[Changleen]

Dubya's policy of killing people to spread democracy in the evil tyrannical backwaters of our planet is working. One of the US greatest allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, has confirmed it's commitment to the cause:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4548849.stm

Reformists jailed by Saudi court

Saudi court has sentenced three reformists to jail terms of between six and nine years for "stirring up sedition and disobeying the ruler".

The three activists were arrested in March 2004 after urging the rulers to move towards a constitutional monarchy and speed up reforms.

They refused to defend themselves on the grounds that the trial was taking place behind closed doors.

Human rights representatives were also barred from the courtroom.

Using Western terminology, causing instability and collecting signatures for a petition reportedly were among the accusations levelled against them.

Poet Ali al-Demaini was handed down a nine-year term, Abdullah al-Hamed was sentenced to seven years and Matruk al-Faleh to six.

Relatives and reporters were denied access to the proceedings.

Other activists arrested in March last year were later released after promising to stop calling for reforms.

Step back?

Correspondents say the crackdown marked a setback in the country's tentative move to promote limited reforms, urged by the US in the wake of the 11 September attacks, which were carried out mainly by Saudi hijackers.

"The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future," US President George W Bush said in February.

The New-York based Human Rights Watch in April urged the president to raise the issue of the three activists during a meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Price Abdullah.

But it is not known whether the issue featured among the topics discussed at Mr Bush's Texas ranch.

Well I think that's rather splendid. Another country with a tick next to it on the 'Goodies' list.

 

[Silver]

Notice the little row in Uzbekistan this weekend? Another one of our glorious allies in the war on terror.

 

[Changleen]

US: "You're either with us or against us"
Other nations: "Our official position is that we are with you. Therefore the random acts of terror and violence we occasionally perpitrate do not count."
US: "OK Then. Good."

Doesn't seeing things in black and white make things so much easier?

I'll be scanning the US press for references to this story...

 

[Changleen]

Oh, ABC has this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1368958.htm

and CBS has actually written their own article about it http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_135153352.html (Props to CBS!) that culminates with this:

The 13 reformers hold a variety of political views, from progressive to conservative. None are Islamic fundamentalists.

The Saudi royal family has absolute power. Saudis may not hold public gatherings to discuss political or social issues.

However, the onset of terrorism in the kingdom has initiated an unprecedented public debate. Some Saudis argue that the lack of democracy has made the kingdom a breeding ground for Islamic extremists, such as those who carried out the May 2003 suicide attacks in Riyadh in which 35 people, including the nine Saudi attackers, were killed.

Last year, the United States called on authorities in Saudi Arabia to recognize the right of freedom of expression in the conservative kingdom and urged them to hold an open trial for the reformists.

I love this:

"The Saudi royal family has absolute power. Saudis may not hold public gatherings to discuss political or social issues.

However, the onset of terrorism in the kingdom has initiated an unprecedented public debate."

Really?

 

[$tinkle]

charred red meat anyone?
relevant excerpts from washington post

'Martyrs' In Iraq Mostly Saudis

Like many Saudis, he was said to have experienced a religious awakening after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and dedicated himself to Allah, inspired by "the holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep," according to a posting on a jihadist Web site. - [kinda dispells the myth of bush solely causing insurgency, however]

Who are the suicide bombers of Iraq? By the radicals' account, they are an internationalist brigade of Arabs, with the largest share in the online lists from Saudi Arabia

Among the dead are students of engineering and English, the son of a Moroccan restaurateur and a smattering of Europeanized Arabs.

But other observers of the jihadist Web sites view the lists of the dead "for internal purposes" more than for propaganda, as British researcher Paul Eedle put it. "These are efforts on the part of jihadis to collate deaths. It's like footballers on the Net getting a buzz out of knowing somebody's transferred from Chelsea to Liverpool." Or, as Col. Thomas X. Hammes, an expert on insurgency with the National Defense University, said, "they are targeted marketing. They are not aimed at the West."

Saudis Dispute Numbers

The apparent predominance of Saudi fighters on the Internet lists has caused an alarmed reaction by Saudi officials, who fear a backlash from the Americans at the same time they are trying to convince the United States that they are working as allies against terrorism. While Saudi officials do not deny that Saudi citizens have taken up arms against the United States in Iraq, they argue that the long lists of Saudi dead could be a disinformation tactic or simply a recruiting tool used to lure Arab youth to Iraq by convincing them of how many others have already won a place in Paradise.

Some of the Web postings also include phone numbers so fellow Islamists can call a dead fighter's family and congratulate them. Kohlmann called several of the numbers. "I have lists and lists of foreign fighters, and it's no joke. Their sons went and blew themselves up in Iraq," he said.

Zarqawi's group has also regularly posted biographical sketches of its suicide bombers, such as that of Abu Anas Tuhami, said to have died in a suicide attack on Iraq's Election Day in January. Tuhami, a Saudi orphan raised by his grandfather, was unusually saintly, as reported in the February online communique.

"O' brother, I love to sleep on the floor and I need no mattress," Tuhami was quoted as telling one fellow foreign fighter. He was to have been married in February. "Instead, he chose to be with the virgins of paradise," the announcement said. "He used to talk frequently about the virgins of paradise and their beauty, and he wished to drink a sip from the sustenance of paradise while a virgin beauty wiped his mouth." - [with a curious resemblance to changleen's sister ]

Biographical details are often sketchy in the online obituaries, as is the case with Qahtani, the young Saudi said to have died April 11 while attacking a U.S. Marine base in the western Iraqi city of Qaim. The account of his death located by Kohlmann on the Internet does not say whether Qahtani was driving the commandeered dump truck that barreled onto the base, wreaking havoc before exploding, or whether he was in one of two other vehicles that blew up while another group of fighters opened fire on Marines.

It gives no more identifying details than his name -- indicating he was part of a well-known Saudi tribe that also produced the al Qaeda member known as the so-called 20th hijacker, Mohamed Qahtani, who was turned away from entering the country by suspicious U.S. airport officials in August 2001.

Five other Qahtanis have been reported killed in Iraq, including Muhammed bin Aedh Ghadif Qahtani, a captain in the Saudi National Guard who allegedly used his guard identification badge to help gain entry into Iraq when he was stopped for questioning.

 

[fluff]

Oh, ABC has this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1368958.htm

and CBS has actually written their own article about it http://cbsnewyork.com/topstories/topstories_story_135153352.html (Props to CBS!) that culminates with this:



I love this:

"The Saudi royal family has absolute power. Saudis may not hold public gatherings to discuss political or social issues.

However, the onset of terrorism in the kingdom has initiated an unprecedented public debate."

Really?

I guess two people talking could be an unprecedented debate. In fact, that we are talking about people talking about something may be a unprecedented debate. We're gonna die dude...