Longtime Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is leaving his post and is being replaced by Prince Turki al-Faisal, who is currently the Saudi Ambassador in London. Saudi politics is impenetrable and very much a family affair so it is tough to know the machinations behind this move. Bandar may simply be tired of DC, where he is the Dean of the diplomatic corp. He is the son of Prince Sultan who is next in line for the throne after Crown Prince Abdullah - who is the effective ruler of the country since King Fahd has been in a semi-coma for years.

Prince Turki is an interesting character. The ever reliable MEMRI has two major statements from him. One was in May 2004 after Crown Prince Abdullah accused "Zionists" of orchestrating terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. Prince Turki attacked Crown Prince Abdullah's attackers arguing that "the Jewish lobby" was using terrorism to damage U.S.-Saudi relations.

Interestingly, in early 2003, at a symposium on terrorism he stated, "A solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem will not affect Al-Qa'ida operations. This is because even if the Palestinian problem were to be solved, this organization would continue to look for reasons to carry out terror operations. [But] this does not mean that the problem need not be solved."

By the admittedly low standards of Saudi public figures this practically qualifies him as a moderate. However, his deeds also bear scrutiny. He was previously head of Saudi intelligence and played a key role in managing al-Qaeda for the Saudis. It is generally believed that Saudi Arabia wanted Bin Laden isolated and far away to prevent him from attacking the kingdom and to prevent the depth of his links to some members of the royal family from being publicized. To that end, the Saudis apparently tried to buy off the Taliban and in July 1998 Prince Turki reportedly traveled to Kandahar and arranged for the Taliban to receive 400 new pickup trucks. A month later the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. Then, two weeks before 9/11 Prince Turki stepped down as head of intelligence and became Ambassador to London. Perhaps, with this record, which may only be coincidence, we should assume something very bad is about to happen.