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来源Special Report: US cables detail Saudi royal welfare program
译者sissi_chen
LONDON (Reuters) – When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion, apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world's biggest oil exporter from the wave of protest sweeping the Arab world.
伦敦（路透社）-沙特国王阿卜杜拉上周回国时带了价值370亿美元的礼物，这显然是为了安抚过着朴素生活的沙特人，使这个世界上最大的石油出口国免受席卷阿拉伯世界抗议浪潮的影响。
But some of the biggest handouts over the past two decades have gone to his own extended family, according to unpublished American diplomatic cables dating back to 1996.
1996年的一份未公开的美国外交电报显示，在过去的二十年里，一些最昂贵的礼物都留给了国王自己的家人。
The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks and reviewed by Reuters, provide remarkable insight into how much the vast royal welfare program has cost the country -- not just financially but in terms of undermining social cohesion.
路透社审查的这份由维基解密截获的电报，从两方面对庞大的皇家福利方案进行了深入剖析：国家为这项方案的开销，以及它对社会团结的破坏。
Besides the huge monthly stipends that every Saudi royal receives, the cables detail various money-making schemes some royals have used to finance their lavish lifestyles over the years. Among them: siphoning off money from "off-budget" programs controlled by senior princes, sponsoring expatriate workers who then pay a small monthly fee to their royal patron and, simply, "borrowing from the banks, and not paying them back."
电报显示，沙特皇室人员除了每月收到的巨额津贴，有些人还利用各种各样的赚钱手段来支付他们多年来的奢华生活。他们中有些人从年长王子控制的“预算外”项目中赚外快，有些人靠资助外籍工作人员每月收取一小笔费用，或者有些人更直接地“从银行借钱，而且从来不还。”
As long ago as 1996, U.S. officials noted that such unrestrained behavior could fuel a backlash against the Saudi elite. In the assessment of the U.S. embassy in Riyadh in a cable from that year, "of the priority issues the country faces, getting a grip on royal family excesses is at the top."
早在1996年，美国官员就指出沙特皇室这种放肆的行为会引起沙特精英们的强烈反对。同年，美国驻利雅得大使馆的电报评价称，“沙特国家面临的首要问题是控制皇室奢侈无度的生活。”
A 2007 cable showed that King Abdullah has made changes since taking the throne six years ago, but recent turmoil in the Middle East underlines the deep-seated resentment about economic disparities and corruption in the region.
2007年的电报称，阿卜杜拉国王自6年前登基后已经采取了一些措施，但最近发生在中东地区的动乱突显了人们对经济差距和腐败的深刻仇恨。
A Saudi government spokesman contacted by Reuters declined to comment.
路透社就此联系了沙特政府发言人，但他拒绝评论。
MONTHLY CHEQUES
每月支票
The November 1996 cable -- entitled "Saudi Royal Wealth: Where do they get all that money?" -- provides an extraordinarily detailed picture of how the royal patronage system works. It's the sort of overview that would have been useful required reading for years in the U.S. State department.
1996年11月的电报标题为“沙特皇室的财富：他们的钱从何而来？”。电报非常详细的描述了沙特皇室赞助系统是如何工作的。这份重要电报是几年来美国国务院要求的必读文件。
It begins with a line that could come from a fairytale: "Saudi princes and princesses, of whom there are thousands, are known for the stories of their fabulous wealth -- and tendency to squander it."
电报的开头有点像童话故事，称“与千千万万的王子和公主一样，沙特王子和公主都非常富有，他们的生活也很奢侈。”
The most common mechanism for distributing Saudi Arabia's wealth to the royal family is the formal, budgeted system of monthly stipends that members of the Al Saud family receive, according to the cable. Managed by the Ministry of Finance's "Office of Decisions and Rules," which acts like a kind of welfare office for Saudi royalty, the royal stipends in the mid-1990s ran from about $800 a month for "the lowliest member of the most remote branch of the family" to $200,000-$270,000 a month for one of the surviving sons of Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia.
电报称，沙特阿拉伯皇室家族成员每月领取正式的、预算系统的津贴，这是最常见的财富分配机制。系统由财务部的“决策和规则办公室”管理，相当于沙特皇室的福利办公室。上世纪90年代中期皇室成员的津贴从每月800美元到20-27万美元不等，800美元是发给最远家族分支的最低级别成员，20-27万美元是发给现代沙特阿拉伯的创始人阿卜杜勒阿齐兹伊本沙特幸存的儿子。
Grandchildren received around $27,000 a month, "according to one contact familiar with the stipends" system, the cable says. Great-grandchildren received about $13,000 and great-great- grandchildren $8,000 a month.
