>How do Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, (all part of 9/11) and France (France arrested six middlemen in 2005, who had recruited about two dozen French Moslems for suicide bomber duty) figure into that?
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>SNIP
>>Nope, it's always coming from countries which have been screwed several times over, which have an axe to grind, which are poor, exploited and hence have a large segment of population which is a candidate for providing the cannon fodder. Except that they don't have cannons, they resort to poor man's war, aka terrorism.

Each in its own way. Shall we start with France? They have their colonial history, which stretches into sixties, AFAIK. And they have been a rather heavy-handed colonial ruler, specially in Algiers - remember the Foreign Legion? So they are, IMO, trying to atone for what they did then, by helping the people and the countries they once ruled, and by playing as soft as possible. The demonstrations in Muslim quarters last year lasted much longer than they would have lasted elsewhere. We didn't see tanks on the streets, as we would have if riots of that size happened in, say, California or Texas. But then I think the French believe that terrorism should be fought by police and espionage - and while rioting can be understood and somewhat tolerated, terrorism can not, so arrest them when possible.

Algeria is still recovering from its civil wars. I can imagine that among its 40 political parties there must be at least one hardcore islamic fundamentalist with a (secret?) armed wing. And they surely have a lot of axes to grind, given the history of France's rule there.

Egypt is also in turmoil - and I know that each government there had its share of problems with the Muslim Brotherhood (or whatever the translation). While the recent governments, probably since the eighties - are in good relations with the US, they have a lot of dissent at home to deal with.

Saudi Arabia seems like a classic case of the Mideastern "good morning bazaar on all four sides" - playing with all sides at the same time. While being in bed with the US, they still have the status of keepers of faith. Mecca and Medina are on their territory, they host the pilgrims. These two sides are at odds with each other, so I figure the ruling caste must be playing a double game - deal with the West with one hand, fuel a lot of money into Islamic movements with the other. So I'm not surprised that they may have their hand in a lot of terrorist organizations. But they have the oil, so they'll never be marked as a rogue state.