9 Quotes by Ellen R. Wald

Tim Barger, the son of Aramco geologist Tom Barger, was the seventh American born in Saudi Arabia. He explained that Dhahran, Aramco’s headquarters located in the region where oil was originally found, was “deliberately placed there, away from society” because “the King didn’t really want Americans to mingle with Saudis anyway.” His impression of Abdul Aziz was that the king “just wanted Americans to go there, stay out of his hair, and produce oil and make him rich.

It is worth stating clearly and unambiguously what official U.S. government spokespersons have not: For years, individuals and charities based in Saudi Arabia have been the most important source of funds for Al Qaeda; and for years, Saudi officials have turned a blind eye to this problem.

The Saudis considered the petroleum under their soil a gift from God, but accessing its value laid within man’s capacity.

Another casualty of Feisal’s return to power was Abdullah Tariki, the general director of petroleum and mineral resources. Tariki is a well-known figure in global oil politics, mostly because in 1960 he cofounded, along with Venezuelan oil minister Juan Perez Alfonso, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as the OPEC cartel.

To maintain his rule, King Abdul Aziz had to show the people of Saudi Arabia, in material ways, that they were his subjects. Without the funds to do so, his rule would crumble.

Abdul Aziz did not have a funeral. Foreign dignitaries, prominent tribesmen, wealthy oil executives, and jealous Arab strongmen did not come to pay their respects. Funeral prayers were recited in Taif and thenAbdul Aziz was buried without fanfare in an essentially unmarked grave in Riyadh.

During his life, Feisal had only three wives or possibly four, in contrast to his brother Saud, who had forty-one wives, according to the King Saud Foundation.

Tariki had proven his worth when he worked with Abdullah Sulaiman in the 1950s to recover millions of dollars of revenue for Saudi Arabia in the oil pricing controversy that followed the 50-50 profit-sharing deal. With Tariki in charge of petroleumrelations, however, his brazen and confrontational style stood in stark contrast to Sulaiman’s measured scheming and complete devotion to hisking.

When Feisal took control of the government, he found the financial situation much more dire than he had expected. The story told later was that the state treasury contained the equivalent of barely $100 in cash.