Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

*** China Xinjiang terror fears.  The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held an anti-terror exercise in China’s Muslim province of Xinjiang in early May.  Speaking on 6 May, a Chinese official involved with the exercise said: “The drill was conducted considering the present anti-terror condition.  There are signs that terrorists belonging to the East Turkestan movement have returned, and it is highly likely that they will enter China through Central Asia.”  The Uighur independence movement refers to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan”.

According to Li Wei, director of the Centre for Counterterrorism Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations: “The terrorists have long been attempting to return to China. They are always waiting in Central Asia for opportunities to come back and attack.”

China has pursued an intense crackdown in Xinjiang since 2009, when riots in the regional capital Urumqi led to the deaths of nearly 200 people and some 2,000 injuries.

*** ‘Saudization’ intensified.  On 8 May, Saudi Arabia announced new plans to provide more jobs for Saudi nationals in the private sector.  The country’s work force is dominated by 8m expatriate workers, but there are around 450,000 Saudi job seekers.  Companies will now be categorized green, yellow, or red according to their performance in providing jobs for Saudis.  Those categorized as red will be prevented from renewing the work visas of expatriate workers.  Only 10% of the private-sector work force is currently Saudi Arabian.
Labour Minister Adel Fakieh said: “Saudization has become a national necessity rather than a choice.”

*** Taleban in praise of bin Laden.  In a statement issued on 7 May by the Afghan Taleban movement, the leadership council said that by killing Osama bin Laden, the US had helped him fulfil his wish to be a martyr.  It also said that bin Laden’s death would not weaken the jihad in Afghanistan.

The statement said: “Osama bin Laden, peace be upon him, had been seeking martyrdom since the launch of the jihad.  He courageously fulfilled his wish.  If the US and their allies think that the martyrdom of Osama bin Laden, peace be upon him, will weaken the morale or ranks of the mojahedin in Afghanistan and other occupied Muslim countries, it will be their serious blunder...hundreds of others will come forward to make sacrifices for martyrdom after the martyrdom of [Osama bin Laden].”