http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11586327/
Yesterday, during a two-hour long shootout in a suburb of the Saudi capital city of Riyadh, Saudi police killed five suspected militants and captured one, who were linked to a failed attempted to blow up one of the largest oil refining plants in the region. This comes after Al-Qaida warning of further strikes.
The oil refinery that had been attacked refines about 2/3rds of all Saudi oil and its destruction would have been devastating for the Saudi economy.
The increased Al-Qaida activity in Saudi Arabia further compounds my feeling that the Saudi's are now under a squeeze play. As reported here before, Saudi Arabia, not exactly a popular government in the Middle East, has been under a great deal of pressure to simultaneously gather Islamic support while maintaining its close ties to the West. There has been a great deal of evidence that the Saudi government financially supported various anti-Western Islamic groups out of Denmark to disseminate cartoons mocking Islam and Mohammad to build up hatred towards the West in order to distract its people from the stampede in Mecca during this year's Hajj (Something that the Saudi's have allowed practically yearly by refusing to reconstruct certain paths) and the overwhelming greed and corruption of its rulers. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/5/13149/60748). As shown with this latest round of attacks, Al-Qaida is now putting its own pressure against Saudi rulers who they see as lapdogs of the West.
From a detached political perspective it's interesting to watch this situation unfold. Yet any attacks on Saudi oil would mean horrible repercussions for both the Saudi government and the Saudi people, and it won't be avoided by using the same methods of distraction of the Bush administration.
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