13 Terror Suspects Arrested

RIYADH, 24 October 2005 — Saudi security forces have arrested 13 suspects in a residential area of Riyadh. The men are believed to be members of the Al-Qaeda terror network. One of those arrested is said to be the brother of an Al-Qaeda militant whose name is on the government’s list of the 36 most wanted terrorists.

“The suspects, including a 13-year old boy, were in a building in the Naseem district of Riyadh. The building was used for storing arms,” a source said yesterday. Security forces tracked down a suspect on the Riyadh-Makkah highway near the village of Ruwaida and arrested him. He eventually gave the address of the building where the suspects were arrested.

“This is the first incident in which a group mainly composed of young suspects below 16 years of age have been arrested,” said a report in Al-Watan Arabic daily.

According to this Arab News article, Saudi security forces on the Iraq border have also arrested 682 intruders and smugglers and prevented 63 others from entering the Kingdom as part of their efforts to seal the borders against illegal traffic.

Over 10,000 Saudi Students US- Bound
By Omar El Okeily & Najah al Osaymi

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- More than 10,000 Saudi students will travel to the US to attend university as part of a government-sponsored program following the adoption of new measures by the Ministry of Higher Education aimed at facilitating travel procedures for Saudis. In total, 21,000 Saudis are expected to take part in the program in the next four years…

Currently studying in the U.S., Mohammad al Mateeri described the initiative as an important step and described how in eight years of living in the US, “I have never been hassled, save for an increase in security checks to which a country is entitled to when protecting its citizens.”

His wife, Afaf, also a Saudi national, confirmed that Americans have been very friendly to the couple and treated them with respect. Once, however, she was detained for 24hours at a Washington D.C airport after a short visit to Saudi Arabia because of a mix up in names but was treated with respect and courtesy.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks on US cities, several Saudi students were detained around the U.S. Bandar al Qowaifal, who left home at 18 to attend university in America recalled his arrest. “After al Qaeda’s attacks, I was arrested for one whole month and extradited to Saudi Arabia . They didn’t have anything against me except some minor irregularities in my visa I hadn’t paid attention to. I am waiting for the right to time to go back to the US and resume my studies.” After applying to the exchange program and benefiting from relaxed visa procedures, Bandar is now back in the US studying at his own expense.

A PhD student, Saad al Sowaylim told Asharq al Awsat he was eagerly awaiting his return to the US to complete his degree, despite living through a difficult time while studying at John Hopkins University , three years ago. He felt it was important to correct the wrong impression some Americans had of Arab students in their country.

This is good news for both Saudi Arabia and the US. For the Saudis, it’s a chance to see for themselves what the US is and isn’t. In meeting and living with real Amerians, rather than TV-mediated caricatures, they’ll have a much better idea of Americans and American values. For Americans, it’s an opportunity to see Saudis as real people, rather than TV- and blog-mediated cartoons of terrorists.

This Asharq Alawsat article notes that over 15,000 Saudi students had applied for scholarships to the US.

Take a Bold Initiative
Dr. Salem Ahmad Sahab, Al-Madinah

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry took a bold step when it decided to allow businesswomen to stand for election to the board of directors of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). There is nothing unusual in the decision since women are qualified to be members of its board of directors with the same rights as the male members who have monopolized the board for the past half century or so.

It is very reasonable to ask in this context why the Commerce Ministry does not take even more democratic decisions — such as reviewing the practice of electing only half the directors of the chamber of commerce and appointing the other half. The reason why the ministry appoints members is its desire to guarantee that the board has highly capable members, alongside those who are elected, perhaps for reasons other than their business acumen. However, some believe that there is no justification in continuing the practice as, these days, people in general and businessmen in particular are more aware than in the past. An average elector has a relatively high level of maturity which qualifies him to elect members with the necessary expertise.

This is an interesting article translated from the Arabic daily Al-Madinah. The writer says it’s time to get rid of appointed positions on the board of directors for the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The Chamber is a big deal; all major businesses and many smaller ones are members. They have a political voice that is listened to by the government.

