Terror Arms Traced To Saudi National Guard

posted by ewing2001 on Monday May 19, @08:26AM

Saudi National Guard since 1975 connected with Vinnell/TRW/Northrop Grumman

As the Washington Post today reported, "Saudi authorities are investigating suspected illegal arms sales by members of the country's national guard to al Qaeda operatives in the country, U.S. and Saudi officials said"

Interestingly this would mean, that probablay Vinnell, who was bombed last week, could be involved in this case, too.

Vinnell, which is a subsidiary of TRW/Northrop Grumman is contractor of the Saudi National Guard since 1975.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5981-2003May18.html

Al Quaeda Arms Traced To Saudi National Guard

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 19, 2003; Page A01

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 18 --

"...Saudi authorities are investigating suspected illegal arms sales by members of the country's national guard to al Qaeda operatives in the country, U.S. and Saudi officials said.

The weapons were seized in a May 6 raid on an al Qaeda safe house and were traced to national guard stockpiles, the officials said.

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The Saudi interior minister said today that officials have identified three of the suicide bombers involved in attacks last week on three residential compounds in Riyadh, which led to the deaths of 34 people, including eight Americans. He said they were part of a group of 19 people wanted in connection with the May 6 raid.

Problems in the Saudi Arabian National Guard are not new, according to the officials, and past audits of its armories have revealed that weapons were missing. But there was no crackdown on the illicit trade largely because of bureaucratic inertia, the officials said.

"This will focus their attention," a U.S. official said..."

Saudi National Guard is connected with Vinnell/TRW/Northrop Grumman

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/opm-sang.

Office of the Program Manager
Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program
Units

"...A 1973 agreement signed by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and the U.S. ambassador established the mission of the Office of the Program Manager-Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program [OPM-SANG]. In 1975 Vinnell Corp., since 1998 a subsidiary of TRW, was awarded the National Guard Modernization Program contract. The most recent five-year contract, awarded in 1998, has an estimated value of $831 million and involves 280 US government personnel and 1,400 Vinnell staff at various locations. In 1998, the Carlyle Group sold its controlling interest in BDM, including Vinnell, to TRW International. With the 2002 TRW acquisition, Northrop Grumman Corporation became America's second-largest defense firm, with $26 billion in annual revenue, rivaling No. 1 Lockheed Martin Corp.

The United States has a large Foreign Military Sales program in Saudi Arabia, including the F-15, AWACS, missiles, air defense weaponry, military vehicles, and other equipment. A U.S. Military Training Mission provides training and support for these weapons and other security-related services to the Saudi armed forces. A similar program assists the Saudi Arabian National Guard. In consideration of declining personal strengths in the US Army, it was necessary to use contractor-hired, retired military to assist in training the Saudi's in modernized procedures.

On 13 November 1995, a 220-pound car bomb exploded in a parking lot adjacent to an office building housing the Office of the Program Manager, Saudi Arabian National Guard, in Riyadh, causing five U.S. and two Indian fatalities. After the bombing, the security situation in Saudi Arabia became a matter of greater concern to U.S. officials. A Department of State Accountability Review Board investigated this attack and made recommendations to improve U.S. security in the region. The DoD also conducted a departmentwide review of anti-terrorism readiness following the November 1995 bombing.

The Anti-terrorism Task Force report made recommendations concerning enhancements to the security posture of deployed forces, education and training, intelligence sharing and interagency coordination. On 22 April 1996 Saudi authorities televised the confessions of four Sunni Saudi nationals who admitted to planning and conducting the bombing. Three were veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya. The four were executed on 31 May 1996 in accordance with Saudi law.

Vinnell Corporation is a Northrop Grumman company

More on Vinnell-Carlyle Ties

In 1992 Vinnell was taken over by the
Carlyle group, whose chairman was Ronald Reagan's former defence secretary, Frank Carlucci. George Bush snr would later act on behalf of Carlyle and in 1993 Mr Bush snr's former secretary of state, James Baker, joined the company.

More here:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885294304.html

Company was a carefully chosen target

By Marian Wilkinson Herald Correspondent in Washington
May 15 2003

"...The bloody attacks in Riyadh are telling because of their targets, in particular the Vinnell Corporation. The residential compound and the offices used by Vinnell were hit, killing nine of its employees and injuring several others, two of whom are in a critical condition. Seven of the dead were Americans.

Al-Qaeda has a particular hatred for Vinnell because the American company trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the country's internal security force and an integral part of the military forces...

... Dan Briody, author of a new book on the Carlyle group, tells how Saudi Arabia's military dependence on the US can be traced back to 1975, when Vinnell was hired by the Pentagon on a $US77 million contract to train Saudi troops to protect the country's oilfields...

... In 1997 Vinnell was taken over by the American military contractor TRW, but continued its work for the Saudi Government. Last year, when TRW merged with Northrop, Vinnell found itself with a new owner..."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885294301.html

"...The tight sequence of events, timed so no one attack might lead to alerts and lockdowns elsewhere in the capital, was meticulously planned, US military and Saudi officials said.

The attacks involved extensive intelligence and almost certainly information from people who had been inside, because the target was the most populated building in the compound run by Vinnell, a Virginia-based company that has operated in Saudi Arabia for 29 years.

"It was a sophisticated, near-simultaneous attack - they knew the set-up," the US general said. "The modus operandi in the three was almost identical."

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