Posted on 06/20/2002 1:16:26 AM PDT by Ranger
ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia has airlifted hundreds of Al Qaida militants home from Iran this year.
Gulf and Saudi opposition sources said the airlift began in January. They said Iran granted Riyad permission to send Saudi government jets to evacuate hundreds of Al Qaida and Taliban members detained by Iran. The Saudi nationals were fleeing approaching U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Saudi nationals were said to have comprised a significant portion of the estimated 10,000 Al Qaida agents who had been based in Afghanistan, Middle East Newsline reported. Fifteen of the 19 suicide attackers on New York and Washington on Sept. 11 were Saudis.
The sources said many of the Saudis escaped Afghanistan by fleeing over the Iranian border where some of them were detained. They said those airlifted from Iran were regarded as Al Qaida members linked to the royal family.
Lower-ranking Saudi nationals were granted safe passage through Iran to the port of Bandar Abbas, where they arrived to the kingdom by sea. Other Saudis — particularly those who served as aides to Osama Bin Laden — were informed that they were no longer welcomed in the kingdom and were directed to other destinations in the Middle East, particularly North Africa. This included Saudi national Abu Zbeir Al Haili, captured by Morocco and said to have been a leading Al Qaida operative.
At one point, the sources said, Teheran had detained close to 200 Saudi nationals. But earlier this year, Teheran agreed to a Saudi offer to evacuate the imprisoned nationals. This prompted an airlift from eastern Iran to the Saudi city of Medina.
Saudi Arabia has acknowledged the return of Al Qaida members to the kingdom. On Tuesday, an Interior Ministry statement announced the arrest of 11 nationals on charges of planning attacks throughout the kingdom, including U.S. military targets. An Iraqi and Sudanese national were also arrested.
Officials said the Sudanese national was extradited from Khartoum after he escaped the kingdom through Iraq. The officials said Riyad has not determined whether Iraqi authorities were linked to the Al Qaida plot. "The security agencies have arrested elements linked to Al Qaida who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against vital installations in the kingdom using explosives and two SA-7 missiles," the Saudi Press Agency quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying.
The London-based Al Hayat daily reported on Wednesday that the SA-7 missiles and other Al Qaida weapons were smuggled into Saudi Arabia from neighboring Yemen. The 1,100-kilometer Saudi-Yemeni border has been used as an escape route for Al Qaida militants who fled Afghanistan.
Saudi officials said some of the Al Qaida detainees were regarded as sleeper agents.
Earlier, the ministry released 160 Saudi nationals deemed as not posing a threat to the country. The Saudi-owned Al Hayat daily described the men as having fought alongside Taliban in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Uhhuh. When are the Saudis going on your "Axis of Evil" list, President Bush?
We could teach them a thing or two about securing borders.
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If I recall bin Laden's rants correctly, he wanted to inflict damage on the U.S. to create domestic pressure to leave the Middle East (e.g., 9/11, Kenya, the Cole). Then he'd have carte blanche to kill all the Jews in Israel, and overthrow the House Of Saud.
He hates America because our political alliances thwart the obsessive Muslim desire to destroy Israel, and in the specific case of bin Laden, to gain power in Saudi.
In fact the whole of Europe and Islam despise our policy of supporting Israel. They'd love to see the Jews disappear.
Clearly we revisiting the unmitigated evil of 1939.
You forgot to mention the 'infidels on sacred soil' bit. US gets to protect its oil supplies from Saudi, gets to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons to a nation that is incapable of defending itself or even using those weapons effectively (still can't use AWACS without US help!). Money talks.
VRN
You gotta believe that the administration already knows this. Must be a bitch working with these two-faced devils!
Mike
There's another perspective to keep in mind, beyond the Saudis protecting their Al Quaida nationals. By bringing them to Saudi soil they can keep track of them and control their activities, arrest those who conspire or act against the Saudi government. This was a self-protective move IMHO.
At about the same time as the Saudi's quit making payments and giving sweetheart business deals to family members of politicians from both branches of the Dim Party. In other words,it ain't gonna happen. All this "War on Terrorism" nonsense is nothing but nonsense. The so-called Patriot Act and the Office of Reich Security are about a subject close to Bubba-2's heart,a powerful central gooberment. Terrorism is the excuse used,but it's all about more power for politicians and gooberment.
That's redundant.
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