From the article: ''We are almost dealing with Saudi Arabia as if it were a patient with an addiction or a disease that is so dire that we don't dare disturb it because it might make it worse.... But the question that must be asked is: Are things going to get better?'' http://www.nationalpost.com/components/printstory/printstory.asp?id=3e461c70-0fb8-43d3-aef2-ebe7ee6c9443

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,331980,00.html People in Saudi Arabia are sick of talking about Sept. 11. They have little interest in examining why 15 of their countrymen hijacked U.S. commercial planes and killed 3,000 civilians; many prefer to believe that the attacks were the work of the CIA or the Mossad, and that the 15 hijackers were unwitting players in someone else's plot. "They were just bodies," a senior government official says. Spend an evening in Jidda, the hometown of Osama bin Laden, where young Saudis today flock to American chain restaurants and shopping malls to loiter away the stifling summer nights, and you rarely hear bin Laden's name. "They find it silly when people talk about al-Qaeda," says journalist Mohammed al-Kheriji, 28, as he sips a latte at the city's newest Starbucks. "People are worried about their own problems." But while Saudis remain uninterested�or perhaps they're in a state of denial�in the level of Saudi participation in Sept. 11, the country seethes with open loathing for the U.S. and sympathy for bin Laden's cause. Signs of anti-Western militancy are rife throughout this vast kingdom, from the capital, Riyadh�where in June separate car bombs blew up a British banker outside his home and nearly killed an American expatriate�to Abha, a remote mountain city in the southern province of Asir, where four of the hijackers were raised and locals still celebrate all "the Fifteen," as the group is called. "Their friends are really proud of them," says Ghazi al Gamdhi, 22, a university student. "They think the Fifteen were protecting Islam. Most of the guys here want to become heroes protecting Islam."

http://news.google.com/url?ntc=0M0A0&q=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/13/saudi.shooting/ RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- US and Saudi authorities are searching for a missing American, that al Qaeda militants claim to have kidnapped after killing another US citizen Saturday in Saudi Arabia's capital city, Riyadh.

Al Qaeda Escalates Anti-Western Attacks in Saudi euters - 40 minutes ago RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi and US authorities are working closely to locate an American engineer who al Qaeda said it had kidnapped after it killed another US national in the capital Riyadh, security sources said on Sunday.

U.S. urges Americans to exit Saudi Arabia By Pauline Jelinek WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government renewed its call on Monday for Americans to leave Saudi Arabia after the recent terrorist attacks, saying the safety of U.S. workers was more important than any effect on oil supplies or the Saudi economy. An estimated 35,000 Americans have been working in Saudi Arabia and it was unclear how many have left since the increase in attacks, which have come at the same time the Bush administration has been pressing the Saudis to boost oil production to help lower gas prices in the United States. Referring to U.S. workers in Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We first and foremost have a responsibility to Americans. We need to give them our best advice on how to handle any particular situation overseas." "As far as the maintenance and continued flow of oil and the economy in Saudi Arabia, that is something I think the Saudis will have to describe, what provisions they can make and how they can operate those facilities." He would not say how many American workers had chosen to remain in Saudi Arabia as part of the kingdom's huge expatriate work force. "In this kind of situation, we feel that giving out numbers just identifies how many potential targets there might be," Boucher said. More: http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/06/14/saudi_arabia/index.html