The presence of US troops on Saudi Arabia's holy sand seems to have truly enraged fanatics and spurred Osama bin Laden to his atrocities, but another sore point with many Saudis has received far less attention: the obscene, almost comical corruption involving the arms trade and the royal family. Currently the top importer of weapons in the world, Saudi Arabia spends 40 percent of its import dollars on weapons, including $40 billion worth bought from the United States in the past twelve years. "Huge military contracts are burning the money," explains London-based Saad al-Fagih of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, a moderate Saudi dissident organization. "That is an important reason of resentment by the people against the regime."

Adding to the outrage, it's an open secret that Saudi Arabia nonetheless "remains unable to defend itself," as the Federation of American Scientists puts it. In the scenarios batted around in Washington, the kingdom's chief potential enemies are Iran, whose military expenditures are about a quarter of Saudi Arabia's, and Iraq, which spends even less. "We don't have the capability of defeating Iran or Iraq," one Saudi acknowledges. "We rely on the United States. That's the philosophy."

The US philosophy is to guarantee the kingdom's safety while also making sure the Saudis buy the best of everything, at top dollar. Saudi arms purchases are so vital to the US economy that they have even played a role in politics. During the 1992 presidential campaign, for example, first Bill Clinton and then later Bush I appeared at rallies at the McDonnell Douglas plant to support the sale of F-15s to the Saudis. The deal had been heavily promoted in a "jobs now" campaign.

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