US Cold War aid to Saudi Arabia enabled the Bin Laden family fortune

Evidence

Eisenhower approved 500,000 in aid for the reconstruction of a railroad to the holy sites of Islam. When King Saud visited the United States in 1957, he was promised 180 million in military and financial aid. Upon returning home, he commissioned the Bin Laden family to undertake reconstruction of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and it was through this contract that the latter would amass great wealth. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 1114

Categorization

• CANDY: The Bin Laden family’s wealth traceable directly to a 1957 Eisenhower aid package is a crisp dinner-party fact.
• XREF: Connects directly to The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the broader theme of US-Saudi entanglement in shaping Middle East politics. — connects to: US aid to Saudi Arabia directly enriched the Bin Laden family; US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia enabled famine killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 538; The jihadist hard line was manufactured through US-Saudi cold war sponsorship — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 276

Broader Connections

• US aid to Saudi Arabia directly enriched the Bin Laden family #corroborates (0.90)
• US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia enabled famine killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis #complicates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 538