Britons left in jail amid fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al-Qaeda

The Guardian ^ | Sunday July 28, 2002 | Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris

[XBob]

No, unfortunately, I am not kidding. It really happened, and if you do FR search, you will find a few posts about it.

[Joe Boucher]

I know you are correct, just wishful thinking on my part.

[Jhoffa_]

Much more crap from their religious police and they might actually be happy to see us.

[arm958]

So when Al-Qaeda takes over, Saudi Arabia will be different how, exactly?................

One big difference: We will have a valid reason for taking over.

[arm958]

For one thing, we will pull out our forces if al-Qaeda takes over.

I think you made a typo. Don't me mean "reinforce" instead of "pull out".

[R. Scott]

”Now aint that dandy, with Saudi Arabia having the latest western military technology plus billions of petro dollars to boot it seems they may end up like IRAN?”

Unlike the old Soviet equipment, Modern American and Western European military equipment needs constant high tech maintenance. Their goodies will degrade quickly when cut off from their supply chain.

[Gemflint]

Amen, amen!

[Gemflint]

Yes, there havve been protests all over. One of the larger ones was near Medina(?), I think, that had over ~500 male protestors attacking women and the police. (This is in a country where protesting against the regime is illegal.)

There's been a mess brewing for years.

1. They've a population explosion on their hands, not enough money to continue subsidizing them in the manner they were used to (Used to be everyone got $28,000 annually + their jobs, now they get ~$6,000 and there aren't enough jobs).

2. The Saudi's are so strapped for cash that they're allowing limited tourism in (or at least they were, before 9/11), which was unthinkable just a few years ago because "Saudi is the bastion of Islam".

3. Saudi is even thinking of allowing 100% foreign-owned companies to operate inside the kingdom. It used to be that any company that wanted inside the country had to be 51% Saudi-owned.

4. As for the Saudi work ethic, weeellll, they're a *bit* spoiled. Last year a Saudi took a job as a hotel bell-hop in Jeddah - it made the region's front-page news. There's now a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment because "not enough of the good jobs" are open to the Saudi's. I think some of the sentiment is that anything less than a fully-professional job is underneath them, should be handled by other people of foreign (Arab or non-Arab) descent. I think they all believe they're aristocracy...

[BlackJack]

bump

[SkyPilot]

I think you made a typo. Don't me mean "reinforce" instead of "pull out".

No. If al-Qaeda takes over the Sauia government, our military forces will be asked to leave that country yesterday.

[SpinyNorman]

Good thing we are drilling for substitute oil supplies in ANWAR!!! Right!

[tomahawk]

Exactly. If Al Qaeda takes over, the oil is ours.

[sakic]

Hey, sounds good to me, if they LIKE Al Queada so much, and they do, then if they take over, it finally gives us an excuse to go in and bomb the place back to the stoneage and take our oil wells back.

If Al Qaeda takes over the country they won't need our help going back into the Stone Age.

After bombing them the oilfields are gone.

[tom paine 2]

I was in the Kingdom last weekend on business. The one thing that made an impression on me above anything else was how spoiled the Saudi natives were. While I waited patiently in line to go through immigration a group of Saudis raised holy hell at having to stand in line and continued to complain loudly until the immigration folks just let them through. Another part of the culture that fascinated me was the fact that native Saudis, for the most part abhor anything that even hints at work. All the physical labor is subcontracted to Filipinos and Pakistanis. Even in the hotel I was staying in the actual concierge work was done by an Iranian while the two Saudis sat behind a desk in the back BS-ing. Very spoiled and not ready for war.

[Physicist]

I only hope that we are able to conquer Iraq before Saudi Arabia goes south. Then we won't need Dharan. We can operate out of our new Basra naval station and Baghdad air base.

I propose that the effort to take Saudi Arabia be named "Operation Hajj".

[elfman2]

" We should have let Iraq take them in '90. That would teach the ungrateful scum that makes up the House of Saud. To think we can't even say grace at the same moment we are defending their stinking rat hole."

They'd have nuclear weapons and control of the world's oil supply if we did that. We weren't motivated by helping SA, we helped ourselves. SA's bad, Iraq is worse.

[elfman2]

"The author of this article has it backwards. Prince Sultan has been much more pro-American than Prince Abdullah. Prince Abdullah is a Muslim fanatic, and no friend of the U.S."

Really? There are some inconsistencies in this story that would be explained by that. Like police stopping the exodus of schoolgirls from a burning building, but the protest wanting a more religious state.

Also, I don't see where the absurd headline is supported in the story.

[elfman2]

"For one thing, we will pull out our forces if al-Qaeda takes over."

We will take over if al-Qaeda takes over. We didn't take them out of Afghanistan to let them have SA.