[the 'line' between terrorism and revolution gets fuzzier]
[NYT] October 9, 2001 THE PLOTS Saudi Arabia Also a Target of Attacks, U.S. Officials Say
By LOWELL BERGMAN and TIM WEINER
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 - In recent months, Osama bin Laden and his allies have planned attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia as part of their continuing effort to oust the Saudi royal family, American officials said today.
The officials said the planned attacks were intended to exploit political discontent in the region. They said several arrests in connection with the conspiracy were made in Gulf states over the summer.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said it was investigating whether a parcel bomb that killed two people, including one American, and injured four near an American military base in the city of Khobar two days ago was part of those plans.
Mr. bin Laden and his allies dream of forcing American troops and the Saudi royal family out of Arabia, undermining American political support for moderate Arab nations like Egypt, and converting them into Islamic states.
And in many ways, according to Arab and American diplomats interviewed by reporters for The New York Times and the PBS program "Frontline," Mr. bin Laden tries to exploit rage over corruption and poverty to gain support in Muslim lands.
The United States "should ourselves do what we can to eliminate the causes which seem to give some justification to the cause of someone like bin Laden," said Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state.
The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, acknowledging corruption in his country, said the Saudi royal family has "implemented a development program that was close to $400 billion." He continued: "You could not have done all of that for less than, let's say, $350 billion. If you tell me that building this whole country, and spending $350 billion out of $400 billion that we misused or got corrupted with $50 billion, I'll tell you yes," he said. "So what? We did not invent corruption."
He acknowledged that the root of some of the rage in radical Islamic circles is economic, and that human rights was a luxury some Arab states cannot afford. "We want the right to eat for a lot of people," he said. "Let's first finish that. Then we get to all your fantasies in America."
Mr. bin Laden's two top lieutenants come from a radical group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, that has been fighting for more than 20 years to overthrow the Egyptian government. The group was responsible for a generation of killings in Egypt, from the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 to the killing of 58 tourists in 1997.
The Egyptian ambassador to the United States, Nabil Famy, said that in facing down terrorism, Egypt came to understand that it "comes from people feeling marginalized. And because they're marginalized, they move toward violent extremism. And they're wrong."
The Saudis knew Mr. bin Laden as the increasingly wayward son of the royal family's favorite construction magnate. Prince Bandar met Mr. bin Laden briefly when the Saudis, the Americans and members of the bin Laden organization were fighting to help the Afghan rebels - the mujahedeen, or holy warriors - repel Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan in the 1980's.
"Bin Laden used to come to us when America, underline, America, through the C.I.A. and Saudi Arabia, were helping our brother mujahedeen in Afghanistan, to get rid of the communist secularist Soviet Union forces," Prince Bandar said. "Osama bin Laden came and said `Thank you. Thank you for bringing the Americans to help us.' "
Prince Bandar added, "At that time I thought he couldn't lead eight ducks across the street."
Today, as then, the Saudis' coalition with the United States is a delicate balance. Like the 19 American soldiers killed in 1996 in the bombing of the Khobar Towers complex, American troops in Saudi Arabia guard the power of the royal family, but remain targets of radical wrath against the Saudi house.
"In a Western democracy, you lose touch with your people, you lose elections," Prince Bandar said. "In a monarchy, you lose your head."