During his visit to Beirut, Lebanon, for interviews with Arab and Western media, he was abducted in the Hamra district of Beirut by Saudi agents on 17 December 1979. Just before his kidnapping Al Saeed praised those who seized Great Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. He described the seizure as a revolution that was the result of newly emerging controversies in Saudi Arabia. He added that the incident was organized by the opposition forces and carried out by military officials and tribesmen and that each revolutionary Muslim had a right to capture the Ka'ba as the prophet Mohammed did in order to satisfy his conscience.