"Investing in terror"

"Saddam Hussein never got it. He didn't realize that personal schmoozing in Washington and spreading lots of money around to former and soon-to-be U.S. government officials were the keys to realizing his geopolitical ambitions. He, in short, never learned the Saudi lesson." (Rich Lowry)

News and commentary on Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism.

Part 1: 2001/09/22 - 2001/12/31
Part 2: 2002/01/04 - 2002/06/18
Part 3: 2002/07/08 - 2002/11/30
Part 4: 2002/12/01 - 2003/04/29
Part 5: 2003/05/01 -

July 2003
"Classified Section of Sept. 11 Report Faults Saudi Rulers" (David Johnston, The New York Times, 2003/07/26)
"The Saudi cover-up" (Rich Lowry, Town Hall, 2003/07/25)
"September 11 report raises Saudi question" (Marianne Brun-Rovet and Edward Alden, Financial Times, 2003/07/25)
"How Saudi Arabia spreads terrorism and hatred of the West" (Daniel Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/07/22)
"Exclusive - The 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2003/07/28 issue)
"Saudis Quietly Promote Strict Islam in Indonesia" (Jane Perlez, The New York Times, 2003/07/05)
"Seeds of Hate in Saudi Arabia" (David A. Harris, The Washington Post, 2003/06/07)

June 2003
"Key Riyadh bombings suspect gives up" (CNN.com, 2003/06/27)
"Saudi authorities thwart terror attack" (Faiza Saleh Ambah, AP/The Washington Times, 2003/06/16)
"Arab Press Fans the Flames of Hate" (J. Michael Waller, Insight on the News, 2003/06/13)
"It's the Same Old Blame Game Again" (Bander ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Arab News, 2003/06/10)
"Kingdom's Leading Executioner Says: 'I Lead a Normal Life'" (Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News, 2003/06/05)

May 2003
"Intercepts Show Senior Al Qaeda in Iran Played Role in Saudi Bombings" (Rita Cosby, Fox News, 2003/05/26)
"Apartheid, Saudi Style" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/05/22)
"Saudis: Three arrested in hijack plot" (CNN.com, 2003/05/21)
"Al Qaeda Arms Traced to Saudi National Guard" (Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2003/05/19)
"Saudis Link 4 in Bombing Plot to Qaeda Cell" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2003/05/19)
"A Bombing Shatters the Saudi Art of Denial" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2003/05/18)
"Our friends the Sauds" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2003/05/18)
"Al Qaeda Figure Tied To Riyadh Bombings" (Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post, 2003/05/18)
"A change of heart in the Saudi media" (Mark Follman, Salon.com, 2003/05/17)
"The Real Saudi Arabia" (Stephen Schwartz, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/05/17)
"Saudi Spinning" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2003/05/16)
"Bomber 'moles' in Saudi forces" (Robin Gedye and John R Bradley, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/05/16)
"Saudi Press: Initial Reactions to the Riyadh Bombings" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 505, 2003/05/15)
"Homegrown Fanatics" (Sulaiman Al-Hattlan, The New York Times, 2003/05/15)
"U.S. Asked Saudis to Increase Security" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2003/05/15)
"The Enemy Within" (Arab News, 2003/05/14)
"Arabia's Civil War" (Daniel Pipes, Wall Street Journal Europe/danielpipes.org, 2003/05/14)
"Terror Cell Had Recent Gun Battle With Police" (Alan Sipress and Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2003/05/14)
"The shells of wrecked buildings..." (Reuters/Saudi Television, 2003/05/13)
"Bush: Attackers to learn 'meaning of American justice'" (CNN.com, 2003/05/13)
"Saudi bomb may have killed 90" (Rebecca Mowling and Danielle Demetriou, Evening Standard, 2003/05/13)
"Saudi Religious Police Launch Website" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 504, 2003/05/13)
"Blasts hit Saudi capital" (BBC News, 2003/05/13)
"4 bomb attacks rock Saudi capital" (MSNBC, 2003/05/12)
"Saudi Chutzpah" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/05/01)

"Classified Section of Sept. 11 Report Faults Saudi Rulers" (David Johnston, The New York Times, 2003/07/26)
"Senior officials of Saudi Arabia have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable groups and other organizations that may have helped finance the September 2001 attacks, a still-classified section of a Congressional report on the hijackings says, according to people who have read it.
The 28-page section of the report was deleted from the nearly 900-page declassified version released on Thursday by a joint committee of the House and Senate intelligence committees. The chapter focuses on the role foreign governments played in the hijackings, but centers almost entirely on Saudi Arabia, the people who saw the section said." (See also the report: "Congressional Reports: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001" (GPO Access, 2003/07/24) and "Exclusive - The 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2003/07/28 issue))

