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Posted on 11/12/2001 9:49:07 AM PST by classygreeneyedblonde

LONDON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's network of supporters in Saudi Arabia is planning a strike against government or U.S. military interests in the oil-rich desert kingdom, a leading Saudi dissident said Monday

There is credible information of an impending attack inside Saudi Arabia -- and one wonders whether inside America itself," Saad al-Fagih, head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform, told Reuters.

Bin Laden, prime suspect behind the September 11 hijack attacks on the United States, is believed to be sheltering in an Afghan hideaway as U.S. jets and troops from the opposition Northern Alliance pound troops of his Taliban protectors

But the tentacles of the Saudi-born multi-millionaire's al Qaeda network of Islamic extremists stretched well beyond the borders of Afghanistan, Fagih said, permeating deep into Saudi society.

Bin Laden has thousands of supporters in Saudi Arabia who look upon him as a national hero. A number of his circle speak very confidently about something happening there soon," Fagih said

Saudi, which sees itself as the world's principal advocate of pure Islam, has condemned the September 11 attacks, but remains sensitive to widespread public anger at civilian deaths in Muslim Afghanistan.

Riyadh has not let attacks against the Taliban and al Qaeda be launched from its soil, but U.S. officials say the country is cooperating in other ways, by sharing intelligence and cracking down on funding of groups suspected of terrorist links.

American troops have been based in the kingdom since U.S.-led forces evicted Iraq from Saudi Arabia's neighbor Kuwait in 1991. Although now only a discreet force, some still view its presence as an affront to Islam

Fagih added that further al Qaeda cells could be at large in the U.S, waiting for the green light to go into action.

Such fears had been behind the recent warnings from the U.S. authorities that landmarks such as San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge could come under attack from explosive-laden trucks, he said.

He added that military advances by the Northern Alliance over the last three days, threatening the Afghan capital Kabul, were a major psychological boost for the "war on terrorism," but said the U.S.-led coalition was far from getting its man

If Kabul falls, you still have 50 percent of the country left under the Taliban and even if they have just ten square kilometers left, they will defend bin Laden to the last," Fagih said

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