Our Friends, The House of Saud

[Aresen]

Are helping us fight ISIS because ISIS thugs behead innocent people, right?

Saudi Arabia executions: Kingdom to behead 50 men convicted of terrorism offences despite threat of Shia revolt

The mothers of five Shia released a letter on Wednesday alleging that their sons, three of whom were juveniles at the time of their arrest, were subjected to torture while in custody. The letter says: “We affirm that our children did not kill or wound anyone. The sentences were based on confessions extracted under torture, trials that barred them from access to defence counsel and judges that displayed bias towards the prosecution.”

Baqer al Nimr, the older brother of Ali al Nimr and a nephew of Sheikh Nimr, told The Independent his brother was 17 and a juvenile when he was detained in February 2011. “Ali is a smart kid, he likes to play football, he is a photographer. He wasn’t political, he was just asking for his rights, for the rights of the Shia.”

Fuck the House of Saud. Fuck them with a fire hose wrapped in barbed wire.

[the innominate one]

Saudi Arabia is in the process of administering a sentence to an atheist for the horrible crime of blogging his opinion. The sentence is 10 years, 1000 lashes, and a fine. Nice guys.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raif_Badawi

[Aresen]

The Saudis continue killing.

The article in the independent contains a photo line-up of 8 juveniles sentenced to death for dissent against the House of Saud.

[the innominate one]

Saudi Arabia's government is horrible. No wonder ours considers it an ally.

[Kolohe]

Saudi Arabia's government is horrible. No wonder ours considers it an ally.

People don't want nice; people want consistency.

[Mo]

Respect for O on his view on our allies.

He has questioned, often harshly, the role that America’s Sunni Arab allies play in fomenting anti-American terrorism. He is clearly irritated that foreign-policy orthodoxy compels him to treat Saudi Arabia as an ally

…

Though he has argued, controversially, that the Middle East’s conflicts “date back millennia,” he also believes that the intensified Muslim fury of recent years was encouraged by countries considered friends of the U.S. In a meeting during APEC with Malcolm Turnbull, the new prime minister of Australia, Obama described how he has watched Indonesia gradually move from a relaxed, syncretistic Islam to a more fundamentalist, unforgiving interpretation; large numbers of Indonesian women, he observed, have now adopted the hijab, the Muslim head covering.

Why, Turnbull asked, was this happening? Because, Obama answered, the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs have funneled money, and large numbers of imams and teachers, into the country. In the 1990s, the Saudis heavily funded Wahhabist madrassas, seminaries that teach the fundamentalist version of Islam favored by the Saudi ruling family, Obama told Turnbull. Today, Islam in Indonesia is much more Arab in orientation than it was when he lived there, he said.

“Aren’t the Saudis your friends?,” Turnbull asked.

Obama smiled. “It’s complicated,” he said

Also interesting how he views alternative energy as a way to sideline them.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ne/471525/

[Hugh Akston]

So um, does any US court actually have jurisdiction over the Saudi government? Because it seems to me that the Saudi's response to a subpoena would be to file the following motion:

[Jennifer]

So um, does any US court actually have jurisdiction over the Saudi government?

No, but I'm pretty sure the US government has, under certain circumstances, the power to either seize or freeze Saudi assets in the US.

[Fin Fang Foom]

So um, does any US court actually have jurisdiction over the Saudi government? Because it seems to me that the Saudi's response to a subpoena would be to file the following motion:

Saudi Arabia does business here. If it fails to come into court when the US says it has jurisdiction it will lose. If KSA's money is here, the money can be collected on. If it's "Aramco's" money, it can be collected on with some work. Saudi does have a multi trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund that can probably be collected against.

Rich Higgins' widow won over $300 million against Iran. I don't know how much she collected eventually, but she doesn't need to work.

[Fin Fang Foom]

NB. The litigation on this might last until KSA is physically abandoned due to global warming.

[Kolohe]

Or until there's a nuclear exchange between Riyadh and Tehran.

[Fin Fang Foom]

Or until there's a nuclear exchange between Riyadh and Tehran.

They probably won't nuke Mecca and Medina.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Or until there's a nuclear exchange between Riyadh and Tehran.

They probably won't nuke Mecca and Medina.

But Israel might while they're busy.

[Hugh Akston]

Who says the Saudis are less civilized than the West?

The Saudi government said Sunday that it would investigate reports that an airstrike hit a packed funeral hall in Yemen’s capital, killing more than 140 people and injuring hundreds.

[Warren]

'Game of Thrones' Comes to Saudi Arabia (NYT)

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is cracking down on corruption by arresting all his rivals, taking their shit, and consolidating his power.

Cross Posted

[Mo]

We're totally getting a Saudi civil war. Also, if MBS sells out the Palestinians in exchange for foreign policy cover from the US, this will delegitimize secular reformers on the Arabian peninsula for a generation.

[Warren]

We're totally getting a Saudi civil war. Also, if MBS sells out the Palestinians in exchange for foreign policy cover from the US, this will delegitimize secular reformers on the Arabian peninsula for a generation.

MBS? Is Palestine sub-prime?
Please elaborate.

[Mo]

MBS = Mohammed bin Salman, the current Crown Prince.

[the innominate one]

Maybe Yemen will get a break.

[Sandy]

Maybe Yemen will get a break.

That's not how the Middle East works.

[Warren]

Thanks. I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Can you tell me more about what you think MBS is up to and the long term consequences?

[Mo]

Did you RTFA?

According to Palestinian, Arab and European officials who have heard Mr. Abbas’s version of the conversation, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented a plan that would be more tilted toward the Israelis than any ever embraced by the American government, one that presumably no Palestinian leader could ever accept.

...

That left many in Washington and the Middle East wondering whether the Saudi crown prince was quietly doing the bidding of Mr. Trump, trying to curry favor with the Americans, or freelancing in order to put pressure on the Palestinians or to make any eventual offer sound generous by comparison.

[Kolohe]

Maybe Yemen will get a break.

Their ex president got a break in his skull.

[Aresen]

The House of Saud doesn't like Canada anymore:

Saudi Arabia expels Canadian envoy for urging activists' release

Saudi Arabia has expelled the Canadian ambassador and suspended new trade and investment with Ottawa after Canada’s foreign ministry urged Riyadh to release arrested civil rights activists.

The Saudi foreign ministry has given Dennis Horak 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own ambassador to Canada, saying that it retained “its rights to take further action”.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... will not accept interference in its internal affairs or imposed diktats from any country,” the ministry tweeted. “The Canadian position is an overt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia and is in contravention of the most basic international norms and all the charters governing relations between states.”

Saudi state television later reported that the education ministry was coming up with an “urgent plan” to move thousands of Saudi scholarship students out of Canadian schools to take classes in other countries. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates publicly backed Saudi Arabia in the dispute.

[Mo]

The last time we misjudged MBS values this badly was 2008. #BadFinanceJokes

Also, nothing says measured response like alluding to a 9/11 style attack on Toronto.