“By the time I left the country, we were spending most of our time inside the compounds.” Saxon Gilbert, another expatriate who now lives in Somerset, said “We felt as though we were not welcome there, it just wasn’t worth staying there to find out the hard way.”Most of the expatriates in Saudi Arabia are men whose families have returned to their home countries to escape the frustrating local laws but recent events have caused many more to leave in fear of their lives. Women are required to cover themselves in black ankle-length Abayahs; they are not allowed to drive and have to eat in separate “family” sections in restaurants.Entertainment is limited. There are no concerts, clubs or public cinemas because they are considered “Harram” (against Islamic principles), and many Westerners prefer to stay inside their compounds. Although some drive out to the beach at weekends to swim or go scuba diving, security fears prevent many from going.

A majority pass their time at home, or visit friends within their own compounds. Wild parties, where vast quantities of a home-made spirit called Sid were consumed into the small hours, used to be common but now they are few and far between because Westerners fear that they will become a target for an attack.Many British and American expatriates have left the country in the past two years and, in some cases, local schools have had to close because of the lack of pupils.. A week ago the US intelligence community was talking with a swagger bordering on arrogance that had not existed since the attacks of 11 September Al-Qa’ida was on the run, said officials in Washington. It may not have been entirely destroyed but the back of the organisation had been broken, its leadership and operational capabilities severely disrupted. “This was the big game for them: you put up or shut up and they have failed. It proves that the global war on terrorism has been effective, focused and has these guys on the run.”Yesterday, Mr Black was unavailable for further comment, while rescue workers in Riyadh were searching the rubble left by attacks Mr Black’s boss, the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said had “all the fingerprints” of the supposedly defeated terror network.For the US intelligence community to have been so apparently complacent and casual seems astonishing.

Almost as Mr Black was telling The Washington Post he believed al-Qa’ida was on the run, a self-proclaimed spokesman for Osama bin Laden’s group was warning the London-based Arabic weekly, al-Majalla magazine, that it had been thoroughly restructured and was planning further spectacular attacks against US targets.Thabet bin Qais, who said he was al-Qa’ida’s new spokesman, said: “The Americans only have predictions and old intelligence. It will take them a long time to understand the new form of al-Qa’ida. American security agencies still are ignorant of the changes the leadership has made.” And he added: “A strike against America is definitely coming. Martyrdom operations in the jihad will go on.”The attacks on New York and Washington 20 months ago dealt America a blow, physical and psychological, from which it has not fully recovered, but one can see why Mr Black was tempted to sound off so optimistically. President George Bush’s much-publicised war on terror had, on the face of it, a fair degree of success.In the year after 11 September 2001, more than 3,000 suspected al-Qa’ida members around the world were arrested. Bin Laden may or may not be alive, and many of his lieutenants have been captured or killed. They included the group’s military director, Mohammed Atef, his replacement, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the planning director Abu Zubeida, Ramzi Binalshibh and, two weeks ago, Tawfiq bin Attash.

He was held in Pakistan with a nephew of Mr Mohammed.Under interrogation at either Guantanamo Bay or US bases in Afghanistan, these men were said to be providing US intelligence with crucial information that was helping disrupt attacks and catch suspected members. On Monday, 13 men suspected of al-Qa’ida links went on trial in the Netherlands. A week ago, Saudi security services raided a suspected al-Qa’ida hide-out but allowed 19 men, 17 of them Saudis, to escape.One senior US intelligence analyst said: “The nucleus of the al-Qa’ida leaders was relatively small and Atef and Moham-med were significant losses. There are not many with senior operational capabilities left. They must move around and keep their heads down, mainly concentrating during their waking hours on surviving.”But in March last year, five people were killed after militants linked to al-Qa’ida bombed a church in Islamabad used by Westerners.