Saudi authorities are investigating suspected illegal arms sales by members of the country's national guard to al Qaeda operatives in the country, U.S. and Saudi officials said. The weapons were seized in a May 6 raid on an al Qaeda safe house and were traced to national guard stockpiles, the U.S. and Saudi sources said.
Ohoh! Is that a termite in the ediface of Soddy Arabia?
Problems in the Saudi Arabian National Guard are not new, according to the officials, and past audits of its armories have revealed that weapons were missing. But there was no crackdown on the illicit trade largely because of bureaucratic inertia.
"Eh? They only kill infidels. Who cares?"
A small number of officers in the national guard have been involved in illicit gun sales for years, according to the officials, and have sold weapons, including automatic rifles, to anyone willing to pay prices well above their market value. The officials emphasized that the motivation of the officers selling the weapons was money, not ideology, and does not indicate any al Qaeda penetration of a force that is supposed to protect the government. One Saudi official said the discovery has galvanized the senior Saudi leadership and the national guard itself. One of its officers was shot and killed last week as he tried to fend off suicide bombers who stormed one of the targeted residential compounds in Riyadh. "People are furious," one Saudi official said.
If they'd been furious a couple weeks ago, they wouldn't have the problem now, would they? And if they'd been furious two years ago, we might not have had a problem. We could still be discussing Gary Condit...
Interior Minister Prince Nayef said at a press conference today that authorities have arrested four people linked to al Qaeda. The four, detained in the last three days, knew in advance of the attacks but did not participate in them, Nayef and other officials said.
"Blow myself up? Uh... Not this time. I gotta do my hair. How about next time?"
As the investigation continues, Saudi authorities have begun to break down the composition of an al Qaeda group of at least 50 to 60 people in the country, sources said. It is led by Khaled Jehani, who left Saudi Arabia when he was 18, later fought in Bosnia and Chechnya, and had been based at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Jehani, 29, returned to Saudi Arabia through neighboring Yemen after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The officials said they believe the explosives used in the Riyadh bombings were brought into Saudi Arabia through Yemen, which shares a long and porous border with the kingdom. Officials identified another Saudi veteran of Afghanistan, Turki Mishal Dandani, as the leader of the bombing team. Dandani and Jehani are both believed to be at large.
They were too important to blow up...
Sixty FBI and other U.S. investigators, as well as a team from Britain's Scotland Yard, have joined the investigation, but Saudi officials differed today on the extent of their role. Nayef said the U.S. investigators had come to examine "the sites and we welcomed them based on that — for examining only." But Adel Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, spoke more expansively of the U.S. role on Fox News Sunday. The Americans, he said, are "helping us with the investigation. They're providing support to us. They're sharing whatever information they have. They're sharing their expertise."
And Prince Nayef's guys are doing the "work". Gotcha.
A U.S. official said cooperation was excellent and involved more than just looking at the bomb sites. The official said U.S. involvement was in sharp contrast to earlier investigations in which visiting FBI agents were shut out. The official said that in the current climate of cooperation he did not rule out the possibility that U.S. officials might be allowed to speak to detainees, something the Saudis have previously refused to allow. The extent of U.S. involvement here remains sensitive, however, and Nayef, in minimizing the role of the FBI, may want to deflect any domestic criticism.
Rather like the Paks do...
The devastating bombs have generated not only revulsion among many Saudis but something once unthinkable, the questioning of the country's strict religious environment and whether it inspires — intentionally or not — Islamic-driven violence. In one illustration of that mood, the religious police, known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are keeping a low profile on the streets in accordance with a government instruction. Saudi religious police patrol the country, sometimes with sticks, to watch for instances of un-Islamic behavior, such as women not covering their heads.
"You got a license for that gun?"
"Yeah. Here."
"Y'r under arrest for un-Islamic activities!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/18/2003 09:05 pm ||
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...This comes under the heading of Exceptionally Bad. The Saudi NG isn't a reserve force under nominal state control like it is here, so the name tends to be misleading to a lot of folks.
The SNG is the rough equivalent in size and firepower of a medium armored cav regiment. Its sole purpose is to defend the King and his immediate family. Most (tho not all) members of the SNG are descended from the men who helped King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud take Riyadh back in the 1920s, and the senior commanders are all supposedly reliable princes. Most of it is based in Riyadh (the capital), Mecca, and Madinah - in short, the only three places in the country where the King would be expected to be on a regular basis.
So think about this for a moment - the only force the House of Saud completely trusts for its own personal safety may seems to be compromised, and perhaps fatally so. This does not bode well..
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/18/2003 23:33 Comments ||
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At least three people were killed and five wounded in a gunbattle between tribesmen in the Yemeni capital yesterday. Armed tribesmen from two rival clans with a running vendetta had a shootout at a road intersection near the headquarters of the Interior Ministry. Two of the victims were bystanders. Police did not comment immediately, saying they would issue a statement later in the day.
"Once we figure what the hell's going on..."
Both sides involved in the gunbattle were said to be members of the Bani Dhabian tribe from the lawless district of Khawlan, some 150 km east of Sanaa. Tribal sources said police jeeps mounted with heavy machine guns launched a manhunt to arrest the attackers. Clashes between tribesmen involved in blood feuds are common in Yemen, where firearms are carried openly, mainly in tribal and rural areas, despite efforts by police and army to disarm civilians.
