Posted on 07/27/2002 10:11:04 PM PDT by prophetic
Britons left in jail amid fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al-Qaeda
Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris Sunday July 28, 2002 The Observer
Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror.
Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah.
At the same time, Whitehall officials are concerned that Abdullah could face a palace coup from elements within the royal family sympathetic to al-Qaeda.
Saudi sources said the Pentagon had recently sponsored a secret conference to look at options if the royal family fell.
Demonstrations across the kingdom broke out in March, triggered by a fire in a girls' school in which 14 pupils died after the religious police stopped them escaping.
Unrest in the east of the country rapidly escalated into nationwide protests against the royal family that were brutally suppressed by the police. The Observer has obtained secret video footage of the protests smuggled out of the country last week that shows hundreds of Saudis, including women, demonstrating in support of the Palestinians and opposition to the regime.
The Foreign Office believes that the failure of Abdullah's recent Middle East peace plan could have terminally undermined his position.
The Crown Prince's main rival, Prince Sultan, the Defence Minister, has been vocal in his opposition to Abdullah's pro- Western policy. His brother Prince Naif, head of the Interior Ministry, has led a crackdown on the Saudi media in the wake of the demonstrations to stop any word of them leaking out.
Abdullah has even sent his own representative to Washington to counter the influence of the ambassador, Prince Bandar, a son of Prince Sultan.
Anti-Abdullah elements within the Saudi government are also thought to have colluded in a wave of bomb attacks on Western targets by Islamic terrorists.
The authorities have blamed the attacks on an alleged 'turf war' between Westerners involved in the bootleg alcohol trade and have jailed five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian for the bombings. But British intelligence sources have confirmed that the attacks were carried out by Islamists linked to al-Qaeda.
Earlier this year, the accused men were handed sentences ranging from execution to long prison terms. But lawyers acting for the Britons have told The Observer that they could soon be free.
The tensions between the royal factions will intensify with the death of King Fahd. The condition of the king, in hospital in Switzerland, is 'unstable', doctors said.
British-based Saudi dissident Dr Saad al-Fagih said: 'There is now an undeclared war between the factions in the Saudi royal family.'
One big difference: We will have a valid reason for taking over.
I think you made a typo. Don't me mean "reinforce" instead of "pull out".
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.
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...
No. If al-Qaeda takes over the Sauia government, our military forces will be asked to leave that country yesterday.
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.
I propose that the effort to take Saudi Arabia be named "Operation Hajj".
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.
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.
We will take over if al-Qaeda takes over. We didn't take them out of Afghanistan to let them have SA.
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