{"id":166,"date":"2008-12-22T13:43:45","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T13:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-hajj-hoax.html"},"modified":"2008-12-22T13:43:45","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T13:43:45","slug":"the-hajj-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/the-hajj-hoax.html","title":{"rendered":"The Hajj hoax"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems that there was no plot against the Hajj after all<\/a>, according to Saudi authorities:<\/p>\n

\n

JEDDAH: The Ministry of Interior has denied reports published in a
\nWashington-based online newspaper that Saudi officials had launched a
\nmassive crackdown on Al-Qaeda terrorists who were allegedly planning to
\nattack pilgrims participating in this year’s Haj.<\/p>\n

The Middle East Times — a sister publication of the Washington Times
\nwhich is owned by News World Communications — carried the report on
\nDec. 16 quoting unnamed US intelligence officials.<\/p>\n

The report said the Saudi government’s operation followed alerts that Al-Qaeda planned to launch a bloody assault on pilgrims.<\/p>\n

Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior,
\ndescribed the report as “incorrect.” “We didn’t launch any huge
\ncounterterrorism operation,” he said, adding that there was no
\nintelligence of an attack targeting the pilgrims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I find this denial believable because it would have been good PR had it been true. The original report was in the Middle East Times, which until now I hadn’t realized is a sister publication of the Washington Times, a conservative political newspaper with poor credibility that I usually ignore. <\/p>\n

Thank god it wasn’t true. Still, it’s foolish to think that there might not be one in the future. <\/p>\n

(via John<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that there was no plot against the Hajj after all, according to Saudi authorities: JEDDAH: The Ministry of Interior has denied reports published in a Washington-based online newspaper that Saudi officials had launched a massive crackdown on Al-Qaeda terrorists who were allegedly planning to attack pilgrims participating in this year’s Haj. The Middle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[40,24,71],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirabah-watch","tag-hajj","tag-islam","tag-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hajj hoax - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hajj hoax - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems that there was no plot against the Hajj after all, according to Saudi authorities: JEDDAH: The Ministry of Interior has denied reports published in a Washington-based online newspaper that Saudi officials had launched a massive crackdown on Al-Qaeda terrorists who were allegedly planning to attack pilgrims participating in this year’s Haj. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}