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Saudi Arabia Was The Center Of Hijack Planning
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | October 18, 2001 | Howard Schneider

Posted on 10/17/2001 11:53:13 AM PDT by FresnoDA

America's oil-rich ally was the centre of hijack planning

By Howard Schneider in Abha, Saudi Arabia

After tracing the backgrounds and travel patterns of nine Saudis suspected in the airliner hijackings, United States investigators have concluded that some of the recruiting and planning for the attacks took place in Saudi Arabia, according to a US official familiar with the case.

Investigators have found evidence of an active branch of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network operating mainly in south-western areas of the kingdom, where people have also been linked to the October 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni port.

The bin Laden operatives are thought to have assembled a core of young men who were in most cases "muscle" who seized control of the aircraft, according to the official.

From about April 2000 and continuing throughout that year, the men left the kingdom in a trickle, never more than a pair at a time.

The first to leave Saudi Arabia was apparently Hamza Alghamdi, who, local papers reported, had left his home of Baljurshi 18 months ago, saying he was bound for Chechnya, where foreign volunteers help Muslim rebels to fight Russian forces.

Three of the suspected hijackers were last seen by their families as they left for a trip to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, according to local press accounts.

Ahmed Alnami, a mosque prayer leader in Abha and former student at the King Khaled University Islamic law school, was reported to have left home in the summer of 2000.

Brothers Wail M. and Waleed M. Alshehri left on a similar route in December from the nearby village of Khamis Mushayt, according to local press accounts.

That is the same month that another Saudi hijacker, Hani Hanjour, arrived in America, according to the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service.

US officials say it is not certain whether the recruits knew the exact nature of the operation being planned. They probably left knowing only that they were to take part in a terrorist operation "in a certain time, at a certain place".

Only one, Hanjour, is suspected of piloting a plane, with the others providing the physical support needed to subdue or kill crew members.

Investigators are discovering that Saudi Arabia - the world's largest oil producer and a diplomatic, financial and military partner of the US - was a centre in planning for the operation.

US investigators suggest there was a more active bin Laden network in Saudi Arabia than previously thought - one able to recruit young men to their cause, and provide enough logistical support and co-ordination to get them out of Saudi Arabia undetected and into the US with the money and contacts to support themselves over several months as the final details of the attack were arranged.

Coming from mostly middle-class families with no obvious connections to radical elements, they would have blended easily into the stream of Saudi visa applicants who pass through the US Embassy in Riyadh or the Jeddah consulate each year.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
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To: FresnoDA
Most of it took place in the good ol' USA.
21 posted on 10/17/2001 12:17:07 PM PDT by The Raven
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To: Lazamataz
Can't happen. Unlike us they have enough common sense to keep all foreigners out.
22 posted on 10/17/2001 12:17:32 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: Sparticle
"What about Algeria?"

What about New Jersey?

23 posted on 10/17/2001 12:23:40 PM PDT by blam
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To: SternTrek
...can anyone think of a reason not to drill more oil out of alaska or the gulf?

Yeah, I can think of a formidable one -- the Democrats in Congress. Do I think we should drill in ANWR, the gulf, and CA? Of course, but the Dems won't let the proposal out of Committee.

24 posted on 10/17/2001 12:30:42 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: FresnoDA
So...there was plenty of Hijack planning in the US, Germany, France and Belgium too...this isn't enough justification to nuke Mecca. The real question is what was the gov't's invovlement in supporting the planners. This article doesn't address that question.
25 posted on 10/17/2001 12:36:06 PM PDT by Thoreau
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To: SlickWillard
My target list to end terrorism permanently and in one operation:

Kabul

Damaskus

Tripoli

Baghdad

Tehran

Riyadh

And if anybody wants to defend these terrorist states, hit them before they get off the ground.

Make the world really safe from terrorism.

26 posted on 10/17/2001 12:39:39 PM PDT by NetValue
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To: FresnoDA
The Saudis are the heart of the problem. They have funded every Islamic barbaric terrorist group excluding those who are backed by Iran (and perhaps secretly even those).

The Saudis look upon us as dogs. Remember that during Desert Storm they insisted that Jews in the armed forces were not allowed to display a Star of David on their dog tags. Christians had to hide their prayer services. We are resented by them.

