U.S. Sent Envoy to Warn Saudis of Imminent Attack

Reuters ^ | Steve Holland

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A presidential envoy personally warned Saudi Arabia last week of U.S. fears of an imminent attack, days before suicide bombings killed 34 people, including seven Americans, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The disclosure was made after the United States, in a rare criticism, said Saudi Arabia "must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country" in the aftermath of the bombings.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Bush's deputy national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, went to Riyadh last week to deliver the warning. White House officials would not confirm Hadley's trip, first reported by ABC News.

His Riyadh visit came after the State Department issued a May 1 warning for Americans to put off nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia because "information indicates that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia."

The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, complained on Wednesday that the Saudi kingdom did not respond quickly enough to U.S. requests for more security at a compound attacked this week by the bombers.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer essentially backed up Jordan's criticism.

"As with many countries around the world, the fact is that Saudi Arabia must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country, and their presence is as much a threat to Saudi Arabia as it is to Americans and others who live and work in Saudi Arabia," Fleischer said.

The United States has strong suspicions that al Qaeda was behind the bombings. An FBI team was on its way to Saudi Arabia to help investigate the triple suicide bombings. Bush spoke to Saudi leader Crown Prince Abdullah on Tuesday.

PRAISE FOR COOPERATION

While saying the United States would push Saudi Arabia to "do more" against terrorism, Fleischer went out of his way to praise Saudi Arabia's cooperation. U.S.-Saudi ties were strained after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

Fleischer said the United States was not reassessing its relationship with Saudi Arabia, suggesting this would be what the attackers want.

"The one thing the terrorists want more than anything else is to be able to attack the United States, to attack others in the region and force us into changes in our policies. That will not happen," Fleischer said.

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, made the same point in a toughly worded statement.

"The target of the al Qaeda terrorists is Saudi Arabia and the United States and the 70-year relationship that has benefited both our peoples," he said.

He added: "We say to the people of the United States, as your friend and ally, you can rely on us to do our part as we have done in critical times in the past. We will continue to hunt down the criminals, we will continue to cut off their finances and we will bring them to justice."

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters cooperation was good between the United States and Saudi Arabia and she anticipated the two countries would work even more closely now.

[cookcounty]

".......... VINNELL, an American company owned until 1997 by George Bush ........"

Source, please?

[Betty Jo]

My 2 links, above in reply # 9

[montag813]

The disclosure was made after the United States, in a rare criticism, said Saudi Arabia "must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country" in the aftermath of the bombings.

Ok..good. Now let's follow this up with more Saudi bashing, REAL threats and eventual asset seizure if compliance is not obtained. This is not a joke. With Iraq as a vassal state, Bush can afford to alienate the strong familial links. Lawrence Eagleburger is already on the tube bashing the Saudis. Of course we will never see the Arab Whore James Baker capitulating to the truth, but the Washington Power Structure simply does not need to cling to its Saudi nipple any longer...so all that is left is the condemnation of its dictatorship and proper treatment of its regime--as an enemy of this nation.

[Atchafalaya]

I saw Sheila Jackson Lee on Cavuto stating that because of the war in Iraq we diverted assets that could/should have been used to combat terrorism. The diversion of assets was a failure of Bush's policy and that it allowed AQ to regroup
and to once again become active. We had the opportunity to crush it but Bush's war in Iraq prevented that from happening. I almost hurled; Cavuto kept pointing out the error of her statements but she just kept on repeating them. He should have told her what he told Klugman "... and shove it." I understand The Shiney One (Gephardt) is chewing on this line of attack also.

[MinuteGal]

I think the Saudis will really make an effort to find the escapees because this tragic event went way over their elastic edge and really gives the royals a black-eye throughout the world.

Plus, they can't afford an exodus of all Western technicians, construction managers, innovators and the rest of the experts who make their backward country tick.

I'll bet those escaped suicide bombers will rue the day they didn't blow themselves up with the rest. When the Saudi hand-choppers and eye-gougers capture them (and they will), instant death by explosion would have been nirvanah for them.

Leni

[EGPWS]

We can safely conclude that our intelligence gathering has improved somewhat since 9/11/01.

And that improvement is small compared to the vast improvement seen since removing the obsolete oval office bathroom "sink phone" that was used extensively from '92 to '00.

[Southack]

It's too early to break it to the Dems that they have fallen for yet another Bushco trap, but Jackson-Lee is caught in this one deep.

What they've done, is read enough polls to finally realize that they can't win unless they veer to the Right.

But the Dems can never beat Bush on his home turf (and make no mistake, defending our nation is his home turf).

Sure, go ahead and make Campaign 2004 all about the War on Terror. Throw me in that briar patch.

Well, they'll eventually figure this fact out, and then they'll simply go back to their polls and focus groups which give the Democrats slight edges in only TWO topics: healthcare and deficits/tax-cuts.

Thus, we'll see all 11 Democratic Presidential candidates (the 9 current + Gore and Hillary) roll out their own healthcare plans and we'll see all 11 denounce Bush's "reckless" tax cuts.

In the meantime, the War on Terror will continue to rack up success after success, whereas the Dems won't even break out of the 40+% popularity range.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The disclosure was made after the United States, in a rare criticism, said Saudi Arabia "must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country" in the aftermath of the bombings.

The terrorists in Saudi are not merely present, they're on the payroll and I'm sick of the U.S. Government soft-selling it and looking the other way. Too bad it takes a pile of dead bodies to get anybody's attention in the govt. I'm sick of hearing about what a wonderful ally Saudi is while they openly support terrorism. If we don't take it to the Saudis hard, terrorism is going to continue.

[mikhailovich]

The US could buy oil from the Russians, but she insists on this peculiar, bull**t alliance with a bunch of Muslem sandrat ba**ards.

This alliance is as frustrating as the Russian hesitance to get fully on board with the war against terrorism.

What is it with people? LOL

[ladyjane]

There's more behind this.... or more coming...... that we don't know about.

I think you are right. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why we were invading Iraq. The only explanation that made sense to me was that we needed a base in the middle east and knew that Saudi Arabia had to be cut loose. (Remember all those princes who were dying?) We now have our base - bye-bye House of Saud.

[blackie]

As usual, the Saudis were sleeping at the switch.

Be Well - Be Armed - Be Safe - Molon Labe!

[patriciaruth]

I understand the body count would have been higher if a lot of the military trainers hadn't been out doing a night training exercise.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

They have the skills to protect themselves, but not the tools; they are not armed. They are ex-military or retired military civilian contractors and are not supposed to be carrying weapons themselves. Defending their own compound is not their mission. They were depending on the RSAF for security. Perhaps they will replace the RSAF with SANG. An alert LAV crew could have solved that problem with judicious bursts of 25mm.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I stand corrected. After further research it appears that the SANG was guarding the Vinnell compound. How embarrassing, for me to post what I did, and for Vinnell that their pupils couldn't do any better.