Viral Alternative News: Saudi Arabia

Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts

Saudi Arabia Threathens Financial Terror If Held Responsible For Sept 11th Terror Attacks

Saudi Arabia: Ally of America, Decapitator of Infidels, Abuser of Maids, Destroyer of Yemeni Children. Understandably, a nation with such an illustrious reputation is loath to take on the title of “Twin Towers Terrorist”. Thus, as any innocent party and BFF of America would do, it has threatened to bring down the fragile American economy by selling off its vast hoard of American Treasury bills, being the world’s third largest holder of US dollar reserves, if Congress passes a bill which would allow the Saudi Government to be held accountable for its alleged role in the September 11th attacks.

US District Judge George Daniels had previously ruled that Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity, though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, while Iran was ordered to pay 10.5 billion dollars even though there is no evidence of Tehran’s involvement.

The Senate bill, The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, will make clear that said sovereign immunity does not apply in cases “arising from a terrorist attack that kills an American on American soil”, possibly paving the way for the reexamination of Saudi Arabia’s culpability in the attack (interestingly, this sovereign immunity thingie did not stop the invasion of Iraq).

The Obama Administration has acted in the interest of the families of those brutally killed in September 11th by lobbying Congress to block said bill’s passage. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have decided to support the bill instead.

When asked by CNN whether president Barack Obama planned on vetoing the bill if passed by Congress, a senior administration official replied that “rather than entertain a hypothetical, we believe there needs to be more careful consideration of the potential unintended consequences of its enactment before proceeding with legislation.”

Secretary of State John Kerry said that the legislation might “expose the United States of America to lawsuits and take away our sovereign immunity and create a terrible precedent.” Horrifyingly, if the bill is passed the US government could be held accountable for all the destruction that it had wrought on the world. Somehow, this issue of sovereignty is brought up when it comes to a country’s freedom to commit terror, while nobody in the administration seems to care about a country’s sovereign immunity from such things as copyright laws- stripped away with “trade” agreements like TTIP and the TPP.

The co-chair of the September 11th Congressional inquiry, former Senator Bob Graham, told CNN that he is “outraged but not surprised” by the flagrant threat.

“The Saudis have known what they did in 9/11, and they knew that we knew what they did, at least at the highest levels of the U.S. government,” Graham said.

28 pages of the September 11th Commission Report remain classified. They allegedly detail Saudi Arabia’s involvement.

Saudi officials have called for the release of the 28 pages so that they can defend themselves from the allegations, while the Bush and Obama administrations have staunchly refused to reveal the classified information.

In a 60 Minutes interview, Graham had previously said:

“I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn’t have a high school education — could’ve carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States.“

Essentially, if Saudi Arabia is held accountable for September 11th the US government could be implicated. In order to stave off this possibility, the Saudi government has threatened the US economy with financial blackmail while the US government has protested that it could be held responsible for its past wars… What a convoluted web of lies.
Sources: New York Times, CNN, Zero Hedge, Daily News, NBC News

This article (Saudi Arabia Threathens Financial Terror If held Responsible For Sept 11th Terror) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author(CoNN) and AnonHQ.com.

Saudi Arabia Holds All Male Women’s Rights Conference

By Amanda Froelich

Women may now be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia, but they have not yet been granted the privilege of attending a women’s rights summit.

In 2012, the Saudi Arabia University of Qassam held one of the biggest women’s rights conferences in the Arab world. The event, which focused around the topic of “Women in Society,” was intended to be held annually at the University. The aim was to set a benchmark for tolerance and progress in the region; impressively, delegates and speakers from more than fifteen countries showed up.

While the conference might sound picturesque, there was one major absurdity: absolutely no women attended the event.

Such is largely a result of Saudi Arabia’s twisted interpretation of Sharia Law. Because it is not acceptable for women and men to share the same lecture space, the conference – about women’s rights and equality – was conducted without the advice or presence of a single female.

Even though women were allowed to vote for the first time last year, they still are banned from a number of activities and have few privileges (compared to women in Western countries). For example, Saudi women cannot drive, swim, compete in sports, wear make-up which might accentuate their beauty, or open a bank account.

While there were two women cited in attendance last year, it is still a far cry from the type of audience a women’s rights summit should attract.

The irony is obvious though there is little one can do but call out the hypocrisy.

What are your thoughts on this news? Please comment below and share this article!

