JEDDAH, 27 August — None of the Saudi nationals arrested in the Kingdom since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US have direct links to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network, a high-ranking Saudi official disclosed yesterday.
“Interrogations are ongoing with Saudis arrested after Sept. 11. It has not been established that they have direct links to Al-Qaeda,” Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmad told Al-Watan daily.
But Prince Ahmad, who did not reveal the number of those arrested, refused to rule out the possibility that a number of them may have indirect links to Al-Qaeda, blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 attacks.
“There are indications that some persons have links to (Al-Qaeda) members through (ideological) recruitment or facilitating their travel,” he explained.
Prince Ahmad added that one of the Saudis arrested in June, along with five other nationals and a Sudanese citizen in connection with the smuggling of Russian-made anti-aircraft SAM-7 missiles, worked for a military establishment.
“But it has not been established that he had a direct role in smuggling the missiles. He had indirect links with the smugglers. We can say he had been deceived by trusting one of the network’s sympathizers and facilitated what he requested,” he said.
The seven-man group was allegedly planning bomb and missile attacks in the Kingdom, notably against an airbase and other vital installations.
Authorities also detained another group consisting of five Saudis and an Iraqi who sheltered the Sudanese and helped him to leave the Kingdom. Sudan later deported him to Saudi Arabia.
Prince Ahmad told Okaz newspaper that many of the 125 Saudis held at a US military base on suspicion of links to “terrorism” were youngsters duped into joining fighters in Afghanistan.
He said no charges were yet filed against any Saudis at Guantanamo base in Cuba who were captured during the US-led war against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban government that harbored them in Afghanistan.
“Many among the Saudi detainees are young and were fooled or inflamed by media reports about the situation in Afghanistan and the jihad (holy war) so they went there without consulting (Muslim) scholars or their parents,” the prince said.
“There are some detainees who were working with charitable and humanitarian organizations, but they are few,” he told Okaz.
A Saudi team has visited the Saudi prisoners and the Kingdom is negotiating with US authorities to release them, he said. Saudi Arabia has said it wanted all Saudi suspects handed over to Riyadh when US authorities are through with them
“The Americans showed understanding to the situation of those detainees but the issue requires more time and talks,” Prince Ahmad said. US authorities have refused to give the detainees in Guantanamo prisoner-of-war status as set out under the Geneva Conventions and are reserving the right to present them before secret US military tribunals that have the power to impose the death penalty. Prince Ahmad added that Saudi Arabia is making an “effective contribution” to the US-led “war on terror” and that reports in the US media to the contrary do not reflect the truth.
Asked about three Saudis detained in Morocco for allegedly planning attacks on Western warships in Gibraltar Strait, Prince Ahmad said: “Investigations by the brothers in Morocco are still going on and Saudi investigators have met the accused but we cannot judge yet if they were involved in terror acts.”
