Saudi Official Says Exit Preceded Blasts
The Washington Post
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 20 (Tuesday) -- Members of an al Qaeda cell are believed to have fled Saudi Arabia for the United States or Europe shortly before the recent bombings here, and U.S. and Saudi officials fear an imminent attack on U.S. soil or against Americans overseas, a Saudi official with access to intelligence material from the United States and the kingdom said today.
The disclosure, by a high-ranking Saudi official who spoke on condition of anonymity, comes as the Saudis are eager to demonstrate their cooperation with the United States following the recent deaths of eight Americans in synchronized bombing attacks on three residential compounds in the Saudi capital. Thirty-four people were killed in the devastating attacks, including nine suicide bombers.
Other U.S. and Saudi officials, though also concerned about fresh attacks, said they were not able to confirm the movement of the cell.
The Saudi official said a high volume of “chatter” -- intelligence intercepts -- has dramatically intensified fears of new attacks and is close to the level of communications intercepted before the strikes against the Riyadh compounds.
The Saudi official said there were at least three al Qaeda cells with about 50 hard-core operatives in the kingdom before the bombings. He acknowledged that there was a much wider circle of sympathizers, and U.S. officials broadly agreed with his analysis.
“We don’t believe there are tens of thousands of active al Qaeda members here, but we believe the al Qaeda presence is more than a single cell or two cells,” a senior U.S. official told reporters today.
After a raid on an al Qaeda safe house in Riyadh on May 6, the government published the photographs of 19 alleged members of one cell. Saudi officials say they now believe that all nine of the dead bombers belonged to that group, though only three have been conclusively identified through DNA testing, the Saudi official said.
Both U.S. and Saudi officials said the raid on the group’s hide-out, which turned up a huge cache of weapons and explosives, might have spurred the group to accelerate its plans. The Saudi official said that three days before the attacks, the group went silent, heightening a sense of dread among officials that an attack was imminent.
“But we didn’t know where or when,” the Saudi official said.
The raid on the group prompted the members of another al Qaeda cell, with whom the first group had contact, to flee the country, he said.
Police found handwritten notes by the group of 19 in the safe house suggesting that they or their allies “consider America as an enemy and target.” The Saudi official, however, declined to say whether the notes included specific plans.
He said copies of the notes had been handed over to U.S. investigators. A team of about 60 U.S. personnel, including officials from the FBI and the CIA, are now in Saudi Arabia investigating the bombings.
U.S. and Saudi officials here are at pains to highlight what they say is excellent cooperation between the two countries’ security services, which have clashed in the past over the conduct of investigations.
Before a dinner he held for foreign journalists tonight at his palace in Riyadh, Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said, “My gut feeling is that something big will happen either in Saudi Arabia or America.”
“Yes, there is chatter,” Bandar said, speaking in an ornate Bedouin tent on the grounds of the palace, “and high levels of chatter both regionally and in other international spots. . . . I’m confident we’ll get them in the end. But the question is, will it be early enough or not?”
President Bush said Monday that the al Qaeda network was still “plotting to kill,” and that Americans should be on the alert.
Saudi authorities continue to maintain a high level of security as new threats surface.
A Saudi man carrying a machine gun and a pistol was arrested just outside the security perimeter of the U.S. consulate in Dhahran this morning. A Saudi official said the man was wanted on drug charges and claimed after his arrest that he was approaching the consulate to seek political asylum. The consulate was closed for the day as U.S. officials reviewed security arrangements because the man had crossed one Saudi-manned checkpoint on the way to the building while carrying his weapons.