| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"ArKLyte_" |
| Date: |
19 Jun 2004 12:52:34 PM |
| Object: |
The seeds of terrorism sown by Saudi system |
http://www.saintpetersburgtimes.com/2004/06/19/Worldandnation/The_seeds_of_terroris.shtml
The seeds of terrorism sown by Saudi system
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, [St Pete, FL] Times Senior Correspondent
Published June 19, 2004
How do you stop anti-Western terrorism in a place where al-Qaida may
have infiltrated the security forces, schools teach a rigid form of
Islam and the ruler blames most of his problems on Zionists?
That's the challenge facing Saudi Arabia in the wake of attacks that
have killed dozens of foreigners, including Paul Johnson, an American
beheaded Friday by an al-Qaida group. And the Saudis' reluctance to
acknowledge their own role in the growth of extremism doesn't bode
well for the future, experts say.
"Take any cross section of Saudi society and you will find people who
do not think slitting the throat of an infidel is a bad thing," says
John R. Bradley, a British journalist who worked for a Saudi
newspaper.
Another expert predicts violence will continue, even though the Saudis
claimed Friday that they killed the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian
Peninsula, the group behind the kidnapping and murder of Johnson.
"It seems to me we haven't seen the worst of it yet," says Michael
Doran, an assistant professor at Princeton University. "There are
deep-seated problems that are not going to go away."
And as if the Saudis didn't have enough internal trouble, their
plodding efforts at reform have been hurt by the chaos in neighboring
Iraq.
The United States is "so widely and deeply disliked in Saudi Arabia
that it gives democracy a bad name because we're promoting it," says
Michael Hudson, professor of Arab studies at Georgetown University.
Ever since oil was discovered in the kingdom in the 1930s, the ruling
al Saud family has struggled with two conflicting forces - rapid
modernization fueled by oil wealth, and the backward pull of
Wahhabism, a puritanical form of Islam whose adherents condemn Western
secularism and materialism.
In 1979, Islamic fundamentalists, outraged by what they saw as the
corrupting influence of Western culture on the Sauds, seized the Grand
Mosque at Mecca. The government crushed the takeover, but it scared
the royal family into giving the Wahhabis enormous control over Saudi
society and education.
While oil prices were high, Saudis enjoyed a leisurely lifestyle as
Americans and other foreigners ran the economy. But when oil prices
fell in the mid '80s, the economy soured and Saudis whose education
was based on memorizing the Koran had few marketable skills.
As a result, Saudi Arabia finds itself in a paradox - foreigners still
hold millions of jobs while unemployment among Saudis is around 30
percent. The difficulty of "Saudi-izing" the workforce - replacing
foreigners with natives - was illustrated a few months ago when the
travel industry almost collapsed because Saudis couldn't handle even
simple jobs like making reservations.
"The work ethic has not really been possible in a place that's been
awash in oil," Hudson says.
The high unemployment rate has had a more insidious effect: It makes
it easier for extremist groups to recruit dissatisfied young Saudis.
"You have this ideological mixing with these awful economic conditions
- there could not be a more opportune situation for a popular
uprising," says Bradley, who is writing a book on the kingdom. "I
think al-Qaida is going to ride that wave rather than attack oil
installations or the (royal) family."
In recent months, terrorists have gone after "soft" targets with
lighter protection. Al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for most of
the attacks, including some in which there is evidence of collusion by
Saudi security forces.
Last month, former employees of Vinnell, a U.S. company that trains
the Saudi National Guard, said some guardsmen knew in advance about
the May 2003 bombing of a housing compound in Riyadh that killed 35
people.
As many as 70 guards stayed away that day, leaving the compound
defenseless, the employees told London's Independent. Guard members
allegedly gave inside help to al-Qaida, possibly including a detailed
map of the compound.
And in last month's attack on a compound in Khobar that killed 22,
gunmen purportedly wore military uniforms.
"The evidence from the last few weeks is that al-Qaida is in control
of the situation, they are deciding when to attack and where to attack
while the royal family seems simply to be hoping that the problem will
go away," Bradley says. "They have no strategy to deal with it - the
only strategy is the security forces, who have been infiltrated by
al-Qaida."
Princeton's Doran says collusion between police and extremists is not
surprising, given the government's support of the Wahhabi-brand of
education.
"You've got to feel sorry for those poor grunts in the Saudi security
system. They're up against a foe that believes deeply in what they're
saying and harping on the theme that every Saudi schoolboy has learned
from the clerics and is willing to die for. What ideals are the grunts
fighting for? They fight for the royal family and who wants to die for
the royal family?"
To a great extent, both Saudi Arabia and its longtime ally, the United
States, are also paying for their support of Islamic mujahedeen who
fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, then turned their attention to
other "infidels' after the Soviets left in 1989.
Heavy pressure by Islamic fundamentalists on the Saudi regime resulted
in the United States pulling most of its troops out of the kingdom.
And as violence surged this spring, the State Department urged all
Americans - about 35,000 - to get out.
"It's ironic that we have 135,000 troops in Iraq trying to bring
democracy to that place while in Saudi Arabia, which arguably is much
more important - certainly in oil terms - we are urging people to
leave," says Georgetown's Hudson.
Both countries insist their relationship remains strong even though
the Bush administration has been frustrated by the Saudis' slowness to
acknowledge the real causes of terrorism in the kingdom. Just days
after the State Department praised Saudi Arabia for its "aggressive"
campaign against terrorists, Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto
ruler, announced that "Zionism is behind everything," Newsweek
reported.
A popular "parlor game" in Washington, Hudson notes, is guessing how
long the royal family will remain in power. Most experts doubt the
country is in imminent danger of revolution but say the Sauds must
press ahead with democratic and educational reforms.
For all their drawbacks, the royals often have been a force for
modernization and liberalization, using much of the country's oil
wealth to build hospitals, highways and schools open to women as well
as men.
"But the problem is that whenever they did that in the past, they did
it from a position of strength in the middle of the oil boom," Bradley
says. "Now it's the reverse - in the middle of an economic crisis,
they have to give up power and marginalize the Wahhabis and there's
absolutely no precedent for that."
- Susan Taylor Martin can be contacted at
=========================================================
'Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was preparing attacks in the
United States..' - President Vladimir Putin, 6/18/2004
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040618/D839DV0O1.html
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| User: "AnonMoos" |
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| Title: Re: The seeds of terrorism sown by Saudi system |
19 Jun 2004 04:55:00 PM |
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ArKLyte_ wrote:
http://www.saintpetersburgtimes.com/2004/06/19/Worldandnation/The_seeds_of_terroris.shtml
The seeds of terrorism sown by Saudi system
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, [St Pete, FL] Times Senior Correspondent
Published June 19, 2004
Good article...
--
SAUDIA OMNIS IN PARTES TRES DIVIDENDA EST! Free Arabia by
splitting the Saudi tyranny into its three natural parts:
Hejaz-alHarameyn, Nejd-Wahhabistan, and Gulf-Petrolia.
Murderers are not Martyrs! http://symbolictruth.fateback.com/
الاختلاط خير
من الاضطهاد
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