Financial Times Western missions issue Saudi terror warning By Guy Dinmore in Washington Published: August 8 2005 18:34 | Last updated: August 8 2005 23:44
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/775b781c-0832-11da-97a6-00000e2511c8.html Saudi Arabia's new leader-ship confronted its first security crisis on Monday as the US closed all its diplomatic missions in the kingdom for two days and the UK and Australia warned they had "credible reports" that terrorists would soon strike again. "There are credible reports that terrorists are planning further attacks in the near future," the UK embassy in Riyadh said in a travel warning on its website. "There is a continuing high threat of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. We continue to believe that terrorists are planning further attacks, including against westerners and places associated with westerners in Saudi Arabia." It urged a high state ofvigilance and said specifically that aviation interests remained a possible target. In a co-ordinated warning, Australia urged its citizens not to travel to the kingdom as militants might be planning attacks on "housing compounds". It also cited "credible reports". The warnings were prompted by a US decision to close all three of its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia in response to threats against buildings used by its staff. The US had also warned Americans on July 25 of the danger of new attacks. The US State Department has repeatedly advisedthe American business community to leave thecountry. A US official said the Bush administration had credible and specific information that "western facilities" were targets. The suspected attacks were also seen by the US as directed at challenging the new Saudi leadership and its close relationship with the west. US diplomatic missions could stay closed longer than the announced two days, the official added. In June last year Saudi extremists linked to al-Qaeda killed three American defence contractors as their tactics shifted from indiscriminate car bombings to more targeted attacks. A month earlier, 22 foreigners were killed in an attack on a compound in the oil centre of Khobar. Only last week world leaders gathered in Riyadh for the funeral of King Fahd to demonstrate their continued support of his successor, Crown Prince Abdullah. Dick Cheney, US vice-president, and George H. W. Bush, the former US president, led the US delegation. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said during her visit to Riyadh in June that the kingdom's crackdown on suspected terrorists gave the US confidence it was tackling counter-terrorism. ■ King Abdullah on Monday pardoned four prominent reform advocates and a university professor jailed for terms ranging from five to nine years meeting expectations that the new Saudi ruler would move quickly with political reforms. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h2lfuf6/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123696679/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- 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. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
