I received a message on my blackberry earlier in the day, it was about King Faisal and how great a king He was. It had this little piece of conversation between King Faisal & Henry Kissinger that went something like this:
When Henry Kissinger met King faisal to talk about the oil embargo issue, and in an attempt to go into the subject lighten up the mood, Kissinger said something about his plane sitting on the runway and can’t move because of the lack of fuel, and that he wished the King would be generous enough to sell him enough fuel to get the plane off the runway. The King didn’t smile, but instead replied with: “And I’m an old man who wishes to pray at Al Aqsa mosque before he dies, can you make that wish come true?”
I loved this story, and I tried looking around the net to read more about it, and maybe confirm that it happened, but couldn’t find anything.
While looking for a source, I came across these paragraphs that I liked:
And this:
“Prince Turki said King Faisal, who was in Jeddah at the time, received a telegram from Kissinger warning that if the Kingdom did not lift the embargo, the US would take all measures to protect its interests.
“The message was not specific about the measures they were going to take, but it appeared that they would use force. A CIA representative gave me the unsigned message, telling me it was from Kissinger… I went to the king and conveyed its contents. He received the message, read it and said: ‘Kheir insha Allah (Good, God willing).’
“It was very clear that it had come from the American government… The king was very relaxed, cheerful, humorous and was in good spirits despite the threat… This reflected his high quality and determination. He was giving the message that the Kingdom would not bow down to a threat, as a result of a decision it had taken with other Arab countries. It was a great reply,” said Prince Turki.”
I find King Faisal very strong, wise, down to earth, blatant and honest.. an interesting mix that led straight to his assassination.
Truly one of the greatest
so oldschool he calls MC hammer sonny jim
Ahh…we need leaders like that again!
lol @KTDP!
He was KING.real KING.
(( we come from the desert, and we have been living on camil milk and dates .. and we can easily go back and live in the desert again )) we need another King Faisal
7imish!!! Rephrasing King Faisal’s words to Kissinger on living in the desert, is simply saying “Talk to the hand dude, TALK TO THE HAND”
and when Kissinger wanted to threaten King Faisal with war, I think King Faisal went like this: OH NO HE D’INT!! Thats’s how its sounds in my head lol.
Overall, leadership is overrated tdy and the qualities and characteristics of a leader in our world has certainly perished and went down hill!
Makes u miss Hitler does’nt it??!! lool
Oh Some Contrast “yousefe” excellent post … i would vote for it as the post of the year 🙂
King Faisal was a real man, hight stature, i’ve heard that story before but didn’t know that Time Magazen name the King as Man of the year, a well deserved titel. thank you for posting this artical
He was a great man. His father, King Abdul Aziz Al Saud was also a great and powerful man. His story is very interesting to, as he is the founder of present day Saudi Arabia. It’s interesting to read about his many accomplishments.
Very few men can do what he did.. He was smart and strong, its sad that he was killed by his nephew..
wa6n: la walla i dont think it makes anyone miss hitler.
he was one of the only kings in the world that did any good (aka. the oil embargo) til he was killed by his own blood. nice story. plus kissinger kan 7MAR. bi ma3na il kilma, you know he was the one who basically gave suharto the green light to annex east timor and kill TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE!! and then he got the nobel peace prize, o please “The UN Security Council had a unanimous vote for Indonesia to stop its invasion and to withdraw immediately from East Timor’s borders, and was blocked by the United States from imposing any economic sanctions or other means of enforcing this mandate.” just note. enough about kissinger. thank God fai9al didnt give him plane fuel, that miserable f***er. sorry 3al kilma. oh and yousef what were your sources?? i would really love to read up more on this stuff. and i got this book called “najd before the salafi reform movement” cant wait to read!! and tara there is lots of stuff you can take a look at! amazon even has translations of stuff from the kuwaiti ministry of education! cool, 9a7?
Oh and Brownsuger: i really dont think time labeling him man of the year was meant to be a compliment. someone actually requested for his face to carry that expression.
He was a real king not like the arab leaders we have today.
[…] another interesting article about King Faisal on somecontrast […]
@missghesquiere Kissinger was joking when he said he wanted fuel, he saw that the king had a sad face and tried to break the ice in a very bad way!
He’s an idiot anyway.
Would you ppl give up all what u have and return back to the desert !!??
Do u guys think it’s possible to do so !!
you didn’t cite a proper source!!
ta
Truely a GREAT LEADER WHO DESERVES TO BE THE KING
ALLAH HAVE MERCY ON HIS SOUL FOR HE FOUGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF HIS PEOPLE AND FOR ISLAM TO PREVAIL
I SALUTE HIM