During the long hot summer recess of Washington, politics and politicians, unlike popular belief never sleep. The Republican convention, the elections in November, the Democratic convention, the President's birthday gala, all contribute to the real truth that politics and politicians are always on the move, always planning and scheming to advance their cause.

With that in mind, the US Congress and the US Senate are in the middle of the summer recess. The law provides for the President to seek Senate confirmation on all Ambassadorial appointees, exception to this rule is when the Senate is in recess.

Ambassador Raymond Mabus, the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, resigned earlier to help President Clinton campaign for his second term. The new Ambassador to Saudi Arabia is Wyche Fowler, a Georgian Democrat that has been the Governor of that State. In order to expedite the process, Clinton chose to appoint the new Ambassador during the recess in order to avoid delays and tactical maneuvering in an election year.

Governor Fowler is a respected and trusted Democrat whose strengths include, we are told, What You See Is What You Get. He has earned the respect of his fellow Democrats for taking a very practical and truthful approach to resolving problems and dealing with top level issues. With those qualities in mind (Clinton needed someone exactly with these qualities because he cannot afford to lose more US troops in Saudi Arabia in this election year), Fowler has been named US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The most important reason why Fowler was chosen, our Committee was told, is because he is able to tell the President exactly what is going on in Saudi Arabia. Prince Naef, who runs the torture chambers in Saudi Arabia, in addition to his second job as Minister of Interior, has had clashes with the US Administration, FBI Director Greeh, and other high US officials concerning the conduct of the investigation and the attitude he has taken vis-a-vis the US troops. The Committee has been told that Naef at some point said that there are risks in being in the Army and that lives will be lost whether they can do something about or not. This nonchalant attitude did not sit well with the team of investigators and high officials who have visited Saudi Arabia recently. Absent from meeting Secretary Perry was Naef bin Abdul Aziz on a recent trip to Saudi Arabia to seal the fate of the US troops and to arrange for their security.

Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador to the US has been reluctant to expose the weaknesses of his regime and has on several occasions, we were told, misdirected the Clinton Administration by underestimating the dangers that exist in Saudi Arabia. It seems that the US Administration no longer trusts Bandar bin Sultan with telling them the truth about what is going on that they have resorted to sending their own trusted emissary in order to know the truth. Even though Fowler's laundry list will be long, his canny ability to sort the truth from lies will be of help to our policy makers who will finally get a windows seat of the events unfolding in Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the Sudeiri Seven.