March 12,2008: Saudi Arabia revealed that it has, in the last few months, arrested 56 men who tried to sneak into the country, hidden among the 2.5 million Moslems arriving for the annual Hadj pilgrimage. At least one was found to have a mobile phone chip containing a special recording by Ayman al Zawahiri, the Egyptian physician who is the number 2 guy in al Qaeda. Al Zawahiri informs listeners that the fellow holding the chip is the real deal, and he needs whatever money that can be spared. Some money was collected, under the pretense that it was for charitable work. But the cash was really needed to carry out a series of terrorist attacks. That didn't happen. Someone tipped off the police. No one is saying who. It could have been one of the al Qaeda men, or one of their friends or family. Since al Qaeda began setting off bombs in Saudi Arabia in 2003, their popularity there plummeted. Before the U.S. went into Iraq, al Qaeda had an unofficial truce with the Saudi government. Al Qaeda members could visit family, or whatever, and as long as they kept a low profile, would be left alone. In return, al Qaeda didn't make terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, even though the organization was, technically, at war with the country many of its members came from. But, you have to be practical about these things.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq enraged al Qaeda in 2003. Even though Saudi Arabia officially condemned this operation, it was seen as an infidel occupation of the al Qaeda homeland. So the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia began, because the Saudi government had not resisted the "crusaders" with force. The Saudis had been preparing for this terrorism, and over the last five years, hundreds of al Qaeda members have been killed or arrested there. A large minority of Saudis still support al Qaeda, but it's the majority who do not, that make it nearly impossible for the terrorists to operate in their "homeland." Killing civilians will do that, and al Qaeda has not been able to figure out how to fight without shedding the blood of innocents. So the innocents are taking their revenge.