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Casey

02-25-2005, 09:53 PM

Smear Campaigns Won’t Shake Us: Abdullah
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

Crown Prince Abdullah receives foreign dignitaries attending the Janadriya Heritage and Culture Festival at his palace in Riyadh on Friday. (SPA)

JEDDAH, 26 February 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah stated yesterday that Saudi Arabia would not be shaken by the smear campaigns of its detractors.

“The Kingdom will remain strong and victorious by the grace of God and as a result of the unity and cohesion of its people,” he said in remarks carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

The crown prince was addressing Saudi and foreign dignitaries including intellectuals and journalists who came to attend the 20th Heritage and Culture Festival currently under way in Janadriya, 45 km north of Riyadh.

Prince Abdullah called upon Muslim scholars and intellectuals to play their role in strengthening Arab and Islamic unity. He noted Saudi Arabia’s efforts in forging unity and solidarity among Arab and Islamic countries over the past years.

“You might have heard about the allegations and accusations leveled against the Kingdom. But, by the grace of God, the Saudi people will not be shaken by such campaigns,” the crown prince told the gathering. He said the enemies would be deflated by the willpower of the Saudi people.

Top officials including Prince Miteb ibn Abdullah, assistant deputy commander of the National Guard for military affairs and deputy chairman of the festival’s supreme organizing committee, attended the reception.

In his extempore speech, Prince Abdullah said that Al-Qaeda militants tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims across the world.

“These people do not belong to Islam, nor are they Arabs or Muslims,” he said and urged Muslim scholars to defend Islam and work for the peaceful coexistence of various faiths and communities.

A total of 221 people, including 92 suspected militants, have been killed in a series of terror attacks in the Kingdom over the past two years. Saudi security forces were successful in foiling 52 terrorist operations.

Prince Abdullah told the scholars and intellectuals taking part in various Janadriya events that they are free to make open criticisms.

“This is your festival and your country ... feel free to make criticisms if any,” he said and requested them to forgive if there was any negligence from the part of Saudis.

Last Wednesday, Prince Abdullah opened the annual cultural event, which includes a variety of programs.

Some 50 scholars and experts from within and outside the Kingdom are expected to participate in a seminar titled “Knowledge and Development.”

According to a report carried by the Saudi Press Agency, more than 120,000 people have visited the festival so far. Popular souks displaying traditional products and handicrafts attracted the largest number of visitors, the agency said.

The final ceremony of the Qur’an and Sunnah contest, named after Prince Abdullah, will be held at King Faisal Conference Hall this evening. Over 1,000 students took part in the competition, one of the festival’s premier events.

Prince Miteb has said the Janadriya festival has hosted more than 125 seminars in addition to 45 lectures on regional and international topics and 40 poetic sessions over the past years.

Prince Miteb underscored the festival’s efforts in promoting women’s cultural and intellectual activities. “We have invited a large number of internationally-known political, cultural and intellectual personalities,” he said, adding that the number of foreign participants had reached 3,000.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=59573&d=26&m=2&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

Petronas

03-03-2005, 09:55 PM

Abu-Ali Tied to Riyadh Bombing Architect?
Updated: 6:07 p.m. ET March 2, 2005

March 2 - Federal prosecutors have linked Ahmed Abu-Ali—the northern Virginia man accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush—with a top Al Qaeda leader who allegedly engineered a major terror bombing in Saudi Arabia under orders from Osama bin Laden, NEWSWEEK has learned. The alleged connection between Abu-Ali and Ali Abd al Rahman al Faqasi al Ghamdi, believed to be an architect of the May 12, 2003, Riyadh bombing—in which 35 people were killed, including nine Americans—has yet to be publicly acknowledged by the Justice Department. But sources close to the case tell NEWSWEEK that al Ghamdi, also known as Abu Bakr al-Azdi, is the mysterious figure identified by an FBI agent Tuesday and in a federal indictment last week as “co-conspirator No. 4”—an Al Qaeda figure who allegedly plotted with Abu-Ali to mount terror attacks against the United States.

The link to al Ghamdi, who once served with bin Laden in Afghanistan and is believed to have directed one of the principal Al Qaeda cells inside Saudi Arabia, underscores the significance of the Abu-Ali case in the eyes of some U.S. and Saudi counterterrorism officials. But it also points to the difficulties federal prosecutors are likely to have in ever getting some of their most damning evidence before a federal jury, some legal experts say. Since surrendering to Saudi authorities in June 2003, al Ghamdi has essentially disappeared from sight. Law-enforcement officials acknowledge it is highly unlikely that the Saudis will ever make him available to testify in a U.S. courtroom where the circumstances of his interrogations in a Saudi prison would be central in any cross-examination by Abu-Ali’s lawyers. “I’d say the chances are slim to none [that al Ghamdi’s testimony] ever gets in,” said Edward MacMahon, a former lawyer for Abu-Ali who represents a number of high-profile defendants in terrorism cases.

A 23-year-old who was valedictorian of his Islamic high-school class and a former Boy Scout, Abu-Ali’s case has become a cause celebre for many Washington, D.C.-area Muslims, who say he was tortured by the Saudis into making false confessions and is now being railroaded by the U.S. government. His lawyer, John Zwerling, on Tuesday described the government’s evidence against his client as “preposterous.”

In testimony during a detention hearing Tuesday, FBI agent Barry Cole expanded on the U.S. government’s allegations against Abu-Ali, who was flown back to the United States last week after spending 20 months in a Saudi prison and indicted on charges he provided material support to a terrorist group. Cole told a federal judge that, during a videotaped confession and in later interviews with FBI agents while he was still in Saudi custody, Abu-Ali admitted discussing plans with an Al Qaeda operative to assassinate President Bush. One idea that Abu-Ali discussed was arranging for three snipers to shoot the president—a level of redundancy that Abu-Ali suggested to make sure the job was successful, Cole testified.

Cole identified the Al Qaeda operative with whom Abu-Ali had these talks as “co-conspirator No. 2” who, he said, “was killed in September 2003.” Saudi sources say this is an apparent reference to Zubayr al-Rimi, also known as Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani, an FBI-wanted terrorist who was gunned down in a bloody, hours-long shoot-out with Saudi authorities in late September 2003. But while al-Rimi’s death makes him unavailable to ever testify against Abu-Ali, Cole said that key parts of the defendant’s now-disputed confession were corroborated by another Al Qaeda operative—“co-conspirator No. 4”—with whom Abu-Ali allegedly had dealings while he was in Saudi Arabia on an Islamic-studies scholarship. According to Cole’s testimony, Abu-Ali discussed with this Al Qaeda operative plans to mount a series of terrorist attacks, including one reminiscent of September 11, 2001, in which plotters would board aircraft in Great Britain and Australia and then hijack the planes while they were flying over U.S. airspace and crash them into mass-casualty targets.

Other proposed plots, according to Cole, included plans to kill U.S. congressmen, blow up U.S. naval warships and “saving the brothers in Guantanamo.” Cole said that Abu-Ali’s alleged co-conspirator was “concentrating on attacks in the United States” and that toward that end, he helped arrange for Abu-Ali to get a laptop computer and a cell phone and provided him with training in the use of semiautomatic weapons and explosives. It is far from clear whether any of these alleged plots ever got beyond the talking phase. In fact, during cross-examination, Abu-Ali's lawyer, Zwerling, got Cole to concede that nothing incriminating was actually found on Abu-Ali's laptop. But when Abu-Ali’s dorm room was raided by Saudi security forces in June 2003, Cole testified, authorities found a Global Positioning System (GPS) device and a phony dollar bill that appeared to mock the events of September 11, Cole testified.

Cole said that Abu-Ali’s alleged accomplice, “co-conspirator No. 4” is now “incarcerated in Saudi Arabia” after he “turned himself in”—a profile that matches the figure other sources familiar with the evidence say is in fact al Ghamdi, a once notorious Al Qaeda operative inside Saudi Arabia. The identification of al Ghamdi as Abu-Ali’s alleged co-conspirator would appear to raise the stakes in the case. A recent report, “Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia” released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank with close links to the U.S. and Saudi counterterrorism communities, states that al Ghamdi was “considered to be the mastermind behind the May 12 [2003] attacks in Riyadh.” The report states that there was considerable disagreement within the Al Qaeda leadership about launching the Riyadh attacks and that two high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives, including Yusef al-Ayeri, the terrorist group’s chief in the Arabian Peninsula, opposed them on the grounds that Al Qaeda was not yet ready launch such a major operation in Saudi Arabia. But, the report states, al-Ayeri’s objections were overruled by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, who argued the attacks would cause Americans to flee Saudi Arabia and could ultimately topple the Saudi government. Al-Zawahiri’s position was supported by bin Laden himself, according to the CSIS report.

While the attacks, engineered by al Ghamdi, proceeded, and clearly rattled the Saudi government at the time, they also resulted in a massive crackdown by Saudi security forces that included the surrender of al Ghamdi, the killing of al-Rimi, and hundreds of arrests—including that of Abu-Ali, the group’s alleged American accomplice.

Zarqawi Too Busy for Mainland U.S. Attack?
A Homeland Security Department bulletin sent to local law-enforcement agencies last week cited a secret message between Al Qaeda leaders and Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader in Iraq, as evidence that Osama bin Laden's network is still intent on mounting new terror attacks inside the United States. What was not publicly disclosed, however, is that U.S. intelligence also reported that Zarqawi had replied to Al Qaeda leaders with an answer that is open to multiple interpretations—one of which is that Zarqawi is too preoccupied in Iraq to contemplate attacks on the U.S. mainland.

According to officials familiar with the Homeland Security bulletin, the message from the Al Qaeda leadership, still apparently based somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan, urged Zarqawi to use terrorist allies around the world to conduct new attacks specifically on American soil. Officials said they could not confirm news reports that the message to Zarqawi was issued in the names of either bin Laden himself or his principal deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. According to intelligence sources, the leadership message to Zarqawi is very brief but definitely urges new attacks inside the United States rather than against American targets elsewhere around the world. But the message contains no specific attack plans and is not regarded by U.S. analysts as constituting an operational order or direct threat.

What was not reported in the media—or in the Homeland Security bulletin to local cops—is that U.S. intelligence also picked up what analysts believe was a reply message from Zarqawi—who formally affiliated his Iraq-based terror network last year with the larger Al Qaeda movement. U.S. officials familiar with Zarqawi's reply are offering different interpretations of it. According to one U.S. source, in his reply Zarqawi expressed deference to Al Qaeda leaders and indicated he would do what he could to follow up on their instructions. But according to two other U.S. sources, who also have access to intelligence analyses, Zarqawi was less than enthusiastic about the Al Qaeda leadership's suggestion. According to one source, Zarqawi's reply amounted to a "total blow off," in which the Jordanian-born jihadi indicated that he had his hands full keeping the insurgency going in Iraq and was not interested at the moment in expanding his activities halfway around the globe.

Whatever their interpretation of Zarqawi's reply to the Al Qaeda leadership, U.S. officials said that they did not believe the exchange of messages between the Iraqi-based insurgent and Al Qaeda leaders constituted evidence of any imminent terrorist threat against the U.S. mainland. Some officials also expressed anger that information about the exchange of messages leaked out, because the leaks could jeopardize U.S. intelligence sources and methods. These officials indicated that the damage done to U.S. intelligence capabilities by the leaks may be far more serious than the benefit that the public (or local law-enforcement agencies) could reap from knowing that Al Qaeda and Zarqawi were in communication and that they were still interested in attacking the continental United States. Some intel officials believe the messages between Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda leadership were so cryptic in the first place because the terrorists already suspect their communications channel is being monitored by American authorities.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7067798/site/newsweek/

Casey

03-09-2005, 07:28 AM

Saudi youths export 'holy war'
By Donna Abu-Nasr
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 9, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A few weeks after his son Ahmed disappeared, Abdullah al-Shayea got a call from an Iraqi official saying the 19-year-old was an intended suicide bomber who barely survived blowing up a fuel tanker in a deadly Christmas Day attack in Baghdad.
Ahmed is one of many Saudi youths -- estimates run from the low hundreds to as many as 2,500 -- who have slipped into Iraq in the past two years, often traveling through Syria to join other Arab and Muslim recruits eager to translate a fiercely anti-U.S., al Qaeda-inspired ideology into strikes against Americans and their Western and Iraqi allies.
"I was stunned," Mr. al-Shayea said of his son's role in the explosion, which killed at least nine persons just hours after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital. "I had no clue he was even thinking of going there."
Some go because an aggressive counterterror campaign in the kingdom has made it harder for them to operate in Saudi Arabia, others because they don't think it's right to risk killing Saudis and Muslims while attacking Western targets in their own country. But all of them think their mission is a jihad, or holy war, that a true Muslim should not forsake.
"Those who cannot do jihad in Saudi Arabia go to Iraq," said Mshari al-Thaydi, a London-based Saudi writer and observer of Islamist terror groups. "The goals are the same, the ideology is the same and the modus operandi is the same."
Ahmed al-Shayea's journey is typical of how many Saudis end up in Iraq, said Mr. al-Thaydi and other authorities on Islamic extremism.
Ahmed's father said that toward the end of the fasting month of Ramadan -- before Nov. 15 -- a time of religious fervor, his son said he was going camping in the desert with friends, a typical pastime. He said nothing indicated that his son had joined al Qaeda.
In December, a man who did not identify himself called Abdullah al-Shayea to tell him that his son "fell as a martyr" in Iraq, Mr. al-Shayea said. But a few days after the family held a wake, an Iraqi official who didn't give his name called to say Ahmed had survived.
Mr. al-Shayea did not believe the news until Ahmed appeared in January in an interview with Al Arabiya television, his head bandaged, his face charred.
Ahmed said a man smuggled him into Iraq from Syria in late November and introduced him to members of the al Qaeda-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi.
The 19-year-old said he was taken to Baghdad and told to drive a fuel tanker to the upscale Mansour district. He insisted he had no idea the militants intended to detonate the truck with him inside.
"As soon as I parked the tanker truck, it exploded," Ahmed said, adding that the force of the explosion blew him from the truck's cab.
Mr. al-Shayea thinks Ahmed remains in Iraqi custody, but has received no response to a telegram asking the Saudi Interior Ministry about his son.
Hundreds of Iraqis, Americans and other Westerners have died in dozens of suicide attacks in Iraq, with many of those strikes blamed on non-Iraqi Arabs.
Saudi Arabia is taking the matter of roving Saudi fighters seriously and working closely with U.S. officials to learn how the militants were recruited and how they entered Iraq, a senior Saudi official said on the condition of anonymity.
Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, said that at a terror conference held in Riyadh recently, Saudi officials asked Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib for information on Saudis in Iraq.
"They couldn't give us accurate and precise data," Gen. al-Turki said. "They said most of the militants were Sudanese who used to work in Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein."
In January, Iraq's national security adviser, Kasim Daoud, said most of the infiltrations are from Iraq's western border, which it shares with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He accused Syrian authorities of conspiring to assist the insurgency -- something Damascus has denied.
The Saudi border is inhospitable for militants: Its flat, desert terrain is equipped with image-recognition technology that can detect movement across the frontier.
The Saudis say they are guarding the border stringently because they do not want a post-Afghanistan-style problem with militants streaming back home to wage jihad on the ruling family. Saudis think "Arab-Afghans" set up al Qaeda's infrastructure in the kingdom upon their return in the 1990s, and that they have been behind terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia during the past few years.
It is easy for Saudis to go to Syria because they are not required to obtain visas; tourists from Persian Gulf countries are especially welcome because of the huge sums of money they spend.
Still, Saudi militants are sent to Syria mostly via a third country because airport officials might be suspicious of a man traveling alone to Damascus, said Faris bin Hizam, a Saudi journalist who has been researching the issue of "Iraqi-Saudis" for two years.
"There, the man would be met by a contact, spirited away to a hiding place and then smuggled into Iraq," Mr. bin Hizam said.
He said more than 350 Saudis have been killed in Iraq from an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 who have gone there since the war began in March 2003.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20050308-094129-1492r

Petronas

03-09-2005, 10:14 AM

he had no idea the militants intended to detonate the truck with him inside.
"As soon as I parked the tanker truck, it exploded," Ahmed saidDespicable cowards. It looks like they can't find enough willing martyrs anymore, so they blow up teenagers who have been deceived. It serves Ahmed right, of course, for helping the terrorists.

Casey

03-12-2005, 01:01 PM

Terror suspect seized in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mar. 12 (UPI) -- Saudi Arbian police arrested a terror suspect in the holy city of Mecca as part of a nationwide campaign against terrorism, reports said Saturday.

Daily al-Watan quoted security sources as saying "the man in his 30's was arrested Friday while driving his car in the Aziziya area in Mecca

"The man is wanted for serious security reasons and he is of high importance," the unidentified security sources told the newspaper.

The suspect was not identified.

Saudi Arabian security forces have been conducting searches for terror suspects in various parts of the oil-rich kingdom following U.S. warning of high terrorism threats.

A spokesman for the interior ministry said earlier 17 Saudis and Afghani nationals were arrested in Riyadh two days ago on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida network.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050312-055631-8909r.htm

Casey

03-12-2005, 01:42 PM

Thanks to Security and Sops, Westerners Stay On at BAE
Javid Hassan, Arab News

RIYADH, 12 March 2005 — BAE Systems has announced that the stern security measures taken by the Kingdom, together with the incentives it has offered to its employees, have resulted in a high level of staff retention at its offices in the Kingdom.

“The tough measures adopted by the Saudi government have induced confidence among our Western employees. As a result, we no longer deem it necessary to raise our security status from amber to red which we did a week ago,” BAE spokesman Walid Abu Khalid told Arab News.

“We got intelligence that there was a threat from terrorists. This threat was not specific to BAE, but it was generic. However, the Kingdom’s firm stand against terrorism is having a positive impact on improving the security environment,” he said.

BAE has 5,000 employees in Saudi Arabia, of whom about 40 percent are Westerners. Over the last two years, more than 1,000 Western staffers of BAE have left Saudi Arabia. The company has offered salary increases of nearly $2,000 per month for Westerners who remain in the Kingdom.

BAE has been the leading foreign contractor of Al-Yamamah, the project that has brought more than $40 billion worth of aircraft and ships to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and 1990s. Over the last five years, Al-Yamamah has turned into a maintenance and training program.

Security concerns among Western expatriates have reportedly caused a drop of about 15 percent in employees. In the case of British expatriates in the Kingdom, the figure stands at an estimated 20,000, down from 25,000 prior to Sept. 11, 2001.

The British media said the security situation in the Gulf and Al-Qaeda’s recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom were some of the factors that prompted Western expatriates either to return home or relocate in the Gulf.

Asked for his comment, British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles told Arab News: “We do not have precise figures for the number of Britons in Saudi Arabia. But we believe that there has been a gradually falling off over the past few years, partly because of terrorism, but also because of Saudization and other market forces. I am proud of the contribution Britons continue to make to the Kingdom and am confident that they will continue to do so for many years to come.”

Saudization has also been cited as one of factors for the progressive replacement of Western expatriates with highly educated Saudis. Such a trend, though in an incipient stage, is noticeable in banks, multinational companies and major Saudi organizations. This has induced rethinking among Western expatriates to look for lucrative jobs in Dubai and elsewhere in the Gulf where their services are still in demand.

At the same time, it has created an acute shortage of native English speakers in international schools.

A spokesman of the British International School in Riyadh offered no comments when asked about the impact of security concerns on the level of enrolment. However, according to The Times of London, the strength of the British and American schools has shrunk by 15-20 percent.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=60307&d=12&m=3&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

Casey

03-12-2005, 09:47 PM

Some 17 Saudis and Afghani arrested in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia, Local, 3/12/2005

The Saudi ministry of the interior said it had detained 17 Saudis and one Afghani suspected to be members in al-Qaida organization during a breaking in operation in one of the quarters in Riyadh city.

The spokesman for the ministry Mansour al-Turkey said that the arrest was made in two different positions in Riyadh without resistance.

Media sources indicated that the operation followed inspection operations for several houses that used to be inhabited by suspects arrested earlier in Riyadh. The security forces found computers and CDs whose content was not disclose.

These developments came after a warning addressed by the American consulate on Wednesday to the American citizens living in the area over terrorist threats, following successive security warnings issued recently in precaution of possible new operations in the kingdom.

Since May 2004, the kingdom has been witnessing a series of acts of violence targeting foreigners and vital establishments that resulted in killing scores of civilians and policemen. Accusations were addressed to al-Qaida organization.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050312/2005031204.html

Petronas

03-14-2005, 11:57 PM

Saudi Arabia (Country threat level - 5): Saudi security forces clashed with suspected militants in Jeddah's al-Rabwah district on 13 March 2005. Security forces surrounded a residential building after receiving information that a wanted militant was hiding there. They closed off nearby streets and schools and called on the suspected militants to surrender. A half-hour battle ensued when the militants ignored the call. In the course of the fighting, one suspect was killed, one was wounded, and police officers captured two others. Seventeen people, including police officers and civilians, were also injured, while one civilian was killed in the cross-fire as she attempted to leave the building.

In a separate incident on 14 March, security forces clashed with gunmen in the Khalidiya district of the city of Buraida, located approximately 210 mi/340 km northwest of Riyadh, the capital. No information is available on whether there were casualties from the clash.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 3/14/2005

Casey

03-15-2005, 05:33 PM

Saudi says Libya assassination plot investigation nears endhttp://www.reuters.co.za/locales/images/clear.gif
Mon March 14, 2005 8:57 AM GMT+02:00

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is close to concluding an investigation into an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, the interior minister said on Sunday.

Last December, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador in Tripoli and expelled the Libyan envoy over what the oil-rich Gulf state called an "atrocious" plot in 2003 to kill Prince Abdullah. Tripoli has denied involvement in any such plot.

"The facts will be known through investigations and will be announced by the interior ministry and it (the investigation) is close to being completed," the state Saudi Press Agency quoted Interior Minister Prince Nayef as saying.

He did not say whether the kingdom planned to try 13 suspects in the alleged plot or provide a date for any trial. Saudi security sources have said for months that the trial could be imminent.

