Riyadh’s Night of Terror

Arab News ^ | Sunday, 9, November, 2003 | Raid Qusti

[tet68]

My take on recent events is that with the liberation of Iraq we've forced the Saudis to end that arrangement.

This was just a reminder from AQ to the house of saud
NOT to stop feeding the mad dogs.

The princes are riding the tiger, now can they get off?

[swilhelm73]

Null in the near term.

In chasing off much of the best and brighest of Iraqis, Saddam created a democratically aligned exile community.

The Saudis, AFAIK, fall into two schools - the status quo'ers who are religious fanatics, and their opposition who are even more fanatical and allied with AQ.

We can prod the former group to initiate some reforms that can work in the long term though, and with the liberation of Iraq we have the leverage to force them to do so and they know it - see the recent local elections...

[GatekeeperBookman]

They have a million in abject poverty who hate the Royals.

[swilhelm73]

The poor in Saudi Arabia - in large part foreign workers brought in to serve the Saudi elites - may well hate the monarchy - but I'd file them under AQ supporters.

I'm just not aware of any native, democratic movements of any importance associated with SA. One can consider the INC as a notable difference in regards to Iraq...

I think the administration's current tack of gradual democratic pressure and the demand of immediate (if not visible) compliance in the WOT is the best choice for both the Saudis and us right now.

[az wildkitten]

To quote Bruce Willis in Die Hard, Welcome to the party fellas. Hope you enjoy what you have created.

[bonesmccoy]

So, the question remains, what is reason for the attack on foreign nationals in Saudi Arabia?

There weren't any Americans involved... did AQ just plain miss?

What other buildings are around that area?