http://www.saudidebate.com/index.php?option=com_content <http://www.saudidebate.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=742&It emid=119> &task=view&id=742&Itemid=119 Saudi anti-terror campaign highlights conundrum facing government as threats continue Terrorism is becoming a fact of life, like diabetes or high blood pressure. You cannot cure it; the best you can do is to learn how to live with it. Every time you look at the newspaper or turn on the TV to watch the news you expect to hear a new story about a foiled attack somewhere or other. It is becoming a persistent theme in news broadcasts, like the weather or the sport, the only variable to catch the attention being the size of the attempted attack and whether it succeeded or failed.
In Saudi Arabia in particular, there is a heightened sense of alarm, which is felt wherever you go. All government and financial institutions, hotels and high profile buildings are barricaded and every car is inspected before being allowed to enter. Check points are posted at the entrance of every major road or highway, where passengers have to stop and present their identification cards. Saudis have become used and immune to such daily inconveniences because they are quite aware of the great risks involved if such precautions were to be relaxed. But on the morning of 18 April the country woke to the stunning news that the Interior Ministry had arrested 172 alleged terrorists, who had formed seven terror cells that were planning to wreak havoc in the kingdom. Viewing their destructive mission as holy jihaad, all 172 had pledged allegiance to their leader at the sanctuary of the holy Ka'bah in Mecca. There was a big sigh of relief because the group was rounded up only three days before they were supposed to strike. But what was even more astonishing than the large number of the terrorists was the large amount of cash they had on their hands - totaling more than $6 million - and the very advanced and expensive equipment and weaponry they had in their possession, which they had intended to use in their attacks. Where did they get all this money? The suspicion was raised that they might have received external help, since not all their money was in Saudi Riyals. In addition to foreign currencies in their possession, they had been trained outside the kingdom to fly, in order to use airplanes in their attacks. Their plan was to launch an attack much more spectacular than that of 9/11. As this latest group was being rounded up and interrogated, Saudi TV on 14 May paraded five youths who had allegedly provided logistical support to the terror group, who had been caught on 24 February while they were attempting to blow up oil installations at Abqaiq and Ras Tannurah. The group became know as the 'petroleum cell', because, according to their confessions, they had planned to blow up oil refineries in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in order to stop the flow of energy and cripple the global economy. By so doing, they were hoping to drag the United States into Saudi Arabia by encouraging it to send troops to protect the oil wells. They would thus have been able to engage US troops in guerilla warfare in the Kingdom, as they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The aim would be to dissipate and exhaust US power, while in the meantime embarrassing the Saudi regime and undermining its religious legitimacy. The information gleaned from members of the 'petroleum cell' is rather astounding. Before the group could put their plan into action, they had to get a fatwa from Osama bin Laden, sanctioning the attack. It took them seven months to get obtain this fatwa - proving both that Bin Laden is still alive, and that he is well-hidden, probably among the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Bin Laden's presence there has been confirmed by the dissident Afghani leader and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The long time it took to communicate the fatwa shows that the hiding place of Bin Laden is hard to find and difficult to get to. But this also shows that he is still in full control of al-Qa'ida operations, at least in the Arabian Peninsula. The four terrorists of the 'petroleum cell', who were dressed like Aramco employees and drove two cars disguised as Aramco vehicles, managed to pass through the main gate to the oil-processing plant at Abqaiq. When they refused to stop, security forces fired at them and killed the occupants instantly. Their cars were blown up, causing a minor fire in one of the supply pipes which was quickly extinguished. Had their mission succeeded, it would have cut international oil supply by almost 50%. In response to the foiled attack, oil prices rose 3.4% to $62.60 per barrel. The Abqaiq refinery is one of the largest in the world. It processes nearly five million barrels of oil daily, which amounts to nearly two-thirds of Saudi oil production. What gives credence to the confessions of these terrorists is the fact that they themselves used video cameras and sound equipment to record every step of their training and preparation for their attack - in the hope that once the operation had succeeded, their