Posts Tagged ‘ Saudi Arabia ’

11 messages

Dec 1st, 2018 9:01 am | By

The WSJ has a big story on what exactly the CIA has on the murder of Khashoggi. It’s not paywalled, which I’ve noticed before the Journal sometimes does with major news about something of public importance; respect to them for that.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who oversaw the team that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the hours before and after the journalist’s death in October, according to a highly classified CIA assessment.

The Saudi leader also in August 2017 had told associates that if his efforts to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia weren’t successful, “we could possibly lure him outside Saudi Arabia and make

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Annotated

Nov 20th, 2018 11:30 am | By

Aaron Blake at the Post on Trump’s disgusting “statement”:

Perhaps anticipating a damning report, Trump released a long, exclamation-point-laden statement preemptively making the case for not punishing Mohammed or his father, King Salman, even if they were involved. It’s a remarkable statement that even includes a smear against the slain journalist, while insisting that Trump didn’t believe the smear.

Below is the statement in full, with our annotations.

Exclamation points don’t belong in official presidential statements. He might as well do a press conference with his underpants on his head.

Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia

Annotation: As much as the content of the statement, the headline reveals exactly what it is: A pass.

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A message to anyone in a position of power

Nov 20th, 2018 11:05 am | By

More.

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Least finest hour

Nov 20th, 2018 10:55 am | By

I’m not the only one who thinks so.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1064947218807951367

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1064945969240915968

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Trump stands with Saudi Arabia

Nov 20th, 2018 10:33 am | By

The White House has issued an official Statement by Trump on Saudi Arabia.

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2018
Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia

America First!

The world is a very dangerous place!

Wait.

Seriously?

That’s an official statement by the president?

Then there’s a paragraph saying Iran bad, then one saying Saudi Arabia good. Then we get to the money part.

After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for

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Pompeo grinning with Mohammed Bin Salman

Oct 16th, 2018 5:10 pm | By

Carol Morello at the Post:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Saudi Arabia to highlight U.S. concern over the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the missing journalist whose name Pompeo did not utter in public after arriving in the kingdom.

Pompeo’s talks with three officials, including the king and crown prince, were “direct and frank” about the need to investigate what happened to Khashoggi, said State Department spokeswoman Heather

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A mistake has been made

Aug 8th, 2018 10:12 am | By

Saudi Arabia is simply furious that Canada’s Foreign Minister had the audacity to say SA shouldn’t arrest human rights activists.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, said the kingdom was still “considering additional measures” against Canada. He did not elaborate.

“There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected,” he told a news conference in Riyadh.

Several countries have expressed support for Saudi Arabia, including Egypt and Russia, which both told Ottawa it was unacceptable to lecture the kingdom on human rights.

Yes, that’s unacceptable all right. Violations of human rights are just fine, in fact they’re glorious, but lecturing states about human rights, that is … Read the rest



The abusers are outraged at the criticism

Aug 7th, 2018 4:42 pm | By

Saudi Arabia is furious with Canada.

The storm started with a tweet by Canada’s foreign minister last week expressing alarm at the recent arrest of a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia who had relatives living in Canada, and calling for her release.

The activist is Samar Badawi, sister of Raif.

On Monday, the Saudi government responded, with fury.

The Canadian ambassador was ordered to leave within 24 hours, and the Saudi government halted trade and investment deals between the two countries. Saudi media reported that educational exchange programs would be suspended — affecting 12,000 Saudi students studying on state-sponsored scholarships in Canada. And Saudi Arabia’s national airline said it was suspending flights to Canada, beginning on Aug. 13.

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In Saudi Arabia there is no civic space left to shrink

Aug 2nd, 2018 11:58 am | By

Trump’s BFF Saudi Arabia is not behaving well.

The UN has expressed concern over the continuing and “apparently arbitrary” crackdown on Saudi human rights activists after two more prominent female campaigners were arrested in the kingdom.

Samar Badawi, an internationally recognised activist, and Nassima al-Sadah, a co-founding member of Al-Adalah Center for Human Rights, were detained earlier this week.

At least 15 prominent activists have been held as part of a government campaign that began in the run-up to the much publicised lifting of the ban on women driving. Many other cases are thought to remain unreported.

That’s interesting – so the “run-up” to the removal of one violation of women’s rights consisted of trashing other women’s rights. How … Read the rest



Investigating

Jul 18th, 2017 9:50 am | By

Oh no, it’s the end of the world, a woman went out in public wearing clothes.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia are investigating a young woman who posted a video of herself wearing a miniskirt and crop-top in public.

The woman, a model called “Khulood”, shared the clip of her walking around a historic fort in Ushayqir.

https://twitter.com/50BM_/status/886614068768976897

No wonder the authorities are investigating.

On Monday, the Okaz newspaper reported that officials in Ushayqir had called on the provincial governor and police to take action against the woman.

The religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, meanwhile wrote on Twitter that it had been made aware of the video and was in

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Dina Ali Lasloom

May 20th, 2017 5:23 pm | By

Speaking of Saudi Arabia and women…Human Rights Watch tells us about one:

A fleeing Saudi woman faces grave risks after being returned to Saudi Arabia against her will while in transit in the Philippines, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should ensure that Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, is not subjected to violence from her family or prosecution by Saudi authorities for trying to flee, Human Rights Watch said.

