The Tip on the Printer Bombs

BBC News reported Bombs tip-off 'came from former al-Qaeda member' "The crucial tip-off that led to the discovery of parcel bombs on two cargo planes came from a repentant al-Qaeda member, UK officials say. Jabr al-Faifi handed himself in to authorities in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, the officials told the BBC."

"Jabr al-Faifi is reportedly one of several former detainees at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation in December 2006. After leaving Guantanamo he went through a rehabilitation programme in Saudi Arabia and then rejoined al-Qaeda in Yemen before turning himself in to Saudi authorities, AFP news agency reports."

"BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says most of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's more dangerous operatives are Saudis, driven out of their own country by a highly effective counter-terrorism campaign that has not yet been matched in Yemen."

MSNBC added, "Some U.S. officials, however, told NBC News they doubt that al-Faifi provided the key tip, saying he had left a Yemen terror group too early to have specific knowledge of the plot. The White House and CIA refused to discuss what role, if any at all, al-Faifi played in discovering it."

"The Yemeni security officials said they suspect that the Saudis planted al-Faifi in al-Qaida in Yemen as a double agent. Al-Faifi's surrender may have revealed other plots as well. In mid-October, Saudi Arabia warned European authorities of a new terror threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, saying the group's operatives were active on the continent, particularly in France."

"Al-Asiri and his brother abruptly left their Mecca home three years ago, their father, a four-decade veteran of the Saudi military, said. Aside from a brief phone call to say they had left the country, he never heard from them again. With the bomb hidden in a body cavity, Abdullah approached the prince and blew himself up. The prince was only wounded. "That was the thing that infuriated the Saudis and made them step up their intelligence operations in Yemen and almost completely sidestep the Yemenis," said a Yemeni security official familiar with the kingdom's activity in his country."

A few days earlier the New York Times pointed out, "“This latest role is one in a series of Saudi intelligence contributions,” said Thomas Hegghammer, a research fellow at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment. “They can be helpful because so much is going on in their backyard, and because they have a limitless budget to develop their abilities.”...The Qaeda group’s main goal is to topple the Saudi monarchy, which they consider illegitimate and a slave to the West."

"Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism program differs from its Western counterparts in striking ways. It includes a familiar “hard” element of commando teams that kill terrorists, along with vastly expanded surveillance. The streets of major Saudi cities are continuously watched by cameras, and most Internet traffic goes through a central point that facilitates monitoring. But the program also has a softer side aimed at re-educating jihadists and weaving them back into Saudi society. The government runs a rehabilitation program for terrorists, including art therapy and efforts to find jobs and wives for the former convicts. The program suffered an embarrassment last year when two of its graduates, who had also been in Guantánamo, fled the country and became leading figures in Al Qaeda’s Arabian branch. But Saudi officials defend their overall record, noting that the program now has 349 graduates, of whom fewer than 20 have returned to terrorism."

The Christian Science Monitor points out, Who saved the day in Yemen bomb plot? Once again, a Muslim. "A report released last month by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a US-based lobbying group, found that 1 in 3 Al Qaeda plots targeting America since 9/11 have been exposed by Muslim Americans. The report argues 'this highlights the importance of law enforcement partnering with citizens through community-oriented policing.'"