Word: saudi
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...Last week's dramatic arrests of Al Tbaiti, 26, from Mecca, and two alleged Saudi accomplices, Hilal Alissiri, 31, from Najran, and Abdullah Al Ghamdi, 21, from Gueddana, was not simply a lucky break. The Moroccan agents ambushed the trio after tailing them for more than a month, the result of a tip from the CIA based on U.S. interrogations of al Qaeda members detained in Guantanamo...
Zuher Al Tbaiti might have been another departing Saudi tourist as he walked through Mohammed V airport in Casablanca for a flight to Jidda. Thousands of Arabs from oil-rich Gulf states visit Morocco every year, delighting in the North African folklore, agreeable climate and spicy night life. Al Tbaiti, though, seems to have been seeking kicks of a different sort. As he prepared to board the aircraft, Moroccan agents swooped in and led him away. They believe that a second fake passport and thousands of dollars in undeclared currency they found in Al Tbaiti's bags help explain...
...Cole Yemen, that killed 17 Americans. Tbaiti's controller, sources tell TIME, was the same operative - an Al Qaeda commander known as Mullah Blal - who directed the Cole bombing in October 2000. The sources say that within the past month, Al Tbaiti and at least one of the other Saudi suspects traveled to the northern Moroccan coast to launch preparations for attacking a U.S. or British warship passing through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. Using the meticulous planning for the Cole operation as their blueprint, they scouted for housing that could serve as a surveillance post overlooking refueling stations...
...Until early this year, according to an account given by the suspects during questioning, the three Saudis had been in Afghanistan, and they survived the heavy U.S. bombardment of Tora Bora. Like hundreds of other Bin Laden followers, they fled into Pakistan, where an Al Qaeda commander instructed them to disperse to countries where they could form sleeper cells without arousing suspicions. With their native Saudi Arabia on high alert for returning terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks, Morocco was a natural choice for Al Tbaiti and Alissiri: Both had married Moroccan women. Al Tbaiti's young bride...
...Saudis, Moroccan sources tell TIME, were told to be ready for two missions, one to be carried out in Morocco, another in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis wasted little time in setting up their Moroccan cell. Al Tbaiti married another local girl, meaning that he and Alassiri could blend into Moroccan life by staying with in-laws in the teeming Rabat casbah rather than in hotels where they might have eventually attracted police attention. Frequenting mosques and masquerading as businessmen, the Saudis had Moroccan acquaintances provide phone cards and bank accounts for local communications and money transfers totaling thousands of dollars...