“The United Arab Emirates has reported a plot to destabilize the Gulf Cooperation Council state. Officials said the UAE captured a cell linked to Al Qaida in December. They said the cell consisted of nationals from Saudi Arabia
assigned to conduct a destabilization campaign in the region…………In a statement on Dec. 26, Wam said the plot called for attacks in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Wam said the alleged members of what was termed a “deviant group” acquired material for the attacks. This marked the first time that Abu Dhabi reported an Al Qaida plot. Officials said the plot appeared to represent a regional effort by Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Officials said Abu Dhabi and Riyad cooperated in the counter-insurgency investigation………….”

Tying their regional enemies to Al-Qaeda is an old trick by potentates along the Gulf. The Saudis started it by trying to tie the Iranian mullahs (all good Shia’ heretics to the Al Saud) to Al-Qaeda (all good Wahhabi cutthroats: domestically to discredit Al-Qaeda in the eyes of the Wahhabi faithful for cooperating with the Shi’a mullahs, and internationally to further discredit the Iranians in the West. The Saudis probably got the idea from Dick Cheney who tied Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda in 2002. But unlike the Cheney fabrication, the Saudi one did not work.
Now the UAE potentates are using that old trick, trying to hook up their Muslim Brotherhood enemies with the Salafi terrorists. In other words, tying the current Egyptian regime to Al-Qaeda. Actually tying their own dissidents to Al-Qaeda, thus discrediting them in American eyes. Just as they, and other Gulf GCC potentates and their media, are also tying the Iranians to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (see my previous post).
Actually everywhere Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood are on opposite sides, especially in Yemen. Ironically, the one place were Al-Qaeda terrorists and the Muslim Brotherhood see eye to eye and cooperate is in Syria. But that Syrian cooperation is encouraged by the GCC potentates and by the GCC Salafists and by the GCC Muslim Brotherhood groups. Once Bashar Al-Assad is out of the way, WTF he will be, then the two sides may decide to settle scores and fight over what is left of Syria, at the cost of thousands more Syrians dead and wounded and many more made into refugees.
Remember Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s? The Mujahideen and Taliban destroyed more of Afghanistan in the 1990s than the Soviet War had done in the 1980s. Hard to believe that any force can destroy an Arab country more than Baathist rule, but it can happen.
Cheers
mhg