"The Saudi cover-up" (Rich Lowry, Town Hall, 2003/07/25)
"Saddam Hussein never got it. He didn't realize that personal schmoozing in Washington and spreading lots of money around to former and soon-to-be U.S. government officials were the keys to realizing his geopolitical ambitions. He, in short, never learned the Saudi lesson.
How else to explain the differing treatments of the Iraqi and Saudi governments?
The Bush administration included a line in this year's State of the Union address about Saddam's alleged efforts to acquire uranium in Africa that was defensible, but hardly bulletproof - prompting an (overblown) national scandal. Now the administration is withholding from a congressional report sections dealing with Saudi support and financing for terrorism - which should prompt a (long-overdue) national scandal. ...
So, when a terrorist conspiracy with Saudi links murders 3,000 Americans, the Saudis are treated very gently. Coddling the Saudis has become an ingrained Washington habit. The Bush administration does not usually skimp on tough rhetoric, but has hardly said a discouraging public word about the Saudis, and now is actively keeping such words from being published." (Note: Found via InstaPundit.)

"September 11 report raises Saudi question" (Marianne Brun-Rovet and Edward Alden, Financial Times, 2003/07/25)
"The September 11 hijackers received foreign-government support while they were in the US plotting the attacks on New York and Washington, the leader of a congressional inquiry charged on Thursday.
The conclusion, which is hinted at in the declassified parts of the inquiry's 900-page report released on Thursday, will raise new questions about the role of Saudi Arabia in particular. The Bush administration insisted on deleting a 28-page section focusing on the link to foreign governments.
Senator Bob Graham, the former Democratic intelligence committee chairman who led the investigation, said the hijackers "received, during most of this time [in the US], significant assistance from a foreign government which further facilitated their ability to be so lethal". He would not identify the government.
But he accused the Bush administration of refusing to release the information 'to protect the country or countries . . . providing direct assistance to some of the hijackers.'" (See also the report: "Congressional Reports: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001" (GPO Access, 2003/07/24) and "Exclusive - The 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2003/07/28 issue))

"How Saudi Arabia spreads terrorism and hatred of the West" (Daniel Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/07/22)
"According to Newsweek, a congressional joint intelligence inquiry has concluded that Saudi Arabia was deeply implicated in the attacks of September 11. A close associate of the al-Qa'eda hijackers, Omar al-Bayoumi, is alleged to have been working as a Saudi agent, operating from the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles.
The Bush administration has censored an entire section from the report, detailing the Saudi role in the events leading up to the attacks. These suppressed passages are said to explain how Saudi diplomats provided financial and logistical support for the terrorists. ...
Only after the September 11 attacks did the global extent of the Wahhabi menace become clear. From Algeria to Bali, from Tunis to Tel Aviv, from Moscow to Riyadh, Islamist suicide bombers left a bloody trail behind them. In the background lurked the shadowy network of Wahhabi influence.
Through charities and schools, youth groups and private foundations, Saudi oil money has been deployed on a colossal scale to finance organisations such as al-Qa'eda and Hamas. Thus did Saudi Arabia emerge as the matrix of Islamist terrorism." (See also: "Exclusive - The 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2003/07/28 issue))

"Exclusive - The 9-11 Report: Slamming the FBI" (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, from the 2003/07/28 issue)
"The FBI blew repeated chances to uncover the 9-11 plot because it failed to aggressively investigate evidence of Al Qaeda’s presence in the United States, especially in the San Diego area, where two of the hijackers were living with one of the bureau’s own informants, according to the congressional report set for release this week. ...
The long-delayed 900-page report also contains potentially explosive new evidence suggesting that Omar al-Bayoumi, a key associate of two of the hijackers, may have been a Saudi-government agent, sources tell Newsweek. The report documents extensive ties between al-Bayoumi and the hijackers. But the bureau never kept tabs on al-Bayoumi - despite receiving prior information he was a secret Saudi agent, the report says. In January 2000, al-Bayoumi had a meeting at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles - and then went directly to a restaurant where he met future hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, whom he took back with him to San Diego."

"Saudis Quietly Promote Strict Islam in Indonesia" (Jane Perlez, The New York Times, 2003/07/05)
"From the financing of educational institutions to giving money for militant Islamic groups, the influence of Saudi Arabia, and Saudi charities, has been growing steadily here in the world's most populous Muslim country. ...
A Saudi charity, Al Haramain, provides a good example of this dual role. Three years ago it signed a formal memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian Ministry of Religion that allowed it to finance educational institutions.
But Al Haramain also appears to have served as a conduit for money to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist organization that aims to build Islamic states in the region. A senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah, Umar Faruq, who was arrested last year and is now in American custody, told the Central Intelligence Agency that Al Haramain provided money to his group. ...
At the school in Makassar, 8-year-old girls wear jilbabs, the head coverings worn by some Indonesian Muslim women. Seven mosques, several financed with Saudi money, are scattered around the campus. At Al Irsyad, the daily newspapers are displayed on a notice board with all photographs of human faces scratched out — an effort to present the news to the male students without the distraction of pictures, a teacher said."