But half the members of the board are appointed by government. The members of the Chamber are fully professional, well-educated, serious people. They ought to be able to govern themselves without guidance from above.

This is an important push for democratization within Saudi Arabia. It will bear upon the future of other organizations–such as the municipal councils for which elections were held earlier this year–which have appointed as well as elected members.

Prince Muqrin New Intelligence Chief
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 23 October 2005 — Prince Muqrin, formerly governor of Madinah, has been appointed head of the general intelligence. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday announced the appointment.

“Prince Muqrin ibn Abdul Aziz has been appointed president of the General Intelligence with the rank of minister,” said the royal decree. Prince Muqrin replaces Prince Nawaf, who was the Kingdom’s intelligence chief until he was relieved of his duties by King Fahd in January. The post was earlier held by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, current Saudi ambassador to the United States.

King Abdullah continues to reorganize the Saudi government to suit his preferences. In addition to Prince Muqrin’s transfer, the King accepted the resignation of Prince Saud ibn Fahd, vice president of intelligence and appointed Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed, former deputy governor of Qassim, as governor of Madinah.

Reformatting the Middle East
Dr. Khaled Batarfi, kbatarfi@al-madina.com

Like democracy, “reform” is a catchword these days in the Arab world. Leaders promise it, media sing it, and people wish to believe it. But is it believable? Or is it just too good to be true? Or maybe something in between — buy one true promise and get ten lies free?

Before we decide which case is the case, let us review our progress on the road to reforms, so far.

Dr. Batarfi, always interesting even when I think he’s wrong, is on-point here. His op-ed piece for the Arab News gives a brief survey of Middle Eastern history, from WWI to the present. A constant, he says, has been the promise of reform and the failure to deliver. He stresses that the goal is worth the effort and it begins with the development of civil society, with civic institutions. Read the whole thing.

Book Sheds Light on Flaws in Education System
Raid Qusti, Arab News

RIYADH, 23 October 2005 — A Saudi woman professor at King Saud University has written a book entitled “My School Is a Locked Box.” The book discusses at length the many flaws in the educational system and is available in Arabic in local bookstores. The author, Dr. Fawziah Al-Bakr, who received her education at the University of London, said that she wrote the book in order to show “how schools frame the way we look at things.”

Raid Qusti, who covers Saudi social issues very well for the Arab News has written about a new Saudi book that goes into the serious problems with the Saudi education system. Text books are one matter, but more important–and more insidious when abused–is what goes on in the classrooms.

Asked why she had chosen her title, Dr. Al-Bakr said that she was telling the truth in describing the Saudi education system as a “locked box.” She explained, “You send your children to school thinking that they will learn to read or write or to do math or understand science. But do we really know what is going on there, in the box? When our children sit for six hours in school, what are they taught? Only numbers and facts? No, not at all.”

She continued, “I believe that because we were unaware of what was going on in the locked box — at least for the past 20 years — that a number of elements which ultimately led to terrorism crept in…”

Dr. Al-Bakr asked a very pertinent question: “Who gave her these powers? It is certainly not a part of her job description.” She said that there is a general trend in Saudi society for anyone who says that he/she is defending tradition or religious values to be allowed to get away with almost anything “no matter how extreme it is. If a principal has this sort of power over teachers, just imagine the power teachers have over students. Complete submission. It is a whole culture,” she said.

And there it is…

Editorial: Mehlis Report

NOW that the UN probe into the murder of former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, has implicated high-ranking Syrian officials in the crime, Syria seems to be heading for a showdown not just with the United States, but the world body itself. When a respected neutral investigator names members of the inner circle of President Bashar Assad as involved in the dastardly murder, what Syria must do is to prove the charges wrong with evidence that will withstand judicial scrutiny. But its first reaction has been one of angry denials. Damascus must do better than this, otherwise the serious allegations contained in the report will be a festering wound opening the way for further US-led moves for sanctions against Syria in the UN Security Council.

