Robert Evans

Bruce Rydell, author of that Brookings piece, was a CIA analyst at the time, and he claims the general opinion over here is that Nayef was simply un-American.

Right?

And that's like...

I don't want to like give too much credit to the analytic skills of the pre or post 9-11 CIA, right?

For sure.

So my assumption is that Bruce is like wrong about some part of the analysis there.

I think maybe it's just that he's not as much anti-American as he is like anti-having a problem.

And if Al-Qaeda is a serious threat to the kingdom, then he's got a problem.

Because a lot of people in Saudi Arabia are close to bin Laden.

A lot of people in the ruling class have been funneling money to him and organizations that are related to al-Qaeda.

And if they're really dangerous, then there's a big problem.

And there's just this—it may just be the deep human need to not have a problem, right?

That's part of what's going on with Nayib here.

He'll calm down.

Yeah.

He bombed, I mean, he and Al Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center in 93, I think it was, right?

Okay, so he had a previous hit.

Oh, yeah.

Now, it's very clear to anyone paying attention that bin Laden is going to continue to be a problem for, like, the kingdom and its relations with the rest of the world.

But there's this big doubt with a lot of guys.