Riyadh Night to Remember

Long-time NABE member John Qualls, has lived and worked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the past decade. For the first seven years, he worked for the U.S.-Saudi Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation in Riyadh. After JECOR shut its doors in 2000, he was invited to stay and work directly for the Saudis as a senior economic advisor to the Saudi Ministry of Finance and National Economy (which he describes as “the equivalent of the U.S. Treasury Department). He was at home in Riyadh on May 12 when terrorists attacked Western housing compounds in city. Here is his “Riyadh Night to Remember,” which we have posted with his permission.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Thursday, May 15, 2003

Dear Friends,

After re-reading many of stories on the original 9/11 NABE page, it is obvious that my Riyadh "Night to Remember" pales in comparison to the awful horrors experienced by so many of my NABE friends at the 2001 Annual Meeting. However, it may turn out to be an equally important event. I really believe that it will be a wake-up call to the Saudis that lets them know that they are in a fight to the finish with the terrorists who threaten their society -- just as 9/11 was our wake-up call in the US. As I indicate in my account, we really need to work in unity with them to defeat this awful scourge. God willing, this will happen.

First of all, I want to thank each of you for your thoughts, prayers, and expressions of concern. It means a lot to me. Secondly, I want to point out that I was not an eyewitness to any of the action that took place starting shortly after 11 p.m. Monday evening, although I missed one of the bombings, the one at the Al Hamra Compound, by only about 45 minutes. This report is based on my conversation with a friend who lived at Al Hamra and on information I have received from the American Embassy and other sources.

Let me start with the good news. The Cordoba compound (where I used to live) was NOT attacked. The news reports that said it was are wrong. However, Cordoba did suffer some blast damage -- broken windows and doors blown open -- even though it was about a mile away from the explosion at the nearest compound that was attacked, Al Hamra.

I am also OK. I was at my compound at the time of the attacks, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Al Hamra, the nearest attack site. However, I did have a close call, as I was at a meeting at the British School, which is adjacent to Al Hamra, earlier that evening. The meeting broke up at 10:15 p.m. and I did not notice anything out of the ordinary as I passed by the main gate to Al Hamra, the scene of one of the attacks about 45 minutes later.

In addition to the Al Hamra compound, which is located close to Cordoba and the Imam University, terrorists also attacked the Jadawal compound (which is about three miles southeast of Al Hamra) and the Vinnell compound (which is another two miles southeast of Jadawal). Reports that terrorists also attacked a small defense-related US-Saudi joint venture business establishment have turned out to be false. Since I know several people who live at Al Hamra and had a long talk with one of them right after the attack, I will focus on the attack there.

My friend is a teacher at the British School and had quite a story to tell. He was awakened by the shattering blast. His apartment was about two blocks away from Ground Zero, which was near one of the compound swimming pools. The terrorists had evaded the security at the front gate of the compound by following a resident's car in after it had been checked through. There were two vehicles– one with four terrorists armed with assault rifles and hand grenades and the other with two terrorists and the bomb. When the guards attempted to stop the terrorists in the first car, they were shot. Several were wounded and at least one was killed. Both cars proceeded to the swimming pool, firing all the way at whoever was standing in their way. At the pool, where a resident's party was in progress, the terrorists in the first vehicle pulled about 100 feet away and the second vehicle with the bomb was blown up.

Every window in my friend's apartment was broken and his front door was blown open. He could hear shots and grenade explosions outside. His obvious conclusion was that several terrorists were evidently loose in the compound. He wisely waited until the shooting stopped and he could hear the sirens of the police and ambulances before going outside. When he emerged, he saw that his block of apartments was still standing, but the apartment block between his block and the swimming pool was missing a wall and the second floor had partially collapsed onto the first. There were many bodies of dead or seriously injured people scattered around the swimming pool, including those of several children. There were something like 15-20 villas and about a dozen apartment blocks that were destroyed or seriously damaged and a gigantic crater where the vehicle with the bomb had detonated.

As it turns out, the four terrorists in the first car, whose intentions were undoubtedly to murder as many residents as they could after the bomb exploded, were all killed by the force of the blast about 100 feet away. Their charred bodies were found in their vehicle, and the shots and grenade explosions were caused by the “cook-off” of their ammunition detonating due to the fire that started in their vehicle. The bodies of the two terrorists in the bomb vehicle were not found and may never be.

