TERRORISM: Report From Saudi Arabia
Strategy Page.com
August 22, 2003: Saudi Arabia?s government has been engaged in a bloody, bitter war with Al Qaeda since 9-11, with efforts intensifying over the last few months. The conflict has taken against a back drop of confusing kaleidoscope of circumstances, divided loyalties, innuendoes, suspicions and misunderstandings.
Ever since Al Qaeda terrorists, a majority of them Saudis, hijacked four aircraft and flew them into buildings in New York and Washington, Saudi security forces, acting under the broad ranging instructions of the increasingly resolute Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, have arrested hundreds, if not thousands of suspected militants, sympathizers and persons believed to have ties to Al Qaeda.
Saudi investigators reportedly uncovered plots by the Al Qaeda network to initiate a series of major terrorist attacks, primarily in Riyadh, to coincide with the war in Iraq. Saudi intelligence had a source in the group and the plans were frustrated, but the Saudi government was shocked by the discovery that the group had stockpiled poisons, C4 explosives, hand grenades and small arms in preparation for their planned attacks.
On May 10, Saudi security arrested 149 persons believed to be engaged in a plot to poison parts of the country?s water supply. At the same time security forces raided a Riyadh apartment where a large cache of weapons and explosives was uncovered. A nationwide dragnet was launched the next day for 19 others, some of whom reappeared in the bloody terrorist attacks of the following day.
Following the May 12th suicide bombings in three Riyadh compounds that killed at least one, possibly two members of the 15,000 member royal family Saudi, as well as over 30 other persons, internal security forces stepped up efforts to crack open and uncover existing cells in the kingdom with a considerable amount of vigor.
Examination of speeches and Friday sermons led to the dismissal of 2000 clerics and suspension of their right to preach in Saudi mosques. While no reasons were given officially it was widely noted that the sacked ulema were considered to be sympathizers to the militants and admirers of Osama bin Laden.
Regulatory agencies have virtually frozen money in accounts where there is question if it is making its way to terrorist groups. Charities operating in Saudi Arabia are under increasing scrutiny and the trickle of money to Al Qaeda from that source has been severely reduced, if not completely cut off.
Saudi security forces and militants (the Saudi name for Al Qaeda and its sympathizers) engaged in a shootout on August 10, with another clash that raged for five hours in the Al-Suwaidi district capital Riyadh and resulted in the deaths of four policemen as well a Saudi terrorist.
On August 15 Saudi security rounded up another suspected 10 militants, including a police officer, in Qarboos a southern village in Jizan, one of the country?s poorest regions. The raid, which utilized tear gas and explosives, captured a cache of 93 RPG launchers, 53 hand grenades, other ammunition, machine gums, plastic explosives, police uniforms and radio and electronic equipment.
Abdullah recently appeared on national television making clear it was the intention of the government to destroy the militants. He also put the people of Saudi Arabia on notice that there was no middle ground in a stinging attack on sympathizers. ?In the decisive battle between good and evil, there is no place for neutrality and no room for stragglers. Those who even just sympathize with terrorists are themselves terrorists, and they will receive their just punishment.?
The government faces a number of problems at home and abroad.
In the West, a hostile press and a militant Christian neo-conservative movement assumes the Saudi government is in league with Al Qaeda because both adhere to Wahabbism. But Al Qaeda made it clear from its beginning that one of its goals was the overthrow and destruction of the House of Saud. The internecine warfare between the two groups is frequently underreported.
The suppression of 28 pages of the final report of the commission investigating 9-11 was widely reported to be at the express request of the White House, to ?avoid embarrassing a foreign government.? Anti-Saudi westerners immediately pointed to this as further proof of Saudi complicity. The Saudi government remains infuriated at the decision, claiming it can?t defend itself against baseless charges if it doesn?t know what the charges are. It is doubtful that anyone believes the Bush administration?s statement that the suppression was to protect intelligence sources.
