No good deed goes unpunished.
US neocons question whether Saudi Arabia is trustworthy company in the international community of civilized states, and whether it still has strong Al-Qaeda “ties.” But Saudi bashers were unequivocally answered early this month — not by words from spokesman Nail Al-Jubier, but by deeds, when terrorists bursting into the US Consulate compound in Jeddah, shooting doors off hinges, storming offices, and demanding “Americans” were met with Saudi soldiers’ blazing gunfire.
This scenario sends a chill down the spine of any American since militants overran the US Embassy in Tehran after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, holding the embassy personnel hostage for 444 days.
Did the Americans in Jeddah consulate recall the nightmarish scenes in Tehran on Dec. 6?
“Bring us the Americans!” the terrorists shouted.
Consulate employees, from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, did not aid the attackers or breach security to save themselves. “We said, ‘We don’t have any Americans,’” a Sri Lankan guard, related. The employees put up their hands, and then braced as the terrorists, holding guns to their heads, used them as human shields when the Saudi forces arrived and the big shootout began.
“Each one of the terrorists took a group of us,” said a consulate dispatcher, a Yemeni. “And thanks to God, the troops did not shoot at random. They aimed at the terrorists.”
And they aimed to kill.
Saudi troops killed Saudi terrorists, defended foreigners, non-Muslims, and Americans, and freed America’s compound.
But Simon Henderson says it’s not enough. The attack shows “that despite Saudi claims to the contrary, Al-Qaeda can still mount operations in the country.... Worryingly, there remain concerns not only about the effectiveness of Saudi security forces but also about their loyalty,” remarked Henderson, a British journalist-turned “energy consultant”-turned “Saudi expert”-turned associate of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which no less a neocon authority than commentator Bill O’Reilly calls “a pro-Israel think tank.”
We say in America, “Look who’s talking!” to informally indicate hypocrisy. But it’s also good advice to “look” carefully at “who’s talking,” to discern hidden motivations. Why might Simon Henderson disparage Saudi troops?
Henderson might know a thing or two about consular attacks since an Iranian “student” at a Tehran anti-American demonstration slashed his chin in 1979.
Most embassies and consulates throughout the world rely on the 1961 Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which entitles foreign states to depend almost entirely on host-nation soldiers and police or private security guards for protection, and Iranian soldiers then guarded the US Embassy in Tehran. The same day Henderson was slashed, an American Embassy staffer reported Iranian embassy guards had been replaced “with a fresh contingent after a soldier shoved an assault rifle into an American officer’s belly and laughingly said, ‘Yankee go home!’ The other soldiers laughed.”
An embassy security officer changed the guard, and when the original 60-soldier contingent drove off, “They were all bellowing, ‘Yankee go home,’ and they were not funny anymore,” the staffer recalled.
The militants’ takeover of the American Embassy followed shortly.
Eventually, this drama wound its way into the International Court of Justice as the “Hostages” case.
The court noted the militants attacking the embassy were not recognized Iranian agents, and refused to interpret the Ayatollah Khomeini’s remarks sympathizing with “young students” as authorizing the attack. The court did find Iran failed in its duty to protect the US Embassy and diplomats under the 1961 Convention and re-establish control of the premises.
Here, the Saudis suffered no such failure. Saudi soldiers did their job, killed terrorists, protected diplomats, and saved the day. So why does Simon Henderson now disparage their integrity?
Perhaps because a different kind of case is now winding its way through a US Federal Court-that of trial lawyer Ron Motley and neocon Alan Gerson, who represent Sept. 11 families suing Saudis. Simon Henderson implies dark motives even when Saudi troops do their job in an exemplary manner, saving lives and upholding international law.
Look who’s talking.
