Al Qua’eda, or whatever offshoot of it that is responsible for the Riyadh suicide attacks, is a highly-organized terrorist network full of evil murderers. I’m sure they’ve been called every name in the book, and they more than deserve all of them. But one thing they are not is stupid.
So then why would they attack within Saudi Arabia, risking the anger of the Saudis?
“Saudi Arabia is committed to…striking with an iron fist all who are tampering with the country’s security,” [Prince Saud al-Faisal] told a news conference in Riyadh.
“Whoever did this will regret it because they have unified this country’s determination to extract this cancer (terrorism) and ensure that it doesn’t return.”
Why, with their hatred of the West and of the United States in particular, would they do anything that would align the terrorist-supporting Saudi regime further with their “strange bedfellow” ally, the United States? Why would they risk a backlash from the Arab world? I mean, they had to know, didn’t they?
Hoping for grassroot popular support to either destabilize the saudi royal family or to help the pro-terrorist fraction of the royal family gain ascendency with the people.
Either way, they wanted to take out americans and pour fuel on the extremists’ fires.
So far the ruling faction is not making noise that they will not tolerate that. But how far can they help the americans without damaging their interior politics?
Sari, You know very well taht ALQ’s ultimate objective isd the replacement of US-allied Arab regimes, particularly the Saudi Monarchy. Attacking the Saudi monarchy is a sensible move when you want to overthrow the Saudi government.
I think the “they had to know” nutbar conspiracy angle is a not a way you should go. You’ve been (rightly) quite forthrigth about denouncing conspiracies. Why engage in conspiracy-mongering here.
No, they didn’t have to know.
No, not the Saudis having to know. I meant that Al Qua’eda had to have sat down and planned out this attack in some detail, including the potential fallout and ramifications.
Sorry. Missed that.
ALQ could see this attack as the next logical step. In their mind, they’ve succeeded in forcing a breach betwen the House of Saud and the House of Bush because US troops are leaving Saudi.
The next step is to get all Americans out of Saudi. They have now succeeded at that.
So, at least among those ALQ members who mostly care about Saudi, morale must be high. They are acheiving their goals. What’s the next step?