by Marty S.
Member since:
June 28, 2006

Can We Talk About This? Saudis round up 172 terrorists

April 28, 2007 07:27 AM EDT
views: 43 | comments: 16

fileId:3096224744101215;size:inter;

 By Marty Salo

News Respondent 

Saudis round up 172 terrorists.

I'm not sure what's more disturbing about this, that they got 172 participants in these plots, or that there might be others involved.

Was our intelligence involved?  Were there others involved?

The materiel and personnel were in place, but there was still the time to be set for operations to commence.

Now, audi Arabia doesn't have the freedoms that we enjoy over here.  Some levels of torture may be used to extract information.  Perhaps that was why 172 people were seized.

Al Qaeda has shown that they will continue to keep trying to hit targets.  This plan was sophisticated in the number of installations targetted.

I don't think that Iran can be definatively pinned in this instance, but they are supposedly detaining some members of the Al Qaeda leadership under house arrest.

 



Marty Salo, News Respondent:

Can We Talk About This?, published every day to Gather Essentials: News is about current news.  Marty is 36 years old and lives in sunny Tampa, FL.

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Comments: 16

Genine Hopkins Apr 28, 2007, 7:34am EDT
There is so much information that is left wanting from these arrests. Since bin Laden himself is a Saudi, albeit a disowned one, the fact that so many Saudis may have been involved is not really a big surprise. Iran has sent out a couple of small and dying olive branches in the form of help in Iraq, but I really can't say they would prove helpful, especially given the history of the relationship between Iraq and Iran. To jump to a conclusion and say they are responsible is irresponsible and you are right to have doubts. Thanks for the information!

ps: I wish my class in the "History of Islam" was not over! This would be a great topic to bring up for discussion!
Marty S. Apr 28, 2007, 8:23am EDT
Thanks, Genine. It's interesting that the Wahibi brand of Islam is preached by the Saudis and funded for export across the world, and this is the primary source for the suicide bombers, but until now, most of the anger has been directed outside of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden seems to have assumed the mantle of the Wahibi sect and is the symbolic leader of the jihad.
Meryl Johnson Apr 28, 2007, 8:29am EDT
Since bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia and has vowed to bring down their government, they were lucky to uncover this plot before it was carried out. Bush should have finished the job in Afghanistan and captured bin Laden at whatever cost before jumping into the war with Iraq. bin Laden was and is obviously a more serious threat to the US and the world than Saddam ever was, and it seems to be turning out that al Qaeda is our biggest threat there, too.

Have you heard about the equally terrifying cache of weapons just uncovered in Alabama that belonged to a right wing militia group? I haven't heard much about this on the news yet.
Randy- Being true to myself Apr 28, 2007, 8:33am EDT
As it was once said, what goes around will come around. The Saudis, being friendly to America because of the money it gets from America, at the same time funding many terrorist style and type organizations on the side has come back to roost on their door step.

I hope they realize that it will take a concerted effort to stop what they started.

It is interesting, but I would not be too surprised that Iran was the one that helped to fund these 172. At some point Saudi Arabia, and many other countries need to get more involved in helping in Iraq to stop the fighting, and to rebuild it...
Marty S. Apr 28, 2007, 8:56am EDT
Randy, it would be nice if SA would help with the rebuilding of Iraq, but I'm doubtful that it'll happen before Iran gets more involved in supporting the Shi'a takeover of the government.

Meryl, thanks for the heads up.
Richard B. Apr 28, 2007, 9:25am EDT
Marty, I know that you're not sure about this as you state in the beginning.

However all the Sunni countries are already helping in Iraq as they don't want to see Iran and the Shi'a take Iraq over.

Now then the Wahibi's are also Sunni as you know. And all of the al Qaeda folks are also Sunni and have said that their goal is to over-throw all the dictators and Kingdoms in the region of the Mideast and establish a Sunni Theocracy as they did in Afghanistan. Understanding the goal of the al Qaeda to be as they say is an important issue.

Yes there are more of these folks. Yes al Qaeda is much more interested in their goals in the Mideast than the US. However, as the US is seen as a meddling influence in the Mideast and al Qaeda's goal driven plan is opposed to what the US is doing, then al Qaeda in their view must take the US out of the picture and out of the Mideast. Thus the conflict.

Understanding the enemy is always important. Believing that the enemy means what they say is always important. Knowing that al Qaeda is the enemy and not the Sunni nor the Shi'a, nor Iran nor Iraq, is important.

Listing to Bush as he knows not what he speaks is not important.
vickey w Apr 28, 2007, 10:09am EDT
I dont know what to think on some of these countrys, they send out mixed signals. I am glad that this terrorist bunch was found out and caught before they could cause havoc though. I wish that Bin Laden would be found and hanged such as Saddam was, lets see how brave he is. Have you noticed, he talks and has killings done but you never see him do any of the actual killings? He preaches to the others to become martyrs but you dont see him blowing himself for the cause. Hes a coward and those that follow him are imbeciles. Let him put himself out there, if it means so much to him to kill.
lise s. Apr 28, 2007, 10:17am EDT
the most horrible part of this story for me was that i immediately thought that it was a set up to answer the antagonists complaint about the Saudi government we support being one of our problems, i don't trust anything i hear anymore.
Olga M. Apr 28, 2007, 1:20pm EDT
The argument, "They will follow us here if we leave" is just another lame excuse to continue the occupation. As you say Richard, they are more interested in their own homeland than with us. The only reason they continue to attack us over there is because they want our butts out of their faces. We here in America would do the same thing if the situation were reversed.
© MrBill   Apr 28, 2007, 4:09pm EDT
Very few of those arrested were Saudi citizens, most were foreign nationals.
Marty S. Apr 28, 2007, 10:48pm EDT
Olga, I don't think that Richard meant to state that they are more interested in their homeland than they are with us. Remember, we were attacked on 9-11-01. Not the Saudi Royal Family. The barracks in Beirut was attacked, and we left. Lebanon descended into anarchy, which was occupied by Syria, and then Hezbollah was allowed to operate. American compounds have been attacked in saudi Arabia, but we have not left.

I'd dislike to see chaos in the region. That might happen. It might not. The probability of it happening does increase greatly if we were to pull our support from the region.

Oil as a commodity becomes valueless as it becomes in such short supply. If there is not the support for the exploration, production, and distribution of oil, then the whole system would tend to fall apart, and global depression, economic collapse would probably happen. Rebuilding global trusts that things will continue after economies collapse will probably take some time.
Richard B. Apr 29, 2007, 8:58am EDT
Yes Marty, the Americans in the Mideast is in reality not much different than the Mexicans in the United States. As some care more than others about them being there.
Marty S. Apr 30, 2007, 8:13pm EDT
As much as I may personally dislike the fact that we as a society are dependent on oil, the alternative is frightening. Al Qaeda's vision of many explosions in the Saudi Kingdom, and real inability to meet Global demand is a scary prospect. How long disruptions could last is arguable, but how long the global economic engine could keep going is also arguable, if there were serious explosions at Saudi oil facilities.
Richard B. May 1, 2007, 8:40am EDT
The Sunni tribsmen killed the head leader of al Qaeda in Iraq yesterday.

This is how the US can leave Iraq, this is also what the Iraqi's need to do to take back their own country Marty.
Marty S. May 2, 2007, 4:28pm EDT
Richard, once this becomes more evident of a specific trend of order being established, I am confident that we will leave. Maybe it was competing interests within the Al Qaeda in Iraq organization that killed the leader.

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