[Vancouver Sun] Peter Birnie - In The Siege of Mecca, Wall Street Journal writer Yaroslav Trofimov pulls back the curtain surrounding events that the Saudis would very much rather the world forgot. The November 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca laid the groundwork for al-Qaeda and the events of Sep. 11. Juhayman al-Uteybi led the siege. Driven by Wahhabi orthodoxy, Juhayman hated all infidels. America's then-president Jimmy Carter's naive faith in peacemaking was no match for fundamentalist fury. Carter's administration was busy propping up the Saudis even as outlandish conspiracy theories implicating the U.S. swept the Muslim world. Embassy staff fled murderous mobs from Pakistan to Libya. Damage from the siege and the battle to recapture it meant reconstruction costing billions - payable to the Bin Laden Construction Company.
2007-10-10 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive