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| Arabia | ||
| Official: Hostages freed in Saudi Arabia | ||
| 2004-05-30 | ||
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia -- Dozens of American, European and other hostages were released Sunday, and a gunmen believed to be the lead Islamic militant holding them was arrested, a Saudi security official said, adding that two other gunmen were "in the process of being arrested." The security official would not comment on the whereabouts or conditions of the hostages, saying only: "It has ended. One has been arrested and two are in the process of being arrested - they are surrounded."
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #14 Given that the complete ineffectualness of Saudi security has been proven conclusively, is there not now a clear opportunity for expatriate-manned security? Or, dare I say it, contractors? |
| Posted by: Anonymous5071 2004-06-01 2:04:41 AM |
| #13 Any news regarding anything relating to Islamic terrorism being feed to the global public via the state run Sa'udi news agency, is like supermarket tabloid reports of massive snowstorms covering Mali & central Brazil, plus Elvis being spotted in a Irish pub on Mars! Lies, lies and more of the same. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-06-01 1:12:00 AM |
| #12 Maybe it's time for the expats to leave Saudi, but make sure to turn off everything including the lights and the desalinization plants before they leave. And oh, by the way, don't leave the instructions behind. Do you think there are enough Pakis to run the machinery? Saudis can't do much more than flip an on-off switch. |
| Posted by: Random thoughts 2004-05-30 11:10:54 PM |
| #11 I know about the Sunday "meeting". Oooh, one of the "princes" was there, doncha know. Said he was doing everything possible to make it a safe working environment, and the jihadis would be captured, blah, blah, blah... These asshats had plenty of time to drive around town dragging a brit's body, had time to get stuck in traffic, and then make another hit on another building with no interference from the "police". And there's still no hazardous duty pay because Sod-land is such a safe place to work, doncha know. |
| Posted by: anon 2004-05-30 4:27:43 PM |
| #10 R.U. International. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-30 2:07:46 PM |
| #9 Thanks to .com and Anonymous4617 for the insights into ex-pat life in the Magic Kingdom. This really is the University of Rantburg sometimes. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-05-30 1:46:35 PM |
| #8 "You mentioned that greaseball Jubair, where is he?" Lol! We're certainly of the same mind on this little Abdullah lap monkey, heh. I think the last time I saw him was on Fox about 2-3 weeks ago, so he is still around. If the Saudis didn't invent hypocrisy, then they perfected it! Maybe both! I can't recall - do you get Fox inside? Maybe via AFRTS? It's NOT available on the Orbit Satellite network. BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and that "stolen from the airwaves mix of ABCNBCCBS" was it. Fox will do the best job of coverage on this, I'll bet big money. Jubair will show up, but the heavy lifting will be done by Bandar and Faisal - this is the biggest deal they've faced since Aziz opened the valve to fill the first tanker. I'm glad you're headed out. Take care, but to be honest, I don't expect the asshats will mount another attack in Dhahran area soon - it'll be locked down very very tight. I used to bitch about the 2-3 roadblocks and car searches I had to negotiate back when they were just feeling touchy. Shit - that was probably nothing compared to what's going on today. But stay safe anyway! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-30 7:19:42 AM |
| #7 .com, You do know these people! That is exactly what they are trying to do - waterdown the atrocities. None of the gory details were mentioned in yesterday meetings. But, like you said, the locals know and some will talk. We are getting our information from a doctor at Al-Saad who is married to a friend of a friend. I just cannot get over the hypocrisy of saudis, in general. When the "abuses" of the Iraqi prisoners broke, they were circulating those photos throughout the company. You would see groups of them talking and being repulsed by such despicable acts. Now, they are going about their business as if nothing has happened. A lot of families are leaving or at least the wives and children are. My husband, my son and I are leaving all together. We decided money is not worth your life. You mentioned that greaseball Jubair, where is he? He has not been on TV for a while now. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4617 2004-05-30 7:02:48 AM |
