Personally, I am not a fan of the trend that focuses on Prince Bandar, as if he is a free-lance operator within the royal family, and as if the King and the rest of the senior princes have not signed on to the policies and crimes pursued by Bandar. But still: ""Even in little Lebanon, the Saudis and their men have been outmaneuvered time and again by the Iranians and their Hezbollah allies. When Bandar gave up his post as ambassador in Washington 2005, he took on the ill-defined job of national security advisor to the king. And one of his first acts, in 2006, was to offer behind-the-scenes encouragement to the Israelis in their ferocious war on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Then Hezbollah fought them to a draw, emerging bloodied but unbowed, and with more credibility than ever.
So weirdly skewed is Bandar’s vision of Lebanon at this point that for a while he promoted Samir Geagea, the semi-mystical former commander of a savage Maronite Christian militia, to be the next president of the country. Other warlords who’ve worked with Bandar complain they can no longer get the Saudi intelligence chief on the phone. He supposedly disappears for days at a time. Saudi King Abdullah, it’s said in Beirut, doesn’t even want the word “Lebanon” spoken in his presence.
(...)
Despite his title and his late father’s position as longtime defense minister and potential heir to the throne, when the young Prince Bandar was in Riyadh he was not really part of upper-crust Saudi society. His mother had been a black-skinned servant (by some accounts, a slave) impregnated by his father when she was 16. So Bandar enjoyed none of the prestige or the clout that well-connected mothers bring to their sons in the Kingdom.""
So weirdly skewed is Bandar’s vision of Lebanon at this point that for a while he promoted Samir Geagea, the semi-mystical former commander of a savage Maronite Christian militia, to be the next president of the country. Other warlords who’ve worked with Bandar complain they can no longer get the Saudi intelligence chief on the phone. He supposedly disappears for days at a time. Saudi King Abdullah, it’s said in Beirut, doesn’t even want the word “Lebanon” spoken in his presence.
(...)
Despite his title and his late father’s position as longtime defense minister and potential heir to the throne, when the young Prince Bandar was in Riyadh he was not really part of upper-crust Saudi society. His mother had been a black-skinned servant (by some accounts, a slave) impregnated by his father when she was 16. So Bandar enjoyed none of the prestige or the clout that well-connected mothers bring to their sons in the Kingdom.""