The leading Gulf Arab telecommunications company has been quietly cooperating with Saudi Arabia in the war against Al Qaida. Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Co. has been supplying information to Saudi security services on customers believed to be Al Qaida agents. Industry and Saudi sources said the cooperation began earlier this year after Saudi authorities raised concerns that Al Qaida operatives bought Thuraya satellite phones for use in Afghanistan and in the Persian Gulf.
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Thuraya executives have denied that the United Arab Emirates company has knowingly sold satellite phones to Al Qaida agents. They said an investigation has not turned up any sets in Afghanistan. But the executives said the satellite telephones were found among weapons and drug smugglers who might have been linked to Al Qaida in Gulf Cooperation Council and other states in the region. They said the sets, which have global positioning systems, were tracked to such countries as Qatar, the UAE and Yemen. |