Israel launches a huge strike against the Palestinians, driving them from their camps and staking out more land -- all of which spurs the Persian Gulf states to cut off oil for the West. Or perhaps that a popular uprising, led by sympathizers of Mr. bin Laden, topples the ruling Saud family in Saudi Arabia, by far the world's largest oil producer.