Spinning a car bomb attack on Saudi Interior Ministry (w / Poll!)

More brazen, coordinated attacks (2) in Riyadh show that all is not peace and quiet in Saudi Arabia. That the Saudi regime, a critical source of stable oil supplies, is fighting a quiet civil war is not news, and the details are not exactly hidden. What I found striking was the clever, Rumsfeld-esque spin coming from the Saudi Interior ministry. Once again we discover that bold, terror attacks on prime targets are actually a sign of weakness and desperation. Here's what Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki, the spokesman for the ministry had to say:

General Turki described the attacks as the actions of increasingly desperate militants.

"When you get closer and closer and closer to them, they react to show that they are still there," he said. "This building is the symbol of the forces that are attacking them, confronting them," he said of the Interior Ministry.

But the fact that the latest attacks did so little damage - especially compared to earlier assaults against residential compounds that killed nearly 100 people, many of them foreigners - is a sign that the police are curbing the militants' ability to act, the general said. "We can read their weakness through the results of their work," he said.

The bombings were the second such brazen attack in December...

Fortunately the reporter called bullshit on that straight away:

The effect of the attacks was more psychological than physical, however.

They showed that the militants are still capable of striking in the very heart of the capital despite an 19-month, nationwide police crackdown that, the police say, has killed or captured three-quarters of the most wanted terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda and dismantled much of their network. Hundreds of suspected sympathizers have been detained.

It is likely, given that Freedom is On The March, that such signs of weakness will become increasingly evident. This will contrast with such successful coalition tactics as Operation Iron Hammer, which bombed empty buildings after warning the locals that they would be bombed. This was intended to 'send a message of strength and resolve'.