The episode undercut Prince Bandar and the personal connections on which his country's influence depended in Washington.
And for once, the Center for Security Policy is urging the administration to give Prince Bandar his way.
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Soon he was named President Franklin Roosevelt's emissary to King Abdel Aziz of Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar's grandfather (see article).
Prince Bandar is the son of the Saudi defence minister, Prince Sultan.
Prince Bandar is a throwback to the days when diplomats did not just communicate policy, they shaped it according to whom they knew.
Prince Bandar later recalled that he ate more pizza at late-night meetings during the autumn and winter of 1990-91 than in his entire life before or since.
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Prince Bandar, who is the son of the Saudi defence minister, served for 20 years as US ambassador and is now head of the country's national security council.
In a long, rambling and self-justificatory late-night interview with Mr Ottaway soon after, Prince Bandar unburdened himself, trying vainly to defend the kingdom against a new army of detractors.
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In the summer of 2001 Crown Prince Abdullah ordered Prince Bandar to deliver a startling message: the Saudi government was prepared for a fundamental reappraisal of its ties with America.
In addition to being a daughter of the former Saudi king, Princess Haifa happens to be the wife of the long-serving Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
They are often accused of working for Saad Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister, once again an arch-enemy of Mr Assad, or for Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a Saudi who heads his country's national security council.
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Now, specifically, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, had said that Saudi intelligence authorities had received also credible threats that another big attack was in the works, another big terrorist attack somewhere in Saudi Arabia or perhaps somewhere in the United States.
On the other hand, Prince Bandar in our interview pointed out (and you should be able to access this on the Web, although it's not in the broadcast), that there has been a cultural problem that has gotten in the way of communication between U.S. law enforcement and Saudi law enforcement.
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But now a frail King Fahd has handed over day-to-day control to Crown Prince Abdullah, who has never been close to Sultan or Bandar.
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