The Saudi Human Rights ‘Authority’ is a government organization, as its name implies. It is run by state-paid bureaucrats, headed by an Arabian uber-shaikh or a red-checkered commissar. It is not concerned with human rights within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, no there is no such thing over there: its main concern is to look after Saudi detainees outside the country. Like those incarcerated at Club Guantanamo, and those many being held in Iraq for terrorism, and those being held in Syria for trying to sneak into Iraq, and those being held in Lebanon for leading the Fath al-Islam Salafi jihadist group in the ongoing battle against the Lebanese army.

Saudi media, owned or controlled by the ruling family and its retainers, are claiming that Saudis are being tricked into going to fight in Iraq and Lebanon. Reports indicate that perhaps almost 50% of the bombers in Iraq are Saudi Jihadists, and recent reports claim that the leader of Fath al-Islam is a Saudi.

Mosque imams and shaikhs regularly call for jihad to overthrow the Shi’a-dominated government in Iraq, and apparently there are some who listen and others who are willing to finance them. The kingdom is a tight police state, and it is highly unlikely that so many jihadists can cross its borders without being detected by security agents: they certainly have no difficulty catching in-filtrators, so why not catch the ex-filtrators as well?

Saudi Arabia has a clear interest in a chaotic Iraq right now, because that may be the only way to change the regime and perhaps even push the United States toward a military confrontation to roll back Iranian influence, and give the amenable Sunni tribal shaikhs of the western Iraqi regions a chance to ‘look good’ by opposing their former, and perhaps future, al-Qaeda allies.

Speaking of democracy: Prince Nayef, the Saudi Minister of Interior (the man in charge of police, security, and border control, but not national parks) provided an interesting and typical insight into something. He said that when he looks at the faces of the members of the Shaura Council (the powerless appointed consultative council) he sees good and wise faces. He said that it does not matter how these faces got there, but what matters is that they are there. Oh, the oratory, the logic: eat your heart out, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Meanwhile, al-Jazeera TV reports that Saudi police recently arrested several 'reform' activists and that there were at least two women among them: the women were arrested because they publicly protested the arrest of their husbands. Police cliamed that the women had weapons hidden in their homes, but al-Jazeera quotes Amnesty as saying the arms were planted by the police.

Speaking of Amnesty International: it is mounting a campaign to save an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. The woman and her lover have been in prison for eleven years, but the man was finally executed this month. The woman's execution has been postponed due to international pressure. It looks like the Iranian mullahs are eagerly picking up where the Taliban left off in 2001.
 

Aljazeera also quotes U.S ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker that Iran continues to arm militias in Iraq, which it undoubtedlty does. Meanwhile, new U.S policy now arms Sunni militants who have been shooting at and blowing up Americans and Iraqis. Now we have a continued and expanded vicious circle in Iraq: oil money from the Gulf for years helped arm Sunni jihadists and terrorists many of whom come from the Gulf- Iran has helped arm the Shi'a (Shi'ite) groups- now the United States has joined the fray and is arming Sunni militias while it complains about Iran arming Shi'a militias- Iran will continue arming Shi'as- Iraqi officials are blaming Saudi sources for funding the terrorists- Saudis and their allies (satellites?) are blaming the Iranian mullahs for the situation in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Darfur, urban decay and global warming as well, with the eager and vocal agreement of the Bush administration.........ad nauseaum.

Cheers
Mohammed