3-fer...
The authorities seized two sport utility vehicles packed with explosives Monday on a highway outside Riyadh, a security official said. It was the third straight day the Saudis have announced the discovery of vehicles loaded with explosives.
| Pretty soon one of them will be delivered. |
Last year, Riyadh, the Saudi capital, suffered two major attacks by suicide bombers driving vehicles filled with explosives. A total of 51 people were killed in the bombings, including the assailants. The security official said that in Monday’s seizure, police found the SUVs parked near a gas station on the Ramah highway, northeast of Riyadh. The explosives were hidden under fruit and vegetables. The official declined to elaborate on the case. On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said police had found two booby-trapped SUVs in Riyadh. They were loaded with a total of more than four tons of explosives and had apparently been abandoned by militants who had been involved in a shootout with the security forces.
| SUVs, why do they hate the Saudis? |
On Saturday, the ministry also said police had found a vehicle containing explosives. The authorities had been looking for it since February.
As I was driving to Walter Reed this afternoon, I had the misfortune to hear The Osgood File on the radio, with Dave Ross filling in for Charles Osgood, who's a twit. Ross was even more of a twit. His premise was that since Condoleeza Rice had announced yesterday that the Bad Guys were likely to stage an attack within the U.S. in an attempt to influence the November elections, the Bush administration wouldn't be able to say they "didn't know" this time. (I'm going to post the transcript, so you can follow the reasoning, if any...)
That argument's stoopid enough, but it shows that people like him aren't taking this seriously: they're seeing it reflexively through partisan glasses, some of them at a level that makes sophomoric look sophisticated. When the attacks come — be they al-Qaeda or Hamas — there are going to be a lot of people killed, and the perps aren't going to care whether they intended to vote for Bush or Kerry or, as the speaker did, Nader. All they're going to care about is the fact that large numbers of people are dead or maimed.
There are an awful lot of SUVs in the U.S.A. There are an awful lot of roads, and an awful lot of gas stations. Most towns have multiple malls and shopping centers. And many, if not most, fair-sized towns have Middle Eastern communities now. It's probably mean-spirited of me, but I hope Dave Ross is gassing up his car when it blows. |
|