Comments on: Saudis Foil Terrorist Attack on Oil Facility

By: Suitably Flip

Suitably Flip — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:41:15 +0000

Gunshots, Bomb Attack at Major Oil Facility...

It's nice when suicide bombers succeed only in the suicide part....

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:05:09 +0000

Actually, almost everything I read says al Qaeda proper is severely weakened. It is Zarquawi's offshoot--which is almost certainly hurting AQ on the Arab street--that has grown.

At any rate, by "current events" I mean the reaction to the shrine attacks and the resulting sectarian violence. I thought that was what Clemons was implying.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 20:57:22 +0000

Well, let me just take over this comment thread:

this is al Qaeda, which has long hated the Saudi royals and threatened the oil fields, and has nothing to do with current events in Iraq.

You're not implying a connection between those clauses, are you?

Al-Qaeda is happily active in post-invasion Iraq, and has been in an excellent position to exploit Sunni discontent. So if it is al-Qaeda (plausible), that doesn't mean no connection to "current events in Iraq." Perhaps the contrary. Iraq has strengthened al-Qaeda again, after the severe impact of the Afghan invasion.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 18:04:28 +0000

That this attempt was foiled in excellent news. I fear, however, that it is only a matter of time before one succeeds. There are probably British bookies offering odds on when & where. O/t, since you're so relaxed with the UAE-ports issue, here's what systems analyst Julia Saraidaradis thinks:

Why not? Some of those al-Qaeda people have probably done much more research on our ports than anybody else.

We may confidently predict that in a few years, Condi Rice will be testifying that it was "unforeseeable" that outsourcing national security to a UAE-owned corporation would contribute to any attacks.