Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud
Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud is a member of the Saudi ruling family, a grandson of King Abdulaziz, military officer, and retired diplomat who served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005. From 2005 to 2015, he served as secretary general of the National Security Council and was director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014. From 2014 to 2015, he was King Abdullah's special envoy.
Early life
Bandar was born officially on 2 March 1949 in Taif. By his own account, and according to Western think tanks, his actual date of birth is later. He had reportedly altered his birthday to enter the Royal Saudi Air Force while a teen.Bandar's parents were Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz and his Ethiopian concubine Khiziran. Both of Bandar's parents were very young at the time of his birth: his mother Khiziran was just sixteen, and was working as a maid in the palace when she first came in contact with Sultan, who was 23. The royal family provided Khiziran with a generous monthly pension after Bandar was born, but told her to take her child and live with her own family.
Bandar thus spent his early years in a non-royal milieu, living with his mother and aunt, and had little contact with his father until he was about eight years old. By this time, the royal family relented and invited Khiziran to bring Bandar with her and live in the palace with Prince Sultan's widowed mother, Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi. Khiziran died in Riyadh in October 2019.
Education
Bandar graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1969. He received additional training at Maxwell Air Force Base and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is a trained pilot and has flown numerous fighter aircraft. Bandar's military career ended in 1977 after he crash-landed his jet and suffered a severe back injury. Afterward, he received a master's degree in international public policy at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.One of his classmates in Cranwell was Bandar bin Faisal, son of King Faisal and his future brother-in-law who graduated in 1967.
Initial career
Bandar joined the Royal Saudi Air Force, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. His diplomatic career began in 1978 when he was appointed the King Khalid's personal envoy. He successfully lobbied the United States Congress to approve the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia. In the Oval Office, President Carter advised him to win the support of California governor Ronald Reagan. He did and in exchange helped Carter win the support of South Dakota Democratic Senator James Abourezk for the Panama Canal treaty. Crown Prince Fahd made Bandar an emissary to Carter and granted him permission to act independently of the Saudi-U.S. ambassador.In 1982, King Fahd made him the military attache at the Saudi Embassy, a move which could have ended his diplomatic career. However, in 1983, Fahd appointed Bandar as Saudi Ambassador to the United States.
Ambassador to the United States (1983–2005)
On 24 October 1983 Bandar was appointed ambassador to the United States by King Fahd. He replaced Faisal Alhegelan in the post. During his tenure as ambassador and, before that, the king's personal envoy to Washington, he dealt with five U.S. presidents, ten secretaries of state, eleven national security advisers, sixteen sessions of Congress, and the media. He had extensive influence in the United States. At the pinnacle of his career, he served both "as the King's exclusive messenger and the White House's errand boy". For over three decades, he was the face of the Saudi Arabia lobby. The U.S. is widely seen as one of Saudi Arabia's most essential allies, but different members of the royal family feel different mixtures of trust and suspicion of the United States. Therefore, Prince Bandar's intimate relationships with U.S. leaders and policy-makers are considered to be both the source of his power base in the kingdom, as well as the cause of suspicions within the royal family that he is too close to U.S. political figures.Reagan era
During the Reagan Era, he secured the purchase of AWACs surveillance aircraft despite opposition from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The $5.5 billion deal was the beginning of a $200 billion deal for the purchase of American weapons for Saudi Arabia, which included a slush fund that the CIA could direct for its off-the-budget projects. For example, at CIA request, Prince Bandar deposited $10 million in a Vatican bank used to meddle in Italian elections by undermining the Italian Communist Party. The Al-Yamamah arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia included diverting hundreds of millions of British pounds stretching over more than a decade to Prince Bandar through a Saudi Arabian government bank account at Riggs Bank, but some of the money was used to fund secret CIA projects off-the-budget. According Robert Lacey these payments to Prince Bandar amounted to more than a billion British pounds. After the United States rejected an arms order, he arranged the delivery of intermediate-range nuclear-warhead-capable missiles from China. This angered the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Department of State. Pursuant to an understanding with the CIA, Prince Bandar provided $32 million to the U.S.-backed terrorist militants, the Contras, through a Bank of Credit and Commerce International account, as part of what later became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. Nancy Reagan used him to relay messages to the Cabinet.Clinton era
Clinton, as governor of Arkansas, had asked him to help pay for the Middle East Studies Center at the University of Arkansas. In the 1990s, he persuaded Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi to turn in two suspects allegedly involved in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. He privately described Gaddafi as "a Jerry Lewis trying to be a Churchill".In the first autumn of Clinton's presidency, September 1993, Prince Bandar was appointed Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, and he continued the role until the second term of George W. Bush's presidency.