Washington has said that Tripoli has yet to answer U.S. concerns about the alleged plot, which Washington said was an obstacle to dropping the North African state from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and ending related sanctions.

A U.S. court sentenced prominent U.S. Muslim activist Abdurahman al-Amoudi last October to 23 years jail for illegal financial dealings with Libya and for his role in the plot.

Amoudi said in court documents that he had contacted Saudi dissidents in London on behalf of some Libyan officials to kill the crown prince. Washington and Britain froze the assets of one of these dissidents, Saudi Islamist Saad al-Fagih, in December.

Asked if Fagih was suspected of involvement in the plot, Prince Nayef said: "Investigations will reveal everything." A Saudi diplomat said last year that a Libyan intelligence officer, Mohamed Ismael, and a four-man team had organised the plot in the holy city of Mecca in 2003 and that a bank account with $1 million raised suspicion about them. He said the money trail exposed the team, after which Ismael fled to Egypt, which then extradited him to Saudi Arabia.

http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:4235366b:d14227230533dbb?type=t opNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=7888445

Casey

04-02-2005, 08:46 AM

Reformists’ Trial Set to Resume Today
Arab News RIYADH, 2 April 2005 — The trial of three detained Saudi reformists will reconvene today behind closed doors, their attorney said.

Ali Al-Demaini, Abdullah Al-Hamed and Matruk Al-Faleh, who have been held for over a year, “were informed on Tuesday that the hearing will take place on Saturday morning,” said lawyer Khaled Al-Mutairy.

He said the hearing would be held in camera as in earlier hearings.

The judge had adjourned the hearing for three weeks on March 12 following a request by the prosecutor for extra time to gather more evidence against the defendants.

Mutairy said he did not expect a verdict to be reached in today’s session which he thought would focus mostly on examining the prosecutor’s new evidence.

Demaini, Hamed and Faleh were arrested in March last year. They were charged with causing instability, collecting signatures for a petition and exploiting the Kingdom’s battle with Al-Qaeda terrorists for political gain.

The three, whose trial opened last August, are also accused of “using Western terminology” in demanding political reforms.

The defendants were among more than 10 activists arrested at the time. The others were released in the same month after signing undertakings that they would refrain from publicly criticizing the government.

The three reformists have refused to submit a defense to protest their court sessions being held mostly in private.

The three men have repeatedly called for an open trial. Last August during their first hearing, scores of supporters and relatives were allowed into the courtroom. But their trial was postponed after the judges ruled that the small courtroom could not accommodate the large number of onlookers.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=61433&d=2&m=4&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

NYC

04-04-2005, 08:17 AM

Saudi security forces killed eight gunmen in a day-long gun battle northwest of the capital Riyadh, officials said on Monday. The fighting erupted early Sunday after police surrounded a building in the northern town of al-Ras in al-Qassim province. Residents said gunfire could still be heard in the neighborhood on Monday morning.The provincial governor, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz, said that fifteen Saudi officers were injured in the shoot-out. The fighters escaped to a nearby building that was still under construction, Prince Faisal told state television. "They were asked to surrender, but those people are known not to listen," he said. The gunmen also fired grenades against security forces and several security vehicles were destroyed. An interior ministry spokesman said that he wasn’t sure of the casualty figure, but confirmed that the operation was continuing. Late on Sunday, the interior ministry said that the resistance from the fighters was “much weaker than it was earlier”, adding that security forces were hoping to "finish this within hours". Saudi Arabia has witnessed a wave of violence since 2003. Most of the attacks were against foreign workers in the kingdom. Officials say that more than 90 civilians and 39 members of the security forces have been killed in the past two years, and that attacks have caused more than 1 billion riyals ($270 million) of damage. During the same period, Saudi police have killed at least 90 fighters. Saudi authorities released a list of 26 suspects; all but five are now dead or detained.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7601

Petronas

04-04-2005, 11:08 PM

Suspects die in Saudi shoot-out
Monday, 4 April, 2005, 14:35 GMT 15:35 UK

At least seven suspected militants are reported to have died in a two-day gun battle with Saudi security forces north of the capital Riyadh, officials say. The violence erupted after police officers surrounded a house in al-Ras, Qassim province. Dozens of Saudi officers were hurt in the battle, a provincial governor said.

Saudi security forces have been waging a campaign against Islamic militants blamed for a series of attacks on foreign workers and government offices. The province of Qassim is one of the most religiously conservative areas in the kingdom.

The shoot-out began early on Sunday and gunfire and grenade explosions could still be heard on Monday morning, according to witnesses. State-run television interrupted regular programmes on Monday to air a statement by the interior ministry confirming that seven suspected militants had been killed. Other television and newspaper reports quoting security officials said eight gunmen were killed in the battle.

The gunmen fled to a nearby building that was still under construction, provincial governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz was quoted as saying. "They were asked to surrender, but those people are known not to listen," he told state television. The suspected militants also reportedly used grenades against their attackers and several security vehicles had been damaged.

Fifteen officers were reported injured on Sunday, but that total rose to at least 35 by midday on Monday. At least one officer was killed. Late on Sunday, an interior ministry spokesman had said the resistance from the gunmen was "much weaker than it was earlier". The spokesman added that security forces were hoping to "finish this within hours".

Since 2003, Islamic militants have carried out suicide bombings and fought battles with security forces. The attacks have tended to target foreign workers in the kingdom and have been blamed on groups linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation. Saudi authorities published a list of 26 men it blamed for the violence - all but five of whom are now dead or in custody.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4407351.stm

Casey

04-05-2005, 09:16 AM

Saudi clashes rage on after seven Al-Qaeda suspects killed

http://www.newkerala.com/afp/SGE.DXA80.040405201416.photo00.quicklook.default-245x155.jpg
Saudi special forces take part in a drill in Riyadh
© AFP/File Rabih Moghrabi

RIYADH (AFP) - Fighting between Saudi security forces and gunmen holed up in villas raged on into the night, 36 hours after the start of a siege that has left seven suspected Al-Qaeda militants dead, officials said.

One witness in Al-Rass, north of the Saudi capital Riyadh, said: "Shooting and explosions intensified when night fell, underlining the ferocity of the clashes."

He said the trapped men seemed to be "looking for a way to break the siege that the security forces have tightened around them after their refusal to surrender."

Earlier on Monday, the interior ministry said seven members of "the deviant group" -- official terminology for Al-Qaeda suspects -- had died, and an eighth been critically wounded, in the clash in Al-Rass in the Al-Qassim region, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Riyadh.

Several security men were slightly wounded and security forces were continuing to "cleanse" the scene of the clash, the ministry said in a statement on the latest gunbattle in two years of confrontations with Islamist militants.

"Armed men are barricaded in two or three villas in the (Al-Rass) district, besieged by security forces, and exchanging gunfire with them," one nearby resident told AFP.

There was no indication of how many gunmen were involved in the standoff with security forces or what firepower or munitions they had, but gunfire and grenade explosions could be heard as the siege continued.

The gunbattle began when security forces deployed in the area early on Sunday to track down a group of suspects who had taken refuge in a residential building and came under fire from automatic weapons, the ministry said.

The suspects also hurled hand grenades, but security forces "silenced the sources of fire" and evacuated the area, which includes a girls school, of residents, it said.

The ministry did not identify any of the dead or the wounded suspect, who was arrested and taken to hospital, promising more details later.

It was the first official account of the gunbattle, during which residents said security forces laid siege to the militants in the building.

Saudi-owned media and some residents had put the death toll among militants at eight.

Residents said security forces deployed in large numbers at the site as helicopters hovered overhead and gunfire and loud blasts were heard. The clash started at around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) Sunday.

http://www.newkerala.com/afp/SGE.DXA80.040405201416.photo01.quicklook.default-245x181.jpg
Saudi special forces take part in a drill in Riyadh
© AFP/File Rabih Moghrabi"

The operation is continuing. The security forces have surrounded them. There is still gunfire from the besieged building," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Mansur al-Turki said earlier.

Al-Qassim governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz said late Sunday that three militants were killed and 15 security personnel had been wounded, two of them seriously.

A campaign of bombings and shootings blamed on Al-Qaeda has killed 90 civilians in Saudi Arabia since May 2003, according to official figures.

Thirty-nine members of the security forces and 99 militants have also been killed, including the seven in the latest battle.

Many of the attacks have targeted Westerners.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is Saudi-born and 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were Saudis.

The unrest in a country which is the world's top oil exporter has raised fears about the security of the West's supplies but Saudi authorities insist that the oilfields, concentrated in the east of the kingdom, are well protected.

King Fahd on Monday reiterated pledges repeatedly made by Saudi officials to defeat the extremists.

The Saudi government was determined to "eradicate terrorism and fight the deviant group," he told a weekly cabinet session, according to an official statement.

The monarch also hailed the efforts of security forces to fight the extremists while minimizing loss of life. The latest confrontation came less than three weeks after Al-Qaeda's local chief, Saleh al-Oufi, who at one point was reported dead, resurfaced in recordings attributed to him on an Islamist website to voice support for the network's Iraqi branch and call for attacks on "crusader" targets in the region.

http://www.newkerala.com/afp/050404201424.qdttd7oa.php

NYC

04-05-2005, 06:36 PM

Three-Day Gunbattle Ends in Saudi Arabia

Security Forces Seize Compound in Saudi Arabia, Ending 3-Day Shootout With Militants; 14 Killed
By ADNAN MALIK
The Associated Press
Apr. 5, 2005 - Security forces seized a walled compound Tuesday where Islamic militants had been barricaded for days, ending the kingdom's largest gunbattle with armed extremists. At least 14 of the militants were killed, including top leaders of the Saudi branch of al-Qaida, state television said.

Six others were captured in the three days of fierce firefights in the desert town of Rass, state TV said, citing security officials after the battle was over.

For nearly 48 hours, the gunmen had been holed up in the villa compound about 220 miles northwest of the capital Riyadh and near Buraydah, a known stronghold of Islamic fundamentalists. Surrounded by hundreds of Saudi special forces, they had a large arsenal of weapons and fired heavy volleys of automatic weapons fire and grenades.

In a statement read on Saudi television, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah congratulated the security forces, who had "demonstrated their courage in facing up to terror acts. We thank each one of them for their heroic deeds."

The death toll is the highest in a single fight since the kingdom's "war on terror" began in May 2003 when suicide bombers attacked three compounds for foreign residents in the Riyadh.

Among the dead were two militants on Saudi Arabia's list of most-wanted terrorists, said a senior military official in Rass, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Once the standoff was over, some forces withdrew, while others combed the area, collecting documents and searching for weapons and evidence, the official said.

The battle began Sunday morning when security forces, acting on a tip, arrived at another building in Rass. Militants opened fire with automatic rifles and grenades, sparking a clash with police that killed three suspected terrorists. The rest fled to the villa.

During the shootout, one militant surrendered and two others were wounded and captured.

Officials say 35 police were wounded during the fighting in Rass.

The senior military official in Rass said among those killed were Moroccan Kareem Altohami al-Mojati and Saudi Saud Homood Obaid al-Otaibi, who were ranked as No. 4 and No. 7 respectively on Saudi Arabia's list of 26 most-wanted al-Qaida-linked terror suspects, issued in December 2003.

Al-Turki, the Interior Ministry spokesman, could not confirm that the two wanted militants were among those killed.

Arab TV stations, including Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, cited security sources as saying al-Mojati and al-Otaibi had been killed.

Previously, the highest number of militants killed in a single battle with Saudi forces was six in July 2003, when police raided a farm in al-Qassim. Al-Qaida-allied terrorists have claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings, gunbattles and bomb attacks targeting Saudi security forces and Western interests in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

Saudi newspapers have carried profiles of the two wanted militants. Al-Mojati, the Moroccan, is a battle-hardened fighter who had fought in Afghanistan and is described as a supporter of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The papers claimed al-Mojati had helped plan the May 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers.

Al-Otaibi is said to be one of two Saudi militants running al-Qaida's branch in Saudi Arabia. Last year, he purportedly posted an Internet statement rejecting an amnesty offered by Saudi ruler King Fahd, who promised militants their lives would be spared if they surrendered.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=643412

Petronas

04-05-2005, 07:03 PM

DEBKAfile
Last Updated on April 5, 2005, 10:07 PM (GMT+02:00)

... Seven Saudi security officers also killed in firefight with group holed up in house. Cell leader Saleh al-Oufi, formerly believed dead, appears to have resurfaced in recording on Islamic website. ...

http://www.debka.com/

Casey

04-06-2005, 11:46 PM

Al-Qaeda suffers heavy blow in Saudi Arabia

Analysts say blow suffered by Al-Qaeda’s local branch does not spell end of terrorism in kingdom.
By Habib Trabelsi - DUBAI

The killing of at least 15 Islamist militants in Saudi Arabia marks the heaviest blow dealt by authorities to Al-Qaeda's local branch but probably does not spell the end of terrorism in the kingdom, pundits said Wednesday.

Al-Qaeda's local chief Saleh al-Oufi was reported to be among at least 14 militants killed in a three-day gunbattle with security forces in the north of the country that ended Tuesday.

Two other top Al-Qaeda suspects were also said to be among the dead, while authorities said security forces killed yet another militant on a most-wanted list in the capital Riyadh Wednesday.

But this "does not mean that the jihadi (Islamist militant) movement has been eradicated," said London-based Saudi academic Madhawi al-Rashid.

"Each time authorities announce they have eliminated one of the movement's brains, another appears," she said.

"I think Al-Qaeda cells in Saudi Arabia are not structurally linked, but operate freely and in an autonomous way," added the professor of social anthropology.

But Abdul Aziz Khamis, who heads a Saudi human rights centre also based in the British capital, argued that Al-Qaeda's Saudi branch had been dealt "a body blow" and that authorities had finished off those behind the wave of violence which began in May 2003.

"The movement has also lost the support of Saudi society, which rejects violence and aspires to stability," Khamis said.

All this has led to the "marginalization" of Al-Qaeda, at least for the time being, said Khamis, who did not rule out the possibility that it will bounce back "once stability is restored in Iraq and Saudi fighters return from that country."

London-based Saudi dissident Saad al-Faqih, who heads the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), also predicted that the return of anti-US Saudi fighters from Iraq would boost the militants back home.

"Saudi authorities will try to portray the operation (which ended Tuesday in Al-Qassim region, known as a haven for Islamist militants) as a major achievement, especially if Saleh al-Oufi's death is confirmed," he said.

"But while the generation of jihad veterans in Saudi Arabia may have suffered a mighty blow, it does not spell the end of the jihadi current in the kingdom, especially when taking into account the return of a large number of young battle-hardened fighters from Iraq," Faqih said.

Faqih said he had information from sources close to Saudi security services to the effect that "a large number of fighters have returned to Saudi Arabia to carry out operations, especially against the ruling family and oil facilities, in keeping with a call by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden."

He noted that Abdullah al-Rushud - who would be one of just two most-wanted Al-Qaeda suspects on the 26-strong list still on the run, if the reports of the killing of Oufi and his two top comrades are confirmed - had called for "directly targeting the ruling family, particularly the interior minister."

Rushud, 37, is considered the chief of young jihadi scholars and has issued several religious edicts, or fatwa, declaring the Al-Saud family "apostate."

Saudi rulers were also branded "apostates" who should be fought in a December 16 audiotape attributed to bin Laden and posted on the Internet. In the recording, the Al-Qaeda chief also called on his followers to target oil facilities in Iraq and the Gulf.

"The situation in Iraq, which has become a fertile ground for militants, will help perpetuate the jihadi movement in Saudi Arabia," Faqih concluded.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=13157

Petronas

04-08-2005, 12:37 AM

Al Qaeda attacks still possible: Saudi Arabia
Friday, April 08, 2005

RIYADH: Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in remarks published on Thursday that the Gulf state had dealt a blow to Al Qaeda but did not rule out more attacks in the world’s top oil exporter. Saudi security forces have killed 16 militants in the past week, including three on a list of top wanted Al Qaeda members. One of those killed was a Moroccan suspected of masterminding Al Qaeda bombings in Casablanca two years ago.

The kingdom has been battling a two-year wave of violence by supporters of Al Qaeda, the network set up by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Only three militants on the list of 26 remain at large. “I cannot say operations have ended, although they (militants) have been weakened. We will continue to fight them,” the state media quoted Prince Nayef as saying. “They may still surprise us (with attacks) anywhere in the kingdom.”

The minister said security forces had killed 15 militants in a three-day battle in Al-Ras, northwest of the capital Riyadh, which ended on Tuesday. It was one of the longest and bloodiest confrontations in the crackdown on Al Qaeda. Security sources said those killed included Moroccan Abdulkarim al-Mejjati and Saudi militant Saud Homoud al-Oteibi. On Wednesday, troops killed a third wanted militant, Abdulrahman al-Yazji, in a raid in southern Riyadh.

Saudi officials say Al Qaeda’s network has been eroded over the past year. But Western embassies continue to say they believe militants are planning further attacks. At least 90 civilians have been killed in the last two years in attacks on Westerners and Saudi government sites in an effort to destabilise the country, a leading US ally in the region.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-4-2005_pg4_6

Casey

04-09-2005, 07:34 AM

Terrorist Armaments Destroyed in Al-Rass (http://www.arabnews.com/?artid=61822)
Khaled Al-Awadh & P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News —

Al-RASS/JEDDAH, 9 April 2005 — After a thorough sweep for booby traps and the thunderous reports of detonations from large Al-Qaeda arms caches, residents are beginning to return to the site of what is considered the longest, toughest and bloodiest battle of the war against terrorism in Saudi Arabia.

Calm prevailed in the northwestern town of Al-Rass yesterday in the aftermath of Saudi security forces’ rout of Al-Qaeda militants last week. Residents of Al-Jawazat District, where the militants holed up for three days, were allowed to return after security forces cleansed the area of explosives. Many families have already returned.

Special forces stationed in Al-Rass were scheduled to withdraw yesterday.

“I feel things are back to normal,” said Suliman Al-Ayed, a resident of Al-Rass.

Security forces detonated hand grenades and other explosives left behind by the terrorists in the district.

“Three big explosions were heard on Thursday. These were the sound of detonations carried out by the security forces to destroy a large cache of weapons and explosives left behind by the terrorists,” Al-Ayed said.

The detonations delayed the return of some 1,000 Saudis and expatriates who were evacuated from the area during the siege, security sources said.

Col. Muhammad Al-Shahrani, commander of special forces in the Qasim region, said residents were prevented from returning to the area soon after the operation for their own safety as terrorists had booby-trapped houses in the area.

Khaled Al-Johani, a resident, said he heard about the operation on Sunday while he was at work, adding that he was concerned about his wife and four small children who were at home at the time of the gun battle.

“By the grace of God, I was able to bring them out with the help of security officers. Over the past five days we have been staying with a relative,” he said.

The signs of fierce combat are evident on a number of pockmarked buildings in the area.

Police found a check for SR20 million in a briefcase, SR200,000 in cash, forged number plates and a computer system used for forgery from houses in the area, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, a military transport plane removed the bodies of terrorists killed in the fighting to Riyadh for forensic examination. These included the bodies of Saud Al-Otaibi and Abdul Kareem Al-Majati, both of whom were on the list of the Kingdom’s most wanted terrorists.

It was unconfirmed whether Saleh Al-Oufi, the top leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, was among those killed in the Al-Rass battle. “Only after DNA analysis can we identify the bodies,” said a security source. Three of the bodies were disfigured beyond recognition.

Maj. Gen. Marwan Al-Subhi, commander of the special forces, attributed the success of Al-Rass operation to good planning. “Three days was not a long time when we consider factors such as the presence of housing units and schools in the area,” he said.

Interior Minister Prince Naif, who visited Al-Rass on Wednesday, warned the public against sympathizing with terrorists and said such acts will never be tolerated.

http://www.arabnews.com/services/print/print.asp?artid=61822&d=9&m=4&y=2005&hl=Terrorist%20Armaments%20Destroyed%20in%20Al-Rass

Casey

04-10-2005, 09:28 AM

Al-Rass Children Coping After Combat
Khaled Al-Awadh, Arab News AL-RASS, 10 April 2005 — “Good morning!” was the greeting Arab News gave to a seven-year-old boy carrying his bag of books trying to catch up with his late class at Al-Shafei Primary School in Al-Rass Wednesday morning, just after the collapse of the most wanted terrorists late at night in the same area where this child is studying. He is just 13 minutes behind, and the morning ceremony is almost over. It was 7:13 a.m.

“Good morning!” The young boy replied. “Is there school today?”

“Yes, they say there is!”

The conversation was interrupted by the roar of a helicopter gunship circling around the sealed area where security forces fought a bloody battle against Al-Qaeda militants. The copter endlessly circled the area above the Al-Shafei Primary, which is situated very close to the battleground; its playground overlooks a vast area where police and vehicles stood guard. The child sneaked into the school running with his overloaded book bag on his young back, but there was no one to receive him at the school’s entrance.

“There is no doubt that children are the most affected by such events,” Mohammad Rashed Al-Gufaily, principal of Al-Shafei Primary School, told Arab News. “I asked my staff to give students the exact picture of these terrorists and the damage they caused us all.”

Sulaiman Al-Ayed, vice principal, said that half the student body was absent.

“We haven’t received any orders from the General Directorate of Education to close the school on Wednesday. We were closed only Monday and Tuesday,” Al-Ayed said.

As for the 25th Primary Girls School, which was very close to the terrorists’ hideout, it was a terrifying situation. The young girls, along with their women teachers, were evacuated Sunday night as the battle raged between special forces and terrorists. They had been at school since morning.

“The small girls thought of the operation as some persons hunting pigeons,” said Hanan Al-Sharikh, a woman teacher of the school. “It was too hard for both children and adults,” she said.

Minister of Education Dr. Abdullah Al-Obaid sent a letter of thanks to Norah Al-Gufaily, vice headmistress of the school, for her courageous acts to transfer all the school girls to the first floor away from the staccato report of machine guns and rumble of explosions, which commenced during the first class.

“We were called by police, who told us to calm down and not panic,” said Maryam Al-Nugair. “We told our girls it was only military training, and it would end shortly, but after hearing loud noises and gunfire, we asked the girls to read the Holy Qur’an and just wait.”

