And you thought taking your shoes off was an inconvenience

I've got lots more to say about my last few weeks in Abu Dhabi (together with a few nice pics), but haven't had much time to get on the internet (for standard, living-in-the-third-world reasons).

But when reading an analysis piece on a terrorist attack in Saudi, saw something I'd not seen when I'd initially heard about the incident last week.

In case you missed it, a bad guy tried to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayif, the Assistant Minister of Interior in Saudi (and counterterrorism bad ass...he has been largely responsible for the successes the Saudi's have seen - and there have, believe it or not, been successes - in their efforts against Al-Qa'ida).

I'd wondered how a suicide bomber had managed to sneak an explosive device past security. But, as I'd lived through the Al-Qa'ida attack on the American Consulate in Jeddah, I chalked it up to the inefficacy of the SANG (Saudi Arabian National Guard. Remarkably, it rhymes with Tang, for those of you needing some poetry or rap lyrics about the region).

It was not, however, laziness on the part of the Saudi Royal Guard (though I can't help but wonder why the #1 CT guy in the country is meeting with a known terrorist, straight out of Yemen, just because it's Ramadan. That would be like President Obama - not necessarily the #1 CT guy, mind you - meeting with somebody from Gitmo just because it was Christmas. And the guy saying, "I want to surrender personally to the President").

Instead, the terrorist hid the explosive device in his ass.

Thinking back on TSA's reaction to Richard Reed, I can only imagine the lengths to which we'll now be screened at the airport...