US messages detail royal welfare program, and royal schemes
(NEWSER) - The handouts Saudi King Abdullah is granting to his people are nothing compared to the handouts his family's thousands of princes and princesses have received over the past two decades. American diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks detail the royal welfare program, which has cost the country an estimated $2 billion per year and has angered many Saudis. The royal patronage system doled out, in the mid-1990s, $800 per month even to "the lowliest member of the most remote branch of the family," according to the documents. Sons of modern Saudi Arabia's founder, on the other hand, received up to $270,000 per month, Reuters reports. More»