The destroyed Saudi national police headquarters building in Riyadh, after the car bomb explosion (AP)
The House of Saud continues to reap what it has sown, and the mujahedin they have supported for so long continue to try to compel them to end their alliance with the U.S., or be forced from power so that someone else can end it. From AP:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A suicide attacker bombed a security police building in the Saudi capital Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding 148. The attack had the hallmark of an al-Qaida operation, officials said.The explosion, heard three miles away, shattered the glass facades of nearby buildings and ignited several fires. Smoke billowed from the seven-story General Security building, where workers issue drivers license renewals and do other administrative tasks.
The deathtoll was expected to rise after hospital officials reported early Thursday that body parts have been recovered possibly indicating four more deaths, in addition to the four already confirmed by the Interior Ministry.
The bombing came about 2 p.m., a time when staff would have been leaving their offices. The headquarters of the Saudi Security Forces used to be in the building. Some security forces still work in part of the building, a Saudi official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A woman who lives nearby, Hanan Batteesha, said that after the explosion, "We heard wails and cries, then saw our neighbors running down the stairs." She rushed out with her two children.
"The fronts of the buildings around us were damaged. The air conditioners were mangled, and there was smoke everywhere," she said.
The Interior Ministry said the assailant tried to drive his vehicle into the General Security building.
When stopped by guards, the driver exploded the car about 100 feet from the gate, the government said.
Five other vehicles were apprehended with explosives, the Saudi official said.
No Americans were hurt in the bombing, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin. Half an hour after the attack, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage met with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal at the Foreign Ministry.
Crown Prince Abdullah and Interior Minister Prince Nayef visited the wounded in the hospital.
"I am sorry that those criminals are Muslims," Nayef told reporters. He said Saudis should not cooperate or sympathize with militants "because those who do will be considered criminals."
"The terrorists are not targeting foreigners; they are targeting the nation," Nayef said.
The General Security service has been heavily involved in the campaign against Islamic militants that followed the suicide attacks in May and November 2003 in Riyadh.
Those attacks, also vehicle bombs, killed 51 people including the assailants. They were blamed on al-Qaida, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack has the hallmark of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and appears to be related to the terrorist group. Al-Qaida, the official noted, has previously used car bombs in Riyadh.
The Saudi official agreed that Wednesday's attack fit al-Qaida's pattern.
Saudi U.S. ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan said in Washington that the attack was aimed at "the Saudi people and the royal family and officials of the government ... are all Saudi citizens," said Bandar.
Bandar, who spoke after meeting with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, pledged his nation would "fight them (terrorists) hard, there will be no compromise."
The attack came days after the United States ordered the departure of nonessential U.S. government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued an advisory warning of "credible indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Saudi Arabia."
Last month, an Internet message purportedly from al-Qaida threatened Saudi security officers, saying that to attack them "in their homes, or workplace, is a very easy matter."
Saudi police said last weekend that they seized three booby-trapped Sport Utility Vehicles loaded with more than four tons of explosives. The vehicles had apparently been abandoned by militants involved in a shootout with security forces.
There were conflicting accounts on the death toll throughout the day.
The Interior Ministry said four were killed: two police officers, an adult and an 11-year-old Syrian girl. But the ministry's statement did not include the suicide bomber, whose death was reported to The Associated Press by a security official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials from the three hospitals that admitted casualties said at least nine people were killed.
The Interior Ministry said 148 people were wounded, three critically, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Forty-five remained hospitalized.
The casualty tolls could rise as rescue workers were still going through the rubble late Wednesday. Most of the casualties at King Faisal Specialist Hospital were police, but there were also four children, said hospital spokesman Fahd al-Shaar.
The Saudis assassinated Bin laden's father.
Osama has never forgoten that.
Having failed in Afghanistan with the help of Saudi billions osama sees America is pulling out of the Saudi wahabbist state. .