电报称，“一位熟悉津贴”系统的人表示，皇室中孙子每月的津贴是27,000美元左右，重孙是13,000美元左右，玄孙是8000美元左右。
"Bonus payments are available for marriage and palace building," according to the cable, which estimates that the system cost the country, which had an annual budget of $40 billion at the time, some $2 billion a year.
电报称，“结婚和宫殿建造还可以拿到额外津贴”。皇室每年发放的津贴预计达到20亿美元，当时的年预算是400亿美元。
"The stipends also provide a substantial incentive for royals to procreate since the stipends begin at birth."
“还有很多鼓励皇室成员生育的津贴，刚出生的孩子就享有津贴。”
After a visit to the Office of Decisions and Rules, which was in an old building in Riyadh's banking district, the U.S. embassy's economics officer described a place "bustling with servants picking up cash for their masters." The office distributed the monthly stipends -- not just to royals but to "other families and individuals granted monthly stipends in perpetuity." It also fulfilled "financial promises made by senior princes."
在参观了位于利雅得银行区旧楼里的决策和规则办公室后，美国使馆的经济官员称“到处都是忙碌的为主人数钱的仆人”。办公室每月发放的津贴不只是给皇室成员，“其他家庭和个人也一直都能领到津贴”。办公室还负责履行“高级王子的金融承诺”。
The head of the office at the time, Abdul-Aziz al-Shubayli, told the economics officer that an important part of his job "at least in today's more fiscally disciplined environment, is to play the role of bad cop." He "rudely grilled a nearly blind old man about why an eye operation promised by a prince and confirmed by royal Diwan note had to be conducted overseas and not for free in one of the first-class eye hospitals in the kingdom." After finally signing off on a trip, Shubayli noted that he himself had been in the United States twice for medical treatment, once for a chronic ulcer and once for carpal tunnel syndrome. "He chuckled, suggesting that both were probably job-induced."
当时该办公室的负责人是阿卜杜勒阿齐兹，他对美国经济官员称他的一个重要工作职责是“至少在今天更加严格的财政纪律环境下，他要扮演白脸的角色”。他“粗暴地用火烤一位快要失明的老人，质问他为什么王子答应的眼科手术最后由皇室财政大臣确认要在海外做，而且要花钱在英国一家顶级眼科医院做”，但最后他签字同意了这次旅行。阿卜杜勒阿齐兹意识到他自己也因为医疗治疗两次前往美国，一次是因为慢性溃疡，另一次是因为腕管综合症。”他噗嗤笑了出来，意思是这两次可能都与工作有关。
FOLLOWING THE MONEY
追随金钱
But the stipend system was clearly not enough for many royals, who used a range of other ways to make money, "not counting business activities."
但是，对于许多有其他方法（除了商业活动）赚钱的皇室成员来说，很明显这个津贴系统对他们来说还远远不够。
"By far the largest is likely royal skimming from the approximately $10 billion in annual off-budget spending controlled by a few key princes," the 1996 cable states. Two of those projects -- the Two Holy Mosques Project and the Ministry of Defense's Strategic Storage Project -- are "highly secretive, subject to no Ministry of Finance oversight or controls, transacted through the National Commercial Bank, and widely believed to be a source of substantial revenues" for the then-King and a few of his full brothers, according to the authors of the cable.
1996年的电报称，“目前，赚得最多的可能是几个主要王子控制的预算外项目中赚取的100亿美元。”其中有两个项目－一个是两个清真寺项目，另一个是国防部的战略储存项目，这两个项目是绝对机密的，而且不受财务部的任何监督或控制，直接通过国家商业银行转账，这普遍认为是为当时的国王和他的几个兄弟提供大笔财富的来源。
In a meeting with the U.S. ambassador at the time, one Saudi prince, alluding to the off-budget programs, "lamented the travesty that revenues from 'one million barrels of oil per day' go entirely to 'five or six princes,'" according to the cable, which quoted the prince.
当时在与美国大使开会时，一位沙特王子暗指预算外的项目称，“有人说“每天有100万桶石油”的收入全部跑到了“5或6位王子”的兜里，对这种歪曲事实的说法我感到很痛心。电报中援引王子的话称。
Then there was the apparently common practice for royals to borrow money from commercial banks and simply not repay their loans. As a result, the 12 commercial banks in the country were "generally leary of lending to royals."
