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Saudi Arabia: Less talk, more
action
By Jeffrey Donovan
WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabian officials say that
last week's attack on a Western housing complex is a
wakeup call for Riyadh to start cracking down harder on
extremists. But doubts linger in Washington that the
country will take the necessary action to reduce
terrorism.
At a Washington news conference late
last week, Adel al-Jubeir - a senior foreign policy
adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah - acknowledged
that Riyadh was not doing enough to combat militants and
vowed that the country would redouble its antiterror
efforts.
"The tragic event of Monday [May 12]
has been a massive jolt to Saudi Arabia, to the United
States, to all peace-loving people around the world,
that we have to redouble our efforts and we have to
pursue the terrorists vigorously, we have to punish them
mercilessly."
The attack by suicide bombers
killed 34 people, eight of them Americans. Saudi Arabia
said on Monday that it had arrested four suspects with
apparent ties to al-Qaeda who had prior knowledge of the
bombings. Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister, Ahmed
al-Salem, said "all evidence" indicates the four
suspects are members of the terrorist group.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer welcomed
al-Jubeir's remarks, and told a briefing that he agreed
that the latest attack challenges Saudi Arabia to take a
stronger stance. "This attack does serve as a reminder
to the Saudi authorities and to the Saudi government of
the importance of taking on terrorism within their own
country, because this terrorism presents a threat not
only to the United States and to Westerners living in
Saudi Arabia, but to the Saudi government," Fleischer
said. "And the reaction of the Saudi government has been
good."
Fleischer's conciliatory comments came
after the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia had complained
that Riyadh repeatedly ignored US warnings of an
imminent attack. Ambassador Robert Jordan said that
beginning on April 29, he had sent three letters to the
Saudi Interior Ministry requesting enhanced security at
residential compounds. His May 7 letter came a day after
a raid on a terrorist safe house near one of the
compounds that was attacked.
Although a team
from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was allowed
to visit Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombing, some
US experts are now concerned the Saudis will limit US
access to suspects and evidence, as they did after the
1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, which killed 19 US
military personnel.
Jim Phillips is a Middle
East expert with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington
think tank. Phillips tells RFE/RL that there is still
concern that parts of the Saudi establishment may
support the militants. "My impression is that the
official establishment realizes that it is a target of
[Osama] bin Laden's terrorism, but there may be a few
princes on the edges of the royal family that actively
support bin Laden's radical agenda," he said.
Washington has also suspected several Saudi
charities of funneling money to al-Qaeda. Senior adviser
al-Jubeir said Saudi officials had looked into the
charity allegations: "We have been able to shut down,
virtually shut down the flow of funds, the abuse of our
charities. We have spoken to you about this in December.
Since then we have taken a number of other steps. We
have completed our audit of all the Saudi charities, we
have looked at the four, or so, charities that work
outside Saudi Arabia."
But there is a growing
chorus in America calling on Saudi Arabia, which is a
key supplier of oil, to open up its closed society and
make democratic reform and human rights a top priority.
Many human rights activists wonder why a non-democratic
country like Saudi Arabia is such a close American ally.
Last week, the US Commission on International Religious
Freedom called Riyadh one of the world's worst abusers
of human rights, allowing only the practice of its
Wahhabi brand of Islam and persecuting others.
Analysts say that the attack could be "a moment
of truth" for Saudi Arabia to finally fully crack down
on terrorism and embrace reforms. If it doesn't seize
the moment, there could be consequences, says Heritage
analyst Phillips.
"If the Saudis repeat their
past pattern of dragging their feet on the investigation
and failing to fully cooperate with the US, I think
you'll hear an increasing crescendo of such calls to
reduce ties to Saudi Arabia," he said. "But I think
there is a general sense in the US government that the
Saudis need to undertake reforms to prevent this kind of
thing from happening in the future."
Meanwhile,
more warnings of possible imminent attacks were issued
on May 16 by officials in Washington, London and Berlin.
Britain ordered British airlines to halt flights to
Kenya due to fears of attacks in the east African
country. Later, London told its citizens to avoid
visiting Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania
and Uganda due to what it called a "clear terrorist
threat".
The US and German governments issued
similar warnings about travel to east Africa after
Kenyan authorities reported sighting a known al-Qaeda
terrorist in neighboring Somalia. US intelligence
officials, speaking off the record, said they had picked
up signs just as strong as those received before the
Riyadh bombing that al-Qaeda is plotting further
imminent attacks abroad. Intelligence officials said
militants could seek to hit so-called "soft targets",
such as housing complexes, business and transportation
sites or public areas frequented by Americans or other
Westerners.
"They will go where they can get the
most damage with the least amount of effort that is
going to ensure success for their operation," the
intelligence official was quoted as telling news
agencies. "They will go towards an easier target."
Copyright (c) 2002, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
with the permission of Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut
Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
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