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House of Saud in 'panic' over al-Qaida
WorldNetDaily.Com ^ | Posted: December 6, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern | © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Posted on 12/07/2003 12:52:10 AM PST by Bobby777

Al-Qaida has launched a campaign designed to undermine the security and finances of the Saudi royal family.

Western intelligence sources said the latest al-Qaida attacks indicate a campaign is underway to isolate the Saudi royal family and threaten its financial base. The campaign is based on intimidating leading Arab and Western advisers from remaining in the kingdom.

The Nov. 9 attack on the Muhaya compound appeared to signal a shift in al-Qaida strategy. Until then, the sources said, al-Qaida targeted Western nationals in the kingdom who were not considered crucial to the regime's survival.

But in the Muhaya suicide car bombing, the target was a compound that housed Lebanese financial advisers to the royal family.

The sources said the Muhaya compound included bankers and smugglers who facilitated earnings of billions of dollars in undeclared revenue.

"The royal family is in a panic and now believes al-Qaida is playing for keeps," a senior Western intelligence source said. "Without its financial advisers, the family is completely exposed."

Al-Qaida has sown panic throughout the kingdom's security forces by demonstrating it can penetrate military and other facilities with ease. British and U.S. advisers have been of little use, the sources said, because the Saudi royal family does not want to disclose information that would demonstrate the extent of al-Qaida's influence in the country.

On Nov. 22, a fire was reported in the Riyad Armed Forces hospital. The fire destroyed several rooms and caused security forces to be placed on alert throughout the region. Several foreign nurses were injured.

"This is a deliberate campaign that seeks to increase the pressure on the royal family by telling them they aren't safe anywhere, even within their own military," another Western intelligence analyst said. "This has sparked a debate over how to reconcile with al-Qaida and end this war."

On Dec. 1, Saudi Arabia provided the first official details of the Nov. 9 bombing at the Muhaya compound. Al-Qaida had smuggled in explosives from Yemen to Saudi Arabia. In late November, Saudi authorities found an additional 1.2 tons of explosives believed to have been smuggled in from Yemen.

An interior ministry statement said that in the Nov. 9 attack, al-Qaida insurgents approached the Muhaya compound while firing rifles and hurling grenades toward the gate. While the firefight was taking place, a jeep painted with the insignia of security forces and packed with 300 kilograms explosives drove into the compound.

"Then it was blown up in a suicide operation," the statement said. "Investigators have found out who is behind this operation and measures are still being taken. Security forces are still chasing the perpetrators and, God willing, they will be found and brought to justice."

In Sanaa, meanwhile, Yemeni security forces arrested a senior al-Qaida leader, Mohammed Hamdi Al Ahdal, suspected of masterminding the suicide bombing of the USS Cole.

In 1999 Al Ahdal was arrested in Saudi Arabia and spent 14 months in prison for his ties to Saudi billionaire bomber Osama bin Laden. He was then deported to Yemen.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alahdal; alqaeda; alqaedasaudiarabia; alqaida; elvisbinladen; houseofsaud; maronite; muhaya; ramadan2003; riyadh; saudi; saudiarabia; waronterror
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To: CzarNicky
Saudi Arabia is the key.

Now prehaps, but in the 70's and 80's it was Iran supplying the money, who will be next once Saudi money drys up?

Besides, these terrorist groups are the perfect way for an enemy to attack the US without them actually doing the action. They just need to funnel money and supplies to them. What is to keep any country from giving these groups money?

81 posted on 12/07/2003 3:45:40 PM PST by Lady Heron
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To: Lady Heron
"who will be next once Saudi money drys up?"

Who knows but whoever it is the same pressure must be applied. Stop funding terrorism or face the consequences.

"Besides, these terrorist groups are the perfect way for an enemy to attack the US without them actually doing the action."

So were pirates. The same effort needs to be put into crushing them as well as influencing the countries that sign their marque.
82 posted on 12/07/2003 4:02:31 PM PST by CzarNicky (The problem with bad ideas is that they seemed like good ideas at the time.)
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To: Bobby777
Hmm. Maybe Al Qaeda will topple the House of Saud then we can invade and take over. Killing two birds with one stone.
83 posted on 12/07/2003 4:05:16 PM PST by Davea
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To: endthematrix
The Sauds are getting scared enough to take sides. They just ended their long standing practice of covering wahabbi clerics in the US with diplomatic or consular status. This status gave the mullahs and imams with terror ties free access to our shores and immunity from prosecution while here. With this lifted the terror-teachers can get access only via the visa application system.
84 posted on 12/07/2003 4:15:55 PM PST by wtc911
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To: Davea
or maybe Al Quaeda will topple the House of Saud, and then they'll all rally to Saudi Arabia to celebrate and then ...



Hi, Welcome to King's Bay ... can I take your order?

yes, 24 more D5's to go please ... extra MIRV'd ...



what's scary about this, and we really don't want to see nuclear war, is that there are few options in dealing with these guys ...
85 posted on 12/07/2003 4:20:43 PM PST by Bobby777
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To: CzarNicky
The benefits will be that we will finally have a representative democracy int the new nation of Arabia.

Especially if we possess "veto power at gunpoint" over any new government to make sure they don't revert to type.

86 posted on 12/07/2003 5:03:43 PM PST by adx (Why's it called "tourist season" if you ain't allowed to shoot 'em?)
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To: Lady Heron
"We freed up oil in an other part of the world and left Saudi Arabia so that is could sink into civil war, thus insuring that Saudi Arabia's troubles would not sink the rest of the world."

Great insight. I think that's a byproduct of our energy and foreign policy, that is - to distance ourselves from the Mid East. Destabilize OPEC and watch the fundamentalist scratch and claw and THEIR own!

