Working on deadline this evening, so no time for a long post. But just a quick note on the bombings in Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, it’s hard to know what to say at this point since, even hours after the bombings, we know very little about what seems to have happened. On the other hand, this strikes me as perhaps the most revealing, telling part of the story, in as much as it says a 
great deal about how Saudi Arabia operates, how closed it is, and how we — the United States — operate within Saudi Arabia.
As of just before midnight on the East Coast we know that there were apparently four separate, though coordinated, bombings. Three were aimed at heavily guarded residential compounds populated disproportionately by Westerners. Another hit a US-Saudi jointly owned business. The explosions are said to have been massive, yet the casualty figures being reported hover around 50 persons, with an improbably low estimate of one dead. Thus far, there are no pictures, video or otherwise, aside from some pictures of billowing smoke from a distance (decidedly less detailed than those from Baghdad in the early days of the war). And the low casualty estimates are belied by some eyewitness reports like one, for instance, from Britain’s Sky News which speaks of “bodies everywhere and blood everywhere.” And another: “We heard a huge noise and we saw many ambulances coming and gathering victims.” Or this from a Saudi website: “According to Al-Arabiya television channel, security forces exchanged fire with the terrorists inside the compound. The network also reported that many charred bodies were seen being taken from ambulances at a local hospital … Another resident said that he saw ‘scores’ of bodies on the ground following the explosion at Al-Hamra compound. ‘I do not want to cause panic. The security and police said they will handle the situation,’ he said.”
I certainly haven’t read every report. But I’ve skimmed around various news sources around the net. And I don’t think I’ve seen any official comment from any Saudi government source on what happened, how many casualties there are, how many deaths, etc. The reports are anecdotal ones from unnamed sources at different hospitals in Riyadh. Another thing I’ve just noticed is where the stories in tomorrow’s papers are datelined: The New York Times (Kuwait), The Washington Post (Amman), Los Angeles Times (Washington), Reuters (London), AP (Riyadh).
In other words, almost no Western reporters seem to be there.
