Tel-Chai Nation

The Atlantic Review presents a very thoughtful topic about how the US - and Europe - seem to prefer oil access to security. What's to follow is very disturbing:

Europe and the US seem to be addicted to oil and unable to pursue their security interests and moral values in regard to Saudi Arabia. US government reports indicate Saudi support for terrorism and the lack of counter-terrorism coopertation. The State Department determined the non-existence of religous freedom in Saudi Arabia and the non-compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking. While countries without any oil were sanctioned for these violations, the Bush administration spared Saudi Arabia. And the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee canceled unexpectedly a hearing on Saudi incitement in U.S. mosques.

That's certainly a good point. They also provide an article from the US Government Accountability Office (in PDF format), here's an excerpt on the Saudi "charity" support for terrorism:

For example, in July 2005, a Treasury official testified before Congress that Saudi Arabia-based and - funded organizations remain a key source for the promotion of ideologies used by terrorists and violent extremists around the world to justify their agenda. In addition, according to State’s 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Saudi donors and unregulated charities have been a major source of financing to extremist and terrorist groups over the past 25 years. In July 2003, a former State Department official testified before Congress that a Saudi-based charity, al Haramain Islamic Foundation, had allegedly financed assistance to the Egyptian terrorist group Gamma al Islamia. In May 2004, the same former State official also testified that some half dozen of the most visible charities, including two of Saudi Arabia’s largest, the International Islamic Relief Organization and the World Muslim League, have been linked to supporting Islamic terrorist organizations globally. In addition, a former Treasury official identified Wa’el Hamza Julaidan as a senior figure in the Saudi charitable community who provided financial and other support to several terrorist groups affiliated with al Qaeda operating primarily in the Balkans. Moreover, the 9/11 Commission report states that al Qaeda raised money in Saudi Arabia directly from individuals and through charities.

Rachel Ehrenfeld at Front Page Mag reports that:

Former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform in April this year that “Some $85-90 billion has been spent from sources in Saudi Arabia in the last 30 years, spreading Wahhabi beliefs throughout the world.” The U.S. National Intelligence Reform Act of December 2004 requires development of a Presidential strategy to confront Islamic extremism, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia. So far, says a September Government Accounting Office (GAO) report, U.S. agencies have been unable to determine the extent of Saudi Arabia’s domestic and international cooperation.

(snip)

Under U.S. pressure, Saudi Arabia declared repeatedly that it would close some charities identified as spreading Wahhabism and funding terrorism. However, the GAO report notes that “in May 2005, ...it was unclear whether the government of Saudi Arabia had implemented its plans.” Despite Saudi promises to establish a new National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad, the GAO said: “as of July 2005, this commission was not yet fully operational.” At least two members of the Saudi government, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman and Minister of Defense Prince Sultan, are sponsors of the Saudi High Commission, which evidence in the 9/11 victims lawsuits shows “has long acted as a fully integrated component of al-Qaeda’s logistical and financial support infrastructure.” Moreover, the lawsuits detail that “the Sept. 11 attacks were a direct, intended and foreseeable product of [the High Commission’s] participation in al-Qaeda’s jihadist campaign.”

And Law.Com reports that this alleged "charity":

cannot be sued for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a federal judge has ruled. Southern District of New York Judge Richard Conway Casey found that the Saudi High Commission was shielded from suit under the act because it presented a prima facie case that it is a foreign sovereign. Because the Saudi High Commission "was formed by order of the Kingdom's governing body, it provides the Kingdom's aid to Bosnia, it is governed by a Saudi official and its employees are civil servants, it is an organ of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Casey wrote in three of the several cases connected to the Sept. 11 attacks that have been consolidated before him by the Panel on Multi-District Litigation under 03 MDL 1570. The court also found that the Saudi High Commission has not waived its sovereign immunity."

This is very grave indeed, that the House of Saud is being granted that kind of immunity.

The Atlantic Review also provides an interesting topic from the Daily Demarche on the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia, plus the State Dept's annual survey of international human slavemongering (in PDF format), which points out that:

Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations.

The Government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Saudi Arabia has moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 because of its lack of progress in anti-trafficking efforts, particularly its failure to protect victims and prosecute those guilty of involuntary servitude.

Criminal cases are adjudicated under Sharia law, and there is no evidence trafficking victims are accorded legal assistance before and during Sharia legal proceedings. The government should consider adopting comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that would punish traffickers, provide for the protection of victims, and facilitate prevention programs. It should also collect and disseminate data on prosecution and mediation efforts, prosecute aggressively cases of physical and sexual abuse using available criminal laws, and increase its efforts to prevent and investigate the trafficking of children for forced begging.

The Boston Globe also cited the U.A.E, Kuwait, and Qatar as violators of the laws against human traficking back in June. And then, the San Francisco Chronicle says that:

Of those 14, Bush concluded that Bolivia, Jamaica, Qatar, Sudan, Togo and the United Arab Emirates had made enough improvements to avoid any cut in U.S. aid or, in the case of countries that get no American financial assistance, the barring of their officials from cultural and educational events, said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman.

Cambodia and Venezuela were not considered to have made similar adequate improvements. But Bush cleared them nonetheless to receive limited assistance, for such things as combatting trafficking. In the case of Venezuela — which has had a tense relationship with the United States under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy — Bush also allowed funding for strengthening the political party system and supporting electoral observation.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Kuwait — another U.S. ally in the Middle East — were given a complete pass on any sanctions, Jordan said. Despite periodic differences, oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United States have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation.

That left Myanmar, Cuba and North Korea as the only nations in the list of 14 barred completely from receiving certain kinds of foreign aid.

So it looks like Dubya's administration has still failed, apparently wishing to maintain their oh-so precious oil interests with Saudi Arabia, to take any genuine steps to clamp down on their shady dealings in slavemongering and oppression of women.

And now for an important observation: is there not oil and gasoline that may be found in places like Texas and Alaska? And what about South America and Australia? Don't they have oil too?

Most ludicrous is how the US and other such countries pay truckloads of our tax dollars to this overlord of dictatorial countries that is Saudi Arabia, when here, they could save quite a lot of it by just drilling for the stuff right on their home turf. An argument must be made that it's high time to stop all this overspending on oil from a country that's really hostile to even US interests and start getting oil from where it's available in much more confortable quarters - right on the US's front doorstep.

While we're on the subject, here's The Counterterrorism Blog's entry on the witnesses to take part in the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation of Saudi hatemongering in the US:

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, has announced the witness list for its hearing titled, "Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror?" on Tuesday, November 8, on the role of the Saudis in disseminating anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda thoughout Islamic schools and mosques in the U.S. The first panel will consist of Daniel Glaser and Alan Misenheimer, senior officials from the Treasury and State Department, respectively. The second panel will consist of Anthony Cordesman of CSIS; Nina Shea of the Center for Religious Freedom; Steven Emerson; and Gulam Bakali of the Islamic Association of North Texas.

I look forward to this, since it's about time already that the Saudi problem be confronted.

Others on the subject include GM's Corner, Americans for Freedom.

Labels: House of Saud, political corruption, United States, White House