| #6 Another way to look at this, is as tax the Saudis have to bear to keep their economy going. Expertise will cost more and will likely be of lower quality. Now we have to do is bring the demand and hence price of oil down and the whole thing (SA) comes down like a house of cards. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-30 6:57:33 AM |
| #5 This is bad. The Saudis will work very hard to slow the story down. Eliminate as much of the shock as possible. Dribble out details. Pay any price to prevent release of "bad" pictures. In effect, they want the final toll and means of death to be as anti-climactic as possible. There will even be some quiet finger-pointing at those who died trying to escape... "Had they only waited for the Saudi Commandos to save them..." with a sad head shake. I can picture Bandar and Jubair now. They will have tips from acting coaches before they appear to "explain" things. And the PR firms employed will be on overtime until this finally comes out. It will - too much coverage to hush it up - but how it's covered, well, they'll do their level best to sanitize it, soften it, remove the drama. I just received another email, this one from a good friend, a residential compound manager in the vicinity of the Al Rashid Petroleum Centre - he and his family were gone because of the 3-day weekend - so his Co. gave them Memorial Day for American employees & the private schools accomodate. He said he's accelerating their July departure. I won't relay anything about the 2 men among the dead he knew. The woman I mentioned in yesterday's thread as having been wounded in the legs (Diane Reed) is going to be "okay" (she'll live), so that turned out right. No matter how softly they manage to make this land on the world stage, the locals will know every gory detail within the next few days or so. The effect the asshats desired will be achieved - only the desperate Expats will stay, everyone else will leave if they keep the details fresh in their minds. Funny, those who are still there in 3 months will forget much of the terror - humans are foolish that way - and the asshats will have to repeat this to remind them... but we all know they'll do it, so regards Expats in Saudi, they'll win. First they'll send their families out - you won't be able to find a one bedroom apartment for love nor money in 90 days. Oasis doesn't even HAVE any one bedroom apartments, I looked the place over (and gagged on the pricetag) - many housing compound are family only. Al Saad, the owner of Oasis with all its vaunted security and "fortress" features which didn't mean diddley-squat when they were needed, will be a sad motherfucker, indeed, very very soon. So sad. I / we always knew that when the jihadis confronted the Saudi gate guards, they would either run like hell, die in place, or cooperate. In other words, they wouldn't deter, much less stop, dick. So, if just making the Expats leave was their primary goal, they'll succeed - no one will put his family in harm's way if he can help it. As for the House of Saud... Riyadh's been hit and Khobar's been hit. Only Jeddah remains as a major reservoir of Western Expats thus far unhit. They'll get around to it. I'm sure the exodus will now seriously begin, though. Ignore news reports about Riyadh. Riyadh's nothing compared to Dhahran regards the Expat population and the effect of their exodus. Aramco is based in Dhahran and they make the money that Riyadh spends. I wondered how long it would take for the asshats to get it. They just did. Just my opinion / $0.02. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-30 6:35:38 AM |
| #4 According to this news article, Anonymous3964 is correct - throats were slit. "The nine had their throats cut by the kidnappers when they tried to escape at night by the stairs," Hijazin told AFP watching the removal of bodies. Hijazin, a Jordanian computer engineer, said he was rescued along with 24 fellow hostages and brought out by the roof. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1534900,00.html |
| Posted by: PayDay 2004-05-30 5:33:54 AM |
| #3 If any of you have a friend high up in CNN, Fox, ABC, NY times, Washington Post or any major news outlet, write to him/her asking to give this massacre major coverage. They are going to try to whitewash or minimize it, as they always do, when it casts a bad light on muslims. If they could keep the stupid "abuse" photos 24/7, they can also give this massacre the coverage it deserves. |
| Posted by: Anonymous3964 2004-05-30 2:54:58 AM |
| #2 Dhahra (9:33 am) 20 hostages have been killed and some of them had their throats cut. |
| Posted by: Anonymous3964 2004-05-30 2:37:49 AM |
| #1 Sky News is saying that mos hostages were freed. 2 militants killed and 2 captured. They also said that some hostages were killed,also. |
| Posted by: Anonymous3964 2004-05-30 2:15:07 AM |