Posted on 06/20/2002 5:10:35 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker
A British banker was killed by a booby-trap bomb placed in his Land Rover in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh yesterday.
Friends of Simon Veness blamed the attack on Islamic militants. But the Saudi authorities said it was the work of illegal expatriate alcohol traders.
Mr Veness, a middle manager at the Saudi French Bank in Riyadh, was alone as he drove away from his home in the al-Nakheel Westerners' residential compound when the car exploded at about 8.45am. He died instantly.
Mr Veness, 35, who had a two-year-old son and whose South African wife is pregnant, was due to return to London in two weeks after four years in Saudi Arabia.
The attack was similar to seven earlier bombings that Saudi authorities blame on a feud among Westerners dealing in illegal alcohol.
They have arrested five Britons, a Belgian and a Canadian.
Two of the Westerners are reported to be facing the death penalty after making televised confessions to some of the attacks. These were retracted on the grounds that they had been obtained by torture.
"We suspect that the explosion which killed Mr Veness has to do with alcohol smuggling because it is similar to a previous explosion that occurred in Riyadh," said a Saudi security official.
But friends of Mr Veness were adamant that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
"He was an absolute gentleman," said one western friend. "It is inconceivable that he had any connection either to those under arrest or to alcohol smuggling. He had the highest moral standards."
Another neighbour said: "Everybody knows that the alcohol claim is a smoke-screen. This was a terrorist attack against a western national."
Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "This is the latest in a series of bomb blasts since the ones for which the Britons were arrested, which are causing more and more of a problem for Saudi Arabia.
"It makes the international community all the more sceptical about the theory that the original blasts were caused by Europeans.
"But the Saudis are impervious to outside influence and we can't get fair trials for these men."
A Labour MP said the treatment of the Britons was typical of an unjust legal system and urged foreigners to boycott the country.
Lynne Jones, MP for Selly Oak, Birmingham, said: "Skilled people from abroad should withdraw their labour until there is a sea change in democracy and human rights.
"Their legal system is not a fair one and any person who goes to that country could be arrested for virtually anything and detained indefinitely."
British diplomats in Riyadh said it was "too early to draw conclusions" about yesterday's killing.
They would not say whether it was linked to an incident this month in which an Australian employee of British Aerospace escaped after being shot at five times as he drove in the north of the country.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said: "This is a shocking and tragic event and my first thoughts are with Mr Veness's wife and son. We are in close contact with his family and with the Saudi authorities who are investigating the explosion."
The British Embassy issued a notice advising British residents "to follow special precautions to ensure the security of their vehicles".
The attack came in the week Saudi Arabia announced for the first time the arrest of an al-Qa'eda cell, and accomplices, that had planned to shoot down US military aircraft and stage other attacks.
The September 11 attacks, which were carried out by mainly Saudi hijackers, have refocused attention on the kingdom's Islamic militants who are opposed to the ruling royal family and its alliance to the West.
Osama bin Laden was born into a wealthy Saudi family and turned against America after it deployed troops in the country before the Gulf War.
The renewed attacks against foreigners have caused alarm among many of the 26,000 British residents after several months of quiet.
"Everybody is frightened," said one neighbour of Mr Veness. But in contrast to the silence two years ago, more are willing to speak out against the official Saudi version.
"We're fed up with the Saudi authorities covering this up. Everybody knows that the money for al-Qa'eda comes from Saudi Arabia," said one friend of Mr Veness.
Independent
Britain is home to 'substantially more' than 100 terrorism suspects, says Scotland Yard Jason Bennetto and Andrew Buncombe
More than 100 terrorism suspects and activists belonging to organisations connected with Osama bin Laden are based in Britain, Scotland Yard disclosed yesterday.
Details of the potential terrorists were revealed when the Metropolitan Police outlined plans for an international task force to track down and prosecute terrorists worldwide.
A national unit staffed by officers from the intelligence agencies MI5 and M16, Special Branch, and the Met's anti-terrorist branch has already been set up to find suspected supporters of Mr bin Laden.
Assistant Commissioner David Veness, the head of Scotland Yard's specialist operations, said that "substantially more than 100" activists who belonged to seven different terrorist groups had been identified in the United Kingdom. The police intended to make "robust use of counter-terrorism laws" to bring to justice suspected members of illegal organisations in Britain, he said.
Among the groups under scrutiny by anti-terrorist officers are al-Qa'ida, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group based in Algeria, and groups seeking independence from India in Kashmir.
Mr Veness also disclosed that the police had drawn up plans to arrest and question any citizens returning to Britain who had fought in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban.
The anti-terrorist branch and MI6 and MI5 are compiling information on Islamic extremists recruited in Britain by members of the al-Qa'ida network. There are about a dozen British prisoners being held in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but other supporters of the Taliban and Mr bin Laden are expected to try to return to the UK in the next few weeks.
There has been concern that the authorities were unaware of suspected extremists and supporters of al-Qa'ida living Britain, including Richard Reid, from London, who is accused of trying to blow up an airliner with a bomb hidden in his shoe.
Mr Veness disclosed details of plans for a new "international counter-terrorism task force" which would include specialist officers from the 15 countries that make up Europol, the European police organisation, and the FBI. Under the proposals suspected terrorists could be prosecuted and investigations made by officers from several different countries.
Several global investigations into suspected members of al-Qa'ida have been hampered because by the lack of co-ordination between countries.
A 12-member "police international counter-terrorism unit" has been set up in the past few weeks. Staffed by veteran anti-terrorist officers, it will mount a number of operations against suspects and advise police forces on how to deal with terrorism threats.
In the United States yesterday, lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, argued for his trial relating to 11 September to be televised. A cable television firm is also backing the move. The District Judge Leonie Brinkema said at the court in Virginia that she would not issue a ruling before Tuesday.
Mr Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is accused of conspiring to murder thousands of people. He was arrested in August after arousing suspicion at a flying school. Investigators believe he would otherwise have been part of the hijacking team that seized the United Airlines flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. His trial is due to start in October.
And if they're not going to do anything about this, then we will obviously have to.
No kinda about it. The Saudis are lying as usual.
That says it all. All westerners and (and easterners, i.e. Koreans, Filippinos) should leave Saudi Arabia. Let them clean up their own s**t, drill their own oil, and run their own country without the brains and brawn from other countries.
Then we shall see...
Business should also withdraw its CAPITAL from Saudi.
I read recently that virtually ZERO money has net been invested in that area since the oil operations were nationalized.
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