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| International |
| Saudis: Explosion Was Not Terror Act |
| 2002-10-01 |
| A car explosion that killed a German man in Riyadh over the weekend was not a terrorist act, but the result of gang rivalries, the kingdom's intelligence chief said Monday. Alk runners again? "The incident was extraordinary and isolated and is the result of a struggle and disputes among traders in illegal matters," Prince Nawwaf said in remarks distributed to the media. It was not "a terrorist (act) against foreigners in the kingdom." That line's looking pretty thin by now... Saudi authorities have blamed a string of bombings targeting foreigners in the past two years on disputes between gangs dealing in alcohol, which is forbidden in the kingdom under Islamic laws but is not difficult to obtain. Western diplomats, however, have been increasingly concerned the attacks are the work of Muslim extremists. "There are no extremists in Soddy Arabia. Here, they're all mainstream." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 So, was it the Capone mob? Yes, it's true. All our alky runners up and moved to Saudi Arabia when Prohibition ended. Remember, alcohol doesn't kill people, alcoholics do. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-10-02 09:11:55 |
| #1 Steven DenBeste has an interesting letter on his site (http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/09/MeanGreenMeme.shtml) talking about the "root causes" argument and spiral dynamics. The gist is that societies, or memes, evolve and incorporate what came before them (duh). The writer notes how "blue" societies, theocracies, eventually evolve to "orange" societies, descartian modernists who are interested in logic and the material world. Why mention this? Because the Soddis inadvertently are displaying one of their greatest fears: the alk runners, to the extent that there ARE alk runners (and not just a convenient excuse), demonstrate that some part of Soddi society is moving toward the modern world, and hence a desire for some of the usual accoutrements of said world -- e.g., likker. Next it will be nekkid wimmin. And just try to put the genie back into the bottle -- no matter how hard the theocrats try, they're eventually doomed. So the Soddis not only are inadvertently proclaiming their greatest fear, but are using it as an excuse to cover up terrorist acts in their country. They're using their greatest fear to try and buffalo us from ours. It's hilarious. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-10-02 09:07:42 |