At 7 p.m., first the students and then faculty were evacuated. “It was a nightmare,” she said. All are thankful that the shrewd tactics of the special forces kept the innocents safe. “It could have been the same as the tragedy which took place at a Russian school,” said Mohammad Al-Gufaily, “but God saved us from that fate.”

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=61872&d=10&m=4&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

NYC

04-21-2005, 04:51 PM

Four killed in Mecca gun battle
A gunfight on the edge of the Saudi city of Mecca has left two militants and two members of the security forces dead, Saudi officials say.
The group of four militants, some disguised as women, are said to failed to stop at a checkpoint.

They were pursued by the security forces, and the gun battle ensued. One militant was shot and arrested.

The clashes took place hours after voting ended in the country's first nationwide elections.

These included polls in Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam.

It is unclear if the fighting was connected with the voting.

Male voters were electing half the members of municipal councils in a third round of voting.

Many Saudis hope the vote marks a step towards wider political reform.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4471083.stm

Casey

04-24-2005, 10:24 PM

23/04/2005 Condolences for relatives of martyred security men

Makkah, 23 Apr 2005

Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Assistant Minister of Interior for Security Affairs, received at Aldiyafa (hospitality) palace in Makkah today families and close relatives of the two security men who were martyred during the chase of a number of members of the deviant group in Makkah yesterday. During the meeting, Prince Mohammed conveyed to them the condolences of Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior, appealing to Almighty God to bestow his mercy upon them and generously compensate them for losing their souls in defense of their nation. Earlier, Prince Mohammed bin Naif led worshippers at the funeral prayer of the martyrs following the Jummaa (Friday) prayer at the Makkah-based grand mosque.

http://www.saudinf.com/main/y8100.htm

Petronas

04-26-2005, 12:58 AM

Islamists Dominate Saudi Arabia Elections
Sat Apr 23,11:21 AM ET

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Candidates backed by conservative clerics dominated the final stage of Saudi Arabia's landmark municipal elections, according to results announced Saturday. In the kingdom's commercial capital of Jiddah, the seven winning candidates were those whose names appeared on what was dubbed the "golden list" — the picks of fundamentalist clerics. Five of the six winners in Buraydah, capital of ultraconservative Qassem province, also received a clerical nod, and the holy city of Medina also saw Islamist candidates finishing well. Many Islamists also won seats in municipal council polling elsewhere in February and March.

The three stages of voting were the first nationwide elections in this monarchy. The municipal council posts have little power except for at the local level, but many Saudis jumped at the chance to have even a small voice in politics. The Saudi monarchy, a longtime ally of Washington, has been under U.S. pressure to make some democratic reforms. But the limited experiment in democracy — only men could vote and run for seats on the half-appointed councils — also appeared to be an attempt to deflate the militant Islamic movement by bringing some Islamists into the system. The government can balance the makeup of the councils by naming liberals to the portion of seats reserved for government appointees.

Osama Aba al-Khel, head of the electoral committee, announced the results Saturday in Jiddah, one of the most liberal parts of the kingdom. He did not provide winners' political or religious backgrounds. But the candidates, like the clerics, have made their views known.

"We are an Islamic country and we are Islamists. We will stick to our Islamic values in fulfilling our duties according to the book and al-Sunnah," said winning Jiddah candidate Bassam Jamil al-Khadher, referring to the Quran and sayings of Islam's founding Prophet Muhammad. Al-Khadher denied there was any coordination or formal list, which would have been illegal under Saudi election rules. However, the list of names was widely circulated on the Internet and through mobile phone text messages. "Of course, our respected scholars support us. We are people known for our public service. It is only natural that we will get such support," al-Khadher said.

Nabil Qamlu, a liberal lawyer who lost to one of Jiddah's "golden" candidates, accused the powerful clergy of interfering in the elections. Some losing candidates were expected to lodge complaints with the election commission, which largely ignored such complaints made before the vote. "This is neither democracy nor equal opportunity," Qamlu said. "Who has given them such power to determine whom should the electorate choose. For the next election, I must grow a beard in order to get elected."

Abdel-Rahman al-Yamani, who secured the most votes in Jiddah — nearly 12,000 of the 55,000 cast in the municipality — attributed the Islamists' success to popular support rather than a well-organized clerical campaign. "We are religious people by nature and secular people are not accepted by the society," he said. In Buraydah, a city known as a hotbed for Islamic militancy, only one of the six winning council members was not among the clerics' recommendations — that was a businessman with strong tribal backing.

Thursday's voting was the last of three rounds and included the holy city of Mecca as well as the northern areas of Hail, Tabuk and Jouf on the northern frontier with Iraq and Jordan. A total of 244 seats were contested.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=4&u=/ap/20050423/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_elections

Petronas

05-09-2005, 07:17 PM

Saudi police clash with militants
Monday, 9 May, 2005, 21:06 GMT 22:06 UK

Police in Saudi Arabia have clashed with gunmen in the capital, Riyadh.
Two militants were wounded in the exchange of fire at a checkpoint in the eastern part of the city, unconfirmed reports say. Saudi Arabia has been fighting militants linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. The unrest began two years ago with a series of attacks on government offices, compounds housing foreign workers and other targets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4531405.stm

Petronas

05-11-2005, 01:43 PM

Saudi Arabia (Country threat level - 5): Saudi police officers exchanged gunfire with a suspected militant at a checkpoint in eastern Riyadh on 10 May 2005. The officers arrested the suspect and seized explosives and weapons in his vehicle. The suspect and a bystander sustained injuries during the gunfire exchange. No further details are available regarding this incident.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 5/10/2005

Petronas

05-14-2005, 01:20 AM

SAUDI OIL FACILITIES ARE VULNERABLE
Last Updated: 05/11/2005 09:59:14

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Saudi Arabia must build additional capacity in an effort to reduce the vulnerability of its oil facilities from Iranian attack. A study conducted by energy researchers at Rice University, warned that oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia could be destroyed by Iranian medium- and intermediate-range missiles. The most vulnerable facility was said to be the Saudi oil processing facility at Abqaiq.

The Rice University study, conducted for the Washington-based Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, also warned that Iran could block Saudi oil exports through the Persian Gulf. The study urged the kingdom to upgrade the trans-Saudi Petroline, which would allow 11 million barrels of oil a day to be sent to ports on the Red Sea. The project was estimated at $600 million.

"Assuming the worse -- a complete closure of the Straits of Hormuz -- this bypass system is estimated to be capable of reducing the economic impact to the U.S. to a loss of only one percent of gross domestic product," the report said. "This figure could be reduced even further if additional pipelines were built from Abu Dhabi to ports in Oman."

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2005/may/05_12_1.html

Petronas

05-14-2005, 01:23 AM

Saudi Hardliners Say Star Academy is 'Crime against Islam'
Beirut, Updated 12 May 05, 15:08

More than 60 Saudi hardline religious scholars lashed out Wednesday at the Arab version of LBCI's reality TV show Star Academy, branding it a "crime against Islam." In a statement posted on the Saudi independent website Al-Wifaq, the 63 scholars rounded on the Saudi winner of the latest edition of the show and on the Saudi prince who partly owns the LBCI. Broadcasting the show, writing about it or publicizing it is "a crime against Islam and a major offense against the (Islamic) nation," the statement said.

The clerics blasted Saudi winner Hisham Abdurrahman for "indecent behavior" and LBCI, which is partly owned by billionaire Saudi Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, calling it a "channel of debauchery." They also sharply criticized the leading Saudi daily Al-Riyadh for "publicizing this vice ... while projecting it as a respectable activity." The clerics called on Abdurrahman, Prince Al-Walid, Al-Riyadh editor Turki al-Sedairi, and all those who took part in the show in any way, to "repent to God." Prince Al-Walid, who controls 49 percent of LBCI, had received Abdurrahman some three weeks ago after he returned to a hero's welcome from Beirut.

Although young Arab men and women live for months in the same house during the reality TV show, they sleep in separate quarters. The Saudi tycoon sent a plane to Beirut to pick up the winner, who got into trouble with members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice -- or religious police -- when young Saudi fans gathered around him at a shopping center in Riyadh owned by Prince Al-Walid. Abdurrahman was "deported" to his hometown of Jeddah after the incident.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&40F5FC9F7D741371C2256FFF004245E7

Petronas

06-14-2005, 08:46 PM

Saudis Import Slaves to America
June 14, 2005

Homaidan Ali Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, appear to be a model immigrant couple. Having arrived in the United States in 2000, they live with their four children in an upscale Denver suburb. Al-Turki is a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Colorado, specializing in Arabic intonation and focus prosody. He donates money to the Linguistic Society of America and is CEO of Al-Basheer Publications and Translations, a bookstore specializing in titles about Islam. Last week, however, the FBI accused the couple of enslaving an Indonesian woman in her early 20s. For four years, reads the indictment, they created “a climate of fear and intimidation through rape and other means.” The slave woman cooked, cleaned, took care of children, and more for little or no pay, fearing that if she did not obey, “she would suffer serious harm.” The two Saudis face charges of forced labor, aggravated sexual abuse, document servitude, and harboring an alien. If found guilty, they could spend their remaining lives in prison. The government also wants to seize the couple’s Al-Basheer bank account to pay their former slave $92,700 in back wages.

It’s a shocking instance, especially for a graduate student and religious bookstore owner – but not a particularly rare one. Here are other examples of enslavement, all involving Saudi royals or diplomats living in the United States.

In 1982, a Miami judge issued a warrant to search Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz’s 24th-floor penthouse to determine if he was holding Nadia Lutefi Mustafa, an Egyptian woman, against her will. Turki and his French bodyguards prevented a search from taking place, then won retroactive diplomatic immunity to forestall any legal unpleasantness.

In 1988, the Saudi defense attaché in Washington, Col. Abdulrahman S. Al-Banyan, employed a Thai domestic, Mariam Roungprach, until she escaped his house by crawling out a window. She later told how she had been imprisoned there, did not get enough food, and was not paid. Interestingly, her work contract specified that she could not leave the house or make telephone calls without her employer’s permission.

In 1991, Prince Saad Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his wife, Princess Noora, lived on two floors of the Ritz-Carlton Houston. Two of their servants, Josephine Alicog of the Philippines and Sriyani Marian Fernando of Sri Lanka, filed a suit against the prince, alleging they were for five months held against their will, “by means of unlawful threats, intimidation and physical force,” they were only partially paid, denied medical treatment, and suffered mental and physical abuse.

In March 2005, a wife of Saudi Prince Mohamed Bin Turki Alsaud, Hana Al Jader, 39, was arrested at her home outside of Boston on charges of forced labor, domestic servitude, falsifying records, visa fraud, and harboring aliens. Al Jader stands accused of compelling two Indonesian women to work for her by making them believe “that if they did not perform such labor, they would suffer serious harm.” If convicted, Al Jader faces up to 140 years in jail and $2.5 million in fines.

There are many other similar instances, for example, the Orlando escapades of Saudi princesses Maha al-Sudairi and Buniah al-Saud. Joel Mowbray tells of twelve female domestics “trapped and abused” in the households of Saudi dignitaries or diplomats.

Why is this problem so acute when it comes to affluent Saudis? Four reasons come to mind. Although slavery was abolished in the kingdom in 1962, the practice still flourishes there. Ranking Saudi religious authorities endorse slavery; for example, Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan insisted recently that “Slavery is a part of Islam” and whoever wants it abolished he called “an infidel.”

The U.S. State Department knows about the forced servitude in Saudi households and laws exist to combat this scourge but, as Mowbray argues, it “refuses to take measures to combat it.” Finally, Saudis know they can get away with nearly any misbehavior. Their embassy provides funds, letters of support, lawyers, retroactive diplomatic immunity, former U.S. ambassadors as troubleshooters, and even aircraft out of the country; it also keeps pesky witnesses away. Given the U.S. government’s louche attitude toward the Saudis, slavery in Denver, Miami, Washington, Houston, Boston, and Orlando hardly comes as a surprise. Only when Washington more robustly represents American interests will Saudi behavior improve.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18413

Petronas

06-23-2005, 11:54 AM

Saudi police kill two suspected terrorists accused of killing security officer
Tuesday June 21, 2005

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) Saudi security forces on Tuesday killed two suspected terrorists accused of fatally shooting a senior security official outside his home, the government said. The suspects were killed in a shootout in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted the Interior Ministry as saying. Three policemen were wounded in the exchange.

On Saturday, gunmen killed Lt. Col. Mubarak al-Sawwat as he was leaving his home in the holy city of Mecca. The Interior Ministry blamed the killing on the ``deviant bunch'' a Saudi euphemism for the al-Qaida terror group. Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has witnessed a spate of terror attacks over the past two years that the authorities have blamed on Muslim militants.

http://cbsnewyork.com/international/Saudi-Terrorists-ai/resources_news_html

Petronas

06-23-2005, 12:35 PM

I just came across this. I thought it was worth posting, even though it is three weeks old, as it highlights the stunning hypocrisy of those Muslims who complain about lack of deference to the faith of Muslim prisoners in the US, but do not condemn how the home of Islam treats visitors of other faiths inside its own borders.

Saudi religious police arrest 8 Christians
Posted: June 2, 2005

Saudi Arabia's religious police arrested eight Christians, including one who was beaten in front of his 5-year-old son, according to a Washington, D.C.-based human rights group. International Christian Concern says Chittirical John Thomas, an Indian national, was pulled from work in Riyadh by Saudi Muttawa authorities, dragged to his home and beaten. In addition, seven other Indian nationals were arrested in similar fashion while they slept Saturday night. ICC identified them as Valiakalail Samuel Daniel, Koil Pillai Vijaykumar, Mutham Plackal Mathai Thomas, Pathivadathil James George, George Matthew, Biju Thomas and Saji Varghese.

The Muttawa confiscated Thomas' Bible and other religious items and took him to the Shemaissy Detention Center in the capital. His wife has not heard from him since. The Muslim kingdom bars all public expression of religion, except for its strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. No church buildings are allowed, and religious police crack down at times on worship in private homes. At least one of the prisoners arrested Saturday has been abused -- forced to continuously stand -- and was beaten with his hands bound behind his back. ...

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44545

Casey

06-25-2005, 09:40 AM

New Information on Al-Qaeda "Cop Killers"

24/06/2005

By Sultan Al-Ubaythi

Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- An official in the Saudi Interior Ministry revealed new details, on Tuesday, about the militants, kamal Foudah, and Monsur Al-Tibeythi, suspected of killing a police chief, in the city of Mecca , last Saturday. The latest information confirms Asharq Al Awsat’s own investigation into the murder of Major Mubarak al Sawat.

The source indicated that Foudah, a Saudi citizen, aged 45, had visited Afghanistan on four occasions, since 1987. He was arrested, in 1991, in the Eastern region for heading a five member gang that stole considerable sums of money, video equipment, and personal belongings from five houses in the area. Foudah justified his crime by blaming his infidel victims. He was sentenced to five years in jail.

For his part, Monsur Al-Tibeythi, aged 23 and also a Saudi national, is a university drop out who was arrested for car theft last year, the source added.

In a statement released to the media, the Ministry of Interior said police had also confiscated weapons and ammunition, including those used to murder al Sawat, in addition to a computer, a camera, a phone, money and documents proving the suspects ascribe to militant ideologies.

Retired General Major Yayha al Zaidi, a specialist in security matters, applauded the police force’s swift response, adding that they are in control of the Kingdom’s security. He said, “The public needs to know that the authorities are able to respond quickly. Security missions vary between investigation, intelligence gathering, and technological duties. It is difficult for a criminal to escape justice, especially if he is already known to the authorities”, as was the case with Foudah.

He confirmed Foudah was a militant “immersed in extremist ideology” whose criminal record and repeated visits to Afghanistan are “evidence of deviant beliefs”. Al Zaidi added that it was “unconceivable for [anyone] arrested for robbery to claim to defend religion”. Rather, the former general believed, Foudah’s behavior should be attributed to “attempts to fund his fundamentalist beliefs”.

Al Tibeythi had quit university after swapping his English language classes for Islamic studies. His tale should “serve as a warning for all parents. It is important children are provided with care and attention when growing up” al Zaidi said.

Al Zaydi’s belief that “confused people such as Monsur can be easily misled” was confirmed by the suspect’s neighbors in the al Hawiya district, with one claiming al Tibeythi suffered from his parents separating.

When asked about the militant tactic of targeting security officers in the Kingdom, al Zaidi said “terrorists are convinced everyone is an infidel. They can only understand reality through their own narrow perspective. Whoever targets police forces, whose only aim is peace and security has no principles or morals.”

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=555

Hound

07-20-2005, 10:05 AM

U.S. says militants planning attacks in Saudi--

RIYADH, July 20 (Reuters) - The United States embassy in Saudi Arabia warned U.S. citizens on Wednesday that militants were planning fresh attacks in the world's biggest oil exporter.

"The American embassy in Riyadh advises all American citizens living in Saudi Arabia that it has received indications of operational planning for a terrorist attack or attacks in the kingdom," an embassy statement read out by an official said.

"The embassy has no specific information concerning timing, target or method of any possible attack(s)," the statement said.

The embassy advised U.S. citizens to maintain a high level of vigilance and keep a low profile.

Saudi Arabia has been battling a two-year wave of violence by militants loyal to Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who have tried to destabilise the pro-Western royal family.

Militants have killed 91 foreign nationals and Saudi civilians in the last two years and caused more than 1 billion riyals ($270 million) worth of damage, Saudi officials say.

More than 40 members of the security forces and 112 militants have also been killed in clashes.

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L20662428

NYer

07-20-2005, 11:31 AM

Veteran Saudi ambassador in U.S. resigns

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 20 (UPI) -- Saudi King Fahd accepted the resignation of Saudi ambassador in Washington Prince Bandar bin Abdul Aziz who served in the post for more than 20 years.

An official source at the foreign ministry said Wednesday Bandar expressed his wish to be relieved from his responsibilities earlier this month.

"After all these long years of devoted service as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, which exceeded 20 years, Prince Bandar solicited King Fahd to be released from his post for personal reasons," the source said.

He said the king appointed Prince Turki al-Faisal, the current ambassador to Britain, to replace Bandar.

The source did not say what prompted Bandar to resign
http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/07200002aaa040cb.upi&Sys=rmmiller&Fid=WORLDNEW&Type=News&Filter=World%20News

Hound

07-25-2005, 06:08 PM

and another one gone....

TERRORISM, SAUDI ARABIA: WANTED MAN CAUGHT IN MEDINA
(AGI) - Riyadh, July 25 - The Saudi Arabian security forces have caught today, in the holy city of Medina, an alleged terrorist, included in the list of wanted people. The Interior Ministry reported that police officers arrested him thanks to the citizens' cooperation. Mohammad bin Said al-Amri, a Saudi, was arrested "thanks to a group of people who followed him and then informed the police", reports an SPA statement. The man "was carrying a home-made bomb, and another two people who were with him were arrested too". Amri is one of the 36 most wanted Al Qaeda militants, reckoned to be involved in the recent terror wave in the country. The list is updated regularly, the last time on the 28th June: five days later, most wanted n.1 was killed in Riyadh"

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200507251817-1214-RT1-CRO-0-NF51&page=0&id=agionline-eng.arab

NYer

08-03-2005, 11:17 AM

AFTER FAHD

By AMIR TAHERI

August 3, 2005 -- KING Fahd's death on Monday leaves a gap at the center of Saudi power.

Although expected since 1995, his passing came as a shock to most Saudis: The 84-year-old ruler had been part of the kingdom's political landscape for six decades.

He entered the Cabinet at the tender age of 19 and rose to such key posts as education and interior minister. In the latter capacity, he created the kingdom's police and security services almost from the scratch. From the mid-1960s, Fahd emerged as the regime's No. 2, acting as King Faisal's closest adviser before being named crown prince by King Khalid. Assuming the kingship on Khalid's death in 1982, Fahd presided over a decade of rapid transformation fueled by skyrocketing oil revenues.

The toughest test of his leadership came in 1990, when he had to decide whether or not to let Saddam Hussein swallow Kuwait. Against the advice of some of his brothers who feared a major war, Fahd decided that Saddam should be driven out, and played a key role in the U.S.-led coalition that liberated Kuwait in the spring of 1991.

He had not been more than a figurehead since he fell seriously ill in 1995, yet Fahd nevertheless retained the last word on major issues. Respected by all his brothers and half-brothers, who together constitute the top echelon of Saudi rule, Fahd was able to keep factional rivalries within manageable limits. And his vast network of contacts with merchant elites, academics, the military, tribal chiefs and other powerful social strata gave him a base that few Saudi kings had previously enjoyed.

The Fahd system was based on four pillars:

* Maintaining the ruling family's unity around a hard core of his full brothers — plus one half-brother, Abdullah, acting as the crown prince and, since 1995, in charge of day-to-day affairs.

* Lavish subsidies designed to distribute the oil bonanza as widely as possible. Fahd ruled out imposing income tax and committed the government to providing free health, education, housing, water and electricity. Hundreds of thousands of Saudis received scholarships to study abroad, especially in the United States. The policy secured a support base for the regime, especially among the emerging urban middle classes.

* Close alliance with the religious establishment. While Fahd reduced the power of the clerics in favor of the state, he nevertheless provided the religious establishment with unprecedented financial means and political support, especially in spreading the Wahhabi version of Hanbali Islam across the globe.

* A strategic partnership with the United States. In that framework Washington and Riyadh sponsored the Afghan mujahedeen, who helped drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan in 1989. Saudi-U.S. cooperation also included propping up the military regime of the Islamist Gen. Muhammad Ziaul Haque in Pakistan, and countering Khomeinist Iran's influence in Central Asia.

Yet the four pillars of Fahd's system had began to crumble even before death. Some of the king's half-brothers had started to publicly demand a greater say in shaping and implementing policy. With Fahd gone, some half-brothers will surely try to exact a higher price in exchange for their allegiance to King Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz. And it is not at all certain that the new king, aged 81, will have the time and the energy to fashion a coalition in support of long-term policy adjustments.

