Blame Saudi Arabia ?

[Lucky]

If the USA intelligence had information about terrorist attacks in SA, what responsibility did the USA have to notify those people residing in the areas of the planned attacks?

Is there some international rule that prevented us (USA) from doing what we asked SA to do regarding security?

[Whitehall]

The Saudis are doing a poor job against terrorists. Partially that\'s because of policy - the Saudis are really fighting a low level civil war that has continued since the last serious flareup in the 20\'s. Partially it\'s because of the leadership - the prince in charge is old and incompetent.

In any case, Saudi Arabia is a sovereign country and responsibility for criminal actions within their borders is their\'s. It seems that the US gave clear warnings to the right people in the Saudi government in a timely manner.

We don\'t rule the world, don\'t you know?

[Lucky]

Thanks for anwering. I had decided nobody on here was keeping up with the news.

I got the impression that the targets in SA were housing lots of Americans. Is that correct? My question is why we did tell the Americans to consider getting out of Dodge (since we had all of the info)?

Heard they are linking the attacks to OBL.

[Whitehall]

Our State Department has also issued warnings to American citizens overseas but there have been so many of them that the shock has worn off. Besides, we can\'t all run.

Yes, the compounds attacked were heavy with Americans although not exclusively.

Powell and others are saying that this is al-Quida\'s work. Democrats are trying to use that to attack Bush - can\'t they come up with any constructive criticism?

[Lucky]

That\'s what I was wondering. I guess it would be difficult to know if the threat was serious or not.

[Whitehall]

Here\'s an insight article that riffs on the civil war notion:

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1098

[Whitehall]

Here\'s another good piece on what\'s happening in Saudi Arabia:

http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/Comment/May03/index138.shtml