Exiled Saudi Is Dissident to Some, Terrorist to Others

LONDON -- The man in the soundproof broadcast booth wearing headphones and an intense gaze is discussing Saudi Arabian history with radio listeners this evening, but it's not the kind the Saudi government would endorse.

Saad Faqih recites a list of "massacres and assassinations" that he alleges were carried out by the late Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, modern Saudi Arabia's first king, in his rise to power nearly 100 years ago. Then Faqih pauses to take calls from listeners phoning in from his homeland to offer their own impassioned accounts of the royal family's alleged transgressions.

Just a few years ago, Faqih headed a small splinter group of Saudi exiles armed with a lone fax machine, a telephone and a dwindling list of contacts back home. These days, however, thanks to the Internet, satellite television and radio, cell phones and the largess of confidential benefactors, Faqih's message of dissent is beamed 3,000 miles to Saudi Arabia in a live three-hour broadcast every evening.

He describes that message as moderate and nonviolent, but at the same time he refuses to condemn al Qaeda and says that the United States brought the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on itself through "arrogance."

The recent wave of violence against foreigners inside Saudi Arabia has enhanced his reputation as a well-informed observer and critic of the forces at work there. Academics, journalists and intelligence analysts beat a path to his home in north London.

Faqih's archenemy, the Saudi government, calls him a terrorist who is conspiring to overthrow the royal family and replace it with a strict Islamic government acceptable to Osama bin Laden. In a dossier shared with officials in Washington and London, the Saudis seek to link Faqih to a long list of suspected terrorists and accuse him of inciting violence.

Now the Saudis have produced a new allegation. They accuse Faqih of taking $1.2 million from an operative of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to help arrange the assassination of Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Abdullah. The Saudis are pressing British authorities to detain Faqih on suspicion of terrorism and shut down his broadcasts to the kingdom.

Faqih, 45, who was a surgeon in Riyadh before he fled Saudi Arabia a decade ago, denies all the allegations. Increasingly, he inhabits a twilight world where the line between dissident and terrorist sympathizer is blurred beyond recognition.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon , he has become more influential but also more of a target, as he himself acknowledges.

Faqih asserts that one member of the royal family hired two local thugs who attempted to kidnap him from his doorstep a year ago, in what Saudi officials insist was an unauthorized operation.

"I can assure you that the Saudi regime is using every means possible to attack me," he says. "They are bombarding the British authorities with false stories. And there are elements in the American administration who are conspiring with the Saudis to incriminate me."

An Unlikely Rise

The nerve center of Islah ("Reform") Radio is a small room in the back of an anonymous duplex, crammed with five computers, a few telephones, two sound mixers and an isolation booth constructed from plywood, plexiglass and duct tape. Faqih, who arrives just before 7:30 p.m., is dressed in a full-length, crisp white thobe, or shirtdress, of the type common on the streets of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. But he expresses views that would earn him immediate arrest if he set foot there.

The country, he tells a visitor, is on the verge of collapse, and a number of factors -- intensifying violence, conflict within the royal family, economic crisis -- could soon bring it down. "This is a crippled and corrupt regime," he declares. "I think the next few months are crucial."

His callers tonight are in complete agreement. A man from Jiddah phones in to denounce the "shameful acts of the royal family." A man who says he is a policeman complains about the lack of pay and equipment and says police are ordered to forgo fighting drugs and crime to focus on protecting the country's rulers. And a woman who identifies herself as "Reform Lover" takes a moment to praise Islah as "the voice of freedom."