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| Arabia |
| Saudis to interrogate 12,000 suspects |
| 2003-08-15 |
| Saudi Arabian authorities have embarked on a vast anti-terrorism operation in which up to 12,000 citizens will be questioned at the behest of the United States, a Saudi opposition group has said. "You a terrorist?" "No!" "Ok, you can go." "The Saudi Government is doing a full-scale sweeping activity," said Saad al-Fagih, of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia. "This is causing occasional confrontations with members [of militant groups] who have decided not to surrender themselves." "You a terrorist?" "Yes, by Allah! And you’ll never take me alive...BANG.. Ouch!" Several sources in the kingdom had told him of a "substantial list", provided by the US, naming Saudi citizens who were to be questioned or arrested, he said. One put the number of names at 12,000. Others gave lower figures but all were well into the thousands. "There are strong signs that the number is 12,000," Mr Fagih said. Well, that covers all the Royal family, at least. The information had been compiled by the US from various countries, including Pakistan, Bosnia, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, he said. Some names were included because they had been mentioned by suspects under interrogation, but others were on the list because of money transfers or travel bookings. Paper trail, follow the money. Saudi Arabia is reluctant to admit to co-operating with the US for fear of inflaming domestic opinion, but it also needs to placate critics who say it has done too little to combat terrorism. The result of this, security analysts say, is that Riyadh and Washington collaborate in private far more extensively than either side will admit. There is also no doubt that Saudi Arabia is in the midst of an unprecedented security trawl. In recent weeks at least 15 anti-terrorism raids have been reported in the kingdom, including a gunbattle on Tuesday between Saudi police and Islamic militants. I woner if they were suprised at just how many Islamic gunnies there are in their little kingdom? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #11 Investigating Saudi is like doing a D check on an airliner. You open the thing up. Really zip it open and take a look. All you see is screwed up wiring and corrosion everywhere. It does no good to put it back together and fly it. It belongs on static display in a museum. /analogy |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-8-15 6:05:15 PM |
| #10 Well that clears out every mosque, all of the airport baggage workers at Jeddah and all of the editorial staffs at AJ and throw in a few royals for good measure and I think that comes to around 12,000........are they going to throw them into a soccer stadium with lions or better yet wild pigs??? Do they have that much space in the jails? |
| Posted by: SOG475 2003-8-15 5:30:55 PM |
| #9 12,000 won't begin to cover the Royals, much less the nutbags, folks, there are over 7,000 Princes alone. The Royals prolly number at least 45,000 - 50,000. I'm sure the US gave them a nice list - collating data is what the FBI seems to be pretty good at - so they can start there. And then the Saudis will have their own, unshared, list. Add 'em and get after it. But that's only a start if you want to cleanse Lalaland of the Loonies. After that, I would hit the "clerics" - and corroborate what they say with interviews with those who frequent that mosque who are proteges of the Royals (there are thousands of families who have sworn allegiance to a family of the Royals - remember this place is well and truly tribal), i.e. they know where their bread gets buttered. Then the education system, top down, corroborating with students from those protege families. These 2 sweeps will yield a crop of the nutbag-trainers and "spiritual" leaders - whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. That'll prolly behead the worst of the future problem - and stop or slow the indoctrination process on their children. Keep in mind that the Royals are concerned with the security of the Royals. Full stop. Wnere this overlaps with what the US wants is merely convenient serendipity. I've said it before, but the Izzoids have made a huge blunder: they have attacked on their home turf. Everywhere that gains are being made against them has come from making this mistake. When they were killing others - outside their backyard - it generated a wink and a nudge. Once it came home, it changed, big time. One other thing to remember regards the Saudi (and maybe the Indo's and others) - there is no independent verification of anything they claim - so take it with a |
| Posted by: .com 2003-8-15 4:25:10 PM |
| #8 12,000? Do they have enough mustaches and truncheons to go around? Hate to see some Saudi citizen denied his rights to a speedy and professional "interrogation". ;-o |
| Posted by: Hodadenon 2003-8-15 3:12:54 PM |
| #7 "You a terrorist?" "No way, I only kill infidels." |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-8-15 2:13:11 PM |
| #6 ...12,000 citizens will be questioned at the behest of the United States... What is this BULLSHIT ? Yeah, um, our country is teeming with nutjobs trying to overthrow the royal family, but the evil imperial US is MAKING us DO SOMETHING. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-8-15 12:56:58 PM |
| #5 12,000? That's all??? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-8-15 11:46:43 AM |
| #4 Maybe they should just take turns interrogating each other: "You a terrorist?" "No way. How about you?" "Nah, me neither. Let's get outta here and find some wimmen to beat." "Yeah, maybe we can catch one driving." |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-8-15 11:44:34 AM |
| #3 Are they serious? Well, there are probably at least 1000 members of the extended royal family and at least 5000 Imams who are active and dedicated supporters of terrorism. The number goes up by a almost an order of magnitude if you include financial and other supporters. Of course if you count people who support terrorism against Israel, its probably 95% of the Kingdom. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-8-15 11:24:24 AM |
| #2 They should just set up a booth at the next Hajj...or maybe a booth at the casino in Monaco during the next royal vacation... |
| Posted by: seafarious 2003-8-15 11:20:11 AM |
| #1 Why should they be surprised? They're funding them. Hell, I hope the next list we send them includes every royal, every cop, and every nutbag imam in Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-8-15 11:14:49 AM |