| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Dissident Saudi Radio Broadcaster Accused in Assassination Plot |
| 2004-07-06 |
| From The Washington Post The man in the soundproof broadcast booth wearing headphones and an intense gaze is discussing Saudi Arabian history with radio listeners this evening, but it’s not the kind the Saudi government would endorse. Saad Faqih recites a list of "massacres and assassinations" that he alleges were carried out by the late Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, modern Saudi Arabia’s first king, in his rise to power nearly 100 years ago. Then Faqih pauses to take calls from listeners phoning in from his homeland to offer their own impassioned accounts of the royal family’s alleged transgressions. Just a few years ago, Faqih headed a small splinter group of Saudi exiles armed with a lone fax machine, a telephone and a dwindling list of contacts back home. These days, however, thanks to the Internet, satellite television and radio, cell phones and the largess of confidential benefactors, Faqih’s message of dissent is beamed 3,000 miles to Saudi Arabia in a live three-hour broadcast every evening. ... The nerve center of Islah ("Reform") Radio is a small room in the back of an anonymous duplex, crammed with five computers, a few telephones, two sound mixers and an isolation booth constructed from plywood, plexiglass and duct tape. Faqih ... expresses views that would earn him immediate arrest if he set foot there [in Saudi Arabia]. The country, he tells a visitor, is on the verge of collapse, and a number of factors -- intensifying violence, conflict within the royal family, economic crisis -- could soon bring it down. "This is a crippled and corrupt regime," he declares. "I think the next few months are crucial." His callers tonight are in complete agreement. A man from Jiddah phones in to denounce the "shameful acts of the royal family." A man who says he is a policeman complains about the lack of pay and equipment and says police are ordered to forgo fighting drugs and crime to focus on protecting the country’s rulers. And a woman who identifies herself as "Reform Lover" takes a moment to praise Islah as "the voice of freedom." ... He was already a successful surgeon when at age 30 he began dabbling in dissent. At first he wrote letters about unemployment and other social issues to friends who were close to the powerful interior minister, Prince Nayef. That was the accepted way, he says -- confidential, friendly, constructive. The letters, he says, were ignored. After the Persian Gulf War, he and other reformers went public. There was a 12-point petition in 1991, followed by a 44-page program of reform the following year. Then the government cracked down. Faqih was among 18 academics and professionals imprisoned in 1993. He was released after four weeks, and six months later left the country with his wife and four children. .... In 1996 he formed his own group, the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, on a shoestring budget. He insists his vision of a Saudi Islamic republic is benign: power-sharing, accountability, judicial independence, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are his watchwords. "We honor the common belief of the nation, which is Islam, but we are against the monopoly of interpretation of Islam," he says. ... The Internet gave Faqih a new means of communication, the cell phone another. People in Saudi Arabia can buy cell phone cards that allow them to make anonymous calls. Faqih established a Web site and began posting Saudis’ comments and complaints, creating an interactive platform for discussion and debate. But the real breakthrough came last year when he started the nightly radio broadcast. Nearly 60 percent of Saudi families own satellite dishes, he says, and they have become a prime-time audience for the broadcasts, which can be heard on satellite television. "This regime survives on secrecy and hypocrisy," he says. "With the radio we broke the barrier of secrecy and we created a means for people to speak not just to us, but to each other." ... But Saudi officials say that their new set of allegations should compel the British to take action. They contend that a Libyan intelligence officer, Col. Mohamed Ismael, working under the cover of a charitable foundation in Tripoli, the World Islamic Call Society, came to London at least four times last year to meet with Faqih to discuss a plot to kill Abdullah and other members of the royal family. The sessions were allegedly arranged by Abdurahman Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader based in Northern Virginia. During the meetings, the Saudis contend, Ismael gave Faqih 1 million euros (about $1.2 million) for his broadcast activities and personal use. At the final session last October, they allege, Faqih gave Ismael the names of four radicals in Saudi Arabia who he said would carry out the assassinations. By this account, about $1 million was transferred into the country through a travel company in Mecca, which was told the money was for the use of Gaddafi’s wife during a pilgrimage there. But the Saudis had monitored the London meetings and were able to arrest the suspected radicals before they could carry out the attacks. Ismael fled to Cairo, where he was arrested and returned to Riyadh. Alamoudi was stopped by British authorities last August with $340,000 inside a valise and the following month was arrested in the United States when he returned there. He is being held in an Alexandria jail on charges related to cash smuggling. Faqih says the charges are ridiculous. He insists he never met with Ismael, received no money from Libya and did not put the alleged conspirators in contact with assassins inside the kingdom. He says he met several times with Alamoudi, and referred him to a British lawyer after Alamoudi’s cash was confiscated at Heathrow Airport. But he says he always kept a distance from the American Muslim leader. "Because he was classified as being too pro-American, it was in my interest not to associate myself with him," Faqih says. ... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |