Saudi General Intelligence Service

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Saudi General Intelligence ServiceThe General Intelligence Service (SOR) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was established in 1957. Structurally, it is subordinate to the KSA government. Its Headquarters is located in KSA capital Riyadh, and is headed by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, included in 2013 on the list of "500 most influential people in the world."

Until the mid 1950s The king was directly involved in internal and external security at KSA, who personally controlled all the information received about threats to the kingdom and made decisions on national security issues. In connection with the growing confrontation of the Arab states of the Middle East with Israel, the creation of the Baghdad Pact organization and the beginning of hostilities in Egypt during the “Triple Aggression”, in 1956 the Saudi king decided to establish the General Intelligence Directorate (RBM), the first Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Iban was appointed leader. But already in early 1957, Major General Said Kurdi, who was reorganizing the service, was appointed the head of intelligence. Two departments were created: the western district with the center in Jeddah and the eastern district with the center in Dhran. General Said Kurdi was allowed to transfer professional officers from the Ministry of Defense and aviation.

In 1950-60's The main task of the RBM was to counter the neighboring Arab states, including Egypt and Iraq. In the middle of the 1960-s. Saudi intelligence began to assist the extremist organization of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which was in opposition to President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the same period, RBM, more radical Islamic groups began to be involved in intelligence and subversive activities.

In 1964, General Said Kurdi retired, and Omar Mahmoud Shams, who led Saudi intelligence before 1977, took over his post.

By 1976, RBM residency offices were established in virtually all countries of the Middle East, and regional offices operated in all provinces of the kingdom.

In 1970-s. Saudi intelligence is beginning to work closely with the secret services of France, the United States and the United Kingdom in countering the Soviet presence in Muslim countries. In 1976, on the initiative of the UOR, a Safari Club is being created, which includes the intelligence services of KSA, Egypt, Iran and Morocco, which created and supported Islamist organizations in Africa and Asia, opposing pro-Soviet national liberation movements. After the Saur revolution in 1978 in Afghanistan, similar cooperation was established with Pakistani intelligence, and several years later, with the participation of the Safari Club, the organization “Maktab al-Khidma” (“Service Bureau”) was created to mobilize volunteers to the war in Afghanistan , together with Egypt, KSA supported the Islamic opposition of South Yemen, and together with Morocco - the Angolan grouping UNITA.

In 1977, a senior position in Saudi intelligence is occupied by the representative of the ruling family, Al Saud, the nephew of Saudi King Khaled (1975-1982) Prince Turki al-Faisal. The prince received his higher education at Georgetown University (USA), which explains the subsequent cooperation of the RBM with the special services of Great Britain and the USA. Most analysts and media representatives thought Prince Al-Faisal was the head of operations to support the Taliban and conduct war with the USSR in Afghanistan. In 2001, Prince Al-Faisal was appointed Ambassador of Riyadh in London, and in 2005, he was appointed Ambassador to Washington. Prince Al-Faisal’s attempt to reconcile Israel and Palestine with the help of the United States, as well as to relieve tensions on Iran’s nuclear program peacefully, led to his recall of 2006 in September. Saudi King Abdullah, wishing to correct the actions of Prince Al-Faisal, is known contradictions in relations with the United States, invited the American Vice-President Dick Cheney to Riyadh for negotiations without informing the prince. The reluctance of the ruling monarch to see the prince at this meeting forced him to resign.

During the reign of King Fahd (1982-2005), organizational changes were made to Saudi intelligence. The Higher Intelligence Development Committee was established under the leadership of the service president, which included the leaders of its leading units, and also approved the organizational structure of its information center.

At the beginning of the 1980-s. Saudi intelligence began direct operations against the USSR. In 1978, the International Organization of Free Press and Information was established in Cairo, which was coordinated by the CIA and the RBM and was aimed at destabilizing the Muslim regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus. A number of Islamist organizations (“Summer Linguistic Institute”, “Hizb-e-Islami”, etc.) created conditions for use as agents of Arab students studying in the USSR. In the first half of 1990's. Saudi intelligence, together with Pakistani intelligence, was directly involved in the creation of the Taliban movement, remaining until 2002, the main source of funding for this organization. Religious workers, diplomatic staff, local Muslims, and students were used to work directly on the territory of the USSR.

In the same years, the communications of the RBM with US intelligence were strengthened. The current CIA director John Brennan in 1996-1999. headed the CIA office at KSA. According to former FBI agent John Gwandolo on the Trento Radio Show talk show, Brennan accepted Islam at KSA and visited the holy cities of Medina and Mecca during the Hajj, accompanied by KSA officials, which is not possible for a non-Muslim.

In 1991, the third largest bank in the world, the International Bank of Credit and Commerce (Banc of Credit and Commerce International - BCCI), financed the smuggling of drugs, arms, terrorist Islamist groups in Eurasia, including the regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus of the Soviet Union, Africa and Latin America, the Afghan Mujahideen, the Pakistani nuclear program. The BCCI board of directors included CIA leaders William Casey and Richard Helms, COO Turks al-Faisal al-Saud, Kamal Adham, and Saudi billionaire Adnan Hashoggi, a representative of the Saudi Bin Laden Group in the United States. One of the BBCI affiliates was Carlyle Group J. Bush Sr., George W. Bush, US Secretary of State James Baker, Adnan Hashoggi, Khaled Bin Mahfouz (Director of BCCI) and Saudi Bin Laden Group.

Through BCCI and subsidiaries in Switzerland, France and the Cayman Islands in 1984-1985. The financing of the arms deal, known as the Iran-Contra, passed and led to a scandal known as the Iran Gate, which almost led to the resignation of US President R. Reagan. A key role in this scam was played by people from the BCCI leadership: Casey, Khashoggi, Ghorbanifar, Prince Bandar, Syrian arms and drug dealer Mansur al-Kassar, US Vice President D. Bush, National Security Advisor to the US President Robert Macfarlane. As a result of the deal, Nicaraguan contras, who fought with pro-Soviet Sandinistas, illegally received the money and weapons they needed. In addition, KSA illegally received 400 Stinger MANPADS, and Iran - more than 500 anti-tank missiles.

The leadership of BCCI and the Carlyle Group was involved in the planning and implementation of the collapse of prices in the oil market at the end of 1985 - the beginning of 1986, which aimed to deliver a final blow to the economy of the USSR.
SOR has taken and continues to take an active part in the development of Islamist organizations and the Wahhabi underground in the North Caucasus, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan regions of Russia. Funding for fundamentalists occurs through various religious and social organizations.

At the beginning of the 1990's The first Saudi emissaries began to appear in the North Caucasus. KSA citizen Servakh Abed Saah organized funding for the Islamic school in Kizil-Yurt (Dagestan) and the Wahhabi printing house Santlada in Pervomaisk through B. Magomedov.

In 1996, representatives of the International Islamic Organization “Salvation” were expelled from Russia, engaged not only in supporting the Islamists, but also in organizing a “fifth column” in the government of the republic. This organization got into the development of the special services of Russia at the end of the 1980s - the beginning of the 1990s.

In 1995, with the help of Saudi emissaries, the main base of Wahhabis in the gorge of the Bass River was organized, an Islamic combat battalion commanded by Jordanian citizen Abd al-Rahman Khattab was established, located in the villages of Makhkety, Khatuni and Kirov-yurt, weapons were purchased and Arab instructors were provided .

The combat operations in the North Caucasus were attended by agents of the SOR field commander Habib Abdel Rahman (aka Emir Khattab, Black Arab) and Aziz bin Said bin Ali al-Ghamdi (aka Abu al-Walid).

The resident office of COP in Moscow and St. Petersburg works with sources of information in Russian scientific institutions and government organizations, territorial governments and legislative assemblies, buying confidential information and state secrets for big money.

In 2001, Prince Nawaf Al Saud, the direct descendant of one of the founders of the Saudi state, King Abdel Aziz, becomes the head of Saudi intelligence. During his leadership, the name of the Saudi secret service was changed to the General Intelligence Service. The prince’s poor health led to his resignation in January 2005.

