It was an occasion for tears and celebration as the Knights of Martyrdom
proclaimed on video: “Our brother Turki fell during the rays of dawn,
covered in blood after he was hit by the bullets of the infidels, following
in the path of his brother.” The flowery language could not disguise the
brutal truth that a Saudi family had lost two sons fighting for Al-Qaeda in
Iraq.
The elder brother, Khaled, had been a deputy commander of a crack jihadist
“special forces” unit. After his “glorious” death, Turki took his place.
“He was deeply affected by the martyrdom of his brother,” the Knights said.
“He became more ambitious and more passionate about defending the land of
Islam and dying as a martyr, like his brother.”
Turki’s fervent wish was granted earlier this year, but another Saudi national
who travelled to Iraq had second thoughts. He was a graduate from a
respectable family of teachers and professors who was recruited in a Saudi
Arabian mosque and sent to Iraq with $1,000 in travel expenses and the
telephone number of a smuggler who could get him across the Syrian border.
In Iraq he was ordered to blow himself up in a tanker on a bridge in Ramadi,
but he panicked before he could press the detonator. He was arrested by
Iraqi police. In a second lorry, another foreign fighter followed orders and
died.
King Abdullah was surprised during his two-day state visit to Britain last
week by the barrage of criticism directed at the Saudi kingdom. Officials
were in “considerable shock”, one former British diplomat said.
Back home the king is regarded as a modest reformer who has cracked down on
home-grown terrorism and loosened a few relatively minor restrictions on his
subjects’ personal freedom.
With oil prices surging, Saudi Arabia is growing in prosperity and embracing
some modern trappings. Bibles and crucifixes are still banned, but internet
access is spreading and there are plans for “Mile High Tower”, the world’s
tallest skyscraper, in Jeddah. As a key ally of the West, the king had every
reason to expect a warm welcome.
Yet wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of worldwide terror networks.
“If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one
country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” said Stuart Levey, the US Treasury
official in charge of tracking terror financing.
Extremist clerics provide a stream of recruits to some of the world’s nastiest
trouble spots.
An analysis by NBC News suggested that the Saudis make up 55% of foreign
fighters in Iraq. They are also among the most uncompromising and militant.
Half the foreign fighters held by the US at Camp Cropper near Baghdad are
Saudis. They are kept in yellow jumpsuits in a separate, windowless compound
after they attempted to impose sharia on the other detainees and preached an
extreme form of Wahhabist Islam.
In recent months, Saudi religious scholars have caused consternation in Iraq
and Iran by issuing fatwas calling for the destruction of the great Shi’ite
shrines in Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, some of which have already been
bombed. And while prominent members of the ruling al-Saud dynasty regularly
express their abhorrence of terrorism, leading figures within the kingdom
who advocate extremism are tolerated.
Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaidan, the chief justice, who oversees terrorist trials,
was recorded on tape in a mosque in 2004, encouraging young men to fight in
Iraq. “Entering Iraq has become risky now,” he cautioned. “It requires
avoiding those evil satellites and those drone aircraft, which own every
corner of the skies over Iraq. If someone knows that he is capable of
entering Iraq in order to join the fight, and if his intention is to raise
up the word of God, then he is free to do so.”
The Bush administration is split over how to deal with the Saudi threat, with
the State Department warning against pressure that might lead the royal
family to fall and be replaced by more dangerous extremists.
“The urban legend is that George Bush and Dick Cheney are close to the Saudis
because of oil and their past ties with them, but they’re pretty
disillusioned with them,” said Stephen Schwartz, of the Centre for Islamic
Pluralism in Washington. “The problem is that the Saudis have been part of
American policy for so long that it’s not easy to work out a solution.”
According to Levey, not one person identified by America or the United Nations
as a terrorist financier has been prosecuted by Saudi authorities. A
fortnight ago exasperated US Treasury officials named three Saudi citizens
as terrorist financiers. “In order to deter other would-be donors, it is
important to hold these terrorists publicly accountable,” Levey said.
All three had worked in the Philippines, where they are alleged to have helped
to finance the Abu Sayyaf group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. One, Muham-mad
Sughayr, was said to be the main link between Abu Sayyaf and wealthy Gulf
donors.
Sughayr was arrested in the Philippines in 2005 and swiftly deported to Saudi
Arabia after pressure from the Saudi embassy in Manila. There is no evidence
that he was prosecuted on his return home.
This year the Saudis arrested 10 people thought to be terrorist financiers,
but the excitement faded when their defence lawyers claimed that they were
political dissidents and human rights groups took up their cause.
Matthew Levitt, a former intelligence analyst at the US Treasury and
counter-terrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,
believes the Saudis could do more. He said: “It is important for the Saudis
to hold people publicly accountable. Key financiers have built up
considerable personal wealth and are loath to put that at risk. There is
some evidence that individuals who have been outed have curtailed their
financial activities.”
In the past the Saudis openly supported Islamic militants. Osama Bin Laden was
originally treated as a favourite son of the regime and feted as a hero for
fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Huge charitable organisations such as
the International Islamic Relief Organisation and the al-Haramain Foundation
– accused in American court documents of having links to extremist groups –
flourished, sometimes with patronage from senior Saudi royals.
The 1991 Gulf war was a wake-up call for the Saudis. Bin Laden began making
vitriolic attacks on the Saudi royal family for cooperating with the US and
demanded the expulsion of foreign troops from Arabia. His citizenship was
revoked in 1994. The 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, which
killed 19 US servicemen and one Saudi, was a warning that he could strike
within the kingdom.
As long as foreigners were the principal targets, the Saudis turned a blind
eye to terror. Even the September 11 attacks of 2001, in which 15 of the 19
hijackers were Saudis, could not shake their complacency. Despite promises
to crack down on radical imams, Saudi mosques continued to preach hatred of
America.
The mood began to change in 2003 and 2004, when Al-Qaeda mounted a series of
terrorist attacks within the kingdom that threatened to become an
insurgency. “They finally acknowledged at the highest levels that they had a
problem and it was coming for them,” said Rachel Bronson, the author of
Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia.
Assassination attempts against security officials caused some of the royals to
fear for their own safety. In May 2004 Islamic terrorists struck two oil
industry installations and a foreigners’ housing compound in Khobar, taking
50 hostages and killing 22 of them.
The Saudi authorities began to cooperate more with the FBI, clamp down on
extremist charities, monitor mosques and keep a watchful eye on fighters
returning from Iraq.
Only last month Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s leading
cleric, criticised gullible Saudis for becoming “convenient knights for
whoever wants to exploit their zeal, even to the point of turning them into
walking bombs”.
And last week in London, King Abdullah warned young British Muslims not to
become involved with extremists.
Yet the Saudis’ ambivalence towards terrorism has not gone away. Money for
foreign fighters and terror groups still pours out of the kingdom, but it
now tends to be carried in cash by couriers rather than sent through the
wires, where it can be stopped and identified more easily.
A National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad, a nongovernmental
organisation that was intended to regulate private aid abroad to guard
against terrorist financing, has still not been created three years after it
was trumpeted by the Saudi embassy in Washington.
Hundreds of Islamic militants have been arrested but many have been released
after undergoing reeducation programmes led by Muslim clerics.
According to the daily Alwa-tan, the interior ministry has given 115m riyals
(£14.7m) to detainees and their families to help them to repay debts, to
assist families with health care and housing, to pay for weddings and to buy
a car on their release. The most needy prisoners’ families receive
2,000-3,000 riyals (£286 to £384) a month.
Ali Sa’d Al-Mussa, a lecturer at King Khaled University in Abha, protested:
“I’m afraid that holding [extremist] views leads to earning a prize or,
worse, a steady income.”
Former detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are
also benefiting. To celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid, 55 prisoners were
temporarily released last month and given the equivalent of £1,300 each to
spend with their families.
