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Just in
a matter of a week, there were two firsts in the history of
My
thoughts: this is an interim arrangement until they find the next worthy royal.
+ You
really need to read this: Royal
Intrigue, Unpaid Bills Preceded Saudi Ambassador's Exit
+
Another theory for Al-Faisal’s resignation: Preparing for a war with
Iran
New York Times- A Saudi Arabian princess
accused of breaking
Hana F. Al
Jader of
Really, nothing new about such story… Except that in a country where laws are enforced, she will be punished.
From time to time, brave
Saudis decide that enough is enough and rise up against the lack of
internationally recognized freedoms. Unfortunately, the channels of free
expression in the kingdom of righteousness are limited as we all know. Lipstick Wahhabi has the
details about some Saudis at the Saudi Liberals
Network (Arabic), which I admire and support, who are saying: we are sick
of the Muttawa (religious police).
The
Internet as we know it is threatened by corporate greed. Save the Internet and share the message.
Saudi Arabia, despite promises of cooperation
with Human Rights Watch, blocked its access to prisons and detention facilities
as reported by the human rights watchdog today. I don’t think that HRW actually
expected to be granted full access to the country, for God’s sake, even its ‘contact
us’ page is blocked in the kingdom. We already know what we need to know: ‘human
rights’ and ‘
After
much anticipation,
the Saudi national budget for 2007 was announced today:
Just
after 15 months on the job, Saudi Ambassador to the US Turki Al-Faisal resigned
unexpectedly from his post and flew back to
Booman speculates:
It could be that Saud al-Faisal is seriously ill and that Turki
al-Faisal is going to take over as foreign minister. It could indicate severe
tensions in the U.S./Saudi relationship. It is highly suspicious that Turki
would choose such a critical time to go home. Bush is planning on rolling out
his new
strategy sometime before Christmas. In my analysis, that means
right now is the time to for the Saudis to use all their influence to guide
Bush's decisions.
Perhaps they have determined that Bush's strategy is
fundamentally incompatible with their interests. Perhaps this is their way of
showing thier displeasure.
On the other hand, maybe Turki has worn out his welcome here, or our intelligence agencies have discovered something ugly, like Faisal has been working with terrorists (here, or in Iraq).
Rasheed,
on the other hand, thinks that this has to do with the now infamous Washington
Post article written by Nawaf Obaid:
I think Prince Turki has taken the fall for
the article that his protege Nawaf Obaid printed in
the Washington Post last week which claimed
I don't think that Obaid would have ever written that Post piece without the
explicit green light from Turki. I think they were just testing the waters to
see what the public and Iraqi reaction would be. Iraqi Prime Minsiter Nur
Al-Malki immediately denounced the idea, saying that the Kingdom supported a
united
I think
that Bomman's last suggestion is highly unlikely since Al-Faisal family’s stance on
terrorism and their support for strong ties with the
Update December 13: the New York Times may have better insight.
While Human Rights Watch’s fact-finding team is trying to use their time in Saudi wisely, the Saudi government repays them back by blocking their “Contact Us” page.
Khloud
discovered that the ‘contact us’ page is blocked when she was browsing the HRW
website and is suggesting to send an unblock
request to the Saudi ISU. Although that can be done, I think writing to HRW directly might be
more effective. I am wondering if HRW are aware of this?
Continue reading "Human Rights Watch ‘Contact Us’ page: Blocked in Saudi" »

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