It is worthy paying close attention when a certain Saudi prince speaks his mind.  Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal is sometimes described as the most powerful Arab in the world, thanks to his enormous wealth, business acumen, and influence in the Saudi royal family, which runs the Kingdom as a family fiefdom.  Western-educated, he has shown himself to be an effective power broker, owning a 7% stake in News Corporation and donating $20 million each to Harvard and Georgetown Universities, arousing suspicions of undue influence.

The good prince let the world know what the real stakes are in the battle over fracking. Michael W. Chapman of CNS News reports:

 Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a billionaire businessman and nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, said the production of shale oil and natural gas in the United States and other countries, primarily done through fracking, is a real competitive threat to "any oil-producing country in the world," adding that Saudi Arabia must address the issue because it is a "matter of survival."

New shale oil discoveries "are threats to any oil-producing country in the world," said Prince Alwaleed in an interview with The Globe and Mail. "It is a pivot moment for any oil-producing country that has not diversified. Ninety-two percent of Saudi Arabia's annual budget comes from oil. Definitely it is a worry and a concern."

Those who oppose fracking, seeking to stop it on the unproven assertion that it pollutes ground water or causes need to take a deep breath here. Saudi Arabia has been funding the poison of Wahhabi Islam's spread throughout the world, building mosques, providing textbooks, and paying for imams to both gain converts and convert existing Muslims to the fundamentalist doctrines of the desert extremists: extreme subjugation of women, deep hatred of Jews, and jihad, peaceful when effective and violent whenever it appears advantageous.

Thanks to the miracle of fracking, we have in prospect the breaking of the Muslim world's stranglehold on the world economy, making it possible for Western democracies to grow a spine and stand up to the oil-powered theocrats who want to extinguish other religions and impose their seventh century way of life on the globe.

Self-interest would dictate that the Saudis and other oil oligarchs would be wise to fund American anti-fracking groups, in order to remove this potential game-changer. Any group that opposes fracking should be asked to prove they have received no oil money.