Miraculously, not a single British teacher living in the compound was killed, although several had to go to the hospital and many suffered minor wounds. The school adjacent to the compound suffered some structural damage, particularly to the Sports Center, where our meeting was held earlier that evening. The teachers at the British school will all be going home, as the classes are cancelled for the remainder of the school year. However, it is my understanding that the school administration plans to return to Riyadh and reopen the school next fall.

As for the other two compounds, the damage and loss of life was far greater at the Vinnell Compound, which houses civilian expatriate workers employed by the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The terrorists managed to get a car bomb through the gate there also, along with a car with 4-5 terrorists in it. This car was blown up alongside one of the four story dormitories housing the single men working there, completely destroying it and badly damaging another dorm.

The Jadawal Compound, where many American expatriates who work for defense companies live, was the least damaged. The terrorists did not succeed in getting the car with the bomb into the compound, and there was no loss of life among the residents, although several security guards were murdered. There was only one vehicle involved with this attempt, and it attempted to crash through the back gate of the compound, after shooters in the vehicle murdered two guards at the gate. However, it got hung halfway into the compound, thanks to effective vehicles barriers and the quick thinking of guards at the main gate, who noticed the action on TV cameras and shut off the power to the gate so that the terrorists could not open it. Five terrorists jumped out of the vehicle and did manage to get into the compound before they detonated the bomb, seriously damaging several villas nearby. Again, it appears that the terrorists were too near the scene of the blast when they detonated it, as they were all killed in the blast before they had a chance to commit any further carnage. One of my sources tells me that one of the terrorists accidentally detonated a grenade and all five were killed in the subsequent explosion. This is a great story, but it seems more likely that they were simply too close to the massive explosion. Obviously, the resistance put up by the guards and their quick thinking saved the lives of many Jadawal residents.

At present, the death toll is officially at 25 killed, plus 9 terrorists, but it is probably higher than that. However, estimates of as many as 91 killed in total are too high, according to the American Embassy, which is only citing the American casualties, a total of eight Americans killed (one at Al Hamra and seven at Vinnell) and 44 wounded. Around nine or ten Saudis were killed, including the son of the Deputy Governor of Riyadh, who lived at Al Hamra. Many of the compound guards were Saudis, and their losses were particularly heavy.

Many of you asked me how I feel about staying in the Kingdom and continue working for the Ministry of Finance, given the drastic change in the regional security situation brought on by 9/11, the war in Iraqi, and now this tragedy. I obviously do feel more at risk -- after all, I dodged the bullet(s and bombs and grenades) by less than an hour. I was in the wrong place, but at least it was NOT at the wrong time! In addition, I suspect that many of my western friends and acquaintances are going to be leaving for good this summer, which will make life even more difficult here.

On the other hand, I am convinced that this is exactly what Al Qaeda and its camp followers want us to do. They want to drive a wedge between the West and Saudi Arabia and purge the Kingdom of the "corrupting" influence of Western ideas and ideals. Their end goal is the takeover of the Saudi government, replacing the monarchy with a virulent terrorist-driven theocracy that would make the Ayatollahs of Iran and the Taliban of Afghanistan look positively benign by comparison. I needn't tell you what impact this would have on the West -- just remember that over 10 percent of the world's oil is produced here, and the Kingdom has 25 percent of the world's oil reserves.

The Saudis place a very high value on the contribution that Western expatriates make. They listen to our advice and suggestions, and they act on them, albeit slowly at times. Most of us feel that we DO make a difference by contributing to the Kingdom's modernization and development. This feeling makes our jobs incredibly satisfying and fulfilling.

When I went back to work on Tuesday, there was a sense of both anger and sorrow among my Saudi friends and acquaintances, mixed with a feeling of apprehension. "What are we going to do?" was a frequent comment/lament. Believe me, they now understand, perhaps for the very first time, that they have a gigantic problem, one that is not going to disappear by just ignoring it and going about life as normal. I get the real feeling that they recognize, perhaps for the first time, that we are all in this together. They need our help.

Simply put, if the West deserts Saudi Arabia, bin Laden wins, and I don't want him to win. I guess this leaves me between Iraq and a hard spot, right?

All puns aside, I hope that this overly long e-mail helps clarify what happened last night. It will be a night I will remember – one of those defining moments in my life.

All the best,

John

PS - Yahoo has a news story with an extensive slide show of the damage to all three of the compounds. Go to:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&cat=Saudi_Arabia

and click on "Slideshow".

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