87 posted on 12/07/2003 9:36:34 PM PST by endthematrix
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To: Lady Heron
"..who will be next once Saudi money drys up?"

Can you say Western Union?
Census: U.S. Arab Population Is Surging

88 posted on 12/07/2003 9:51:41 PM PST by endthematrix
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To: lentulusgracchus
Yes, but there is no good side -- the Sauds are the lesser of the two evils, but they will lose against alQ, for the reasons I stated. Our policy must be to eliminate BOTH. We must then use the Arab tribes and let them be ruled by a Hashemite King or Kings in a constitutional monarchy -- not a totalitarian govt like in Saudi or Kuwait or Qatar or Oman, but a progressive arab state like Bahrain. Also we need to eliminate the Islamic nuclear weapons held by Saudi's lackeys -- the PAkis
89 posted on 12/07/2003 10:14:40 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: section9
The Arab world isn't ruled by democratic govt.s they are ruled by despots -- either with titles like President (Egypt, Libya) or Emir. If we use thermonukes on them, the ruling families will escape with their money (probably in Swiss accounts) and leave the people to their doom.
90 posted on 12/07/2003 10:18:14 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: Travis McGee
Hmmm.... we nuke Mecca and Medina -- can't say I don't like that, BUT, next we'd have nukes, suicide bombaers etc hitting Rome, Washington DC, London, Paris, etc. etc. etc. And Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, the rest of the Middle East, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Malaysia etc. declaring war on us.
91 posted on 12/07/2003 10:20:04 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: highlander_UW
In the event that we nuke M&M, all other activities will cease, we will become a Spartan state, a Prussian type state, with all resources dedicated to war and nothing else. Europe, Russia, the Antipodes, Israel, India, S. E. Asia will have to follow suit. China would stay out of it -- they've wisely not allowed the Muslims to come in droves into the Middle Kingdom, dtto the Japanese and Koreans.
92 posted on 12/07/2003 10:23:03 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: Travis McGee
So, instead of losing American lives (or Israelis lives for that matter), we shoudl eliminate all sources of the Islamic bomb -- we've done that in Iraq, we'll do so in Iran and we must do so in the only Islamic nation to have nukes -- Pakistan.
93 posted on 12/07/2003 10:24:46 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: Lady Heron
What you've said is true enough but Libya and Egypt don't have hte kind of money that Saudi A has, nowhere near that kind of money.
94 posted on 12/07/2003 10:26:25 PM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: Cronos
We must then use the Arab tribes and let them be ruled by a Hashemite King or Kings in a constitutional monarchy -- not a totalitarian govt like in Saudi or Kuwait or Qatar or Oman, but a progressive arab state like Bahrain.

Hmmmm. That'd be a tough hat trick. The House of Saud, in order to war down the Wahhabists, would have to become mean enough to resist any attempts to displace them. Likewise, the Wahhabists would be tough to deal with if Osama became the new Guardian of the Shrines -- the rest of Islam would tend to unite behind him, he'd use the shrines as validating talismans.

But I wouldn't at all be displeased, and would see it as a maximal outcome, to see His Hashemite Majesty, King Abdullah of Jordan, installed as the Guardian of the Shrines on the ruins of the House of Saud and the corpses of Al-Q'aeda and the Ba'ath Party of Syria.

Then you'd have a going concern.

BTW, Abdullah was buds with Siddig El-Fadil (Alexander Siddig) of Deep Space Nine and did a couple of walk-ons back when he was a younger crown prince. Saw him briefly a few weeks ago on a rerun of Voyager, in a corridor scene with Garrett Wang.

He's also a Sandhurst product, highly educated and tough as nails. Queen Noor is his aunt or stepmother, however they figure things like that in polygynous Moslem families.

95 posted on 12/07/2003 11:33:38 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: Cronos; Travis McGee
....we must do so in the only Islamic nation to have nukes -- Pakistan.

We would have to do some sort of subcontinental, multilateral deal that would remove both Indian and Pak nuclear weapons from the board, and we'd have to give both of them security assurances. This would probably, to satisfy India's security needs given China's arsenal, involve stationing Tridents in the Indian Ocean. That would mean a forward base somewhere in the theater. Such as Diego Garcia.

96 posted on 12/07/2003 11:42:37 PM PST by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus
Do note: The house of Saud=The Wahabbists.
97 posted on 12/08/2003 12:03:03 AM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: lentulusgracchus
Wouldn't work unless we get China to give up it's nukes and taking on China militarily is out of the question, we would win, yeah, but at what cost?
98 posted on 12/08/2003 12:04:56 AM PST by Cronos (W2004)
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To: endthematrix
"..who will be next once Saudi money drys up?"

Can you say Western Union? Census: U.S. Arab Population Is Surging

I'd point out that the article you linked to was regarding the growing Arab population in the U.S.. But only 23% of those Arabs are muslims. A significant portion are Christians escaping from muslim persecution in the Mid East.

99 posted on 12/08/2003 12:37:36 AM PST by highlander_UW
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To: Cronos
In the event that we nuke M&M, all other activities will cease, we will become a Spartan state, a Prussian type state, with all resources dedicated to war and nothing else. Europe, Russia, the Antipodes, Israel, India, S. E. Asia will have to follow suit. China would stay out of it -- they've wisely not allowed the Muslims to come in droves into the Middle Kingdom, dtto the Japanese and Koreans.

Exactly my point. There is no nuking M&M in a vacuum. That won't be the end of it...and with the Dims wanting to allow every unknown alien across our boards, North and South, and give them valid ID's, there is very little to stop terrorism in the U.S. It's amazing we haven't already had more attacks.

It doesn't take huge skill to make a basic bomb and suicide it somewhere.

100 posted on 12/08/2003 12:42:09 AM PST by highlander_UW
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