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Date Posted: 03:09:59 05/13/03 Tue
Author: Chris Henry
Author Host/IP: cache2-2.ruh.isu.net.sa / 212.138.47.12
Subject: Terrorist Attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Last night I was, to say the least, rudely disturbed. For an unknown number of others, it was the stuff of nightmares, if they were lucky enough to survive. This is more of my personal account than an attempt to engage in debate - I'm just not in the mood for that. However I'm sure I'll be coming back to the point at the end.
Now that morning has come, we're able to put together more of a picture of what has happened. It was a major series of attacks, and I fear that the death toll will be high.
We were woken at about 1130 on Monday night by the bedroom window rattling. I looked out, couldn't see anything, thought it was "just one of those things", and went back to sleep. A little later we were woken by the persistent sound of sirens. Shortly after, we received a call from someone as part of the pre-arranged "cascade warning system". He told us that there had been a bomb at the Al Hamra compound, about a kilometre from here, a housing compound that also contains the British School.
The rest of the night was taken up with phone calls and emails. We know many British School staff. Most of them had moved to Al Hamra in the last 3 months, "for safety". Fortunately all were well apart from minor cuts, although one friend of ours had to go to hospital for treatment. Two colleagues of mine also live there; one had gone to Kuwait for a job interview, and we later tracked down the second, who was thankfully unharmed.
The same couldn't be said of their flats and villas. This is a 300 metre square compound. According to the people we have spoken to, every single one has lost its windows, many have had their patio doors dislodged, and heavy front doors have been blown into interior rooms. And those were the buildings that were left standing. Many were flattened or are just shells. One person we know was sleeping, completely covered by his quilt; he woke to find it covered in broken glass. Another had been watching television, had got up when he heard a commotion, and therefore had a narrow escape when the window blew in and a large shard of glass went thru his just-vacated seat.
It now appears that 3 compounds were hit simultaneously in commando-style attacks. Two of them were obviously inhabited by US citizens, but Al Hamra is very mixed, with diplomatic staff from around the world, and a high proportion of Lebanese and Egyptian Arabs.
Al Hamra, like all compounds, has a perimeter wall, a heavy main gate that is normally closed except for access, and security guards on the gate and on patrol. Our compound manager, who heard the account from the Al Hamra staff, said that a resident's car had just been allowed through the gate when two cars and an MPV "tail-gated" through after it, firing at the guards with machine guns, throwing "football-size" bombs out into the road, and shooting at anyone who happened to be around. They then drove each of the cars to an obviously planned spot - next to an apartment block, or next to the owners's house (reputed to be the son of a Government Minister) - and detonated the bombs contained within the cars. I assume this was a suicide attack, but cannot confirm this. The closest buildings were destroyed, and every single building was damaged beyond habitability. The BBC World News at 0600 is quoting 3 dead, in all the attacks. My colleague within Al Hamra, surveying the wreckage, believes the figure for just this one compound could be 40 to 60. I pray to God that he is wrong, but that number would be consistent with the scale of damage.
The two other compounds, being US-occupied and I believe defense-related, actually had armed guards in watch towers. These were attacked with machine guns, I understand with some deaths, before a similar bomb attack took place. Again there is damage and there are fatalities, although no reliable figures yet.
We're now at home in our compound, with a doubled armed guard, and access even more tightly controlled than before. I've not had much time to sleep, but one thought occurs to me - how did the invasion of Iraq help in the "War against Terrorism"? To my simple mind, it looks as though it has just fuelled another escalation.
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Right from the start, I just knew that you'd come back to blaming the U.S. You did not disappoint me. You know this has little or nothing to do with Iraq. Frankly, I hoped for better of you. Heck, Iraq had some of their troops in Saudi Arabia during the Kuwait incursion! -- SurveyGuy (I wouldnlt work in Arabia any more than I'd work for the government), 20:25:59 05/13/03 Tue (pcp01422563pcs.lndsd201.pa.comcast.net/68.81.153.209)
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Your half-expected 'last minute' snipe destroyed any sympathies I carried for your pretentious expression of your plight. I cannot wait until all of our fine military men and women have left that pit of lunatic Wahhabism. I am sure you will still blame us for the many failings of such a barely evolved 'culture'. Your kind always does. Enjoy co-habitating with Islam ... the religion of peace and love. You deserve each other. -- JL, 21:53:44 05/13/03 Tue (pcp01376707pcs.selrsv01.pa.comcast.net/68.80.69.241)
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What revealing observations. I was so impressed, I pasted this section into the Exxon Riyadh intranet, to see what some of our other US expatriates thought. Their responses so far are interesting, I'll share them in a while. In the meantime, JL, do you have any words of comfort for the families of the 20+ dead Northrop Grumman employees who were similarly "co-habiting with Islam"? And I'd really appreciate a coherent answer to the question I posed. -- Chris Henry, 07:08:36 05/14/03 Wed (cache2-2.ruh.isu.net.sa/212.138.47.12)
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They would have my sympathies, as much as any victim of terrorism would. However, I would question the judgement of someone placing themselves and their families in danger by choosing to occupy a part of the world that harbors those who hate all things Western. Especially in a country that subsidizes terrorist acts. Guess their NIMBY payoffs aren't working as well as they once did. Keep up your America bashing. It's good to know what the enemy is thinking. -- JL, 20:22:13 05/14/03 Wed (pcp01376707pcs.selrsv01.pa.comcast.net/68.80.69.241)
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OK, tell me what "your side" thinks, whoever they are. Tell me how conquering Iraq has helped to win the war on terrorism. I'm ready to be convinced, if you can put forward a strong argument and not just pseudo-patriotic waffle. Go ahead. Convince me. I'm waiting. -- Chris Henry, 01:53:17 05/15/03 Thu (cache8-2.ruh.isu.net.sa/212.138.47.27)
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Only time for a quickie, but an important one, IMHO. No Saddam Hussein = no coin promoting Palestinian homicide bombers by paying off their families. Will revisit further when I get back. -- JL, 20:17:47 05/15/03 Thu (pcp01376707pcs.selrsv01.pa.comcast.net/68.80.69.241)
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It would be nice to think so, but just about every shopping centre in the Middle East has a booth taking "charity" collections for Palestine. Any more? -- Chris Henry, 01:17:35 05/17/03 Sat (cache8-2.ruh.isu.net.sa/212.138.47.27)
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Chris, Iraq, through Saddam's regime, was supporting terrorism directly. He issued checks for $25,000 to families whose members murdered Israelis. Now he has been toppled and he is no longer issuing checks for this service of murder. JL is correct. One source of such blood money has dried up. There are more, like the Saudis who hold telethons which raise several million dollars for bloodthirsty murderers, the Palestinian terrorists, and they will have to be dealt with also. -- William, 00:03:31 05/20/03 Tue (cache-rl02.proxy.aol.com/152.163.252.226)
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William has made my rebuttal in this instance for me. Good fellow that he always is (Thx, big guy!). However much more of it we need to counteract, there is THAT MUCH LESS to deal with.......... -- JL, 20:57:08 05/20/03 Tue (pcp01376707pcs.selrsv01.pa.comcast.net/68.80.69.241)
Another benefit...