Al Qaeda is preparing the ground for the Jewel in the crown of Islam,
Osama has put up with the corrupt saudi princes because they funded his operations as he did with the American CIA during the Russian invasion .
When the money runs out it is time for "punishment".
Is it now time to avenge Dad and take over?
The oil ticks are hoist on their own petard. Nayef's comment is particularly ironic. Nayef is the head of the secret police, and is closely tied to the fundamentalist imams, which are difficult to distinguish in their beliefs and aims from al-Qaeda. The regime, like Saudi society in general, is schizophrenic in its desire to be radically Islamist, modern, wealthy, respected, and emulated. This is a country in collapse, supported by petrodollars, exporting terrorism, controlled by the most corrupt regime in modern history.
Well well well......The hand that feeds is finally bitten. Looks like Dr. Frankenstein's monster Usama can't be controlled by his own creator anymore....
I suppose our Saudi friends will be looking for our support now....Unfortunately, we'll have to bail them out because of the almighty oil.
Solution:
K9 teams, (but they don't like dogs).
Establish "No Vehicles Beyond This Point" zones.
there are those who believe that al qaeda's battle plan for dominating jihadistan -- if not the whole planet -- is to topple the regimes in pakistan and saudi. then they would have nukes and oil.
I do not understand why we keep focusing on what's going on overseas when the camel is relentlessly shoving his nose into our own tent. Right here. In America.
We have a situation going on in Hamtramck, Michigan which in effect will force non muslim residents of that city to listen to 'allah akbar'
5 times a day. Over a loudspeaker. Check for yourselves.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38044
This is keeping right in step with this agenda, if you've been paying attention to the rise of islam in America-
Twenty-Year Plan for USA:
Islam Targets America
Author: Dr. Anis Shorrosh
Publication: Koenig's International News
Date:
URL: http://www.watch.org/showart.php3?idx=38699&rtn=/index.html&showsubj=1&mcat=1
(Dr. Shorrosh's bio is after the commentary.)
When we immigrated from Jerusalem, Jordan in January, 1967, little did I imagine that Islam would become center-stage in world news. As my sincere interest in the growth of Islam in America intensified, I began to discuss, dialogue, and then debate Muslim leaders throughout the world from an Arab Christian’s view of Islam. So far, I have had the privilege of participating in over 20 debates and discussions on every continent plus T.V. and radio. Islam Revealed was released in 1988 and is now in its 8th printing. The True Furqan is now in its third printing in the three years it has been published. It is the only book which challenges the Quran in substance, style, language and contents. The True Furqan can be located on www.answers-to-islam.net or www.islam-exposed.org.
The following is my analysis of Islamic invasion of America, the agenda of Islamists and visible methods to take over America by the year 2020! Will Americans continue to sleep through this invasion as they did when we were attacked on 9/11?
1. Terminate America’s freedom of speech by replacing it with hate crime bills state-wide and nation-wide.
2. Wage a war of words using black leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and other visible religious personalities to promote Islam as the original African-American’s religion while Christianity is for the whites! Strange enough, no one tells the African-Americans that it was the Arab Muslims who captured them and sold them as slaves, neither the fact that in Arabic the word for black and slave is the same, “Abed.”
3. Engage the American public in dialogues, discussions, debates in colleges, universities, public libraries, radio, TV, churches and mosques on the virtues of Islam. Proclaim how it is historically another religion like Judaism and Christianity with the same monotheistic faith.
4. Nominate Muslim sympathizers to political office for favorable legislation to Islam and support potential sympathizers by block voting.
5. Take control of as much of Hollywood, the press, TV, radio and the internet by buying the corporations or a controlling stock.
6. Yield to the fear of imminent shut-off of the lifeblood of America – the black gold. America’s economy depends on oil, (1000 products are derived from oil), so does its personal and industrial transportation and manufacturing -41% comes from the Middle East.
7. Yell, “foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist, un- American, inaccurate interpretation of the Quran” anytime Islam is criticized or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena.
