Saudi Arabia and US secretly funding al-Qaeda in Iraq

Q: What we’re hearing in regards to the politics of all this, Nouri al-Maliki saying that this is terrorism funded and assisted by Saudi Arabia; he’s named among other regional powers. A lot of the mainstream media are calling this a sectarian war, but Mr. Maliki and others in Iraq are insisting that this should not be promoted; this should be seen as Iraq’s battle with terrorism. How are you seeing it?
 
Cavell: Prime Minister al-Maliki is quite correct to put the blame on Saudi Arabia; and you can add to that Israel as well as certain pro-monarchical reactionary forces in the US Congress particularly senators Lindsay Graham, John McCain and some others who were very upset when President Obama did not go to war against Syria last September. So, this is another attempt to bring US military back into the region.
 
    And what they did last fall is try to push the sectarian divide and fund al-Qaeda militants in Syria and this is the consequence of getting a very hardcore group of extremists and secretly funding them to dislodge the government of al-Maliki in Iraq. In fact, just this past Sunday on CNN…Senator Lindsay Graham called for the overthrow of the Maliki government. And the reporter said, well, aren’t they a democracy? And he just brushed that aside.    
 
Q: Do you see this as a growing threat not just for Iraq, but for the region as a whole? These terrorists groups are gaining ground in Iraq, they’re finding links into Syria and there is of course a lot of concern how far spread this issue of terrorism is going to get – what do you think?
 
Cavell: Of course there is a possibility of these groups proliferating, but we must keep cool heads and look at where the funding is coming from and who is supporting them.
 
    In particular Saudi Arabia is behind it 100 percent and this again reflects the necessity to eliminate these dictatorial monarchical regimes in the Persian Gulf particularly Saudi Arabia, which is the key actor in trying to stem back the calls for democracy and freedom in the Middle East.
 
Certain forces in the US like Senator John McCain, Senator Lindsay Graham who have benefitted from this corrupt regime are supporting these efforts.     
 
Q: Do you think right now the Obama administration in your view should be persuading these supporters to stop this financing and to stop this arming for this crisis to be settled and that’s the only way that the crisis can end? 
 
Cavell: Within the US our Congress is so polarized right now I do not think that President Obama will be able to persuade them to act differently or think differently.
 
I think the alternative is what was presented by President Rouhani of Iran and that is cooperation with the United States to eliminate these extremist threats to the region and I think this is the path forward.