How worried should we all be about the implosion of state authority in Saudi Arabia? Personally, I think we should all be very worried indeed:
The Saudi authorities have been trying since last Saturday to locate kidnaped American helicopter technician Paul Johnson, without success. On Tuesday, his kidnappers issued that grisly video showing him quaking in fear while his captors spelled out their intention to murder him Friday if the Saudi authorities don't release a list of Qaeda prisoners.
This, coming in the wake of the past two months' bombings against residential compounds housing foreign contractors, and other anti-foreigner actions in the Kingdom
Not surprisingly, foreign contract workers have been leaving the Kingdom in droves. In an evident vicious-cycle effect, this exodus is itself impacting the Kingdom's ability to provide/ensure basic public security, given the large role foreign contractors play in supervising essential elements of the internal-security system.
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