The UN report may well be wrong in concluding, as it does, that there was “ a probable cause” to believe that top Syrian officials were involved in the plot to kill Hariri but to attack the report as “unprofessional” is both futile and dangerous. The investigation led by Detlev Mehlis concluded it had received only limited cooperation from the Syrian government. The clear inference is that the investigating team believed that the Syrians and their supporters in the Lebanon had something to hide and did their best to keep it hidden. There is an easy way to disprove this claim. The Syrian authorities can produce records, perhaps even transcripts of the interviews that were held by the UN team with Syrians as part of their investigation. These ought to show clearly whether or not the responses were full and frank or whether awkward questions were headed off. Likewise, now that a series of allegations has been published, it is open to Damascus and indeed to Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud, who is also linked to the crime, to disprove them in detail, one by one.

The Arab News editorializes on the Mehlis Report on the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Syria needs to take the report seriously, the paper says, and not try to deflect it with allegations of conspiracy.

Another article in the paper, this one datelined Damascus, quotes the useless “defense” that the Syrians are trying to put up now:

Syrian satellite TV quoted Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah as saying that “the report is 100 percent politicized as it is based on fabrications and accounts of some witnesses known for being enemies of our country.”

Describing the report, composed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, as an unprofessional political statement, Dakhlallah said that the findings of the probing “is part of a large-scale campaign against our country.”

Earlier, Dakhlallah told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television that Mehlis’ report “lacks proper evidence and testimonies since it was compiled in a way to serve the parties and individuals who intentionally wanted to accuse Syria of Hariri’s assassination.”

Syria needs to do better than that. If it doesn’t it’ll be faced with crushing economic sanctions that the country’s poor economy will scarcely bear. Let’s see if it’s smart enough to do so. Or able to do it without causing an internal revolution. Getting rid of the Ba’ath Party might seem a good idea, but a collapse would not serve anyone’s interests.

Our Diplomats’ Arabic Handicap
By Jennifer Bremer
Sunday, October 16, 2005; B01

Karen Hughes, the new head of public diplomacy for the Bush administration, came back from the Middle East last month chastened by the communications chasm looming between the region’s public and ourselves. She had seen firsthand that there are few quick fixes in the Middle East. But we do have one simple option that could move us a big step forward: teaching our diplomats to speak Arabic.

At a time when the U.S. government has an urgent need both to understand what’s being said in the Arab world and to express our own views clearly, surely every U.S. embassy in the Mideast is staffed with at least several American diplomats who speak Arabic, right? Well, no. Four years after 9/11, we’re still a very long way from achieving this fundamental goal, as the State Department’s internal performance reviews and interviews with human resource and language training staff make clear. Policy is not the problem: State Department planning documents call for increased Arabic language capabilities in the Foreign Service. The problem is that the way we’re going about meeting this goal guarantees failure.

To understand why requires a safari into the bureaucratic undergrowth, so grab your machete…

This is an excellent article from The Washington Post on the limitations of Arabic language competence that face the US government, particularly the Dept. of State. While the author doesn’t go into it, her remarks pertain as well to the Dept. of Justice (particularly the FBI) and foreign intelligence agencies. Read the article soon, because it’s going to disappear behind the Post‘s firewall soon.

Arabic, along with Chinese, Japanese, and a couple of others, is considered a “hard language,” one that takes at least two years’ intensive study to reach true competence. “Intensive” means “really intensive.” Class work averages six hours per day, exclusive of homework, five days per week. No leave is permitted other than federal holidays (or local ones, if the student is overseas). But as the writer, a former Foreign Service Officer, notes, the measure of competence is set somewhat low.

It is adequate for some jobs, particularly ones that deal with a set subject matter. After my first year of study in Washington, I was, actually, competent to deal with politics, economics, and to a large extent militaria.

But my job in Public Diplomacy required much more than that, as became blindingly obvious in my first assignment when I was requested by the road manager of an American performing group to ask the local electrician whether or not a stage had “three phase power.” I realized that the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) hadn’t prepared me for my job, but for an abstract “American diplomatic need for Arabic.” Public Diplomacy positions, particularly, require a higher level of Arabic.

