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GlobalPost

Hi there everyone

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GlobalPost

Welcome to another fine edition of Global Chats with your host GlobalPost.

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GlobalPost

Today we welcome the wonderful Caryle Murphy

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GlobalPost

Caryle has been reporting from inside Saudi Arabia for the last few years, tracking the kingdom’s efforts to reclaim Islam from extremist groups like Al Qaeda.

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GlobalPost

Saudi counterterrorism officials first warned the United States about last Friday’s bomb plot organized by Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula.

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GlobalPost

Several in AQAP’s leadership, meanwhile, happen to be Saudi.

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GlobalPost

Where does this land the kingdom in the eyes of the West?

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GlobalPost

Caryle is here to talk about this and other issues in the region.

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GlobalPost

Just a quick note:

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Caryle_Murphy

Hello everyone

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GlobalPost

Typically these chats are limited to members.

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GlobalPost

For those of you who noticed the amorous typo in our announcement, please sign up to become a member and help us hire copy editors.

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GlobalPost

Onward and upward.

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GlobalPost

First question:

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GP-ChatHost

And just a quick note to the audience:if you would like to ask Caryle a question, simply message me GP-ChatHostby pasting the following into the message box: "/msg GP-ChatHostFOLLOWED BY YOUR MESSAGE" without the quotations

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GlobalPost

Why, do you think, did Saudi Arabia alert the United States to this most recent bomb plot?

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Caryle_Murphy

The Saudi government views Al Qaeda and its affiliates through the same prism as the United States and Europe: As a mortal danger and threat. Therefore, the Saudis a few years ago came round to the conclusion that it is in their own best interest to share information about terrorist groups with their allies. (Despite policy differences on a number of matters,

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Caryle_Murphy

Saudi Arabia and Washington are long-time allies.)

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Caryle_Murphy

Although they don’t talk about it much, Saudi and US counter-terrorism officials work closely together these days. John Brennan, the White House CT honcho, is a former CIA officer who counts Riyadh as among his past postings. He undoubtedly made some good contacts there.

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Caryle_Murphy

Press reports state that Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi CT chief, called Brennan personally to alert him to the bombs.

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Caryle_Murphy

It is also likely that part of the Saudis’ calculus in passing on the tip was that they would improve their image in the US, where since 9/11 they have been viewed with suspicion because so many of the 9/11 suicide attackers (15 of 19) came from Saudi.

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Caryle_Murphy

All in all, I think these are the main reasons for the tip off /

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GlobalPost

What has made Saudi Arabia more willing to cooperate with the United States in terms of counterterrorism?

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Caryle_Murphy

Well, eighteen months after 9/11, the Saudis had their own terrorist attacks when Al Qaeda launched suicide bombers against residential compounds killing over 30 people.

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Caryle_Murphy

That was the start of a long campaign of violence by the Saudi network of Al Qaeda.

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Caryle_Murphy

It was a huge wake-up call for the Saudis. They were very unprepared for it.

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Caryle_Murphy

And their security forces, over the next few years, lost around 90 members killed in shoot-out with Al Qaeda operatives.

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Caryle_Murphy

But the Saudis finally got their act together and by 2006 had crushed Al Qaeda's networks inside the kingdom.

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Caryle_Murphy

It was this experience I think that made them realize how important cooperation with other CT officials in other countries is./

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GP-ChatHost

And just a quick note to the audience:if you would like to ask Caryle a question, simply message me GP-ChatHostby pasting the following into the message box: "/msg GP-ChatHostFOLLOWED BY YOUR MESSAGE" without the quotations

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GlobalPost

Has Saudi Arabia provided other tip-offs recently to western counterterrorism officials?

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Caryle_Murphy

Yes, they have. About two weeks ago, French officials disclosed that Riyadh had warned them that AQAP (Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen) was preparing some sort of attack

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Caryle_Murphy

in Europe and perhaps France specifically. There have been press reports of other tips the Saudis have passed on to Arab and European CT officials. /

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GP-ChatHost

Hi Caryle! We have a great question from a member of the audience

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Caryle_Murphy

Okay great.

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GP-ChatHost

JamesM: As I understand it, the Saudi's fostered an "extreme" version of Islam. Are they now thinking that they've let a tiger out of a cage that they've lost control of, and have they softened their views?

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Caryle_Murphy

Excellent question. The short answer is yes, but let me say more...

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Caryle_Murphy

The official Wahhabi version of Islam that is the dominant view in the kingdom and that has been supported by the royal family

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Caryle_Murphy

is very intolerant of other views of Islam and of other religions. It does not advocate violence, however. And it does not advocate anti-government activity.

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Caryle_Murphy

But it is the intolerance that is the danger. And that has been taken to an extreme by Al Qaeda and other groups like it to justify their violence.

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Caryle_Murphy

But this is interesting: The official Wahhabi establishment in Saudi is against the anti-government violence of Al Qaeda.

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Caryle_Murphy

Now, in order to fix this predicament that the royal family got itself into by allowing the Wahhabi intolerance to flourish,

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Caryle_Murphy

King Abdullah has started several intiatives to promote tolerance, including an international religious dialogue effort as well as internal dialogues between Sunni and Shiites.