“Trying to flee” – that is what we in other countries know as traveling or emigrating.

On April 10, 2017, Saudi activists posted videos that appeared to show Lasloom at Manila’s international airport pleading not to be returned because she feared her family would kill her. The Saudi

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To the dogs

Dec 1st, 2016 11:26 am | By

Some people in Saudi Arabia think a woman who goes outside with naked hair should be killed. Killed.

A woman in Saudi Arabia pictured without a hijab is facing calls for her execution.

Some social media users reacted with outrage after the emergence of the image taken in capital city Riyadh, with one man calling for the state to “kill her and throw her corpse to the dogs”.

Not for murder or torture or abuse or otherwise harming others – but for not wearing a black tent that conceals everything but her eyes.

An unnamed student who reposted the image told the website that Ms Al Shehri had announced she was going out to breakfast without either a hijab

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Permission

Nov 1st, 2016 3:51 pm | By

The New York Times put out a call on Twitter for Saudi women to talk about their lives. They got a huge response.

Most of the responses focused on frustration over guardianship rules that force women to get permission from a male relative — a husband, father, brother or even son — to do things like attend college, travel abroad, marry the partner of their choice or seek medical attention. Some women talked about the pride they had in their culture and expressed great distrust of outsiders. But many of them shared a deep desire for change and echoed Juju19’s hopelessness.

A Life Restricted

“I got into an accident once in a taxi, and the ambulance refused to take me

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Cut the chains

Aug 29th, 2016 2:59 pm | By

Via #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship on Twitter –

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Welcome to Wahhabiland

May 23rd, 2016 10:56 am | By

Fascist theocratic Saudi Arabia is having good success in making over Kosovo in its own hideous image. They’ve funded the building of scores of Wahhabi mosques since Kosovo was rescued from Serbian oppression in the 90s.

Since then — much of that time under the watch of American officials — Saudi money and influence have transformed this once-tolerant Muslim society at the hem of Europe into a font of Islamic extremism and a pipeline for jihadists.

Kosovo now finds itself, like the rest of Europe, fending off the threat of radical Islam. Over the last two years, the police have identified 314 Kosovars — including two suicide bombers, 44 women and 28 children — who have gone abroad to

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Faces

Feb 11th, 2016 5:35 pm | By

News from Saudi Arabia, where “morality police” tell girls to cover their faces and beat them up if they don’t obey fast enough.

Manama: One of the two girls who had a bitter standoff with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, in Riyadh said they had been the victims of “blatant injustice.”

A video clip of a woman being beaten up in front of the Nakheel Mall in Riyadh sparked outrage in Saudi Arabia this week amid contrasting reports about what really took place.

The article has the video but it’s just a note from YouTube:

This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.

No, … Read the rest



800 lashes, in 16 installments

Feb 2nd, 2016 10:02 am | By

Ashraf Fayadh’s death sentence has been overturned, but he still faces prison and torture. This is what the Saudis do – they say oh all right, if you’re going to get that upset, we won’t kill the liberal guy, the Sri Lankan woman who had sex, the guy who wrote poetry, we’ll just lock them up for years and years and maybe torture them too.

A Saudi court has overturned the death sentence of a Palestinian poet accused of renouncing Islam, imposing an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes instead. He must also repent through an announcement in official media.

Saudi Arabia, where the state religion is absolutely mandatory, on pain of torture, prison and death. Saudi Arabia, that … Read the rest



Please and thank you

Jan 31st, 2016 3:47 pm | By

Seen on Twitter:

Many public places in Saudi Arabia are closed to women. Some have segregated “family” areas, and some don’t; women by themselves are not welcome.

We understand why, of course. We’re not stupid. It’s because if they’re out by themselves they’re sure to fuck the first male they see, and disgrace the men of their family.… Read the rest



Image management

Jan 29th, 2016 3:21 pm | By

The Independent reports:

A government minister has urged Saudi Arabia to do a “better job” of trumpeting its human rights successes during an official visit to the country, less than a month after it carried out the mass execution of 47 people.

Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, made the comments on Monday as he and other British delegates addressed Saudi Arabia’s National Society for Human Rights in the capital Riyadh, The Independent understands.

Its what? Trumpeting its what? Trumpeting its what successes? Trumping its human rights what?

Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any fucking human rights “successes.” Saudi Arabia doesn’t believe in human rights, because it thinks human beings are slaves before Allah and Mohammed. … Read the rest



A fundamental difference

Jan 15th, 2016 4:30 pm | By

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir talked to Channel 4 News’ Jonathan Rugman, who wondered why the kingdom had to execute quite so many people.

Al-Jubeir responded: “We have a fundamental difference, in your country, you do not execute people, we respect it. In our country, the death penalty is part of our laws and you have to respect this as it is the law.”

No we don’t. Nobody does. Nobody has to “respect” other countries’ laws just because they’re laws. (They have to obey them while in those countries, but that’s a different thing.) Shit laws don’t merit respect.

People don’t have to respect US laws on capital punishment either, by the way. I don’t respect them, lots of … Read the rest