An uneasy crown of petrodollars

摘要

"No bombs," declared your correspondent's Saudi taxi-driver with a toothless chuckle. "Khalns [finished]." Well, almost. Hotels, embassies and government buildings are still ringed with concrete blocks and approaching vehicles are searched. The last attack by al-Qaeda-linked Islamists, in February, was against a sensitive target: the world's biggest oil-processing plant, in Abqaiq, near the country's eastern coast. But the wave of bombings and suicide attacks that struck the kingdom in May 2003-claiming at the time and afterwards more than 280 lives-has largely subsided. The authorities have dismantled many of the terrorists' cells and are deploying soft power (for example, putting repentant jihadists on television and the internet) in a bid to win hearts and minds.