that was the chapter that discussed the saudi role in 9/11. so that is an example of some of the circumstances that led me to have the anchor -- anger that there were important pieces of information that were being withheld from the american people. the second reason i did it was because i came to the conclusion that the way i could tell this story was not representing is to be nonfiction, but representing it to be fiction. where the standards of censorship are substantially lower than they are and you present it as being reality. i'm i said i am a member of the cia's external advisory board, and as such i am required to submit anything i write to the prepublication board of cia. and every draft of this novel was so submitted. and what you now have in printed form has passed that clearance process. this is very important to my wife, who did not want me to take a recess from my retirement to become a more or less permanent resident of atlanta or leavenworth, or some of the other accommodations that are of the federal government, makes available.

the sunni arab bloc, which i think is also a design of the saudis. provide, i think, more effective resistance by any incursions by iran. it will also play well in the west. so, whether it's effective in deterring bashar, i think is less certain. if i had to guess, i would guess that bashar will go down as a consequence of this and his regime will not survive. >> the united states is also taking action, freezing the assets of syria's largest mobile phone operator and also syrian bank. the sanctions will prohibit americans from doing any business with syria and the commercial bank of syria, and its subsidiary in lebanon. >>> elsewhere in the region, an international blockade and sea ports of moammar gadhafi has led to widespread fuel shortages and blackouts. the gadhafi government accuses nato of bombing electric power stations and pipelines, charges that the military denies. >> reporter: this is what downtown tripoli looks like, pitch-black, except for the lights of passing cars. widespread power outages have plunged entire neighborhoods into darkness

the saudi reaction -- the saudi reaction to that.re creeping power depds on petroleum and the countries that do it are either unstable or hostile to our interests. that is the process we are seeing played out. the president has to give an address and the talk a little about that. his guidance to me is that he needs to clarify the significance of the event, he wants to add some policy things from us. he wants to show his way to the american people on how we will get to this challenge. let me start again by turning to the debt piddle -- deputy national surity adviser. dave, where are we at this point? >> just to reemphasize, prior to the announcement, gears were really grinding. we had essentially no spare capacity. it will cause actual shortages. now we have supply and demand imbalance is movinthrough the rest of this winter into spring. cold weather is forecast in north america. we have the keating pressure. this is a serious problem which will essentially lead to significant demand destruction going forward. at this stage, the idea

financial disaster happening in the west of course the saudi royal family has had to spend over one hundred billion dollars placating their population to keep it from looking like london so the same machinations in the markets we see at work keeping interest rates at zero that is the cowtown to the banking terrorists and their need to foster a larceny at the top end of society is at work in the middle east in that we now have a floor on oil and eighty five dollars a barrel because this is the price needed to placate the riding population for them they are just buying off the riding population with cash as a result of selling oil of course the u.k. is running out of oil due to peak oil so it's implementing other solutions which are going to be dead on arrival you can also see how we are at the peak system that we have at the moment because we have a petro dollar basically dollar backed by oil but they're in a death grip saudi arabia can't do with less than eighty five dollars because of the disaster of the us based debt system which is never which is clearly not been fixed s

and into the deep sea there and find oil the some some scientists think it's another saudi arabia. offshore brazil it's in the oil is there it's a political question of whether the anglo american oil giants and the governments behind them the military are going to let the let these countries develop that for their own use. political was it a good decision this is it it's a chia logical question those fields you describe are at the very edge of the technological capacity and they made to five even the most strong this political will to do so or even on the middle of these what you want all that is the peak oil thing is a myth that was created by a more important author and selling oil and the oil giants are going to have maximum prices and you've been very very melody and you've been very patient go right ahead of the head. thank you a lot of the projections about all demand kind of discount how much demand will be coming from china over the next twenty or thirty years and i think they're assuming a wealth growth in time because course china wants a lot more energy they're going to i