This article (Saudi Arabia Holds All Male Women’s Rights Conference) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com

WikiLeaks: US, Israel, And Saudi Arabia Planned To Overthrow Syrian Govt. In 2006

Speaking from Ecuador’s embassy in London, Julian Assange revealed that the United States planned to overthrow the Syrian government as far back as 2006, several years before the start of the current crisis.

The founder of WikiLeaks took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in 2012. The premises remain under siege 24 hours a day by a large team of police to prevent Assange from ever stepping foot outside, at a cost to taxpayers that now exceeds £12 million.

The ongoing threat to his freedom hasn’t kept Assange from continuing his work revealing the dirty secrets of world governments. His latest revelations come in an interview with RT in support of his new book, “The WikiLeaks Files,” published late last month.

The United States and its allies in the Middle East, including Turkey andIsrael, have been frequently accused of contributing to the ongoing destabilization of Syria in the wake of the uprising and subsequent civil war which began in 2011. But according to cables from the WikiLeaks archive, discussed in the Syria chapter of Assange’s book, plans to deliberately destabilize the region go back at least five years further.

“In that chapter is a cable from US Ambassador William Roebuck, who was stationed in Damascus, which apparently discusses a plan for the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria,” RT reported.

In his appearance on the RT program “Going Underground,” Assange elaborated on the cable’s contents:

“… That plan was to use a number of different factors to create paranoia within the Syrian government; to push it to overreact, to make it fear there’s a coup …”

Assange continued, explaining that the U.S. government sought to make the Syrian government appear weak by causing Assad to overreact to the threat of Islamic extremists crossing into his country.

The cable also details plans to foster sectarian strife in the region and make Iran appear like a larger threat to Assad than it really was, Assange continued:

“In particular, to take rumors that are known to be false … or exaggerations and promote them – that Iran is trying to convert poor Sunnis, and to work with Saudi and Egypt to foster that perception in order to make it harder for Iran to have influence, and also harder for the government to have influence in the population.”

WikiLeaks cables reveal that these plans came from the Israeli government, and show that the U.S. government intended to work with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt to encourage the breakdown of the Assad regime as a way of also weakening Iran and Hezbollah.

“[I]f Syria sufficiently destabilized, it might be in a position where it can keep the Golan Heights forever, or even advance that territory,” Assange said.

According to Assange, the cable illuminates how the current Syrian crisis reflects U.S. influence on the Middle East, particularly the ways it has used its allies to put pressure on the country. “Part of the problem in Syria is that you have a number of US allies surrounding it, principally Saudi and Qatar, that are funneling in weapons,” Assange noted, adding that it shows how the U.S. uses its over 100 army bases and network of embassies to further its imperialist interests.

The mainstream media often presents a simplistic view of the Syrian crisis, especially when the U.S. government is using it as support for war, ignoring the history of the region and the many conflicting alliances it holds.

MintPress News founder Mnar Muhawesh published her analysis of the current refugee crisis, which also blames Western allies like Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia for seeking to destabilize Syria in their quest to control the region’s energy resources.

“Today, the Middle East is being torn to shreds by manipulative plans to gain oil and gas access by pitting people against one another based on religion,” Muhawesh wrote. “And in this push for energy, it’s the people who suffer most.”

Watch “Assange on ‘US Empire’, Assad govt overthrow plans & new book ‘The WikiLeaks Files’ (EXCLUSIVE)” from RT’s “Going Underground”:

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Your support in our endeavor of sharing free information would be much appreciated.

Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews

This article (WikiLeaks: US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia Planned to Overthrow Syrian Govt. in 2006) originally appeared on MintPressNews.com and was used with permission. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

Saudi Arabia Just Killed 41 Innocent People

The Saudi Arabian-led coaltion in Yemen has been blamed for the deaths of scores of people in an attack on a market in the Houthi-controlled province of Hajja.

The attack on Tuesday killed at least 41 and wounded 75 others in the city of Mastaba, according to the Houthi-controlled state news agency SABA.

Local news site Sahafah, which is known to support the Houthis, reported that the death toll had risen as high as 107, though these figures could not be independently verified.

The political high command of the Houthi movement said it held the Saudi-led responsible for the attack. The Saudi government has not commented.

The AP news agency reported witnesses as saying the attack was an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition opposed to the Houthis, although Middle East Eye cannot verify the report.