"Nah. They ain't Islamists. They're just stoopid..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/18/2003 04:59 pm ||
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The US second amendment is the whole Yemeni constitution...
The Muslim World League (MWL) said yesterday that terrorism was the most dangerous challenge facing Muslim countries and called for a broadly-based front to eradicate it. âThe Islamic nation is at a difficult turning point in which challenges are increasing, the most dangerous of which is terrorism which has badly harmed Islam and Muslims,â MWL Secretary-General Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki said in a statement. He said terrorist organizations were raising Islamic slogans to win the support of Muslim youth. He stressed the need to educate Muslim youth on the true teachings of Islam.
Like red-to-black and green-to-white...
The Makkah-based organization issued the statement following terrorist attacks in Morocco, just five days after similar bombings in Riyadh. Turki emphasized the need for cooperation between Islamic governments and organizations, scholars, propagators and media men to fight terror. âSuch an alliance must focus on dealing with extremism in religion, and ways to rectify the misconceptions imbibed by young generations from the misguided terror gangs,â he said. Religious scholars, schools and the media in the Islamic world should convey to young generations the true teachings of Islam, and warn them against intellectual deviation, Turki added.
Isn't that how we got to this point? "Kill all intellectual deviants"?
Such an alliance must execute joint programs aimed at providing âimmunity to young Muslims against misconceptions on suicide bombing, killing people and committing terrorist acts under the name of Jihad,â he said.
Still looking for your condemnation of today's bombing in Jerusalem. I've missed it so far...
The MWL chief said the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco have raised questions about âthe suspicious objectives of the terror gangs, working under the Islamic banner, which have incited international forces against Islam and Muslims.â
"You guys have gone too far. People are starting to notice — starting to notice things like us, for example..."
Turki expressed the MWLâs readiness to cooperate with government agencies and private organizations in the Islamic world to conduct programs for protecting Muslim youth from deviant groups.
Start by rounding up some holy men, Abdullah...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/18/2003 04:32 pm ||
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Saudi authorities have arrested four people in the Riyadh suicide bombings, the Saudi interior minister told reporters Sunday, adding that three of the attackers who died had been sought in an earlier al-Qaida probe. The minister, Prince Nayef, offered no details on the arrests. Nayef said investigators had been able to identify five of the badly mangled bodies of nine Saudi men believed to have carried out the May 12 attacks on three compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh. Of the five identified, three had been sought in the probe into a weapons cache found in the kingdom that had been linked to al-Qaida. "We still need some time to identify all the characters," Nayef said. In all, nine attackers and up to 25 others died in the bombings. The Saudi government was seeking 19 suspects in connection with the May 6 weapons seizure from a site near one of the targeted compounds. The government had said the 19 were believed to be receiving orders directly from Osama bin Laden, and had been planning to use the seized weapons to attack the Saudi royal family as well as American and British interests.
That last is what'll fire them up, if anything will...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/18/2003 02:22 pm ||
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Saudi Arabia's King Fahd pledged on Saturday that the kingdom would push through political reforms and expand popular participation, but insisted this was not the result of external pressure. "I wish to assure you that we will proceed on the path of political and administrative reforms ... and expand the scope of popular participation and open more areas for women employment," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Fahd as telling the Shura (Consultative) Council. In a key policy address opening the third year of the third legislative term of the appointed council, King Fahd rejected any interference in the oil-rich kingdom's domestic affairs. "We reject interference in our internal affairs from any side and under any pretext. We are keen on undertaking a self-assessment of our internal affairs with the aim to reform," said the king in the speech distributed to council members.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't nobody tells us what to do. Ain't nobody even suggests what we do..."
King Fahd praised the Shura Council's role in bringing reforms, saying that the new government announced in late April did reflect part of the reform efforts, but that more was in the pipeline. The Saudi king said he had given his approval for the formation of a non-governmental human rights body, adding that a government-run rights body would be subsequently established. He also promised that "laws and decrees will be revised," and "supervision of government agencies will be strengthened." But the king warned that reforms can only be fruitful in an "atmosphere of social harmony based on national unity," where there is no room for extremism, urging religious scholars to promote tolerance.
Yeah. That'll happen.
Over 100 Saudi intellectuals submitted in January a petition to Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdom's de facto ruler, calling for wide-ranging political and social reforms. Prince Abdullah told a group of the signatories in reply that reforms were only a matter of time.
"How much time?"
"'Bout 300 years..."
Saudi Arabia admitted Saturday failure to thwart the three bombings in Riyadh, but also hit out at critics seeking to heap all the blame on the kingdom. Commenting on the attacks that killed at least 34, including eight Americans, Adel al-Jubeir, foreign policy advisory to Crown Prince Abdullah, said Saudi Arabia âhas been a strong ally in the war against terrorism for a very simple reason: this terrorism is directed at us.â
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/18/2003 11:04 am ||
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In 300 years they'll allow reforms to bring themselves up to 1100 AD
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/18/2003 11:11 Comments ||
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This must mean they intend to cease cutting off the hands of people caught stealing.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/18/2003 11:34 Comments ||
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Isn't he the one who is drooling and incapacitated?
Posted by: Brian ||
05/18/2003 12:16 Comments ||
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The reform I want is cutting off the heads of al-Quida members and their supporters
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