I was going to post this under Operation Matador in Northern Iraq, but nothing is more lonely than posting at the end of a cold thread. Kirk Sowell, author of the blog Windows on the Arab World has a very interesting piece on Saudi participation in the Iraq insurgency HERE. He speculates that the conflict in Iraq is radicalizing the Saudi National Guard, whose individual members are being lured into Iraq to fight with the insurgents. To quote:
What is happening is that members of the elite Saudi Arabia National Guard (SANG) are deserting and crossing the border into Iraq. To understand the significance of this, bear in mind that Saudi Arabia, with a native population of over 15 million and oil money to burn, has no real Army of its own. It does have an Air Force, and otherwise depends on the United States. The SANG, a well-paid, well-equipped and well-trained security force, is essentially the Saudi royal family's security force in case of an internal revolt. As bad as it is that some of its members are going to Iraq to join al-Qaeda, more ominous would be the radicalization of the SANG, and the threat of civil war in Saudi Arabia itself.
He also quotes from Geostrategy Direct that puts the figure of Saudi's recruited into Iraq at about 2,000. I'm just speculating here but having SANG members participate in the insurgency could explain recent reports by the military that the insurgents in the Matador operation were displaying more discipline and training. Interrogations could be revealing.

Re: Booby-trapped Saudi Arabia

How is the fact that Saudis booby-trapped their oil fields news? Rumours of this has been around for years, and are not far fetched.

If this web site - http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/natres/oil/2004/0204quest.htm- has any baring, the notion of a booby-trapped Saudi Arabia was mentioned at WSJ in early 2004:

"The idea of invading Saudi Arabia wasn't the work of cranks but of senior policy makers. Discussion of a military strike never got beyond the preliminary planning stage, but the idea terrified the Saudis, who laid plans to booby-trap oil wells."

JD, Kirk is good. Wish I'd found him earlier, lots of other good material on his site.

Interesting note re: the Saudi angle. Sounds like the Shi'ites of Iraq had inklings of this, as they've been referring to the terrorists as "Wahabbis" for a while.

I really doubt the oil fields are booby trapped. Saudi oil and gas is still heavily dependent of expat labor (Western) to such an extent that it seems impossible that a consipiracy of this sort could be maintained at critical junctures in the production and distibution process as to go undetected either in its construction or its preservation. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about foreign labor in the oil and gas fields.) Moreover the more sensational notion that the Saudi's (the Royalists no less) are prepared to render the Kingdom a radioactive wasteland strikes me as absurd. This is holy land. The royal family is the keeper of the worlds holiest Islamic shrines and supervises the Haaj. So they're going to contaminate the pennisula to the degree that Muslims will no longer be able to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca? I guess we can write-off the Saudi citizens themselves too. Saudi Arabia doesn't generate electricity from nuclear power (where is it getting the radioactive elements necessary for a dirty bomb anyway?) it gets electricity from oil and gas. That means no electricity - no desalinzation, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no power for pumps to draw water from underground - nothing to make Saudi habitable for the millons who now live there. Anyway you get my point.

OK, one more hat tip and then I'm off for the evening. Following the unanticipated consequences theme I'd like to point out a really interesting article in the Asian Times that made it to the CounterTerrorism blogs sidebar. HERE. Apparently the capture of al-Libbi in Pakistan violated a formal six month truce between the military govt of Pakistan and Al Qaeda according to Asia Times. Now what I find so encouraging out of this news is the possible impact on Afganistan. To quote:
The deal worked: the militants halted their actions and focused their attention on Afghanistan, where the Taliban had revived their activities in all zeal. Now the deal is in tatters.

Looks like that summer Taliban offensive in Afghanistan is going to be really scaled back while people settle scores in Pakistan.

The Madrid bombers were trained in al-Qaeda camps in Bosnia.

I wouldn't say so.

It was also reported that the explosives used in the terror acts were produced in Bosnia.

I don't think so.

Please, be carefull to separate the chaff from the seeds. Any Police chief in the world that wants to become famous simply has to arrest some Islamic extremists and link them to any major attack.

What is true is that there are fingerprints in the Leganes apartment that was blown up and in Morata, where some but not all the bombs were made, that belong to unidentified people. Thus there are many 3/11 perpetrators (around half of them) that we still not know who they are. It is far from being a case closed.

Of course I don't know whether there are people trained in Bosnia among them. Therefore I would say: Some Madrid bombers may have been trained in Al-Qaeda camps Bosnia

The dynamite used in the attack was made in Spain, sourced from the Explosives Plot in Asturias. It was said that some bombs were reinforced with TNT, a military explosive (for ordinance) not easy to obtain here, but I cannot confirm that. There are many rumours.

As a conclusion, and in spite that some Spanish Security Officials insist that the case is solved, there are still many dark corners, among them: the identification of the persons that built the bombs, the Europeans with foreign accent that bought the mobile phones, why some bombs have not been made in Morata, why they didn't use insulation tape to connect the wires, so some of them failed...

Finally, I want to point out that that same 3/11/2004 morning, the Spanish government issued an international request for information on the attack. The result is known, Mr. Aznar made it public in the Commission that investgates the facts: none. There was no international information about the plot. Have all the inteligence services been fooled? As Mr. Aznar minutes later declared in the Commission: We don't have to go to remote deserts to search for the masterminds of 3/11