Bin Laden’s Message Seen as Attempt To Assert Power in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Osama bin Laden’s latest message, his first directed specifically at Saudis in years, has been widely seen as an attempt to show he is still a player in his homeland despite a security clampdown that has sharply limited Al Qaeda’s field for terrorist operations in the conservative kingdom.The message, released Thursday, was issued after powerful blows by Saudi security to Mr. bin-Laden’s supporters in the oil-rich country, where security forces have made inroads in weakening the insurgency both with arrests and anti-insurgency campaign that undercut support for the insurgents.At the same time, however, Mr. bin Laden’s audiotape followed up on an Al Qaeda show of strength in the country two weeks ago. Five insurgents attacked the U.S. consulate in Riyadh and stormed into the inner courtyard, firing guns, grabbing human shields, and killing five people. Four of the attackers were killed and one was wounded in an ensuing battle with Saudi forces. No Americans were killed.And keeping up the drumbeat yesterday the Saudi branch of Al Qaeda called in a Web statement for attacks against oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. The statement called on “all mujahedeen…in the Arabian Peninsula” to target “the oil resources that do not serve the nation of Islam.”The statement urged Al Qaeda members and sympathizers around the Arab world to unite “to strike all the foreign targets in the Arabian peninsula and attack all the infidels’ havens everywhere.”Analysts described the Saudi-born terror suspect’s Thursday message, which included a call to followers to “concentrate your operations” on oil facilities, as a reminder that he can still cause trouble. Some also saw it as a sign he is worried about blows to his credibility or that he might lose more influence if local elections prove a success.“It’s a kind of encouragement for Saudis influenced by him after the blow they have received,” said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on insurgent groups. “It’s a way for him to tell them he supports them, he cares about them and will, through his statement, put their cause in the international spotlight.”In the audiotape, posted on an Islamic Web site, Mr. bin Laden exonerated Islamic insurgents of responsibility for the violence in the kingdom, saying it was the rulers’ “sins which exposed the country to God’s punishment.”He also reiterated long-standing accusations that the royal Al Saud family has misused public funds and allied itself with the “infidel America against Muslims.”Addressing the Saudi rulers, Mr. bin Laden said: “You must know that people are fed up…security will not be able to stop them.”Mr. bin Laden’s direct focus on the kingdom and its rulers is the first in about a decade. He embarked on his terrorist path in the early 1990s, after the ruling family turned down his request to use his “mujahedeen” – holy warriors, who had trained with him in Afghanistan – to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. The Americans led the campaign for Saddam Hussein’s ouster from the tiny emirate.After the Saudi government stripped him of his citizenship and kicked him out of the country, Mr. bin Laden moved to Sudan and then to Afghanistan.It was there that he took his war to a higher level, focusing on America and mentioning Saudi Arabia in a wider context.“He saw himself as a world leader fighting on behalf of all Muslims, not only Saudis,” said Jamal Khashoggi, press adviser to Prince Turki, the Saudi ambassador to London.After the American ouster of Saddam in 1993, Mr. bin Laden slowly shifted his fight to both America and Saudi Arabia, not waiting to finish off one enemy before taking on the other.The shift translated on the ground, Mr. Khashoggi said, into the May 2003 attack in Riyadh. Insurgents inspired by Mr. bin Laden struck for the first time in the kingdom after September 11, 2001, attacking three residential compounds. Twenty-five people were killed.The attacks continued, but many Saudis were revolted by the tactic. Others were distressed when they understood that Muslims and Saudis were dying in the attacks along with non-Muslim foreigners. Mr. bin Laden’s credibility as a defender of Islam began to suffer.Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Mr. bin Laden sought in the tape to “refashion the focal point of what he’s about” after losing credibility. In the tape, he implies he’s about “creating a new order, a new reality and…not about doing all these things that people say are un-Islamic.”

Bin Laden’s Message Seen as Attempt To Assert Power in Saudi Arabia

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