School textbooks still teach the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious
antiSemitic forgery, and preach hatred towards Christians, Jews and other
religions, including Shi’ite Muslims, who are considered heretics.
Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs,
said: “The Saudi education system has over 5m children using these books. If
only one in 1,000 take these teachings to heart and seek to act on them
violently, there will be 5,000 terrorists.”
In frustration, Arlen Specter, the Republican senator for Pennsylvania,
introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act 10 days ago, calling for
strong encouragement of the Saudi government to “end its support for
institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage or in any other way aid and
abet terrorism”.
The act, however, is expected to die when it reaches the Senate foreign
relations committee: the Bush administration is counting on Saudi Arabia to
help stabilise Iraq, curtail Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions and give
a push to the Israeli and Palestinian peace process at a conference due to
be held this month in Annapolis, Maryland.
“Do we really want to take on the Saudis at the moment?” asks Bronson. “We’ve
got enough problems as it is.”
Additional reporting: Marie Colvin and Ben Hardy, Jeddah
thank you for the reporters but we hoped you will mention that there was many iraqi"s demonstration against saudi in many europe countries to protest against their suicide bombers in iraq they was exported them there
Muhsin Najim Abid, Bristol, UK
No kidding. America's Soylent Green Moment. Like an abused domestic partner-always comes back for more, denies that there is a problem and ignores the scars and broken bones. Then someone dies and it is too late.
Mark, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan/USA
So, because we in the West daren't move against the vicious bigots of the House of Saud, but we still covet the oil, Iran is another useful scapegoat, just as Iraq was before. So now the US lines up another "Curveball" self-important fantasist to "interpret" the satellite images, this time over Iran? And all because the current US administration can show off and do what it wants, regardless of the fallout (and I mean fallout literally, as in Nuclear fallout, because that is where the US is heading, just to show that it can - as in Blind Activism). It's the US that needs regime change, and a long cooling-off, eating-humble-pie period.
Julia Iskandar, London, England
people of the world. I guess what you are saying is that we should have stayed at home and keep our nose's out of WW11. We could drill our own oil, dig our own coal, keep our own food, med, knowledge, tech. and everything else we share too ate home. This is a good idea. Would take care of a lot of our troubles.
Shirley Maunz, L.C., U.S.A.
One of the main (but not only) drivers behind any increase in extremism is unemployment, the minute the Ruling Family accept the fact that they have to live with less for themselves and give more for their country and people, automatically you will see extremists' numbers dwindling. This goes for all nations, races and religions. (Unemployment in Saudi is rumoured to be as high as 37% where an average rich countries unemployment is more or less acceptable at about 6 or 7%).
All religions can be interpreted and manipulated to mean one thing or another when taken out of context, and when you have a lot of free time on your hands, like a majority of the young working age saudi male population has, it's even easier to convince them of some bizzare lie that they call God's words.
P.S. My unemployment figures may be inaccurate, please do correct me if i'm wrong
Mohammed Al Rasheed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Showing your true colours Saud Alhrbi.
By the way, in Britain we hear stories about how "evil" the Israelis are every day, so don't worry about it.
Martin, Pontefract, UK
Nice belated exposure of well known facts!
"Yet wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of worldwide terror networks."
It has been true for some time and before that, it was financing of mosques preaching hatred of non-Muslims and extreme version of Islam!
It is high time Saudi Arabia falls in line with the US and allies on war on terror and takes strong action on the Islamic extremists including financiers and terrorists of all kinds.
Shias of Iraq will retaliate along with Iran on Saudi Arabia sooner than expected. Under those circumstances, there will be few supporters of Saudi Arabia to rescue it as in the case of Kuwait.
Regards,
Krishna R. Kumar, Udupi, India
The Americans have a short memory... It was the Americans who were funding the IRA, while they were bombing British people. Before thet criticise Saudi, they should look at all the harm they have inficted on the World.
Vik, London,
Jimmy Carter said years ago that energy conservation was "the moral equivalent of war". Let's save energy and money and buy no more oil from them. That would be a start, and have other benefits as well.
