Vinnell
The Target
By Marian
Wilkinson
The Age
15 May, 2003
The bloody attacks in Riyadh
are telling because of their targets, in particular the Vinnell Corporation.
The residential compound and the offices used by Vinnell were hit, killing
nine of the company's employees and injuring several others, two critically.
Al-Qaeda has a particular
hatred for the US Vinnell Corporation because it trains the Saudi Arabian
National Guard, the country's internal security force and an integral
part of the Saudi military forces.
Vinnell, under contract to
the US Army, employs about 800 people in Saudi Arabia including 300
Americans. Vinnell recently came under the financial control of giant
US defence contractor Northrop.
Vinnell's relationship with
Saudi Arabia over nearly three decades has been intriguing and controversial.
For five years until 1997 it was owned by the Carlyle group, a defence
and investment house close to the Bush family. Several former Republican
cabinet ministers sat on Carlyle's board.
In 1975 the Pentagon hired
Vinnell on a $US77 million ($A118.8 million) contract to train Saudi
troops to protect the country's oilfields. About 1000 US Special Forces
were recruited, says Dan Briody, author of a new book on the Carlyle
group.
In 1992 Vinnell was taken over by the Carlyle group, whose chairman
was Ronald Reagan's former defence secretary, Frank Carlucci. George
Bush snr would later act on behalf of Carlyle and in 1993 Mr Bush snr's
former secretary of state, James Baker, joined the company.
By then, Vinnell had trained
the Saudi National Guard, and had worked alongside them during the first
Gulf War launched while Mr Bush snr and Mr Baker were in office.
Indeed Vinnell, says Briody,
"paved the way for co-operation between the United States and Saudi
Arabia during the (first) Gulf War". It was this co-operation that
infuriated Osama bin Laden.