More than 200 Saudi alleged terrorists arrested November 29, 2007

Saudi Arabia has announced that following an investigation lasting several months more than 200 Saudi and foreign nationals have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in terrorism.

The arrests took place over the past few months but were kept secret so as not to jeopardize ongoing investigations, a Ministry of the Interior official said Wednesday.

Eight of those being held are accused of involvement in a plot to attack an oil facility in the Eastern Province, where much of the nation’s oil industry is based, and had set a date for the attack.

Another militant cell is alleged to have planned to assassinate Saudi religious figures and security officials, while a separate cell allegedly planned to smuggle eight shoulder-fired rockets into the kingdom from Yemen for terrorist operations.

The official said 112 of those arrested were “linked in with elements stationed abroad who facilitate the exit and travel of those to conflict zones” such as Iraq.

U.S. military officials have said that Saudis make up the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Iraq, while a Saudi Counterterrorism official noted that fighters returning from Iraq to Saudi Arabia represent a “troubling” phenomenon.

Thirty-two individuals — Saudis and non-Saudis — were arrested for allegedly providing financial support to other militants; 16 others were arrested for alleged involvement in the publication of a militant newsletter called Sada Alrafidain.

According to the Saudi counter-terrorism official, the number of arrests is the largest ever announced by the ministry.

The Saudi official said the Saudi government released the information before the Hajj pilgrimage season, when 2 million pilgrims travel to the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, in order “to alert the public of the ongoing threat to security in the kingdom.

It should be noted that Yemen has close links with Al Qaeda, therefore the arrests could represent a very big blow to the efforts of Al Qaeda to gain world domination via the setting up of a world wide caliphate which is one of the aims of Osama Bin Laden.

Saudis claim "rape victim" was guilty of adultery November 28, 2007

As a follow up to the story about the woman who has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail because she was raped, the Saudi authorities have now claimed that the young woman has confessed to having an affair with her male companion, even though she was recently married.

Considering the way in which women are treated in a country such as Saudi Arabia, I feel certain that torturing a person can get a confession even if the confession is not true. We have no reliable way of proving that the young woman did in fact confess to “adultery”, or whether she was tortured in order to obtain the confession. Such a confession, though has nothing at all to do with the fact that she and her companion were raped by 4 men.

It is a very barbaric society where women who have been raped end up being punished viz 200 lashes, or 6 months in jail. The message that is being sent to these young women is that they do not have the right to legally complain about rape because they will end up being punished, and probably tortured in order to extract a false confession.

Whilst I am against adultery, I do not believe in these barbaric punishments that are meted out under Sharia law. Everything is against the woman, and the perpetrators are allowed to get off with their crime. However, in this case the perpetrators had their sentences increased as well.