The scene was terrifying,” Showei Hamoud told AP. “Blood and body parts everywhere. People collected the torn limbs in bags and blankets.”

Witnesses said that at least two bombs hit the market and there were no military targets in the area. Photos on Twitter showed horrific scenes of the dead and dying in the aftermath.

A Houthi-run TV network showed footage of the aftermath of the attacks in which dead children and charred bodies were visible.

A spokeswoman for the NGO Doctors Without Borders told the AP news agency that at least 40 of those wounded were transferred to a hospital nearby.

The political high command of the Houthi bloc on Tuesday evening held the Saudi-led coalition responsible for the bombing, saying in a statement that the attack “does not in any way help us achieve peace.

“Rather, it will lead to a continuation of war and an escalation in the situation on the ground,” said the statement, quoted by the Houthi-run al-Masirah website.

Hajja fell to the Houthis in September 2014. It has has been targeted several times by the Saudi-led coaltion, including air strikes on a water-bottling plant in August which killed 34 people and injured dozens.
Rights groups have repeatedly urged the coalition to avoid causing civilian casualties.

Last month, Human Rights Watch accused the coalition of using US-supplied cluster bombs.

The coalition has said that an independent inquiry would examine charges of possible abuses against civilians in the conflict.

A panel of UN experts says the coalition has carried out 119 sorties that violated humanitarian law, and called for an international probe.

Saudi Arabia last year formed a coalition to support the Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in his war with the Houthi movement, which took control of large areas of the country after kicking Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia To Build World’s Largest Solar Powered Desalination Plant [Video]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has finalized plans to build the world’s largest solar powered desalination plant in the northeastern city of Al Khafji.

According to the country’s officials, the solar powered desalination plant will treat around 60,000 square meters of seawater daily for local residents in the city. The project, due to be completed in 2017, will supply more than 100,000 residents with clean water every day, leaving no carbon trace.

Because of its solar-power, the plant will be able to produce surplus energy during the day. The surplus energy will then be used by the plant in the night, enabling the plant to produce zero carbon emissions, becoming the first zero carbon emission desalination plant in the world, according to environmental observers.

As fresh water in the world gradually becomes scarce, some countries that have access to the sea, are now turning to it as an alternative. However, turning the salty seawater into fresh water is an expensive procedure.

However, with the renewable energy to power the plant for the Saudis, the cost of getting fresh water will be significantly reduced. Clean energy activists say renewable energy offers a chance at lowering both costs and emissions. At the 2013 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, renewable-powered desalination was a highly contested issue.

Since Saudi Arabia announced its desalination project, it is attracting foreign partners. The country’s newly formed company, Advanced Water Technology (AWT) – which will play a lead role in building the plant – is currently making an effort to bring together all foreign companies who have expressed an interest. Abengoa is the latest company to have announced its intention to partner with AWT.

According to AWT, the plant will have a 15 megawatt solar array,, using polycrystalline solar cells engineered by the research agency.

The energy efficient desalination plant will also include energy recovery, energy storage and other efficiency systems, thus complementing the solar array.

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil-rich nations in the world. In 2013, the country announced a gradual transition from fuel-powered plants to renewable energy ones. Environmental activists havepraised the country for their initiative to power the desalination plant via the use of renewable energy. The renewable source of energy will ensure that the desalination plant will continue to function, even if fuel supplies run out in the country. It will also save the environment from further carbon emissions.

This article (Saudi Arabia to build World’s Largest Solar Powered Desalination Plant [Video]) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.

Our “Ally” Saudi Arabia Just Beheaded 47 Political Prisoners

Happy New Year Saudi Arabia!

Saudi Arabia ushers in the New Year with 47 public Beheadings.

Saudi Arabia wasted no time in ushering the New Year by swiftly executing 47 political prisoners whose only crime was political dissidence against the tyrannical ruling family and their only request was equal protection under the law. Clearly SA is ‘ahead’ of its resolution to spill more blood in 2016.

Among those executed, a peaceful Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, who was arrested on and was an active hunger strike against the regime’s many injustices and human rights violations. His public execution is akin to a public execution of the Pope during a huger strike at New Year, in Times Square and desecrating his body publicly. This action was intended to provoke Iran into action. The international community however, has focused on the civil disobedience in the Iranian embassy rather than the international crime itself.

