I don't think you'll find that your first paragraph of castigation will be correct, Warbler. There's a constant exchange of intelligence between all countries signed up to such protocols, and as the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Phillipino and other Far Eastern countries send their agents to be trained in the US and the UK, they will only have alerted ours to the likelihood that this time round it's going to be in liquid form.
The Saudis were employing full-time x-raying of all outgoing and incoming airport luggage way back in the 1970s, complete with British-trained sniffer dogs (lots of cheerful spaniels) running all over the carousels snouting for drugs as well as nastier things. No matter if the planes came from Egypt, the UK, or Bahrain, all the passengers' luggage got the seach and destroy treatment first by hand, and then through x-rays and the dawgies.
The Saudi Arabian Oil Co. installed anti-ramming (i.e. explosives-laden vehicles) concrete blocks around its offices in 1978-9, once it was known that the Shah was on his way out and Islamic fundamentalism on its way in in Iran.
It installed full-time in/out x-ray machines for ALL employees' baggage - regardless of whether you were an American female clerk who'd been shopping, or a high-level exec with a briefcase, it went in, and out, of the machines EVERY TIME you went in or out of the offices. It had the pleasing knock-on effect of reducing the loss of office supplies, too!
The Saudi Govt. pays handsomely for people to keep their ears open and report any untoward chatter or activity. They've had domestic spies in place for decades, mostly keeping an eye on the people they know most likely to want to overthrow the Sunni Government (which is mostly the Royal family, being an autonomy), and cause internal disturbances. This does sometimes fail, of course. But there are regular gun battles between the police and Al-Queda supporters and Shi'ite dissidents as intelligence reveals their locations - these don't seem to ever make it to our papers, although they're reported in Arab News (in English) online. There have been some fatal bombings or shootings at expatriate residences and places of work. Overall, though, considering Saudi as the birthplace of Osama, and the number of covert followers there, supporters of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the fundamentalists' fundamentalists such as the Wahhabi, they do a fairly good job of controlling the hot spots.
The Saudis were employing full-time x-raying of all outgoing and incoming airport luggage way back in the 1970s, complete with British-trained sniffer dogs (lots of cheerful spaniels) running all over the carousels snouting for drugs as well as nastier things. No matter if the planes came from Egypt, the UK, or Bahrain, all the passengers' luggage got the seach and destroy treatment first by hand, and then through x-rays and the dawgies.
The Saudi Arabian Oil Co. installed anti-ramming (i.e. explosives-laden vehicles) concrete blocks around its offices in 1978-9, once it was known that the Shah was on his way out and Islamic fundamentalism on its way in in Iran.
It installed full-time in/out x-ray machines for ALL employees' baggage - regardless of whether you were an American female clerk who'd been shopping, or a high-level exec with a briefcase, it went in, and out, of the machines EVERY TIME you went in or out of the offices. It had the pleasing knock-on effect of reducing the loss of office supplies, too!
The Saudi Govt. pays handsomely for people to keep their ears open and report any untoward chatter or activity. They've had domestic spies in place for decades, mostly keeping an eye on the people they know most likely to want to overthrow the Sunni Government (which is mostly the Royal family, being an autonomy), and cause internal disturbances. This does sometimes fail, of course. But there are regular gun battles between the police and Al-Queda supporters and Shi'ite dissidents as intelligence reveals their locations - these don't seem to ever make it to our papers, although they're reported in Arab News (in English) online. There have been some fatal bombings or shootings at expatriate residences and places of work. Overall, though, considering Saudi as the birthplace of Osama, and the number of covert followers there, supporters of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the fundamentalists' fundamentalists such as the Wahhabi, they do a fairly good job of controlling the hot spots.
h34r:
