(Weekly Standard/ FrontPageMagazine) Stephen Schwartz - Most Western media have reported the continuing attacks on U.S. troops in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. In a piece dated June 1, the Saudi website alsaha.com, which propounds the extremist views of the kingdom's official Wahhabi sect of Islam, proudly reported the combat deaths in Fallujah of two Saudi subjects. Meanwhile, on the ground in Iraq, Newsweek of June 16 quotes a U.S. intelligence officer in Baghdad as saying that, increasingly, Iraqi sources are identifying the armed men who are organizing to fight the coalition forces as Wahhabis. Said the U.S. intelligence officer, "Now, all of a sudden, these Wahhabi guys have been appearing. We're hearing that word a lot more: Wahhabi." The end of the war has provided the Wahhabis a new pretext for infiltration - humanitarian relief. The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), investigated by U.S. and other governments for involvement in the funding of terrorism across the globe, is lauded in the Saudi daily Al-Watan for its "relief work" in Sunni districts of Iraq. According to Iraqi sources inside the country, Wahhabi imams in the Fallujah mosques, as well as dozens of agitators from Saudi Arabia, have begun aggressive preaching of suicide bombings against coalition forces as part of a campaign of guerrilla warfare. There is a scheme to defeat the American intervention, and it originates in Saudi Arabia.
2003-06-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive