சவுதி அரேபியா: ஏராளமான இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் கைது செய்யப்பட்டாலும், பயங்கரவாத குழுக்கள் செயல்திறத்துடன் உள்ளன என்று அறிவிப்பு

ஏராளமான சவுதி இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் கைது செய்யப்பட்டாலும், பயங்கரவாத குழுக்கள் செயல்திறத்துடன் உள்ளன என்று சவுதி அரேபியா அறிவித்துள்ளது

Saudi Arabia: Militant groups remain active despite record arrests
Detainees are accused of having links to Al Qaeda, but human rights groups fear arbitrary arrests have been made.
By Julien Spencer
posted June 26, 2008 at 10:18 am EDT


The last year has seen a major crackdown on alleged Islamic militants in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to numbers released by the country's Interior Ministry. The figures suggest that militant groups continue to be active despite recent comments quoted in The Washington Post by General Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, suggesting a "near strategic defeat for al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia."

According to the BBC, more people were arrested in the past 12 months than in any other year in recent history.

Saudi Arabia is holding 520 suspected militants following raids across the kingdom this year, its interior ministry says....

Officials said a further 181 suspects detained in 2008 had been released because of a lack of evidence.

The militant arrest figures are thought to be the largest and most comprehensive ever released by the Saudi authorities.

Abu Dhabi's new English-language daily, The National, reports that many of those arrested are accused by Saudi officials of links with Al Qaeda.

The official statement, carried by the government-run Saudi Press Agency, said officials "have carried out a number of security operations against the deviant groups who have been working for the service of the country's enemies targeting the country's principles, security, economy and way of life."

"Deviant" is a term Saudi officials use to describe the ideology of al Qa'eda and similar groups.

Speaking to the Financial Times, General Mansour al-Turki, the Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman, outlined some of the alleged activities of those arrested.

Those still held were organised in what was described as five cells and were being investigated for financing, spreading ideology and planning attacks.

"Some were working with publishing, some were working with financing and recruiting. One [group] in eastern province, formed mostly of non-Saudis, was planning attacks on oil refineries, infrastructure and security headquarters," he said.


Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily, reports that a number of those arrested were in direct contact with the top Al Qaeda leadership.


One of those arrested was carrying a recorded message of Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahri on the memory card of a cell phone. "The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers; therefore, please give him your donations to help hundreds of families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan," the message said.

Islamic militants have long targeted Saudi Arabia for its ties with Western powers and the corruption of its rulers, flush with oil money. The Associated Press highlights Al Qaeda's campaign against Saudi Arabia:


Al-Qaida has called for attacks against the Saudi government, criticizing its alliance with the U.S. and hoping to disrupt the flow of oil to the West. The group has also labeled the government un-Islamic, even though the kingdom follows a strict interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism.


Reports in the Arab News further suggest that some of the arrested militants had returned from fighting in Iraq, while others were facilitating the movement of fighters into Iraq to battle US forces.

Police arrested 112 suspects for coordinating with foreign parties to facilitate the travel of militants to disturbed regions, Al-Turki said, in a reference to those that convince Saudis to travel to Iraq in order to fight alongside insurgents.

But commentators say Saudi Arabia has fueled the problem by supporting the strict Wahhabi doctrine and, in the past, actively supporting those traveling abroad to fight for Islam. Indeed, the kingdom has long been home to a majority of the foreign fighters entering Iraq, reports The Guardian.

Part of the problem is that the Saudi state, religious authorities and media actively encouraged young men to fight with the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2001 thousands have gone to fight there and in Iraq, where last year Saudis were the single largest group of foreign fighters.

Terrorist activity in Saudi Arabia was largely quelled by a major crackdown in 2003 following several attacks that were blamed on Al Qaeda. However, a report in Time magazine suggests that the group remains stronger than imagined.

The extent of al-Qaeda's plotting inside Saudi Arabia, as revealed by the authorities, is impressive, considering the major crackdown on the group that began four years ago after it launched a series of deadly attacks on expatriate housing complexes, government offices and oil sector facilities. "This is a movement that is trying to overthrow the government and the system," says Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the influential Saudi newspaper Al Watan. "Al-Qaeda is not dead. Part of its strategy is to win in Iraq and make it an Islamic state, from which it would launch a campaign to other countries and create a unified Islamic state. It is very naive. One should not expect it to succeed in modern times. But those guys are living in the past."


Human rights groups continue, however, to express doubts regarding the legitimacy of Saudi detentions, accusing the country of arbitrary arrests and torture. In a comment piece published by the Guardian Unlimited, Christoph Wilcke, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote:

In a report on the Saudi justice system launched in London last month, Human Rights Watch found that violations of defendants' fundamental rights in Saudi Arabia are so systemic that it is hard to reconcile the existing criminal justice system with basic principles of fairness, the rule of law and international human rights standards.