A good summation of Saudi intolerance and State's continuing dhimmitude from Jeff Jacoby at Town Hall (thanks to JP Mackie):
Last week, the State Department added Saudi Arabia to its list of the world's most religiously intolerant nations. It was a step long overdue. Section 402 of the International Religious Freedom Act requires the department to designate each country that has "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom" as a "country of particular concern for religious freedom." Few nations deserve that designation more than Saudi Arabia. But for reasons of politics and corruption, the law's clear mandate was always flouted before.For years, the Saudi regime was exempt from harsh criticism in official US circles - an immunity bought with the hundreds of millions of dollars Riyadh lavished on US policymakers, ambassadors, and lobbyists. Former CIA officer Robert Baer laid out many of the disgraceful details in his recent bestseller, "Sleeping With the Devil."
But that changed after 9/11, when a group of mostly Saudi terrorists sent thousands of innocent victims to their deaths. Countless Americans realized for the first time that Saudi Arabia, with its Wahhabi strain of Islam - a radical, aggressive, and poisonously intolerant creed - was the incubator of the world's most virulent anti-American savagery. The old speak-no-evil wall of protection began to crack. One result is the addition of Saudi Arabia to the State Department's list.
"Freedom of religion does not exist," the department states in its report on Saudi Arabia. "It is not recognized or protected under the country's laws, and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam. Citizens are denied the freedom to choose or change their religion, and non-citizens practice their beliefs under severe restrictions. Islam is the official religion and all citizens must be Muslims."
The report notes that "conversion by a Muslim to another religion is . . . a crime punishable by death if the accused does not recant. . . . The government prohibits non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers" - millions of foreign-born Christians and Hindus work in Saudi Arabia - "risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation, and sometimes torture for engaging in religious activity that attracts official attention."
That is clear enough as far as it goes, but Ambassador John Hanford, whose office compiled the report, took pains to reassure the Saudis that it would go no further. Asked at a press briefing whether the listing of Saudi Arabia should be seen as a "pressure tactic," Hanford replied:
"Oh, no, no. Uh-uh. No. These designations are ones that we make with a certain degree of sorrow because these are valued relationships, particularly in a case such as Saudi Arabia. But the US Congress has laid out for us a standard that we feel we must follow."
Secretary of State Colin Powell likewise did his best to allay any Saudi worries. "This is not to punish them, or in any way to show displeasure," he assured Al Arabiya, the Arab satellite channel. "One should not see this as anything but two friends talking to one another about a problem of mutual concern."
Yes, we see that you persecute Jews, Christians, and Hindus mercilessly, but we don't want you to think we're displeased.
Let it be repeated, again and again. You do not have to curry favor with your local gas station attendant; you simply have to pay him for the gas. You do not have to curry favor with for your local gas station attendant;you simply have to pay him for the gas. Fill up the page, the blackboard, the airwaves, with this remark. Then substitute, for the phrase "local gas station attendant" the words "Saudi Arabia" (the only country named after a family). Then repeat it, and have others repeat it. Then understand yet again: no favors, not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, of no kind, on no account, need ever be done a country which is based on a doctrine that is immutably hostile to the wellbeing, and to the lives, of every single Infidel on earth. Saudi Arabia depends completely on the sale of oil and gas. We can treat that country just as roughly as it deserves. The sneer of cold command on its absurd rulers, the contempt that they display, for example, for American guest-workers and especially American airmen, should never be forgotten. We do not need them. And if necessary, it would be perfectly possible to seize the eastern oil-bearing province of Al-Hasa, where the persecuted Shi'a live, and hold it in trust for the world -- perhaps giving some of the revenues to the poorer countries. Saudi Arabia has to be "ridimensionato" (in American terms, cut down to size) in the American imagination. It is not powerful; it can do nothing to us that it is not already doing and will continue to do, as it must -- which is to use whatever spending money it accumulates to pay for mosques in the U.S. and Europe, madrasas in Pakistan and Indonesia and Africa, and of course, propaganda and bribery of all sorts of diplomats, journalists, the flotsam and jetsam of international relations.
Here endeth the lesson.
I am not so sure. It would take very little manipulation of production, or political saber rattling, to significantly upset price in current conditions; and we will probably need Saudi cooperation to bring the price down into a range where our economy can really grow, say in the 30 dollar range somewhere, although there are other variables, of course. Saudi Arabia as an adversary could no us significant economic harm while profiting overall itself.
I think we need more supply to make our gas man irrelevant when it comes to setting the price. But does that mean we have to grovel until our noses need Clorox wipes?