the saudi reaction -- the saudi reaction to that.ping power depends on petroleum and the countries that do it are either unstable or hostile to our interests. that is the process we are seeing played out. the president has to give an address and the talk a little about that. his guidance to me is that he needs to clarify the significance of the event, he wants to add some policy things from us. he wants to show his way to the american people on how we will get to this challenge. let me start again by turning to the debt piddle -- deputy national security adviser. dave, where are we at this point? >> just to reemphasize, prior to the announcement, gears were really grinding. we had essentially no spare capacity. it will cause actual shortages. now we have supply and demand imbalance is moving through the rest of this winter into spring. cold weather is forecast in north america. we have the keating pressure. this is a serious problem which will essentially lead to significant demand destruction going forward. at this stage, the idea o

the saudi reaction -- the saudi reaction to that.are creeping power depends on petroleum and the countries that do it are either unstable or hostile to our interests. that is the process we are seeing played out. the president has to give an address and the talk a little about that. his guidance to me is that he needs to clarify the significance of the event, he wants to add some policy things from us. he wants to show his way to the american people on how we will get to this challenge. let me start again by turning to the debt piddle -- deputy national security adviser. dave, where are we at this point? >> just to reemphasize, prior to the announcement, gears were really grinding. we had essentially no spare capacity. it will cause actual shortages. now we have supply and demand imbalance is moving through the rest of this winter into spring. cold weather is forecast in north america. we have the keating pressure. this is a serious problem which will essentially lead to significant demand destruction going forward. at this stage, th

the attack could be designed to weaken the saudi market. terraced roof like a kite are at the forefront of concern in their -- terrorist groups like al qaeda are at the forefront of concern. there are other possibilities. some observers have noted a blowback against saudi arabia's ongoing insurgency in bahrain, propping up an increasingly unpopular monica there. for now what is all speculation. >> thank you. we will be right back with more coverage of this attack on the world's largest oil processing plant. we continue to have reports coming in. ♪ >> i want to thank you all for assembling here on short notice. this is obviously a serious blow. we do not know what is going to do to saudi production capacity. we do not know what it will do for how long. obviously, given the oil markets and the difficulty with our economy, the impact on our economic recovery could be dramatic. the president needs to be out there. he wants to be out there. he needs to be saying some things that will calm the oil markets and give the american people their first o

are are you know it's provide them the resources that the saudis don't have freedom that doesn't mean that just because they're not going to far more resources but people are not revolting against them because they're her presence too much to revolt what the syrians are an example if you know any of the saudis know it was those who are worse than them assad i'm not saying that it's worse because it's probably not but i'm saying assad is is a good thing and that it's not as willing to forgive dhabi who i'm not i'm not saying that it's worse i'm saying that these protesters are exceptional in that way that's why the president should be so let's not forget this you thought. ten elections were largely about health care and they were largely about how good that was my democratic process the people who were elected to tea party candidates were elected on this wave of really just outrageousness i think it was like on a wave of democrats saying ok we've got a democratic house a democratic senate we got a good good democrat in the white house first african-american president let's not show up

arabia where the saudi king said ok we're going to make sure that everybody in a country makes at least thirty thousand dollars a year and everybody has free healthcare that's not what was going on in egypt which is one of the reasons why people were voting in the saudis are are more resources that the saudis don't have freedom that doesn't mean that just does not far more resources but people are not revolting against them because there were precious to much to revolt look this syrians are an example and you know i mean the saudi you know it was those who are worse than assad i'm not saying that it's worse because it's probably not but i'm saying assad is is a good thing and that it's not as willing to give. i'm not i'm not saying that it's worse i'm saying that these protesters are exceptional in that way that's why the president should be slow to get this youth out. wasn't in elections were largely about health care and they were largely about how that was not a democratic process the people who were elected the tea party candidates were elected on this wave re

even in syria, the saudis, i think only reluctantly came around to more or less giving up on al assad. it was an important step and a step that pave the way for more vigorous u.s. and european positions on what needs to happen in syria. we saw that most of the arab states did pull together in favor of change in libya. not all of them though. algeria stuck with gaddafi until close to the end. syria is very much preoccupied with its own problems and really cannot play this kind of all role. level not had a grudge against gaddafi and was eager to -- le banon had a grudge against gaddafi and was eager to take that role. that does not reflect what the positions of arab states will be on changes going forward. libya was a unique case because it did not been made so many enemies over the years. syria -- i am certain that the opposition forces are in syria and yemen are going to be very much encouraged by what happened in libya. because, as i said, there is more than one way to overturn our regime. i think there was a pattern emerging that whereas it could happen peacefully and quickly in egy

