Saudi Student Was Mess Tent Suicide Bomber

[allemand]

"PA"

The suicide bomber who killed 22 people when he blew himself up in a US army mess tent the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, was a Saudi medical student, an Arab newspaper reported today.

Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat identified him as 20-year-old Ahmed Said Ahmed al-Ghamdi, citing friends of the man’s father.

The friends said members of an Iraqi resistance group contacted al-Ghamdi’s father to tell him his son was the suicide bomber who carried out the December 21 attack, the deadliest on an American installation in Iraq.

<...>

The father refused to discuss the suicide bombing, but told the newspaper his son had gone to Iraq to fight the Americans and had died there.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3954118

[mhr]

1. Hey Georgie Pooh - We Are Fighting In The Wrong Country!

eom

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Wrong war in the wrong place against the wrong people.

Should have let Saddam take over Saudi Arabia back in 91.

[livinginphotographs]

29. With the wrong president...

n/t

[indepat]

45. And at the wrong time?

[Benhurst]

26. Shh! Don't point out the obvious. After all, the "royal" Saudis are

"family" to Ma Bush's Gang.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Oh but the Saudis are our friends

they would never do a thing like that? Just like 16 of the 19 hijackers weren't Saudi.

Now just forget about it, Iran and Syria are much bigger threats.

:Sarcasm off:

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Do you get the impression that the Saudi's have divided their country

much like George is dividing ours? Is that kind of infighting something that we have to look forward to?

[KDLarsen]

10. I think so..

.. though I think it's a somewhat three-way split. You have the royal family that want things to stay like it is (ie. more money for them), you have the islamic fundamentalists that want to get rid of the royal family and create an entirely islamic state, and then you have the progressives who wants to open up the country & move it into the 21st century.

[Igel]

24. I hope so.

It would be an improvement.

[w4rma]

27. It would NOT be an improvement. (nt)

[Igel]

38. Yes, it would.

There used to be a Salafist/imam-backed government that backed a Salafist set of imams. Everybody was a faithful Sunni, which meant Wahhabi (although they reject the term)--the large Shi'a communities didn't count. Reformers were a minority, and until very recently the country was getting more, not less conservative.

The division was between ultra-Salafist/conservative imams and Islamic scholars and the very Salafist/conservative (at least in public) government. The dialect was pushing the country further into the 9th century.

Now at least the government isn't backing the Salafist imams to the same extent; they've received a dose of blowback. They're waffling. They're getting some of the more extreme imams, if not to say killing Jewish babies and "Crusader" infidels is wrong, to at least say killing other Sa'udis that profess Islam is wrong. In other words, to stop calling other Sa'udis kufr. Change requires a split in opinion. No split, no change.

I'd like to see the split widen to the point where the enforcers are really put on the defensive. Probably won't happen in my lifetime. It's a bit scary--you never know where the change will lead you--but in the case, there's not much room to fall. (Unless your big problem is an oil deficit, but since most oil-rich areas are shi'ite, I suspect that they won't have a big problem continuing to sell it.)

[UpInArms]

4. this fact - that the bomber was from Saudi Arabia - will not

be covered very well in this country - he will just be another "Iraqi insurgent" or "foreign infiltrator".

As with 9/11, any link to SA will be shushed and covered.

:sigh:

[DulceDecorum]

34. Iraq is the tactical pivot; Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot;

Egypt the prize.

[Sterling]

44. Why is Egypt the prize?

I have always wondered? Is it the Suez or the Nile?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. It's a right wing blog and it sucks.

so quit spaming our boards.

[NNN0LHI]

6. US reaction to this is Syria had better start watching their border

Not a word about Saudi Arabia. Nope. Never. Funny how that works.

Don

[SOS]

41. Bremer also disbanded

the border patrol. There are dozens of crossings from SA into Iraq and only 3 have any personnel at all. It's wide open. I've read estimates in the thousands of Saudi AQ sympathisers and members flooding into Iraq from SA.
Not one word of this in our corporate pravda media.

[0007]

8. It appears that those Saudis do not mess around, maye B. Kerik

trained this young man, when Bernard was training Iraqis? America confuses one with the other ya know! Like 911 and Iraq.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. I'm sure the Iraqi insurgents

are the best equiped and trained insurgents in the world. Too bad most of our troops haven't realized that yet.