The move was a strategic one for SA. Fearing a closer alliance between USA and Iran, SA has continued to do its part in inciting Iran into action. The most recent provocation occurred in the Mina Stampede in the Holy pilgrimage that took in September of 2015, in which international reports indicate that 2236 mostly Iranian pilgrims were pummeled to death as Saudi Security forces closed exit doors during a particularly hot and strenuous piece of the pilgrimage.

Despite this apparent ‘disaster’ US/Iranian alliance was furthered none the less, Saudi stepped up the manipulation to the next level. The next step was the Public execution of the ‘Shiite Ghandi’ following New Years festivities. In anticipation of the civil disobedience ensuing the execution, Saudi ambassadors were previously evacuated from Iran, as the assault on the embassy was an anticipated reaction to this crime and only served to further the SA agenda in derailing talks with Iran.

Figures confirmed by Amnesty international, affirm that Saudi Arabia be-heads nearly twice as many people as ISIS (its ideological step child). Between January 1985 and June 2015, Saudi Arabia has publicly executed 2,208 people. At least 157 executions were carried out in 2015, which marked this year as the bloodiest in nearly 2 decades.

Adding to the death toll is the number of American lives that have been lost as a result of close allegiance with the Saudis. As you may already know, 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Nationals where 2977 American lives were lost. The recent San Bernardino shooting conducted by none other than Saudi nationals, another 14 dead. US casualties during Desert Storm protecting Saudi interests land at 297 heads (no pun intended). Saudi casualties protecting their own interests? The astonishing figure is a clear and a round number, Zero. Clearly the US-Saudi Alliance has not worked in keeping the American Borders secure, protecting the lives of the American people and American interests intact within the region.

So what can you do?

If you are American:

Saudi needs to realize that the US is not a puppet nation and we will not be coerced and manipulated into protecting their interests, turn a blind eye to massive human rights violations, and pay for their economic sovereignty with American lives. US support is not automatic; an alliance is based on mutually beneficial interests. It is regarded as a privilege to be a US ally, one that comes with its own set of mandates. (Iran is evidently getting rid of its entire nuclear arsenal to be given that privilege.)

Urge president Obama to speak against and condemn the most recent executions and condemn beheadings. Saudi Arabia needs to earn the US allegiance and protection and its economic investment from the oil that we pay for, is certainly not worth having lost 3,288 American lives and further risk the security of our nation.

For all global and concerned citizens:

The Saudis sit atop one of the UNs most crucial councils; the UN Human Rights Council where it examines specific human rights challenges including violence against women, religious oppression and persecution based on freedom of expression and sexual orientation. Urge the United Nations to dis-appoint Saudi Arabia from the Human Rights council, until it is able to uphold the rules and regulations of the UN itself on these very human rights violations.

For more information on the political chess game between Iran, Saudi and US, take a free listen to Audible’s
“The Oil Kings” by Andrew Scott Cooper that describes geopolitical forces, in particular how oil is used in the fight for sovereignty, national protection, and furthering the foreign political agenda of these world powers.

Watch the video below:

Time To Start Paying Attention: Why Saudi Arabia Might Pull The US Into Another War

After Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shi’ite cleric, Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, and 46 other people, protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday, ransacking and setting fire to the building and its contents. In a surprise response the following day, Saudi Arabia announced it would sever diplomatic ties with Iran — giving Iranian diplomats 48 hours to evacuate, while recalling its own diplomats back from Iran.

“This Saudi-Iranian sudden and acute crisis is a very worrisome development, and we must at all costs avoid that it produces a chain of violent consequences in the region,” warned United Nations mediator, Staffan de Mistura, in an email to the New York Times.

“This is a very disturbing escalation,” said Michael Stephens, an analyst with the Royal United Services Institute research center in London, according to the Times. “It has enormous consequences for the people of the region, and the tensions between the two sides are going to mean that instability across the region is going to continue.”

On Monday, three Sunni-led nations — Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates joined the Saudis in breaking or greatly reducing diplomatic relations with Iran.

Despite prior international calls to grant the outspoken cleric clemency — and sharp warnings from Iran of dire consequences should the execution be carried out — the al-Saud monarchy pushed ahead with its message via mass execution, ironically intended to quash possible violence against the State. As promised, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei issued a sharp rebuke condemning the execution of al-Nimr, published on his official website:

“Doubtlessly, this innocent martyr’s blood, which was spilled unjustly, will quickly show its effect and the divine vengeance will befall the Saudi politicians.

