Al Qaeda arms traced to Saudi National Guard

Problems in the Saudi Arabian National Guard aren’t new, according to officials, past armoury audits have revealed that weapons were missing. But there was no crackdown on the illicit trade because of bureaucratic inertia, officials said. ‘‘This will focus their attention,’’ a US official said. A small number of officers in the national guard have been involved in illicit gun sales for years, according to officials, and have sold weapons, including automatic rifles, to anyone willing to pay a good price. The officials emphasised that the motivation of the officers selling the weapons was money and doesn’t indicate any Al Qaeda penetration of a force meant to protect the government. One Saudi official said the discovery has galvanised the senior Saudi leadership and national guard itself. ‘‘People are furious,’’ one Saudi official said. But a spokesman for the Saudi Foreign Ministry later denied that any national guard weapons had been found at the Al Qaeda safe house. He said only Russian-made weapons were found in the raid, adding that the national guard has none in their arsenal.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said on Sunday that authorities have arrested four people linked to Al Qaeda. The four, detained in the last three days, knew of the attacks but didn’t participate in them, Nayef said. As the investigation continues, Saudi authorities have begun to break down the composition of an Al Qaeda group of at least 50 to 60 people in the country. It is led by Khaled Jehani, who left Saudi Arabia when he was 18, fought in Bosnia and Chechnya, and had been based at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Jehani, 29, returned to Saudi Arabia through Yemen after the 9/11 attacks.

The officials said they believe the explosives used in the Riyadh bombings were brought into Saudi Arabia through Yemen. Officials identified another Saudi veteran of Afghanistan, Turki Mishal Dandani, as the leader of the bombing team. Both Dandani and Jehani are believed to be at large.

Sixty FBI and other US investigators, and a team from Britain’s Scotland Yard, have joined the investigation, but Saudi officials differed on Sunday on the extent of their role. Nayef said the US investigators had come to examine the sites ‘‘and we welcomed them based on that — for examining only.’’

The extent of US involvement here remains sensitive and Nayef, in minimising the role of the FBI, may want to deflect any domestic criticism. The US official also said the FBI had improved its ‘‘diplomatic skills’’ since earlier investigations in the kingdom, when they had used ‘‘sharp elbows,’’ alienating its hosts on their turf.

The bombs have generated not only revulsion among Saudis but something once unthinkable, the questioning of the country’s strict religious environment and whether it inspires — intentionally or not — Islamic-driven violence. In one illustration of that mood, the religious police, known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are keeping a low profile in accordance with a government instruction. Saudi religious police patrol the country, sometimes with sticks, to watch for instances of un-Islamic behaviour. The absence of police on streets may be temporary, however.

Nayef said on Sunday that he saw no change in the future role of the religious police when asked about their standing after the bombings. He said separating ‘‘religion and life’’ in the kingdom was ‘‘unthinkable.’’ But the prospect of some fundamental reform, including expanding the role of women, has taken on new urgency, despite long-standing claims by religious fundamentalists here that such an agenda was alien and driven by outsiders.

‘‘We will broaden the scope of popular participation and open wide horizons for the work of women within the framework of Islamic teaching,’’ said King Fahd in an address to the country’s consultative council on Saturday. (LAT-WP)