"Key Riyadh bombings suspect gives up" (CNN.com, 2003/06/27)
"A key suspect the May 12 terror attacks in Riyadh has turned himself in, U.S. and Saudi officials said Thursday.
Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, who authorities said has deep ties to al Qaeda, surrendered Thursday to Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the third ranking official in the Saudi Interior Ministry, a Saudi official told CNN. ...
The Saudi official said he believed the break in the Riyadh case came after the June 14 bust by Saudi authorities of a suspected terror ring in Mecca, one of Islam's holiest sites.
During the bust, Saudi authorities discovered, among other things, what one official described as "booby-trapped Korans," the Muslim holy book.
That discovery, said this official, may have been a final straw of sorts for Saudi religious leaders, who denounced the plot for its double hypocrisy in allegedly plotting a terror attack in Mecca and in waging a holy war against infidels using Islam's holiest book."

"Saudi authorities thwart terror attack" (Faiza Saleh Ambah, AP/The Washington Times, 2003/06/16)
"About 9:30 p.m., Saudi security agents broke into an apartment in the al-Khalidiya district, about three miles from Mecca's main mosque, where "a group of terrorists ... were preparing an imminent terrorist act," the official said. He did not say what the intended target was and gave no other details on the plot.
Five suspects were killed in a gunbattle initiated by the group in the apartment, he said. Two police officers were killed and five injured, he added, and four bystanders were slightly injured.
The official said the apartment was booby-trapped with explosives. About 70 bombs of different sizes were found in the apartment, along with a number of weapons, including semiautomatic rifles and knives. Police also found communication devices, bomb-making materials and masks in the apartment."

"Arab Press Fans the Flames of Hate" (J. Michael Waller, Insight on the News, 2003/06/13)
"With the State Department signing off every year on American taxpayers' annual $2 billion subsidy to the Egyptian government, the average citizen might think someone in Washington would be leaning on Cairo to stop inciting anti-U.S. hatred through the regime's mouthpieces. That citizen would be wrong. The controlled media in Egypt and across the Arab/Muslim world have loaded both their editorials and news sections with vitriol against the United States, providing legitimacy and political cover for ever-intensifying extremism. ...
Al-Ahram ran a column on Jan. 26, 2002, saying that U.S. treatment of captured al-Qaeda terrorists was "unseen in history - worse than what Hitler did." The paper's Website published a piece the following March that said, "What we have here is not an axis of evil under attack; rather, what we have is an axis of evil in the making." Earlier this year, Al-Ahram's weekly edition carried a piece comparing the Bush administration's policymaking to "the manner in which Hitler manipulated the German people to adopt the agenda of the Nazi Party."
The Saudi Arabian press, which is subject to severe censorship (and therefore, frustrated administration officials say, subject to as-yet nonexistent U.S. pressure), compares President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler and the Roman emperor Caligula, and calls the global war on terrorism "an evil crusade against Muslims everywhere." Meanwhile, Saudi media glorify terrorism in the name of jihad worldwide. The state-owned TV1 channel, which like the rest of the Saudi media is tightly controlled by political and religious police, broadcasts the sermons of government-endorsed Wahhabi clerics who call for the destruction not only of Israel and Jews, but of Christians and other "infidels" all around the world."

"It's the Same Old Blame Game Again" (Bander ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Arab News, 2003/06/10)
Of course, Alkarni's answer would probably be "America": "I had great hopes for our educated people and thought that after the recent devastating terrorist attacks there would be a real cultural awakening. But some of them have unfortunately gone back to repeating the same old saw — that all our problems originate abroad. Typical is an article sent to me in an e-mail message. I don't know whether it was published or not, but the name of the author was given as Dr. Ali ibn Shuwail Alkarni, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Society for Information and Communications, and assistant professor of information at King Saud University in Riyadh. ...
He asked a direct question: "Did the United States try to transport terrorism to the Middle East?" ...
Alkarni summarized his article in ten points which, he says, confirm America's role in the Riyadh bombings. One point in particular struck me. "The intent of the United States is to export terrorism outside its borders, so it will be concerned with managing terrorism abroad rather than inside the country." What terrorism is he talking about? Is it the Sept. 11 incidents that claimed the lives of 3,000 people? Who were the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks — America or Al-Qaeda? ...
America was protecting itself from attacks by terrorists at home: Was that wrong? They can hardly be held responsible if these terrorists then attack elsewhere."