“This innocent scholar had neither incited people to take up arms nor had he hatched any covert plot, and the only activity he did was open criticism [of the Saudi regime] […]

“The Almighty God shall not ignore the innocents’ blood and the unjustly spilled blood will backfire on the politicians and the executives of this regime very quickly.”

In a press conference on Sunday, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir stressed that Riyadh would not allow Tehran to put the kingdom’s security in peril. He also cautioned the monarchy would reject all criticism of the Saudi justice system.

Al-Jubeir called Tehran “a regional menace for its smuggling of arms and explosives and its previous harboring of al-Qaeda militants” and “the aggressive statements of the Iranian regime encouraged the attacks on Saudi [embassies], adding that Iran has a history of supporting terrorism, citing its support to the bloody regime of Bashar al-Assad.” Responding to a journalist’s question, “Al-Jubeir said the Iranian government is involved in the attacks on the Saudi embassy, adding that Iranian security were present at the scene, yet they never attempted to drive out the protesters.” He called on the international community to “review Iranian intransigence,” and portentously added, “all options are open for us to deter Iran.”

It’s difficult to discredit comparisons of the Sunni al-Saud monarchy to the brutal Islamic State terrorists it and the West claim to be at war with; in fact, the only element missing in the likeness was videotaped footage of the nearly 160 known beheadings it carried out last year. Not to mention, a mass execution of this scale hadn’t been exacted by the kingdom since 1980, when 63 insurgents who had seized the Grand Mosque in 1979 were publicly beheaded. Though Riyadh normally executes those convicted in common areas for all to see, Saturday’s killings were hidden from the public. That became a further point of contention for demonstrators, who suspected such secrecy indicated political rather than legal motivation — especially since al-Nimr’s popularity had much to do with empowering the Shi’ite minority, which included piercing criticism of the House of Saud.

In the Independent, Robert Fisk explained the rage sparked by the cleric’s politicized execution:

“For Sheikh Nimr was not just any old divine. He spent years as a scholar in Tehran and Syria, and was a revered Shia [sic] leader of Friday prayers in the Saudi Eastern Province, and a man who stayed clear of political parties but demanded free elections, and was regularly detained and tortured — by his own account — for opposing the Sunni Wahabi Saudi government. Sheikh Nimr said that words were more powerful than violence. The authorities’ whimsical suggestion that there was nothing sectarian about this most recent bloodbath — on the grounds that they beheaded Sunnis as well as Shias — was classic ISIS rhetoric.”

Grouping Sheikh al-Nimr and three Shi’ite political activists together with 43 Sunnis accused of acting in concert with al-Qaeda in the region belies the Saudis’ true intentions to deliberately provoke archenemy Iran and its Sunni allies.

Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr’s execution means his brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, must now examine every move by the kingdom like a hawk. Mohammed’s son, Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr, has been awaiting crucifixion in a Saudi prison for over four years, after a conviction stemming from his participation in Arab Spring protests. After the sudden beheading of his brother, Mohammed is fraught with worry over his son’s looming draconian death sentence, not knowing “from one moment to the next” when the Saudis might choose to carry out their punishment.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement carried an unmistakable message for supporters of the House of Saud, as well. According to the Office of the Supreme Leader,

“Strongly criticizing the silence of the self-proclaimed advocates of freedom, democracy, and human rights, and their support for the Saudi regime, who spills the blood of the innocent only for criticism and protest, Ayatollah Khamenei said: ‘The Muslim world and the entire world must feel responsible towards this issue.’”

On Sunday, State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told the media that though the U.S. supports the right to peacefully protest, “we condemn in the strongest terms any attacks on diplomatic properties.”Trudeau cautioned both Saudi Arabia and Iran against “any actions that could further heighten tensions.”

Considering the Saudis’ abrupt end to further diplomacy with Iran, that impuissant warning obviously fell on deaf ears.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Your support in our endeavor of sharing free information would be much appreciated.

Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews

This article (Time to Start Paying Attention: Why Saudi Arabia Might Pull the US into Another War) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific.

US Ally Saudi Arabia Has Beheaded Twice As Many People As ISIS In 2015 And The MSM Is Silent

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – While American mainstream media propagandizes the general population with Islamic State (ISIS) decapitations, close U.S. strategic ally, Saudi Arabia, has amassed a beheading body count far outpacing that of ISIS.

