[IsraelTimes] State Department warns al-Qaeda and Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
planning attacks, says Americans should stick close to hotels
The United States on Monday updated its warning for American citizens planning to travel to Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, less than two weeks before President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
is due there.
Obama is to visit the oil-rich desert kingdom on April 21 for a tense summit of Saudi Arabia and the other five Gulf Arab states at a time of crisis.
While maintaining a public show of unity with Washington, Saudi officials are privately angry about what they perceive as Obama’s outreach to their foe Iran.
And he has been criticized at home and in the Middle East for his reluctance to take tough action against Syria’s Bashir al-Assad, allowing Russia to seize the initiative.
Saudi Arabia also faces domestic threats -- and spillover from its war in neighboring Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
-- as was reflected in the updated State Department travel warning.
"The Department of State urges US citizens to carefully consider the risks of traveling to Saudi Arabia," it said. "There continue to be reports of threats against US citizens and other Westerners, as well as locations frequented by them."
The statement, which replaces an earlier warning issued in September last year, warns that both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group are planning attacks in the kingdom.
"Possible targets include housing compounds, hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, international schools and other facilities where Westerners congregate," it said. "Multiple attacks on mosques, as well as places where members of the Shia-Muslim minority gather, have occurred in Saudi Arabia over the past year."
The warning says US officials are banned from going within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Yemen border and urges Americans to stick to hotels and housing compounds.