You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Arabia
Saudi Governor: Illicit Weapons Plentiful
2003-08-22
Weapons smuggling from Yemen to Saudi Arabia is so commonplace that border police seize smuggled guns nearly every hour, the governor of a Saudi border province was quoted as saying Thursday.
Smuggling? SMUGGLING? I’m shocked, I tell you.
Saudi Arabia has often complained about smuggling from Yemen, a tribal country where illegal weapons trading is rampant and government crackdowns have had limited success.
"Hey, you there, what’s in the trunk of your limo car?"
"Umm, just some RPGs, five thousand rounds of ammo and a dozen land mines, effendi."
"AHA! Caught you! Don’t you know that the limit on land mines is six? Abdul, arrest this man!"
"We intercept, on an average of every hour, weapons smuggling operation at the Yemeni border," Prince Mohammed bin Nasser, Jazan governor, told the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat. "This is an alarming phenomenon."
Especially, these days, if you’re a prince.
Yemen, a hotbed for nutters militancy and the ancestral home of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, has seen several terrorist attacks, including the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors. It has since joined the U.S.-led war on terror after being threatened with the consequences. Last week, Saudi police arrested at least 11 suspected militants and seized a large weapons cache in Jazan, Saudi dailies reported. The two countries signed an agreement on June to coordinate border surveillance.
"I’m tellin’ ya, Mahmoud, you guys have to get better with this border stuff. Last month we caught 5% of your smugglers. Now are you going to get the remedial education going for these guys, or do we have to take the gloves off?"
Posted by:Steve White

#6  Or 'accidently' sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Posted by: Charles   2003-8-22 4:03:37 PM  

#5  Illicit arms seem to spread through osmosis throughout the ME once they are introduced in theatre. It would be better if some of the shipments "got lost" enroute.
Posted by: Steve D   2003-8-22 12:57:14 PM  

#4  Time to round up and torture more British and Canadians, I reckon
Posted by: BH   2003-8-22 12:06:11 PM  

#3  LH, here's a report on one raid: A force of more than 200 security agents used tear gas and explosives on Friday to blast into a two-story building where the Saudi and Bangladeshi suspects were hiding in Karbos village, near the Yemeni border in Jazan province. The security forces found 93 bazooka rockets, more than 50 hand grenades, a number of machine guns, highly explosive chemicals, detonators and three security uniforms.
Posted by: Steve   2003-8-22 9:53:03 AM  

#2  so what is being smuggled? AK-47's or more serious stuff? And whats the price on each side of the border one wonders?
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-8-22 9:01:19 AM  

#1  Terrorist: Did this missle shipments from North Korea get through Yemen yet?

Terrorist 2: They came in last week.
Posted by: Charles   2003-8-22 1:47:14 AM  

00:00