The second pillar of Fahd's policy, that of distributing the oil revenue, has been under strain for years. The Saudi population has doubled since 1980, leaving the kingdom poorer now, in terms of yearly income per head, than it was a quarter of a century ago. The latest rise in oil prices has enabled the kingdom to pay some of its unpaid bills, but the fact remains that Saudi Arabia has carried a budget deficit between 1996 and 2005. Many subsidies have been removed, indirect taxes have been introduced and plans have been drawn for an income tax.

The failure of the third pillar, that of alliance with the religious establishment, is even more dramatic. The kingdom is now fighting a major anti-terrorist war against the very elements that it helped indoctrinate, train and organize in the 1980s and '90s.

The final pillar, the U.S. strategic partnership, is also crumbling. One sign of this came last month when Prince Bandar, a nephew of Fahd, quit his job as ambassador to Washington after a quarter of a century. The days when Bandar could buy influence in the U.S. establishment seem to be over, while American public opinion — focused on the kingdom since the 9/11 attacks — would be wary of "special relations" with a country where 15 of the 19 suicide-killers were born.

"The king is dead, long live the king," a senior Saudi prince told me moments after Fahd's death was announced. But things won't be that easy. Fahd was no ordinary king, Saudi Arabia is no ordinary kingdom, and these are extraordinary times in the Middle East.

Iranian author Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/51319.htm

al-Canine

08-07-2005, 05:42 PM

U.S. Embassy to close Saudi offices

Americans advised to ‘exercise caution’ in second warning in two weeks

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The U.S. Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia will be closed Monday and Tuesday because of a threat against U.S. government buildings, the embassy said Sunday.

In a statement, the embassy said mission personnel will limit their nonofficial travel during the next two days and urged Americans to keep “a high level of vigilance.” The statement did not elaborate on the nature of the threat.

“The American Embassy in Riyadh advises all American citizens living in Saudi Arabia that, in response to a threat against U.S. government buildings in the kingdom, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and the U.S. consulate generals in Jiddah and Dhahran will be closed on Aug. 8 and 9,” the statement said.

It reminded Americans that, in the past, terrorist groups have targeted housing compounds and other establishments where Westerners may be located.

“American citizens are ... advised to exercise caution and maintain good situational awareness when visiting commercial establishments frequented by Westerners or in primarily Western environments,” the statement added.

It was the second warning in two weeks.

New warning follows July advisory
On July 25, the embassy warned Americans that militants likely were plotting new terrorist *attacks in the kingdom. It said U.S. military personnel stationed in Saudi Arabia had been instructed to suspend all off-duty leisure travel outside of their work or housing stations.

Since May 2003, Islamic militants have carried out numerous suicide bombings, including on Western housing compounds, and kidnappings and have regularly battled security forces. The attacks have been blamed on al-Qaida and its allies.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Prince Saud said Sunday that relations between the Saudi and U.S. governments had improved tremendously since the Sept. 11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

But, on the unofficial level, ties had not returned to the degree of trust that existed before the attacks, he said.

“The relationship has tremendously improved,” Saud said at a news conference. “Whether it has returned to the same level as it was before in public opinion in the United States is debatable.

Saud praises Cheney for condolence trip
“We are doing everything that we can to help and encourage the trust that existed before between the two countries in public opinion.”

Saud said Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent trip to the kingdom to offer his condolences on the death of King Fahd “could only help” improve ties.

Relations between Riyadh and Washington suffered after the Sept. 11 attacks masterminded by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. Some U.S. officials blamed the kingdom’s austere branch of Islam, known as Wahhabism, for encouraging hatred of the West, Christians and Jews.

Saudi Arabia believed it was being unjustly blamed for the actions of bin Laden, who seeks to topple the Al Saud monarchy.

“The objective of the whole action of the terrorists in that horrendous act of murdering and mayhem of innocent people was to create this split,” he said.

Minister wants ‘strongest’ ties with Iraq
Saud said there will be no change in the kingdom’s domestic and foreign policies under King Abdullah, who succeeded the late King Fahd on Monday. He said the kingdom wants the “strongest possible relationship” with neighboring Iraq.

“We are not looking for a role to play in Iraq,” he said. “We are willing to act in a manner that is helpful to Iraq from the Iraqi perspective, if they so wish.”

Saud reiterated there is continuous cooperation and contact between Saudi Arabia and Britain on terrorist-related issues.

“There’s a committee working here to pass information back and forth,” said Saud, when asked if the kingdom is passing information to Britain on a possible Saudi connection to the July bombings in London.

“I’m sure there [is] some information that may be linked to the events in England.”

The minister said Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, the kingdom’s envoy to Italy, has been nominated to replace Prince Turki as ambassador to London. Turki has been named ambassador to Washington.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8860041/

NYer

08-09-2005, 11:47 AM

Don't panic
...like those panicky US diplomats in Riyadh, they're always issuing security warnings.

No Terror Threat, Says Interior Ministry

The US Embassy in Riyadh and its consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran will be closed today and tomorrow due to terrorist threats against the missions’ buildings in the Kingdom, the US Embassy announced here yesterday

However, the Interior Ministry, led by Prince "Nasty" Nayif, says there's absolutely no threat. And if that's what he says, then I don't know about you, but I'm happy to believe him. After all, those Americans bleated warnings back in 2003 and 2004 and what happened?

Housing compounds got blown up, that's what happened.

But then, I'm exaggerating, as always. As the article goes on to explain

In 2004, a few Westerners were killed in a spate of terrorist attacks in major cities in the Kingdom.

Storm in a teacup, really. A bunch of terrorists just went into a housing compound in Khobar, indiscriminately shooting anyone in sight. Then they went from door to door, looking for infidel Westerners or Christians to wipe out. Only a "few" people were killed; well 50 people were taken hostage, and 22 murdered, to be precise.

Wikipedia 29_May_2004_Al-Khobar_massacres

However, the majority of the victims in those attacks were Asians and Arabs.

Oh, that's alright then.

So the Westerners had no need to worry last year, as they don't now? Well, the Westerners I've known in Saudi have always been very plucky and resilient, but with that attack, following the attack on 3 compounds in 2003, they left in droves. And I don't blame them.

An example - the British School in Riyadh used to have a majority of British and European pupils, with a minority of Asians. That has now swung completely the other way. When all the British Aerospace families leave later this year for a "safe", self-contained compound 30 miles north-east of the city, then it'll be a British School in name only. That's the result of all these attacks, which the Interior Ministry said would never happen.

It would be nice if Nayif were right and the US were wrong. I just have a sinking feeling it'll be the reverse.
Posted by: Alhamedi / 11:52 AM|
http://muttawa.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_muttawa_archive.html#112349336436077764

NYer

08-10-2005, 04:19 PM

Saudi Arabia's Envoy

New York Sun Staff Editorial
August 10, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/18349

The links between Saudi Arabia and the September 11 terrorist attacks are not something we'd expect the desert kingdom to be trumpeting, but it has done just that by appointing one of its princes, Turki al-Faisal, as its new ambassador to Washington. It's an odd choice, to say the least. Save for diplomatic immunity, one could just as easily make an argument that Riyadh's newest envoy should, on arrival at Dulles Airport, be brought in for questioning by the authorities. Here's a brief resume:

Prince Turki served as head of Saudi intelligence from 1977 until 10 days before September 11, 2001. As such, he was Riyadh's main contact with the Taliban in Afghanistan - and thereby also with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. He admits to having met Mr. bin Laden a few times, according to "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001," a Pulitzer-winning book by the Washington Post's Steve Coll. Mr. Coll writes that while the Saudis deny Mr. bin Laden was ever a Saudi agent, "it seems clear that bin Laden did have a substantial relationship with Saudi intelligence."

The Saudi intelligence services, under the prince, also oversaw the funding of "radical Islamists in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere," Mr. Coll reports. One such Islamist was Abdullah Azzam, who "preached stridently against the United States" and helped found the terrorist group Hamas.

The prince was named in a civil lawsuit filed in 2002 by September 11 families seeking $1 trillion from alleged financiers of Al Qaeda. The lawsuit notes that the testimony of a senior Taliban official who defected, Mullah Kakshar, "implicates Prince Turki as the facilitator" of money transfers from wealthy Saudis, "in support of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and international terrorism."

The lawsuit also alleges that the prince was party to a 1998 agreement between the Saudis and the Taliban. In the alleged deal, the Saudis promised not to seek Mr. bin Laden's extradition or the closing of his terrorist training camps and would provide the Taliban with oil and financial assistance, in exchange for Mr. bin Laden promising not to try to overthrow the Saudi monarchy.

The prince, in his role as head of intelligence, the lawsuit suggests, "was in a position to know the threat posed by bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the extremist and violent perversion of jihad and hatred that the Saudi religious schools were fomenting in young people."

The prince denied the allegations against him. But that denial has never been adjudicated by a jury. Prince Turki successfully persuaded Judge Richard Casey to dismiss the claims against him because they stem from his alleged actions when he was acting for the Saudi government, so he cannot be held accountable for them in an American court. One of the lawyers for the September 11 families, Michael Elsner, told The New York Sun that a letter has been filed with the court asking permission to appeal the dismissal.

It may well be that Prince Turki was simply acting on behalf of the Saudi monarchy, but that only raises the bigger question of America's relations with the kingdom. The knowledge that 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis and that Saudi money and religious instruction helped finance and inspire the terrorists has already put the relationship between the kingdom and America in a precarious spot.

Recent reports indicate that links between Saudi Arabia and terrorism continue to this day. The Sunday Telegraph reported this week that Saudi officials admitted that two senior Al Qaeda operatives in the kingdom - both of whom are now reportedly dead - "made money transfers and used coded text messages to communicate with suspected terrorists in Britain before last month's terrorist attacks in London." The Telegraph reported that one of the terrorists, Abdel Karim al-Mejati, was alleged to have been behind last year's terrorist attacks at Madrid. The Telegraph also reported last week that two men arrested for the July 21 attempted bombings at London were also linked to Riyadh. Hussain Osman called the kingdom on his cell phone just before he was arrested. Muktar Said Ibrahim, according to friends cited by the Telegraph, traveled to the kingdom for a few months in 2003 for a "training course."

On American soil the Saudis are propagating a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence," according to an 89-page Freedom House report released in January. It was based on the study of more than 200 documents distributed in American mosques by the Saudi government. Muslims are reminded that it is a religious obligation to hate Christians and Jews. They are told that they must behave as on a mission behind enemy lines while living in the lands of unbelievers. They must make money and acquire knowledge to use either for jihad against the infidels or to proselytize them. Textbooks, Freedom House reported, also "propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews" and "avow that the Muslim's duty is to eliminate the state of Israel."

There are no signs that the princes in Riyadh are ending their support for radical Islamists and terrorism - let alone granting women equality, introducing democracy, and all the other reforms President Bush is demanding from other repressive countries. Prince Turki's own resume reads like a checklist of the many faults Americans find in the Saudi monarchy. That the prince is the most suitable candidate the Saudis can offer for ambassador is but another reminder of why the kingdom is a prime candidate for regime change.

NYer

08-27-2005, 11:01 PM

There goes the World Cup ...

Saudi clerics declare football un-Islamic

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Ulema in Saudia Arabia have issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring football an un-Islamic sport, and have urged the youth to quit it immediately, BBC radio reported on Saturday.

According to the report, the clerics urged the youth to indulge in jihad and other constructive activities that could help the Muslim ummah, the radio reported. The ulema argued that football wastes a lot of time and the participants wear shorts, which they said was an un-Islamic dress, the radio reported.

Following the decree, some players of the famous Taif Football Club have quit the game, the report added.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_28-8-2005_pg7_8

Casey

09-08-2005, 08:53 AM

Saudi says five most-wanted militants killed in protracted battle
(AFP)

8 September 2005

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that five Al Qaeda suspects on a most-wanted list were killed in a three-day battle with security forces in the eastern city of Dammam, the latest in a series of offensives against the militants.

Four security men also died in the operation, which began with a shootout Sunday in a commercial thoroughfare in the main city of the oil-rich Eastern Province and ended Tuesday with the storming of a militants hideout in another neighborhood.

The five Al Qaeda suspects were Zaid Al Samari, Saleh Al Fraidi, Sultan Al Haseri, Nayef Al Jeheishi and Mohammad Al Suwailmi, all Saudis, some of whom took part in attacks against Westerners last year, the interior ministry said in a statement read on state television.

They all figured on a list of 36 most-wanted militants issued by the ministry in June.

Haseri, 26, was cited as having “taken part in the abduction and killing of a (foreign) resident” — an apparent reference to American engineer Paul Johnson, whose kidnapping and beheading in June 2004 marked the climax of a string of attacks against Western residents by presumed Al Qaeda extremists.

Explaining why it took security forces a long time to storm the ”den” they had been besieging since Sunday, the interior ministry said the “members of the deviant group” — official terminology for Al Qaeda suspects — had filled the site, located inside a crowded residential neighborhood, with explosives.

The assault only became possible after residents were evacuated, the ministry said, adding that security forces had defused more than 60 hand grenades and pipe bombs in one location alone.

In the wake of the assault, the ministry said four security men had died but did not give the total number of militants killed, saying only that “charred remains” had been found at the site, which suggested that some of the gunmen had blown themselves up.

The statement released early Thursday said DNA tests confirmed the identities of the five militants, whose bodies were recovered at just one of six locations.

It was not clear if this meant that other bodies could yet be found on the rest of the site.

A number of security officers were wounded but most had been discharged from hospital, the statement said.

Security forces also arrested 11 suspects of various nationalities and seized large amounts of weapons, explosives and ”forged documents (meant to be used) to enter (public) installations,” it said.

The battle in Dammam, close to the oil center of Dhahran, was the latest in a string of offensives against Al Qaeda suspects who have carried out a spate of shootings and bombings in Saudi Arabia since May 2003, many targeting Westerners.

One-time local Al Qaeda chief Saleh Al Ufi was killed during a battle with security forces in the Muslim holy city of Medina on August 18.

Two other militants were gunned down in coordinated operations in Medina and Riyadh which authorities said helped them foil terrorist strikes.

The clashes came days after Western governments warned that fresh attacks might be imminent in Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-six militants on the original most-wanted list of 36 remain at large. Authorities said when the list was released that 21 of those named were believed to be outside the country.

Only one militant on another 26-strong most-wanted list issued in December 2003 remains on the run.

According to official figures, at least 90 civilians, 47 security personnel and 121 militants have died since the unrest began more than two years ago. Hundreds more have been wounded.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/September/middleeast_September218.xml&section=middleeast

Solo

09-08-2005, 09:03 AM

New suspect list of 36 released
29 June 2005

The terror suspects wanted for their roles in activities in the country and are believed to be inside the Kingdom are
· Younus Muhammad Al-Hiyari, 36, Moroccan. Entered the country in 1991 to perform Haj. He has not left the country and has since gone underground. He has a wife and a child and was last seen east of Riyadh
Killed in Riyadh in clash with security forces 3 July 2005

· Fahd Farraj Al-Juwair, 35, Saudi. Born in Zulfi, his last known residence was in Riyadh

· Zaid Saad Al-Samary, 31, Saudi. His last known residence was in Al-Kharj
Killed in Dammam during fighting with security forces 5 September 2005

· Abdul Rahman Saleh Al-Miteb, 26, Saudi. He was born in Zulfi and was last seen in the city

· Saleh Mansour Al-Harbi, 22, Saudi. Previously lived in Buraidah in Qassim region.

· Sultan Saleh Al-Hasry, 26, Saudi. Previously lived in Al-Madinah
Killed in Dammam during fighting with security forces 5 September 2005

· Muhammad Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, 23, Saudi. Used to live in Riyadh, last seen in Al-Kharj. Known to have excellent computer skills
Killed in Dammam during fighting with security forces 5 September 2005

· Muhammad Saleh Al-Ghaith, 23, Saudi, from Riyadh

· Abdullah Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwaijeri, 21, Saudi. Used to live in Buraidah.

· Muhammad Saeed Al-Amry, 25, Saudi, from Al-Madinah.

· Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Motair, 21, Saudi. He was born in Zulfi where he used to live. Last seen in Al-Kharj, south of Riyadh.

· Walid Mutlaq Al-Radadi, 21, Saudi. From Al-Madinah and last seen in Al-Kharj.

· Naif Farhan Al-Shammary, 24, Saudi, from Hafr Al-Baten.

· Majed Hamid Al-Hasry, 29, Saudi. Previously living in Riyadh.

· Abdullah Muhaya Al-Shammary, 24, Saudi, from Hail.

The terror suspects who are wanted for their role in domestic terrorist activities but are believed to be abroad are:
· Noor Muhammad Moussa, 21, Chadian
· Manour Muhammad Yousef, 24, Chadian
· Othman Muhammad Kourani, 23, Chadian
· Mohsen Ayed Al-Fadhli, 25, Kuwaiti.
· Abdullah Walad Muhammad Sayyed, 37, Mauritanian
· Zaid Hassan Humaid, 34, Yemeni
· Fahd Saleh Al-Mahyani, 24, Saudi
· Adnan Abdullah Al-Sharief, 28, Saudi
· Marzouq Faisal Al-Otaibi, 32, Saudi
· Adel Abdul Lateef Al-Sanie, 27, Saudi
· Muhammad Abdul Rahman Al-Dhait, 21, Saudi
· Sultan Sunaitan Al-Dhait, 24, Saudi
· Saleh Saeed Al-Ghamdi, 40, Saudi
· Faiz Ibrahim Ayub, 30, Saudi
· Khaled Muhammad Al-Harbi, 29, Saudi
· Muhammad Othman Al-Zahrani, 44, Saudi
· Abdullah Muhammad Al-Rumayan, 27, Saudi
· Muhammad Saleh Al-Rashoudi, 24, Saudi
· Saad Muhammad Al-Shahry, 31, Saudi
· Ali Matir Al-Osaimy, 23, Saudi
· Faris Abdullah Al-Dhahiry, 22, Saudi

Solo

09-08-2005, 09:17 AM

Saleh Al Fraidi and Nayef Al Jeheishi don't seem to appear on the list.

Solo

09-08-2005, 09:33 AM

Saudi says five most-wanted militants killed in protracted battle
Twenty-six militants on the original most-wanted list of 36 remain at large. Authorities said when the list was released that 21 of those named were believed to be outside the country.

And the others are? Any info on the other 6?

Only one militant on another 26-strong most-wanted list issued in December 2003 remains on the run.

Talib Saud Abdullah al-Talib, a Saudi

Casey

09-18-2005, 09:01 AM

Saudi tells how Al Qaeda used him for terror operation
(DPA)

18 September 2005

DUBAI - Ahmad ibn Abdullah Al-Shayie, a 21-year-old Saudi who escaped a bomb explosion in Baghdad on December 2004, has returned to the Kingdom to tell how Al Qaeda militants helped him enter Iraq and later used him to carry out a terrorist operation.

Saudi newspaper Arab News quoted Ahmad as expressing regret for killing 12 innocent Iraqis, including seven members of the same family, adding that Al Qaeda arranged the bombing in Baghdad’s Al- Mansour neighborhood without his knowledge.

The young man was luckily ejected from the tanker by the force of the blast but sustained severe burns all over his body.

Afterwards, he was arrested by Iraqi police who later handed him over to Saudi authorities. He told how Al Qaeda was recruiting young Arabs to fight alongside insurgents in Iraq. He said he had entered Iraq through Syria with the help of smugglers.

Ahmad said he had gone to Iraq out of a conviction that he should do something to help his Iraqi brothers though he had not consulted scholars about his plans and in fact ignored the advice of his parents and family.

He said he was taken to an Al Qaeda cell in Doura district in the south of Iraq where he was trained to drive an oil tanker.

On the day of the explosion, he was told to take the tanker to the Al-Mansour neighborhood.

“They asked me to stop the tanker near a concrete barrier, saying someone would come to receive the tanker from me. But no sooner had I stopped the tanker than it exploded,” he said.

Ahmad, who was born in Buraidah in 1984, is now undergoing treatment at a hospital in Riyadh. Saudi authorities have allowed his family to visit him.

In a TV program which will focus on Ahmad, a number of security, social and Islamic experts will also take part.

In a related development, the Saudi National Society for Human Rights has urged the Saudi Embassy in Damascus and the Syrian Embassy in Riyadh for assistance in locating a number of Saudis who are missing in Syria.

Mufleh Al-Qahtani, chairman of the monitoring and follow-up committee, said the society had urged both embassies to ascertain whether the media reports concerning the disappearance and arrest of Saudis in Syria were true.

There have been unconfirmed reports that some gangs involved in human trafficking are handing Saudis over to American forces in Iraq after smuggling them out of Syria for 10,000 dollars per person.

Saleh Al-Kathlan, deputy chairman of the committee, said he had not ruled out the possibility that the Saudis who had disappeared might have been kidnapped by gangs who were selling them to American forces.

“Another possibility is that they might have been kidnapped by the gangs who kept them as hostages in order to make money,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/September/middleeast_September522.xml&section=middleeast

Jake

09-19-2005, 09:35 PM

NYer

10-05-2005, 09:01 AM

Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials

BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.

The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.

A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam.

In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee - of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.

The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is "to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents." The legislation is highly critical of the House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology. As part of the

Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.

Many of the details of the Judiciary Committee hearing later this month, Mr. Reynolds said, are still being arranged, including a final witness list. In the meantime, the committee expects testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom House, and terrorism experts. The committee will press to determine whether the Saudi government has taken steps to stop the distribution of the materials, and will cull from witnesses recommendations to prevent their future dissemination, Mr. Reynolds said.

Also demanding answers about the hate materials is the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes. During a high-profile trip to the Middle East last week, Ms. Hughes said American representatives had addressed the propagation of Saudi hate material in America during private meetings with government officials.

In a State Department briefing held en route to Ankara, Turkey, from Saudi Arabia last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with Saudi journalists, becoming the first American official to do so publicly. "We had been raising the issue privately," Ms. Hughes said, "and as part of raising difficult issues that we need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate." The undersecretary did not elaborate on the results of the private meetings, but the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings, Mr. Reynolds said.

Requests for comment from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia yesterday were not returned.

URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/20998

Casey

10-18-2005, 07:38 PM

Saudis seize two al-Qaida suspects
Oct. 17, 2005 at 5:22AM

Saudi authorities have seized two suspected members of the al-Qaida network, including a Nigerian national who was distributing provocative leaflets.
Interior ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki said Monday that police patrolling the holy city of Mecca in western Saudi Arabia arrested the Nigerian Sunday afternoon as he was distributing leaflets.
"The man is believed to belong to the stray group," Turki said, using an expression referring to al-Qaida, whose members, in the government's view, have deviated from the straight path of Islam.
Turki said another suspect was arrested Sunday in Riyadh and taken away for interrogation.
Saudi Arabia has been rocked by bombings and clashes between gunmen and police since May 2003. More than 258 people have been killed in terror activities since then.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20051017-051351-1658r.htm

Casey

10-18-2005, 07:38 PM

Al-Qaida hideout discovered near Riyadh
Oct. 18, 2005 at 7:56AM

Saudi security forces found in a Riyadh suburb an arms depot and bomb-making facilities believed to belong to the al-Qaida network, reports said Tuesday.
The daily al-Watan reported that security forces had tracked down a militant hideout in a residential neighborhood in the city of Kharg, 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Riyadh.
"The place was used to stock up arms and manufacture explosives," the paper said.
Police seized chemicals and recipes for making explosives as well as communications equipment from the site.
Inhabitants of the neighborhood said the house was deserted and they hadn't seen anyone using the house for a long while.
Saudi Arabia has been rocked by several bombings since May 2003, killing more than 256 people, including terrorists belonging to al-Qaida.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20051018-072156-8012r.htm

NYer

10-19-2005, 03:31 PM

Al-Qaeda flyers handed out in Mecca

The Saudi police in the holy Muslim city of Mecca arrested a group of Nigerian immigrants on Monday who were distributing leaflets carrying a big photo of Osama bin Laden. According to Arab newspaper al-Hayat, before they were detained by the security forces, the Nigerians had handed out many copies of the flyer in at least five areas of the city, which is the most important in the Islamic world.

The contents of the leaflet were highly critical of the Saudi government and close to the Jihadist thinking, the newspaper reports. During the interrogations it emerged that the young Nigerians had been approached by an unknown man who, in exchange for a large sum of money, had asked them to distribute the flyers everywhere. Taking advantage of the Nigerians' scant knowledge of Arabic the man had told them the document merely contained advice and direction of a religious nature.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.219800609&par=0

Petronas

11-02-2005, 10:43 AM

Does making Islamic radicals rich prevent them from being terrorists? It didn't work with with Osama Bin Laden...

SAUDI ARABIA: BONUSES FOR EX-GUANTANAMO BAY INMATES
Riyadh, 1 Nov. (AKI)

A Saudi minister has promised to sponsor the weddings of five Saudi nationals who were released from the American detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The assistant minister of interior for security affairs, Prince Mohammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz also said that he would give the former US terror suspects a monthly salary bonus once they had completed their studies, according to a report on the Arabic language paper Al Riyadh.

The prince recently met all five men who were arrested by US agents in Afghanistan and detained at the base in Guantanamo Bay. The decision to provide these men with bonuses is part of the prince's plan to support and ensure a smooth re-entry into society for the former inmates and to try and deter them for any further involvement with radical groups. There are more than 560 prisoners in the detantion centre known as Camp X-ray, of whom 121 are Saudis, captured in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime and accused of being linked to al-Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, was a Saudi national until the 1990s, when he was stripped of his citizenship.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Trends&loid=8.0.224721670&par=0

Casey

11-08-2005, 02:32 PM

November 8, 2005 4:50 PM

Saudi says fugitive militant now in custody

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it had taken into custody a man on the kingdom's most wanted list of fugitive al Qaeda suspects.

An Interior Ministry statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency named the militant as Adnan bin Abdullah al-Omari, who featured on a list of 36 wanted men published in June.

A ministry spokesman declined to give any details, saying: "We have got him back. He's one of the men whose name was mentioned on the list."

Saudi Arabia has been battling a two-year wave of violence by supporters of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who have targeted Westerners and security forces in the world's biggest oil exporter.

Several of the suspects on the list of 36 have been killed, arrested or handed themselves over to the authorities, who believe they have gained the upper hand over the militants.

More than 90 foreign and Saudi civilians have been killed since May 2003 in al Qaeda violence aimed at toppling the pro-Western royal family and evicting non-Muslims from the birthplace of Islam.

Reuters

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6223707&cKey=1131465030000

Petronas

11-14-2005, 12:43 PM

I would think that a flogging of 750 lashes could be life threatening... What would they say if we treated the Saudi funded Wahhabi preachers taking over our mosques and prison ministries the same?

Saudi jailed for discussing the Bible
November 14, 2005

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday. Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students. He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer," the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, strictly upholds the austere Wahhabi school of Islam and bases its constitution on the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Public practice of any other religion is banned. A U.S. State Department report criticized Saudi Arabia last week, saying religious freedoms "are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam."

The newspaper said Mr. al-Harbi will appeal the verdict.

A similar case was cited in the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2004. "During the period covered by this report, a schoolteacher was tried for apostasy, and eventually convicted in March of blasphemy; the person was given a prison sentence of 3 years and 300 lashes. The trial received substantial press coverage," the report said. A 2003 report by the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, the world's only government-sanctioned entity to investigate and report religious-freedom violations, named Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest violator of religious liberties. The commission took the country to task for "offensive and discriminatory language" disparaging Jews, Christians and non-Wahhabi Muslims found in government-sponsored school textbooks, in Friday sermons preached in prominent mosques, and in state-controlled Saudi newspapers. For example, in 2003, Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah reacted to the killing of six Westerners by terrorists in Yemen by saying he thought Zionism was behind them.

In Saudi Arabia, the public practice of any religion other than Islam is illegal; only Muslims can be Saudi citizens; one of the Saudi king's titles is "custodian of the two holy mosques"; proselytizing for any religion other than Sunni Islam is barred; and Mecca, Islam's holy city, is forbidden to all non-Muslims.

For years, Saudi Arabia also imposed restrictions, or persuaded the U.S. government to impose restrictions, on American troops defending the country during and after then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's 1990-91 occupation of Kuwait. For example, U.S. postal and customs officials have barred mailing materials "contrary to the Islamic faith," including Bibles. The U.S. military also has required female service members to wear a long, black robe called an abaya when traveling off base in Saudi Arabia. Both regulations were rescinded or clarified after public outcry based on reporting in the U.S. media.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20051114-015138-3548r.htm

Petronas

11-14-2005, 12:54 PM

Sources: Saudi Arabia agrees to end economic boycotts of Israel
Posted: 12-11-2005 , 09:22 GMT

Saudi Arabia has agreed to end all economic boycotts of Israel, allowing the World Trade Organization (WTO) Friday to admit the kingdom as its 149th member, diplomats said. According to the Wshington Times, American and Israeli officials confirmed the boycott issue had been resolved. "I am very satisfied with the fact that Saudi Arabia has complied with all the rules of the WTO," said Itzhak Levanon, Israel's envoy to the WTO. "I hope it opens the door to a better future on the horizon in the region," the Israeli envoy added. The WTO's ruling general council, which includes the United States and Israel, endorsed the Saudi entry during a special session Friday. To join, the oil rich kingdom agreed to cancel all economic boycotts and it pledged not to resort to any future discriminatory trade measures against the Israel, diplomats said.

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Saudi%20Arabia/191284

Petronas

11-18-2005, 08:15 PM

Journalist’s Car Vandalized
Wednesday, 16, November, 2005 (14, Shawwal, 1426)

JEDDAH, 16 November 2005 — The car of a Hail-based journalist was vandalized yesterday by miscreants who were allegedly angered by his Internet postings. Rabah Al-Quwayi, a reporter for the Arabic daily Okaz, was about to go to work in the morning when he saw that the window of his car had been broken and a note had been left behind.

The note said: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful: This time it is your car but next time it is you. Return to your religion and forsake heresy. This is the last warning.”

“I’ve been receiving threatening SMS messages and verbal attacks for a year now,” Al-Quwayi told Arab News over the phone from Hail. “But this is the first time things have turned physical. I tried to track the numbers through the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) but it always turns out that the numbers are registered to expatriates.” The reporter was not attacked for anything he had written in Okaz, but rather for his participation in several Internet forums. Al-Quwayi’s liberal points of view upset a number of participants in the forums.

The attack on his car took place the day after Al-Quwayi, also a supervisor at one of the prominent Saudi cultural Internet forums, posted an article on the site. His article commented on the case of Muhammad Al-Harbi, a chemistry teacher who was charged and convicted of mocking religion. “I wrote that the only logical explanation for Al-Harbi’s case is that he is against terrorism and some religious people seem to support terrorism and so Al-Harbi, by disagreeing with them, is against religion. It is confusing,” Al-Quwayi explained.

Another threat was made on Al-Quwayi’s life last month. The threat was made on the well-known fundamentalist website, Al-Sahat. “They took a sentence that I had written earlier out of context. In a long article I wrote in a discussion of the Holy Qur’an and posted on the Internet, I said that ‘nothing should be taken for granted.’ The fundamentalists then concluded that I did not believe in the Holy Qur’an and so I should be killed.”

When he saw the damage to his car, Al-Quwayi immediately called the police. He said that they arrived quickly and showed great concern. “They examined the car, took fingerprints and even a DNA expert was there to check,” he said. The police explained to Al-Quwayi that the bad handwriting in the note and the spelling mistakes were done on purpose to confuse and disguise.

Hail police chief Gen. Nasser Al-Nowaisser said that preliminary investigations were under way. He added that the most important thing in such cases is the full cooperation of the defendant as he is the one most aware of his enemies. Gen. Al-Nowaisser explained that he could not provide any details since the guilty parties involved might take advantage of any information in the media.

Al-Quwayi said that the people responsible for vandalizing his car had tried to provoke him in every possible way: Both with SMS messages and on Internet forums. When they found that he would not stop and that he continued to write on the Internet using his real name, they changed their policy to one of physical attack. “I’m really afraid of what’s going to happen in the future. When someone dares to come forward and vandalize your car in front of your house which is located on a main road, that sends a dangerous message,” Al-Quwayi said.

According to him, if the offenders are caught, they should be firmly punished in order to send a message to others. “What happened to me is not just a threat to one individual but to the whole of society,” he said. Al-Quwayi has not contacted the National Society for Human Rights or the Saudi Journalists Association. He said that the police were very cooperative and he did not want to diminish their efforts. He did say, however, that he had once asked the Saudi Journalists Association for help in another situation and that they had been neither helpful nor cooperative.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=73279

Petronas

12-03-2005, 11:59 PM

Saudi swoop on suspected fighters
Saturday 03 December 2005, 17:21 Makka Time, 14:21 GMT

Saudi security forces have arrested 17 suspected fighters in a series of raids around Riyadh, state television said. They also seized weapons and ammunition early on Saturday in the raids on 12 homes in the capital and nearby districts of Kharj and Mujamma, television quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying. Some of the arrested men had taken part in operations carried out by the "deviant group" - a label used by authorities to describe supporters of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network - or sympathised with them, the television report said. It said all the arrested men were Saudi nationals, but gave no details of their identity. Security forces also seized electronic equipment and printed material in the raids.

Saudi Arabia has been battling a two-year wave of bombings and shootings by al-Qaida supporters. The last significant attacks - against the US consulate in Jeddah and the Interior Ministry in Riyadh - took place nearly a year ago and security forces have since killed several leading fighters in clashes. Diplomats say they believe that fighters are still planning more operations in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2B27390C-387A-4F30-A358-CD7B3E8192F9.htm

Petronas

12-19-2005, 04:47 PM

One has to wonder how soon after they have regained their freedom those "deviant thoughts" will return ...

Kingdom Sets Free 400 Detainees
Monday, 19, December, 2005 (18, Dhul Qa`dah, 1426)

JEDDAH, 19 December 2005 — Saudi Arabia has released nearly 400 detainees, held for security reasons, after providing them with intense counseling and making sure they are free of deviant thoughts, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday quoting a security official. Dr. Muhammad Al-Nujaimi, head of the department of civic studies at King Fahd Security Academy in Riyadh, said the 400 were set free during the past months.

In a previous statement, Interior Minister Prince Naif had spoken about plans to release some detainees after they repented and decided to return to the right path. Prince Naif, however, emphasized that the government would not set free those militants arrested for planning terrorist attacks across the country. "They are still under investigation and will be transferred to court for trial," the SPA quoted him as saying.

Prince Naif said the ministry's counseling program, which started two years ago, was aimed at providing advice to those held in connection with security incidents that had taken place in the country in recent years. A number of prominent scholars, intellectuals, social scientists and psychiatrists are taking part in the program.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=74926&d=19&m=12&y=2005

Solo

12-28-2005, 02:39 AM

In actual fact, this news report was incorrect.

Saudi says five most-wanted militants killed in protracted battle
(AFP)

8 September 2005

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that five Al Qaeda suspects on a most-wanted list were killed in a three-day battle with security forces in the eastern city of Dammam, the latest in a series of offensives against the militants.

The five Al Qaeda suspects were Zaid Al Samari, Saleh Al Fraidi, Sultan Al Haseri, Nayef Al Jeheishi and Mohammad Al Suwailmi, all Saudis, some of whom took part in attacks against Westerners last year, the interior ministry said in a statement read on state television.

It was not Mohammad Al Suwailmi who was killed on September 5, 2005 but his brother Ahmed. I stand corrected on my subsequent post below.

New suspect list of 36 released
29 June 2005

· Muhammad Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, 23, Saudi. Used to live in Riyadh, last seen in Al-Kharj. Known to have excellent computer skills
Killed in Dammam during fighting with security forces 5 September 2005

However, Muhammad Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailemi, has reportedly died as a result of wounds received when he was captured by Saudi security on 27 December 2005.

Saudi policemen suffer casualties in fight near pilgrims’ tent

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

RIYADH: Five Saudi police were killed and a most wanted Islamist militant captured on Tuesday in the bloodiest clashes in the kingdom for three months, an interior ministry spokesman and security sources said.

Two police were killed by gunfire from a car to the east of Buraida, capital of Qassim province, 300 kilometres north of Riyadh, outside a tent city intended for pilgrims on their way to Mecca. Three more police died when the car’s driver opened fire on a roadblock near Al-Midhnab, to the south of Buraida in the same region, the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official SPA agency. The security forces then gave chase to the car, damaging the vehicle and wounding and arresting the driver. The driver was identified by security sources on the scene as Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Suwailmi, who ranks number seven on a list of 36 most wanted militant suspects in Saudi Arabia. “He is considered as one of the terrorist leaders,” said the source.

Witnesses told AFP that two people were in the car, a four-wheel drive, and that a helicopter had been called in to provide ariel surveillance of the area as extra police had been deployed. The oil-rich kingdom has been locked in a battle to thwart extremists, that it says are bent on overthrowing the royal family, since the start of a wave violent clashes and attacks against Westerners in May 2003. The kingdom has been under pressure to crack down on militancy since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, a strike masterminded by the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden in which 15 out of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudi.

According to the latest official figures, at least 90 civilians, 49 security personnel and 118 militants have died since the unrest began. Hundreds more have been wounded. Until now, 27 militants on a 36-strong list of Al-Qaeda suspects remain at large. Authorities said when the list was released in June that 21 of those named were believed to be outside the country. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C12%5C28%5Cstory_28-12-2005_pg7_9

Further links...........

"The driver was identified by security sources on the scene as Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Suwailmi, who ranks number seven on a list of 36 most wanted militant suspects in Saudi Arabia.

An interior ministry spokesman that al-Suwailmi later died of his wounds."

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=126545&region=6

"In a communique quoted by the official SPA news agency the spokesman said a second suspect was being sought by security forces after hijacking a car occupied by women in the sector where the clashes took place.

Suwailmi "succumbed to his wounds and it turned out that he was wanted by the security authorities," the spokesman said."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17676794-23109,00.html

Looking at the arabic version of the SPA site, it appears they may have found some interesting items in the vehicle.

Solo

12-28-2005, 06:16 AM

They're on a roll........ :)

There were reports that someone escaped in the shootout with Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Siwailmi. Guess they found him....huh?

What I really do not understand is why the Saudis manage to take out their enemy but meanwhile the US just sits on them.......and waits for what?
------------------------------
Second al-Qaeda suspect killed
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Riyadh

December 28, 2005

SAUDI security forces killed a suspected top al-Qaeda militant today, a day after he escaped clashes in which another militant and five policemen were killed, a security source said.

"Abdulrahman al-Motaeb, 26, who figures number four (on a most-wanted list) was killed this morning in the desert," the source told AFP requesting anonymity.

Another suspected militant, Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Siwailmi, died of his wounds early Wednesday after being hit in Tuesday's clashes with security forces near Buraida, capital of Qassim province, 300km north of Riyadh, according to the interior ministry.

Motaeb is believed to have been in the car with Suwailmi during the shootout, after which he escaped by hijacking another car.

Five policemen were killed Tuesday in the bloodiest clashes in the kingdom for more than three months.

The oil-rich kingdom has been locked in a battle against Islamist extremists, who it says are bent on overthrowing the royal family, since a wave of violent clashes and attacks against Westerners broke out in May 2003.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17680383-23109,00.html

Petronas

01-29-2006, 01:32 PM

Saudi police arrest 5 suspected terrorists in capital
17 January 2006

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi police arrested five suspected terrorists on Monday in raids in several neighborhoods in the capital and seized large quantities of explosives and money, security officials said. The officials said the five suspects - four Saudis and one foreigner - are believed to be part of a network preparing for a terror attack in Riyadh.

“They were apparently preparing for a terrorist attack, probably soon,” one official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Another official said police seized some 20 kilograms of explosives and 1 million Saudi riyals (US$373,000; Ð308,000) in a raid north of Riyadh. He said police believe the suspects were planning to blow up some government installations.

The officials said police first arrested a suspect who had been under security surveillance. He later informed on the others in other hideouts in Riyadh. The officials said in at least one raid police exchanged fire with the suspects while they tried to escape their hideout. There was no report of casualties. The officials did not divulge the nationality of the fifth suspect. He was only identified as “a resident,” a reference to expatriates living in the kingdom. It was not clear if the suspected terrorists are related to Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, which has launched a series of bloody attacks in recent years in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/January/middleeast_January424.xml&section=middleeast

Petronas

02-25-2006, 12:14 PM

Al-Qaeda 'behind Saudi oil plot'
Saturday, 25 February 2006, 08:21 GMT

Al-Qaeda was behind the foiled suicide bomb attack on a major Saudi oil facility on Friday, says a website used by Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia. The statement said the attack at the oil-processing plant at Abqaiq was part of al-Qaeda's campaign to force "infidels" out of the peninsula. The Saudi government has said it foiled the attack and output was not affected. The al-Qaeda network on the Arabian Peninsula has long called for attacks on Saudi oil installations.

On news of the attempted attack, the price of crude oil for April delivery leapt as much as 3.4% to $62.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its biggest gain since 17 January. Oil security analysts have estimated that a serious attack on the facility could halve Saudi exports for up to a year.

Friday's attempt at Abqaiq, in the eastern province of Dammam, was foiled when guards opened fire on at least two cars carrying explosives as they tried to ram the gates. At least one of the vehicles blew up, killing the occupants. Two of the guards were killed, and another two were wounded, Saudi officials reported.

Al-Qaeda's apparent claim of responsibility was made on a website often used by militants, but could not be verified. Its operatives had succeeded in entering the plant with two car bombs, the statement said. The attack was "part of the project to rid the Arabian Peninsula of the infidels" and was intended to stop the "pillage of oil wealth" from Muslims.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said output at the facility, which handles about two-thirds of the country's oil production, was unaffected by the attack. He denied earlier reports on al-Arabiya television that the attacks had briefly stopped the flow of oil after a pipeline was damaged. An interior ministry statement said damage had been "limited to a small fire which was brought under control". Oil is processed at the facility to remove gas and render it less volatile.

Saudi Arabia has been fighting Islamic militants in the country for the past three years. Attackers have previously targeted oil company offices and compounds housing Westerners, while Saudi security forces have killed dozens of insurgents.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4749812.stm

Buffy

02-25-2006, 12:36 PM

I think this was incredibly stupid. We have Aramco in the office this week. I'm gonna ask them if they think now people will be more apt to give up Al-Q members if they are now attacking their source of income.

Casey

02-27-2006, 08:21 AM

Saudi Forces Kill Al-Qaeda Suspects After Oil Attacks (Update1)

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian security forces killed five suspected al-Qaeda militants in a clash early today in the Al-Yarmouk district of the capital, Riyadh, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said in a phone interview.

The group is suspected of involvement in a foiled suicide attack three days ago on the Abqaiq oil-processing center, al- Turki said. Two of the men killed in that attack, Mohammed Saleh al-Ghaith and Abdullah Abdulaziz al-Tuaijri, were numbers 32 and 33 on a list of 36 most wanted militants in the kingdom, al-Turki said.

An Islamic Web site carried a statement after the attack on Abqaiq in which al-Qaeda said it was behind the assault on the center, which handles two-thirds of the supply from Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer. One man suspected of being part of the Abqaiq attack was arrested in a separate operation in the Al-Yarmouk district, al-Turki said.

``It's likely there will be further attempts to target the oil industry but Friday demonstrates the resilience of oil facilities in Saudi,'' Kevin Rosser, oil and gas security analyst with London-based Control Risks Group, said in a phone interview.

Crude oil for April delivery jumped $2.37, or 3.9 percent, to $62.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close since Feb. 7 following the Abqaiq attack. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader, in 2002 called for a campaign by his group against oil facilities in the region.

Packed With Explosives

Oil production and exports from Saudi Arabia were unaffected after the Abqaiq incident, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in a statement from the state-owned Saudi Aramco oil company.

Militants driving two cars packed with explosives passed through the first checkpoint at Abqaiq after a brief gun battle with security men before using one of the vehicles to blast open the final security gate, al-Turki said. The second car was intercepted by security personnel before it could enter the facility, he said. An unspecified number of attackers were killed.

