Good News Out of KSA (Continued)

Saudi newspapers have reported more information on this week's arrests, including hints at the methods of recruitment.  According to this AKI report, Saudi paper Al-Watan is reporting that Zawahiri played a central role in this plot, but there's more, and I've highlighted some key pieces of information with my comments:

According to al-Watan, the police found audio files with the recordings of al-Zawahiri's voice on the mobile phone belonging to the leader of the Saudi terror cell. It is believed there were at least two such messages.

In these messages, al-Zawahiri clearly explained how all the mujahadeen and recruits from north Africa, Iraq and Southeast Asia, were required to carry out carbomb attacks targeting oil installations and the headquarters of local security forces in the country.

I am going to hazard a guess that Zawahiri's audio tape included arguments, if not direct citation, from Bin Rashid's fatwa (see here).

The discovery of the messages are believed to be linked to the announcement on Wednesday by Saudi officials that 701 people have been detained in recent months for their alleged involvement in terrorist activities. Out of this group, 520 are still under arrest.

According to the the London-based Arabic-language newspaper, al-Sharq al-Awsat, only 50 percent of those arrested were Saudi citizens.

A Saudi-based attack that does not include a majority of Saudis is indeed a fascinating development.  It suggests that Saudi CT efforts have created a hostile environment for recruiting followers from within the country.  Further information at the end of the report, bares this out because it appears that many of the individuals arrested this year were recruited from other countries.

The others entered the country during the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca and did not return to their home countries.

A large number of those arrested reportedly included citizens from Yemen, Morocco, Kuwait and Chad as well as some Mauritanians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Indonesians.

The report said that almost all of them were recruited by imams in their home countries who were close to al-Qaeda or through various internet sites or web forums that spread Jihadist propaganda.

The last sentence at once highlights the power of distributed information, and the continued use of it by senior AQ leadership to recruit members for "the Vanguard." It also discounts the "leaderless jihad" theory in that at least some of the operatives were recruited directly from religious leaders.

The 2008 arrests represent the fourth year in a row that Saudis have broken up large, ambitious plots against facilities that directly service the global oil market.

UPDATE:  The Guardian provides a little more information:

Saudi security forces carried out several operations and arrested 701 people of various nationalities, said the ministry spokesman, General Mansour al-Turki. Of those, 520 - divided into five cells - were still being held for involvement in the organisational and ideological plans of the "deviant ideology" - the Saudi official term for al-Qaida.

Terrorist cells that large are most likely autonomous, in that they operate their own logistical, operational and media elements.  This too hints at a top down command of KSA operations probably from AQ leadership along the Afghan-Pakistan border since all these independent cells were working toward the same strategic ends.