Inside Saudi Arabia

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When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld turned up at an ornate royal palace in Saudi Arabia last week, he shook hands with ailing King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud and then exchanged views about the war on terrorism with Crown Prince Abdullah, who runs the kingdom's day-to-day affairs. Rumsfeld might have got a somewhat different perspective if he had stopped by al Masaa, a cafe in the heart of the capital, where patrons hail Osama bin Laden as an Arab hero.

The terrace is crammed with young men, some in traditional cotton robes and Bedouin headdress, others in Western jeans and T shirts. They are watching teenage drivers peeling rubber through traffic, calling friends on cell phones and discussing Osama. Sipping cappuccinos and downing milk shakes, they admit to mixed feelings about last month's devastating attacks on the U.S. because of the innocent lives that were taken. They even wonder whether it was really Osama who did it ("I hope that it was," says one). Mostly they express glee that the strikes made the U.S. pay a price for what they see as arrogant meddling in the Middle East, particularly in supporting Israel against the Palestinians.

"Osama is a very, very, very, very good Muslim," says Feras Bukhamsin, 24, a bank clerk. Agrees Bader, 25, a businessman who declines to give his full name: "He's a good guy. He has millions, but he doesn't care about money or himself. He's just looking to get justice for the Arabs." The other six Saudis around the table, some recently returned from studies in the U.S., nod their heads.

What kind of ally is a country whose leaders profess solidarity with the U.S. but whose people--apparently some of them, anyway--commit mass murder on American soil, or sit around Riyadh coffee shops applauding those who do? Answer: an uneasy one. As it moves toward military action, the U.S. remains concerned about popular unrest in Arab and Islamic states around the world, including Saudi Arabia. (It was concerned enough, in fact, that alarms went off on Saturday, when a bomb exploded outside a shop in the Saudi city of Khobar, killing two. Initial reports, however, were that the incident was unrelated to the Sept. 11 attacks.) And as in the Gulf War, the U.S. has a tricky balance to strike between its long-term, irrevocable commitment to Israel and its short-term interest in placating the Arab street. Washington clearly sees a need for buttressing friendly Muslim regimes in the crisis. Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Wyche Fowler warns against assuming that "monarchs can do anything they want without consequences from a restless or dissident citizenry."