WP: Saudis Facing Return of Radicals (From Iraq)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41375-2004Jul10?language=printer

An increasing number of Saudis who crossed the border into Iraq to fight the U.S.-led military occupation are returning home to plot attacks against the Saudi government and Western targets in the desert kingdom, according to Western counterterrorism officials and Saudis with ties to militant groups.

The Iraq veterans are serving as fresh recruits for an underground network in Saudi Arabia that, until recently, was led by an older generation of fighters that had trained in Afghanistan and was closely connected to al Qaeda and its founder, Saudi native Osama bin Laden. Many of those leaders have been killed or captured in recent months by Saudi security forces.

Today, the proclaimed new chief of the primary militant group in the kingdom is Saleh Awfi, 33, a Saudi who journeyed north last year to join Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic radical group in Iraq that the U.S. government has branded as a terrorist organization. Awfi stayed for a few months, barely surviving U.S. aerial bombardment, before deciding to return and take up arms in his home country, according to a former Saudi radical who met with Awfi last year.

Other Saudis are returning after spending time in newly established training camps across the Red Sea in remote parts of Sudan where central government influence is weak, said a European intelligence official whose government is advising Saudi officials on their domestic terrorist threat.

[bemildred]

1. Bringing their weapons with them too, I suppose.

We have created a giant recruiting and training center
for "terrorists", and every regime in the area can expect
to reap the rewards of that initiative.

[cliss]

2. Great. Let me guess. They're planning to

attack the oil refinery in Al-Khobar and a few other places. I've read that these places are far more vulnerable than even the oil pipelines, so oil prices would go to the stratosphere if they succeed in doing something like that.

For the record, would someone please explain to me why the Saudis are funding terrorist groups? I've been wondering about this for months. This is the Saudi Royal Family, sending millions to support Madrasas, or extreme religious schools which teach young people how to be terrorists, in particular against the Evil West.

We are the hand that feeds them. Why would they be a part of the 15 Saudi terrorists who flew planes into the WTC buildings?

These terrorists are turning on THEM. They want THEM out, just like Osama Bin Laden wants them kicked out. Any thoughts?