Saudi's own a huge stake in TONS of US companies including Ford. Do you think those investors like the idea of a 30mpg truck in the country that burns the most oil? This is EXACTLY why we'll never see willies 40mpg Van in this country or diesel passenger cars for that matter.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/4259.html
Earlier this year, Prince Alwaleed announced $2 billion worth of investments in a variety of U.S. companies including Amazon, eBay, the Internet Capital Group, AOL, Compaq, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Walt Disney, and Ford Motor Corporation. The royal buying spree also included a $50 million investment in Priceline.com.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060...3622-3038r.htm
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who claims to abhor bin Laden, seems nevertheless eager to follow his agenda. In an interview with Arab News in May 2002, the prince said that if the Arabs "unite through economic interests," they would achieve influence over the U.S. decision-makers. Since government sources estimate Saudi holdings in the United States at $400 billion to $800 billion, the matter warrants public attention.
The Saudi agenda extends far beyond policy-makers. In the late 1990s, the privately owned Massachusetts technology company, Ptech, designed software used to develop enterprise blueprints that held every important detail of a given concern. The company was financed with more than $22 million, by Saudi multi-millionaire Yasin al Qadi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Saudis thus gained access to strategic information about many major U.S. corporations such as SYSCO, ENRON, and the U.S. Departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice, Energy, and even the White House. The extent of the damage, if it was investigated, remains a mystery.
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/1...tt-of-mideast/
Called by Time magazine the "Warren Buffett of Saudi Arabia," Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is a member of the Saudi royal family, as well as a Lebanese citizen through his mother. Though he is the nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, he is not in line to rule Saudi Arabia and has largely stayed out of politics. He is an entrepreneur and international investor with a net worth estimated in 2006 at $20 billion, and he is ranked as the eighth richest person in the world by Forbes.
He has made large investments, through his Kingdom Holding Company, in Citicorp (NYSE:C), AOL (NYSE:TWX), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), and other technology and media companies. His real estate holdings have included stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the Plaza Hotel in New York, the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel in Monaco, and Euro Disney. In 2005 he purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for £250 million.