[drscm]

11. You just have to love those Saudis!

At least that is what I think the Boy King is saying by his disinterest in their terrrorism.

[Divernan]

13. Maybe Bandar Bush will explain this to George at White House Dinner.

I'm sure Saudi Pince/Ambassador to US, Bandar (known by the Bush family as Bandar Bush) will explain this to George at the inauguration festivities. You all recall Farenheit 911 included film of Secret Service guarding Bandar's Saudi embassy in D.C. That's the ONLY foreign embassy in DC receiving Secret Service, round-the-clock protection.

[slor]

14. HE WAS SAUDI!!!???!!!!

We need to re-attack Iraq!!!!

[Catchawave]

15. Will this be reported in the US media ?

Nothing on Google, except the Scotsman article?

[susu369]

16. Glad I depend on DU for my news

far better than, oh, The New York Times!!!!!

:inside joke:

[bleedingheart]

17. Hmm...Saudi's mastermind 9/11 and now this...but wait...

Bush and the NeoCons like them...so this is okay ..

[Historic NY]

18. I still think we went after the wrong country...................it should

have been Saudi Arabria......since they also supplied most of the 911 hijackers too.

[Scout1071]

33. Don't forget they provided all the funding too!

[DulceDecorum]

37. Via Riggs Bank and Jonathan Bush

which are under FBI scrutiny for having misused money of customer accounts without the knowledge of the customers.

When Riggs was ordered to return 700 million plus to Equatorial Guinea,
a whole bunch of US and UK and Spanish ie COALITION big wigs
tried to overthrow President Obiang, former client of Riggs Bank.

Next stop Princess Haifa.

[Carl Brennan]

19. "Manchurian Candidate"?

have they perfected this process so people will blow themselves up? Or is this just :tinfoilhat: kinda stuff?

[LynnTheDem]

20. Like the 911 terrorists; Saudi.

But of course we can't attack Saudi for attacking us on 911 or in Iraq!

After all, they're bush's bestest buds!

[DulceDecorum]

36. Seven + hijackers are alive, like Lazarus

All resistance is futile.

How can you oppose the un-dead?

[allemand]

21. Saudi Arabia is a failing state, youth unemployment is very high

From the BBC:

20 December, 2004

No prospects'

Saudis want the government to tackle the underlying reasons their country is home to large numbers of disaffected young people who feel they have no voice and few prospects.

The Kingdom is a fertile recruiting ground for extremists. Unemployment, especially among the youth, is high.

Social restrictions arising from the strict interpretations of Wahhabi Islam are all pervasive.

Political rights and civil liberties are classified by international groups as being either very poor or non-existent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4110739.stm


2 March, 2003

With more than half of all Saudis under 16 years old, there is intense pressure on the state to create jobs to accommodate the ever increasing numbers of school and university graduates.

<...>

Hidden poverty

Saudi Arabia may have the world's largest oil reserves, but there is also considerable poverty in the kingdom.

Joblessness is part of the problem, the latest official estimate puts the unemployment rate at 31%. <...> "As you can see many Saudis don't have jobs nowadays - 30% of youth, they don't have jobs. This is a very good start for giving them the chance."

<...>

Some say the education system is not producing the right kind of graduates - those with practical and linguistic skills for instance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2843405.stm


27 August, 2002

They rightly point out that most of the plotters involved in the suicide hijackings had left their homeland some time ago, either to live in bleak camps in Afghanistan or under cover in Europe.

But why did they leave? Having absorbed Saudi Arabia's strict, fundamentalist Wahhabi version of Islam, they looked around and found their country to be well short of the Islamic utopia they craved.

Thousands of princes were living in palaces, jetting off to Europe for the high life, while the slums of south Riyadh swelled with the growing ranks of the poor.

Other than giving to charity there was almost nothing they could do to change this. In Saudi Arabia political dissent is totally banned. It goes underground or out of the country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2002/september_11_one_year_on/2134264.stm


10 July, 2002

As many as 120,000 young people are eligible to join the workforce each year, but nearly half of them cannot find jobs.

<...>

The high unemployment rate is breeding disaffection among young Saudis, who contrast the opulent lifestyles of the thousands of princes in the ruling House of Saud with their own situation.

The result is soaring support for the more fundamentalist branches of Islam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2120356.stm

28 February, 2002

Mr al-Faqih says an unofficial poll of male university and high school students in the kingdom at the time of the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in the autumn of 2000 showed that more than 70% were willing to take part in a 'jihad' to liberate Palestine.

