I was listening to a radio show where they were talking about the terrorists. Virtually every terrorist they profiled was born in Saudi Arabia but the vast majority of those were Yemeni Citizens. The hosts wondered how that could be since anyone born in America is an American Citizen.
The answer is simple they are the offspring of the vast number of guest workers that Saudi Arabia uses for the menial jobs that Saudi Arabians won't do. Can you imagine the feeling that these people must have seeing the opulence around them as they grew up, hearing their parents bemoan the hard labor, while being born in a country where they will never even be second class citizens?
These non-entities are a fertile recruiting ground for the Terrorist leaders who point their anger away from their Saudi masters toward the developed world. The Saudi Government has to be complicit in this since they need the labor to keep their opulent economy running but don't want the disaffected bombing the royal palaces.
Bringing in a permanent underclass to perform odious tasks has been a mistake since the time of the Romans.
There is significant cultural overlap between Yemen and the poorer rural provinces of southwestern Saudia Arabia (Asir, Najran, Jizan), with no clearly defined border between the two countries. The tribes go back and forth with little regard for the border, in the same way that the Pashtuns ignore the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This area of Saudi Arabia is where Bin Laden and many of his henchmen came from. The more urbanized inhabitants of the north consider people from that area to be ignorant, violent rubes of questionable loyalty, and it is difficult for them to advance in the Saudi military or other national institutions. I suppose this feeds their aggrievement with the Saudi government and contributes to the radicalism associated with that area.
With so many of them, including Bin Laden, having Yemeni ancestry, it is no wonder they can claim citizenship in either country.
-ccm