I thought Bush was going to hunt this guy down? Bush seems to have given up.
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December 19, 2004
Bin Laden Said to Aim Message at Saudis
By DONNA ABU-NASR
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Osama bin Laden's latest message, his first
directed specifically at Saudis in years, has been widely seen as an
attempt to show he is still a player in his homeland despite a security
clampdown that has sharply limited al-Qaida's field for terrorist
operations in the conservative kingdom.
The message, released Thursday, was issued after powerful blows by Saudi
security to bin-Laden's supporters in the oil-rich country, where
security forces have made inroads in weakening the insurgency both with
arrests and anti-insurgency campaign that undercut support for the
militants.
At the same time, however, bin Laden's audiotape followed up on an
al-Qaida show of strength in the country two weeks ago. Five militants
attacked the U.S. consulate in Riyadh and stormed into the inner
courtyard, firing guns, grabbing human shields and killing five people.
Four of the attackers were killed and one was wounded in an ensuing
battle with Saudi forces. No Americans were killed.
And keeping up the drumbeat Sunday the Saudi branch of al-Qaida called
in a Web statement for attacks against oil infrastructure in the Persian
Gulf. The statement called on "all mujahedeen ... in the Arabian
Peninsula" to target "the oil resources that do not serve the nation of
Islam."
The statement urged al-Qaida members and sympathizers around the Arab
world to unite "to strike all the foreign targets in the Arabian
peninsula and attack all the infidels' havens everywhere."
Analysts described the Saudi-born terror suspect's Thursday message,
which included a call to followers to "concentrate your operations" on
oil facilities, as a reminder that he can still cause trouble. Some also
saw it as a sign he is worried about blows to his credibility or that he
might lose more influence if local elections prove a success.
"It's a kind of encouragement for Saudis influenced by him after the
blow they have received," said Dia'a Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on
militant groups. "It's a way for him to tell them he supports them, he
cares about them and will, through his statement, put their cause in the
international spotlight."
In the audiotape, posted on an Islamic Web site, bin Laden exonerated
Islamic militants of responsibility for the violence in the kingdom,
saying it was the rulers' "sins which exposed the country to God's
punishment."
He also reiterated long-standing accusations that the royal Al Saud
family has misused public funds and allied itself with the "infidel
America against Muslims."
Addressing the Saudi rulers, bin Laden said: "You must know that people
are fed up ... security will not be able to stop them."
Bin Laden's direct focus on the kingdom and its rulers is the first in
about a decade. He embarked on his terrorist path in the early 1990s,
after the ruling family turned down his request to use his "mujahedeen"
- holy warriors, who had trained with him in Afghanistan - to liberate
Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. The Americans led the campaign for Saddam
Hussein's ouster from the tiny emirate.
After the Saudi government stripped him of his citizenship and kicked
him out of the country, bin Laden moved to Sudan and then to Afghanistan.
It was there that he took his war to a higher level, focusing on the
United States and mentioning Saudi Arabia in a wider context.
"He saw himself as a world leader fighting on behalf of all Muslims, not
only Saudis," said Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to Prince Turki, the
Saudi ambassador to London.
After the American ouster of Saddam in 2003, bin Laden slowly shifted
his fight to both the United States and Saudi Arabia, not waiting to
finish off one enemy before taking on the other.
The shift translated on the ground, Khashoggi said, into the May 2003
attack in Riyadh. Militants inspired by bin Laden struck for the first
time in the kingdom after Sept. 11, 2001, attacking three residential
compounds. Twenty-five people were killed.
The attacks continued, but many Saudis were revolted by the tactic.
Others were distress when they understood that Muslims and Saudis were
dying in the attacks along with non-Muslim foreigners. Bin Laden's
credibility as a defender of Islam began to suffer.
Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,
said bin Laden sought in the tape to "refashion the focal point of what
he's about" after losing credibility. In the tape, he implies he's about
"creating a new order, a new reality and ... not about doing all these
things that people say are un-Islamic."
Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said bin
Laden's message was a reflection of how weakened he and al-Qaida had
become. "He's now resorting to political rhetoric to try to influence
the people," Jordan said.
One way bin Laden is trying to do that is by ridiculing upcoming,
three-stage municipal elections in the kingdom, which begin in February
and are seen as an attempt by the government to open the country to
political reform.
"This hasn't changed anything. ...The best they can do is that they will
go into the elections game as happened before in Yemen and Jordan or
Egypt and move in a vicious circle for dozens of years. This is
regardless of the fact that it is prohibited to enter the infidel
legislative councils," bin Laden said.
Jordan said bin Laden's reference to the elections "shows he's very
nervous" about them.
"He's trying create the same kind of divisiveness we're seeing in Iraq
about the elections, but I don't think he's going to succeed because
Saudi Arabia is a much more homogenous society," he said.
Jordan also said it would be hard for the militants to carry out a huge
attack on oil installations in the kingdom that would significantly
disrupt production or distribution. At most, isolated attacks could be
launched on less-guarded areas, he said, adding that targeting the
kingdom's oil industry could backfire.
"This (oil) is the entire economic base of the country, and even those
who might be critical of the West or America will be greatly offended by
any destruction of their really only means of economic progress and
survival," he said.
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