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...aftershocks from the Jubail blast and firestorm are still being felt. Fearful of sabotage, Saudi Aramco, the country's national oil company, has since refused to hire any new Shi'ite workers, who until recently made up 40% of its work force. The company has traditionally been the only major employer in the Eastern province willing to employ Shi'ites and thus has served as an important path of upward mobility. "Shi'ite leaders are trying to convince the powers that be that ((Jubail)) was the act of a few individuals," says a U.S. official. "Unfortunately, the whole community...
...ites of Arabia's east coast have for decades met with cultural and religious intolerance from the dominant Wahhabi (Sunni fundamentalist) authorities. Among young Shi'ite men, the unemployment rate is 30%, and would be far higher but for Aramco...
...tiger of Shi'ite discontent first roared dangerously in 1979, when Shi'ites in Qatif defied local authorities during the holy period of Ashura. The ritual led to demonstrations that according to the Saudis ended only after the National Guard intervened, leaving 10 Shi'ites dead. According to U.S. sources, the denouement was even bloodier. "The National Guard is the core of the Wahhabi spirit," says a government analyst. "They take a certain pride in going down to the Eastern province and beating up Shi'a." Militants in Qatif responded by shooting 12 or 13 guardsmen; the guard sealed...
...unrest led the Saudi government to begin a major public-works program in the Shi'ite region, which has always produced the lion's share of modern Saudi Arabia's oil wealth and received little in return. The situation further improved in 1985 when the brutal administration in the province of the bin Jaluwi family was replaced by Mohammed bin Fahd, a former businessman and a . son of the King. Still, Ashura continues to be a time when grievances surface: demonstrations were put down violently again in late 1985. Just last year scores of Shi'ites mourning the death...
Ostrovsky's most sensational claim is that in 1983 Mossad received specific intelligence, down to the make of a Mercedes truck outfitted to carry bombs, that Shi'ite extremists in Beirut were planning a major terrorist attack. Though the U.S. forces then stationed in Lebanon were an obvious target possibility, Mossad officials only warned the U.S. in the most general terms. The attack was carried out at Marine Corps headquarters and resulted in 241 American deaths. Writes Ostrovsky: "The problem was that if we had leaked information and it was traced back, our informant would have been killed. The next...