From Erick Stakelbeck in FrontPage: "The Saudis have found the perfect man to mediate their terrorist amnesty program: a pro-jihad Sheikh with ties to Osama."
Last week, Saudi Arabia scored a victory for its recently-announced terrorist amnesty program, as Othman Hadi Al-Maqbul Al-Amri, an Al-Qaeda operative and one of the Kingdom’s most wanted men, gave himself up to Saudi authorities.Although the surrender of Al-Amri, a veteran jihadist who had been on the run for two years, was certainly a positive development, the means by which it was accomplished were extremely dubious.
According to reports, Safar Al-Hawali, a radical Saudi cleric with links to Osama bin Laden and several of the 9/11 hijackers, played the role of “mediator” between Al-Amri and Saudi officials.
Over the past year, Al-Hawali has also negotiated the surrender of two other high-ranking, Saudi-based Al-Qaeda operatives, Ali Al-Faq’asi and Ali Abdel Rahman Saeed al-Faqaasi al-Ghamdi.
That Al-Hawali, a longtime Al-Qaeda supporter who spent five years in a Saudi prison for seeking to overthrow the Royal Family—and who continues to preach the destruction of the United States and Israel—has apparently become a trusted mediator for the Saudi government speaks volumes about the Kingdom’s “war” on terrorism.
The Al-Saud are indifferent to the Jihad against Infidels. They would be perfectly happy to support, or to allow other Saudis to continue to support, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Laskar Jihad, and another hundred or thousand organizations, as long as the target remains the Infidel. What has so displeased them is that they, too, are regarded by some Muslims as "Infidel," because their corruption is defined as an evil in the only way that Muslims can define it -- in Islamic terms. Corruption to this extent is bad; if it is bad, it must be un-Islamic. Ergo, it is the behavior of "Infidels."
No one should think for a minute that the Saudis have any desire, or interest, or ability, to change what is preached in their mosques, or to insist, Ataturk-like, that Islam must be suppressed or contained in the interests of the people who otherwise, will simply be unfit for future dealings with Infidels. What Infidel, in his right mind, would now work in a Muslim country, unless desperate? What Infidel, in his right mind, would visit even as a tourist a Muslim country? And Saudi Arabis is the most dangerous, and next to Egypt, possibly the most unpleasant toward Infidels, of all the Muslim countries.
The Saudis are only fighting internal terorrism that threatens their unpleasant regime. They have no interest, none, in ending terrorism against Infidels -- indeed, they have an interest, as always, in redirecting domestic unrest outwards, toward the Infidels. And if they show a hardly-discernible glimmer of interest in protecting the lives of the Infidels within Saudi Arabia, it is only because at the moment they need them there to do the work that Saudis refuse to do, or are incapable of doing. There is not a drop of human sympathy in all this; their indifference to dead and injured Infidels should be clearly understood.
This is kinda like inviting Michael Jackson and R Kelly over to babysit...
Best thing would be if Saudi Regime WAS overthrown. Interesting how Mujahideen veterans are flocking back to 'holy' Arabia.For all we know
Bin Laden could be there already directing operations. He must be tired of getting haemorrhoids, sitting in a damp cave in Afghanistan.Agree with you ,Hugh. Saudis are NOT our friends and if they are attacked let not one drop of Infidel blood be shed , defending them.
Morgane: even if al-Qaeda types succeeded in taking over the Sa'udi estate (imagine: a whole country named for one family--Jonestown writ large, perhaps?), they'd still have to provide for the people they rule, and they can't drink their oil. Chances are, after a dozen years of al-Aqeda rule, the people of Arabia would rise up, slaughter anyone with a beard longer than an inch or so (unless he could prove he was an orthodox Jew or something like that), and say, "Alright, world: we're open for business again. BTW, the Covenant of 'Umar applied only to the days when we were fighting the Byzantines; and if you're a tourist interested in famous historical sites, there's a Presbyterian church two blocks from the Great Mosque of Mecca which can provide translation from the Arabic during Sunday services. Also, we have the most courteous female cabbies of any country on earth..."