Bush presidencies
Bandar formed close relationships with several American presidents, notably George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, his closeness to the latter gaining him the affectionate and controversial nickname 'Bandar Bush'. His particularly close relationship with the Bush family was highlighted in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. He was reportedly so close to George H. W. Bush that he was often described as a member of the former president's family. He advocated Saddam Hussein's overthrow in Iraq in March 2003. He encouraged military action against Iraq and supported Dick Cheney's agenda for "The New Middle East", which called for pro-democracy programs in both Syria and Iran.Resignation
On 26 June 2005, Bandar submitted his resignation as ambassador to the United States for "personal reasons". The official end date of his term was 8 September 2005. Bandar returned to Saudi Arabia weeks prior to the death of King Fahd, upon which Bandar's father, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, became the nation's crown prince. It was rumored that Bandar's return was timed in order to secure a position in the new government.Prince Bandar was succeeded as ambassador by Prince Turki Al Faisal. Nevertheless, even after leaving the ambassadorship, Bandar continued to maintain strong relationships within the Bush administration and to meet with high-ranking White House staff even after Prince Turki took over the post; Turki gave up the ambassador's job after only 18 months.
Secretary General of National Security Council (2005–2015)
In October 2005, King Abdullah appointed Bandar bin Sultan as secretary-general of the newly created National Security Council.Bandar secretly met with U.S. officials in 2006 after resigning as ambassador. Seymour Hersh reported in 2007 in The New Yorker that as Saudi Arabia's national security adviser, Bandar continued to meet privately with both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. At that time Hersh described Bandar as a key architect of the Bush administration policy in Iraq and the Middle East.
On 25 January 2007, Saudi Arabia sent Bandar to Iran for discussions on the crisis in Lebanon and the Kingdom even held talks with Hizballah leaders, whom he had invited for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. After tensions with Qatar over supplying rebel groups, Saudi Arabia switched its efforts from Turkey to Jordan in 2012, using its financial leverage over Jordan to develop training facilities there, with Bandar sending his half-brother and deputy Salman bin Sultan to oversee them.
Bandar's tenure as secretary general was extended for four years on 3 September 2009. His term ended on 29 January 2015. The office was also abolished on the same day.
Disappearance and rumors
After King Abdullah renewed Bandar's post on the National Security Council for an additional 4-year term in September 2009, Bandar failed to make the customary public demonstration of his allegiance to him. This noticeable absence was followed by others: an avid fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Bandar did not appear in his customary seat—next to owner Jerry Jones in Jones's skybox—for the home opener of the new Cowboys Stadium. In October 2009, he was not present in King Abdullah's delegation for the watershed Damascus visit. Most strikingly, in December 2009, Prince Bandar was not present for the return of his father, Crown Prince Sultan, from Morocco. After that event, journalists began to report on Bandar's disappearance, noting that his last appearance in public had been with King Abdullah in Jeddah on 10 December 2008.Hugh Miles of the London Review of Books reported rumors that Bandar was undergoing surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Bandar's lawyer denied these rumors; he has no spokesman.
Le Figaro's Middle East blog reported that Bandar had been in a hospital in France, and was recuperating in Morocco.
Iran's Press TV reported that Bandar was under house arrest for an attempted coup. Saudi opposition sources said he was in Dhaban Prison. Some rumors alleged that his coup was exposed by Russian intelligence services because of his frequent trips to Moscow to encourage cooperation against Iran.
In October 2010, Middle East analyst Simon Henderson reported in Foreign Policy that Prince Bandar had made his first public appearance in almost two years. Citing official Saudi media, Henderson reported that Bandar had been greeted at the airport by "a virtual who's who of Saudi political figures." Henderson noted that no explanation had been given for the Prince's whereabouts for the previous two years—the only detail was that he had returned "from abroad." Henderson and other analysts viewed this reemergence as a sign of Bandar's rehabilitation into the active politics of the kingdom.
In what was perceived as a return to prominence, in March 2011, Bandar was sent to Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and China to gather support for Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain. In April 2011, Bandar was present in meetings when U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited King Abdullah and in a separate visit by National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.
The other goal of his late March 2011 visit to Islamabad was to raise the prospect of a return engagement for the Pakistan Army. The goal was achieved, and Pakistan quickly approved the proposal. His visit to China during the same period resulted in the issuing of lucrative contracts in return for political support. Since China was not a friend of the Arab Spring, it was eager for Saudi oil and investment. Bandar secretly negotiated the first big Saudi-Chinese arms deal. Thus, Bandar was the Kingdom's premier China expert.