films would be broadcast on the Internet. Instead, Saudi TV broadcast the films - to show the public the diabolical aims of the group. Members of the 'petroleum cell', who were enlisted by al-Qa'ida to blow up the oil installations, were essentially illiterate teenagers who had no idea about the scale of the damage and threat to human life their plans entailed. They did not know how much explosive was needed to blow up the refinery, and were planning to use two tones - sufficient to destroy an area 20kms square; in addition, the explosion of would have killed tens of thousands of people, and released poisonous gases and highly toxic pollution. According to the arrested logistics team, this operation was supposed to have coincided with operations in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. When the terrorists were confronted with this assessment of the scale of damage they would have caused, their response was that it barely mattered to them, as long as their mission succeeded: the aim was to cause the maximum damage and attract the maximum media attention. At the time of their confessions the terrorists were so brainwashed by al-Qa'ida's ideology that they thought they were serving the cause of Islam through their horrendous acts, and that what they were doing was an act of holy jihaad that would guarantee each of them a dozen beautiful huries in paradise. For its part, the government broadcast the confessions of the five 'petroleum cell' terrorists on national radio and TV, and had them published in all local newspapers, with several objectives in mind. One of these objectives was to demonstrate to the public the senselessness and godlessness of these terrorists' actions and to thus diminish any public sympathy or support for their cause. The other objective was to reassure the whole world that the oil installations in Saudi Arabia are in safe hands. The next day the local newspapers published several articles featuring all the fool-proof safety precautions and maintenance procedures practiced by Aramco and the Saudi government to protect refineries from any terrorist attack or accidental technical malfunction and to ensure the uninterrupted flow of oil. One hundred and seventy-two terrorists in one catch is a very large number. Perhaps more alarming than their existence is the fact that they were caught barely three days before they were to carry out their massacre. As for the 'petroleum cell', they nearly succeeded in carrying out their mission, having been killed only after they had passed the main gate to the Abqaiq refinery. No wonder Saudis are getting rather jittery. Newspaper columnists, bloggers and writers on websites are beginning to question the position of both the Islamists and some prominent religious leaders and official clerics who - on their websites and in various publications - are always quick and ready to expose and condemn any perceived injustice committed against Islamic movements and jihaadis all over the world: yet they remain completely silent when terrorists commit their heinous crimes and strike in Saudi Arabia - the most Islamic of all Muslim countries. Some even go to the extent of interpreting such silence to mean endorsement and support. Others are also raising serious questions regarding the way terrorists are pampered by what is called the munasahah committee. This committee holds meetings with arrested terrorists to engage with them in a religious dialogue - to prove to them that they were following an errant path. With sweet words they try to bring them back to the fold of the true faithful. Whoever among them declares his tawbah - his penitence - will be released from jail and helped with finance, housing and the search for a well-paid job. But many so-called repentant souls revert to 'business as usual' as soon as they came out of jail. A glaring example of this is Abdulaziz al-Muqrin who was arrested for committing several acts of terror and was sentenced to four years in jail but was released after two years as a reward for memorizing the entire Quran while in jail. The last act of al-Muqrin before he was shot to death by Saudi police in June 2004 was the beheading of the American captive Paul Johnson. Such lenient treatment of arrested terrorists by the Saudi authorities would have been commendable had it been prompted by respect for human rights. But many ask why such leniency is not extended to liberal voices and reformist writers who operate in the open through peaceful means. Some see the crux of the problem as lying in the Saudi regime basing its political legitimacy on religious grounds: it is a premise that places the regime on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand it cannot tolerate terrorists, while on the other it cannot take stern measures against fundamentalists and Islamists whose ideologies and sermons promote terror, because to do so would make the government appear anti-Islamic. Evidently, to weaken the role of religion in Saudi society is to weaken the ideological basis of the regime and put its legitimacy in question. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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