Author: John R. Bradley
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: May 21, 2003
URL: http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20030521-094820-9254r.htm
The kingdom's three major cities
- Riyadh, Dammam and Jidda - have been turned into near-garrison towns
in recent days as the royal family confronts the biggest threat to its
authority in more than 20 years.
Special armed forces patrol the
streets and set up posts outside Western residential compounds. By evening
the kingdom's streets are deserted, with Saudis and foreigners alike now
certain that a major al Qaeda attack is imminent.
Already reeling from last week's
attacks on three housing compounds that claimed 25 victims, authorities
yesterday confronted reports that three Moroccans arrested on Monday had
planned to hijack an airliner and crash it into a building in Jidda.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef
denied any such plot, but a security source who spoke on the condition
of anonymity stood by the claim.
Either way, the government has been
forced after months of denials to admit to the presence of a terrorist
network on its soil. Three cells are said to have been formed - one that
carried out the attacks in Riyadh, one that has fled across the border
and a third that is planning another assault.
The British, American, German and
Canadian embassies and consulates have been closed for four days beginning
yesterday and the British ambassador, Derek Plumbly, said the terror threat
is of a "completely new order."
Both the U.S. and British embassies
repeated that they had received credible information warning of "imminent
attacks" in the kingdom.
The Saudi royal family has not faced
such a threat since the Mecca uprising in 1979, when armed radicals took
over Islam's holiest mosque to protest what they called the forced Westernization
of Saudi society and the corruption of the House of Saud.
Almost all of the dozens of expatriate
schools have shut down, and many have canceled graduation ceremonies and
end-of-year examinations. Most Western children are being sent home with
their mothers as flights to Western destinations depart with no empty seats.
"I've sent back my family back to
the U.S. because I can't take any risks when it comes to their safety,"
said a long-term American resident of Riyadh. "Almost everyone I know is
doing the same thing."
Life is dramatically changed in
the walled compounds where most Westerners live. Armored vehicles with
machine guns are parked outside most of them, and concrete barriers have
been erected to ward off any more attacks.
Supermarkets report a 50-percent
drop in Western customers, who are sending their drivers to do the weekly
shopping. Fast-food outlets are deserted, as Saudis and foreigners alike
shun them as likely targets.
The attacks have unified all but
the most radical Saudis into condemning extremism. The press has appealed
for the government to concede that the May 12 attacks were at least in
part a product of extremists who preach Islamic jihad in mosques and schools.
In an unusual appeal yesterday,
a brother-in-law of Saudi-born terrorist leader Osama bin Laden urged the
al Qaeda leader to denounce last week's bombings.
"I ask you to come out and say a
word that would extinguish the fire of turmoil that has erupted," Jamal
Khalifa said in a letter published in the Saudi daily al-Watan.
"Tell those youths, my brother,
that the damage suffered by Muslims is large and great, and that these
massacres which have spilled Muslim blood and led to the arrest of thousands
of pious young men ... must stop," the letter said.
"Is it chivalry that a knight kills
another who is unarmed? Then what about those who claim to be [holy warriors]
... and kill children, women and men sleeping?"
