Saudis Muzzies Building Border Fence to Keep Out Iraqi Muzzies!

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/saudi_border_fence/2007/12/02/53900.html

Saudis Building Their Own Border Fence

Sunday, December 2, 2007

"The feeling in Saudi Arabia is that Iraq is way out of control with no

possibility of stability," says Nawaf Obaid, director of the Saudi National

Security Assessment Project. "The urgency now is to get that border sealed."

Saudi Arabia is starting to look a lot like south Texas, and it's not just

the oil derricks.

The Saudis are pumping $5 billion into a border fence to keep out illegal

immigrants and potential terrorists, with a significant portion going to

seal off the Iraqi border.

Plans call for a 550-mile fence between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, bolstered by

an electronic fence along the Red Sea to separate the Saudi sheiks from

neighboring Jordan and Yemen.

As the controversy over U.S. efforts to fence off its border with Mexico

continues to percolate, the Saudi fence is getting little media attention.

Termed the "MIKSA" project, the overall plan also calls for an extensive

telecommunications network, 225 radar installations and 400 border posts

housing 20,000 troops, according to Middle East News.

Security experts say the fence has taken on new urgency in Saudi Arabia amid

fears that U.S. peacekeeping efforts in Iraq will fail, resulting in

regional chaos and an expansion of terrorism.

Saudi officials deny such concerns.

"This is not an anti-terrorism project," a top Saudi security official tells

Newsmax. "This is an anti-illegal immigration project."

The official, who spoke exclusively to Newsmax on condition of anonymity,

said Saudi Arabia is second only to the U.S. as a destination for illegal

aliens.

Some 4 million illegal immigrants from Arab, Asian and African countries

have been drawn to Saudi Arabia by its high standard of living and unrest in

their home countries. Saudi Arabia absorbs up to 400,000 illegal immigrants

each year.

"We also are concerned that the situation in Iraq may worsen and dissolve

into further war, which would leave us dealing with a lot of refugees," the

security official tells Newsmax. "The U.S. is doing a very similar project

on the border with Mexico. Ours is much more comprehensive, because we are

blocking the entire border."

Bids already have been submitted by 14 construction companies, including

U.S. companies such as Raytheon, for the first phase of the construction -

separating Saudi Arabia from Iraq.

Ironically, one of the firms invited to bid on the project was the Saudi Bin

Laden Group, a company controlled by the family of Osama Bin Laden,

according to published reports.

The cost of the Saudi Arabia - Iraq segment, the official noted, is

estimated at around $1.5 billion.

"This project was supposed to have happened 10 years ago, but we didn't have

the budget," the Saudi official says.

The Saudi border fence should prove much more formidable than its U.S.

counterpart.

Anyone wanting to slip illegally into Saudi Arabia would be forced to: climb

a series of high sand berms; scale a high fence girded with razor wire on

top and bottom; creep along a 50-yard stretch of no-man's land; clamber over

a barbed-wire pyramid; cross another open 50 yards; and shinny over a second

barbed-wired fence all while avoiding detection by ultraviolet sensors,

night vision cameras, buried movement sensors and patrol dogs.

Command posts topped with helipads make quick troop response to any

intrusion easy.

The only legitimate way through will be by 135 electronically controlled

gates, in effect, turning the entire country into a gated community, or a

prison, depending on your perspective.

The fence will replace the currently existing 6.2-mile stretch of patrolled

security zone, backed up by only a 20-foot high berm of sand.

The remainder of the fencing will eat up the rest of the $5 billion budget,

comprising virtual electronic fencing and sensors between Saudi Arabia,

Jordan and Yemen. Increased radar facilities and aircraft will further

strengthen the Red Sea border.

"We expect to start building in the first quarter of next year and hoping to

have the project finished by the end of 2008 to early 2009," the official

tells Newsmax.

Two years ago, Nawaf Obaid, director of the Saudi National Security

Assessment Project, told the London Telegraph, "The feeling in Saudi is that

Iraq is way out of control with no possibility of stability. The urgency now

is to get that border sealed; physically sealed.

"If and when Iraq fragments, there's going to be a lot of people heading

south and that is when we have to be prepared."

Saudi sentiments apparently have changed since then, at least for public

consumption. Inside Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida is on the run from Saudi

military, but the threat of new terrorist entry from Iraq and Yemen, experts

note, certainly is part of the concern fueling Saudi Arabia's rapid progress

in building the fence.