Word: bins
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...been that al-Qaeda lacked a capability inside the kingdom to launch attacks. But the Riyadh bombings show plainly that they had the capability, so why didn't they use it? Another reason might be that they feared a backlash from ordinary Saudis. Many Saudis may sympathize with Bin Laden's ideas, but they don't want to see their country convulsing with chaos and violence. And, of course, terror attacks inside the kingdom would also invite a crackdown on those most sympathetic to Bin Laden's ideas. But these attacks may mark a new phase of their campaign...
...kingdom. But by attacking so boldly in the center of Riyadh, in compounds in the center of the city guarded by the government, the attackers are certainly issuing a direct challenge to the government. It's a way of attacking the regime without spilling Arab or Muslim blood. Bin Laden will get into trouble in the Arab world once he starts wars among the Muslims themselves. Even many of those who applauded 9/11 may turn on Bin Laden if their country descends into chaos and fratricidal war among Muslims...
...Bin Laden is clearly in a long-term fight, calculating when he can do what. Clearly they feel this is a good time to strike given the historic changes in the region. Although the fatalities are nothing near the scale of 9/11, it was a massive attack politically, because it happened in the heart of Riyadh after two years of the war on terrorism and warnings of Saudi extremism. This was meant not only to kill Americans, but also to send an earthquake through the Saudi government. Hitting Saudi Arabia is a major escalation...
...Iraq was a major challenge to al-Qaeda, whose propaganda had always maintained that the U.S. lacked the stomach for a fight, and whose leader's audiotaped call for retaliation for the U.S. invasion went largely unheeded. But lest anyone count Osama bin Laden's movement out of the post-Saddam Middle East equation, it struck back to devastating effect in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday: Some 29 people, including at least eight Americans are reported to have been killed in three coordinated suicide bombing attacks on heavily-guarded compounds housing foreigners in Riyadh. The attack was not wholly unexpected...
...Before 9/11, Afghanistan had served as a global hub and sanctuary for al-Qaeda, allowing it to run massive training camps to which tens of thousands of volunteer jihadis had flocked from all over the world. But the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime put Bin Laden's men to flight, forcing them to scatter and decentralize their operations across Pakistan's cities and tribal areas, in remote parts of Chechnya and Georgia, in Morocco, Yemen and other Arab countries, possibly even in Iran according to some intelligence estimates, and, more recently, once again inside Afghanistan's increasingly anarchic...