The surrender of one of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted terrorists yesterday is a major success. There was skepticism abroad when King Fahd last week offered a one-month amnesty for Al-Qaeda killers operating in the Kingdom. Yet already two of these men have taken advantage of the assurance of personal safety and a trial under Shariah law.
The surrender of the more senior, Othman Hadi Al-Maqbul Al-Amri, is highly significant. At one level, the information that he is likely to be able to give the security forces will help track down other terrorists. During his two years on the run Al-Amri will have learned key details of how his fellow killers organize themselves. Even if any of this information is now out of date, it will provide important clues to the authorities as they hunt his accomplices. His defection will also have caused disruption to the terrorists, who must now be seeking to rebuild and relocate their gangs in response to whatever revelations Al-Amri may make. They cannot be sure how much he knows or how much he will tell. The only way they can be certain of covering their tracks is to change everything. In that very act of restructuring, they are exposing themselves to observation by alert citizens.
The second level in which Saudi Arabia and the wider world benefit from Al-Amri’s surrender is the effect his decision will have on the morale of other terrorists. Al-Qaeda has always presented itself as a fanatical, merciless organization none of whose members will be diverted from their awful conviction that they must destroy all who stand in their way. This self-image added to the horror caused by the murders and bombings. Now Al-Amri’s fellow killers must cope with the knowledge that they have been abandoned by one of their number, who chose to listen to the offer of clemency made by the Saudi government.
For the most bloodthirsty and fanatical, Al-Amri’s surrender will provoke only rage and a desire to strike back. However. there will be other Al-Amris among them for whom the increasing success of the security forces is beginning to sap their determination. These people may even be starting to realize that the cold-blooded carnage for which they have been responsible is going to change absolutely nothing and sullies the name of Islam in which they have claimed to act.
Such waverers now have less than a month in which to give themselves up, in the certainty that their lives will be spared. One can imagine how the terrorists in their hiding places, nervously looking at each other wondering who among them may be preparing to break ranks next. It will not be surprising if they start to butcher anyone suspected of weakness, as a warning to others in their midst.
We must hope that Al-Amri will not be the last of these criminals to surrender in the coming days and to take advantage of an act of mercy, mercy that they themselves have so utterly failed to show to their own victims.