"Seeds of Hate in Saudi Arabia" (David A. Harris, The Washington Post, 2003/06/07)
"A study, co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education books used in grades 1 through 10 reveals that Saudi children are taught intolerance and contempt for the West, Christians and Jews in subjects ranging from literature to math. ...
Teaching hatred is reprehensible under any circumstances. It is especially alarming when it forms an integral part of the school curriculum in a country long viewed as a close friend of the United States and regarded as the center of the Muslim world. ...
As long as Saudi youth are essentially brainwashed to hate others, truly amicable relations between Saudis and the West will be hard to maintain. Moreover, Saudi schoolbooks and curriculums are actively exported to other Arab and Muslim countries, where Saudi largess funds many schools. Indeed, many Muslim schools in the United States have been built and staffed with Saudi money, opening the door to the spreading of Saudi-sponsored hate on American soil. Probing which of the books published in Saudi Arabia might also be used here in the United States is vital." (See also: "The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks" (The American Jewish Committe. 2003/02/04))

"Kingdom's Leading Executioner Says: 'I Lead a Normal Life'" (Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News, 2003/06/05)
"Saudi Arabia's leading executioner Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi will behead up to seven people in a day.
"It doesn't matter to me: Two, four, 10 — As long as I'm doing God's will, it doesn't matter how many people I execute," he told Okaz newspaper in an interview. ...
His first job came in 1998 in Jeddah. "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled meters away." Of course he was nervous, then, he says, as many people were watching, but now stage fright is a thing of the past. ...
An executioner's life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be amputation of hands and legs. "I use a special sharp knife, not a sword," he explains. "When I cut off a hand I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that."
Al-Beshi describes himself as a family man. Married before he became an executioner, his wife did not object to his chosen profession. "She only asked me to think carefully before committing myself," he recalls. "But I don't think she's afraid of me," he smiles. 'I deal with my family with kindness and love. They aren't afraid when I come back from an execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.'"

"Intercepts Show Senior Al Qaeda in Iran Played Role in Saudi Bombings" (Rita Cosby, Fox News, 2003/05/26)
"The United States has intercepts that show senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran probably played a big role in the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.
The official said the U.S. had intercepts for months prior to the bombings, which showed that senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran were communicating with Al Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia about an upcoming attack, with cryptic language suggesting the attack was going to happen in Saudi Arabia.
The operatives had been in Iran for at least months, and came there after they fled Afghanistan during the U.S. military's attack aimed at toppling the Taliban government."

"Apartheid, Saudi Style" (Amir Taheri, New York Post, 2003/05/22)
Taheri on how radical Sunnis view and treat Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia: "Worse still, the official theological organs of the state, exclusively held by clerics from the Hanbali Sunni school of Islam, publicly castigate Shi'ites as non-Muslims. Courts, controlled by the Hanbali clerics, do not admit testimony by Shi'ites. The same clerics have banned marriages between Hanbali Sunnis and Shi'ites and declared all Shi'ite marriages as "illegal." ...
With the rise of militant Hanbalism, one version of which is represented by Osama bin Laden, Shi'ites have emerged as the royal family's strongest supporters - for if the Al Saudi dynasty is toppled, its place would be taken by fanatics like bin Laden, who publicly state that Shi'ites must convert to Hanbalism, leave the country or face death. ...
Bin Baz was especially shocked by the Shi'ite claim that even the basic rules of Islam could be open to interpretation and re-interpretation. "When the Shi'ites say that Reason (Aql) must be favored over Tradition (Naql), what they mean is putting man in place of God," the blind sheikh asserted. "For us Islam is a truth from the beginning (Azal) to the eternity (Abad). It cannot be something today and some thing else tomorrow."
Such issues, of course, cannot be debated in any useful context as long as radical Sunni theologians believe that they become "unclean" even by shaking the hand of a Shi'ite."

"Saudis: Three arrested in hijack plot" (CNN.com, 2003/05/21)
"Saudi security sources told CNN on Wednesday that they have arrested three al Qaeda members, who were planning to hijack a passenger plane and crash it into a building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ...
The al Qaeda suspects were arrested Monday evening in the Jeddah airport before they boarded a Saudia flight to Sudan, sources said. Saudia is the country's national airline carrier. ...
The men had knives and last testaments, or wills, on them when they were arrested, the sources said.
The sources said the men were members of the same al Qaeda cell that carried out last week's bombing attacks at three residential compounds in Riyadh but that they are not believed to be perpetrators of the attack. One of them was on the Saudi most-wanted list, sources said."

"Al Qaeda Arms Traced to Saudi National Guard" (Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2003/05/19)
"Saudi authorities are investigating suspected illegal arms sales by members of the country's national guard to al Qaeda operatives in the country, U.S. and Saudi officials said.
The weapons were seized in a May 6 raid on an al Qaeda safe house and were traced to national guard stockpiles, the officials said.
The Saudi interior minister said today that officials have identified three of the suicide bombers involved in attacks last week on three residential compounds in Riyadh, which led to the deaths of 34 people, including eight Americans. He said they were part of a group of 19 people wanted in connection with the May 6 raid."

