Stardate 20030512.2109

(On Screen): In some ways this is a very bad thing. In other ways it is a very good thing.

There's been a major terrorist attack in Riyadh targeting Americans; early reports are that at least one American is dead and there may be a lot of people who have been wounded in the attack. The best guess is that it's al Qaeda.

Obviously no one wishes for a terrorist attack. But what's good about it is that it is undeniable that it's a terrorist operation, and that it was launched by Arabs, specifically probably by Saudis. It's big and high profile and getting lots of publicity. That's the good part.

There's actually been terrorist operations inside Saudi Arabia for years, but the government has been in full denial and coverup mode about it all. In order to avoid admitting to what was really happening, they've been blaming a lot of what has been happening on foreigners. And in some cases they've arrested westerners, subjected them to torture to force them to confess (and eventually everyone will to end the torture).

For example, there was a car bomb attack which killed a Brit and injured several other westerners. The Saudis arrested a Canadian named William Sampson and a Brit named Alexander Mitchell and accused them of the crime. The allegation was that they were part of a liquor smuggling ring and that it was an attack on a competing group of smugglers, but that was always ludicrous. They were tortured and eventually confessed, but of course everyone always confesses eventually; you'll say whatever they tell you to say in order to make it stop. They were then given a secret trial and both were condemned to death.

And the purpose of all of this was to find someone non-Arab to blame, so that the government could continue to deceive the world and itself into thinking that there was no domestic terrorist problem.

Now they won't be able to deny it any longer. (And maybe they'll actually consider releasing Mitchell and Samson instead of beheading them.)