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Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200311030753.asp
Keys to Understanding the War Over the War on Terrorism
(National Review) - Rich Lowry In November 1995, a bomb exploded at an office of the Saudi National Guard in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. In June 1996, a massive bomb exploded at the eight-story Khobar Towers complex, killing 19 U.S. servicemen. The pattern of Saudi non-cooperation had been set after the Riyadh bombing, when the Saudis denied FBI agents access to four suspects, and swiftly beheaded them. The price of not getting to the bottom of the matter wasn't just shrugging off the murderer of 19 Americans. It was failing to understand fully the changing nature of the terror threat. "Khobar provided the keys that unlocked the new terror world," says one terror expert. "Everything you needed to know about the new terror network, the cooperation between all the different sects and factions, the rise of Wahhabi radicalism in Saudi Arabia, the changing dynamic of the Middle East - it all was present in that case."