generalspeaking

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Saudi Acts of Terrorism

"This was an act of terrorism."
"The evidence showed that the shooter was motivated by jihadist ideology. During the course of the investigation, we learned that the shooter posted a message on September 11 of this year stating : 'The countdown has begun'."
"[One Saudi individual had] a significant number of such images, [while 14 others] had one or two images, in most cases posted in a chat room by someone else or received over social media."
"[The] derogatory information [fell short of the standard for triggering U.S. criminal charges]. However, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia determined that this material demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer in the Royal Saudi Air Force and in the Royal Navy."
"The 21 cadets have been disenrolled from their training curriculum in the U.S. military and will be returning to Saudi Arabia later today."
U.S. Attorney General William Barr

The attack last month occurred at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida

The attack last year occurred at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida EPA

When Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani killed three people and injured eight others on December 6, 2019, at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, it was totally unexpected that an elite Saudi member of the Saudi military, taking special instruction at an American military academy would be a terrorist. Once Escambia County sheriff deputies arrived at the scene of the massacre, where U.S. military don't carry arms on site, they killed the Saudi, an aviation student, but hesitated at first to name it an act of Islamist terrorism.

It is a latter-day tradition that high-placed and -regarded elite military students from Saudi Arabia are privileged to attend special training sessions at U.S. military academies. Neither the U.S. nor the Saudis had any wish to upset the applecart of good relations between the heads of government and their disparate military arms. So the matter was quietly closed in the media. Despite that there were ample warnings of the man's radicalization.

Now, a year later, twenty-one Saudi military cadets, themselves undergoing U.S. training have been identified as a potential threat to the host country in the wake of an investigation into that original event at the Florida naval base, finally named for what it was; an act of terrorism. Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani armed himself with a legally bought gun, in Florida, and prepared to conduct a terrorist atrocity a year ago in Pensacola, Florida.

Ample evidence was available to any investigator who might have sought to vet the suitability of this man to be present in the United States. The day before he staged his attack he had hosted a party where he revealed his contempt for the United States and made clear what his orientation was. No one at the party alerted U.S. authorities, much less those of Saudi Arabia who would have taken action to prevent the tragedy if only to avoid embarrassment to themselves.

More latterly, an investigation indicated that 21 Saudi cadets studying in the U.S. had child pornography or social media accounts with Islamic extremist or anti-American content, invalidating their presence on American soil, much less at U.S. military academies. They have been, in the words of Attorney General Barr, "disenrolled from their training curriculum in the U.S. military, slated to leave immediately.

Mr. Barr cleared other Saudi trainees of misconduct or assistance by them to the December 2019 attacker at Pensacola. Alshamrani, Mr. Barr noted, had visited the New York City memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attack, the attackers of whom were exclusively themselves notoriously Saudis. The Saudi air cadet came there not to mourn the almost three thousand victims of a massive atrocity, but to pay homage to their attackers.

After his visit to the site he posted anti-American, anti-Israel and jihadi messages on social media. Two hours before his infamous attack he posted additional such messages. How could they have been missed? Wouldn't the Saudis themselves, given past grievous involvement of their nationals in attacks against the U.S. have been vigilant? Shouldn't the U.S. intelligence agencies, given the horrors of 9/11 have done their due diligence?