tracking the crack down from beirut. >> saudi arabia criticizing the killing machine. abia, bahrain and kuwait recalling their ambassador. any indication the shift to arab condemnation will get president assad to back off? >> reporter: well, at this stage, there's been absolutely no such indication, but this most certainly is a significant move in that arab leaders are finally breaking what was a deafening silence on their part. but really, john, as long as syria has in iran the sole hid so lid relationship that it does have, iran being a regional powerhouse, it seems as if what we're going to see now is a shift in the battleground in syria and that it will no longer 'just be demonstrators calling for democracy versus this dick ta tore yal engine. but one that analysts are saying is increasingly going to morph into an arena for the broader. regional power struggle. you'll have saudi arabia on one hand and iran on the other. >> and what's your sense what's happening on the ground? is the crackdown more isolating or is it spreading? >> it's most certainly spreading. the c

making demands, but also, the saudis, an equally important, the turks. turkey has raised serious reservations about assad and his leadership. it seems very clear that it will side with the u.s. and west as far as getting rid of him at. this is the kind of pressure he is getting now. >> i heard david ignatius in "the washington post" say that the syrian army is stretched to the breaking point. >> i would assume -- i don't now -- but i would assume that there is a deal of discussion in some quarters in the syrian army about ditching this guy and putting up one of their own. this is the way things happened in the middle east ally. -- a lot. as a country, that would be the way to survive this and make some sort of deal with some opposition faction or not. i mean, the middle class has been very hesitant to get on board in syria, because it did not really want to be a victim. it is a victim whether it likes it or not. >> if it cannot work in egypt, it cannot work in syria because of ethnic divisions. the army, the leadership, political and military, is all all

when we suspend that criticism toward the regimes that we do sort of have a favor with such as the saudis such as bahrain centers and yemen where we have specific strategic interests involved and we don't ever criticize what they do and this is definitely the case when you see the a crazy now in bahrain where we actually sort of you are going in and out of the saudis to crack a lot of skills even though of course they were cracked in schools and the sheriff team there and we wanted to sort of you know put that to rest even though we're telling the shiite regime in iran to overthrow their regime so there's definitely a exposing the hypocrisy of u.s. foreign policy right it seems like you were in favor of human rights and were in favor of certain dictators as long as it serves the interests here what about this idea though that these three senators mccain graham and lieberman you know they are the loudest voices at least that i've heard it on the sunday talk shows the cable networks on the floor of the of the senate calling for more weapons apologizing that the fall of gadhafi took so long

regime where the saudis intervene so there is some kind of. coordination between tehran and baghdad which i think is disturbing to the united states i think a really really interesting i'm not sure to what extent you've been following sort of how this has been covered on cable news i know a lot of the mainstream networks have been showing this this photo of this twelve year old boy a victim killed in what appears to be an assad. led the raid. you know just gruesome gruesome pictures are sort of a symbol as to perhaps why it was a good thing that the u.s. called for assad to step down what do you think about this i mean what are the messages that americans are seeing regarding the conflict in syria well it's it's there's nothing new about americans being anti regime in syria we have been for decades so it's not surprising that the mainstream media would. portray their outside government in such a negative light and seize on an incident to make that take that point i think the problem is that as i said the situation in syria is very complex and a

why are the saudis funding these? guest: this, again, goes back to the era of the war between the soviet union and afghanistan. so the 1980's, you know, pakistan has a long, long tradition of being a very moderate muslim country, a very moderate, very tolerant. many people go to shrines, beautiful oasis of mystical communion with god. their tradition is what we call south asian version of islam, a peaceful, non-aggressive. what happened during the war with afghanistan, sorry, the war in afghanistan against the soviet union, is that you started attracting more extreme versions of islam, more extreme sects. osama bin laden was a saudi who was -- was instrumental in bringing thousands of non- afghans, and non-pakistanis to fight what they called a holy war in afghanistan. that was the beginning of it. and after the war ended, a lot of these people hung around and what happened is that the saudis, the middle eastern, more fundamentalist muslim countries and governments and groups saw it as an opportunity to have influence

