Word: binning
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Critics of Saudi Arabia will be quick to wonder if Abdullah shouldn't be paying less attention to the contours of a bowling green and more to the political lie of the land. The Sept. 11 deeds of Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden and 15 fellow Saudi plane hijackers have put the secretive Kingdom's worsening strains on public view as rarely before. Whether in response to the need to curb Islamic extremism, hold down soaring population growth, combat plummeting personal incomes or eliminate royal corruption, the world is calling on Abdullah - as are many Saudis...
...reference to Operation Desert Storm saving Saudi skin back in 1991. But the Saudis are fearful that a carte blanche could entangle the Kingdom in American wars against Iraq or even Iran, making popular opposition to the U.S. military presence a hot political issue - which, despite bin Laden's rhetoric, it has failed to become. "Why do we owe you?" asks a Saudi official. "We are a partner who needs to be consulted. We can't have the U.S. military thinking that any time they go to war, Saudi Arabia will be the command-and-control center. Somebody...
...Prince Sultan Air Base (P-SAB in military jargon), where the U.S. has 6,000 Air Force personnel patrolling Iraqi skies. The problem was initial Saudi hesitation in allowing the Pentagon to use a new U.S.-built command-and-control center at P-SAB to conduct the drive against bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. Known as the Combined Air Operations Center, or CAOC, the vast underground facility is manned with 300 specialists and equipped with satellite receivers, computers and secret communications. It enables commanders to direct a major war with real-time feedback on progress and setbacks...
...Crown Prince is probably correct when he says that bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network poses no immediate threat to Saudi stability. But the long-term danger is creating a bin Laden Generation: legions of kids schooled in puritanical Islam, lacking jobs and harboring hatred for the U.S. and Israel - and for their own rulers too. "There is a clash between tradition and modernity," says Saudi researcher Mai Yamani. "Vast wealth has been spent on education, but it is a population that cannot function in this demanding global economy...
...thousands of unemployed religious scholars every year. Still, education officials are making no apologies for textbooks that preach suspicion of non-Muslims, even to the extent of discouraging Saudis from congratulating Christians or Jews on their religious holidays. Abdullah rejects charges that the education system is breeding future bin Ladens, but many Saudis who can afford it prefer to send young children abroad for schooling. "I hate this fanatical crap my kids have to put up with," says Badr, 42, a Riyadh businessman. "I want to teach my kids about Islam. I don't want the state...