Kingdom in Crisis
Can the Al Saud Family Stop Terrorism in Saudi Arabia?
abcnews.go.com
May 13— Osama bin Laden warned the Saudis long ago to kick out the Americans. Instead, Saudi Arabia again opened its military bases for the United States to wage war on Iraq.
With Saddam Hussein ousted from Iraq, the United States has announced plans to pull its combat planes out of Saudia Arabia by summer's end. But Monday's deadly bombings in Riyadh make it clear that was not enough.
"By hitting foreigners in Saudi Arabia, it's two-for-one in many ways," said Judith Kipper, co-director of the Middle East Studies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It puts the Saudis in the uncomfortable position of being in the same boat with the United States in this war on terrorism."
How effective the Saudis can be in the war against al Qaeda has long been in question. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, yet the Saudis have offered little to assist that investigation — and minimize the al Qaeda threat in their country.
"Every time we ask them, they say everything is fine in Saudi Arabia; there's no problem," said Bob Baer, a former CIA field officer n the Middle East. He is the author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism.
Mounting Problems
But there are big problems in Saudi Arabia. There are human rights abuses, and a lack of some basic freedoms.
Fifteen or 20 years ago, the per-capita annual income was $28,000 a year.
Today, it's $6,000.
Unemployment is estimated at around 15 percent.
And many of the unemployed are young — 60 percent of Saudis are under the age of 25.
Many believe that these conditions have produced a breeding ground for Islamic extremism.
"We have young people with no prospects for anything," said Ali Al-ahmed, a Saudi expatriate and director of the Saudi Institute for Development and Studies, an independent human rights watchdog group based in McLean, Va.
"They are mad, they go to the mosques, they learn to hate; they go to school, they learn the same message," he said. "You put anybody under that circumstance and that will give you terrorists, killers."
Time for a Crackdown?
The House of al Saud, the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, is seen as far too "modern" by many Saudis, and certainly by bin Laden. The royal family has made few attempts to crack down on those who preach hatred, fearing a backlash.
"It's a royal family that has made a deal with the devil, and that's the fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia, saying, 'Expand, you can proselytize in Africa and Central Asia — just don't do it inside Saudi Arabia,' " said Baer.
In Washington, the Saudi government seemed to adopt a much tougher stand Tuesday.
"We have made absolutely clear that we are going to hunt them down; we will bring them to justice and we will punish them," said Nail Al-Jubeir, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
"By the time we are done with them, they will wish they were under American justice rather than Saudi justice," he said. "We made it clear this is the end of it, the population is sick and tired; we have made it clear that we will hunt down … those who have supported them, those who have sheltered them."
Now that terrorists have hit hard in the Saudi capital, the ruling family can no longer ignore the enemy within its borders. |
