October 2, 2011: Saudi Arabia has put another 41 people on trial for terrorism. This batch includes three foreigners (a Afghani, Qatari and Yemeni). One of the 38 Saudis was an NCO in the Saudi armed forces. This sergeant helped the terrorists encrypt their communications. The most typical charges for this batch include; smuggling and transporting weapons, providing false documents, providing refuge for terrorists and recruiting men to fight in Iraq. Two months ago, another 85 were put on trial, some for the bombing of housing compounds in 2003 that caused most of the 239 deaths in the eight years of al Qaeda terrorism in the kingdom. In the last ten years, Saudi Arabia has arrested nearly 12,000 terrorism suspects, most of them since 2003. Many of those arrested for terrorism in the past few years have actually been Saudis agitating for democracy. For the Saudi royal family, this is considered a form of terrorism.

The majority of the fatal terror attacks in Saudi Arabia took place in the three years following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Saudis defeated al Qaeda three years ago, after a five year battle. Al Qaeda survivors fled to Yemen, and elsewhere. But the Saudi government kept arresting people. Because Saudi Arabia is ruled by Sharia (Islamic) law, the police and courts can do pretty much whatever they want. They are accountable only to God, and the king. Those years of violence made the Saudis much more concerned about Islamic terrorism.

As a result, Saudi Arabia has become a center for research and experimentation on how to halt, and reverse, Islamic radical activity. Despite being the most "Islamic" nation on the planet, and, by law, the most intolerant of other religions, the Saudi royal family has been working to reform Islamic conservatives and radicals for over a century. They don't get much credit for that, but it explains the many Saudi initiatives to detect and rehabilitate Islamic radicals, and prevent Moslems from going that way in the first place. The Saudis are using media and the religious establishment (which is on the government payroll) to discredit Islamic radicals. There is also a rehabilitation program for convicted or suspected Islamic terrorists. While this gets criticized, because 10-20 percent of the graduates go back to terrorism, the majority leave Islamic radicalism behind. The reform effort has a big impact on discouraging young Arabs considering Islamic radicalism.

The current enthusiasm for taking on Islamic radicalism began when terrorist bombs began going off after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Al Qaeda condemned Saudi Arabia for standing by and allowing this invasion of the Middle East by non-Moslem troops. In reaction, Al Qaeda began attacking Saudi targets. Most Saudis promptly turned on the terrorists, and most of these Islamic radicals eventually fled the country. The Saudis gave Interpol the names of these terrorists, and asked for help in tracking down these men. The Saudis were not happy with the lack of cooperation from Syria and Yemen in tracking down Islamic radicals. Yemen has since turned around, but the Syrians, largely because of their alliance with Iran, have dragged their feet. In the four years after 2003, nearly two hundred people died in Saudi Arabia as a result of Islamic terrorism, and most Saudis remained hostile to Islamic radicalism because of this. In those four years, the Saudis basically destroyed al Qaeda within the kingdom.

However, many Saudis blame the United States for all this, seeing the invasion of Iraq as creating an opportunity for Islamic terrorists to increase recruiting, and gain practical experience in carrying out attacks in Iraq. The surviving Saudi terrorists then came home, along with their deadly skills. But the Saudis were able to control the Islamic terrorists, and do not see them as the principal threat. That would be the growing influence of Shia Iran among the Shia Arabs of southern Iraq, and eastern Saudi Arabia (and the other Arab Gulf states.) Saudi Arabia has always made it clear that it preferred someone like Saddam Hussein (a Sunni Arab dictator) running Iraq, rather than a democracy that would allow the Shia Arab majority to rule. Saddam provided a more reliable ally against Iran, which is a nation of non-Arabs (Iranians are Indo-Europeans), who practice a variant of mainstream Sunni Islam (Shia Islam).

Saudis are also reluctant to admit that their country is still a major source of support for Islamic terrorism. While the Saudis have cracked down on Islamic radicals in schools and mosques, as well as trying to prevent financial contributions to terrorist causes, much support for Islamic radicals still comes from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis also downplayed the participation of young Saudis in terrorist operations in Iraq. The Saudis insisted that few of the foreign terrorists in Iraq were Saudis. But captured al Qaeda records, showed that, during the peak years (2005-7), some 40 percent of foreign terrorists in Iraq were Saudi. Evidence like this gave the anti-terrorist factions in the kingdom more clout. The Saudis were able to shut down public preaching by pro-terrorist clergy, and went after wealthy Saudis that were using their businesses to pass money on to "Islamic charities" that were actually fronts for Islamic terrorist fund raising.

Many Saudis still cannot believe that 79 percent of the 911 terrorists were Saudis. The ruling family believes it, and is heavily funding the Arab Reform Movement, which insists that the social, economic and political problems in the Arab world are internal, not the result of foreign interference. This might appear to be an odd thing for the Saudi monarchy to get behind. But the Saud family did not come to found the kingdom back in the 1920s, by ignoring reality. The Saudi royals may appear a bit medieval to Westerners, but that's only because they must get along with some pretty old-school groups. The Saudis believe that it's best to keep talking to your enemies, even if you might have to turn around and kill them eventually.