On tape
Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden is still making waves, writes Gamal Nkrumah
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Clockwise from top: Bush tells Donald Rumsfeld, "Go spread the word of democracy in the Middle East, my boy." The nameplate on Bush's desk reads "Chairman of the World".
Raouf of Al-Ahali;
triple piggy-backing the way forward, the US is tempting the Arab world by dangling the peace process, while Israel attempts to entice the Americans with a ballot box. Rabei in Al-Riyadh;
the Great Satan and the Axis of Evil break down decades of animosity. Al-Hayat's Habib Haddad;
Mohamed Amr in Akher Sa'a magazine shows a distraught World -- standing among reminders of the Bam earthquake, the plane crash in Sharm El-Sheikh, war, poverty and mad cow disease -- asking the New Year, "It's like this from the beginning?!"
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The power of his word is not ebbing, giving the impression that catastrophe is looming. A number of Arab papers commented on a new tape purported to be that of Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden. "My message is to incite you against the conspiracies, especially those of the occupation Crusaders in Baghdad, there under the pretext of uncovering weapons of mass destruction," the London-based Al-Hayat quoted Bin Laden as saying.
The paper also reported that Bin Laden warned against the "deceptions of the roadmap and the Geneva initiative".
"We have to liberate the Islamic world from the military occupation of the Crusaders by raising the banner of jihad for God's sake," the Al- Qa'eda leader was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying. "The Gulf is the key to the control of the world from the point of view of the big powers because of the presence of the world's biggest deposits of oil," Bin Laden was quoted as saying.
While a number of Saudi and other Gulf papers gave a somewhat muted response to both Bin Laden and to reports of a Saudi crackdown on militant Islamist groups that pose a danger to the Saudi regime, a number of Saudi papers did report about the detention of a Saudi national at Boston Airport for allegedly transporting explosives. The Saudi daily Al-Jazeera was indignant, warning that "the negative media campaigns against Saudi Arabia in the West only serve the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon."
Al-Jazeera highlighted the detention of 33-year-old Assam Mohamed, a Saudi engineer in Boston's Logan International Airport. He was on his way from Frankfurt, Germany, to the United States.
On the other hand, Al-Hayat and other Pan-Arab papers based in the West gave considerable coverage to the group that claimed responsibility for blowing up a car last month in Riyadh belonging to Lt Col Ibrahim Al-Dhaleh, a senior Saudi security officer. The London- based Asharq Al-Awsat, in a front page report about the explosion, said that damage was confined to the car and that investigations are under way.
Saudi papers highlighted in reports and editorials the intensification of the resistance against the US-led occupation of Iraq. "A US helicopter crashed on Friday, killing an American soldier and injuring another," Al-Jazeera reported. The paper also noted that officers in the Iraqi army angrily demanded that they be paid back wages. Two other leading Saudi dailies, Okaz and Ar-Riyadh, covered the topic extensively.
Saudi papers were not particularly enthusiastic about giving space to reports about domestic tension in the kingdom resulting from the activities of Saudi-based Islamist militant groups. The militant group, the Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques, said it was behind an attempt to kill Maj Gen Abdul-Aziz Al-Huweirini, the No 3 official in the Saudi Interior Ministry who was shot in the capital at the beginning of December.
Saudi Arabia has been on a heightened state of alert after security forces defused a Riyadh bomb. Again it was up to Pan-Arab papers based outside the region to pick up the security-related stories in greater detail. Al-Hayat said the bomb was aimed at a power station. The paper also noted that Saudi police sealed off the area. Hundreds of suspected Islamist militants have been arrested and scores killed by Saudi security forces in the past year.
One story that received wide coverage in the Saudi and other Arab press was the Convention for National Dialogue whose theme was Extremism and Moderation: a comprehensive view. The Saudi daily Okaz devoted much space to the topic. "The meeting in Mecca drew up a series of recommendations to root out extremism, reform academic curricula and grant more freedom to the media," the paper noted. The paper also highlighted the importance of involving women in the forum and the pledge by participants to increase the participation of Saudi women in the political life of the kingdom.
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah was quoted in Al-Hayat as stressing the importance of the ideas agreed upon at the Mecca meeting and hailed the recommendations as "vital and based on objectivity, responsibility and a healthy respect for the views of the other".
"We should be patient and do things in an unhurried way," the crown prince was quoted as advising members of the forum.
Other Gulf Arab papers spotlighted regional affairs. The papers in the United Arab Emirates in particular highlighted how Egypt and Iran have been patching up their differences. Ahmed Amrabi, in an opinion piece in Al-Bayan of the UAE entitled, "Between Cairo and Tehran", said, "Israel would be the biggest loser, and by extension the US, in case of an Egyptian-Iranian rapprochement."
The friendly face of American humanitarian relief aid did not fool the earthquake-battered and grief-stricken Iranians two weeks after close to 50,000 people died and almost the entire archaeological city of Bam was destroyed. Arab papers continued with their extensive coverage of the humanitarian relief operations in Iran.
In a full-page spread about an International Labour Organisation (ILO) seminar in Beirut, "Unemployment in the Arab region is the highest in the world and the gross domestic product is less than that of Spain," ran the shocking headline in Al-Hayat.
The UAE daily Al-Ittihad brought up the issue of the UTA plane that crashed in West Africa with over 130 Lebanese passengers aboard. The paper spotlighted reports that the plane crashed because of sabotage and not from a technical fault as earlier stated. Lebanese papers were also rife with similar conspiracy theories. The daily An-Nahar added a word of caution. "Such allegations," the paper stressed, "should await further investigation."
The visit by the British premier to Basra received some commentary. In an opinion piece, "Blair's Virus", Badreddin Badrakhan in Al-Hayat denounced American foreign policy and ridiculed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for speaking about the "virus of Islamic extremism". He wondered how the British prime minister could have the audacity to talk about the "viruses" in the Muslim world when his own public is not convinced by his war-mongering policies. "The extremism that Blair describes as Islamic is rejected by Islam, even if it purports to be Islamic. But what shall we say about American foreign policy which no longer gives a hoot about justice, nor does it have any respect for international law, nor does it pay any attention to the dignity of nations. What shall we say about the supporters of such cruel and oppressive policies. Is not that also extremism?"
Nuclear inspections in Libya also received wide coverage in the Arab press. Libyan papers, however, played down the issue, focussing instead on a wide range of topics -- domestic, Pan-Arab and Pan- African.
The daily Al-Jamahiriya in a commentary on the meeting in Cairo of speakers of African parliaments, urged African countries to collaborate closer to achieve greater unity. In an opinion piece on the subject, Abdel-Bari Kaheel called on Africans to "redouble efforts to institute democracy and energise the political life on the continent". Kaheel said that the representatives of African people gathered in Cairo should "draw up economic and political programmes to fulfil the people's aspirations". Libya is one of the African countries competing to host the African Parliament, a new organ of the African Union.
Libya announced its decision to scrap its programme of weapons of mass destruction in December. Al-Hayat reported that Libyan officials hinted that Libya should be paid for handing over nuclear-related materials as it dismantles its nuclear programme. The paper also said that Libyan officials demanded the lifting of US sanctions which the paper said would unfreeze about $1 billion in assets that Libyan officials say are held in US banks. The paper also noted that the Libyans are eager that US oil companies return to the oil-rich country.
