JEDDAH, 10 June 2007 — The 11 terrorist financiers and plotters who were arrested by Saudi authorities last week were more dangerous than those who had carried out terrorist attacks in the Kingdom, Interior Minister Prince Naif stated yesterday.
“These arrested persons have played a big role in the terrorist incidents that have taken place in the Kingdom, much more than those who carried them out,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying.
Prince Naif said the terror operatives were just tools in the hands of the 11, who financed and organized the attacks. He hoped the arrest of the 11 would lead to the eradication of terrorism from the country.
“We believe that investigations of the 11 suspects will lead to good results,” the minister said. He confirmed that Saeed ibn Zaeer was one of the 11 who have been tracked down by security forces since last Tuesday.
“The monitoring by the security forces of the activities of the deviant group has led to the arrest of 11 Saudi nationals who incited and financed deviant activities,” the ministry said. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman for the ministry, said the terror suspects came from different regions of the Kingdom.
Prince Naif called for joint global efforts to track down those behind international terrorism. “In the absence of a joint global effort to reach the sources of terrorism and eradicate them, terrorism will remain,” he added.
The prince did not favor the idea of imposing quick punishment on terror suspects before transferring them to the judiciary. “We want to complete the investigations (with the suspects) to find out the truth and then hand them over to the court to give its verdict,” he said, adding that the terror suspects would be transferred to the judiciary soon. Prince Naif did not rule out the possibility of terror suspects having links with drug traffickers and money launderers. “We cannot either confirm or deny it because these people who take the killing of humans lightly and violate the teachings of Islam will not hesitate to adopt any method of making money,” he explained.
Prince Naif emphasized the need for preventing the spread of extremist and deviant ideologies in society as part of a security strategy. He called upon scholars to propagate true Islamic teachings. He highlighted the efforts made by security agencies for the arrest of a three-member group last week who allegedly used the Internet to plan terrorist attacks, recruit supporters and publish tracts on militant ideology.
In his wide-ranging interview with Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, Prince Naif defended the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, saying it should not be blamed for the unintentional mistakes committed by some of its members. “The commission is a government agency. Such things may happen but if we say that things were done intentionally, that is wrong. The commission’s leadership is concerned with such matters. ... The deaths that have been reported could have taken place as a result of other reasons,” he said.
“We have full confidence in this agency, that it will not resort to measures that will lead to death. The incidents are being investigated and we hope the truth will prevail. I am 100 percent sure that neither the commission nor the state accepts such mistakes. This commission is not meant to cause harm to people and is supervised by officials who believe in God and who know their responsibilities. If anything has happened, we should consider that it was the mistakes of individuals and we should not blame the whole organization for it,” he added.
However, he pointed out that the commission officials should coordinate with security agencies when dealing with matters related to security.