D Croaker
David Croaker, Canberra,
As rumi wrote : people are quick to blame others but forget to look at themselves. What see in others is in fact what we see in ourselves.
nikaila, leicester, uk
osama bin laden was an american creation he was their faverate man when he was fighting the ussr now he is terrorist---he is still in the same country afghanisan
what a difference few years make
saud, riyadh, saudi
Tim Olvados asks a remarkable question... "banned" is really a very simple concept. It means that if you try to take a Bible into Saudi Arabia, it will be confiscated. As you approach Mecca, there are signs on the road requirign non-muslims to drive away. Christian services are grounds for flogging in Saudi Arabia. Wake up!!
Nick, Rotherham, UK
Where to begin... how about a list!
the invasion of Iraq II
the invasion of Iraq I
the invasion of Panama
the invasion of Grenada
the support of the Contras in Nicaragua
the support of Death Squads in El Salvador
the support of Death Squads in Honduras
the support of Death Squads in Guatemala
the overthrow of the Elected government in Haiti
the overthrow of the Elected government in Chile
the overthrow of the Elected government in Indonesia
the overthrow of the Elected government in Congo
3 million dead in Vietnam
50 years in Korea
Spending billions to support dictators around the world
Maintaining over 1000 military bases at home and overseas
using public money to give landmines to violent groups
building the next generation of nuclear weapons
spending more money war than the rest of the planet combined
please wake up from your stupor
.............look who is calling the kettle, terrorist.
richardM, Long Beach, CA, USA
From one side we have the plans for the building of the mega mosque in Central London and on the other crucifixes and bibles banned from the Kingdom. Yet Israel is blamed and the West portrayed as intolerant and ignorant of the followers
of Islam. What a World!
raul g, miami, usa
What does Bibles are banned, mean exactly?
The Torah "tauret", gospels "injil" and the book of Psalms "zabur" are official holy books in the Mohammedan religion, most mollahs have them on their shelves.
Tim Olvados, Springfield, USA
I am a Saudi and I am sure there are so many mistakes in this article. First of all, it says the Saudi Sends individaul fighters (terrorists) to Iraq to fight Americans. What shall you say about countries which are send their regular fighters (armies) to kill Iraqis and distroy the country and not stablize the whole region?
Mesfer, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
This report is a start; but, at some point the civilized world must recognize that it is not just an extreme form of Wahhabist Islam that we are facing. It is Islam itself. Since its inception, Islam has been at war with the rest of the world. One only needs to read the Quran. One only needs to understand basic Muslim tenets. As clearly as night and day it is the Muslim at everlasting war with the non-Muslim. When this is understood above all of the purposeful deception from the Muslim and all of the foolish political correctness of the West then we may begin to make some headway in this conflict.
William, San Antonio, Texas
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Let Israel finally make an honest effort to achieve peace, genuine peace, and the specter of Islamic terror will virtually disappear.
The situation in Israel is a superating wound, and all Arabs ever see is gifts and support for a repressive Israel.
Palestinian efforts of every sort are ignored or condemned, including a cleaner election than ones that put George Bush in office.
But it seems highly unlikely we will see any change. The upcoming U.S.-sponsored conference has already been quietly emasculated.
Israel shows no inclination to make the least compromise for peace, and peace will not happen until the U.S. can push Israel into it.
JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO, Canada
I am so glad that someone had the guts to say what has been going on for a long time. It is not only Saudi that is funding and sending their guys to support terrorism in Iraq- The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria, Iran, and Jordan are some of the big guns that have their dirty hands in the murderous pie. And oil, as usual is what stands between abating terrorism and the West. America has its hands wringing with a big smile to the Saudis and their eyes on their petro-stash.
