Saudi Arabia's New Terror

By Scott MacLeod and Bruce Crumley

The terrorist attack on the al-Muhaya housing enclave in Riyadh on Nov. 8 that killed 18 Muslims has shocked and sickened many Saudi citizens. "Any sympathy [for Osama bin Laden] has more or less evaporated," contends Saudi journalist Tariq Alhomayed. But the rotten public-relations fallout is not likely to alter al-Qaeda's plans. Saudi officials are preparing for the worst as 2 million of the faithful converge next week on the holy city of Mecca to celebrate the Eid ul-Fitr feast. Saudi officials say they dispatched 4,700 extra security forces there last week after foiling a plot that included plans to set off car bombs next to the Grand Mosque. Such attacks aim to undermine the authority of the Saudi royal family, whose legitimacy derives from its role as the protector of Islam's holiest shrines. "The government sees this as a direct threat to the regime and to stability, and they are confronting it as such," says Gary Grappo, U.S. charge d'affaires in Riyadh.

Al-Qaeda, meanwhile, has taken measures to counter the government's crackdown, which began after terrorists struck a Riyadh housing complex on May 12, killing 34 people. A CD found with radical Islamists in Saudi Arabia shortly before the al-Muhaya bombing and provided to TIME by French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard shows four Saudi jihadists praising bin Laden and warning infidels, "We will not let you live safely." They go on to tout an "impending act" that, they suggest, they won't survive. Intelligence sources tell Jacquard that the four participated in the May bombing. The CD also features a bone-chilling cell-phone call that two of the terrorists apparently made from a car as they launched their May attack. It lasts 7 min. 21 sec. and closes with bursts of gunfire, remote screams of alarm and shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" This is propaganda, and it's aimed at die-hard followers of bin Laden. Jacquard believes the group wants to provoke a bloody war between its core supporters and Saudi authorities--much like the conflict in Algeria that has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past decade. "As in Algeria," he says, "jihadists in Saudi Arabia are telling the people, You're either with us or against us." --By Scott MacLeod and Bruce Crumley