Young and bored

A high birth rate and slow pace of economic reform in the kingdom has led to growing youth unemployment, in spite of the country's oil wealth, and disaffected youths have increasingly turned to radical religious institutions for inspiration.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1846356.stm


24 November, 2001

I went for a drive with a Saudi Islamist in a sensitive government position. He asked to remain anonymous, but said:

People are starving, working day and night, just to get hand-to-mouth

He told me that those who oppose the government have access to firearms. I asked him if they were prepared to use them.

"I'm sure of it. Yes. They need the leadership. They are ready."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1674015.stm


17 November, 2001

This year an estimated 100,000 Saudis will pour onto the job market but, according to local economists, only two out of three of them will find a job.

The government's civil service is already overstaffed, while companies want graduates skilled in technology, not arts and religion.

Saudi commentators say that when religious graduates fail to find a job, they become ripe for indoctrination by extremists such as Osama Bin Laden.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1661496.stm

[DulceDecorum]

35. Meanwhile, the US is a sucessful state; unemployment is king

Thank God we do not have oil flowing underfoot.

[allemand]

47. He was a medical student at Khartoum University, Sudan, so

maybe the family is not that rich, although it's also possible that they let him study there for religious reasons as Sudan has an Islamist government and it's close to Saudi Arabia.

"Al-Ghamdi’s family started receiving condolences after his father was told of his death “by a group claiming to be part of the Iraqi resistance.”

Al-Ghamdi, aged “around 20,” joined Khartoum University when his family was based in Sudan, and remained there after their return to Saudi Arabia, the daily said.

His family had known before the Dec. 21 attack that he had quit his studies to go to Iraq.

“His father was shocked to find out on Dec. 16 his decision to quit his studies and use the family money given to him for living expenses... to travel to Iraq,” Asharq Al-Awsat said."

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=57033&d=4&m=1&y=2005

[Tweed]

22. Another Saudi killed! We are winning!

Our wonderful plot to get rid of Saudi terrorists is working. We just have to use our U.S. soliders as bait and draw them into Iraq. A beautiful plan if I do say so myself. Hey, it keeps them away from the Homeland at least.

[Tempest]

23. Bush family friendship has cost the country

The Bush family friendship with the Saudi royal family has cost the lives of more than 1,300 U.S. soldiers for nothing.

[susu369]

25. Hm-m-m - try a Google search of Ahmed al-Ghamdi

Let's get out that tin foil....

I plead ignorance: is al-Ghamdi a common Saudi name?

[susu369]

31. So three of the 9/11 hijackers used the name al-Ghamdi

Ahmed al-Ghamdi, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Hamza al-Ghamdi, and Ahmad al-Haznawi came from three neighboring towns and belonged to the same tribe.

No one finds this interesting?

Perhaps I'm on everyone's "ignore" list.....

[allemand]

46. Apparently, it's indeed the same family, a large Saudi clan

Mosul suicide bomber was Saudi medical student: report

<...>

The al-Ghamdis are a large Saudi clan. Three al-Ghamdis were among the Sept. 11 hijackers.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/January/focusoniraq_January17.xml§ion=focusoniraq

[susu369]

48. Thank you for your reply and information

and appreciate your original thread. It's fascinating.

:thumbsup:

[NYC]

50. So 3 of the 15 or 16 Saudi hijackers on 9/11

shared the same name as this current Saudi suicide mess tent bomber?

That is quite a coincidence.

(Note: I thought 15 of the hijackers were Saudi, but someone further upstream said 16. I don't remember specifically.)

[geek tragedy]

28. Who let a freaking SAUDI in a secure zone?

Jeebus--will they ever learn who the real enemy is?

[DulceDecorum]

32. RE: The "Saudi " daily al-Sharq al-Awsat

How often does Dubya give interviews to the press?
Does he even read newspapers in the first place?

Well apparently DUBYA IS A BIG FAN of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

THE PRESIDENT: We haven't talked about the road map. I mean, we talk about the Middle East all the time, but he hasn't said -- I'm not sure what you're referring to. It seems like a lot of things are printed in the newspapers here. (Laughter.) Not yours.
Q Can I just have your signature here, please?
THE PRESIDENT: I'd love to. Thank you. Thanks for the interview.
Q Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: And what you need to do is get stationed in America again. (Laughter.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031121-1.html

Al-Sharq al-Awsat operates from
Arab Press House, 184 High Holborn, London WC1V 7AP
which is where the NICK BERG VIDEO came from.

