Coot
01-28-2004, 04:16 PM
SAKAKA (Saudi Arabia) - The tiny city of Sakaka in the remote al-Jouf province that borders Iraq may seem an unlikely setting for the beginning of a revolution against the ruling al-Saud family.
But one does not have to spend too long here to realise that this is what is happening.
Al-Jouf has witnessed an extraordinary level of political violence in recent months.
The deputy governor, say local residents, was assassinated.
Also shot down was the police chief, executed by a group of men who forced their way into his home.
Even before these bloody incidents, the region's top Syariah Court judge was shot down as he drove to work early one morning.
The families and tribes here are exploiting the vulnerability of a perhaps fatally weakened Saudi ruling family to reassert their territorial claims over those of the al-Sudairy.
As many as 60 per cent of Saudis identify strongly with a tribe.
Since the increased instability following last year's bombings in Riyadh on May 12 and Nov 8, the ruling family has been eager to show that it has the full support of the tribal sheikhs.
But al-Jouf shows what everyone knows: that tribes will switch their 'allegiance' as soon as it is convenient.
Residents say the final straw was the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, when United States troops took control of the airport in the nearby Arar, the kingdom's official border crossing with Iraq.
Interesting, could the House of Saud be quietly collapsing? With their kinsmen under fire in the area and with what appears to be substantial numbers of Saudis crossing into Iraq, it could get dicier.
If Bush plans to have most of our military out of Iraq by summer in order to take the war off the table by election time, will the bulk of the world's oil supply be in jeoparday with two unstable governments controlling it?
Strait Times Story. (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,231815,00.html)
But one does not have to spend too long here to realise that this is what is happening.
Al-Jouf has witnessed an extraordinary level of political violence in recent months.
The deputy governor, say local residents, was assassinated.
Also shot down was the police chief, executed by a group of men who forced their way into his home.
Even before these bloody incidents, the region's top Syariah Court judge was shot down as he drove to work early one morning.
The families and tribes here are exploiting the vulnerability of a perhaps fatally weakened Saudi ruling family to reassert their territorial claims over those of the al-Sudairy.
As many as 60 per cent of Saudis identify strongly with a tribe.
Since the increased instability following last year's bombings in Riyadh on May 12 and Nov 8, the ruling family has been eager to show that it has the full support of the tribal sheikhs.
But al-Jouf shows what everyone knows: that tribes will switch their 'allegiance' as soon as it is convenient.
Residents say the final straw was the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, when United States troops took control of the airport in the nearby Arar, the kingdom's official border crossing with Iraq.
Interesting, could the House of Saud be quietly collapsing? With their kinsmen under fire in the area and with what appears to be substantial numbers of Saudis crossing into Iraq, it could get dicier.
If Bush plans to have most of our military out of Iraq by summer in order to take the war off the table by election time, will the bulk of the world's oil supply be in jeoparday with two unstable governments controlling it?
Strait Times Story. (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,231815,00.html)