My Saudi Penpal
Update May 28, 2002
Saudi Arabia Denounces All Forms Of Terrorism
Suicide bombings that kill Israelis not considered terrorism
This is the latest installment in my ongoing e-mail exchange with Hisham
Allagany, information officer from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC.
Last month he refused to condemn suicide bombings. He also made up some
funny stuff about the Geneva Convention and Israeli postage stamps. (The
complete correspondence is here.)
I had another round with my penpal again today. In spite of recent Saudi
attempts to portray themselves as moderates, nothing has really changed.
They now condemn terrorism, but not suicide bombings against Israeli civilians,
which they apparently don't consider to be terrorism.
The White House has put pressure on the Saudis to distance themselves
from terrorism. On May 6, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar,
released this statement,
which appears to unequivocally denounce all forms of terrorism and the
killing of innocent people and strongly denied Saudi involvement in any
of the above. He even quoted the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia who said
the killing of innocent people and shedding of blood
constitute a form of injustice that cannot be tolerated by Islam, which
views them as gross crimes and sinful acts.
This sounded too good to be true. So I read the entire statement a few
more times and got the feeling that something was missing. So I wrote
back to my old friend at the Saudi embassy, Hisham Allagany, to ask for
clarification:
Hisham,
[Bandar's statement] condemns terrorism and the killing of innocent
people. Please help me interpret this. For example, would your
government consider the suicide bombing that took place in Petah
Tikva, Israel on May 27, 2002 to be an act of terrorism, and its
perpetrators, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who claimed responsibility,
to be terrorists? Does your government consider the victims of
this attack to be innocent? You will forgive me for asking such
pointed questions, but many others in the Arab world have made
statements suggesting that acts such as these are not in fact
terrorism and that its victims are not innocent. Please help me
understand your government's position.
With great respect for you and your people,
Stefan
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Hisham's entire response:
We condemn the killing of ANY innocent people, which
includes the majority of the 1600+ Palestinians that have been killed
at the hands of the Israeli government.
Now, I'm no expert at reading between the lines of diplomatic statements.
So maybe the most important thing to focus on is the fact that he apparently
does not condemn the killing of certain Palestinians. But if you
wanted to go on record against the murder of Israeli civilians, is this
how you would have answered my questions?
Update: Compare the Saudi statement above with anti-terrorism
comments from other world diplomats
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