8. Encourage Muslims to penetrate the White House, specifically with Islamists who can articulate a marvelous and peaceful picture of Islam. Acquire government positions, get membership in local school boards. Train Muslims as medical doctors to dominate the medical field, research and pharmaceutical companies. Take over the computer industry. Establish Middle Eastern restaurants throughout the U.S. to connect planners of Islamization in a discreet way. Ever notice how numerous Muslim doctors in America are, when their countries need them more desperately than America?
9. Accelerate Islamic demographic growth via:
a. Massive immigration (100,000 annually since 1961)
b. No birth control whatsoever – every baby of Muslim parents is automatically a Muslim and cannot choose another religion later.
c. Muslim men must marry American women and Islamize them (10,000 annually). Then divorce them and remarry every five years – since one cannot have the Muslim legal permission to marry four at one time. This is a legal solution in America.
d. Convert angry, alienated black inmates and turn them into militants (so far 2000 released inmates have joined Al Qaida world-wide). Only a few have been captured in Afghanistan and on American soil. So far – sleeping cells!
10. Reading, writing, arithmetic and research through the American educational system, mosques and student centers (now 1500) should be sprinkled with dislike of Jews, evangelical Christians and democracy. There are 300 exclusively Muslim schools with loyalty to the Quran, not the U.S. Constitution.
11. Provide very sizeable monetary Muslim grants to colleges and universities in America to establish “Centers for Islamic studies” with Muslim directors to promote Islam in higher education institutions.
12. Let the entire world know through propaganda, speeches, seminars, local and national media that terrorists have hijacked Islam, not the truth, which is Islam hijacked the terrorists. Furthermore in January of 2002, Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Washington mailed 4500 packets of the Quran, videos, promoting Islam to America’s high schools--free. They would never allow us to reciprocate.
13. Appeal to the historically compassionate and sensitive Americans for sympathy and tolerance towards the Muslims in America who are portrayed as mainly immigrants from oppressed countries.
14. Nullify America’s sense of security by manipulating the intelligence community with misinformation. Periodically terrorize Americans of impending attacks on bridges, tunnels, water supplies, airports, apartment buildings and malls. (We have experienced this too often since 9-11.)
15. Form riots and demonstrations in the prison system demanding Islamic Sharia as the way of life, not American’s justice system.
16. Open numerous charities throughout the U.S. but use the funds to support Islamic terrorism with American dollars.
17. Raise interest in Islam on America’s campuses by insisting that freshman take at least one course on Islam. Be sure that the writer is a bonafide American, Christian, scholarly and able to cover up the violence in the Quran and express the peaceful, spiritual and religious aspect only.
18. Unify the numerous Muslim lobbies in Washington, mosques, Islamic student centers, educational organizations, magazines and papers by internet and an annual convention to coordinate plans, propagate the faith and engender news in the media of their visibility.
19. Send intimidating messages and messengers to the outspoken individuals who are critical of Islam and seek to eliminate them by hook or crook.
20. Applaud Muslims as loyal citizens of the US by spotlighting their voting record as the highest percentage of all minority and ethic groups in America.
Dr. Anis Shorrosh, D.Min, D.Phil, a member of Oxford Society of Scholars, has traveled in 76 countries, is a Palestinian Arab Christian American who is an author, lecturer and producer of TV documentaries. Islam Revealed is a best seller which has been printed eight times already. His forthcoming tenth book will be available spring 2003 entitled Islam: A Threat or a Challenge. He is in great demand as a talk show guest on radio and television throughout the U.S.A. He has been on CNN, TBN as well as other networks. You can contact him at PO Box 949, Fairhope, AL 36533, FAX 1-251-621-0507 or phone 1-251-680-7770. Also, you may order his materials from his new website: www.focusing-on-islam.com. The True Furqan, our monumental new Quran, is also available for viewing on www.islam-exposed.org.
I'd say it's working out pretty well so far.