Carlos (the Jackal) and Saudi Arabia: AlJazeera's program, Ziyarah Khassah had an unusual show. I was riveted. One of the most able Arab reporters, Sami Kulayb, interviewed Khalid Khudr Agha. Khalid Khudr Agha is a wealthy Lebanese businessman who was (allegedly) the unofficial Saudi intelligence man in Lebanon for decades (especially the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s). He admitted that his retainer fee was $5 million a year. He has been very secretive over the years, moving within the invisible intelligence world. I only knew of him because my late father knew him, and I do not know in what circumstances. I met his son in Washington, DC during my school days. He said many explosive things, among them that King Fahd was behind the assassination of King Faysal. He also talked about how he arranged for a meeting between Saudi intelligence chief and Carlos the Jackal. In that meeting in his house, Carlos requested and received $5 million from Saudi Arabia 1) to protect the kingdom from his "activities" and 2) to help Saudi Arabia "deal" with its dissidents. Shortly after the meeting, Saudi dissident Nasir As-Sa`id was kidnapped, tortured, and killed. The story that I know about this episode, is that it was done by PLO pro-Jordan thug, Abu Az-Za`im. But who knows? I am not surprised. I know of deals between Saudi Arabia and radical groups in the 1970s to spare Saudi territory of any "activities." This happened after the Vienna oil ministers' takeover. I should ask Anis Naqqash about that next time I am in Lebanon. He was with Carlos in Vienna after all. I never liked or respected Carlos: I knew that he was unprincipled, and people who knew him well over the years told me of his weakness for money. He also--I know this--was less the planner and more the executor. Khudr Agha also revealed payments by Saudi Arabia to various Lebanese politicians, and their role in the 1976 presidential elections. He singled out Samir Franjiyyah (a former communist intellectual turned Christian sectarian, right-wing agitator in Lebanon) as one of the recipients of Saudi bribes. This only confirms this in my mind: Saudi Arabia (mostly with US help and cooperation across successive administrations) has been a force of reaction, obscurantism, sexism, conservatism, fundamentalism, fanaticism, corruption, and violence in the Middle East region and beyond. They started in the business of fanatical violence long before Bin Laden, who was their son, figuratively speaking.