From the Jerusalem Post
From th Jerusalem Post
jpost.co.il
Do you think that America's retaliatory action in
Sudan and Afghanistan is likely to result in revenge
attacks against Israeli and Jewish interests?
Yes
80 %
No
20 %
Total Votes: 1363
From Saudi newslines
U.S. may turn Bin Laden into hero-Saudi
By William Maclean
LONDON (Reuters) - Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden will enjoy increasing popularity with ordinary Saudis if
he is attacked again by U.S. forces, a Saudi author said on Tuesday.
''What you are doing is building him into a hero, and that is very sad,'' liberal writer and businessman Hani
Yamani told Reuters in an interview.
More U.S. attacks on the Saudi-born millionaire would also spread sympathy for Bin Laden's view that U.S.
forces should quit the conservative desert kingdom, Yamani said.
''The more we get into this cycle, with the U.S. using force to strike back in retaliation, the more this feeling will
become deeper in our hearts and make Mr Bin Laden more popular.''
Yamani, businessman son of former Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, said most Saudis appeared to
distrust Washington's portrayal of Bin Laden as head of a global guerrilla network.
''He is somewhat of a fanatic. He does believe in force. He opposes U.S. support for Israel.''
''But that he really runs the whole network is a serious escalation of the truth. There is a strong belief that this is
totally inflated. It is a sort of joke,'' Yamani said.
''Maybe he himself is glad about it. Perhaps he likes the attention. But it reminds many Saudis of the way they
built Saddam into the world's fourth largest army,'' he added, referring to U.S. allegations before the 1990-91
Gulf War that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein commanded one of the world's biggest armies.
The strikes had created a danger that Bin Laden would come to acquire in Saudi Arabia the image that
Argentinian-born revolutionary leader Che Guevara had among the European and Latin American left in the
1960s, he said.
Saudis were completely opposed to the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and were fully
aware that the United States remained their country's main economic ally, Yamani said.
But ordinary Saudis at the same time mistrusted the United States because of its support of Israel ''so there is
this ambiguity in their attitude to the United States,'' he said.
''There ways and ways to fight these attacks. Many Saudi believe that the Sudanese factory was not producing
chemical weapons. To say it makes nerve gas is a huge jump.''
The bombings of the two U.S. embassies in East Africa on August 7 killed 263 people and injured some 5,000.
Last Thursday's U.S. cruise missile attack on alleged guerrilla camps in the mountains around Khost, 150
kilometers (95 miles) from Kabul killed 21 people and wounded 53. The U.S. also fired missiles at what it
deemed to be a factory producing chemical weapons in Sudan, wounding 10 people.
''Do you fight terrorism this way? There is a question mark among Saudis,'' said Yamani.
''Who does this benefit? Now, let's not get into the stereotype that everything must be to do with the Israelis.
But whoever bombed the U.S. embassies can easily be seen as a friend of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin)
Netanyahu.''
U.S. officials described the missile strike as the start of a long war against Bin Laden whom they accused of
playing a key role in the bombing of the U.S. embassies. Bin Laden denies involvement in the attacks.
In a book ''To Be A Saudi'' published last year Yamani, in his late 30s and one of the few Saudi liberals to
make his demands known openly, criticized corruption, reliance on foreigners and religious fundamentalist
influence and urged a new emphasis on openness.
The book by the British-educated technocrat with interests in construction, gas and banking, also criticized the
presence of Western troops as wasteful and controversial.
He suggested the government lease a fully equipped and manned aircraft carrier based in the Gulf to see off
foreign threats and enable foreign forces to be removed from Saudi soil.
Do you buy this?
from almadinah.com
World
Saudi dissident agrees
to hold fire
The Taleban have restricted Osama bin Laden's
movements
Saudi militant Osama bin Laden has promised
the Taleban authorities he will not carry out
military or political activity against any country
while on Afghan territory.
The man the Americans accuse of
masterminding the bomb attacks on their
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania sent a
message to the Taleban leader, Mullah
Mohammed Omar, saying he accepted the
Taleban's authority and would obey their orders,
a senior Taleban official announced.
The Mullah had expressed his annoyance at
retaliatory threats issued by the Saudi exile
against the United States after missile attacks
on guerrilla training camps in Afghanistan last
Thursday.
Mr Omar sent an envoy
to Osama bin Laden to
remind him that it was
Afghan territory that was
attacked and the
Taleban itself reserved
the right to respond.
According to the
Taleban, the Saudi
dissident agreed that
there could not be two
parallel authorities in
Afghanistan and said he would obey the
request.
The Taleban has always maintained that
Osama bin Laden is in Afghanistan as its
guest, not to conduct political or military
activities. |