A small fire was brought under control at the facility, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam.

Aramco, which manages the Abqaiq plant, employs over 5,000 security staff, accounting for 10 percent of its workforce, to help protect its facilities, among the world's largest.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a6PSZsfNu7IY&refer=top_world_news

NYer

02-27-2006, 08:24 AM

Austin Bay: Al Qaeda documents reveal their Oil Spot Strategy (http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=960)

What’s the oil spot? (See comments: Al Qaeda, the base, intends to expand.)

The phrase appears on page 43 in the text (toward the end of the document). I’ll post the excerpt from page 43. (Page in this case is the translators page, not the pdf page). The letter’s author, is Abu Huthayfa, has been discussing guidance from Osama Bin Laden (aka Abu Abdullah). They focus on some strategic and operational goals, based on “lessons learned.” Much of the focus is on “informational” operations (information, media, propaganda, psyops) :

Page 43
1- Reinstituting confidence in the hearts of the Muslim masses concerning the jihad Movement after they had almost turned away from it as a result of some setbacks, which were used by the counterinformational media to keep the people away from it. Reinstituting confidence is done by hitting the enemies who do not differ in their hostilities to Islam and its peoples as well as in usurping their resources and occupying their lands.
2- Preparing the environment for fighting the Saudi system, which utilizes arbitrary measures to limit jihad efforts, by arousing the sense of dignity and valor in the hearts of the people as well as by exploiting their hatred of the system resulting from these measures.
3- Struggle is the key for fighting the Saudi system.
4- Acquiring political, military, and administrative experiences through field battles to become a stock in the assets of the mujahidin in their war against the system; war build combatants.
5- Discrediting the awesomeness image of the Saudi system and removing the leaf of mulberry tree used to cover its genitals [shortcomings].
6- Breaking the barrier of fear and hesitation from the minds of the mujahidin for participating in jihad activities.
7- Expanding the circle of jihad horizontally and vertically via assassinating some of the leaders of disbelief in the system; this is called (the oil spot).
8- After the escalation of operations against the crusader enemy in a compounding rate and at the critical point, the mujahidin command declares war against the Saudi system at the appropriate circumstance and after a long practice in carrying out item 7 [above] while taking into consideration the principles and techniques of guerilla war.
[to] Page 44…

“Oil spot” :it indicates the assassination of senior Saudi leaders. (UPDATE: With the intent of gaining control of the Arabian Peninsula– and using that to expand Al Qaeda’s influence.)

Petronas

03-20-2006, 12:23 PM

Al-Qaida vow to overthrow Saudi royals
Mar. 18, 2006 13:05 | Updated Mar. 18, 2006 16:13

The leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, who was killed in a raid last month, vowed in his final testament that his group will overthrow the royal family and threatened more attacks against the kingdom and Americans in the region, according to a video released Saturday. The video showed Fahd Faraaj al-Juwair wearing a red T-shirt and what seems to be an explosive belt, reading his will. Behind him, the map of the Saudi Kingdom, written on it, "Expel the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula."

Addressing the Saudi Royal family, al-Juwair said, "if you know what the youth are preparing for you, you will be busy to escape this peninsula," he said in the video, sent in an email to The Associated Press. He warned Americans, "Get out of Muhammad's peninsula, get out of all Muslim lands, stop supporting the Jews in Palestine, halt supporting Christians in Muslim lands, or else you'll have nothing but killing, destruction and explosions," al-Juwair added.

Al-Juwair was reported killed by Saudi security forces along with four other leading militants in a Feb. 27 raid in the capital Riyadh, launched in the wake of an al-Qaida attack on the Abqaiq complex, the largest oil processing facility in the world.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395628829&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Petronas

03-31-2006, 01:02 AM

SAUDI ARABIA: TERROR ATTACK ON OIL REFINERY FOILED
29-Mar-06 11:32

Saudi security forces have thwarted a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia's largest oil refinery Abqaiq, the second in two months, according to media reports. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA and the Iraqi Radio Nawa report that police discovered two car bombs in the area. Local daily al-Riyadh reports that Saudi police on Tuesday carried out house searches in the al-Mantar area of Abqaib, where some employees of Saudi oil giant Aramco live, arms and explosive were discovered in one of the homes and one man was arrested. Reports say that the vehicles to be used in the attack bore the company logo. ...

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.281390501&par=0

Petronas

04-03-2006, 12:54 PM

Saudis Nab 40 Suspected al-Qaida Militants
Wed Mar 29, 10:11 AM ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities arrested 40 suspected members of al-Qaida — including some allegedly involved in last month's attempted bombing of a key oil complex — and seized a large cache of weapons and explosives, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday. The agency, quoting an unidentified Interior Ministry official, said security forces carried out simultaneous operations in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and Qassim in the north and Asir in the south. The agency did not say when the arrests were made.

Authorities said 19 of those arrested were suspected of financing terrorist attacks and disseminating "disinformation on the Internet," the official said. They included Saudis and "residents," the official said without elaborating on the others' nationalities.

Eight people connected to the Feb. 24 attack on the Abqaiq complex, the world's largest oil processing facility, also were arrested, he said. Attackers in two explosives-laden vehicles tried to ram through the facility's gates but were stopped by guards, who opened fire on them, detonating the vehicles.

Thirteen others influenced by "deviant thoughts" and active in collecting funds to finance suspicious activities also were arrested, the report said.

Police seized grenades, rifles and ammunition in the raids, he said. Also, a Saudi daily newspaper reported that authorities seized two explosives-laden vehicles in Abqaiq. The Riyadh daily said the two vehicles had the logo of Aramco, the Saudi oil company, on them. Officials were not available to comment on the report.

Al-Qaida militants launched a campaign of violence three years ago in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of group leader Osama bin Laden. Saudi security forces have largely had al-Qaida militants on the run for the past year, arresting hundreds of suspects.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_terror_arrests

Petronas

04-05-2006, 12:09 AM

TERRORISM: AL-QAEDA CELL DISMISSES SAUDI CRACKDOWN CLAIMS
Apr-04-06 15:43

An internet site purporting to represent the al-Qaeda terror network's branch in Saudi Arabia has denied claims made by the Saudi authorities last week that 40 al-Qaeda linked militants had been arrested. It also announced that the group plans to post video and other propaganda material on the site in the coming days - a move that would appear to contradict reports by analysts who maintain that authorities have crushed al-Qaeda's Saudi cells.

"As for the arrest of 40 people who are allegedly members of al-Qaeda in the Arab peninsula, and that the group also included some who have been responsible in distributing our messages - we say that all this is false. It is all propaganda by the blasphemous Saudi government because our information office is still operational and no one has been arrested," the Internet message said.

In the statement, the group also denied that people linked to the Islamist Internet portal, al-Hesbah.org, which has been shut down by Saudi authorities, had been arrested. It said that militants operating the site had managed to thwart attempts by authorities from several Arab states to infiltrate the site.

On 30 March the Saudi interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested 40 suspected terrorists in three different operations carried out around the Kingdom. Those arrested were believed to be members of al-Qaeda terrorist cells, some of whom may be linked to a foiled attack on the Al-Abqaiq oil refinery in the Kingdom's Eastern Province on 25 February, the ministry said. It did not release the names of any of the detained suspects.

According to a ministry statement, the sweep followed investigations by security forces tracking a number of people who were stockpiling weapons, providing material and financial support for the activities of the suspects, and using the Internet to spread "subversive propaganda" and promoting acts of violence.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.283692090&par=0

Petronas

04-19-2006, 03:40 PM

Saudi Arabia (Country threat level - 4): Saudi authorities reported on 18 April 2006 that they have raided an explosives depot and arrested five people in the eastern al-Sulai neighborhood in Riyadh, all in connection to a failed al-Qaeda attack on an oil facility in Abqaiq in February 2006. According to official reports, 123 bags of explosives weighing more than a ton and a half, three cars, 16 pistols, eight machine guns and rifles, fake license plates, ammunition, mobile telephones, video equipment, a computer, tapes and compact discs were all found in the hideout. Saudi television also aired parts of a tape, apparently made by the attackers, showing them preparing the two vehicles used in the February attack. One of the five people arrested is reported to be on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, but it was not confirmed if the five men were members of the al-Qaeda terror network and whether they had been planning to carry out fresh attacks using the materials seized.

In addition to the latest arrests, 40 suspects have reportedly been arrested since the February attack, while al-Qaeda's presumed leader in Saudi Arabia, Fahd bin Faraj al-Joweir, was among those killed in a shootout in western Riyadh on 27 February.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

NYer

05-22-2006, 08:43 AM

Saudis Remove Intolerance From Curriculum NOT (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901769.html)

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, has worked aggressively to spread this message. "The kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials, and has removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education," he said on a recent speaking tour to several U.S. cities. "Not only have we eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system, we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan." The Saudi government even took out a full-page ad in the New Republic last December to tout its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow." A year ago, an embassy spokesman declared: "We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people of other faiths." The embassy is also distributing a 74-page review on curriculum reform to show that the textbooks have been moderated.

The problem is: These claims are not true.

Read the whole thing ...

keith

05-25-2006, 04:58 PM

Saudi Arabia clips wings of dreaded morality police
(AFP)

25 May 2006

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia’s dreaded morality police will no longer be allowed to interrogate those it arrests over behaviour deemed un-Islamic under an interior ministry decree published on Thursday. “The role of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will end after it arrests the culprit or culprits and hands them over to police, who will then decide whether to refer them to the public prosecutor,” said the decree by Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz reprinted in several Saudi dailies.

The commission is attached to the influential religious establishment and wields tremendous powers in enforcing the edicts of the ultra-conservative kingdom, which is ruled according to a very strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law.

Prince Nayef, a brother of King Abdullah, is considered very close to the religious establishment.

The commission’s members known as Mutawas, many of them men in long beards, commonly go around malls, restaurants and other public spaces to make sure men and women not related by blood never mix.

They usually intervene if they spot any public display of affection between the sexes like hand-holding or kissing, or see anyone they deem indecently dressed.

In most parts of the kingdom this means no shorts for men and the abaya, a mandatory black head-to-toe cloak, for Saudi women.

The Mutawas also enforce the kingdom’s ban on women drivers, occasions like Saint Valentine’s Day and the public practice of religions other than Islam.

Limiting the powers of the Mutawas appears to be part of the slow and gradual process of economic and social reform initiated by King Abdullah.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/May/middleeast_May595.xml&section=middleeast

keith

06-10-2006, 07:34 PM

Saudi religious police suspect elderly woman of sexual liaison
(AFP)

10 June 2006

RIYADH - A 70-year-old Saudi woman was briefly jailed after being detained by the religious police who suspected her motives for entering a shop owned by a man in a busy Riyadh market, a paper said on Saturday.

Members of the dreaded Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as Mutawas, descended on the shop in the capital’s Al Deira market on Tuesday after the woman entered the shop while there was no one inside except the male owner, the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily reported.

“The commission suspected the woman was in “unlawful seclusion’ with the owner despite the fact that the shop’s shutters were wide open,” the paper said, employing a term commonly used in Saudi Arabia’s puritanical society to describe a sexual liaison.

Quoting her nephew, the paper said the woman, who could barely walk, had gone missing after she went shopping.

Her family searched for her in hospitals and police stations all over the capital until they found her in a woman’s prison late Tuesday.

She was later released.

Mutawas, who are attached to the country’s powerful religious establishment, are charged with enforcing the ultra-conservative kingdom’s strict Islamic moral code including the segregation of the sexes in public.

The interior ministry issued a decree on May 25 aimed at reining in the Mutawas by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects, as they previously did, but to hand them over to police.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/June/middleeast_June196.xml&section=middleeast

Vancouver

06-19-2006, 03:07 PM

The Saudi religious gestapo (Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) has its own webpage:
http://www.hesbah.gov.sa
These roving bands of thugs are more of a problem in western KSA (Jeddah/Makka/Madina/Hail) than elsewhere.

Petronas

08-21-2006, 06:10 PM

Saudi Arabia (Country threat level - 4): Reports emerging on 21 August 2006 indicate that Saudi Arabian security forces surrounded a building in the al-Jamea area of the west coast city of Jeddah, the kingdom’s commercial capital, where they detained suspected militants who took refuge in the building after being chased by police officers. No exchanges of gunfire were reported and an investigation is underway.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Petronas

08-21-2006, 06:16 PM

SAUDI ARABIA: TWO MILITANTS KILLED BY POLICE IN JEDDAH
Aug-21-06 16:21

Two presumed Islamic militants have been killed by police in a gun battle Monday in the Saudi city of Jeddah, pan-Arabic satellite network al-Arabiya reports. Saudi police officers on Monday surrounded a building where they believed four terror suspects were holed up. The suspects had opened fire, the interior ministry said. Saudi television network al-Ikhbariya has broadcast footage in which there are clear signs of bullet hols on the walls of the building. The interior ministry clarified that the security operation is still underway.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.332333180&par=0

Vancouver

08-22-2006, 02:52 AM

About the Jeddah shootout, from the Saudi paper al-Watan, with a few pictures:
http://www.alwatan.com.sa/daily/2006-08-22/first_page/first_page02.htm
Six people, some of them Yemeni, surrended. Four Saudi commandos wounded, I don't think seriously.
Jeddah (home town of Usama bin Ladin, Salman al-Ouda, and other notables) is on the Red Sea near Yemen. It is the second largest city in KSA, behind Riyadh.

NYer

08-22-2006, 08:48 AM

The House of Saud bristles when their chickens come home to roost.

Petronas

09-03-2006, 08:34 PM

SAUDI ARABIA: 700 'MILITANTS' FREED IN 3 YEARS
Aug-30-06 13:03

The Saudi government has released more than 700 suspected militants, described as 'sympathisers of Al Qaeda', over the last three years. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry, also said the government would put on trial some detainees suspected of involvement in attacks on important installations. The spokesman claimed a counselling programme undertaken by the government for the detainees had managed to change their mindset, persuading them to give up militancy.

"They (the released militants) are (Al Qaeda) sympathisers. There are many of this kind of people, who are subject to the process of an advisory committee. Hundreds of them have gone through this and been released," al-Turki said. "They were arrested in the first place because they aroused suspicion, but there was no hard evidence against them linking them to any terrorist act or planning" he added.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.335185608&par=0

Petronas

10-28-2006, 12:29 PM

Saudi Arabia sets up panel to formalise succesion
20/10/2006

RIYADH (Asharq Al Awsat and Agencies) - Saudi Arabia said on Friday a committee of princes will vote on the eligibility of future generations of kings and crown princes, in an apparent bid to formalise the succession process.
The system will not take effect until Crown Prince Sultan, heir to King Abdullah, becomes king, a statement from the royal court said. The committee will be made up of sons and grandsons of late King Abdul Aziz al-Saud, founder of modern Saudi Arabia and father of the current king and crown prince, said the statement signed by King Abdullah. It did not specify the size of the committee, to be called the Allegiance Institution. It will be chaired by the eldest son or grandson of King Abdul Aziz.

The step was taken in the "general interest", it said. It is part of an amendment of the Basic Law, the name given to the monarchy's constitution. The previous system gave the king full prerogative to name the crown prince although Western diplomats say such decisions are often debated within the royal circle.

Under the new system the Allegiance Institution will have a say in the appointment of a crown prince suggested by the king. If the institution rejects the nominated crown prince, it may vote for one of three princes the king nominates for the title. The appointment of the new crown prince must be done within 30 days of the accession of a new king, the statement added.

Five members of the institution will form a Transitory Ruling Council which would take over the running of state affairs for a maximum period of one week if neither the king nor the crown prince are fit to rule the country, it said.

The Transitory Ruling Council will not enjoy prerogatives affecting state institutions, such as dissolving the government or the country's self-styled parliament, and will not be able to amend the Basic Law or any "laws that are linked to the rule".

Mohammed al-Zulfa, a member of the advisory Shura Council, said the move would ensure "that only the eligible sons of King Abdul Aziz will get to rule" Saudi Arabia. "It will bring inner peace among members of the royal family and among citizens. The system is clear now," he said. Shura Council is a sort of parliament whose members are appointed by the king. "This is a turning point that will ensure the continuity of the ruling family," Zulfa told Al Arabiya Television. "King Abdullah has ... made this decision at a crucial time, the kingdom is going through a phase of change and development and he wanted society to be in safe hands in the future".

Among the constitutional articles: ...

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=6765

Petronas

10-30-2006, 04:18 PM

Navies help keep guard on Saudi oil facilities
Fri Oct 27, 2:00 PM ET

Coalition naval forces are helping to guard vital oil installations in top exporter Saudi Arabia as part of heightened security following an al Qaeda threat last month, naval sources said on Friday. In their sights are the kingdom's Ras Tanura terminal, the world's biggest offshore oil export facility, and Bahrain's Bapco refinery. "Acting on information received, Coalition naval forces, operating in support of Saudi and Bahraini forces have deployed units to counter a possible maritime threat to the oil facilities at Ras Tanura," Britain's Royal Navy in Dubai said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia's own security forces and navy are guarding strategic oil facilities and coalition forces are patrolling only in international waters. "Coalition forces are taking the prudent, precautionary measures and focusing on maritime security operations in the Gulf on these possible threats," said Kevin Aandahl, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. "We're constantly and routinely conducting maritime security operations in the Gulf and international waters and these operations deny terrorists the use of the maritime environment as a venue for attack."

A Saudi security adviser also said any operations in the Gulf were entirely routine and added there had been no further threat since al Qaeda on September 11 said it would target economic interests in the Gulf. "This is part of the on-going exercises between the U.S., British, Bahraini and Kuwaiti forces... in the Gulf," said Nawaf Obaid.

Oil prices initially rose about 30 cents to around $61 as traders recalled a foiled attack in February on Saudi Arabia's huge Abqaiq facility, the world's biggest oil processing plant. Crude oil shipments were continuing as normal from the kingdom's main east coast terminal, industry sources said.

Riyadh is exporting around 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil to world markets, with Ras Tanura handling most of it. The terminal has the capacity to export 6 million bpd. It was unclear how much oil the terminal was exporting on Friday and national oil company Saudi Aramco declined to make any comment.

In an interview with Reuters in July, Vice Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, who is in charge of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said he was concerned that al Qaeda might attack oil facilities from the sea. He said the unsuccessful attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in February had made him especially wary. "When I look at that, my first reaction is that they (al Qaeda) are going to turn to the sea. I recognize that when they are thwarted in one direction they turn to another."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061027/ts_nm/energy_saudi_threat_dc

keith

11-30-2006, 04:28 AM

Stepping Into Iraq
Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves

By Nawaf Obaid
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A23

In February 2003, a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, warned President Bush that he would be "solving one problem and creating five more" if he removed Saddam Hussein by force. Had Bush heeded his advice, Iraq would not now be on the brink of full-blown civil war and disintegration.

One hopes he won't make the same mistake again by ignoring the counsel of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who said in a speech last month that "since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited." If it does, one of the first consequences will be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.

Over the past year, a chorus of voices has called for Saudi Arabia to protect the Sunni community in Iraq and thwart Iranian influence there. Senior Iraqi tribal and religious figures, along with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries, have petitioned the Saudi leadership to provide Iraqi Sunnis with weapons and financial support. Moreover, domestic pressure to intervene is intense. Major Saudi tribal confederations, which have extremely close historical and communal ties with their counterparts in Iraq, are demanding action. They are supported by a new generation of Saudi royals in strategic government positions who are eager to see the kingdom play a more muscular role in the region.

Because King Abdullah has been working to minimize sectarian tensions in Iraq and reconcile Sunni and Shiite communities, because he gave President Bush his word that he wouldn't meddle in Iraq (and because it would be impossible to ensure that Saudi-funded militias wouldn't attack U.S. troops), these requests have all been refused. They will, however, be heeded if American troops begin a phased withdrawal from Iraq. As the economic powerhouse of the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam and the de facto leader of the world's Sunni community (which comprises 85 percent of all Muslims), Saudi Arabia has both the means and the religious responsibility to intervene.

Just a few months ago it was unthinkable that President Bush would prematurely withdraw a significant number of American troops from Iraq. But it seems possible today, and therefore the Saudi leadership is preparing to substantially revise its Iraq policy. Options now include providing Sunni military leaders (primarily ex-Baathist members of the former Iraqi officer corps, who make up the backbone of the insurgency) with the same types of assistance -- funding, arms and logistical support -- that Iran has been giving to Shiite armed groups for years.

Another possibility includes the establishment of new Sunni brigades to combat the Iranian-backed militias. Finally, Abdullah may decide to strangle Iranian funding of the militias through oil policy. If Saudi Arabia boosted production and cut the price of oil in half, the kingdom could still finance its current spending. But it would be devastating to Iran, which is facing economic difficulties even with today's high prices. The result would be to limit Tehran's ability to continue funneling hundreds of millions each year to Shiite militias in Iraq and elsewhere.

Both the Sunni insurgents and the Shiite death squads are to blame for the current bloodshed in Iraq. But while both sides share responsibility, Iraqi Shiites don't run the risk of being exterminated in a civil war, which the Sunnis clearly do. Since approximately 65 percent of Iraq's population is Shiite, the Sunni Arabs, who make up a mere 15 to 20 percent, would have a hard time surviving any full-blown ethnic cleansing campaign.

What's clear is that the Iraqi government won't be able to protect the Sunnis from Iranian-backed militias if American troops leave. Its army and police cannot be relied on to do so, as tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen have infiltrated their ranks. Worse, Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, cannot do anything about this, because he depends on the backing of two major leaders of Shiite forces.

There is reason to believe that the Bush administration, despite domestic pressure, will heed Saudi Arabia's advice. Vice President Cheney's visit to Riyadh last week to discuss the situation (there were no other stops on his marathon journey) underlines the preeminence of Saudi Arabia in the region and its importance to U.S. strategy in Iraq. But if a phased troop withdrawal does begin, the violence will escalate dramatically.

In this case, remaining on the sidelines would be unacceptable to Saudi Arabia. To turn a blind eye to the massacre of Iraqi Sunnis would be to abandon the principles upon which the kingdom was founded. It would undermine Saudi Arabia's credibility in the Sunni world and would be a capitulation to Iran's militarist actions in the region.

