Death of a despot?
United Press International (via Washingon Times):
RIYADH -- Reliable sources in the Saudi capital Riyadh said Friday King Fahd is dead, reports the Saudi Institute.King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has been dead since late Wednesday, according to several well-placed sources in the capital Riyadh who spoke to the Saudi Institute, a pro-democracy think tank in Washington, on condition of anonymity.
The government also canceled all military leave, "a sure sign that something is happening," said the Saudi Institute.
But in a report carried by the Washington Post, Reuters reports that the king is in stable condition. No, not as in stably dead, but as in ill with pneumonia but alive.
UPDATE -- From dead to stable to improving.
Associated Press (via MSNBC):
RIYADH - Saudi King Fahd, whose oil-rich kingdom became a close U.S. ally during his 23-year rule, was reported in stable condition and improving Saturday, a day after he was hospitalized for unspecified medical tests.An official at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh said Fahd's health was "improving, albeit slowly." He said the king had a fever and "water in the lungs," but his temperature was coming down.
[...]
Friday's news that [Fahd] was hospitalized helped push crude oil futures to near $52 a barrel ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States, the start of the American summer driving season.
During his rule, Fahd brought the kingdom closer to the United States. His most significant action was a step that enraged many Islamic extremists -- allowing the basing of U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born al Qaida leader, cited the U.S. troops' presence as a main provocation for launching the Sept. 11 attacks and a wave of violence inside the kingdom.
The U.S. military withdrew all its combat forces from Saudi Arabia in 2003 after major combat operations in Iraq were declared over.