All the oil fields of Saudi Arabia lie in the northeastern part of the country, including the Saudi offshore portion of the Persian Gulf. What a coincidence! The United States has unilaterally pre-positioned all the military assets necessary to secure them in case the Saudi royal family loses its grip and the kingdom descends into civil war and the muslim faithful end up suicide bombing each other into oblivion over which tribe will now be the custodians of the two holy mosques.
I would really like the brains of this country to be allowed to exercise their creative imaginations by coming up with an alternative to the fossil fuel dictate.
I tire of our "dependence" upon reserves held by ignorant, but wealthy, Islamic fanatics.
Surely, we are capable of an alternative.
The first and most devastating strike against these freaks is to extricate ourselves from the dependency we have towards them.
After that, all is fair game. If the jihad continues, which it most certainly will, then...
Moe's foe is 100% right - the day we stop relying on arab oil is the day islam will collapse completely. Without the oil revenue pouring in the Saudis will no longer be able to afford to finance the global jihad. If we took away all the money the saudis have spent over the last thirty years on financing islamic expansion the world would be a very different and safer place.
...Secretary of State Colin Powell likewise did his best to allay any Saudi worries. "This is not to punish them, or in any way to show displeasure," he assured Al Arabiya, the Arab satellite channel. "One should not see this as anything but two friends talking to one another about a problem of mutual concern."
"Two friends talking to one another"? Yeah, we tell them that they are a bunch of religiously-insane assholes, and they tell us to butt out of their jihad.
"A problem of mutual concern"? Yeah, we're concerned with religious minorities being whipped and beheaded in public, and the Sodomy Arabians are concerned with having MORE public whippings and beheadings... for such "serious" crimes as sodomy (even between a husband and wife), daring to enjoy liquor or drugs, and women being "uppity".
"Mutual concern", my ass. We have about as much mutual concern with he House of Sod as a police detective has with a serial rapist. They are both concerned about the same thing, but from entirely different perspectives and for completely different reasons.
Mutual concern... I can't believe he said that. Yeah, like the Israelis and the "palestinians" have a mutual concern about Israel, or like a treehugger and a logger have a mutual concern about the Redwoods. Like a pediatrician and a pedophile have a mutual concern about children.
WHAT A JOKE. A former Joint Chief of Staff and FOUR-STAR GENERAL Colin Powell says, "not in any way show displeasure"?
If there is no intention to punish, and no showing of displeasure with the theocratic wifebeating Saudi royals, WTF is the point of the designation?
Sheesh. No wonder he let Saddam regroup and squash the Iraqi rebellion of '91. Uncle Colon needs to step down from the state department and go to work for the Carlye (/House of Sod/Bin Laden) group, assuming he doesn't already work for them. Then he can work all day, every day to "allay any Saudi worries..."
Yes, doesn't your heart bleed for the poor, poooooor, longsuffering Saudi Royals with their ubiquitous plethora of worries:
"Which wife shall I beat today?"
"How can I hire some more hot Philippino "maids" without attracting the attention of the Morality Police?"
"Oh shit. Only one bottle of Oxycontin's left."
"How can we make Wal-Mart sell "The Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion"?"
"Shall I get another ivory backscratcher for my collection?"
"Somewhere a Jew is doing something bad; I KNOW it!"
"Almost out of cough syrup, a thousand curses!"
"I miss my mommy."
"Are there any American Universities that still need funding for a "Palestinian Studies" department?"
"Goddamit, out of rhino horn pills again....now how can I get another erection after pleasuring my entire harem last night?"
"My gout is acting up again."
"Kerry is ahead of Bush in the polls... I wonder if we can buy him too?"
"There's a scracth in my gold-plated bidet."
"A lot of these Ramadan pilgrims have heads like raisins. I hope they don't try to stay."
"My anus hurts."
"My soup is cold."
"My 2004 Rolls Royces are starting to look old and beaten up."
"Damn these Chechens and their constant need for more money. Okay, where's my checkbook?"
"I can't remember all the names of all of my thirty children....or my thirty brothers and sisters."
...
It is easy to see that the life of the average Saudi Royal is just one set of worries, one after the other, day in and day out. Poor Saudi Royals.
Colin Powell disgusts me. He's about as forceful and military as that old coot Madeliene Albright. I guess a certain group of people realize the "importance" of being sensitive. Can we now dispense once and for all with the tired, old blather about "liberals smacking up to Islam?" Please?
america's covenant with death:
read these articles to find out why and the solution!
http://www.mychristiansite.com/ministries/jmccutchan/index.html
We'll stop when it Becomes 'tired, old blather.' Which will be sometime after WW IV ends.