"Saudis Link 4 in Bombing Plot to Qaeda Cell" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2003/05/19)
"Four suspects apparently linked to Al Qaeda have been arrested on suspicion of having advance knowledge of the three lethal bombings here last week, the Saudi interior minister said today, and three of the suicide bombers have been identified as members of a cell uncovered just days before the attacks.
The comments by Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz were the strongest official confirmation to date that Al Qaeda, the worldwide terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden, may have guided the attacks here."

"A Bombing Shatters the Saudi Art of Denial" (Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 2003/05/18)
"For many years, Saudi analysts say, the royal family has denied that there was any problem with the creeping fanaticism that allowed every aspect of society — education, the press, women's rights and more — to be judged using an intemperate religious yardstick. If Saudis raised in that atmosphere were running amok abroad, it was easy to explain. They were abroad.
For a decade, that denial played into the hands of the terror underground, allowing Saudis to shrug off accusations that their society bore responsibility for attacks planned or carried out by Saudi-born terrorists in Yemen or East Africa or Manhattan.
But with suicide bombers striking here, and Al Qaeda the principal suspect, at least some Saudis began stressing that the first enemy they must behead is the denial itself. ...
There are some things about Saudi Arabia that no one expects to change. It is a religious, xenophobic country and will stay that way. Islam was born here. There will always be religious critics who say the society is not strict enough. So analysts expect that the religious discourse can shift only if the royal family singles it out as a problem requiring a radical solution."

"Our friends the Sauds" (Nick Cohen, The Observer, 2003/05/18)
"The monarchy and bin Laden may be enemies, but the best way to understand Saudi fundamentalism is to see them as a continuum. The monarchy used oil wealth to export Wahhabism, their brutish version of Islam, around the world. Al-Qaeda meanwhile drew most of the cultists who died on 11 September and most of its money from Saudi Arabia. State-sponsored Wahhabism provided the justification for jihad. With al-Qaeda, the monarchy is being hoist with its own petard."

"Al Qaeda Figure Tied To Riyadh Bombings" (Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post, 2003/05/18)
"One of al Qaeda's top leaders, who is hiding in Iran, is suspected of helping to organize the bombings in Saudi Arabia last week, and terrorism experts believe he may be trying to unleash as many strikes as possible in a short period of time to prove al Qaeda is still viable, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Saif Adel, an Egyptian whom intelligence officials believe has assumed the role of the network's military commander, is believed to have given the go-ahead for the Riyadh bombings that killed 34, two senior administration officials said."

"A change of heart in the Saudi media" (Mark Follman, Salon.com, 2003/05/17)
"The dramatic shift began with the fall of Baghdad. On April 21, just days after the Saddam regime had crumbled, Arab News published a column by Qatari-based writer Abdulhamid Al-Ansary, in which he condemned the wider Arab media's blind support of the brutal Iraqi dictator. "Why did the Arab media consent to align itself with the Iraqi regime while at the same time pretending that it was with the people?" he wrote. "For how long will we be cursed by attaching ourselves emotionally to defeated heroes?"
Monday's triple-suicide attack in Riyadh rocked the very heart of the Saudi Kingdom, and appears to have only accelerated the shift in mood. In an editorial titled "The Enemy Within," published two days after the bombings, Arab News declared: "The environment that produced such terrorism has to change." ...
This marks an extraordinary departure from the outwardly defiant, even conspiratorial language frequently seen in Arab News and many other media outlets across the region before the war began, whether in daily newspapers or on popular satellite TV stations like Al-Jazeera. To be sure, Arab News has sometimes served as a voice of reason -- in a March 16 editorial, it debunked the myth that the imminent U.S.-led war was a religious one targeting Islam. But this view appeared alongside more typical inflammatory pieces like "How a Cabal Manipulates America's Post-September 11 Psyche," in which Arab News staffer Mohammed Al-Khereiji decried Pentagon advisor Richard Perle as 'just another rabid anti-Arab and anti-Islamic Jewish demagogue espousing Israeli interests.'" (See also: "The Enemy Within" (Arab News, 2003/05/14))

"The Real Saudi Arabia" (Stephen Schwartz, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/05/17)
"Among clerical hatemongers, Ayed al-Qarni, an adviser to Prince Abdel Aziz bin Fahd, the youngest son of King Fahd, stands out. Al-Qarni wrote a poem, repeatedly broadcast on Saudi media during the Iraq intervention, in which he declared, "Slaughter the enemy infidels and say there is but one God." This lyric was supplemented by an interview in the Future of Islam - a monthly issued by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth - for April 2003. Therein, al-Qarni proudly affirmed that he prays daily for America's destruction, and incited Saudis to cross the border to fight in Iraq, and to give money to support Saddam. During the Iraq war, Wahhabi preacher Naser al-Omar called for suicide attacks on the coalition. Interviewed by a Saudi-backed TV station operating from Dubai, he said, "We should hope for more terror bombings to kill more of the enemies of God - Jews and Christians." A pro-Saddam fatwa signed by him and other clerics was distributed in Saudi government offices."

