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The Saudis war on the evil death cult

Arab News Editorial:

THE siege is over. The security forces deserve the heartfelt thanks of the whole country for dealing with another group of brainwashed devotees to Al-Qaeda’s death cult who, if they had not been stopped in Dammam, would certainly have brought terror and destruction on a massive scale to somewhere or other in Saudi Arabia. We all need to be thankful because everyone in this country — Saudi, expatriate, Muslim, non-Muslim, rich, poor, male, female, old, young — is a potential victim. The terrorists do not care who they kill. That has been evident throughout their campaign of shootings and bombings.

It took three days before the building in which the extremists had holed up in could be stormed. It could have been earlier had those in charge thrown caution to the wind and everything in their armory at the building. But that would have caused great damage to the area. More importantly, it would have robbed the security forces of the best weapon they have in defeating these deviants — intelligence. It is information, gleaned from a variety of sources — from a shocked and sickened public, from the interrogation of suspects, from high-tech eavesdropping — that has helped the authorities to slowly gain the upper hand in the war against Al-Qaeda’s followers in the Kingdom.

Intelligence is the key to winning the war. That is keenly understood by the security forces. Comments during the siege by the Interior Ministry’s spokesman on security matters, Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki show exactly what the strategy is. The objective, he said, was to capture as many of the terrorists alive as possible so that they could give further information on what their friends might be planning. It is a strategy that works. So far, all the signs are that once these dangerously impressionable young men are captured, they sing like the proverbial canaries.

It appears the Saudis have learned the value of leaving the enmy's head attached in order to gain intelligence. It is also clear that they are aggressiviely pursuing the enemy. Zarqawi's pipeline of human bomb recruits appears to have dried up since the recent raids around the kingdom that netted over 40 al Qaeda ops. I also am pleased to see they have adopted my description of al Qaeda as a "death cult." It is now time for them to apply that designation to Hamas, Hezballah and Islamic Jihad.