[PAA-Discuss] FW: Saudi Arab report on arrested militants

[Lee Loe]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bert Golding [mailto:BertHG at houston.rr.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 5:49 PM
To: * Bert Golding
Subject: Saudi Arab report on arrested militants

>From the Saudi-US Information Service--  Bert

Captured Al-Qaeda Militants Confess to Massive Terror Plot P.K. Abdul
Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 16 May 2007 - The Al-Qaeda network had plans to carry out massive
terrorist operations in the scale of 9/11 attacks targeting oil facilities
in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, according to captured
militants whose confessions were published in the local media yesterday.

Abdullah Al-Muqrin, one of the militants who were involved in planning the
foiled attack on the Abqaiq oil refinery on Feb. 24, 2006, said militants,
on the directives of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, carried out the
suicide bombing. "Targeting the main oil facilities and areas, such as Ras
Tanura and Jubail, was how the idea started,"
said Muqrin in confessions aired by Saudi Television late Monday night.

Ras Tanura is the Kingdom's biggest oil export terminal and Jubail is its
biggest industrial complex. Both are located on the Gulf coast.
Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer and exporter, supplying
about seven million barrels per day.

"We started planning (the attack) but were told to wait for direct
instructions from Osama Bin Laden. I asked how we would receive a signal
from him; I thought he was in some mountains. They said it would take from
six to seven months to get his approval," Muqrin said.

Another suspect, identified as Khaled Al-Kurdi, said the Al-Qaeda leadership
in Saudi Arabia told them that the attacks on oil facilities would be
tantamount to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

"They said it would be a huge operation, equal to the September strike..
..and its impact would be on a global level," Kurdi said in his statement.
"They said attacks would affect oil prices," he added.

Saudi security sources said the two men were involved in providing logistic
help to the attackers who tried to storm the Abqaiq oil facility, in which
two suicide bombers were killed. Saudi Arabia arrested about 170 suspects
after the attacks.

The attack on oil installations was planned to lure US forces into the
Kingdom. "It was all about luring in America to intervene, irrespective of
the expected high loss of human life or economic damage," Muqrin said.

The attackers sought "to hammer America," Kurdi added.

The security guards foiled the Abqaiq terrorist operation when they opened
fire on two explosives-laden vehicles that tried to enter the oil complex in
eastern Saudi Arabia. The vehicles exploded without damaging the facility.

Muqrin said the attack was meant to embarrass the Kingdom, destabilize oil
prices in the United States and ultimately draw in US troops to the country
to protect oil facilities so that Al-Qaeda militants could fight them on
Saudi soil. A few days after the foiled attack, five militants were killed
in gun battles with security forces. The five included Fahd Faraaj
Al-Juwair, leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

Late last month, police said that they had arrested 172 militants from seven
terrorist cells in a month long operation, one of the biggest terror sweeps
in the country. Saudi Arabia has won international acclaim for its
successful campaign against Al-Qaeda militants after they carried out a
series of anti-terror operations across the country, killing and arresting
many terrorists and sympathizers.

Source: Arab News