Why Al-Qaida Is Attacking the Saudi Kingdom

Since I have been asked to analyze them since the Fall of 2001, I have always argued that Bin Laden's tapes have to be taken seriously. When he called his Mujahedeen to attack infidels around the Middle East last October on an audiotape released on al-Jazeera, he was, in fact, issuing orders. (See http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10411 ) And those orders are now in effect.

Last May, Al-Qaida engaged itself in its first major terror attack within Saudi Arabia when it targeted the Western compound. That was a testing strike. It could have been read also as a threat against the ruling establishment in the Kingdom. The princes who have been showing signs of reluctance in supporting the "sheik of Jihad" were taught a lesson, according to circles sympathetic to Bin Laden.

Riyadh was compressed between its traditional inclination to Wahabism and its realist ties to the United States. Al-Qaida wanted to force the Saudis to basculate either way, or basculate inwards. From May to November, six months were given to the Kingdom to make its choice. (See http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/5863006.htm ). In the eyes of Bin Laden, it seems that the royal, or at least the Saudi ruling elite, made its choice. It didn't abandon Wahabism as a state ideology, but it decided to crack down on the organization.

During the summer, Saudi security zoomed in on what it identified as al-Qaida cells. Firefights broke out in several cities between the police and the terrorists. Caches of weapons were found. A number of al-Qaida members were arrested and jailed, but not transferred to the US. The Saudi Government wanted to draw a line between shrinking al-Qaida's influence inside the Kingdom and fully joining an international campaign against Jihadism. But this attitude was a 'casus belli' in Bin Laden's eyes.

However, the worse occurred by the way of political theology, not through the means of security technology. One day, Crown Prince Abdallah made a declaration of war against the "clerics" who protected al-Qaida and legitimized violence. He called them "intruders" and "enemies of the true path." That alone was worth of the whole Saudi Army fighting in Tora Bora. This was War!

At the end of the summer, Bin Laden circulated more than one memorandum, closer to a Fatwa then a legal opinion, to refute Prince Abdallah's criticism of the clerics. The storm was brewing. By October, winds of Jihad were blowing. On the 19th, Usama Bin laden airs his audiotape on al-Jazeera. The Qatari-based Satellite TV not only broadcast the message, but plays it all day long, and assembles intellectuals to explain it better to the populace. The "State of Jihad" address is in place: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10411

The economy is supported not only with oil, but also drug money laundering. The Royals have almost limitless resources.

The oil industry is very much dependent on foreign skilled workers. And in banking industry, with which I am very familiar, this is a hundred times more true. This will be true as long as secondary student spend times to study Quran instead of Mathematics.

No doubt you have far more knowledge than I on this subject and if it hadn't been for Arnaud De Borchgrave appearing on CSPAN, I wouldn't have made it a point to watch the program.

binLaden is a fascinating character -- especially concerning his psyche of hate and revenge -- as you point out and if in fact he plotted the 9/11 disaster, I have always described it as the work of a mastermind.

Even writing it now my stomach churns when I think of the total of his "body of work". A madman, or rather a creation of madmen.

I also find it very sad that there must be many intellects as sharp as this man's who were all brought up by what De Borchgrave calls the "Flat Earth Clerics" the Saudis have imported from Pakistan to set up their little Madrassas and brain wash the young males for just such a mission as what we are now witnessing. They learn to speak and write Arabic, hate the U.S. Israel and India and nothing else.
Killing machines. [These are more of De Borchgrave's thoughts not mine - but I do agree with him.]

Apparently the Saud Royals do not care who and what indoctrinates the young of the country (while no doubt they send their own members to international schools).

Think on what constructive purpose these young minds could have been focused upon with their intelligence, had they received an education we have been given, one with understanding, praise for accomplishment, patience in teaching difficult matters, and morality.

Perhaps in the final sorting out of the "why" of this we will find you can mold humanity into any shape you want, if you have patience and the material offered willingly. They have to be young (before the age of seven) to begin the imprinting of hate.

The previously famous Empires of old could have been such lush founts of intellect and study, were the young given the opportunity to flourish and question and display love.

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