"Saudi Spinning" (Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, 2003/05/16)
"According to al-Jubeir, the foundation of the Saudi state in the ideology of Wahhabism, the ultra-extremist Islamic dispensation that proclaims jihad against the world, has nothing to do with the mangled corpses lifted from the pavements of Riyadh.
Grotesquely enough, al-Jubeir's smooth, soothing verbiage is echoed by people high in our own government. For them, an al Qaeda connection to the Riyadh bombing is "alleged," an investigation must be held, leads must be followed up, and FBI teams must journey to the kingdom to try to confirm something every Muslim in the world knows: that Wahhabism is terroristic; that Wahhabism is at the basis of suicide bombings; that al Qaeda embodies Wahhabism above all; and that Wahhabism was born and nurtured in Saudi Arabia. To separate the state ideology of the kingdom from the blood shed in Riyadh would make as much sense as separating the history of the Russian Communist party from the sufferings of prisoners in the Siberian Gulag. Yet this is the position taken by America's leaders."

"Bomber 'moles' in Saudi forces" (Robin Gedye and John R Bradley, The Daily Telegraph, 2003/05/16)
"Al-Qa'eda has infiltrated Saudi Arabia's military and security forces at the highest level, including those entrusted with the protection of western residential compounds, American intelligence officials believe.
They are convinced that Tuesday's suicide bombers depended on a significant level of "insider" knowledge of the compounds that were hit and that al-Qa'eda even infiltrated the elite National Guard, which is involved in compound security. ...
Intelligence sources said several bombers were wearing National Guard uniforms to help them get into the three bombed complexes.
"The only area where there is no evidence of a significant al-Qa'eda presence is in the Saudi air force," one intelligence official said. 'The police, army, navy and National Guard have all been infiltrated'"

"Saudi Press: Initial Reactions to the Riyadh Bombings" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 505, 2003/05/15)
Excerpts from the Saudi press's coverage of the bombings, in this case an article by Hamad bin Hamed Al-Salame (Al-Jazirah, 2003/05/14). Foreign?: "Oh foreign cave-dwellers, depart our country and go to hell!... Leave us. We are a believing people, and our government is wise... Go with all your ugliness and baseness... Go to hell. All your terrorist acts and bomb blasts will not make us bow our heads... Go to the place from whence you came, to the caves of Tora Bora, and kiss the feet of your masters who taught you to spill blood and kill innocents... They were the ones who taught you how to lie, deceive, and mislead the simple folk. Go, cowards... go to hell, or go to the heaven of your leader, who taught you sorcery in the caves of Tora Bora. Sit by his side in the dark paradise of ugly ideas and deeds... which if distributed to all the inhabitants of the Earth would suffice them until the Day of Judgment...
Go, idiots, and awaken all the sleeper cells... Wake them, and go with them, far from us. You have no place among us... Go to hell." (See also: "The Enemy Within" (Arab News, 2003/05/14))

"Homegrown Fanatics" (Sulaiman Al-Hattlan, The New York Times, 2003/05/15)
Al-Hattlan is a columnist for the Saudi daily Al Watan: "Though few would publicly admit it, Saudis have become hostages of the backward agenda of a small minority of bin Laden supporters who in effect have hijacked our society. Progressive voices have been silenced. The religious and social oppression of women means half the population is forced to stay behind locked doors. Members of the religious police harass us in public spaces, and sometimes even in our homes about our clothing and haircuts. A civil cold war is raging, one we have long pretended doesn't exist. ...
Because of the dominance of Wahhabism, Saudi society has been exposed to only one school of thought, one that teaches hatred of Jews, Christians and certain Muslims, like Shiites and liberal and moderate Sunnis. But we Saudis must acknowledge that our real enemy is religious fanaticism. We have to stop talking about the need for reform and actually start it, particularly in education. Otherwise, what happened here on Monday night could be the beginning of a war that leads to the Talibanization of our society."

"U.S. Asked Saudis to Increase Security" (Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, 2003/05/15)
"The United States urgently asked Saudi Arabia to bolster security at residential compounds inhabited by Westerners just days before this week's terrorist attacks in which eight Americans died, but the Saudi government failed to act, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia said today.
Saudi officials quickly denied the charge.
In television interviews on U.S. morning shows, Ambassador Robert W. Jordan asserted that the Saudi government failed to respond quickly to the U.S. request even after evidence accumulated that a major attack was imminent. "They did not, as of the time of this particular tragic event, provide the security that we had requested," Jordan told the CBS News program "The Early Show."
A U.S. official said the request was made around May 1 and covered more than 300 residential compounds around the country."

