| We can be sure it hit targets painted in exactly the right spots on the floor and ceiling of that reception room in the palace, but beyond that the evidence was too misty to be certain. |
Al-Fifi said Al-Qaeda was responsible for the liquidation attempt, which aimed to undermine Saudis' faith in a program encouraging Islamic fascisti to turn themselves in.
| It certainly seems wise, in retrospect, not to stop for a last coffee with the AQAP master bomb maker on the way to surrendering to the authorities... |
| Known to the rest of the world as Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, but the Saudis have their little peculiarities on such subjects. |
He said the commander told him that the only way to reach Prince Muhammad was by sending in Islamic fascisti who pretended to give themselves up to the authorities. "If we were accepted and given an audience with the prince, we would detonate the explosives, killing him as well as us," Al-Fifi said.
He said Saudi authorities would then doubt the intentions of any Al-Qaeda member who offered to turn himself in, ultimately discouraging Islamic fascisti from surrendering.
Al-Fifi said he did not know what was in the explosives belt, but said it must have been highly volatile.
| Belt? I thought that master bomb maker put it up his brother's bum. The prince's guards would have notices a bomb belt, surely. |
Al-Fifi said it was the brother of Asiri who prepared the explosives and the belt. He said the brother was also an Al-Qaeda member and lived in Yemen.
"Asiri was chosen to execute the operation because he was Saudi and the last name in the list of 85 most wanted terrorists," he said.
Al-Fifi said Al-Qaeda was very secretive about such operations and would only talk to those directly involved in executing them.
"The leaders would only speak to the cut-throats about their role in the operation and would not tell them the role of others involved," he said.
He said a Yemeni national was sent on a reconnaissance mission to Soddy Arabia to find out how to enter the Kingdom and get an audience with Prince Muhammad before Asiri was assigned the task of killing the prince.
He did not reveal the name of the Yemeni man, but said he was supposed to go back to Soddy Arabia again to carry out the operation himself.
"There were differences over his suitability and finally (deputy leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) Saeed Al-Shihri chose Asiri to carry out the operation," he said.
Al-Fifi said the explosives were tested on a rock before they were put in the belt around Asiri's waist. "Only 200 grams was used and it completely destroyed the rock," he said.
| It sounds impressive to me, but I really haven't a clue about such things. Does Saudi security employ bomb-sniffing dogs... or perhaps trained bees? |
| I'm sure I recall that the heat of the explosion would break down the poison's chemical structure. |