Several large items today. Firstly, the attacks in Saudi Arabia, which sound very carefully planned and executed are a serious move on the part of Islamic radicalism. They've attacked America on their own soil, i.e. the heart of Islam itself, and I would wager they consider their attempt at the beginnings of an Islamic overthrow of the Saudi government. Of course, the House of Saud could use some overthrowing, but at the moment they are definately the lesser of two evil. The attacks sound very ambitious logistically, which is typical Al Queda, particularly the simultaneous timing. I would point out, however, that there hasn't been a peep out of Bin Laden before or after, leading me to think the rumors of his demise may not be so greatly exagerrated.
Obviously, this was an attack waiting to happen. You've got major concentrations of American soldiers, businessmen, and others in one of the most violently fundamentalist Islamic countries in the world. They were too tempting a target to be ignored forever, and its been clear for years that the Saudi government could only buy them off for so long. Hopefully, this might wake them up to the fact that they cant be parroting Islamic rhetoric and funneling them billions in oil dollars without expecting that sooner or later its going to turn around and bite them on the ass. Unfortunately, the Saudi goverment hasn't exactly proven itself willing to stand up to these folks, and I'm not holding out a great deal of hope they're going to do so this time.