To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks -- it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse.

The writer, an adviser to the Saudi government, is managing director of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project in Riyadh and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The opinions expressed here are his own and do not reflect official Saudi policy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801277.html

Vancouver

12-05-2006, 12:40 AM

139 arrested in KSA sweep, said to be al-Qaida
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/02/saudi.sleeper/index.html

Petronas

12-08-2006, 11:34 AM

Saudi security forces battle with Qaeda suspects
Friday, December 08, 2006

The Saudi Interior Ministry said on Thursday that two police officers had been killed in a firefight with gunmen suspected of having links to Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror network.

The gunbattle took place between armed men holed up near a prison in the kingdom’s commercial capital of Jeddah. An Interior Ministry statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, confirmed: “Guards on duty around Al-Ruwis prison came under fire from a nearby building, leading to the death of two security force members.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\12\08\story_8-12-2006_pg7_48

Petronas

12-12-2006, 12:11 AM

Arab states study shared nuclear program
Sun Dec 10, 5:29 PM ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The oil-rich Arab states on the Persian Gulf said Sunday that they will consider starting a joint nuclear program for peaceful purposes. The announcement comes as the U.S. and its allies allege Iran is developing atomic weapons in violation of treaty commitments and appears to be a muscle-flexing gesture to the gulf's Persian state. It also was sure to ratchet up concerns about a regional nuclear arms race.

Issued after a two-day meeting of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, the statement said the group "commissioned a study" on setting up "a common program in the area of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," which would abide by international standards and laws. The statement read by Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah, secretary-general of the political and economic alliance, did not elaborate on the plan by the group — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gulf_summit_nuclear

keith

12-23-2006, 10:14 AM

The Saudis are showing they haven't outlived their usefulness.

December 22, 2006
Bickering Saudis Struggle for an Answer to Iran’s Rising Influence in the Middle East

By HASSAN M. FATTAH
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 21 — At a late-night reading this week, a self-styled poet raised his hand for silence and began a riff on neighboring Iraq, in the old style of Bedouin storytellers.

“Saddam Hussein was a real leader who deserved our support,” he began, making up the lines as he went. “He kept Iraq stable and peaceful,” he added, “and most of all he fought back the Iranians.” He continued, “His one mistake was invading Kuwait.”

Across the kingdom, in both official and casual conversation, once-quiet concern over the chaos in Iraq and Iran’s growing regional influence has burst into the open.

Saudi newspapers now denounce Iran’s growing power. Religious leaders here, who view Shiism as heresy, have begun talking about a “Persian onslaught” that threatens Islam. In the salons and diwans of Riyadh, the “Iranian threat” is raised almost as frequently as the stock market.

“Iran has become more dangerous than Israel itself,” said Sheik Musa bin Abdulaziz, editor of the magazine Al Salafi, who describes himself as a moderate Salafi, a fundamentalist Muslim movement. “The Iranian revolution has come to renew the Persian presence in the region. This is the real clash of civilizations.”

Many here say a showdown with Iran is inevitable. After several years of a thaw in relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Saudis are growing concerned that Iran may build a nuclear bomb and become the de facto superpower in the region.

In recent weeks, the Saudis, with other Persian Gulf countries, have announced plans to develop peaceful nuclear power. Saudi officials publicly welcomed the Iraqi Harith al-Dhari, whose Muslim Scholars Association has links to the insurgency, during a visit in October, and they have indicated that they may support Iraq’s Sunnis over the majority Shiites with links to Iran. All were meant to send a message to Iran.

“You need to create a strategic challenge to Iran,” said Steve Clemons, senior fellow and director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. “To some degree, what the Saudis are doing is puffing up because they see nobody else in the region doing so.”

Yet a growing debate here has centered on how Iran should be confronted: head on, with Saudi Arabia throwing its lot in with the full force of the United States, or diplomatically, with a grand bargain Iran would find hard to refuse?

The apparent split burst into the open last week when Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, abruptly resigned after just 15 months. The resignation is seen by many here as part of a long-running battle over Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy.

On Tuesday, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the country’s ailing foreign minister, confirmed the ambassador’s resignation, citing personal reasons. Privately some Saudi officials and analysts with knowledge of the situation say Prince Turki resigned over deep differences with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the national security minister and former Washington ambassador, over how to deal with Iran.

Prince Bandar is believed to favor the tough American approach of confronting Iran, analysts say, while Prince Turki advocates more diplomatic tactics, including negotiating with Iran.

If this is the case, then the successor to Prince Turki as Saudi ambassador — Adel al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to King Abdullah — is a wild card, Saudi and American officials said Thursday.

Polished and American-educated, Mr. Jubeir, 44, once worked for Prince Bandar when he was ambassador to Washington. Mr. Jubeir became well known as the public face of Saudi Arabia, defending Saudi policy after the Sept. 11 attacks, appearing on talk shows and escorting NBC’s White House correspondent at the time, Campbell Brown, around town.

But Saudi officials said that Mr. Jubeir did not necessarily share Prince Bandar’s opinions. “Basically, the king is putting his own man in America,” one Saudi official said. “Adel will be a direct line between the king and the administration.”

Mr. Clemons, whose blog, The Washington Note, first reported Mr. Jubeir’s appointment on Wednesday, said Mr. Jubeir “is someone who can help de-escalate tensions between quadroons of the royal family. I don’t think he necessarily brings Bandar’s views on Iran to the table.”

Just days before President Bush met with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the outlines of what seemed to be a new plan were made public by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi security consultant. In an op-ed article in The Washington Post, he said that if the United States withdrew from Iraq, the Saudis would back the Sunnis “to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.”

Saudi Arabia said Mr. Obaid did not speak on its behalf, and he was subsequently dismissed from his position. He is widely expected to return to the government in some capacity. And King Abdullah warned Vice President Dick Cheney during a meeting in Riyadh three weeks ago that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis if the Americans withdrew from Iraq and a civil war ensued.

“The possibility of having conflict is very high,” said Abdelrahman Rashid, managing director of the satellite news channel Al Arabiya and a respected Saudi columnist. “Who will face the Iranians tomorrow? Just the Israelis alone? I don’t think that is possible.” Prince Turki, Mr. Clemons and palace insiders say, had lobbied Washington for a broader policy that eschews a military confrontation in favor of a policy that will strike Iran’s interests. In effect, Mr. Clemons said, Prince Turki had sought a plan mirroring some of the recommendations in the Iraq Study Group report but with a harder edge.

“Turki is not playing nice guy at all,” he said. “Essentially, the Saudis are engagers. They want to weave together a blurry ambiguity to what they want to do.”

A member of the Saudi royal family with knowledge of the discussions between Mr. Cheney and King Abdullah said the king had presented Mr. Cheney with a plan to raise oil production to force down the price, in hopes of causing economic turmoil for Iran without becoming directly involved in a confrontation.

Shortly afterward, Mr. Obaid’s op-ed article was published, building on earlier public comments that Saudi Arabia intends to get serious about Iran and may back Sunnis in Iraq in the event of an abrupt United States pullout. Neither Prince Bandar nor Prince Turki was available for comment for this article. An adviser to Prince Bandar said there were no divisions over policy, and many officials have been at pains in recent days to prove there is no split.

Many Saudis have grown openly critical of the country’s policy on Iraq, citing its adherence to an American-centric policy at the cost of Saudi interests. More pessimistic analysts here say the country has lost significant strength and stature in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas, while Iran, with its populist, anti-American agenda, has benefited.

“The Saudis made a big mistake by following the Americans when they had no plan,” said Khalid al-Dakhil, a professor of political sociology at King Saud University in Riyadh. “If the Saudis had intervened earlier and helped the Sunnis they could have found a political solution to their differences, instead of the bloodshed we are seeing today.”

Last week, a group of prominent Saudi clerics and university professors called on the government to begin actively backing Iraq’s Sunnis. The clerics described what they called a Persian-Jewish partnership besieging the Sunnis.

“There is a segment in this country that will do everything the U.S. wants,” said Turki al-Rasheed, who runs a group that seeks to encourage democracy in the Persian Gulf. “But fortunately the big leaders know this whole agenda will take us to hell.”

Rasheed Abou al-Samh contributed reporting from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, and Helene Cooper from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/world/middleeast/22saudi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Vancouver

01-31-2007, 03:56 AM

Jamal Khalifa, a gem dealer and brother-in-law of Usama bin Ladin, has been killed by a large group in Madagascar.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16898485/

Petronas

02-18-2007, 03:39 PM

Saudi shift marks power play
February 19, 2007

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sat down in Jordan last September for a secret summit with Saudi Arabia's national security director, Bandar bin Sultan. It was a curious postscript to the recent war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah, which five months on has clearly started a thaw in one of the region's most entrenched stand-offs.

In Washington this month, long-serving Saudi ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal made an extraordinary appearance at a conference held by US Jewish leaders to mark the appointment of a State Department official to combat anti-semitism. Days earlier, according to Israeli officials, Saudi monarch King Abdullah had told feuding Palestinian leaders he had summonsed to Mecca that their real feud lay not with their historic foe, Israel, but with a new regional menace - Iran.

And herein lies the driver of the House of Saud's canoodling - a "my enemy's enemy is my friend" world-view that sees the Jewish state as a crucial part of a regional bulwark against a resurgent Persian empire, and is prepared to look past decades of enmity to involve Israel.

Things have come a long way from the days the Saudi regime branded Israel as the loathed "Zionist enemy that occupies Jerusalem". And, despite the expedient motives, the Olmert Government is starting to see an open alliance with Riyadh - maybe even diplomatic ties - as a real possibility. "They are making very unambiguous noises about Iran being the main threat," said Eran Lerman, a former deputy chief of Israeli military intelligence. "The Palestinians came back shocked from Mecca. The message was, 'Forget about Israel, the threat is Iran'."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneyah and his politburo chief, Khaled Meshaal, ended up doing a deal in Mecca, after months of murderous infighting among their followers, at the behest of the Saudis, who have since couched the initiative as a means to kick-start stagnant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Prospects of peace in the Holy Land were again cited last week as a reason for Prince Faisal's bonhomie with Jewish leaders.

But new friends for Israel are hard to come by in the Arab world. And, while happy with the overtures from the Saudis, the motives are clear. So, too, are the potential strategic gains. "Saudi Arabia is a Wahabi state," said Lerman, now Middle East director of the American Jewish Committee. "They began their term as being murderously anti-Shia, and have not really moderated much ever since."

Ever since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected 18 months ago, Riyadh has been wary of his regional ambitions. They see the hand of the Shia Persians in Iraq, and in southern Lebanon, where Iranian-trained Hezbollah guerillas took the fight to Israel last summer. And they fear the impact of a possible Shia uprising among their own Shia minority.

Theologically, the House of Saud - the keeper of the two holiest Islamic shrines - rejects the Shia interpretation of Islam. Culturally, the kingdom does not want the Iranians playing a bigger role in the Arab world. Defensively, it fears Iran's nuclear ambitions. And economically, Riyadh's massive oil revenues could be hit if oil-rich Iran moves on to a bigger stage.

The Saudi rearguard action is to align with Sunni states - and anyone else. Its overtures to Israel have been well-received by Jerusalem's most important backers, the Bush regime, which could well do with progress in at least one Middle Eastern headache - the Palestinian question - before their term in office ends next year.

"This is worrisome," Lerman cautions. "Because I don't think Israel should be drawn into a Shia-Sunni thing. They see Iran as deadly to us both, and therefore we are seeing a reorientation of their policies. The fact the Saudis chose Mecca for the summit wasn't by coincidence. This is about religious identity and sending a message that a good Sunni doesn't play into the hands of Shia manipulators. When you're about to be hanged, it helps clarify your thinking."

The perceived threat from Iran has transformed Saudi Arabia into the cornerstone of regional Sunni hegemony of the so-called moderate states - an image that is hard to reconcile with the strict burkha-clad Saudi society. But the kingdom's strategic value makes its democratic shortcomings easier for the US to overlook. As well as helping out in the Palestinian territories, Saudi involvement could prop up the struggling pro-Western Government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and help to quell the sectarian chaos of Iraq.

A pivotal test of the workability of the new Saudi role will come in Jerusalem today, when the marketing of the new Palestinian Government that Riyadh brokered will start in earnest with Olmert and visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The key selling point of the Mecca deal was an implicit recognition of Israel in a new administration where the reins of power are shared between Hamas and the Fatah party it democratically defeated one year ago. Hamas has stopped short of directly acknowledging the Jewish state, with indirect recognition - through agreeing to respect past peace deals - the furthest it has strayed from its hardline mandate. However, this does not appear to be enough to convince the world to do business with it.

As Rice was preparing to depart for her ninth trip to the Middle East since taking office, her mandarins were trying hard to allay expectations from the tripartite summit.

There would be no talk about final status agreements, they said - disappointing Abbas. Nor was there likely to be room to lift the aid boycotts on the West Bank and Gaza, as long as the new Government continues to reject demands from the so-called Quartet, the international group of key backers.

Abbas and Haniyeh returned from Mecca confident they had done enough to appease the Quartet and ease the suffering of their people, many of whom have not seen a pay cheque in almost 12 months. The well-pleased Saudis waved the Palestinians off with a $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) cheque that blatantly broke the international aid boycott, but which presciently has not raised a murmur of opposition.

In the months before the deal was finally done, Abbas had said implicit recognition of Israel was the best the West could hope for at this stage. Hamas would not even table the other two demands, full recognition and a renunciation of violence.

But the Saudi-brokered deal appears to have created more problems for the US-Israeli alliance than answers. Today's summit seems sure to herald another dilemma - how to reject the new Palestinian Government without sending the Saudis packing.

New friendships need nurturing. And with the kingdom willing to play a role in all the four crisis points in the Middle East, Israel and the US will need to offer some significant compromises of their own.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21247705-2703,00.html

Petronas

02-27-2007, 12:38 AM

Three French nationals shot dead in Saudi Arabia. Saudi police are treating incident as a terrorist attack
February 26, 2007, 10:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

A fourth is in serious condition. The attackers are said to have machine-gunned a group of French nationals, some of whom were Muslims making a pilgrimage to Mecca, near the ruins of Madain Saleh in NW Saudi Arabia. The victims were residents of Riyadh. Women and children who were part of the group were unhurt. This is the first terrorist attack on foreigners in the oil kingdom in five years.

On Feb. 15, DEBKAfile quoted exclusively from the February issue of Sawt a Jihad, a publication put out by the Saudi wing of al Qaeda, which reported preparations for quality attacks against the “crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3882

NYer

03-01-2007, 03:50 PM

Shiites to kill Saudi King (http://www.antimullah.com/) 12/18/2007.

Al-Furqan Website carries on its "Documents" page a posting by the "website supervisor" under the headline:

"Document: The Shiites will kill King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz on this day of this year."

The posting says: "The Shiites have been talking about the killing of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz in more than one of their books, to the extent that they mentioned the day, month, and year on which the custodian of the two holy mosques will be killed.

According to their stories, King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz will be killed on 9 Dhu-al-Hijjah 1428 Hegira, corresponding to 18 December 2007.

"The published document notes that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz will be killed one month before the advent of the rafidah's [rejectionists, derogatory for Shiite] Al-Mahdi. They have been waiting for this mythical Al-Mahdi for more than 1200 years and killing the custodian of the two holy mosques will speed up the advent of their Al-Mahdi who will institute the grand Shiite state.

"Based on these stories, we should be aware that the rafidah are getting ready to attack the royal palace during the mentioned period. The attack could be carried out by Saudi nationals with strong cooperation from the Iranian state.

Original Arabic Here. (http://frqan.com/docs.php?docid=65)

Petronas

03-10-2007, 03:50 PM

I am posting just the link because the document in 19 pages long. Remember when reading this that, despite Al Qaeda's threat to the House of Saud, Saudi Arabia also is to a very large extent the source of the problem.

INITIATIVES AND ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA TO COMBAT TERRORISM
DECEMBER 2006

http://www.saudiembassy.net/ReportLink/KSA%20WOT%20Report%20Dec06.pdf

keith

06-21-2007, 12:02 AM

Saudi Prince Slams Clergy for Iraq Insurgency
Interior Minister Criticizes Religious Establishment's Role in Encouraging Youth

Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister has warned the conservative Islamic state's clergy that they should discourage Saudis, including their own children, from going to fight in Iraq.

In a speech before hundreds of clerics, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz appeared to suggest that some members of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious establishment had not doing enough to prevent Saudi youth from joining the insurgency in Iraq.

"Do you know that your sons who go to Iraq are used only for blowing themselves up? Iraqi officials told me that themselves," a leading member of the royal family said in comments carried by state media.

"They are brought to put on explosive belts or blow themselves up in cars ... Innocents die. Are you happy for your children to become instruments of murder?" he added.

Nayef announced earlier this week that two religious courts had been established in the Kingdom — one in Riyadh and one in Jeddah — to speed up the trials of terrorism suspects apprehended in the country.

Prince Nayef also called on Saudi parents to keep a close eye on their children’s activities, adding that those who reported their son’s terrorist activities were serving the country. “They will be serving their sons or brothers by reporting them. The government will return them to the right path,” he said.

Nayef also acknowledged that much remained to be done on the ideological side in the Kingdom’s battle against terrorism. “We need greater efforts from religious scholars, sheikhs, thinkers and people working in educational institutions,” he said. “Unfortunately, these efforts have not yet been seen and they need to happen as soon as possible.”

The Prince confirmed that Iran is holding Saudi terror suspects, and acknowledged there may also be Saudis in Lebanon, but he denied that Saudi authorities had received any terror suspects from Iraq. “It is unfortunate that Iraq has become a fertile ground for training and assisting in terrorist operations,” he said. The minister said that those being trained in Iraq as terrorists were being exported to Saudi Arabia and other countries, a matter which he says is of “deep concern” to Saudi authorities.

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3270/Saudi_Prince_Slams_Clergy_for_Iraq_Insurgency

keith

06-21-2007, 01:44 AM

The Magic Kingdom’s Wild New Ride
By Jean-François Seznec, Afshin Molavi
Posted June 2007

Everywhere you look, it seems, the Middle East is in flames. Yet, almost unnoticed by outside observers, the most conservative country in the region has embarked on a historic journey of reform

Last week, a senior official in one of the world’s wealthiest states suggested that one third of all government jobs should go to women.

Switzerland? Denmark? France?

Wrong, the country is Saudi Arabia, and the senior official is Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the crown prince. In a state that has embraced the most misogynous readings of the Koran and a society that remains deeply patriarchal, Prince Sultan’s statement was truly revolutionary.

As Sultan’s older brother, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, visits Spain, Poland, and France this week, it may not be obvious that Saudi Arabia is undergoing a substantive transformation, but it is. Although the Kingdom’s diplomatic exploits capture the headlines—its efforts to counter Iranian influence in the Arab world, support for peace in Lebanon, and the Saudi-sponsored Arab League peace initiative to name just a few—its domestic changes are likely to be more far-reaching, durable, and consequential.

The Saudi monarch is pushing forward a surprisingly reformist domestic agenda, but his task is delicate. Five key actors will determine how this drama plays out: The 20 or so senior princes (including the king), the civil service, the merchant class, younger princes, and the religious establishment. King Abdullah can win this fight, but he can’t do it alone. By seeing Saudi Arabia as more than just a place to sell arms, buy oil, or fight terror, Europe and the United States can tilt the balance of power toward more reformist elements and marginalize the forces of religious reaction. The stakes couldn’t be higher: King Abdullah is battling not just stubborn conservatives and parts of his own family who are resistant to change, but Saudi history itself.

Modern Saudi Arabia took form in the middle of the 18th century, when a puritanical Islamic reformer, Mohammed Ibn Abdulwahab, made an alliance with an Arabian tribal prince, Mohammed ibn Saud. It was a trade of religious legitimacy for political power, an alliance that endures today. The trouble is that the Islam of Mohammed Ibn Abdulwahab adheres to a narrow definition of the Salaf, the traditions and practices emulated by companions of the prophet Mohammed, and has narrowed further through subsequent interpretation by members of the Saudi religious establishment. It is, as a result, deeply antimodern. (When the late King Faisal sought to introduce television in the mid-1960s, the religious establishment balked—that is, until the king showed them an image of a religious man chanting verses from the Koran on the black-and-white screen.)

This alliance—of an antimodern religious establishment and a ruling family with modernizing elements—has shaped modern Saudi Arabia, often for the worse. In the early 1980s, the late King Fahd, fearful of the effects of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and reeling from a Saudi extremist attack on the Grand Mosque of Mecca, sought to co-opt the more conservative Salafists. So, he made a bargain: While the king and the civil service would still control the hardware—defense, finance, oil, and foreign policy—he essentially handed over the software—the education system and the courts—to conservative forces.

During the next two decades, the Salafists proceeded to reprogram Saudi society: Religious police roamed the streets, confronting those who did not pray or women who showed too much hair; extremist teachers spewed anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Shiite invective; religious courts stifled women’s rights; well-funded Saudi universities created a generation of Islamic studies majors with few marketable skills; and funds poured into all corners of the Muslim world to support extreme Salafist thinking. All the while, the clerics sought to shut out foreign influences that could corrupt Saudi morals.

Of course, Saudi Arabia was not Afghanistan under the Taliban. Other social forces counterpunched, most notably the civil service, the prominent merchant families, the urban intelligentsia, and a handful of modernizing princes. Meanwhile, regions of the Kingdom with histories of cosmopolitanism—most notably the Hijaz in western Saudi Arabia where Mecca is located—resisted the encroaching social conservatism. Moreover, the tens of thousands of Saudi elites who studied in the United States in the 1970s and 80s brought back with them modern ideas about business and economic development; satellite television, which first appeared in the early 1990s, brought still more “corrupting” foreign influences into millions of Saudi living rooms.

Still, the empowerment of the Salafists in the King Fahd era was enough to stunt the Kingdom’s development and raise religious radicalism to dangerous new heights. That’s why King Abdullah’s quiet reversal is so important—and potentially revolutionary. Through acts small and large, he has already marginalized the Salafists in favor of the civil service and merchants, who have, in return, used their traditional spheres of influence—business, trade, and government policy—to promote change in society.