"The Enemy Within" (Arab News, 2003/05/14)
Found via James Taranto, who wonders if May 11 will "bring about a Saudi epiphany the way Sept. 11 did for America?": "This was an undertaking of sheer evil. Life — be it the life of Muslims, of Saudis, of Westerners, of anyone — is sacred, a gift from God. It was targeted as much against Saudi Arabia as against Westerners — not just because Saudis and Westerners alike have been killed and maimed but because the prime aim of those responsible for this despicable crime is to create panic and terror. Those responsible are the new fascists. Merciless, cold and full of hate, with a demented vision of Islam, they declared war on humanity for the thoroughly un-Islamic goal of separating and insulating the Muslim world from the rest of humanity, as part of which they hope to terrorize Westerners into leaving the Kingdom. They have no qualms about killing anyone who gets in their way; they spread hatred and resentment, not peace; yet they have the blasphemous effrontery to claim that they do God’s work. They make a mockery of Islam, an open, inclusive faith. ...
It goes without saying that those responsible, those who poisoned the minds of the bombers, those who are planning to become bombers, must be tracked down and crushed — remorselessly and utterly. But crushing them will not be enough. The environment that produced such terrorism has to change. The suicide bombers have been encouraged by the venom of anti-Westernism that has seeped through the Middle East’s veins, and the Kingdom is no less affected. Those who gloat over Sept. 11, those who happily support suicide bombings in Israel and Russia, those who consider non-Muslims less human than Muslims and therefore somehow disposable, all bear part of the responsibility for the Riyadh bombs."

"Arabia's Civil War" (Daniel Pipes, Wall Street Journal Europe/danielpipes.org, 2003/05/14)
"The current iteration of the Saudi kingdom came into being in 1902 when a Saudi leader captured Riyadh. Ten years later, there emerged a Wahhabi armed force known as the Ikhwan (Arabic for "Brethren") which in its personal practices and its hostility toward non-Wahhabis represented the most militant dimension of this already militant movement. One war cry of theirs went: "The winds of Paradise are blowing. Where are you who hanker after Paradise?"
The Ikhwan served the Saudi family well, bringing it one military victory after another. A key turning point came in 1924, when the father of today's Saudi king captured Mecca from the great-great-grandfather of today's Jordanian king. ... These changes turned the Saudi insurgency into a state and brought a desert movement to the city. This meant the Saudi monarch could no longer give the Ikhwan and the traditional Wahhabi interpretation of Islam free reign, but had to control it. The result was a civil war in the late 1920s which ended in the monarchy's victory over the Ikhwan in 1930.
In other words, the less fanatical version of Wahhabism triumphed over the more fanatical. The Saudi monarchs presided over a kingdom extreme by comparison with other Muslim countries but tame by Wahhabi standards."

"Terror Cell Had Recent Gun Battle With Police" (Alan Sipress and Peter Finn, The Washington Post, 2003/05/14)
"The Islamic militants behind the devastating car bombings in three residential compounds Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were part of an al Qaeda cell whose members fought a gun battle last week with Saudi authorities before escaping arrest, Saudi officials said today.
At the time, police raided a suspected hideout, uncovering a weapons cache that included 55 hand grenades, 829 pounds of explosives and 2,545 bullets of different calibers. The May 6 raid took place at a safe house "several hundred yards from one of the buildings hit" by the triple bombing, a senior U.S. official said today.
The cell was formed in the kingdom after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, officials said. It is led by Khaled Jehani, who left Saudi Arabia when he was 18, later fought in Bosnia and Chechnya and was based at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, the officials added. Jehani, 29, assumed a leadership position in the cell after the capture last November of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, suspected of being instrumental in planning the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, the officials said. Al-Nashiri, al Qaeda's former director of operations in the Persian Gulf, is in U.S. custody."

"The shells of wrecked buildings..."
(Reuters/Saudi Television, 2003/05/13)
"The shells of wrecked buildings are seen after a suicide attack on a Westerners' compound in Riyadh, May 13, 2003. Suicide bombers killed 10 Americans and many others at housing compounds for Westerners in the Saudi capital Riyadh, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said as he flew in for a planned visit on Tuesday."

"Bush: Attackers to learn 'meaning of American justice'" (CNN.com, 2003/05/13)
"President Bush said Tuesday that those responsible for suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia that left dozens of people dead, including seven Americans, would "learn the meaning of American justice." ...
"These despicable acts were committed by killers whose only faith is hate," Bush said Tuesday in Indianapolis, Indiana, his last stop on a tour to promote tax cuts. "And the United States will find the killers, and they will learn the meaning of American justice." ...
The blasts came less than two weeks after the U.S. State Department warned Americans of possible terror attacks in Saudi Arabia. Last week, the Saudi government issued an all-points bulletin for 19 men - 17 of them Saudis - on suspicion of planning attacks.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef told a Riyadh newspaper Tuesday that those suspects were behind Monday's bombings."

