More cosmetic “anti-terrorist” crap from our “friends”:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Over 200 al-Qaida linked suspects belonging to different cells and involved in different plots against the kingdom have been arrested in recent months in the kingdom’s largest anti-terror sweep to date, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced Wednesday.
The ministry first reported the arrest of eight men, said to be linked to al-Qaida and allegedly planning to attack oil installations in the kingdom.
An interior ministry statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, said the eight were part of a terrorist cell led by a non-Saudi man, who was one of the arrested. The planned attacks were to take place in the eastern region of the country, which is home to Saudi’s main oil resources.
The arrest of the eight “pre-empted an imminent attack on an oil installation,” the statement said without naming the target or providing more details.
The ministry also said 22 other suspects were arrested for allegedly supporting the al-Qaida terror network. This group plotted to assassinate the country’s religious leaders and security officials, it said.
Eighteen others, led by an alleged expert in launching missiles, were arrested separately.
“They were planning to smuggle eight missiles into the kingdom to carry out terrorist operations,” the ministry’s statement said of that group.
Also, 112 other Saudis were taken into custody for links and “coordination with outside circles” to assist in smuggling men to troubled areas — shorthand for Iraq and Afghanistan — for training, after which they would be brought back for attacks in the kingdom, the statement added.
Thirty-two more men were arrested, both Saudis and non-Saudi, for providing financial aid to al-Qaida operations here, the ministry said.
Sixteen men were also arrested in the holy city of Medina for colluding to issue a publication propagating “misleading ideology” and criminal acts, the ministry said. The group also worked on helping volunteers go fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The total number of the arrested was 208.
I discussed this type of facade in another post here:
Link: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/the-saudis-are-not-our-friends/
But fear not, jihadist scumbags. All you have to do is say “I promise not to do it ever, ever again” and the Saudi government will give you a get-out-of-jail-free card:
Over 1,500 Extremists Freed After Repenting
RIYADH, 26 November 2007 — Saudi authorities have released more than 1,500 reformed extremists, who were detained on charges of embracing and spreading takfeer (the ideology that brands other Muslims who disagree with them as infidels).
The extremists, under the guidance of the Ministry of Interior, had undergone lengthy counseling, according to Muhammad Al-Nujaimi, a member of the Counseling Committee and professor of comparative jurisprudence at the King Fahd Security College.
Al-Nujaimi told Al-Watan newspaper that the Counseling Committee, which is the brainchild of Prince Muhammad ibn Naif, assistant minister of interior for security affairs, was established in 2004 with the approval of Interior Minister Prince Naif. The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance jointly supervise activities of the committee comprising 100 members. Members include religious scholars, preachers, specialists in religious doctrine and law, psychologists and social workers.
……The suspects were “largely confused” (my quotations) about the meaning of jihad, which led to their believing in committing blind violence. They also viewed that the present Muslim rulers, scholars and public were infidels, and therefore demanded the establishment of a single Islamic state, said Al-Nujaimi.
“After several graded sessions with the committee, and having been convinced of their misguided vision, they renounced their erroneous ideologies, including the concept of driving out all infidels from the Arabian Peninsula,” he said.
The committee first evaluates the personality and the ideological crisis suffered by the suspect, and then decides on how to clean his mind of the mistaken impressions, said Al-Nujaimi.
The committee in the later stages of counseling holds several sessions on the concept of obedience to a ruler, loyalty, conditions for baiat (declaration of allegiance to a ruler) and the mistaken concept of murder and violence without guilt
Let me get this straight. They give these miscreants some touchy-feely therapy and a group hug, and that completes their rehab from zealot to peacnik?
If 208 represents some of the ones previously arrested, that’s a recidivism rate of 20%, which is 20% too much when considering why they were arrested in the first place.
The Saudis are just another accessory to the Islamic campaign of global terrorism and one of the most prolific financers of terrorism throughout the world. Large numbers of Al Qaeda fighters cross freely from Saudi Arabia into Southern Iraq, the same ones who are indocrinated at the Madrasses and training camps funded by the Saudis.
Terrorist organizations and fronts: Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood, International Islamic Relief Organization, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Charitable Foundations of al-Haramain are all beneficiaries of the Saudi government.
Our elected officials and Presidents (regardless of party affliliation) really need to divest themselves from the stupid notion that Saudi Arabia is an “ally”, “stalwart” anti-terrorist, and a “stabilizing factor” in the Middle East. Not looking the other way and acknowleging the barefaced reality would be a damned good start.
Truth be told, we don’t have friends in the Middle East, just enemies and interests.