I was lucky with my second year of Arabic study, two years later. Instead of going to the FSI advanced school in Tunisia, I was sent to a private school in Cairo. The head of the Arabic program there–who later went on to join USIA, then the USG’s public dipomacy agency–understood the needs of my job and the curriculum he developed reflected that. He made sure that I got into the down-and-dirty, with fieldtrips to the slums of Cairo, with assigned readings and discussions (in Arabic) from the Quran and pre-Islamic poetry, from Arabic school textbooks, and from the inside pages of Arabic newspapers and popular magazines.

The writer is utterly factual when she discusses the difficulty in staffing positions where Arabic is critical. When I first arrived in Riyadh, I had two (of three) staff positions filled with excellent Arabic speakers. One was simply a linguistic marvel, speaking seven or either difficult languages with top-notch fluency. The other was an American married to an Arab. When they rotated out of their positions, though, they took their abilities with them. Their replacements, whatever their professional competencies (which were high), they had no Arabic language skills whatsoever. That hurt. As the office expanded, post 9/11, more officers came in, but only one–a former US Army officer–brought Arabic with him.

Staffing positions in Riyadh is difficult at the best of times. It is a harsh social and physical environment. Given a choice, most officers will choose anywhere else, particularly if they are female, have families, or demand an active cultural life. After the bombings in Riyadh in 2003, it became even more difficult because families were no longer permitted at post.

Clearly, a better balance between the disincentives for longer study (including the fact that one is simply out of the career loop while studying) and incentives (money seems to be the easiest to realize), is needed. State has tried to reduce the disincentives. For instance, one cannot be promoted if one hasn’t served in a hardship or greater hardship post in the past several years. And it does have incentives, including a 5% pay increase while filling a language-designated position at a sufficiently high level of language ability. But it’s also clear that these aren’t getting the job done.

It would be a useful bit of legacy if Undersecretary Hughes could manage to make a higher level of language competence required of Public Diplomacy officers.

Shi’a Shaykh on Saudi TV

Al-Arabiya reports today on a controversy brewing in Saudi Arabia over plans to broadcast a Shi’a cleric on Saudi Television’s religious programming for the first time. According to the story, internet chat rooms are going crazy over the reports that Shaykh Hassan al-Saffar had already recorded two segments for broadcast on the official Saudi television station. Saudi TV officials have denied the stories as “unjustified rumours”, while Saffar confirmed to al-Arabiya that he had in fact recorded the segments, and had not been contacted about any plans to cancel their scheduled broadcast.

Given the rather extreme anti-Shi’ism rampant in Saudi Wahhabism, as well as the structural bias against Shi’a within the Saudi state, this would be a rather remarkable development.

“Rather remarkable development”, indeed! This would be a major, groundbreaking event, providing official recognition of the legitimacy of the Shi’a version of Islam as at least non-objectionable, if not out-and-out support of it. While King Abdullah, as Crown Prince, made clear his willingness to meeting with the Shi’a and to publicize those meetings, this would definitely be a step further down the road. But, as this post from the Abu Aardvark blog notes, it’s not a done deal yet.

From Saddam’s Trial to Syrian Suicide: Accountability comes to the Arab World
Mona Eltahawy — Asharq Alawsat

CAIRO – Are we seeing the start of an Arab Autumn?

On Oct. 18 former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein takes the stand on charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial for a 1982 massacre of Shiites. A week later, the U.N. investigator’s report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is due before the Security Council.

The sight of Iraqis and Palestinians voting earlier this year and of the Lebanese who turned out in their thousands to protest Hariri’s assassination was called an Arab Spring for spurring talk of change in the Arab world.

With Saddam Hussein standing before prosecutors and the names of the rich and the powerful of Syria and Lebanon on the pages of the Mehlis report, October could be the start of an Arab Autumn, in which we shed the old and prepare for the new.

Accountability is a rare commodity in the Arab world. We are so unused to seeing officials held accountable that the sight of Saddam answering charges may prove cathartic for people across the entire Arab world, not just in Iraq.

I can almost guarantee there will be calls for a fair trial from countries where such a thing is a luxury. And for those who insist on complaining about the “humiliation” enacted upon Saddam, that is exactly the point.

