Reality TV - Saudi style

al-Qaeda turncoats to go on Saudi TV

Cherchez la femme.

The female founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website is among several 'turncoats' from the terror network who are expected to publicly recant jihadism on Saudi TV .

The al-Khansa women's website founder, Umm Osama, and other arrested al-Qaeda suspects will say they have renounced jihadist ideology in a series of interviews to be aired late on Tuesday, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reports.

An interview with Umm Osama's compatriot, the Egyptian-born Abu Azza al-Ansari will also be aired, al-Hayat said.

Al-Ansari was the director of the al-Qaeda linked 'Echoes of Jihad' online magazine. Al-Khansa - the sole women-only jihadist webiste - and 'Echoes of Jihad' are considered to have been al-Qaeda's most successful propaganda tools before... the Saudi authorities closed both down in 2007.

Investigators allege Osama used al-Khansa to recruit women to armed groups and to communicate with terror cells inside and outside Saudi Arabia.

Al-Khansa allegedly also gave information to the 'mujahide' or female jihadists on how to give first-aid to injured 'warriors' and how to bring up their children as future 'martyrs' of Islam.

Osama posted jihadist material on the Internet, according to investigators. A prominent figure in Jihad, she has lived for some 20 years in the Saudi city of Medina. In a 2003 interview with Saudi daily al-Watan, Osama, then aged 23, stated she was the leader of al-Qaeda's women's section. Osama confirmed that al-Qaeda spreads its message mainly via the Internet. This allows "all the brothers and sisters" to train together, also spiritually, she said.

She also claimed she had received via the Internet instructions from Taliban leader Mullah Saifuddin, who took his orders from al-Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan.

Osama has however failed to radicalise many women, according to investigators, who say there are currently no al-Qaeda cells in Saudi prisons. The few female terror suspects arrested in 2003 during a series of raids by the Saudi police in the capital, Riyadh, have been placed under house arrest and made to undergo 're-education' courses. One such woman is the Bosnian wife of the alleged al-Qaeda leader in Saudi Arabia, Moroccan born Yunes al-Hayari. He was killed during the 2003 Riyadh raids.

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