于是，普遍的通行做法是皇室成员从商业银行借钱，但从来不偿还贷款。结果，沙特的12家商业银行“通常都不愿贷款给皇室成员。”
The managing director of another bank in the kingdom told the ambassador that he divided royals into four tiers, according to the cable. The top tier was the most senior princes who, perhaps because they were so wealthy, never asked for loans. The second tier included senior princes who regularly asked for loans. "The bank insists that such loans be 100 percent collateralized by deposits in other accounts at the bank," the cable reports. The third tier included thousands of princes the bank refused to lend to. The fourth tier, "not really royals, are what this banker calls the 'hangers on'."
电报称，英国一家银行的经理对美国大使讲，他把皇室财富分为四个等级：最高等级是指年事已高的王子，可能因为他们太富有了而从来没申请过贷款；第二等级是指那些经常申请贷款的年长王子。电报称，“银行坚持这种贷款要用他们在其他银行账户的存款做100%的抵押担保”；第三等级是指银行拒绝贷款的王子，这些王子的人数有成千上万人；第四等级，他们“不是真正的皇室成员，银行工作人员把他们称作‘皇室追随者’”。
Another popular money-making scheme saw some "greedy princes" expropriate land from commoners. "Generally, the intent is to resell quickly at huge markup to the government for an upcoming project." By the mid-1990s, a government program to grant land to commoners had dwindled. "Against this backdrop, royal land scams increasingly have become a point of public contention."
另一种流行的赚钱方式是一些“贪婪”的王子从平民那征用土地。“总的来说，他们的目的是为了把征来土地重新卖给政府的新项目以快速赚取巨额资金。”到上世纪90年代中期，政府给平民的土地项目减少了。“在此背景下，皇室的土地诈骗日益成为公众争辩的焦点。”
The cable cites a banker who claimed to have a copy of "written instructions" from one powerful royal that ordered local authorities in the Mecca area to transfer to his name a "Waqf" -- religious endowment -- of a small parcel of land that had been in the hands of one family for centuries. "The banker noted that it was the brazenness of the letter ... that was particularly egregious."
电报援引一位银行工作人员的话，称他手中有一份很有权力的皇室人员写的“书面指示”副本，指示命令在麦家地区的权威机构将一份宗教养老资产（是被一户家庭几个世纪来长期占有的一小块土地）转到他的名下。“银行家指出这封信写得厚颜无耻，他的要求实在是太过分了。”
Another senior royal was famous for "throwing fences up around vast stretches of government land."
另一名高级皇室成员因为“在政府的大面积土地上大肆围建栅栏”而臭名昭著。
The confiscation of land extends to businesses as well, the cable notes. A prominent and wealthy Saudi businessman told the embassy that one reason rich Saudis keep so much money outside the country was to lessen the risk of 'royal expropriation.'"
电报显示，土地的征收也影响了企业。一位地位显赫的沙特富商告诉美国大使馆称，沙特富人在海外存有大量资金的原因是为了减少土地被“王室没收”的风险。
Finally, royals kept the money flowing by sponsoring the residence permits of foreign workers and then requiring them to pay a monthly "fee" of between $30 and $150. "It is common for a prince to sponsor a hundred or more foreigners," the 1996 cable says.
1996年的电报称，皇室成员资助外国人的工作居留证，然后要求他们每月支付30-150美元不等的费用，他们通过这种方式让自己的钱流通起来。“一个王子资助上百个外国人很常见”。
BIG SPENDERS
花钱无度的人
The U.S. diplomats behind the cable note wryly that despite all the money that has been given to Saudi royals over the years there is not "a significant number of super-rich princes ... In the end," the cable states, Saudi's "royals still seem more adept at squandering than accumulating wealth."
电报里涉及的美国外交人员苦笑着回应说，尽管过去几年里把所有的钱都交给了沙特皇室，但最后并没有出现大量的超级富豪王子。”电报称，与积累财富相比，沙特皇室人员更善于挥霍财富。”
But the authors of the cable also warned that all that money and excess was undermining the legitimacy of the ruling family. By 1996, there was "broad sentiment that royal greed has gone beyond the bounds of reason". Still, as long as the "royal family views this country as 'Al Saud Inc.' ever increasing numbers of princes and princesses will see it as their birthright to receive lavish dividend payments, and dip into the till from time to time, by sheer virtue of company ownership."
