Obama En Route to Bow Before Yet Another Saudi King

[LAGC]

This coming week, Barack Obama is to cut short a trip to India to visit the new ruler of Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah last week. That the American president is so keen to abandon a fast-growing and important ally to visit the dementia-struck 79-year-old leader of an old one shows what sway the House of Saud still has over US foreign policy.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Amnesty International, British politicians angry at the Union Jack being flown at half-mast for Abdullah, and The Economist are just a few of those have called on Western politicians to rethink their close relationship with the conservative kingdom. Here are a few reasons why Obama should reconsider his trip to meet King Salman.

The human-rights record

Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger, was flogged 50 times on Jan. 9 in front of mosque in Jeddah—part of a sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for calling for a “day for Saudi liberals.” Part of the evidence against him was that he liked a Facebook page for Arab Christians.

Badawi’s beating brought Saudi Arabia’s record on corporal punishment into the spotlight once more. It should make Obama think hard, coming as he does from the US—a country that has a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment as part of its Bill of Rights.

Public beheadings are common in the kingdom—87 people were executed last year, mostly by decapitation. Saudi Arabia is also one of just four countries that still execute offenders who are minors.

http://qz.com/332715/this-is-why-oba...ew-saudi-king/

Why do we keep paying homage to these assholes?

The Saudis are biggest shit-stirrers in the entire Middle East, the reason we got attacked on 9/11 (15 out of 19 hijackers including Osama bin Laden himself were trained in their madrasas) -- they treat their own women like shit, worse than any other country not even allowing them to drive, even covered head-to-toe in their full burqa garb lest they be beaten and raped by religious police for "showing too much skin."

Fuck their cheap oil. The U.S. is now the largest producer and exporter world-wide. It's time to start using that leverage to tell them to pound sand. We can afford gas going back up to $3/gallon.

Shut down your terrorist training schools (madrasas) or we'll level Mecca.

Stop torturing dissidents, or we'll start dropping anti-Islamic propaganda all over Medina.

Treat women decently or we'll air drop Jane Fonda and Michele Bachmann on your asses right into downtown Riyadh.

That should about do it.

[Aggressive Perfector]

Agreed. Except for that $3/ gallon bit, I'm fueling two gas guzzlers.

[NAPOTS]

yea piss off with the $3/gallon gas. I like my $2/gallon gas.

[5.56NATO]

Of the nineteen hijackers who attacked this nation on September 11, 2001, fifteen were Saudi Arabian. Moreover, each and every one of the nineteen hijackers was personally chosen and provided with training and financing by yet another Saudi native – Osama bin Laden. Yet from that day to this, in spite of these disturbing and incontrovertible facts, members of the Bush administration have glibly and incessantly insisted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of our closest friends and allies in the War on Terror. Fifteen Saudis murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on live TV, all at the behest of one of the Kingdom’s prodigal sons. How can these basic facts about 9/11 possibly be mere trivia?
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com/

Odd how that works out.

[LAGC]

members of the Bush administration have glibly and incessantly insisted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of our closest friends and allies in the War on Terror. Fifteen Saudis murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on live TV, all at the behest of one of the Kingdom’s prodigal sons. How can these basic facts about 9/11 possibly be mere trivia?

Don't forget that despite the total air travel ban in the U.S. on 9/12/01, the Bush Administration arranged for the entire remaining bin Laden family safe air travel out of America, back to Saudi Arabia. The corporate news media had to hurry and switch gears before people put 2-and-2 together, so within a month we were invading Afghanistan instead so the oil companies could start building their new pipelines. Funny how that all worked out.

[5.56NATO]

Hillary Clinton Mocks Putin, Gladly Accepts $500K in Jewels from Head-Chopping Saudi Dictator
•King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is dead. But he left behind $500K in jewels and various other gifts for rabid anti-Putin fanatic Hillary Clinton
•Does Putin need to behead someone to curry her favor? Maybe...
http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/01/24/2722

[jet3534]

Don't forget that despite the total air travel ban in the U.S. on 9/12/01, the Bush Administration arranged for the entire remaining bin Laden family safe air travel out of America, back to Saudi Arabia. The corporate news media had to hurry and switch gears before people put 2-and-2 together, so within a month we were invading Afghanistan instead so the oil companies could start building their new pipelines. Funny how that all worked out.

If my memory is correct, the FBI wanted to interview the bin Laden family but Bush prevented them from doing so.

[stevelyn]

He may not bow this time, but he's certainly doing their bidding.

His proposal to grab more Alaska land in the name of the feral govt and place it under wilderness status to prevent energy development is a first step toward making us more dependent on his diaper-headed scumbag brothers.