Prince Mukrin Al Saud (born in 1945) was appointed by royal decree instead of Prince Nawaf Al Saud. He received a special military education in Great Britain in 1968 and served as a pilot at the Air Force base in Dhahran. In 1980, the prince is appointed governor of the province of Hail, in 1999 - the governor of the province of Medina. In October, 2005. Prince Mukrin Al-Saud was appointed head of the Social Security Council as Minister. Under his leadership, the service was reorganized: the head is the Chairman, then the Vice-Chairman, the heads of the two main departments of communications and protocol, as well as the department for the control of tasks, who are assistants to the head of intelligence on intelligence, planning and training personnel, technical issues and, finally, an administrative and financial assistant. Prince Mukrin defended the need to transform both the Middle East and the entire Gulf region into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

A scandal in the beginning of May 2012 in the press related to the daughter of the former head of Saudi intelligence, Princess Lamia, who used the cover of Saudi intelligence to remove from Cairo many billions of dollars belonging to the family of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, served as a possible pretext for removing Prince Mukrin from office. on royal yachts and charter flights.
19 July 2012 was appointed Prince Bandar bin Sultan (born in 1949), son of Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the first hereditary prince of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, head of the KSA National Security Council, former KSA ambassador to the United States, enjoying support most princes, which is important in the face of ongoing civil strife in the ruling house. According to a number of foreign analysts, the appointment of Prince Bandar bin Sultan to key key positions of power in the royal house hierarchy testifies to the KSA’s intentions to pursue an aggressive domestic and foreign policy in order to regain its status as a regional leader, taking into account the events of the Arab Spring and the strengthening of Qatar.

Prince Bandar was the organizer of cooperation and financing of Pakistan’s nuclear program, the initiator of an agreement with the United States in the field of nuclear energy concluded in 2008, visited Kazakhstan in July 2011, where he met with the leadership of the national uranium mining company Kazatomprom. In 2008, Prince Bandar met with Russian Prime Minister V. Putin and signed a number of agreements on joint space programs and the purchase of Russian weapons (tanks, helicopters and air defense systems "S-300"). In March 2012, the prince visited China, where he agreed on the possibility of supplying KSA Chinese ballistic missiles.

Currently, COP is actively involved in the events in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, solving the problem of the Iranian nuclear program and Hezbollah, the struggle for influence in Iraq, resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, eliminating Shiite unrest in Eastern KSA and Bahrain.

References
1. Saudi Arabia: General Intelligence Service. - [http://www.fssb.su/foreign-special-services/foreign-special-services-reference/353-saudovskaya-araviya-sluzhba-obschey-razvedki.html].
2. Kokarev K.A. Soviet special services and the East // Asia and Africa today. 2014. No. 5.
3. Gusterin P.V. Arabs in the "TOP-500" // Asia and Africa today. 2013, No. 9.
4. Glazov A. Saudi Arabia plays for a fall. - [http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1339994520].
5. Gusterin P. Yemen in transition. - Saarbrücken, 2014.
6. Suponina E. The change of power in Saudi Arabia was calm only outwardly. - [http://www.centrasia.ru/newsA.php?st=1122950820].
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  1. +7
    23 January 2015 06: 19
    It is known that the Saudi king Abdullah, wanting to correct the contradictions in relations with the United States resulting from the actions of Prince al-Faisal, invited the American Vice President Dick Cheney to Riyadh for negotiations without informing the Prince.
    The king died yesterday! With high probability, the foreign policy of Riyadh will be seriously changed. Especially in relations with the Americans. No wonder the king at one time expressed a catch phrase - It’s bad to have America as an enemy, but even worse to have America as a friend!
  2. +2
    23 January 2015 07: 13
    The Saudis cheated on us in the Caucasus, and we sell them tanks. am
    Truly: "politics" and "guano" are synonyms.
  3. +2
    23 January 2015 08: 08
    A serious game will begin there now! Many were waiting (no matter how bad it may sound) for this moment. And the structure considered in the article will play one of the leading violins.
  4. +2
    23 January 2015 08: 37
    The king is dead, long live the king. We’ll see how things go on, I hope the country's leadership will derive the maximum benefit from the current situation.
  5. +1
    23 January 2015 16: 38
    I met such an opinion that the Saudis are our more implacable enemy than the Americans. Especially because they do everything secretly, have great financial opportunities to carry out their affairs, and never go on a dialogue with Russia
  6. Dudu
    +1
    23 January 2015 23: 55
    Great dirty tricks. Help is good, but the main thing is not written here - the efficiency of this intelligence. With the money that they had, something could not be seen dramatic changes in their favor in the Middle East region. And then the denouement is approaching - chaos in the region, inside the problem, oil at a cheap price and around enemies ...



    Battles are won on the battlefield, and played in the diplomatic cabinets.
  7. +1
    24 January 2015 07: 19
    The change of power with them reminds us of our early 80s, one old man changes another. The Saudites are still "friends", they, together with the Englishwoman, do so many nasty things around the world, and I think nothing will change from the change of the ruler.

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