One of the Arab world’s most widely respected non-governmental organizations is charging that at least 14 Middle East and North African governments are systematically violating the civil liberties of their citizens — and most of them are close U.S. allies in the war on terror.
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
Freedom without men
Welcome to gender apartheid, Saudi-style: For a country that goes to such great lengths to segregate unrelated men and women, it took Saudi Arabia a long time to hit on the idea of women-only hotels. The kingdom’s first hotel exclusively for females opened yesterday, offering plush lodgings with a full-range of health and beauty facilities…
www.censorship.com
My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: Fidel Castro controlled Cuba for nearly half a century. His rule was defined by defiance and dictatorship, brutal repression against dissidents and the management of an immoral American embargo. Free speech has always been the Achilles’ heel of the regime. During my visit to the island last…
Just another reliable US ally
Imprisoned Saudi blogger and democracy activist Fouad Al Farhan – an inspiring person with whom I spent time in his country last year – has been allowed to make contact with the outside world. Saudi Jeans explains: Detained Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan has been allowed to make a phone call to his wife yesterday, FreeFouad.com…
A close and dear Western friend
The Angry Arab and an exclusive: A Saudi scandal…in London. One of the divorcees of King `Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Princess Al-`Unud Al-Fayiz, fled Saudi Arabia to London. She was willing to speak about her bitter experience, and an Arab journalist taped hours of interviews with her, to publish as her memoirs. The princess feared…
The American begging bowl
Bush’s recent visit to the Middle East was an exercise in futility, resulting in little more than an escalation of violence in the occupied territories. But what about the two days spent in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most brutal regimes? Leading investigative reporter Greg Palast offers some thoughts: Let’s begin by stating why…
Democracy is poison to Arabs
My latest New Matilda column is about the recent Bush visit to the Middle East: George W Bush’s current visit to the Middle East, in the final year of his Presidency, is an attempt to solidify Washington’s position towards its client states – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine…
The high on empty rhetoric president
Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, January 14: A day after George W. Bush gave his big democracy speech and declared the opening of “a great new era ”¦ founded on the equality of all people”—a line he delivered at the astonishingly opulent Emirates Palace hotel, where most of the $2,450-a-night suites are reserved for visiting royals—the president…
Freedom one step at a time
The Independent editorial, January 14: It is hardly a secret that the authoritarian regime of Saudi Arabia detains political prisoners. But the first arrest of a blogger in the kingdom has drawn an unusual amount of international attention. The Saudi government has even attracted some criticism from its long-standing ally, the United States. Fouad al-Farhan,…
A future without Israel?
A new documentary on PBS suggests that many young Americans Jews are turning away from Israel and obsessing over the Holocaust. Jonathan D. Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, explains: Whatever the future portends, it seems clear that two of the grand themes that defined American Jewish identity in the late twentieth…