Al-Qa'eda 'Plotted Assassination Of Saudi Ministers'

Saudi Arabia is hunting a large al-Qa'eda cell accused of plotting to assassinate the interior and defence ministers. The operation comes as the kingdom steps up efforts to liberalise the political system and restrict the influence of the powerful Islamist religious establishment.

The government offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 19 men thought to be on the run after a gunfight with security forces. The suspects were all Saudis, but for a Yemeni and an Iraqi.

A security official said the intended targets included Prince Naif, the interior minister, and his brother Prince Sultan, the defence minister, two of the four most powerful figures in the kingdom. He said the targets had been chosen by Osama bin Laden.

Prince Naif told al-Watan newspaper: "This group has started outside the kingdom. They received military training in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they pretend to be Islamists and declare others as infidels.

"All of them had returned from Afghanistan . . . and a number of them had been detained and then freed because we found their role was very limited."

Prince Naif said the large quantities of seized weapons had been smuggled across the borders of the vast kingdom, which helped bin Laden in his early years as an Afghan mujahideen before he turned against them.

"The most dangerous thing is the explosives. Its quantity is large and quality is high. This indicates how dangerous these people are," he said.

Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, described the militants as "corrupt, traitors and aggressors" who must be "fought and severely punished".

The plot emerged as the London-based Arabic magazine al-Majalla reported a new threat against the United States from al-Qa'eda.

In an e-mail interview, a correspondent claiming to be Thabet bin Qais, a spokesman for the network, promised that a "spectacular" strike against the US on the scale of September 11 is "definitely coming".

He said the network had been completely restructured and its leadership replaced by new and unknown figures "who have a very good security cover".

"The Americans only have predictions and old intelligence left," he said. "It will take them a long time to understand the new form of al-Qae'da."

US officials confirmed that bin Qais had spoken for bin Laden in the past, but said they could not verify the authenticity of the interview.

Saudi newspapers and television published the names and pictures of the suspects with "Wanted" signs.

Some newspapers wrote editorials scorning bin Laden and the "misguided men who blindly follow his teachings".

The plot was uncovered just one week after the United States announced it was withdrawing its forces from the kingdom - a key al-Qa'eda demand - and days after the American embassy in Riyadh warned its citizens that terrorist groups may be preparing attacks.

There are growing signs that the Saudis are accelerating a long-awaited reform initiative, one aim of which is gradually to restrict the influence of the powerful religious establishment - even at the risk of provoking an Islamist backlash.

Al-Qaida 'restructured and ready for spectacular attacks on US'

Owen Bowcott and Julian Borger in Washington
Friday May 9, 2003
The Guardian (UK)

Al-Qaida has restructured itself and is planning spectacular attacks against the United States, according to an interview obtained by a London-based Arabic magazine which has previously reported contacts with the organisation.

In the latest edition of al-Majalla, published today, a spokesman for al-Qaida denied it had been rendered inoperative and explained that familiar faces had been replaced by newcomers "who have a very good security cover".

The interview was conducted on the internet by al-Majalla's Dubai correspondent, Mahmoud Khalil, who received an email two months ago from a man who gave his name as Thabet bin Qais and described himself as al-Qaida's new spokesman.

Mr Khalil had been in contact with Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the previous spokes-man. Mr Bin Qais, who offered no information about his own nationality or background, stated that he took on the job of media contact as part of al-Qaida's internal reorganisation. He said he was using a list of contacts maintained by his predecessor.

"The Americans only have predictions and old intelligence left," the magazine quoted Mr Bin Qais as saying. "It will take them a long time to understand the new form of al-Qaida."

The organisation remained "way ahead of the Americans and its allies in the intelligence war; American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes the leadership has made".

Mr Khalil said he was suspicious of his identity until Mr Bin Qais reminded him of a private exchange between him and Mr al-Rashed about an interview he was trying to arrange with an al-Qaida member.

"A strike against America is definitely coming," Mr Bin Qais said. He insisted that the arrests of al-Qaidam members, including the suspected September 11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would have little effect on the organisation because those held had been replaced.

"Martyrdom operations in the jihad will go on," he said.

Although some members had been killed or arrested in the international clampdown since the September 11 attacks, Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaida's founder and leader, was still alive and free, he said.

The magazine said that Mr Bin Qais was responding to reports from the United States that al-Qaida had planned suicide attacks against the US consulate in Karachi and that it was using planes laden with high explosives to target US warships in the Gulf. "Let the Americans do what they want but we have changed our plans," he told the magazine. "Karachi is not a target."

The interview is not the main story in the magazine, which focuses on the Pentagon's decision to pull US troops out of Saudi Arabian bases.

Mr Bin Qais surfaced as the Saudi government announced it had foiled a suspected al-Qaida plot to assassinate members of the country's royal family.

Saudi authorities seized weapons and explosives in a Riyadh house on Wednesday. Nineteen suspected terrorists escapedafter a gunfight with police, leaving computer records and documents. A Saudi official told Associated Press news agency that the group had been ordered to mount attacks by Osama Bin Laden, and that the main targets were the defence minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.

Prince Nayef said the group included 17 Saudis, an Iraqi-born man holding Kuwaiti and Canadian citizenship, and a Yemeni. He said all had been trained in Afghanistan.

US intelligence experts are divided over how badly al-Qaida has been damaged by recent arrests. Some believe that it is no longer capable of mounting a sophisticated operation like the September 11 attacks.

Others regard that assessment as complacent and argue that junior members are steadily rising in the ranks to replace those killed or captured.

At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, the FBI's counterterrorism chief, Pasquale D'Amuro, described al-Qaida as "wounded and disorganised", but he added that it remained "a severe threat to this nation".

"There are growing signs that the Saudis are accelerating a long-awaited reform initiative, one aim of which is gradually to restrict the influence of the powerful religious establishment - even at the risk of provoking an Islamist backlash."

That last part about the risk of "backlash" is a joke. The same people who would cause such a "backlash" wake up and shout "Jihad! Kill the infidels" three times each day.

If a sailor on a passing ship lets his cross necklace fall out of his shirt into plain sight, they shout "Jihad!"

If a Western girl shows too much leg they shout "Jihad!"

If they don't get the primo table at Spago's, they shout "Jihad!"

It's always "Jihad this" and "Jihad that" with these radicals.

And what's it gotten them?! The entire Middle-East has gone a millenia without inventing anything worthy of note. They've slaughtered their own youth in suicide attacks and mindless wars, losing to everyone including themselves in the process. They cure no diseases. They have no hospitals that anyone prefers over the West. Their military schools are the planet's laughingstock. They even have to have Westerners pump their free oil, lest they not even have the limited amounts of cash that they survive on today.

But in the process of Jihadding everything and everyone, they've managed to finally piss off the one country that won't sit around and take their ill-advised abuse.

We've got your Jihad right here, radicals, and you aren't going to enjoy living unless you start doing what we tell you, when we tell it to you, from now on.

Forever.

That's what Jihad has gotten them. Either they bow their heads to our every demand from here on out, or else they get the treatment that we gave to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Hussein.

Not that they are even clever-enough to realize or comprehend such implications, mind you, but no matter, that's the way it's going to be (i.e. nice and friendly and peaceful, or else it's the U.S. killing them until they get back into line again).

Backlash?!

Oh please. They were already lashing out. It's only now that they are behaving again, and only then because we have shown them the sword.

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