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| Arabia |
| Al-Qaeda debates on whether to kill Soddies or Merkins |
| 2003-12-24 |
| First of several stories from MEMRI regarding the activities of the Arabian al-Qaeda. High-ranking Al-Qa’ida member Abd Al-’Aziz bin ’Issa bin Abd Al-Mohsen, also known as Abu Hajer, who is on Saudi Arabia’s most-wanted list, referred to the dispute over the attacks inside Saudi Arabia in an interview with an Al-Qa’ida online magazine, The Voice of Jihad: "Jihad members and Mujahideen sympathizers were divided: Some said we must attack the invading forces that defile the land of the two holy places [i.e. the Arabian Peninsula], and must cause the Americans to become preoccupied with themselves and their bases so they won’t leave them to crush the countries and lands of the Muslims, country by country. "Others said we had to preserve the security of this base and of this country [i.e. Saudi Arabia], from which we recruit the armies, from which we take out the young people, and from which we receive [financial] backing. It must therefore remain safe. "My opinion is an intermediate opinion, between the two groups. It is true that we must keep the enemy preoccupied with himself and not give him a sense of security, because as soon as he secures his bases and his lines of supply, he will have an opportunity to use them to attack our brothers in different parts of the countries of the Islamic world. But we must prepare ourselves and be ready for this momentous event the best way we possibly can. We told them: ’Wait, we are readying ourselves.’ Then we attacked the Americans. "It is also true that we must take advantage of this country [Saudi Arabia] because it is the primary source of funds for most Jihad movements, and it has some degree of security and freedom of movement. But we must strike a balance between this and America’s invasion of the Islamic world and its hobbling of the Jihad movement and even of other Islamic movements
" Al-Qa’ida members deny that Muslims have been killed in their bombings in Saudi Arabia, but recognize that the regime has managed, via the media, to convey such a message – which has damaged Al-Qa’ida’s image. In an interview in The Voice of Jihad, Louis Attiya Allah (an alias), one of Al-Qa’ida’s leading ideologues, stated: "Regarding the Al-Muhaya operation [the November 8, 2003 bombing in Riyadh], it can be claimed that the house of Salul had some media success in portraying the battle as the killing of Muslims, and in inciting some against the Mujahideen. But this effect is temporary and will disappear if, for example, the Mujahideen strike another blow in America. Then sympathy will return to what it was in the past, and may even increase." Louis is a member of the supreme council of the global jihad and is reputed to have taken Yousef al-Ayyeri place as the top terror theoretician. "Salul" is what Qaeda calls the Soddy royals. When asked whether the attacks in Saudi Arabia "caused Mujahideen shares to plummet" in Saudi society, he responded: "That may have happened, but we must look at the matter with a broader view, and place these operations in the framework of the war of the Mujahideen against the whole Western-American plan. At certain stages of this war, the Mujahideen can think they require these operations, despite their high price in terms of morale." The statement that Al-Qa’ida members in Saudi Arabia are fighting the Americans and not the Saudi security forces has repeatedly appeared in The Voice of Jihad. In the interview, Abu Hajer said: "We have not carried out a single attack. All the operations that took place were defensive operations. The brothers try as much as possible to avoid clashes with the military and the security forces. Nevertheless, the government is escalating its war, and is trying to uproot me, uproot you, and uproot all Islamists
I have sworn to purge the Arabian Peninsula of the polytheists. We were born in this country, and we will fight in it against the Crusaders and against the Jews until we remove them or taste what was tasted by Hamza bin Abd Al-Muttalib [i.e. martyrdom]
" Voice of Jihad editorial writer Suleiman Al-Dosari went even further, calling on the Mujahideen to fight the Saudi security forces only when it was clearly self-defense: "We draw the attention of the Mujahideen to the strategy of the Sheikh of the Mujahideen, Abu Abdallah Osama bin Laden, and Sheikh Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, a strategy on which many of the great Mujahideen have agreed in regard to fighting the enemy: Our number-one enemy is the Jews and the Christians, and we must make ourselves available and invest all our effort until we destroy them – and we are capable of doing this if Allah allows us to – because they are the main obstacle to the establishment of the Islamic state. "
Notice the trick used by the [Arab] tyrants
[In their view] the blood of an American is equal to the blood of all the Muslims. They are willing to send hundreds [of Muslims] to their deaths in exchange for Americans enjoying security and well-being
