Frank News

Am I the only one who has been waiting to hear from Frank Gardner, the BBC security correspondent who was almost killed in an assassination attempt in KSA last year? Here he is, with frank opinions on the security situation after the recent attacks and his take on the new nature of Al-Qaeda:

Q: With regard to cyber-terrorism, some analysts argue the leader of al-Qaeda isno longer Osama Bin Laden but rather the al Qaeda affiliated websites. What is your opinion on the matter?

A: I believe this to be absolutely correct. It is very hard to control how people are radicalized by the internet. I have seen reports that that there is a suspicion western intelligence agencies are trying to infiltrate some of these websites, which raises the question, why did they wait until now to do this? I think it is true that there are slight double standards here, that it is only when London got bombed that people are now taking action, or maybe there was a tactful reason for this.

Surprisingly, Frank has not received an apology from the Saudi Ministry of Information whose minders accompanied him and his cameraman (who did not survive the attack) on the fatal day. These are the minders who ran away and left Frank bleeding to death on the street until a police car turned up and took him to the nearest hospital. Rightly so, Frank is also asking for compensation since he is paralyzed and he was not alone but in the trusted care of the MoI minders.