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| Arabia |
| US-Saudi Intelligence-Fusion Cell Operating in Riyadh |
| 2004-08-08 |
| From The Los Angeles Times After years of giving tacit support and back-channel financing to Islamic extremists, the Saudi government has joined forces with the United States in an intensive battle against Al Qaeda in the desert kingdom. For the last year, U.S. intelligence analysts have been sitting side by side with their Saudi counterparts at a secret location here in the capital [Riyadh], sharing raw intelligence and plotting counterattacks, said a former U.S. ambassador to the country, Robert Jordan, and a senior Saudi government official. ... The Saudi security forces, with little experience combating sophisticated extremist organizations, have relied heavily on help from U.S. intelligence agencies, spy satellites and the FBI, Saudi and U.S. officials said. But just as the Saudi government has shifted its strategy, so has Al Qaeda. In a bid to expand its influence and win recruits from a vast pool of Saudis who have long chafed under the repressive monarchy, Al Qaeda operatives have been switching their emphasis from killing foreigners to assassinating a member of the royal family, people close to the terrorist group and Western intelligence officials said. These sources described the assassination plans, posted on an Al Qaeda website in June, as the next phase in the group's ruthless campaign to topple the government and impose a strict Taliban-like theocracy. .... In the late 1990s, the Saudis rebuffed American pleas for help in going after the support network in the kingdom that nurtured Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. The Saudis preferred to see Bin Laden as a symbol of Islamic fundamentalist anger directed at other regimes rather than a threat to its own stability .... A U.S. official who went to Riyadh during that period to seek help tracking the money trail to Al Qaeda said the Saudi government's response was, "Would you like another cup of tea?" .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |