It’s only been a few months since Saudi Arabia’s insane crown prince ordered the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a Washington-based journalist in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Now it’s time to go visit!
Forget Jamal Khashoggi. Visit Saudi Arabia’s New No-Kill Consula
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But Ted, I’m told (certain) women are now allowed to drive motorcars in the Kingdom, thanks to dear MbS. Don’t you recognise «progress» when you see it ?… 😉
Henri
Women will now receive divorce notifications by SMS.
At least they will not be ghosted.
OOOOOOHHHHH, now do one on Israel.
Riddle me this, if so many people are worried about migrants, how many have actually taken existing homeless (from their own nations) into their homes?
And, at least the news regarding the Saudi’s is in the mainstream now. Of course, that’s due to the Turks aiming for number one Muslim leadership of the ME.
Ever notice how much Turkish programming is on Netflix?
Meanwhile, the Brit’s are running propaganda campaigns against the Chinese and Russians.
Silly Brits, don’t they understand the Chinese bought Hollywood to run their own propaganda boosting China?
Now Hollywood is the Jew, Gay, Chinese triumvirate. And China just ain’t all that Gay-friendly.
Leslie Cheung committed suicide for love, man love and he threw himself off a very high roof. Seems to be the Asian way, jumping off high shit and going splat.
But maybe the Gay part of his suicide made news way back when because it was in Hong Kong and not Beijing.
And to think a few years ago it was Saudi money pumped into film making.
Oh, if I had a really hot chick I would definitely throw the burka on her. Hide her from the drooling competition.
Saudi’s got one thing right.
Wonder if their chicks get tramp stamps?
Rall, Kashoggi merits a Saudi toon and the following did not?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/saudi-arabia-seeks-unprecedented-death-penalty-woman-activist-n902771
Saudi Arabia seeks ‘unprecedented’ beheading for woman activist
The accusations against a group Israa al-Ghomgham is part of include chanting slogans hostile to the regime and attempting to inflame public opinion.
…
“None of the charges against Israa al-Ghomgham are for violent acts, according to Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia researcher Hiba Zayadin.”
…
Going after the low hanging fruit and MONTHS too late. Rall, give up the Trump pnadering and set your sights a tad higher. Like getting stuff as it happens.
For example that little Black girl who was supposedly gunned down by Trump supporting white guys but was really shot by Black guys. And the mother knew but still made a false police report.
Where is the fucking outrage that the MSM is allowed to manipulate the narrative but when wrong not held accountable?
How stupid do you have to be to kill someone in your own consulate?
Take a tip from pros – kill them in their own home, in someone else’s country, then dump the body unceremoniously into the ocean and brag about it in public! Or “accidentally” shell the hotel reporters are staying at. (Wasn’t that Afghanistan? Why can’t I find a reference on the webz? I suspect foul play. Hello, NSA! )
If a top official says something you don’t like in print, and he’s too visible to kill off, then out his wife as a CIA agent!
Call facts “fake news” and the faithful will eat it up anyway.
Or, simply buy up all the media and use it to promote your agenda all while claiming to support freedom of the press.
I hear ya, CH.
“Take a tip from pros – kill them in their own home”
That would be Osama bin Laden.
“Or “accidentally” shell the hotel reporters are staying at.”
The US bombed Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul during the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, and attacked the media outlet multiple times during the 2003 Iraq invasion, including the killing of Ayoub, despite the fact that Al Jazeera supplied the Pentagon with their headquarter’s coordinates in Baghdad in February 2003.
“then out his wife as a CIA agent!”
That would be Valerie Plame as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer in 2003.
The scandal led to a criminal investigation; no one was charged for the leak itself. Scooter Libby was convicted of lying to investigators.
His prison sentence was ultimately commuted by President Bush, and he was pardoned by President Trump in 2018.
Mostly right – except I remember something about US troops accidentally shelling a hotel where reporters were staying.
In my mind it was called “The Republican Hotel” – but I might be wrong, it’s a long time ago in American History years.
I think Ted wrote about it in one of his books (?)
“I remember something about US troops accidentally shelling a hotel where reporters were staying.”
On the same day Ayoub was killed a US tank shelled the Palestine Hotel, home and office to more than 100 unembedded international journalists operating in Baghdad at the time. The shell smashed into the Reuters office, killing two cameramen, Reuters’ Taras Protsyuk and Jose Couso of Spain’s Telecinco. That day there was also an attack on an Abu Dhabi TV office by US forces.
https://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/04/2013481202781452.html
Palestine Hotel and Iraq! No wonder I couldn’t find it.
Ten points Glenn.
Ted,
When I went to edit my comment, the system told me it had been marked as Spam. I mean, really.
Comment follows:
Henri brings up the Saudi women who can drive. This reminds me of the Saudi women who “participated” in the Olympics in full burqa, IIRC. Imagine trying to win at judo in a body stocking that goes from the top of your head to your toes. Imagine trying to swim in something that makes you look like you’d been rolled up in a carpet and tossed off a bridge into the incoming tide.
Here’s how the U.S. media reported it: A step forward in the Saudi kingdom as women are allowed to compete in the Olympics.
Here’s how a small subset of the U.S. media that didn’t have its David Muir-sized head up its David Muir-sized ass reported it: The minimum number of women necessary for the Saudis to be permitted to compete in the Olympics participated in two events, thus allowing the Saudi men to participate. This was not a sign of liberation or equality but rather a sign of how the Saudis understand how to loosen things just enough to get what they want.
Ted mentioned all this a while back during a reading at The Strand: In Afghanistan, no one over the age of 15 is left who is naive. All those people have been killed by the wars. What’s left are the sharpest, cunningest, canniest, trickiest people you’ve ever met. And the idea that the U.S. government is going to be able to pull a fast one on them is simply impossible to support. Theirs is a culture of haggling and negotiation. The idea that people who look for the sticker price on an object and then feel uncomfortable about negotiating a sale are going to, somehow, do better at a game the other side has played for thousands of years?
Basically, the Saudis, the Afghans, the Iraqis, the Jews, the Egyptians, etc., are all in a different system from the West. They know all the rules, and we can’t beat them at that game. Go on, name any Middle East adventure the U.S. has gotten involved in that turned out to be an unqualified victory. Our “friends” Israel? Who maintain their standard of living in large part due to our taxes being shunted directly to them at the tune of, what is it, $2 billion a year?
The correct U.S. policy in the Middle East is best taken from what Harlan Ellison said on the subject: put a huge dome around the region (or parts of it), dump in all the guns and bazookas and bombs you can, and just leave the whole thing alone for 50 years. At the end of that time, lift off the dome, and, if necessary, repeat.
We can’t win in any game we try to muscle in on in the Middle East. Far better to have spent the money and lives on developing fusion and solar energy so that we can just tell them all to go ahead and murder each other in their petty tribal squabbles.