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| Arabia |
| Al-Qaeda still receiving Saudi slush funds |
| 2004-06-06 |
| Saudi Arabia has failed to enforce sanctions against nationals and organizations that finance Al Qaida. Saudi and U.S. officials acknowledged that a ban announced by the kingdom in 2003 on the transfer of charity funds abroad has been ignored. They said a prominent Saudi fired from a leading charity has continued to relay funds to Al Qaida and related groups outside the kingdom. It was the first time that Riyad and Washington admitted the failure of Saudi enforcement of anti-Al Qaida measures. Over the last two years, the Bush administration has repeatedly praised Saudi decisions to block financing to Al Qaida and related groups. But statements by U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a U.S. Treasury Department communique portrayed a Saudi government unable or unwilling to implement its ban on financiers of Al Qaida. They described a Saudi government-sponsored and -administered charity that ordered its employees to flout the kingdom’s decision to halt activities abroad and conceal financing of Al Qaida and related groups under a different guise. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #11 What? No suggestions, corrections, ideas, force mix, strategy, critiques? Start cultivating elements of the Saudi Navy. They're the red-headed stepchild of the military -most sailors are from the fishing villages (generally stationed on the opposite coast they grew up on). But the equipment is modern and they are British and U.S.-trained. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-06-06 9:32:30 PM |
| #10 Well,I didn't wanna leave such colorful language as %$#^&* out there unattributed, heh... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-06-06 7:28:41 PM |
| #9 sure it is.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-06-06 7:20:23 PM |
| #8 Oops, A5143 is me. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-06-06 7:13:32 PM |
| #7 What? No suggestions, corrections, ideas, force mix, strategy, critiques? Nuttin? Sheesh! C'mon, folks - I know a shitload of people have been to the Magic Kingdom and that a fair proportion served their indentured servitude in Dhahran. So c'mon - pony up the changes, fixes, polish, whatever your expertise and experience tells you needs to be in there. Post as Anonymous, s'okay with me / us, we'd just like to flesh this out into something useful! Wotta buncha %$#^&*in' slackers! Lol! ;-) |
| Posted by: Anonymous5143 2004-06-06 7:05:39 PM |
| #6 Also: "Keep the skeer in 'em!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-06-06 4:46:40 PM |
| #5 NB Forrest,wasn't it General Forrest who said"Who gets there the firstist with the mostist wins"? |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-06-06 9:33:23 AM |
| #4 I'ma say someone call for the Missasippuah National Guard? How much do we all need to pony up to play? |
| Posted by: NB Forrest 2004-06-06 8:35:04 AM |
| #3 Talk about the Fractured Fairy Tales from The Dark Side. Maybe this is a good place to post our little Republic of Eastern Arabia scenario. This comes from either what I know, surmise, or suspect. Experts out there in the various bits should jump in and adjust it as they see fit... Okay, off the top of my head as I recall it: I've offered the notion a few times that I thought the best military option for us, should seizing the oil producing zone become necessary, would be to use troop rotation(s) out of Iraq as the ideal cover. Stage them in the incredibly convenient locations of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Determine the right mix of forces needed for each phase, and I picture 4: seizure of key facilities, consolidation to include interconnecting North-South pipelines, sweep and clear anyone unwilling to cooperate, stabilize and reinforce positions. We have some authoritative folks hereabouts who could work out the force mix better than I. There are some population centers within the "zone" to consider: Al Khobar, Al Dammam, Dhahran, Jubail, Ras Tanura, Hofuf, Khafji, and Salwa down South. The triangle of Dhahran, Al Khobar, and Al Dammam (approx 20km on each leg) is the largest concentration - maybe 300K total pop. So approx Fallujah-sized. Isolate Khobar and Dammam from Dhahran - there are no facilities in those two pop centers and any pipelines running through must be buried - I've not seen any above ground. The main opposition consideration is the Emergency Forces concentrations near Dhahran and the old Dhahran Air Base. We used to have to put up with the Saudi AF zooming Aramco with F-15's, F-16's, and Tornados out of there, loud and low over the Core Area. So there's some hardware that would need to be neutralized - and since it seems they almost never fly at night, well, that may not be much of a problem. The ground forces - I can't speak to their capabilities, numbers, equipment, and leadership as well as others. I do think the Mississippi Nat'l Guard could take 'em in a stand-up fight, however. ;-> There's a fine collection of Maps here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/saudi_arabia.html Of course, for it to work and make sense to proceed, you need the production, distillation, pipeline, and terminal opns all secured. If the maps I've seen of the distribution system are still accurate, there is a North-South pipeline network that is easily isolated from the East-West network because, originally, the entire process was handled on the Eastern coast. Only relatively recently has there been major construction of distillation and terminal ops on the West coast to spread out the employment and decentralize somewhat. So there are major crude feeds going West to Jeddah, Rabigh, and Yanbu which would be cut off. And That would be That regards keeping the oil in the Eastern Province where it is produced, refined, shipped. Note, also, that extracting and shipping crude to the US isn't much of a "fix" unless we are willing to build some refineries - a long-term timeframe problem - cuz I understand our existing sites are running near capacity now and we have to import "finished" products now, such as gasoline and heating oil. Losing the Western refineries means a definite drop in finished products. Perhaps UAE or a toppled Iran could pick up some slack. The first thing I would do politically in the US is to abolish the "boutique" bullshit where damned-near every state has their own "special" gasoline blend. Wotta load. But, hey, I dunno much about it. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-06-06 3:28:59 AM |
| #2 I'll take Smear Islam for $25 Alex. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-06-06 1:32:54 AM |
| #1 "'We promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land.' " And here I thought, that the roots of muslim terrorism was America's support for Israel. Do you think that the leftist-useful idiots of the world, who consider Al-Guardian one of the few newspapers that tells the truth, will finally understand the reason behind muslim terrorism? Or will they characterize Al-Guardian as a right-wing-neocon newspaper trying to smear Islam? My money is on the latter. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4617 2004-06-06 1:08:09 AM |