you know, i've written in the past about the saudi -- the official saudi interpretation which i have problems with. and being sort of just endowed with so much oil money they've been able to spread that into islam in a number of countries in south asia. and in egypt it has a presence how much of a presence of a population and how much of a whole i guess we'll know in the months and years to come. when there are democratic elections. fatwa is basically just an edict actually. and islam being interestingly democratic in that sense. any mullah or sort of imam can issue a fatwa which is just an edict on anything. basically it can be any social or political sort of aspect and doesn't necessarily have to deal with peace or violence or whatsoever. it can be fairly trivial things, too. so but, no, i'm not dealing with the notion of fatwa but certainly the notion of jihad. yes. >> i think that every western religion seems to have problems between their progressives maybe and their orthodox. >> yes. >> and in islam, what do you think are the road blocks between those who practice an orthodox v

when you see the appraising now in belgrade where we actually sort of gave a wink and a nod of the saudis to crack a lot of scold even though of course there are cracks in schools and the sheer regime there and we wanted to sort of you know put that to rest even though we're telling the shiite regime in iran to overthrow their regime so those definitely exposing the copper see the u.s. foreign policy right it seems like you were in favor of human rights and were in favor of certain dictators as long as it serves the interests here what about this idea though that these these three senators mccain graham and lieberman you know they are the loudest voices at least that i've heard be it on the sunday talk shows the cable networks on the floor of the steps of the senate calling for more weapons apologizing that the fall of gadhafi took so long these are the same people that were you know buddy buddy with his son just two years ago what do you think that's us well i think it's understandable in the sense that all these people sort of change you know with the with the prevailing political winds

with pictures like these is seen across the arab world, it seems saudi arabia finally felt it had to speak out. >> arab channels across the region have been reading a strongly worded statement from saudi king abdallah. the kingdom of saudi arabia, the statement says, demands a stop to the killing machine, bloodshed, and calls for acts of wisdom before it is to lead. -- before it is too late. syria needs genuine reform, not promises. but they send armor into neighboring bahrain, precisely to help stop the opposition there. why has saudi arabia used such language now? partly because king abdallah feels a responsibility to fellow sunni muslims who are leading the uprising in syria and taking on heavy casualties. but partly because there is fear that any unrest against autocrats, wherever it breaks out, could inspire their own people to rise up against them. this is still a significant moment. and now the arab league, representing 22 states, has moved against one of its own members, syria, and expressed serious worries. and the response to all this from syria's president, seen visiting wo

that was a really unusual step for the arab league, and a lot of it goes back to the saudi enmity against gaddafi. >> 3 african members of the u.n. security council, all three voted for the u.n. resolution. it is interesting how they position themselves afterward. nigeria took a middle position and this week recognize the transitional council, and gabon, its president, a few months ago, call for the ouster of gaddafi and last week recognized the council. there is a bit of a variety in the african response. >> the libyan relations with arab countries are going to need resets as well, notably algeria. we will see what will happen there. we are going to open it up now to questions from the audience. if you have a question, please put your hand up. i will recognize you. we have microphones. i would like you speak your questions and keep your questions brief and director questions to one of the panelists. >> i am a member of the atlantic council. my question would be, do you know what arab leaders are the defectors, and how people can trust? one that libyan citizen asked, why does the western

back last year we got over four hundred million barrels of oil from the saudi arabia we bankrolled a state it doesn't allow women to drive. there's a sandstorm coming to the us over oil and the right to build an x.l. pipeline pumping straight from canada's tar sands but this oil doesn't have a squeaky clean reputation either so it's time for the u.s. to choose ethics or economics. and this isn't a jerry springer apple so it's a racial riots straight from the streets of milwaukee wisconsin for what many have called america's most segregated city so where's the love or for that matter the mainstream media. i wanted to write what i remembered about this event there janie tells it like he sees it but some say you should get his vision checked because some of the details about the war on terror are blurry and vast so is he telling the truth or does he have a selective memory. good evening it's tuesday august thirtieth eight pm in washington d.c. and christine for a sound you are watching r t well starting off this hour i want to talk about something that's been going on for the last severa