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Arabia
Succession strains in the Magic Kingdom
2004-05-31
From Debka, so salt to taste.
The dividing line between terrorist attacks and the succession struggle raging in the Saudi royal house is becoming increasingly hard to distinguish. The primary duelers now are Princes Abdullah and Nayef. By the time they come to an accommodation, if they ever do, it may be too late for House of Saud.

It is worth noting that Islamic web sites covered the operation closely, indicating, that the terrorists barricaded with their hostages were in touch on line with their controllers throughout the 25 hours of the siege. That same al-Moqrin issued an order to his men last Wednesday, May 26, to organize in small bands of four and to continually strike at Saudi government and US targets without letup. What was behind the Khobar attack aside from the “infidel” claptrap? In general, top al Qaeda commanders have stated their determination to overthrow the Saudi throne and shown that they trust in their ability to achieve their goal and pursue it methodically.
Posted by:RWV

#3  RWV, that fits with what I've been reading lately. Byzantine political maneuvers, indeed; each is jockeying to be the next power holder, using all the violence and conspiracies at their disposal.
Posted by: The Doctor   2004-05-31 6:04:48 PM  

#2  I didn't edit this particularly well. The thrust of the article is that the terrorism in SA is being advanced by the byzantine maneuvering between princes to see who follows Fahd to the throne. Nayef is afraid to clamp down too hard for fear of losing the support of Islamic radicals and Abdullah is using the attacks to show that Nayef is not competent to run the family business. Going to get much worse before it gets better.
Posted by: RWV   2004-05-31 3:14:10 PM  

#1  Alhmedi over at The Religous Policeman has some excellent observations on the Alkhobar attacks in his May 30 posting. It's worth a read.
Posted by: GK   2004-05-31 3:11:51 PM  

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