但是电报的作者还警告说所有的财富和挥霍正在破坏统治家族的立法。1996年，人们“普遍认为皇室家族的贪婪已经超越了理性范围”。但是，只要“皇室家族把沙特这个国家看作是‘沙特公司’，数量不断增加的王子和公主就会把领取大笔津贴看作是他们与生俱来的权利，而且还可以违背公司道德偶尔动用一下备用现金。”
In the years that followed that remarkable assessment of Saudi royalty, there were some official efforts toward reform -- driven in the late 1990s and early 2000s in particular by an oil price between $10-20 a barrel. But the real push for reform began in 2005, when King Abdullah succeeded to the throne, and even then change came slowly.
在著名的沙特皇室评估后的几年里，有些官员曾尝试着改革－特别在90年代末和21世纪初油价每桶达到10-20美元时，改革的呼声更高。但是真正推动改革的事件是发生在2005年，当时国王阿卜杜拉刚刚继承王位，那时起改革开始缓慢进行。
By February 2007, according to a second cable entitled "Crown Prince Sultan backs the King in family disputes", the reforms were beginning to bite. "By far the most widespread source of discontent in the ruling family is the King's curtailment of their privileges," the cable says. "King Abdullah has reportedly told his brothers that he is over 80 years old and does not wish to approach his judgment day with the 'burden of corruption on my shoulder.'"
2007年2月，第二封电报的题目是“皇太子苏尔坦在家庭纷争中支持国王”，这时的改革一触即发。电报称，“目前对统治家族最普遍的不满是国王特权的缩减。”“据说，国王告诉他的兄弟他已经80多岁了，不希望“肩负着腐败的重任”来参加他的审判日。
The King, the cable states, had disconnected the cellphone service for "thousands of princes and princesses." Year-round government-paid hotel suites in Jeddah had been canceled, as was the right of royals to request unlimited free tickets from the state airline. "We have a first-hand account that a wife of Interior minister Prince Naif attempted to board a Saudia flight with 12 companions, all expecting to travel for free," the authors of the cables write, only to be told "to her outrage" that the new rules meant she could only take two free guests.
电报称，国王已经切断了“成千上万的王子和公主”的手机服务。政府在吉达全年支付的酒店套房已经取消，这曾经是皇室成员从沙特国家航空公司索要无限量免费机票的权利。“我们有一手的资料显示，一位内政部长纳伊夫亲王夫人曾试图带上她的12位同伴登上沙特飞机，希望所有人都能免费旅行。”电报的作者写道，据说这位夫人很气愤，因为根据新规定她只能带两位客人免费旅行。
Others were also angered by the rules. Prince Mishal bin Majid bin Abdulaziz had taken to driving between Jeddah and Riyadh "to show his annoyance" at the reforms, according to the cable.
电报称，皇室的其他成员也因新规定而愤怒不已。王子阿卜杜拉驾驶飞机往返于吉达和利雅得之间以表达他对改革的愤怒。
Abdullah had also reigned in the practice of issuing "block visas" to foreign workers "and thus cut the income of many junior princes" as well as dramatically reducing "the practice of transferring public lands to favored individuals."
阿卜杜拉国王还控制了给外国工作人员签发的“成批签证”的做法，从而“切断了许多年来年轻王子的收入来源”，他同时还大量减少了“将公共土地转让施惠于个人的做法。”
The U.S. cable reports that all those reforms had fueled tensions within the ruling family to the point where Interior Minister Prince Naif and Riyadh Governor Prince Salman had "sought to openly confront the King over reducing royal entitlements."
美国电报称，所有这些改革激化了执政家族内部的紧张关系，内政部长纳伊夫亲王和利雅得省长萨勒曼亲王已经寻求“与国王当面公开讨论减少皇家权利”的机会。
But according to "well established sources with first hand access to this information," Crown Prince Sultan stood by Abdullah and told his brothers "that challenging the King was a 'red line' that he would not cross." Sultan, the cable says, has also followed the King's lead and turned down requests for land transfers.
但“第一手信息的最佳来源”称，王储阿卜杜拉站在苏尔坦身旁告诉他的兄弟“挑战国王是他不能跨越的一条‘红线’。”电报称，苏尔坦也服从国王的领导并拒绝了土地转让的要求。
The cable comments that Sultan, longtime defense minister and now also Crown Prince, seemed to value family unity and stability above all.
电报评论称，苏尔坦长期担任国防部长，作为现在的王储，他似乎把家庭团结和稳定看得比一切都重要。
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