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Al-Qaeda Has Penetrated the Saudi Military

[Ynet News] Yaakov Lappin - An impending $20 billion American arms deal with Saudi Arabia, in which the Saudis would receive state-of-the-art military equipment over the next decade, is fraught with potential dangers for Israel, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold said Tuesday in an interview. "There are a broad set of very possible scenarios that Israel certainly has to take into consideration. Several years ago, Israel received reports of the interrogation of al-Qaeda captives who admitted that their organization had penetrated the Saudi Arabian air force, and that it was planning to take control of several Saudi F-15s based at Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, near Eilat, and fly the planes into skyscrapers in Tel Aviv," Gold said. "From the pattern of past al-Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia, many Western observers have concluded that elements of the Saudi national guard colluded with the attackers," he added. "Israel doesn't have to roll back to 1967 lines in order to get a Saudi foreign minister to attend a Middle East peace summit." "Up until recently, Saudi Arabia was the primary funder of Hamas during the high point of the suicide bombing attacks against Israel." Citing a written pledge made by Bush to former prime minister Sharon, according to which Israel would not be expected to withdraw to the 1967 lines, Gold said: "By embracing the Arab peace initiative (which calls for an Israeli retreat to the '67 lines), the Bush administration is creating some confusion over whether Bush's assurances to Sharon still stand. And therefore, it should issue a clarification in this regard."
2007-08-01 01:00:00
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