Big dent in production of WMD's emanating from the area. We may not yet have located the actual finished form chemical weapons produced by Saddam and his Baath Buddies, but we surely have found a boatload of precursors. 2 pam-chloride, atropine, and ensembles suitable for chemical warfare have been discovered in countless Iraqi Army combat positions we have taken. Extremely high levels of chemical agents have been detected in the river systems. Not to mention the so-far scrubbed out mobile bio-lab vehicles and empty chemical rounds - useless for any other purpose. As a wealthy nation in the zone, the ability to produce and distribute these 'goods' surely existed, at the expense of the 'loyal followers' who were supposed to be fed by money from the joke of the 'Oil for Saddam' U.N. program. Where were these weapons to be used next? There are just so many Kurds.
The discoveries of the many mass graves containing thousands of corpses from the past 10+ years (verified by forensic dating) is another example of what we were dealing with. There is no doubt that a terrorist regime was in place. It's unbridled hatred for America and support for everything and anything that could attempt to bring us down is most evident and necessitated its removal.
To suggest that this is not part of our on-going war against terrorism and is instead some singular vengeant action is incomprehensible to me. The evidence of communication and cooperation between our enemies stands for itself. They are one and the same.
Naturally, the removal of this abomination has not and will not cure all of the evils we face 'spanning the globe'. But for sure it has put a mighty dent in things. And to me it is the direction we need to be going in.
Sorry it took me a bit to get back to you. I work away from home alot.
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Many people place their lives in danger to some extent. Not only expats working for US companies overseas, but also the armed forces, cops, firemen, miners, construction workers, people living in "tornado alley", on the San Andreas fault, in the Hurricane Belt. The Founding Fathers showed a serious lack of "judgement", not to mention the settlers in the West. Thank God for people who lack your finely developed "judgement". -- Chris Henry, 08:48:45 05/15/03 Thu (cache10-2.ruh.isu.net.sa/212.138.47.29)
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What it appears that you attempted to do, whether or not you realize it, is to use those violent deaths to attempt to gain sympathy for a political position that you hold. Shameful at best. -- SurveyGuy (we understand more about the Saudi situation vis-a-vis the religious hold over the secular government), 21:39:57 05/14/03 Wed (pcp01422563pcs.lndsd201.pa.comcast.net/68.81.153.209)
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I'm blushing with shame. I should watch fellow-citizens get blown up but not question it, unless of course I come out agreeing with you, in which case it's OK. Same challenge to you as to JL. Then you can afford to be sanctimonious. -- Chris Henry, 01:58:01 05/15/03 Thu (cache1-2.ruh.isu.net.sa/212.138.47.11)
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Right - no one died here. I don;t expect to convince you of anything. You must do that for yourself. While you remain in your current environment, your views will reflect that. I hope you stay here BECAUSE we disagree with you and you want to know what we poor uninformed folk think, not because you expect us to change our minds. ... continued - click -- SurveyGuy, 22:21:46 05/15/03 Thu (pcp01422563pcs.lndsd201.pa.comcast.net/68.81.153.209)
. . . continued . . .
I saw half of my extended family killed when a jet plane crashed into a building they were changing in. After swimming About 50 died as I recall, more or less. One cousin lost her mother and younger sister.
I was in that building about two minutes before the crash.
Now that you have my death credentials, you can still have your opinion, but we can still challenge it and point out when we think you have attempted to shamefully use a tragedy. Could you not have kept that post to a respectful tribute to those who died? That you didn't tells something about you and your priorities.
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bombing in Riyadh -- Jo, 09:02:02 05/14/03 Wed (buchanan-b3.state.gov/169.252.4.9)
I used to live in Riyadh, and I was there throughout the first War against Iraq (which Iraq initiated by invading Kuwait). At that time, our only danger was from scuds, and there was no anger toward the US from people around us. What's happened since then? I think that part of it is that people really did believe that the US was acting on the side of self-determination of countries, and liberty, and freedom. Lately, that's not what people are seeing, and it makes the recruiting job of extremists that much easier. I don't think the people in compounds deserved to be hurt - and I don't think the concerns of people around the world deserve to be ignored.
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