"Saudi bomb may have killed 90" (Rebecca Mowling and Danielle Demetriou, Evening Standard, 2003/05/13)
"Unconfirmed reports suggest as many as 90 people are feared dead in Saudi Arabia today after a devastating series of bomb attacks masterminded by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Although the official death toll remains at 29, reports from some agencies suggest that the real figure is much higher.
Westerners living in three compounds in the capital Riyadh were targeted in a co-ordinated wave of suicide car-bomb attacks. Witnesses said they shot their way in."

"Saudi Religious Police Launch Website" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 504, 2003/05/13)
A branch of the Saudi religious and morality police has launched a new website. MEMRI has translated some bizarre excerpts from the site, offering a glimpse into this misogynistic, puritan and anti-Semitic world: "Another section of the website, the "Exhibit of Violations," displays confiscated items from the "permanent collection of violations of Islamic law at Authority headquarters in Al-Madina." The section shows photos of perfume bottles shaped like a woman's torso, with text reading: "Perfume, but...! Examples of perfumes with good fragrances for women and evil bottles that harm the honor of the woman and undermine her morality. We must beware. The Prophet Muhammad said, 'Any woman who wears perfume and passes by people so they can smell it is a whore ...'" Also shown is a photo of several Barbie dolls, along with the text: "The enemies of Islam want to invade us with all possible means, and therefore they have circulated among us this doll, which spreads deterioration of values and moral degeneracy among our girls." On the photo, under the heading "The Jewish Doll," is a story titled "The Strange Request." The story reads: 'One girl said to her mother: 'Mother, I want jeans and a shirt open at the top, like Barbie's!!' The dolls of the Jewish Barbie in her naked garb [sic], their disgraceful appearance, and their various accessories are a symbol of the dissolution of values in the West. We must fully comprehend the danger in them.'"

"Blasts hit Saudi capital" (BBC News, 2003/05/13)
"According to diplomatic sources, blasts went off at three different locations in the eastern part of the city, sending fireballs and smoke into the night sky.
The BBC's Suleiman Nemr in Riyadh said that at least three people - a Saudi national, a Lebanese citizen and a westerner - had been killed at one residential compound.
According to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef "the three explosions that occurred in eastern Riyadh were suicide bombings... set off by cars stuffed with explosives that were driven into the targeted compounds".
There has been no official word on the number of casualties, but a spokesman for a Riyadh hospital said that at least 50 people had been injured." (See also: "Powell condemns Saudi blasts" (CNN.com, 2003/05/13): "U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan said more than 40 Americans were wounded and some Americans were killed, although he could not confirm the number of deaths.")

"4 bomb attacks rock Saudi capital" (MSNBC, 2003/05/12)
"Less than a week after al-Qaida warned of an imminent strike, and hours before Secretary of State Colin Powell was to arrive in the Saudi capital, U.S. and Saudi officials said Tuesday that at least one person was killed and 60 other people were injured here in four bomb attacks against Western interests, three of them in residential compounds housing Americans and other Westerners. A U.S. diplomat said 40 Americans were hurt, and that there were unconfirmed reports of "a couple of American deaths." ...
Powell was scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia about noon Tuesday for meetings with Crown Prince Abdullah. "There have been no changes in the secretary’s travel plans at this time," said State Department press officer Nancy Beck."

"Saudi Chutzpah" (James Taranto, Best of the Web Today, 2003/05/01)
"Here's something a little different: the first Best of the Web Today blind tasting. See if you can identify the vintage and origin of this fine whine:

During this crisis patriotism as practiced in the United States reached alarming levels of intolerance and violence. The right of the other to dissent was unceremoniously thrown aside. If we take what happened to the Dixie Chicks as an example, one is hard-pressed to justify or even comprehend the incident. One of the ladies said she was ashamed of Bush being from her home state of Texas. She said it while performing on a stage in London. Had the Chicks been living under Saddam, we know a priori what would have happened. But knowing they lived in the United States one thought that the debate would have maintained a semblance of civility.
Instead, they were attacked, taken off radio stations, and callers to the same stations spewed so much venom that it inevitably culminated in on-the-air death threats. Obviously, democracy is skin deep.

California 2003? Nope, Saudi Arabia. It's an Arab News op-ed by one Mohammad T. Al-Rasheed. If the Dixie Chicks lived in Rasheed's country, of course, they would not even have been able to go to Britain to deliver their anti-Bush comments unless they had the permission of their "guardians" - fathers or husbands. Nor would they be allowed to drive, appear naked on magazine covers or even show their ankles in public." (See also: "The Dixie Chicks & Civility" (Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, Arab News, 2003/05/01))

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"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

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