Open-minded ministers running the Information Ministry and the Labor Ministry have allowed a mild renaissance in the Saudi media and pushed for greater access to employment for women—anathema to the Salafists. Ambitious Saudi officials have pledged to make the Kingdom one of the 10 most competitive economies in the world. Already, in order to qualify for World Trade Organization status (achieved in December 2005), Saudi Arabia has changed or refined more than 50 laws, all of which open the Saudi economy and thus society to more interaction with the world. Saudi Arabia ranks among the highest in World Bank regional studies of business climate and public-sector reforms.

Perhaps most illustrative of King Abdullah’s vision is the new university to be opened in his name. It will focus on science and technology. It will have coeducational classes (another small revolution). And it won’t be in the hands of the Salafists: A separate curriculum is being planned to ensure that the remaining holdouts in the education ministry don’t scuttle things. What’s more, a mood of dialogue has taken hold: the King Abdulaziz National Dialogue Center, named after King Abdullah’s father, brings together leading figures in public life—including the Shiites, who make up 10 to 15 percent of the Kingdom’s population and are despised by the Salafists—to debate pressing issues of the day. And technological advances are breaking down social barriers: Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones have become an essential item for the young Saudi who wants to meet members of the opposite sex. And the religious police, the fearsome mutawain, have been reined in.

The Salafists, however, are not entirely knocked out. When Saudis voted in municipal elections last year, Islamist candidates were the big winners. Some of the more establishment, conservative Salafists maintain close ties to the 20 or so senior princes who command key positions. Salafists might lead calls to reverse the emergence of women in the workforce, which could gain some traction given the patriarchal nature of Saudi society. Extreme Salafists have also resisted the Internet, key educational reforms, and the emergence of Shiite figures in national debates.

Here’s where Europe and the United States can step in. Europe and the United States should embrace Saudi Arabia’s newfound economic openness with strategic investments and trade agreements aimed at bolstering the Kingdom’s manufacturing and industrial capacity, creating jobs for the country’s growing middle class. By doing this, Washington and Brussels will be supporting the civil service and merchants who favor modernization and contributing to the marginalization of Salafists. A growing, industrializing economy will provide a virtuous loop that reinforces education reform as more Saudis seek the skills to compete. Issue number one on the minds of many Saudis—nearly two thirds of whom are under 30—is unemployment. If the civil service, the merchants, and the reform-minded king can create new jobs, their new alliance will gain the legitimacy of success.

Part of the king’s jobs strategy includes the creation of six massive new special economic zones (essentially free-trade zones) that will provide much-needed diversification to an economy still dominated by oil. It will also contribute to the “backdoor” modernization that takes place as middle classes grow and economies become interlinked with the world. The zones are seeking joint ventures in research and high technology from the United States and the European Union, and the zones are also expected to be a freer environment socially as well.

A modernizing, moderate Saudi Arabia could be a lodestar for an Islamic world in turmoil. For most of modern Saudi history, the Kingdom has simply poured fuel on the burning oils of the Muslim world. Getting its own house in order by empowering the forces of modernization is a positive first step. But Europe and the United States need to realize that they have an important role to play in writing the country’s next chapter.

Jean-François Seznec, a specialist on Saudi Arabia’s economy, is visiting associate professor at Georgetown University.
Afshin Molavi, director of the Middle East Global Initiative at the New America Foundation, recently returned from a research visit to Saudi Arabia.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3891

keith

06-21-2007, 02:17 AM

I have also read (and posted in R&R) about attacks against the religious police in Saudi. Maybe baby are occurring.

S.Arabia blocks extra funding to religious police
June 19, 2007

RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia's consultative body has blocked a recommendation to increase funding provided by the government to the kingdom's Muttawa religious police, local press reported Tuesday.

The Majlis Al Shura, or consultative council with no legislative powers, has rejected a recommendation by its religious affairs committee to fund the opening of new Muttawa centers and pay bonuses to its members, newspapers said.

"Providing support to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is currently not suitable because it would send the wrong signal to society," member Khalil Al Khalil said in a Majlis debate, Al Watan reported.

"People are raising many questions about the behavior of the commission and about the accusations against it of misuse of power," he added.

Five members of the Muttawa were arrested and accused earlier this month of responsibility for the death of a man who was in their custody over breaking Saudi Arabia's strict segregation laws.

The Muttawa, who enforce a strict Islamic moral code, have also faced investigation in the Mecca region after an Asian woman fell to her death from the fourth floor of a building that was stormed by religious police in May.

The interior ministry issued a May 2006 decree aimed at reining in the Muttawa by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects but to hand them over to the regular police instead.

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070619-082818-6395r

keith

06-22-2007, 05:34 AM

An Unprecedented Uproar Over Saudi Religious Police

By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 22, 2007; A14

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Three members of Saudi Arabia's religious police will stand trial this week for their involvement in the death of a man in their custody, an unprecedented action against the powerful enforcers of the country's strict moral code.

The death, the second in the custody of the religious police in the past month, has triggered calls for a reevaluation of the force's role and responsibilities, and generated a media uproar -- a first in a country where criticism of the religious establishment had until recently been off-limits.

"Things have gotten so out of hand that the commission has taken on the roles of policeman, judge and jury. Its employees exercise the right to suspect, accuse, detain and punish on the spot while they also enjoy immunity from any kind of accountability or questioning," Arab News columnist Abeer Mishkhas wrote this week.

The two cases, which involve a man accused of socializing with an unrelated woman in the northern city of Tabuk and an alleged alcohol peddler in the capital, Riyadh, are still under investigation. Both men died after being detained by the religious police force, officially known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Authorities are also investigating an incident in which an Indonesian maid in Jiddah jumped to her death from the window of a fourth-floor apartment when it was raided by the commission, the beating of a university student in the southern city of Najran who allegedly had inappropriate photos in his cellphone, and the arrest of two brothers accused of alcohol possession.

Newspapers have splashed stories about the commission on their front pages since the first death. The criticism has roused the commission, long known for being aloof and dismissive of the press, and its members have for the first time given almost weekly briefings to the news media.

Last week, commission chief Ibrahim al-Ghaith denied claims by a human rights group, the National Society for Human Rights, that commission members obtained confessions by force. He also announced the establishment of a legal department to advise commission members. Ghaith had earlier said that the commission was studying ways to improve the conduct of members in the field and that stricter rules for arrests and raids would be put in place.

Saudi Arabia's powerful interior minister, Prince Nayef, played down the commission's role in the two deaths.

"It's two cases, no more, no less," he said at a news conference Sunday. "And initial investigations prove that the commission did not do anything to cause their deaths. But the courts will decide on the matter according to the investigation. . . . I'm feeling that there are those who are fishing for any mistakes or any negative actions from the commission and trying to magnify them, and that is not appropriate."

The commission is the enforcement arm of Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, which imposes the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, named after its 18th-century founder, Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab. The commission's mandate is based on the Koranic verse, "And from among you there should be a party who invite to good and enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall be successful."

The commission has about 500 offices across the kingdom and employs about 10,000 people. Members who work in the field wear badges but no special uniforms. As signs of piety, they sport scraggly beards and red-and-white checkered head scarves without black cords to hold them down. Their traditional white robes fall slightly above their ankles.

They patrol the streets to make sure shops are closed during prayer times, unrelated men and women do not mingle, and women are properly covered. Their mandate also includes enforcing a ban on prostitution, pornography and the consumption or sale of alcohol.

Until last year, commission members arrested, detained and interrogated those suspected of moral infractions. But public complaints led the Interior Ministry to issue a decree limiting the commission's powers to arrests only. The commission was to hand over suspects to police, who would decide whether to refer them to the prosecutor.

The Wahhabi establishment's influence has waned over the past five years, and people have been allowed greater personal freedoms, though still limited by Western standards. Wahhabis were first criticized by former Wahhabis who said the ideology's focus on enmity toward those who do not believe in the strict creed was partly responsible for violent militancy inside and outside the kingdom.

But the establishment retains tremendous clout. Newspaper editors and writers have been fired or banned from writing for criticizing the Wahhabi ideology, and many remain wary about voicing an opinion about the commission.

"People hesitate to criticize the commission because they're afraid they'll be viewed as criticizing religion," said Sabria Jawhar, the Jiddah bureau chief of the English-language Saudi Gazette. "Having a commission is part of our religion."

Saad al-Sowayan, a professor of folklore and anthropology at King Saud University in Riyadh, said Saudis have lived in fear of the commission for decades but have finally started to speak out against it.

"The signs are that the heyday of the Control Squad is perhaps over," Sowayan wrote in a recent article on the London-based Web site SaudiDebate.com. "Slowly but increasingly, irate Saudis are literally fighting back. Local newspapers have reported that within the last two years, physical attacks by the public against the Squad have been on the rise."

But Adel al-Toraifi, a political analyst, said the commission would remain powerful. "I don't think the government will change the powers of the commission, because they believe it is deeply supported by most of Saudi society. For a majority of Saudis, the commission is doing God's work and constitutes a part of their faith," Toraifi said.

A government statement published in newspapers Thursday said three commission members would face a trial Saturday in the death of Ahmad al-Bluwi, 50, a former border patrol guard who was arrested June 1 on suspicion that he had invited a woman who was not related to him into his car. He died several hours later in the commission's office.

On May 23, more than a dozen commission members raided the home of Salman al-Huraisi, 28. The commission said it found large amounts of alcohol. The members arrested everyone there, including Huraisi's father, Mohammad, and handcuffed Huraisi and beat him, said Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who is representing the family.

Commission members continued to beat Huraisi in front of his father at their offices, his brother Ali said. When he fell unconscious, they called an ambulance, but he was already dead, Lahem said.

"People are dying in commission custody now because the commission has been brutally abusing prisoners for years but never held accountable before," Lahem said.

Huraisi's brother Ali said he was not against the commission and respected its work. "The problem is the abuse of power," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062102466.html

keith

07-02-2007, 12:08 AM

Excesses of Saudi religious police begin to stir a backlash

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 1, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: As the car stopped outside a Riyadh amusement park, two bearded men dragged the man driver from behind the wheel and took the three women passengers on a wild ride of more than an hour, bouncing over sidewalks and finally abandoning them on a darkened street.

The women at first thought they had been kidnapped by terrorists. The two men however, said they were religious police.

It might have gone down as just one more excess of zealousness by the forces charged with upholding Islamic modesty, except that Umm Faisal, the senior of three women, did something that is believed unprecedented in Saudi Arabia: She went to court.

On Monday, four years after the incident, the latest chapter of the legal battle being waged by this 50-year-old mother of five reopens before Riyadh's Grievances Court, which handles damages suits for abuses by government and public figures.

The unusual publicity surrounding Umm Faisal's story comes on top of two cases involving the death in religious police custody of two Saudi men — one arrested for allegedly consuming alcohol, another for being alone with a woman not of his family.

A trial opened Sunday against three religious police officers and a fourth man in the death of Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, the man detained for being alone with a woman. Relatives demanded the death penalty against the defendants.

Taken together, the cases threaten to undermine the authority of the force's employer, the powerful, independent body called the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Since the commission's creation more than six decades ago, there has been no known public legal action taken against its members despite complaints they occasionally overstep their boundaries. The public view has tended to be that whatever their faults, they are acting in Islam's name to defend morality.

But things may be changing.

The National Society for Human Rights, a nongovernment body, has issued a report which, according to the daily Arab News, levels a string of allegations at the religious police: abusive language, unsubstantiated accusations, humiliation of suspects during interrogation, beatings, unnecessary body searches, forced entry into private homes, coerced confessions.

The report, as well as the extensive coverage the cases have received and editorials calling for the commission's reform, suggest the government may act to regulate the force.

Another setback for the commission came in the appointed Consultative Council, the nearest thing to a parliament in Saudi Arabia. It rejected proposals to build more commission centers and give its members a 20 percent salary raise. While the council's actions are not binding, they reflect a general desire to curb the religious police's power.

"Society has developed and the relationship of other governmental bodies with the people has developed and become more human," said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi journalist. "Yet the commission has not changed.

"Society in principle doesn't reject the commission," he added. "But the commission's problem is that it doesn't have a proper job description."

Several media outlets have conducted informal surveys asking Saudis whether the commission should be dissolved. Some have said yes. While the polls may be unscientific, simply asking the question is significant.

Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the commission's head, dismissed the polls, saying the commission is "one of the oldest governmental agencies ... and not a cooperative that can be eliminated because of individual mistakes," according to the Al-Jazira newspaper.

The Saudi government is reluctant to tamper with its religious establishments for fear of angering conservatives and weakening its credentials as custodian of Islam's two holiest shrines. The conservative impulse has lately been illustrated by a request from 14 faculty members of King Saud University's medical school to ban male students from treating women and vice versa, on the grounds that handling bodies of the other sex is un-Islamic.

But there are signs the commission is acting to limit the damage to the religious police's reputation. It now has a spokesman and a legal department to guide its members. It has also handed over to the prosecution the four recruits implicated in the deaths in custody.

Umm Faisal — it's not her her full name, which is withheld in reports on the case — says she, her 21-year-old daughter and her Indonesian maid went to pick up her two teenage sons from the amusement park in the family's new Chevrolet Caprice.

"I kept asking the men, 'Are you terrorists?' They finally said they were members of the commission," she said. "When I asked what they wanted, they called me names, including adulteress."

Umm Faisal said the men drove so fast and badly that smoke came out of the car.

The men stopped the car, called their friends and asked them to pick them up. The women, who don't know how to drive (and can't anyway, under Saudi law), were left to the mercies of passers-by.

Umm Faisal headed to the police to lodge a complaint. "When questioned, the commission members claimed we were indecently covered," because her daughter's veil didn't cover her eyes, she said.

In early 2004 she filed suit at Riyadh's General Court, but says several judges pressed her to drop it and late last year the case was dismissed.

She then turned to the Grievances Court, which fined one official US$540 (€400) for mistreating the women and acquitted the other.

Umm Faisal isn't satisfied, and her appeal opens before the court on Monday.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/02/africa/ME-GEN-Saudi-Religious-Police.php

NYer

07-27-2007, 08:29 AM

Saudi Nuclear Program? (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13571)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/82/Morton_Umbrella_Girl.gif/180px-Morton_Umbrella_Girl.gif

Speculation alert ON

NYer

09-13-2007, 12:38 PM

Women Drivers? (http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD171007)

On September 4, 2007, the liberal Arab website Aafaq published a statement from the newly established League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, asking women to sign a message demanding that women be given the right to drive. The league plans to deliver the message to King 'Abdallah on Saudi Arabia's national holiday, September 23.

Now about that Burqa thing ...

NYer

09-13-2007, 02:26 PM

Saudis still filling Al Qaeda's coffers. (http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/us-saudis-still.html)

Our friends, the Saudis ...

Petronas

10-21-2007, 05:39 PM

Saudis still filling Al Qaeda's coffers.
Our friends, the Saudis ...Bush certifies Saudi Arabia as 'war on terror' ally
Saturday, October 20, 2007

US President George W. Bush certified Saudi Arabia as an anti-terrorism ally on Friday, weeks after a top US Treasury official sharply criticized the kingdom's record. Bush's move came in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, required under US law to free up aid from Washington to Riyadh, that the White House released to reporters.

"I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort," the president said.

In September, Stuart Levey, charged that Saudi Arabia has failed to prosecute the bankrollers of terror groups. Levey, the undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the US network ABC that not a single individual identified by the United States or the United Nations as a terror financier had been prosecuted by Saudi Arabia. "If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Levey told the ABC one day. "When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terror organizations ... then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is."

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal dismissed the criticism, saying Levey's public rebuke was at odds with private praise from US officials.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=86104

Petronas

11-02-2007, 02:48 PM

Someone has a sense of humor....

King Abdullah Visits Buckingham Palace; Greeted by Darth Vader Theme....
October 31, 2007

http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2007/10/king-abdullah-v.html

NYer

11-02-2007, 03:51 PM

King Abdullah Visits Buckingham Palace; Greeted by Darth Vader Theme....
October 31, 2007

http://www.dhadm.com/images/uploads/guinness_6pack_thumb.jpg

Brilliant!

Petronas

11-28-2007, 07:49 PM

Saudi police arrest 208 militants
Wednesday, 28 November 2007, 22:20 GMT

Saudi Arabia has arrested 208 suspected militants accused of planning a series of attacks, including one targeting a state oil installation. Interior Ministry Spokesman Gen Mansour al-Turki said the plot was against an oil facility in the east. Gen Turki said the suspected militants had been arrested over the past few months in various parts of the country.

Saudi Arabia has been battling Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda since a wave of bombings and shootings in 2003. Nearly 300 security personnel, civilians and militants have been killed since then.

Gen Turki said al-Qaeda militants were still trying to gain a foothold in Saudi Arabia using the internet to recruit followers. "There are people who believe this [al-Qaeda] ideology and they use this ideology to recruit people either inside Saudi Arabia or in any other part of the world," he told the BBC.

A cell of eight militants led by a foreigner was planning an "imminent" attack on an oil facility in an eastern province of the world's largest oil exporter, the interior ministry said in a statement.

A further 18 of those arrested were said to belong to a cell led by an "expert in launching missiles" which had infiltrated the country. "They were planning to smuggle eight missiles into the kingdom to carry out terrorist operations," the ministry said.

Another 22 suspects were part of a group that were plotting to assassinate Saudi clerics and security personnel, the statement added.

A "media cell" of 16 people, which aimed to promote "takfiri" ideology, was arrested in Medina, according to the interior ministry. Takfiris believe contemporary Muslim society has reverted to a state of unbelief (kufr) and thus consider legitimate both rebellion against the state and acts of violence against Muslim citizens.

In April, the Saudi authorities announced the capture of 170 suspects, some of whom they said had been training as pilots for suicide missions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7117463.stm

Petronas

11-28-2007, 09:12 PM

Saudi Arabia Releases 1,500 ‘Redeemed’ Prisoners
Monday, November 26, 2007

Saudi Arabia has released 1,500 extremists from its jails after they received intensive psychological and religious counseling. They were detained on charges of embracing ideologies that brand as infidels any Muslims who do not agree with them. Those released admitted to espousing “wrong” ideologies and they also expressed regret for wanting to drive out from the kingdom those whom they had previously referred to as infidels, the Saudi Al-Watan reported.

The operation was an initiative of the Saudi Interior Ministry. The program began a few years ago, aiming to redeem extremists from their bad ways. Committees were set up in 2004 to encourage prisoners to renounce their extremist beliefs. The committees were comprised of spiritual leaders, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists and Muslim scholars. An official said counseling had been provided for 3,200 people so far, and had brought about the release of 1,500.

Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States, has been dealing with Islamic terrorism since 2003. Terrorists with links to Al-Qa’ida have been targeting official institutions, diplomatic and economic interests and foreigners in an attempt to undermine the monarchy and drive out Westerners.

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=19696

NYer

11-29-2007, 04:17 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v138/ovilacondense/casablanca10.jpg

Round up the usual suspects!

al-Canine

12-03-2007, 04:49 PM

Saudi newspaper: Chinese-made missiles smuggled into kingdom

The Associated Press
Sunday, December 2, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: A Saudi Arabian newspaper said Sunday that suspected al-Qaida terrorists were allegedly able to smuggle eight Chinese-made missiles into the kingdom before they were arrested as part of a terror sweep.

The daily Okaz, which is deemed close to the government, quoting unnamed officials as saying militants wanted to use the missiles to allegedly target hotels and other buildings in the kingdom.

The newspaper did not further describe the missiles.

The Saudi Interior Ministry last week announced that it made its largest terror sweep to date, arresting 208 al-Qaida-linked militants in six separate arrests in recent months. One of the alleged terror cells was led by a non-Saudi missile expert, the ministry said.

The ministry said members of that cell were planning to smuggle eight missiles into the kingdom to carry out terrorist operations, but it did not say what kind of missiles or what the targets were. Okaz reported Sunday that the missiles were already inside Saudi Arabia.

The newspaper also quoted Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki as saying the leadership of another one of the alleged terror cells was based in another country. Al-Turki did not name the country.

Last week, the Interior Ministry said authorities arrested 112 alleged members of that cell during the terror sweep. The ministry said the cell was trying to smuggle men to Iraq and Afghanistan for training, after which they would be brought back to Saudi Arabia to try to carry out attacks in the kingdom.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/02/africa/ME-GEN-Saudi-Arrests-Missiles.php

American_Jihad

03-24-2010, 02:55 PM

Saudis Arrest 113 Militants Said to Have Qaeda Ties
3/24/10

CAIRO — Saudi Arabia said Wednesday its security forces had arrested 113 militants with ties to Al Qaeda who had been planning attacks against oil operations and security facilities in the eastern part of the kingdom.

Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, said the arrests were conducted over the last five months and were aimed at three independent militant groups linked to the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, which has been implicated in numerous attacks across the region, as well as a failed attempt on Christmas Day to bring down a commercial flight over Detroit.

Officials said most of the suspects had been captured near Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, and said they had seized weapons and ammunition, as well as cameras, prepaid phone cards and computers. They did not specify which Saudi facilities were potential targets of an attack, or say more precisely when the suspects had been arrested.

“This is a job that has been done in five months,” General Turki said in a telephone interview. “We usually can’t announce it until we make sure we deal with others related to this organization. We announce it after we make sure that we got everybody. This is part of our job, to combat Al Qaeda.”

He said the arrests were precipitated by a confrontation in which Saudi security forces killed two militants who had been on a wanted list. Security forces found four explosive belts in the men’s possession, “which indicated there were more people involved with them,” General Turki said.

General Turki said that most of those arrested were from Saudi Arabia or Yemen, and that they had arrested one person from Bangladesh, one from Somalia and one from Eritrea, which lies just across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula.

The authorities did not provide further information about interactions among the three militant groups or their suspected ties to Al Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia from time to time announces the arrests of dozens of suspected militants as it tries to thwart terrorism within its borders. The country rounded up 207 suspected militants said to have Qaeda ties in late 2007, and announced the arrest of 11 others last April.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/middleeast/25saudi.html