Al-Qaeda hated corporation

May 15 2003
By Marian Wilkinson
Washington

The bloody attacks in Riyadh are telling because of their targets, 
in particular the Vinnell Corporation. The residential compound and 
the offices used by Vinnell were hit, killing nine of the company's 
employees and injuring several others, two critically.  

Al-Qaeda has a particular hatred for the US Vinnell Corporation because 
it trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the country's internal 
security force and an integral part of the Saudi military forces.  

Vinnell, under contract to the US Army, employs about 800 people in 
Saudi Arabia including 300 Americans. Vinnell recently came under the 
financial control of giant US defence contractor Northrop.  

Vinnell's relationship with Saudi Arabia over nearly three decades has 
been intriguing and controversial. For five years until 1997 it was owned 
by the Carlyle group, a defence and investment house close to the Bush 
family. Several former Republican cabinet ministers sat on Carlyle's 
board.  

In 1975 the Pentagon hired Vinnell on a $US77 million ($A118.8 million) 
contract to train Saudi troops to protect the country's oilfields. About 
1000 US Special Forces were recruited, says Dan Briody, author of a 
new book on the Carlyle group.  

In 1992 Vinnell was taken over by the Carlyle group, whose chairman 
was Ronald Reagan's former defence secretary, Frank Carlucci. George 
Bush snr would later act on behalf of Carlyle and in 1993 Mr Bush snr's 
former secretary of state, James Baker, joined the company.  

By then, Vinnell had trained the Saudi National Guard, and had worked 
alongside them during the first Gulf War launched while Mr Bush snr 
and Mr Baker were in office.  

Indeed Vinnell, says Briody, "paved the way for co-operation between 
the United States and Saudi Arabia during the (first) Gulf War". It 
was  this co-operation that infuriated Osama bin Laden.

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Source: "The Age" - Melbourne
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885292950.html

Cheers, Steve..

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