The Mouse That Roared - Political Forum

Wheeldog · #1 (**permalink**) 11-11-2007, 08:05 PM

What Sort Of Friend Is Saudi Arabia?, Larry Miller Points To The Contradictions, And Some Explanations, Of A Controversial Friendship - CBS News

Quote:

CBS) Letter from London is Larry Miller's weekly look at news from across the pond.
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Last week, at Buckingham Palace, the Queen threw a big banquet for Saudi King Abdullah and his entourage. Both sides said diplomatic words and, as the British smiled, they swallowed hard.

Everyone in the room knew who held all the cards, and it wasn't little Britain.
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So, when Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls the King a friend and Foreign Office Minister Kim Howell says, "We have many values in common," what do they really mean? Perhaps that Britain will decide to behead 124 people this year to match the number executed in Saudi Arabia?

Perhaps it's time for a new evaluation of women's rights. A Saudi woman can't travel abroad, leave the house or be examined by a doctor without her husband's permission. She can't drive, marry a non-Sunni Muslim or do a lot of other things, under penalty of flogging or execution.

What about the persecution of Shiites and homosexuals, torture, lack of free speech or political opposition, and the banning of Bibles? Might these be the values the British wish to have in common?

Downing Street, the British prime minister's official office and residence, said Brown spoke to the king about human rights violations. The Saudis say it was never brought up.
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A 2005 analysis found that more than half of the foreign fighters in Iraq were Saudis, funded by Saudis. Let's not forget that 15 out of the 19 September 11th terrorists were Saudi. The radical madrassas - Islamic religious schools - in Pakistan are believed to be largely Saudi-financed.

......an investigation by the Policy Exchange think tank found that hate literature produced by agencies linked to the Saudi government had been discovered in British mosques and schools.

The material called for gays to be murdered and women to be subjugated. Jews and Christians were described as the enemies of Islam. There was a call for jihad against tyrants and oppressors, "best done through force if possible." Extreme anti-Semitic propaganda was produced by the Saudi ministry of education.
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Also fresh in his mind was the decision by former Prime Minister Tony Blair to drop a corruption investigation in which members of the Saudi royal family allegedly took kickbacks as part of a billion dollar arms deal.
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The geopolitical problems of the region are also major factors in playing ball with the Saudis, however distasteful their practices.

....... the king knows he's got Britain, the U.S. and other Western countries over a barrel.

Saudi Arabia is ruled by a notorously corrupt and repressive regime that engages in torture and supports terrorism. They openly export their hate around the world funding Sunni Muslims who advocate the killing of Jews, Christians and gays and the oppression of women. They ban any religion but Sunni and refuse basic human rights to workers from other nations. Yet when a member of the ruling Saudi royality shows up the U.S. or the U.K. they are treated with the greatest respect and fawned over like minor dieties. Does anyone fail to see the hypocracy and embarrassing subservience of our governments, while we pretend to be champions of democracy and human dignity?

vladward8 · #2 (**permalink**) 11-11-2007, 08:21 PM

I think many see what you say to be true. Even if mainstrean media softball the oilboys.

colourislast · #3 (**permalink**) 11-11-2007, 08:21 PM

I think we should go over there, take back our oil felids and reintroduce the nomad lifestyle to the royal family. Oh wait, we are already over there. We could take back that oil in a matter of days. They have no real standing armies. Any defense they have is ours. Wow, the easiest way to have a democratic ally in the ME is to make Saudi our 51st state and first move to real imperialism. We can pull out of Iraq completely and re-station all the troops in Saudi, I mean New Texas. New Texas could basically be the "roach motel" for terrorists and anti-Americans. Of course, that is a long way for college professors to travel.

Wheeldog · #4 (**permalink**) 11-13-2007, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colourislast

I think we should go over there, take back our oil felids and reintroduce the nomad lifestyle to the royal family. Oh wait, we are already over there. We could take back that oil in a matter of days. They have no real standing armies. Any defense they have is ours. Wow, the easiest way to have a democratic ally in the ME is to make Saudi our 51st state and first move to real imperialism. We can pull out of Iraq completely and re-station all the troops in Saudi, I mean New Texas. New Texas could basically be the "roach motel" for terrorists and anti-Americans. Of course, that is a long way for college professors to travel.

I hope you haven't sent this to the White House. Or maybe this is from the White House!

rsather139 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-14-2007, 02:36 AM

But let's face it: the Saudis have never held the west to be an ally, so why the hell should be let them bend us to their will?

Wahabism is a real threat that all free democratic states need to address.

Wheeldog · #6 (**permalink**) 11-14-2007, 04:18 AM

Quote:

This last quotation is either a joke or a damning indictment of the US educational system. I hope it's a joke.

That is the way I took it.

Spudinsky · #7 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 07:42 PM

Develop a new source of energy and would we even care about the Saudis.

Get rid of the crack addiction and the drug pusher ain't so tough.

Wheeldog · #8 (**permalink**) 11-29-2007, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spudinsky

Develop a new source of energy and would we even care about the Saudis.

Get rid of the crack addiction and the drug pusher ain't so tough.

Unfortunately, the chances of that happening on a voluntary basis is less than zero.

oldscutlas · #9 (**permalink**) 11-30-2007, 12:41 AM

AM I the only one who remembers the only non-military flight in the air after the attack on 9/11 was members of the saudi royal family. Supposedly it was because they feared some sort of reprisal by the american people. Now how did bush and the saudi's know less than 2 hours after the attack that the men were saudis. Isn't Osama A member of the saudi royal family. Saudi Arabia has supported al-queda and other terrorist organizations for years. The US government has simply chosen to ignore this fact because they want the saudi oil.

The real solution to the ME problem is energy independence for the US

factfinder · #10 (**permalink**) 11-30-2007, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheeldog

What Sort Of Friend Is Saudi Arabia?, Larry Miller Points To The Contradictions, And Some Explanations, Of A Controversial Friendship - CBS News
Saudi Arabia is ruled by a notorously corrupt and repressive regime that engages in torture and supports terrorism. They openly export their hate around the world funding Sunni Muslims who advocate the killing of Jews, Christians and gays and the oppression of women. They ban any religion but Sunni and refuse basic human rights to workers from other nations. Yet when a member of the ruling Saudi royality shows up the U.S. or the U.K. they are treated with the greatest respect and fawned over like minor dieties. Does anyone fail to see the hypocracy and embarrassing subservience of our governments, while we pretend to be champions of democracy and human dignity?

I very much agree, and the truth about Saudi Arabia´s both moral hypocricy and its zealous and ingenious sponsoring the worldwide islamism through the seemingly innocent Islamic Centres and Islamic Cultural Institutions, esp. in Europe and Russia, is actually more bizarre one would say ...
It may well be that in 20 yrs something like the following comes true :
The study of the American governmental agency Geological Survay estimates that the North Pole has 25% of the world´s reserves of hydrocarbures .. . The richess the more so attractive because it lies in a geopolitically stable area unlike the Middle East which might make of the OPEC an insignificant regional agency …The Arctic offers to the coastal states not only to secure its own energy needs but also to satisfy the e. needs of China or India …
(If the safety of the future naval routes will be sufficiently secured against another Septembers Elevenths ...)