While the crimes committed by ISIS are horrific in nature, the fact that the US not only condones but supports a state that is far more violent than ISIS should be pointed out.

The constant drumbeat from pundits and politicians alike is that America must stop the menace known as the Islamic State. The impetus given is that we must stop the brazen public beheadings, as it is an affront to the civilized world and a blatant violation of human rights.

This of course begs the question; if ISIS is considered terrorist human rights violators by the U.S. for their barbaric actions, why is the government of Saudi Arabia not held to the same standard?

Over the past 12-months, Saudi Arabia has beheaded at least 175 people, including mentally disabled individuals and children that were under 18, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

The House of Saud, under King Salman, currently executed 110 people convicted of crimes thus far in 2015, putting it on a pace to surpass its 1995 record number of 192 executions for the calendar year.

To highlight the Saudi’s unbridled brutality, by comparison, ISIS is reported to have beheaded 65 people since the beginning of this year. That number is slightly over half the number of individuals executed by Saudi Arabia in the same period.

Many of those executed by Saudi Arabia signed “confessions,” often after being subjected to outright torture. The list of offenses that warrant death in the Kingdom range from the serious to the ridiculous

“Saudi Arabia’s faulty justice system facilitates judicial executions on a mass scale. In many cases defendants are denied access to a lawyer and in some cases they are convicted on the basis of ‘confessions’ obtained under torture or other ill-treatment in flagrant miscarriages of justice,” Boumedouha said.

Some of the offenses, which can result in death, include murder, non-violent drug offenses, adultery, sorcery, apostasy, witchcraft and “consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex.” Saudi Arabia imposes amputation of limbs and body parts for lesser crimes such as theft.

Therefore, “what constitutes a crime, the proof required to prove it, and the sentence it carries are entirely up to a judge to decide,” according to Human Rights Watch.

The lack of an established penal code, or sentence guidelines for specific crimes, leaves those judging the accused extremely broad latitude for imposing wanton brutality and death.

A scathing 44-page report, released by Amnesty International on Tuesday, calculates that since January 1985 there have been at least 2,208 people executed by the Kingdom.

Of those executed, almost half, 48.5 percent, were foreign nationals. The international human rights group claimed in its report that the foreign nationals were subjected to xenophobic prejudice and lack of access to Arabic interpreters to understand the court proceedings.

Amnesty International’s acting Middle East director, Said Boumedouha, stated that the fabric of the Saudi justice system was “deeply-flawed.”

“The use of the death penalty is horrendous in all circumstances, and is particularly deplorable when it is arbitrarily applied after blatantly unfair trials. Instead of defending the country’s appalling record, the Saudi Arabian authorities should urgently establish an official moratorium on executions and implement international fair trial standards in all criminal cases,” Boumedouha said.

The U.S. government’s support of the House of Saud has been unwavering since 1973 when President Nixon negotiated a deal in which the U.S. would supply arms and act as the protectorate of Saudi Arabia. In exchange for this protection, the Saudis would denominate all future oil sales in U.S. dollars, thus the “Petro Dollar” being born.

Consistently ranked as one of the worst humans rights violators in the world, Saudi Arabia is currently rated by Freedom House as one of only ten nations on the planet that are “not free.” They have earned the absolute lowest score possible.

Additionally, the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens, in concert with significant indications that the 28 still classified pages of the 9/11 commission’s report implicate Saudi Arabian financiers in the attacks, raise severely troubling questions about the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

The Saudi regime has also been revealed as the largest financial backer of terrorist groups globally, according to U.S. State Department cables released by Wikileaks, from then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The U.S. government’s outright acceptance of a fanatical fundamentalist regime as a strategic ally, which works against U.S nation interests and slaughters it’s own citizens wholesale, while consistently attempting to propagandize the U.S. public into fearing ISIS, reeks of hypocrisy if not something much more insidious.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you found this information helpful, please share it with your friends and family. Your support in our endeavor of sharing free information would be much appreciated.

Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews

http://thefreethoughtproject.com

Jay Syrmopoulos is an investigative journalist, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jay’s work has been published on BenSwann’s Truth in Media, Truth-Out, AlterNet, InfoWars, MintPressNews and many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu.

Navigation