(CNN) Ed Husain - Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the new Saudi crown prince, has been a vociferous enemy of al-Qaeda elements inside Saudi Arabia and eliminated hundreds of operatives, while arresting thousands since 2003. But this was not because he opposed jihadi ideology or Islamist thinking. His public attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood come because they seek to undermine the House of Saud. The same Nayef said after 9/11 that the attacks were a Jewish plot and "the Saudis [were] being framed." He only turned against al-Qaeda because they started attacking Saudi oil pipelines, ministries and embassies within the kingdom. The writer is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2011-11-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive