Posted on 10/17/2001 11:53:13 AM PDT by FresnoDA
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.
What about New Jersey?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Only, not with any sort of heavy duty ordance, say a nuclear bomb.
A few hundred tons of pigfat would do.
"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?
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?
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.)
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