We must be wary of this trick and avoid, as much as possible, confronting the state’s armies and forces, so that we can deliver knock-out blows to the occupiers, Allah willing. "This does not mean surrendering to those defending the Crusaders if they raid us; on the contrary, in this case we must resist with all our might and punish them so they turn their swords towards the Americans and fight in our ranks, refrain from confronting us, or stand against us and wait for what is anticipated for them [at our hands], by virtue of Allah and with His strength
" Snip. The damage done to Al-Qa’ida’s image by the Saudi bombings is not the only reason the organization prefers targeting "Crusaders" in Saudi Arabia or carrying out attacks in the West. According to Louis Attiya Allah,some Al-Qa’ida members claim that the Saudi regime’s continued existence is in the organization’s best interest, because it prevents the U.S. from striking hard at the Islamists in the Arabian Peninsula. When asked why there had been no Jihad operations against the royal family, Attiya Allahsaid: "I don’t know. Personally, I think attacking the heads of the regime will hasten its collapse. These decisions are discussed at Mujahideen meetings, and it is they who make this kind of decision, as ultimately these are military decisions. "Perhaps the aim of the Mujahideen is to refrain from toppling the regime because the treasonous cover provided by the Saudi regime prevents America from striking a powerful blow to the entire country. That is one of the ideas that led the Mujahideen [to prefer] first of all neutralizing America, or paralyzing it, and only afterward turning to this regime and its ilk. I say this, even though I maintain that eliminating some members of the regime would be very useful and would make things easier for the Mujahideen without causing the regime’s downfall." Attiya Allah also discussed what might happen in the region were the Saudi regime to collapse. When asked whether "the Americans would leave us alone if the zero hour arrives and the regime of the House of Salul is removed," Attiya Allah responded: "No, they would not leave us alone. As a first step, they would try to secure the oil fields, in accordance with an old plan. They would not stand idly by. But the question is whether they would be able to do this in the event that the regime completely collapses and anarchy prevails. I doubt this very much. If they become more and more entangled in the Iraqi quagmire, and if we strike painful blows in America, those blows will deprive them of their ability to focus on [Saudi Arabia]
What arouses real concern is the acts of their allies the Shiites in the event of the collapse [of the Saudi regime]. This would be an extremely grave situation requiring great thought and preparation of alternatives by the Mujadiheen." Also in the interview, Attiya Allah explained why Al-Qa’ida was more concerned about the U.S. than about the Saudi regime: "The Mujahideen are waging a great ongoing war with the masters [the Americans], and the slaves [the Saudis] have no place in this battle. The slaps and kicks that harm the slave during the Mujahideen’s battle against its master are of no consequence in light of his fate when his master is defeated
The Mujahideen are warring with the masters, but we may soon see a little more attention directed toward these slaves
" |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 How wide was that strip? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-24 4:29:25 PM |
| #6 When asked whether the attacks in Saudi Arabia "caused Mujahideen shares to plummet" in Saudi society, he responded ... That is an interesting stock market metaphor that I have not seen before. "No, they would not leave us alone. As a first step, they would try to secure the oil fields, in accordance with an old plan. Sounds like AQ is aware of .com's plan. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-12-24 3:39:54 PM |
| #5 One thing that bugs me, that I don't see mentioned here, was that in Al Qaeda's largest recent attack in Saudi Arabia, their main target was Lebanese Christian expatriates. It's like they suddenly decided they couldn't decide to discuss it in those terms. Perhaps that attack made their funders nervous, as they need the guest workers for Saudi Arabia's economy to survive? |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2003-12-24 11:05:03 AM |
| #4 "... this base and of this country [i.e. Saudi Arabia]" Would be insightful to know exactly where he was physically placed when he used "this" twice in succession. I was gonna tear up the rhetoric in the last paragraph but not worth the effort. Are these things out strictly for our amusement or what? Looks like a lot of work. I bet a good comedy writer could easily finish off a paragraph that started with, "Did you hear the one about the testicle, the condom, and the Saudi passport?" |
| Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds) 2003-12-24 3:46:17 AM |
| #3 Those damn Merikans have developed a tendency to shoot back lately. Personally I think the AQ mutts should go after as many soddi's as possible. But that's just me. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2003-12-24 3:33:52 AM |
| #2 So many infidels, so little time. Bizzy hands are happy hands. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-24 3:05:58 AM |
| #1 Not to belabor the obvious, but wouldn't it be safer for al-Q if they kill Soddies, as opposed to Americans? |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-24 1:48:14 AM |