On the Nature of Things | Forum

Typhoon wrote:The Saudis executed a peaceful cleric protester?

This is who the US supports?

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Mr. Perfect wrote:

Typhoon wrote:The Saudis executed a peaceful cleric protester?

This is who the US supports?

bush-kisses-saudi-prince-4-15-09.png

obama is the current President, and supports the Saudis as much as anyone ever has.

This may have not made your news feed.

Saudi Arabia's government is ordering its ministries and agencies to review billions of dollars' worth of unfinished infrastructure and economic development projects with a view to shelving or restructuring them, government sources said.

Riyadh's Bureau of Capital and Operational Spending Rationalization, set up last year to make the government more efficient, is compiling a list of projects that are under 25 percent complete, the sources told Reuters.

Many of these projects are relics of a decade-long boom of high oil prices and lavish state spending, which ended when oil began sliding in mid-2014, making it increasingly difficult for Riyadh to find the money needed to complete their construction.

US President Donald Trump could not possibly have predicted the game-changing after-effects of his triumphal sword dance in Riyadh. Or could he?

The fact is the House of Saud went amok, in a flash, going after Qatar and bombing from the inside that glorious Arab NATO project – call it NATOGCC — sworn with pomp over a glowing orb.

An excited Trump tweeted three times his approval for Riyadh going after Doha.

By promoting some voices while preventing others from being heard, the royal [Saudi] court is testing the Saudi public’s reaction to a possible future announcement that the enemy (Israel) of my enemy (Iran) is my friend (Wahhabi-Zionist alliance).

This new geopolitical reality was championed last month by Donald Trump during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel. There, he too singled out Iran as the main instigator of terrorism and instability in the region. He gave King Salman (whom he had damned as a promoter of global Wahhabi terror and hatred just months earlier) a huge bear hug. Then he was symbolically flown on Air Force One from Riyadh to Tel Aviv, the first direct flight between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Trump, of course, did not write the speech he had been prepped to read. Truth be told, he would probably not have understood it if he had been in the audience. During the election campaign, he brazenly admitted that he had absolutely no understanding whatsoever of the difference even between (the Shia, Lebanon-based) Hezbollah and the (Sunni, Gaza-based) Hamas. Not since George W. Bush has the White House been inhabited by such an inarticulate, manipulable President with zero foreign policy experience.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's crown prince declared war on the clerical elite who have long shaped Saudi society.

The man who will be Saudi Arabia's next king, Mohammed bin Salman, did so by delivering an unequivocal message, "We are returning to what we were before, a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world." The crown prince continued, "We will not waste 30 years of our lives wasting time dealing with extremist ideas. We will destroy them today," he said.

A new Saudi anti-corruption body has detained 11 princes, four sitting ministers and dozens of former ministers, media reports say.

The detentions came hours after the new committee, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was formed by royal decree.
Those detained were not named.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Prince Mohammed is moving to consolidate his growing power while spearheading a reform programme.

Typhoon wrote:BBC | Saudi princes among dozens detained in 'anti-corruption' purge

A new Saudi anti-corruption body has detained 11 princes, four sitting ministers and dozens of former ministers, media reports say.

The detentions came hours after the new committee, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was formed by royal decree.
Those detained were not named.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Prince Mohammed is moving to consolidate his growing power while spearheading a reform programme.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Aziz_bin_Fahd

Abdul Aziz bin Fahd (عبدالعزيز بن فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) (16 April 1973 – 6 November 2017) was a Saudi prince and member of the royal House of Saud. It is alleged that he died during a gunfight in November, 2017, resisting arrest

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These days things in Washington resemble Riyadh more than we care to admit. And unlike the Saudis, we don't have Iran's clients flying missiles into our airports. What's our excuse?

Not much really -- just hatred and the lust for power. We're tribal too -- and then some. Indeed, we may be worse. How else to explain what's going on inside our major political institutions -- from Congress to our political parties to the Department of Justice to, needless to say, the FBI? The skullduggery has been endless.

After 30 years in a coma, the real Saudi ‘awakening’ begins now

Each time MBS tried to counter Iranian influence,
he managed to do harm to almost everyone
except Iran.

In Lebanon however, things are already backfiring. The Saudi move had an unexpected result. Whereas Sunnis and Shias in Lebanon have seemed for the last 10 years incapable of sharing common ground on regional alliances, the “kidnapping” of their prime minister at the hands of his own Saudi boss managed to infuriate Hariri’s own community [bold mine-DL].

On Sunday, Hariri’s party even praised Hassan Nasrallah, calling him a “responsible man” who placed above all the country’s “national interest,” a first in more than 10 years.

Mass arrests are the Crown Prince’s opening salvo in a fight against corruption and an embrace of moderate Islam.

Typhoon wrote:.

The Spec | Saudi Arabia has united with Israel against Iran – and a desert storm is brewing

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Mass arrests are the Crown Prince’s opening salvo in a fight against corruption and an embrace of moderate Islam.

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