Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah dies

[happyslug]

46. King's Abudullah's son commands the Saudi National Guard, who now have tanks.

The commander of the Saudi National Guard is the son of King Abdullah, who is the only son of King Saud I (who died in 1952) to Abdullah's mother. (King Saud had several wives, and the infighting is between these half brothers AND their adult Children).

King Saud I is also referred to as King Abdulaziz ibn Saud i.e King Abdulaziz son of Saud.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Saud

King Abdullah official name was King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz, King Abdullah son o Abdulaziz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutaib_bin_Abdullah

King Abdullah or his son had controlled the National Guard for since at least the 1970s and has 100,000 men in the National Guard, who, unlike the US National Guard, a full time active unit. In addition the Guard had 25,000 men it can call into full time service from various tribes loyal to Abdullah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian_National_Guard

On the other hand the Saudi Arabian Army, of roughly 150,000 men has always been controlled by the Sudairi Seven, the seven sons of King Saud I from his wide Sudairi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudairi_Seven

King Fahd, the predecessor to King Abdullah, was one of the Sudairi Seven, two other of these brother had died, leaving four alive, including the new King. King Salman, King Abdullah's successor. King Salman is presently 79 years of age:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_of_Saudi_Arabia

In previous posts I had gone into details about the house of Saud and I see no reason to repeat what I wrote previously, but if you want to read those earlier posts here are their cites. Many of these have duplicate cites but they give you an idea of what this death means:

From 2013:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=640342

From August 2014:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=867694

June 2014:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017196888#post3

From December 2014, where I even included a chart on the House of Saud:

http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=960879

October 2013:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=628856

Form November 2013 where I go into how dictatorships decline and fall after after about three generations:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=656998

In 2012 I started this by comparing Saudi Arabia of 2012 with the Soviet Union of the 1970s and 1980s::

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1127&pid=17990

Here is my comment on the Iranian-Saudi cold war from 2013:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014359561#post3

Report of the 2013 sell of German Leopard II tanks to Saudi Arabia for its National Guard AND why it was done, when the Saudis already had US M1 tanks (i.e. preparing to fight it out, the National Guard was NOT going to wait for US Tanks, they wanted modern TANKS in 2013 to fight the M1 tanks of the Saudi Army):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php/http/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x597969