SaudiSphere

Happy Holidays

R.J. Matson

+ Waiting On The World To Change

A Non-Royal as a US Ambassador?

Just in a matter of a week, there were two firsts in the history of Saudi Arabia: largest national budget in the history of the kingdom and a non-royal appointed to the most important Saudi foreign service post. As many news stories are reporting, Adel Al Jubeir, the foreign policy adviser to king Abdullah (whatever that means) was named as the next Saudi Ambassador to Washington.

Now, do we expect any firsts from this new and unusual appointment?
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

Person of the Year

Rob Rogers

 

The Princess and the Maids

New York Times- A Saudi Arabian princess accused of breaking U.S immigration laws by locking up her domestics' passports and forcing them to work for low pay was ordered to be deported, prosecutors said Thursday.

Hana F. Al Jader of Winchester was sentenced to two years of probation, the first six months of which must be served in home confinement, after which she'll be deported to Saudi Arabia, prosecutors said.

Really, nothing new about such story… Except that in a country where laws are enforced, she will be punished.

Curbing the Powers of the Muttawa

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).

Keep the Net Gatekeepers Out

The Internet as we know it is threatened by corporate greed. Save the Internet and share the message.

Access Denied

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 ‘Saudi Arabia’ cannot comfortably exist in one sentence.

Saudi Arabia's 2007 Budget

After much anticipation, the Saudi national budget for 2007 was announced today:

Saudi Arabia announces the largest national budget in its history

This does not come as a surprise. King Abdullah has been investing extensively in economic projects around the kingdom. Kudos to King Abdullah, it is time for our oil money to be invested in something else other than gold plated palaces.

Why Turki Al-Faisal Resigned?

Just after 15 months on the job, Saudi Ambassador to the US Turki Al-Faisal resigned unexpectedly from his post and flew back to Riyadh. The Washington Post article is indicating that the reason for this sudden departure could be that he wants to spend more with his family, specifically with his ailing brother, Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud Al-Faisal.   

Seriously, anyone buys that?

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 Iraq
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 Saudi Arabia was ready to step in and provide monetary, military and political support to Iraq's besieged Sunni minority if the US pulled out of Iraq. This plan was denied by Saudi Arabiathe next day and Obaid was then fired from his post as consultant to Turki.

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 Iraq, and by implication would not allow the country to be dismembered into Sunni, Shia and Kurd areas.

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 US is known.  And with regard to Saud Al-Faisal being sick, then Turki could’ve just taken off for few weeks without having to resign, unless he already got the news about the death of his brother and will have to immediately fill his place. The few next days will clarify this issue.

Update December 13: the New York Times may have better insight.

Human Rights Watch ‘Contact Us’ page: Blocked in Saudi

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?

Here is what the ISU doesn’t want you to see:

http://hrw.org/contact.html

 Contact Information