Saudis turn up the heat on terror

By Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent

Worried about the potential for more attacks like the three Riyadh bombings in May, which killed 34 people and injured more than 200, Saudi Arabia has launched a nationwide crackdown on terrorism.

The Riyadh bombings have been blamed on al-Qaeda

The explosions have been blamed on terrorists loyal to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Bin Laden himself was born in Saudi Arabia and many young Saudis are said to sympathise with his violently anti-Western views.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 11 September attacks in the United States were of Saudi origin. Now the princes who rule Saudi Arabia fear that they themselves are a target of the terrorists.

On a desert road, in the far north of Saudi Arabia, my driver stopped the car and put it into reverse. Up ahead was a roadblock, a police checkpoint, complete with flashing blue lights and a pickup truck armed with a heavy machinegun.

What they are doing is not terrorism, it is true Islam. They are defending their faith Ahmed, al-Qaeda supporter

Ahmed, my driver and guide, steered the car off the road, neatly avoiding the checkpoint, doing what countless others do to evade the Saudi security crackdown.

He had nothing to hide but his beliefs. Ahmed, so he told me, is a "takfeeri", an admirer of Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. "What they are doing," he told me, "is not terrorism, it is true Islam. They are defending their faith".

I should point out, that this is not a view shared by most Saudis.

The Riyadh bombings have shocked people here. They are equally appalled at the discovery of a terrorist cell in Mecca, the holiest of all cities in Islam.

But to Ahmed and those like him, the violence is a righteous reaction to a catalogue of perceived injustices done to Muslims. There are the Palestinian territories, Iraq, and the continuing US military presence in Afghanistan.

Some Saudis think Osama Bin Laden is doing God's work

But now, worryingly for the Saudi ruling family, al-Qaeda's Saudi supporters are turning their attentions closer to home. The ruling princes themselves are now a target.

To date, three terror cells have been uncovered inside the country. Although their members are being rapidly tracked down, captured or killed, new members are springing up like mushrooms.

And, they seem to have no problem in getting their hands on huge quantities of weapons and explosives. The guns are mostly Kalashnikovs, smuggled in across the borders, from Yemen and Iraq. The TNT is produced locally. Only a few days ago, a security forces raid uncovered 20 tonnes of raw materials, destined, they say, for Saudi targets.

Nervous

The one thing that the insurgents, the security forces, and Western diplomats are all agreed on, is that there will be more attempted attacks.

The Saudi security forces have been praised for uncovering a number of terror cells

In the heavily guarded US consulate in Jeddah, diplomats are nervous. A decision has just been taken to bring their families back to the country. It is a vote of confidence in the authorities' efforts to combat terrorism, but it may also be premature.

Across the road from the consulate stands a glass-fronted Tex-Mex restaurant. It is popular with Westerners who tend to eat much earlier than Saudis.

Although Jeddah has so far been spared from violence, some worry that this restaurant and others are obvious targets for further suicide truck bombings. One Western diplomat told me: "We're wide open to attack here."

Manhunt

So how are the Saudi authorities going about tackling this menace? Are they serious about it?

Well, they certainly have been since May. Up until the Riyadh bombings, the Americans had some reason to question the commitment of the Saudis to go after the terrorists.

Some 12,000 Americans live in the capital Riyadh alone

Now they are full of praise. Instead of waiting and hoping that an attack would not happen, the Saudis have mobilised a nationwide manhunt for suspects. They have mounted checkpoints across the country, with orders to shoot on sight any car that refuses to stop.

They have lifted more than 1,000 of the more extremist imams from their mosques and sent them to Riyadh to be retrained. The idea, say officials, is to teach them to be more tolerant of non-Muslims.

Anyone caught publicly sympathising with the Riyadh bombings risks going to prison.

Misappropriated funds

The authorities have also finally, belatedly, started to exercise real control over the vast sums of private Islamic charity money that flow out of the country.

Most are for worthy causes, like Bosnian orphanages, but Saudis, who are by nature a generous people, tend not to question how their donations are used. In the past, all too much has ended up getting siphoned off to militant groups linked to al-Qaeda.

As the home of Mecca, Saudi Arabia casts itself as a keeper of moral values

Yet tackling the causes of terrorism in Saudi Arabia is a complex business that requires more than just security measures.

In Jeddah, a young man calling himself Yousef drove me round the backstreets. Litter piled up against the peeling, whitewashed walls. Scores of young men squatted on pavements.

"You can get everything here," said Yousef, "drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, it's all for sale." And all illegal, in a country that sets itself towering moral standards. For Islamic fundamentalists, such vices are symptomatic of a nationwide moral decay, which they blame on the government.

Saudis, on average, are getting poorer. The population is ballooning, and job opportunities are shrinking.

In a democracy, that would be manageable, but in a state still ruled by a privileged clique of unelected princes, the danger signs are all too obvious. If the ruling family can no longer deliver a welfare state, people will demand that their privileges be curbed and that they share genuine political power.

But most agree that is not about to happen. Which is why men like Ahmed, the Bin Laden supporter, are convinced that only violent action can bring about some improvement to their lives.

The Saudi authorities have only just set out on a long road to defeating terrorism.