Zaineb, Calgary, Canada
What Saudi Arabia stands for is well-known - "wahabism" it propagates in many countries with petro dollars, for instance. Its "invisible hand" has been at work in South and Southeast Asia. Check any trouble-spot, Saudi money can be found. For oil and profit, the country is tolerated by the West. USA used Saudi money and men like, Osama bin Laden, to torment the soviets out of Afghanistan!! Many Americans may be regretting their naievety. The soviets must now seem easier and gentler to deal with than Al Quiaeda and the Taliban - spawned while the Americans had their gaze fixed on the soviets. This must be one of the great ironies of 20th century's history.
Kris iyer, Wellington, Newzealand.
The solution is simple. Start using less oil. Start doing that as of today ...
l.karremans, Heusden,
While The US and EU spread red carpets for the king of Saudi and recieved by their kings and presidents , he rule a country which is the source international terrorism , Georg W Bush supported by the European threatening to bomb Iran who is the target of international terrorism. Isn't this called double standards or what?
Saeed Furaty, Cardiff, Wales UK
Yet again another article confirming Saudi involvement in terrorism. Stop blaming the Iranians.
These mad men are after "Islamic Land". Which Islamic land ? For thousands of years, it was the land of Persians.
We are supporting back ward people whom still govern through a fuedal system. They are corrupt
to the core.
Alex, London, UK
We in Britain should know by now that there are "good" despots who, no matter how inhuman their behaviour, are always good guys who get red carpet treatment. On the other hand there are "bad" despots who have to be overthrown militarily and their regimes replaced by unimaginable death, destruction and chaos. Please can someone explain what Double Standards means?
Neil, Gloucestershire, England
Its time to expose Wahhabisim, because late better than nothing.
An Observer, Ciro, Egypt
The hub of world terror is in washington DC ie the whitehouse !
- Arming and supporting death squads around the world.
- Illegally invading defenceless countries.
- Overthrowing governments and installing puppets, dictators and despots.
- Bombing of factories, wedding parties, etc
- Torture flights
- Widespread government authrorised torture
- Mass bombing of cambodiam loas (during vietnam war).
Ahh wait, terrorism is only ever commiited by brown skinned people. When the US/western governments do it, it not terrorism ,no it just a surgerical strike etc.
The stench of hyprocrisy is overwhelming !
John, London, UK
"Saudi family had lost two sons fighting for Al-Qaeda in Iraq"
So... two son's = Saudi Arabia ?
"Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror"
Mohammed, London, UK
And we've read enough about Saudi Arabia,
can we read such reports about Israel?
Never I think.
Not because you cannot, but beacuse Israel is without mistakes.
Saud Alhrbi, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Wahhabism has lead to the birth of extremist, it accuses others of heresy, first abolish them then destroy them.
The extremist religious groups have moved from the stage of condemning other Muslims as unbelievers to the stage of "annihilation and destruction.
Funding is from the Saudi charities like International Islamic Relief Organization controled by Prince Salman, a full brother of King Fahd, controls IIRO distributions,
Substantial profits received by U.S. leaders in private sector deals with the Saudis have helped to squelch criticism of the royal family's refusal to address the role its country has played in fueling Islamic terrorism.
mo, malaga, spain
The answer: Economic Interests.
Think back to the beginning of all this and where things stand today. Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Iran. How did this happen?
Americans should be ashamed, not oblivious.
Cason Fayles, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Why don't we hear of threats from Bush to bomb Saudi Arabia?
Ronald E. Watts, Nicosia, Cyprus
This in no way disculpates the UK Home Office from ensuring that the mosques in the UK do not distribute printed information which advocates death to gays, Jews and Shiites. That is the responsability of the UK and not Saudia Arabia. By failing to do so, the UK indirectly encourages the spread of terrorism within its own borders. Time to do something.
gaines, Paris,
Ultimately, Wahabism and Talibanism may overpower entire Muslim world . So very sad. And finally, what I fear most may happen.
Polarisation of Muslims on one side and that of others on the other side.
This may be disastrous especially to countries like our India where more than 25% of population is that of Muslims. Majority of them illeterate, poor and if not fenatic highly religious.
The conflict of these two fronts will be the third world war for sure.
May God save our soles.
Ashween Parikh
Ashween Parikh, Vadodara, India