The Saudis still think of us as the Great Satan. Their day is coming.

27 posted on 10/17/2001 12:41:14 PM PDT by rebdov
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To: NetValue
what about the Arab guy sitting in the cube next to you?
28 posted on 10/17/2001 12:41:26 PM PDT by Thoreau
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To: FresnoDA
My proposal -

1) warn them that if the anthrax, hijackings, and other nonsense doesn't stop, their most precious holy site - Mecca - is literally toast

2) if it doesn't stop, drop the bomb on Medina (holy site #2) and warn them that Mecca is next

3) if it still doesn't stop, DO IT

Short of killing ALL of them (which will never happen) THAT is what will work.

29 posted on 10/17/2001 12:44:06 PM PDT by Jefferson Adams
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"All the Saudis know how to do is collect petroleum royalties. They don't know how to do anything else"

I have two friends who live and work in Saudi. They confirm what you said about how HELPLESS these wimps are. Their Religious Secret Police are good at wacking defenseless women with whips, but run at first sight of any threat. Remember too, how all the Kuwaiti fat cats jumped into their private jets as soon as the Republican Guard crossed the border.

I say to HELL with these blackmailers. We should just "liberate" the Saudi citizens who live under this Muslamic Totalitarian Dictatorship in the name of democracy and freedom.

We had all the hardware to do it there in 1992, butt Bush "Wimp" Senior declined to do the right thing then and there.

30 posted on 10/17/2001 12:44:51 PM PDT by HadEnough
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To: NetValue
I would add one more to your list: Mecca.

Only, not with any sort of heavy duty ordance, say a nuclear bomb.

A few hundred tons of pigfat would do.

31 posted on 10/17/2001 12:46:23 PM PDT by Victor
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To: blam
Ping!)
32 posted on 10/17/2001 12:49:49 PM PDT by FresnoDA
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
We brought them into this world, we should take them out.
33 posted on 10/17/2001 12:50:31 PM PDT by Dead Dog
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To: Victor
I look forward to the day(not too long from now)when all the oil wells in the middle east have "U S A/ British Oil Cooperative" printed on them !!
34 posted on 10/17/2001 12:51:52 PM PDT by 1 FELLOW FREEPER
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To: FresnoDA
Not a single named source among all the:

"local reports say", "governement officials say", "investigators say".

What a load of crap.

The demonization of Saudi Arabia continues. In truth the hijackings were planned in Hamburg Germany, where most of the terrorists lived and went to school before coming to the US. Why don't we bomb Germany?

35 posted on 10/17/2001 12:52:53 PM PDT by Deb
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To: Dead Dog
Saudi Arabia simply needs to become an American Province, and that saolves both terrorist and oil problems. Furthermore, then we can attach #Q@*( Iraq without asking anybody. The sleeping giant is awake, it is time for him to make war with all the rage he can.
36 posted on 10/17/2001 12:53:52 PM PDT by gas_dr
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To: FresnoDA
They should no longer be in the oil business, just for starters. The existence of Mecca should be used as a control on jihading behavior.
37 posted on 10/17/2001 12:59:43 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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To: wideawake
Can't happen. Unlike us they have enough common sense to keep all foreigners out.

There are 30,000 US citizens living in foreigner compounds, and working in Saudi Arabia. There are also thousands upon thousands, of additional quest workers, from around the globe. You don't think those barbarians, could run all the modern equipment they purchased, do you?

38 posted on 10/17/2001 12:59:57 PM PDT by Eagle74
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To: dubyaismypresident
Thanks for the bump. I am sure there will be a few more surprises before this opearation is complete.
39 posted on 10/17/2001 1:10:40 PM PDT by Cool Guy
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To: Lazamataz
You may not remember but 10 or 15 yrs ago a bunch of Iranian nutcases seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. It took Saudi troops with machine guns to blast them out killing most. The Mosque took heavy damage.

As a result the pilgrims from Iran were not allowed to go to Mecca for a number of yrs. And now they are allowed to join the insect parade around their idol but the armed presence of troops is still there.

Until that lunatic asylum is destroyed there will probably be no peace (you can add the mosque on Temple Mount in Israel to the demolition list too.)

40 posted on 10/17/2001 1:19:01 PM PDT by justshutupandtakeit
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