Bin Laden said to aim message at Saudis

By DONNA ABU-NASR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Osama bin Laden’s latest message, his first directed specifically at Saudis in years, has been widely seen as an attempt to show he is still a player in his homeland despite a security clampdown that has sharply limited al-Qaida’s field for terrorist operations in the conservative kingdom.

…

Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said bin Laden’s message was a reflection of how weakened he and al-Qaida had become. “He’s now resorting to political rhetoric to try to influence the people,” Jordan said.

One way bin Laden is trying to do that is by ridiculing upcoming, three-stage municipal elections in the kingdom, which begin in February and are seen as an attempt by the government to open the country to political reform.

“This hasn’t changed anything. …The best they can do is that they will go into the elections game as happened before in Yemen and Jordan or Egypt and move in a vicious circle for dozens of years. This is regardless of the fact that it is prohibited to enter the infidel legislative councils,” bin Laden said.

Jordan said bin Laden’s reference to the elections “shows he’s very nervous” about them.

“He’s trying create the same kind of divisiveness we’re seeing in Iraq about the elections, but I don’t think he’s going to succeed because Saudi Arabia is a much more homogenous society,” he said.

Jordan also said it would be hard for the militants to carry out a huge attack on oil installations in the kingdom that would significantly disrupt production or distribution. At most, isolated attacks could be launched on less-guarded areas, he said, adding that targeting the kingdom’s oil industry could backfire.

“This (oil) is the entire economic base of the country, and even those who might be critical of the West or America will be greatly offended by any destruction of their really only means of economic progress and survival,” he said.