my random thoughts....

 
"'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last,' Winston Churchill once said. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is learning this the hard way. ... Long in denial about militancy in its homeland, the Saudi royal family finds itself in the terrorist crosshairs. It must, once and for all, directly confront its homegrown extremists and root them out. For Islamic fundamentalism poses a grave threat not only to the West, but to the Saudi kingdom as well. The Saudi government should immediately increase security at likely civilian targets and act more decisively on intelligence tips. Ignoring even one request from U.S. officials for better security before last week's attack would have been bad enough; the Saudis ignored five. It was no one-time lapse. Saudi authorities have been uncooperative in investigating past attacks against Americans, including the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 airmen, and the Sept. 11th attacks. The kingdom reportedly spirited a number of its citizens out of the United States after 9/11 before it could be determined if they had information about the hijackers. ...Riyadh should shut off the unregulated flow of money leaving Saudi Arabia for the pockets of terrorists. ... Nineteen months into the antiterrorism war, Saudi Arabia is finally getting a wake-up call: No one is immune. The Saudis have pledged their full cooperation in the war on terrorism -- and the world deserves nothing less. It's high time we bagged this crocodile."
--Peter Brookes

posted by Greg at 2:44 PM