The organisation behind all this carries the Royal Arms
which is the equivalent of a SEAL OF APPROVAL
from Her majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

Saudi newspaper,
my aching ass.

The paper said it had received the information from Ghamidi's father, who had been informed of his son's activities by a group that contacted him claiming to represent the Iraqi resistance.
http://www.kasn.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=32403325-90B5-43E9-8258-90C0A4506055

Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat identified him as 20-year-old Ahmed Said Ahmed al-Ghamdi, citing friends of the man’s father.
The friends said members of an Iraqi resistance group contacted al-Ghamdi’s father to tell him his son was the suicide bomber who carried out the December 21 attack, the deadliest on an American installation in Iraq.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3954118

Brilliant reporting from the gang that simply cannot shoot straight.

[matcom]

30. scanned FR - surprisingly didn't find this story

unless i missed it :eyes:

[allemand]

39. Scheuer: "a lot of Saudis and Yemenis amongst the dead insurgents in Iraq"

"MS: They are important and I think it is instructive that a lot of Saudis and Yemenis have been identified amongst the dead insurgents in Iraq."

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10477

And I had thought that they all came from Syria... :eyes:

Very interesting interview. For example, thanks to the invasion al-Qaeda now has probably established training facilities in Iraq:

MS: "But clearly al-Qaeda has sent insurgents/terrorists into Iraq since the invasion and I suspect the autonomous al-Qaeda organization in the Peninsula is largely responsible for that transit. I suspect the transit works in both directions and Iraq being such a large country helps them in that respect. I mean they have probably established training facilities in Iraq and are using them to train members from the Peninsula. The Saudi members might even participate in some fighting in Iraq, then rest a little and finally return back to the Peninsula."

About relations between al-Qaeda an Iran:

"MS: Trying to ascertain whether there are operational links between Iran and al-Qaeda is something we pursued with great vigor since Iran is such an obsession of American policy-makers. What is indisputable is that until last year the Iranians turned a blind eye to al-Qaeda transit. We also know that some Jamaat Islamiyah and Egyptian Islamic Jihad cadres lived in Tehran. There are also some unconfirmed reports that Seif al-Adel and one of bin Laden's sons are under house arrest in the country. That said we never found any evidence of a formal connection whatsoever. Bin Laden does not have a favorable view of Shi'as and does not really have much use for them. Moreover, bin Laden has been very careful to avoid dependence on any state. But more consequentially, perhaps, the Iranians are not stupid. They know that any connection to al-Qaeda—however limited in scope—could have very adverse consequences. <...> But in my experience there are a lot of people who are itching to get at the Iranians. Much of this debate is influenced by the Israelis and hence there is a lot of political motivation to link the Iranians to al-Qaeda."

About al-Qaeda's strategy in Saudi Arabia:

"MS: I think al-Qaeda walks a very fine line in the Kingdom. Bin Laden and his lieutenants see that regime as a very fragile entity and they don't want to push hard enough to effect their fall, because that would force the Americans to occupy the Kingdom. Therefore the attacks are designed to discredit the regime and not to engineer its immediate demise. <...> I think there is (support for al-Qaeda within the regime). So many Saudis traveled to Afghanistan and also bear in mind that bin Laden is not an aberrant character in the Peninsula, he is in fact the poster boy of their educational system."

More:
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10477

[progressiveBadger]

40. So we can expect a slew of new radio ads

promoting brotherhood with our friends the Saudis? I hope so, they are not only entertaining, but pretty interesting from a sociological perspective. :)
Perhaps they can team up with Phillip Morris to create a "We do good things with the money we kill americans for" style commercial.

[susu369]

42. Story now on Ireland On-Line

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=2745090&p=z745yx5&n=2745182

:kick:

[mitchum]

43. bush foreign policy is for the benefit of the corrupt House of Saud

always has been

[HR_Pufnstuf]

49. kick for michael moore.

eom.

[imenja]

51. kick

[proudbluestater]

52. No wonder the story died so quickly.

Saudis GOOD
Iraqis BAD
Syria BAD
N. Korea BAD

I hope Santa keeps them straight for next year.