Mona Eltahawy is definitely on-target with this article from the Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat.

There’s far to much of a tendency to look for someone else to blame when bad things happen. Whether it’s to haul out an old grudge, to fall back on anti-colonialist rhetoric from a now-distant age, or simply to ascribe it to the will of God, a sense of personal responsibility is in short supply across the Middle East.

Lest one think that Eltahawy is simply an American “stooge,” she continues:

We have not forgotten that like other dictators, Saddam was at one time an ally of the same United States that invaded Iraq to remove him from power. So just as there will be many in the Arab world who will be squirming with discomfort as they see Saddam in the role of the accused, some squirming is called for from the United States too for a foreign policy that has all too often bolstered dictators.

But for this moment of reckoning I agree with my Iraqi friend – “Even if Satan himself offered help to the Iraqi people I think they would have accepted”.

While I opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I was never against the removal of Saddam Hussein. Justice must be served for the thousands upon thousands of lives he ruined.

There are no tears to shed for a reckless dictator who ruined Iraq while too many of his neighbours either looked away or stayed shamefully quiet.

Although this initial trial is specific to charges from 1982, it is a symbolic start to the process of accountability the he must face for the countless other massacres and atrocities that he committed against Iraqis.

She’s right, on all counts.

A somewhat similar editorial is on offer from the Arab News:

Editorial: Saddam in the Dock

WHEN Saddam Hussein stood for re-election in 2002, he received 100 percent of the vote. More remarkably, the electoral authorities managed to complete the count the same day. Such was the vanity of the dictator that he could not tolerate the idea that anyone in the country might not approve of his bloody rule.

A more general view of Saudi reactions is reported at Mixed Saudi Reactions to Saddam’s Court Appearance And an apt editorial cartoon, which will disappear when the next one appears.

Liberate Our Books From Censorship
Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, comments@d-corner.com

RAMADAN is a time of forgiveness and reprieve. Many prisoners are freed and many more forgive their private grievances. Is it too much to hope that books receive such treatment? While the world sheds its chains we have censorship offices in town and on our borders and airports that live in pre-industrial times.

They are petty dictators who rule according to their own whims. The citizen does not know what is allowed and what isn’t. And neither do they; but they will pass judgment and make life miserable for anyone who brings in a book picked up at the airport somewhere.

Doesn’t the minister in charge of this apparatus understand that no one brings in anything anymore? Who would bring a CD of pornographic movies and risk detention when it can be downloaded on the Net? Direct links to the web are there and no one can censor them. If sedition or “anti-Saudi” material is the stuff we are looking for, why bother when Aljazeera station is in every house?

Dr. Al-Rasheed, as usual, puts his finger on the problem. Censorship in the day of satellite TV and the Internet simply makes no sense. It only heightens the annoyance when minor officials at borders or post offices freely interpret poorly written regulation, banning what they choose to ban. Saudi Arabia does not have a problem with too much information, I believe, but with too little, outside a particular mindset.

There’s also a nice piece by Lubna Hussain in the October 21 issue of Arab News, We See Them, We Hear Them, but We Can’t Name Them. The article describes the lengths to which the so-called guardians of morality will go to be protective, with no ability whatsoever to see how idiotic it all is.

NSC Given Wide Powers

JEDDAH, 19 October 2005 — The newly created National Security Council (NSC) will enjoy wide powers, including the right to declare emergency and war as well as to investigate security agencies if they are found negligent in fulfilling their duties, informed sources said, quoting NSC’s rules and regulations. The NSC, the first of its kind in the Arab world, has been given wide powers to deal with corruption and negligence of public duties.

According to the first article of the NSC laws and regulations, the council will work to protect the Kingdom’s political, economic, military, security and social interests. “It will also review internal and external situations having a direct bearing on national security,” the article stipulates.

As part of a reorganization, the Saudi government has established its own National Security Council, with Prince Bandar–formerly Saudi ambassador to the US as its Director General. This Arab News article reports on the powers being given to the NSC. They seem pretty extensive.

The power to investigate security agencies provides at least a measure of accountability to those agencies. Until now, they were pretty much immune to outside criticism.