Qaeda whose arrests were announced last Wednesday included among their ranks university professors and local businessmen whose links to the terrorist organization went back several years, sources have told Okaz newspaper. According to the sources, the 44, who were detained between July 9 and Aug. 2 of this year, had an over seven-year association with the organization and had met with Al-Qaeda leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri in Afghanistan as well as other members of the group killed in the Kingdom such as Abdul Aziz Muqrin, Turki Al-Dandani, Yousef Al-'Ayeeri, and Yemeni national Khalid Al-Haj. Between 20 and 30 of the arrested were reportedly holders of doctorate degrees and some of them worked as university professors specialized in science fields such as electronic and electrical engineering and computers, as well as fields of Shariah Law including theology and comparative jurisprudence. The single non-Saudi detainee was described by the sources as an Egyptian with connections to Al-Qaeda No. 2 and fellow national Zawahiri. Okaz newspaper further learned that among the detained were local businessmen who financed terrorist plans through real estate and farming incomes, while some used charity work to gather donations. The sources said that the high level of education of the 44 arrested enabled them to build advanced electronic circuitry used in remote detonations via mobile or landline telephones from any location in the world. The use of a telephone SIM card in circuit boards with a coded system in which the detonator would only respond to certain recognized numbers meant, according to the sources, that the group could dispense with suicide bombers and the accompanying element of improvisation and uncertainty. This “operational switch in Al-Qaeda strategy and tactics,” the sources said, revealed a desire on the part of the terrorist organization to target prominent figures, scholars, security personnel and others by planting devices in buildings or on routes frequented by their planned victims, an operational method similar to attacks on armored vehicles and army trucks in Iraq. Observers say that the shift in strategy could also reflect a shortage of volunteers for suicide attacks. Security services reportedly had the suspects under surveillance for over a year before arrests were finally made, citing the need for irrefutable evidence of terrorist activities before bringing them to justice. Tip-offs abroad Informed sources added that the Kingdom's security services also provided their counterparts in Kuwait with a tip-off that led to the break up of a terrorist cell on Aug. 11, and further presented Bahraini authorities with similar information as part of ongoing joint efforts to combat terrorism. The arrest of the 44 suspects was announced by the Ministry of Interior on Aug. 19 along with details of several hidden arms caches. The ministry statement said 17 Kalashnikov machine guns, 12 cases of live ammunition and 280 electronic remote detonation devices had been found buried in a valley close to the city of Riyadh, along with 96 similar detonators buried in a remote area of Qassim. Fifty machine guns, 39 ammunition magazines and 15,000 rounds of ammunition were also found in a “hiding place” constructed of reinforced concrete at the house of one of the detained in a residential district of Riyadh city. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki said at the time that none of the 44 were on the list presented to Interpol earlier this year of 85 persons wanted for links to Al-Qaeda and other radical Muslim groups.
