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2 Loose Saudi cannons in
Lebanon By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - More than 10 years ago,
Lebanese comedian Wassim Tabbara staged a
brilliant satire called Sleep on My Silk
about Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik
al-Hariri. He showed Hariri having just returned
to Lebanon in the 1990s from a fruitful career in
Saudi Arabia (where he had made billions). Hariri
was known at the time as Saudi Arabia's No 1 man
in Beirut.
He is shown telling a wealthy
Saudi sheikh about the terrible economic
conditions in Lebanon, but tales of the economic
misery were not enough to get
the sheikh to donate to Lebanon. Hariri adds that
if Lebanon falls, "Then there is no longer
Bhamdoun or Aley for you!"
This was a
reference to the two summer resorts that wealthy
Saudis have frequented over the years for gambling
and pleasure in Lebanon. Stunned by the reality,
the sheikh begins to weep. "No more nightclubs for
you!" More sobs. "No more casinos for you!" The
sheikh falls apart in tears and starts writing out
blank checks to the Lebanese prime minister.
Much has changed since then, yet much
remains the same. Lebanon is still strongly allied
to Saudi Arabia, thanks to Hariri's son and
political successor, Saad. The Saudis invested
heavily in the elder Hariri's Lebanon in the 1990s
and have worked relentlessly since his
assassination in 2005 to prevent the country's
disintegration.
Nowadays, however, Saudi
Arabia is exporting more than gamblers, tourists
and investors to Lebanon. It is - unwillingly -
sending terrorists and suicide bombers to Lebanon,
particularly to the formerly sleepy city of
Tripoli, where a radical Islamic fanatic group
called Fatah al-Islam is waging war against the
Lebanese Army.
Last week, Belgian
prosecutor Serge Brammertz released his latest
report on the assassination of Rafik Hariri. He
confirmed that the suicide bomber who murdered the
premier was not Lebanese - nor Syrian. Rather, he
came from a "hot district", which probably is a
reference to Saudi Arabia.
Most terrorists
in radical Islamic groups from the Persian Gulf
region come from Saudi Arabia. We find fewer
suicide bombers from Kuwait, or any from Oman, the
United Arab Emirates or Qatar.
The bomber,
according to Brammertz, had spent only about four
months of his life in Lebanon and nearly 10 years
in a "rural area", possibly the mountains of
Afghanistan. After all, hundreds of Saudis lived
there when working with the United States to
combat the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. This
sheds light once more on Saudi jihadis in Lebanon.
Coinciding with the Brammertz report were
other stories from the Naher al-Bared refugee camp
in northern Lebanon. Saudi journalist Faris bin
Khuzam, writing for the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh, put
the number of Saudi jihadis in Lebanon operating
from Naher al-Bared at 300. He claims they were
"lured" into a battlefield "other than the one
they wanted", saying that they had plans to fight
the Americans in Iraq, and ended up in Tripoli.
The reason, he explained, is tight
security on the Syrian border (in addition to the
Saudi one) preventing them from making a
breakthrough into war-torn Iraq. Instead, they
found their way into Lebanon and stayed for what
initially seemed to be a temporary transit period.
"Gradually the pendulum shifted," Khuzam wrote,
adding that "they were told that the road to
Jerusalem runs through here [Naher al-Bared]". He
concluded, "They chose the Saudi dream that Osama
bin Laden could not fulfill."
The
secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization in Beirut, Sultan Abu al-Aynein,
confirmed this tale, saying that 23 Saudi jihadis
had been killed in Naher al-Bared, all members of
Fatah al-Islam. They are buried in a collective
grave in the battered refugee camp.
Other
members of Fatah al-Islam who have surrendered to
Lebanese authorities confirmed that 43 Saudi
jihadis were in Naher al-Bared. The Lebanese
weekly Al-Kifah al-Arabi said more than 50 people
(mostly Saudis) were arrested by Lebanese
authorities, while another 45 were still fighting.
Government authorities believe that more
Saudis can be found in the Ain al-Hilweh
Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Still some
claim that Saudis in Lebanon can be divided into
two groups: Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaeda. The first
are found strictly within the Naher al-Bared camp
and have almost been exterminated by the Lebanese
Army, after two months of heavy combat. The Saudis
in al-Qaeda are in silent cells, however,
scattered all over Lebanon. They are a time-bomb
that could explode at any moment.
In May,
investigative US reporter Seymour Hersh gave a
groundbreaking interview to CNN International's
Your World Today, discussing the combat in
Naher al-Bared. Hersh's comments caused an uproar
in the US, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon because he
blamed the US administration, the Saudis and the
cabinet of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad
al-Siniora of
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