There’s no telling when our friendship with the Saudi regime will pop up and bite us in the ass, but it’s bound to do so from time to time. The latest episode? The first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles has applied for asylum because he believes he will be killed if he returns home.
The diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.
In a recent letter that he posted on a Saudi website, Asseri angrily criticized his country’s “backwardness” as well as the role of “militant imams” in Saudi society who have “defaced the tolerance of Islam.” Perhaps most provocatively of all, he has threatened to expose what he describes as politically embarrassing information about members of the Saudi royal family living in luxury in the U.S.
If he is forced to go back to Saudi Arabia — as Saudi officials are demanding — Asseri says he could face political persecution and even death.
“My life is in a great danger here and if I go back to Saudi Arabia, they will kill me openly in broad daylight,” Asseri said Saturday in an email to NBC.
We should never forget that the Saudi regime promotes and exports Wahhabism, which has radicalized Pakistani society and infused the Taliban movement. It’s not for us to dictate what other people believe, but the Saudis are just as guilty of pushing a radicalized socially intolerant anti-western version of Islam as the Iranians. I’d argue that their influence is actually worse. We do our best to ignore this, but the plight of Ali Ahmad Asseri kind of brings it home for us. Do you protect this guy and infuriate the Saudis? Of course we do. But we ought to think about what that means. We really should not be pals with the Saudi regime. Unless, that is, you want to keep your enemies close. They don’t share our values on any level.
Yet, for now, we have no choice but to rely on the regime. How do we change that?
Is this question rhetorical lol? GET THE FUCK OFF OIL!
I’ll bet the latter bothered them a lot more than the former.
In answer to your regime change question, Bush showed the way. It’s even easier than Iraq was. Saudi Arabia is a lot less populated and has a lot more oil wells. Besides, we now have have the wonderful “stone frigate”, Iraq, with a long border with Saudi Arabia and all those “advisors” and “security guards” already in place. A few B-2 and cruise missile attacks take out the important military/political targets and the troops come surging over the Iraqi border.
Makes more sense to me than invading Iran.
You are probably not serious, but any attempt to conquer Mecca and Medina would result in about a billion people willing to take up arms against us.
You mean…a billion more?
Hell…let’s take the Vatican while we’re at it.
Put the Mullahs and the Cardinals in an arena and let ’em duke it out.
AG
I definitely would like to see that.
Yes, I’m not serious. But I do know many whose answer would be “nuke Mecca and Medina”. There are more of them than not.
“I’ll bet the latter bothered them a lot more than the former.“
Thanks for so freely – eagerly, even – demonstrating your ignorance and bigotry.
Your Welcome.
You appear proud of your ignorance of Islam and Muslims, and of the bigotry that flows from that ignorance. Well that IS one of ameica’s freedoms. The freedom to te ignorant and ill-informed – misinformed, really.
I appreciate your posts, Hurria, so I’d like it if you could alleviate some of my ignorance on the subject. And that doesn’t have to be here on this thread — of course.
I have a minimal amount of knowledge of Islamic/Arab (speaking loosely)culture but I tend to see Wahabbism at the root of many problems, although the Muslim Brotherhood and Qutbists deserve credit/blame for some of the problems attributed to Wahabbism.
The creative and ethical way would be to have a crash program to build a substitute for oil, like a Manhattan project. Summon all our scientists, marshall all our engineering forces kind of thing. The imperial and practical way would be to simply conquer Saudi Arabia, a la GW Bush style. Hey, we could even burn a few more Korans. That should satisfy the lunatic Republican right wing.
Sure hope we opt for sanity and choose the first option.
Bombing Iran obviously. That’s what all the experts say.
Bombing Iran obviously. That’s what all the experts say.
babies!
What Seabe said. But while we await the development of alternative energy sources that will render our ritual puckering up and kissing of the Saudis’ asses unnecessary, it would be nice to discontinue our hypocrisy about human rights abuses in non-oil producing countries.
I’m not saying its wrong to condemn oppression in places like Cuba, but it’s kind of rich to accuse that government of being such a horrible affront to freedom that we must deny US citizens’ right to travel there or engage in trade, etc., while pretending the hideous oppression perpetrated by our pals in Saudi Arabia isn’t worth our notice.
No stranger or more absurd than our attempts to disarm other states while we hold the largest and most dangerous military force ever assembled on the planet.
Or the uproar over Terry Jones’s little “Bonfire of the Qurans” idea while the majority of those who are making the most noise about it are involved in the burning of human beings on a daily basis.
Honesty ain’t part of the game, Betty.
It’s cuthroat poker.
Should it be?
That’s a whole ‘nother question.
Think it over?
Think it through?
Refuse to be involved in the admittedly strange and absurd push and pull of savage humanty?
Ol’ Will knew.
Yup.
Like dat.
To do anything else than play the game would be suicidal.
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all…”
Yup.
And the human story continues.
Just as it’s always been.
Just as it’s always been.
Strange?
Contradictory from every angle?
Indeed.
No doubt.
The transcendent jazz musician Charlie Parker used to hang out in a bar near 52nd St. in NYC in the early ’50s. A lot of other heavy players also used to spend a great deal of time there. The juke box was loaded with the finest jazz records, but Bird used to mostly listen to a few country and western cuts that were also on it…very simple and relatively unsophisticated music compared to the jazz that was being played by the people in he 52nd St. clubs of the day. One day one of the other musicians said “Hey, Bird! Why’re you always playing that lame country music?”
Bird’s immortal answer?
“It’s the stories, man. The stories!!!”
And the stories continue.
Just as they always have.
Just as they always have.
Bet on it.
Later…
AG
Well, yeah. But a hypocrisy reduction project might be nice. Elimination being a pipe dream and all…
Also, let’s turn loose these super-patriot badasses on the Saudis. Only men like these heroes understand the grave threat the victory-mosque represents.
The happy delusion of conservatives is that the application of military force will solve all problems; the happy delusion of liberals is that the proper application of science will solve all problems.
In the case of imported oil from Saudi Arabia, both these delusions are false, at least in the near to mid term. In the long run, substitutes for oil must be found, because it will run out. But in our lifetimes, this isn’t going to happen.
So, we have to deal with the Saudis, like it or not. Continuing the program of drawing off and corrupting their elite seems the best bet.
Booman Tribune ~ Why So Friendly With the Saudis?
yup, that always works well, what could possibly go wrong?
Obama to Pitch $60B Saudi Arms Deal to Congress-major opportunity to create new jobs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704621204575488361149625050.html