Democracy NOW! 05/15/03

Vinnell Corporation: The  Link Between Oil Fields, Saudi Troops, 
"No Jews" Clauses, Coup Attempts in Grenada, and Monday's Car  
Bombings in Saudi Arabia

For the second time in a decade, Saudi bombers target the U.S. 
company which has been training the Saudi military. Monday's triple 
car bombing killed 34 including eight Americans.  

U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan appeared on U.S. 
morning talk shows yesterday and said that just days before Monday's 
car bombings, US intelligence officials detected signs of an impending 
attack and urgently asked Saudi Arabia to increase security at 
residential compounds inhabited by Westerners. But Ambassador 
Jordan said the Saudi government failed to act.  

Later in the day, White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer said Saudi 
Arabia "must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own 
country."  

34 people died in the bombings, including eight Americans. Nearly 200 
people are injured.  

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal denied receiving any 
request for additional security. But he also admitted his country 
needs to learn from its mistakes.  

This, as Saudi security chiefs claimed yesterday the mastermind of the 
suicide car bombings took his orders directly from Osama bin Laden. 
Officials named Mohammed al-Juhani as the leader of the al-Qaeda cell 
and said he entered the country two months ago on orders to target 
Westerners. Intelligence sources also admitted that cell had been under 
surveillance for nearly two months, that they knew the identities of the 
leader of the cell and many of its members, and that police had failed to 
capture any of them despite two armed encounters this year.  

The unprecedented criticism of the oil-rich kingdom comes as President 
Bush has himself come under unprecedented criticism. Two days ago, 
Senior Democratic Senator Bob Graham said: "We essentially ended 
the war on terror about a year ago, and since that time al-Qaida has 
been allowed to regenerate." He said: "The war on Iraq was a distraction. 
It took us off the war on terror, which we were on a path to win. But 
we've now let it slip away from us." Graham is a former chairman of the 
Senate Intelligence Committee and a presidential candidate. He also 
charged the Bush administration ignored relevant intelligence about 
terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks - and is still doing so today.  
Meanwhile, details of precisely who was targeted are emerging. The car 
bombings directly targeted a U.S. company - the Vinnell Corporation.  

Vinnell's work in Saudi Arabia dates back nearly three decades ago,  
when it won a contract to train Saudi troops to guard oilfields. 


# William Hartung, the President's Fellow at New School University. 
  He is the Director of the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Project.  

# Dan Briody, author of The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of 
  the Carlyle Group  

# Pratap Chatterjee, independent journalist and creator of the   
  WarProfiteers card deck which "exposes some of the real war
  criminals in the US's endless War of Terror."

                          -==-

Source: Information Clearinghouse ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3393.htm

Cheers, Steve..

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