[ppi] [ppiindia] Arab News: Evidence Indicates Attacks Were Planned Well in Advance

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The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily

Monday, 3, May, 2004 (14, Rabi` al-Awwal, 1425)

Evidence Indicates Attacks Were Planned Well in Advance
Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News ?
 

JEDDAH, 3 May 2004 ? Saturday?s shooting in Yanbu which targeted mainly Western 
expatriates came just a day after CBS aired graphic images of American soldiers 
defiling several Iraqi prisoners. This has led many to believe that the Yanbu 
attacks came in retaliation for US atrocities.

Many readers called Arab News to ask if any motive behind Saturday?s attacks 
had been given and whether any particular group had claimed responsibility for 
the attacks. Many felt this was a spontaneous, random attack by a band of young 
angry Saudis.

The rampage resulted in the murders of Britons Michael McGillan and Mike Hardy, 
57-year-old Australian Antony Richard Mason, Texan Philip Coplen and one other 
American. Canadian Thomas Washburn was left paralyzed from a gunshot wound to 
the neck and another American is in intensive care.

The facts show that the attack was planned in advance. It required careful 
preparation which would have taken several days.

One witness told Arab News at the scene of one of Saturday?s shootouts that he 
recognized the Kia van used by some of the terrorists. He had seen it being 
sold for cash at a neighboring car lot a few days earlier.

At least two of the terrorists involved in the shootout outside the Holiday Inn 
drove through the checkpoint leading to the hotel and neighboring Arabian Homes 
in a stolen Coast Guard jeep. They also wore Coast Guard uniforms as disguise. 
Acquiring the uniforms and jeep must have taken some time well before the 
attacks.

The confirmation from the Interior Ministry that three of the terrorists had 
worked at the petrochemical complex and had used their passes to gain access to 
the ABB Lummus site and then opened an emergency gate to the fourth accomplice 
also gave rise to suggestions that they took the jobs with an attack in mind.

They certainly knew who they were targeting at ABB Lummus, a Texan subsidiary 
of Zurich-based company ABB. The terrorists targeted only expatriates.

They attacked the ABB Lummus office, but did they also have other Western 
targets in mind? There was the gunbattle outside the Arabian Homes compound by 
the Holiday Inn. One of those terrorists was later found to be wearing a 
suicide bomb belt. Was a suicide attack planned on either place?

No one yet has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But last week an 
audiotape from a man claiming to be Abdul Aziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin Al-Muqrin 
threatened ?fierce? attacks on US interests in the country this year and warned 
Muslims to avoid American civilian as well as military sites.

Al-Muqrin is said to have taken over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Kingdom. 
Whether or not this was the work of Al-Qaeda remains to be seen, although there 
are reports that one of the dead was Abdullah Saud Abu Nayan Al-Subaie, No. 9 
on the Kingdom?s most-wanted list. The Interior Ministry is reportedly doing 
DNA tests.

In a space of a few hours, havoc was wreaked all over Yanbu. The plan to hit 
ABB Lummus, the Holiday Inn, Arabian Homes, and the International School, 
either simultaneously or within the space of the same hour was coordinated and 
well thought out. It was not the overnight whim of a band of four terrorists.

 
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved. Site designed by: arabix and 
powered by Eima IT



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