With in flight refueling, I am sure the Spectre could take a cruise southward over Mecca!!
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.
How about the fact that most of them were Saudi nationals? All of them were Arabs. I don't believe any of the highjackers were financed with Mercedes Money.
So, some terrorists operate in Saudi; as I understand it the same group of terrorists struck in the US. If the Saudis are guilty because these terrorists operate in Saudi, then we are also guilty because they operate here.
Make my day.
In truth the hijackings were planned in multiple venues, including the U.S.
I am no too suprised that our "moderate Arab allies" aren't so moderate or so allied.
According to the lady who wrote the book Saddam Hussien, Mohamed Atta was an Iraqi secret serviceman before he went to Germany.
They all came to the US from Germany or London...not Saudi Arabia.
Osama bin Laden is public enemy #1 in Saudi Arabia. If he returns, they'll behead him like they did four men they believed blew up the Khobar Towers.
And you have no idea where the highjacker's money came from since it arrived from all over the world. Do you have proof they were financed by the Saudis? Of course not, so quit making things up.
But there are certainly anti-American Saudis just like there are anti-American Irish, Canadians and Harvard professors.
Dosen't your Skeptic Gland swell up when you read or hear a refrain with no counter argument? Don't you wonder if there might be another side? Any curiosity at all?
I can't, but we'll have to take on the environmentalists. Though I can agree with them that we need to find alternative sources, break off our love affair with gas-guzzlers, etc., it's not currently practical. (BTW, they were also responsible for the power crisis in California).
Which is precisely why we're having a problem today. We made the cretins rich by discovering oil in their country, and using our technology to get it out of the ground. Their "thanks" was to break all agreements, nationalize, (or steal) it, and tell us to get the hell out.
We got out alright, but we forgot to do one thing. We should have bombed all of the wells and refineries. They'd still be scratching their heads today, while looking at that black, sticky stuff. Another weak response on the part of America that created a monster.
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