bandar visited damascus and met president bashar assad in mid-november 2005. he also secretly met with u.s. officials in 2006 after resigning as ambassador. seymour hersh reported in 2007 in the "new yorker" that as saudi arabia's national security adviser, bandar continued to meet privately with both president george w. bush and vice president dick cheney. at that time hersh described bandar as a key architect of the bush administration policy in iraq and the middle east.