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Caryle_Murphy

Hope I didn't lose anyone on that long answer./

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GlobalPost

Thanks Caryle

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GlobalPost

Moving on to Yemen. Is Yemen likely to be a willing partner in the fight against AQAP? How can the United States best get Yemeni cooperation in this fight?

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Caryle_Murphy

Yemen's relationship with 'jihadis' in general and AQAP specifically has been ambiguous and ambivalent. It has tolerated such groups in the past

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Caryle_Murphy

But in the last year or so, it has become more cooperative with the US in its efforts to contain and destroy AQAP and the Yemen government

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Caryle_Murphy

has become more aggressive against AQAP. This is for two reasons: One, the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdallah Saleh gets money

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Caryle_Murphy

from foreign governments when he is cooperative in fighting extremism. Second, AQAP has begun killing Yemeni security officials. Some press

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Caryle_Murphy

reports say that AQAP has knocked off about 90 such officials in recent weeks. That's a heavy toll. As far as the future goes...

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Caryle_Murphy

the US is thinking about upping its military and intelligence support for Yemeni forces fighting AQAP. It's essential to be light-footed

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Caryle_Murphy

and intelligent in getting Yemeni cooperation. US officials have to be sensitive to nationalistic sentiments among Yemenis and not be seen

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Caryle_Murphy

as bossing them around. Also, putting US military forces on the ground would really only make things much worse and perhaps drive

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Caryle_Murphy

recruits into AQAP's arms, according to many Yemeni experts. One big thing that needs to be done is to make sure

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Caryle_Murphy

that all the pledges of economic aid made to Yemen for development programs and anti-poverty efforts are fulfilled. Those pledges

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Caryle_Murphy

were made early this year by an international conference of both Arab and European countries, along with the US./

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GlobalPost

Some have said that Yemen is the next Afghanistan. Do you agree with that? Why has Yemen become a safe haven for Al Qaeda affiliates?

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Caryle_Murphy

Yemen has become a safe haven for AQAP for several reasons. Firstly, it's a country that highly tribal, which means that there are vast

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Caryle_Murphy

areas where tribes are the dominant governing body, not the central government. AQAP has found protection among some of these tribes.

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Caryle_Murphy

Second, AQAP's reemergence in early 2009 in Yemen was partly due to the fact that Saudi veterans of the Al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia

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Caryle_Murphy

went to Yemen (which is just next door to Saudi) where they joined Yemeni Al Qaeda members to create AQAP. The Saudis brought money and

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Caryle_Murphy

expertise to the newly formed group. I am not of the opinion, however, that Yemen is the next Afghanistan.

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Caryle_Murphy

AQAP is believed to have 300 to 400 members. And it is not supported or protected by the Saleh national government. And the US and Saudi

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Caryle_Murphy

have been on its case heavily the past year. The Saudis have good intelligence capabilities on the ground in Yemen and this is a great

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Caryle_Murphy

asset that did not exist in Afghanistan in the early years when Al Qaeda was building itself up. All in all, I think it will take time, but

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Caryle_Murphy

in the end, I think AQAP will be contained or defeated in Yemen./

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GlobalPost

Thanks Caryle, one more questions and then we have some more audience questions. I encourage everyone to send in their questions now as we'll be wrapping up in a little bit.

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GlobalPost

How will Saudi's role in this latest incident affect its image in the West?

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Caryle_Murphy

I think it may improve its image. Saudi has a terrible image in the West, which is partly due to the extreme Islamophobia that exists on the Internet especially these days.

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Caryle_Murphy

The hostile perceptions of Saudi are also often rooted in ignorance about what is going on in the kingdom. But it's also true

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Caryle_Murphy

that the Saudi government only has itself to blame for some of the bad perceptions it suffers from in the West. What I mean is

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Caryle_Murphy

that the Saudi government does not get its views across well; it is often too secretive; it is not open enough to foreign reporters. All these

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Caryle_Murphy

are not assets when you want to project not just a good image, but the reality of what is actually happening in the kingdom. The Saudi tip-off

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Caryle_Murphy

in this latest incident may give pause to some people look a little deeper at the Saudi-US relationship, which really is one of allies.

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Caryle_Murphy

So, how about more visitor questions?

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GP-ChatHost

Caryle, we do in fact have one more question from the audience:

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GP-ChatHost

mib_2j6hhl: Is the private U.S. plaintiff claims over 9/11 still causing problems in the US-Saudi relationship?

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Caryle_Murphy

I have not heard that it is a major problem in the relationship.

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Caryle_Murphy

Any more queries?

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GlobalPost

I think that's a wrap!

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GP-ChatHost

A huge thanks to Caryle and to the members of our chat-audience!

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GlobalPost

Thanks so much Caryle for your time today

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GlobalPost

And thanks everyone who joined us

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Caryle_Murphy

It was a pleasure, thanks to everyone who dropped in. Caryle

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GP-ChatHost

It was a pleasure to have you all on the chat and remember, GlobalPostroutinely hosts chats for its members. If you are not yet a member but you enjoyed today's chat, please consider becoming a member. You can join for as little as $2.95 per month.

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GP-ChatHost

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GP-ChatHost

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GP-ChatHost

Thanks!

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GP-ChatHost

Until next time, this is GlobalPost.