Saudi officials have thwarted a series of impending terrorist attacks, but there are questions that remain unanswered, writes Doaa El-Bey The arrest of some 172 militants alleged to have been planning terrorist attacks inside Saudi Arabia has provoked questions about the real capabilities and outreach of Al-Qaeda inside Saudi society. Judging from the number of militants arrested, the money in their possession (over $5 million) and the variety of weaponry confiscated, the plotters had at their disposal all the necessary elements for carrying out their attacks. There was also credible evidence that the alleged terrorists had undertaken the prerequisite logistical planning to carry out numerous devastating attacks on the kingdom's public figures, as well as its oil facilities and refineries, and military installations. Saudi officials said the militants were ready to carry out their attack, and just needed a "zero hour" plan. The arrests came despite the often-repeated assurances by Saudi authorities that they have "broken the back" of Saudi militancy, and killed most of its top leaders. However, the recent arrests might actually indicate that militants have either become well-entrenched in Saudi society or that, alternatively, they have undergone an unexpected revival. Diaa Rashwan of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies believes that the arrests give two contradictory indications. The first is that Saudi officials possess the necessary counter-insurgency capabilities to deal with these groups, which is why they have successfully arrested so many militants. The second possibility is that growing numbers of disillusioned youth are joining the ranks of these organisations. "The militants are still managing to attract an increasing number of members. The fact that more than half of the militants arrested are under the age of 22 indicates that these groups are gaining popularity with the younger generation," Rashwan told Al-Ahram Weekly. There are also strong indicators that the war in Iraq is exporting some of its well-trained militants to the region, and especially to neighbouring countries like Saudi Arabia. A Saudi Interior Ministry statement issued last Friday said that the militants had been trained in a "troubled" country nearby. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Mansour Al-Turki, said that this country could be Iraq, Somalia or Pakistan. The recent arrests are not the first sign that the Iraqi crisis has negatively impacted the entire region. "The first sign was the 2003 attack on Riyadh, one month after the fall of Baghdad. The Iraqi quagmire shook up the whole Gulf region. The recent arrests are only the most recent sign of this shake-up," Rashwan said. The Saudi arrests are part of a much larger continuing anti- terrorism campaign, which was undertaken in the wake of a wave of bombings and shootings that rocked the kingdom in 2003, taking the lives of some 35 security personnel and militants, as well as Saudi and foreign civilians. Some Saudis referred to the attacks as their own 9/11. Al-Qaeda is seeking to attack Western interests in the kingdom, as well as topple the monarchy which is closely allied with the US. Over the past four years, security forces claimed to have killed or captured most of those on its list of most-wanted Al-Qaeda loyalists in the country. Since the 2003 attacks, only minor incidents have taken place. Earlier this year, an ambush took the life of four Frenchmen, when gunmen opened fire on their car near Madain Saleh, a remote archaeological site that is popular with tourists. The attack came a few weeks after Saudi officials arrested nine Saudis and a foreign national, on suspicion of their funding terror-related activities. They were accused of collecting money for "suspicious parties. An Interior Ministry statement said that the money was being used to lure the Saudis to "disturbed places" regarded at the time as an allusion to Iraq. Last year, the Saudi authorities detained 136 suspected militants, including a potential suicide bomber. One hundred-and- fifteen of the suspects were Saudi nationals. They are accused of planning to bring down the Saudi royal family and attack Western targets. Some of those arrested were recruiting members to fight in other countries, including Iraq, and others were allegedly recruiting militants to be trained abroad and then sent back to Saudi Arabia to carry out their attacks. In another incident last June, six militants linked to Al-Qaeda were killed by police in Riyadh. One policeman was killed and a seventh man arrested. The group was on the verge of launching attacks on the kingdom. In February, the Saudi security forces foiled an Al-Qaeda attack against a massive oil processing plant in the eastern part of the country. A few days later, five men were killed, and a sixth captured in connection with the same incident. In May 2004, attackers stormed the offices of a Houston- based oil company in the western part of the country. The fighting killed six Westerners, a Saudi and several militants. Several weeks later, Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen attacked oil company compounds in Khobar on the eastern coast, killing 22 people, including 19 foreigners. Although the Saudis can point to a notable success in the arrests made, as well as the diminishing number of attacks, they have failed to treat the root causes of the insurgency. The Al-Qaeda and other similar groups in the Middle East are calling upon their governments to resist foreign interference in their states. "If the governments could have said 'no' to foreign intervention, the militant groups would not have done so, on behalf of their governments. But as long as the governments continue to fail their own people, the anti-Western thinking will grow and lead to more attacks," Rashwan said.
