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.'
A British roommate of mine in college in the 80's grew up very wealthy before his fathers construction business was nationalize by SA. So he worked retail to pay his tuition at a city college.
With much less power than Saddam would have had. He was expansionistic, and would have dominated the world's oil supply, building an untouchable military that wold eventually be used. I'll take a half dozen bickering ideologues over him any day.
this statement is the biggest lie of the day...the saudis are not one of our key allies...they have lied, cheated and fail to support the us in taking on the terrorists...its time for the 30,000+ to join the rest of the camel riders...the royal family has exploited the poor for decades...again, down with the royal family...
No. If pro-al-Qaeda forces topple the regime in Saudi, they will become the legitimate government there. We cannot (and will not) establish Saudi Arabia as the 51st State. It will be akin to what happened when the Shaw of Iran was ousted.
You are assuming they ever got out of the stone age. I think they have always been a stone age country with oil.
Re-read this snippet and perhaps things will clear up:
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 (Anti-Abdullah). 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.
There is no other logical course to take, at this time. It is essential that no elements favorable to al-Qaeda be allowed to in any way benefit from these fields or take Western hostages. More than anything, this is a national security imperative. Deny any resources to the Islamists and their allies. This war cannot be won with half measures and politically correct sensibilities.
I guess if you can't argue with what I said, you'll just make something up. I said we'll "take it over", not incorporate it into the US. The list of "legitimate governments" we've taken over is long.
It would be nothing like the Shaw. We weren't already at war with the Shaw when he came to power. We didn't spend the last year removing al-Qaeda from Afghanistan to give them another state and 20% of the world's oil supply. What are we going to say, "We'll, their revolution and subsequent dictatorship makes them the 'legitimate' leaders now… guess we'll leave…" Lol!
?
Clear what up? The story doesn’t support the headline, and neither does that 200 word 'snippet'.
I can imagine them running a parallel story 15 years ago about the internal dangers within the USSR and getting tough with them.
Of course it would dramatically reduce the standard of living in Saudi Arabia, but I don't think Al Quaeda cares much about that.
D
Look, please don't argue semantics with me if your words are on the same page.
I guess if you can't argue with what I said, you'll just make something up.
I don't do that here--so please don't accuse me of it if it is not true.
Post # 40--We will take over if al-Qaeda takes over.
Also, your response regarding the Shaw is hard to follow. We are not at war with Saudi Arabia either. The "war" is on terror--and Saudi is still considered an ally.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
That's enough to make you blow your coffee all over the keyboard.
You compared an al-Queda takeover of SA to the Shaw's takeover so I pointed out that it was different because we are already at war with al-Queda. (I didn't say we were at war with SA.) Please don't tell me that after al-Queda has declared war on us, bombed us and Congress empowered Bush to use whatever means to defeat the perpetrators that we're not at war with al-Queda, just "terror". That would be a semantic difference.
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