At the same time the long standing tension between the ultra-conservative Wahabbist clerics (based mainly in Qassim) and the House of Saud continues as they have since Ibn Saud first allied with the Wahabbists and established the Ikhwan in 1910. Purists believe the monarchy is corrupt, virtually non-Islamic, and in bed with Western interests. They perceive the West, as anti-Islamic, morally bankrupt and a corrupting influence. The problems in the country, they argue, would best be solved by a restoration of strict Islamic principles. With unemployment at 40 percent among recent college graduates, there are a lot of bored young men with little to lose and a susceptibility to being swayed by demagogues promising both a better life AND a closer relationship to Allah in the bargain. (Check any good Christian political group in the American south for a local version of the same thing)
Nipping at the government's heels are the so-called Saudi dissident groups in exile. Based overseas, mainly in London and the US, they have been predicting the fall of the House of Saud for decades and decrying Saudi suppression. Several state there goal is ?religious freedom?, which they say is lacking in Saudi Arabia, but in reality they are seeking freedom to practice an ultra-ultra conservative brand of Islam that makes Wahabbism look liberal and whose intolerance the government has refused to allow.
The vast majority of Saudis are a mixed bag. For the most part they prefer their Islam to be Wahabbi. They respect the House of Saud, but feel it is corrupt at times and needs to be cleaned up. Less than one percent actively support Al Qaeda, but many were secretly sympathetic to it because of its demonstrated ability to bloody the nose of the ?arrogant? West. The Riyadh attacks and Abdullah?s condemnation of sympathizers will likely lead to a population that is increasingly hostile to Al Qaeda operatives, and Al Qaeda sympathizers and militants who are increasingly hardened and willing to commit mayhem.
August 17, 2003: A dawn raid by Kenyan security officers in Mombassa on August 11th netted terrorists' arsenal and a false identity kit. The discovery was the first sign that an aggressive war against terrorism is bearing fruit. The Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit was hurriedly set up following increased threats from terrorists and has been doing well, despite the lack of a strong operational logistics base or even any special anti-terrorism skills training and equipment.
The Mombassa cache included six loaded AK-47 30-round magazines, five LAW antitank rockets (two American-made and three Russian), walkie-talkie radios and a hand grenade. Antiterrorism police also seized what were described as "ID card laminated papers," plus computers, weapons training manuals, national ID cards, a computer and accessories and rubber visa entry stamps for various countries. Also found were a bui bui (black head cloth won by Muslim women) and a veil.
The stamps would have enabled terrorists to enter Kenya, while the bui bui and veil recovered could have been used by terrorists to disguise themselves as women. The LAW rockets (one of which was empty) would have been useful against a variety of targets, although the Kenyan press misidentified them as antiaircraft missiles. All of the items were recovered from a house in the Tudor Estate rented by the 21-year old Feisal Ali Nassor (a Kenyan of Yemeni descent).
Ali had killed himself and a police officer outside Mombasa's main police station with a hand grenade on August 1, while resisting arrest over the bombing of a nearby Israeli-owned hotel in November 2002.
Police have linked Ali with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and have been hunting an accomplice who escaped after the blast that killed Ali. It was not immediately clear why the house was searched Monday, more than a week after his death. Kenya's National Security Minister Murungaru said that members of the public had volunteered information leading to the find. Police said the suspected terrorist used to stay at the Tudor house with two other youths, who are still at large. They started living in the building last month and neighbors described them as less than sociable.
The weapons cache discovery came only a few hours after a suspicious object triggered a major security alert and guest evacuation at the upscale Whitesands Hotel. An object shaped like a fire extinguisher estimated to weigh 25 kgs had been hidden within the control room of the hotel's swimming pool, which adjoins the Travelers' Rest Hotel. If this was a bomb, it was placed strategically to blow up the two hotels.
The device was carried first to the beach at Shanzu, and then on to a nearby quarry to await the arrival of explosives experts. National Security Minister Chris Murungaru would only describe it as "a suspected object" and the local police, unfamiliar with what may have been a command detonated bomb, wisely waited until experts arrived from Nairobi. Two senior officials of the German navy were present as Government officials explained at a later press conference that the object was a navigational device. It was so large and bulky (10 inches by 30 inches) that it could have only been taken to the Whitesands from the ocean, since security at the hotel gate would have noticed it. The police were trying to trace the ship it came from by searching through the serial numbers on it.
A 35-year old man, identified as Ibrahim Ali, was taken into custody moments after the navigational equipment was found and was still in police custody. The man had checked into the hotel at 5PM, just hours before the bomb scare and was scheduled to stay for a week. - Adam Geibel
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