LET'S GET IT ON :

Britons left in jail amid fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al-Qaeda (Martin Bright, Nick Pelham and Paul Harris, July 28, 2002, The Observer)

Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of collapse, fuelling Foreign Office fears of an extremist takeover of one of the West's key allies in the war on terror.

Anti-government demonstrations have swept the desert kingdom in the past months in protest at the pro-American stance of the de facto ruler, Prince Abdullah.

At the same time, Whitehall officials are concerned that Abdullah could face a palace coup from elements within the royal family sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

Though this will give the State Department and the Europeans the vapors, it may well be for the best. If the Islamic Middle East is going to need a Germany-and-Japan-in-WWII style defeat before it reforms then the sooner we administer that defeat the better. It would be far worse in the long run to allow the Sauds to continue to foster radicalism throughout the region in an effort to take the heat off themselves on the domestic front. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 28, 2002 1:33 PM