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August 7, 2005

The last two years have been a troubled time for the Saudi Arabian navy, with accident rates going up, and readiness levels going down. One of the main reasons for this was the withdrawal of American trainers two years ago. This was the result of an American civilian contractor being shot dead by an Islamic terrorist, who was also a Saudi sailor. The killing took place in the Saudi naval base of Jubail. The United States, not satisfied with Saudi security arrangements for the American trainers, shut down the training program. Since then, the Saudis have beefed up their security sufficiently to enable the U.S. to restore the training program. The current training contract runs through the end of the decade.