Sabbah Report » Saudi Arabia

Who is Really Behind It? The Implausibility of an Iranian Plot

SR Editor — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:04:37 +0000

By Esam Al-Amin*

On October 11, Attorney General Eric Holder, flanked by the FBI Director and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused the government of Iran, specifically the elite Quds battalion of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), of plotting to assassinate the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S, Adel Al-Jubeir.

So what do we know about this alleged conspiracy? And what are the facts pertinent to this explosive charge?

Manssor Arbab Arbabsiar

1) The alleged conspirator, Mansour Arbabsiar, is a 56 year old naturalized American of Iranian descent. He has been living in several Texas communities since the late 1970s when he arrived to the U.S. as a student. By all accounts, Arbabsiar led a disorderly life marked by constant failure, whether as a student, husband, father, or businessman.

For over two decades the alleged "mastermind" left behind a trail of successive failed businesses, including a used car lot, a restaurant, a convenience store, and a finance company. One of his friends told the Washington Post that he is "a goofy guy who always had a smile on his face."

Arbabsiar was neither an ideologue nor religious. His nickname among his close friends was "Jack" because of his affinity for Jack Daniel's whiskey. Last year, he was arrested for felony possession of a narcotic. According to public documents, his former wife accused him of spousal abuse and filed a protective order against him in 1991.

2) The complaint (so far it is not even an indictment by a grand jury) charges that Arbabsiar allegedly conspired with a high official of the Quds battalion of the IRGC. According to the complaint he was recruited by this official - who is also supposedly his cousin - when he visited Iran earlier this year.

There is plenty of evidence that the Quds Force has been involved in many militant anti-Western operations in Iraq. It has also been publicly supporting the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations in their struggle with Israel. These activities have earned it the label of "supporter of terrorism" by most Western nations, including the U.S.

But according to Robert Baer, a 21-year veteran CIA operative and analyst, the Quds Force is one of the most professional and disciplined (though deadly) organizations in the Middle East. As reported by CNN, the Quds Force "has never been publicly linked to an assassination plot or an attack on U.S. soil."

Baer confirmed this fact when he said that "in its 30-year history of attacking the West, the Quds Force went out of its way never to be caught with a smoking gun in hand. It always used well-vetted proxies, invariably Muslim believers devoted to Khomeini's revolution."

He then questioned whether the plot was genuine by asking, "Why didn't the Iranians use tried and tested Hizbullah networks and keep Iranian nationals, much less unknown Mexican narcos, out of it?"

3) We know from the complaint that the U.S government was actually directing the plot (target, location, method of attack, setting the price of the assassination, bank account information, etc.) Pete Williams, NBC's DOJ correspondent, said that the plot was in fact "a sting operation" directed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the FBI. A recent report published by New York University Law School showed that in the past decade federal agencies have relied heavily on sting operations, not only in drug busts, but also most significantly in dozens of national security cases "that were planned, financed and executed by the FBI."

4) According to the official story, we are to believe that, although the price set for the Saudi Ambassador's assassination by a member of a Mexican drug cartel (who was actually a DEA informant) was $1.5 million, the Iranian handlers expected the assassin to carry it out by advancing him only $100,000 (less than 7 percent of the total amount.)

Moreover, as Baer argued in Time magazine, in three decades of external operations in many countries, the IRGC fingerprints or money transfers were never traced back to Iran, but that Iran has always "enjoyed plausible deniability." Baer further told CNN that, "it would be completely uncharacteristic for Iran to be caught red-handed."

Therefore, such sloppy behavior through traceable money transfers and phone intercepts is simply not credible. It appears to be a deliberate attempt to leave behind as many clues as possible to pin this alleged egregious act on Iran.

5) Another hole in this puzzle concerns the possible motive Iran could have by sponsoring such a provocative act. Strategically, Iran has never been stronger in the region. It has been the greatest beneficiary of the U.S. debacle in Iraq and its difficulty in Afghanistan. Furthermore, despite the successive international sanctions imposed on Iran, its nuclear and other military programs have been progressing at an increasingly steady pace, while asserting a growing and dominant role in the region.

Hillary Mann Leverett, an adviser on Iran in former President George W. Bush's administration, told CNN that this act made no sense, and contradicted Iran's national security strategy. She stated, "There's no benefit; there's no payoff in them pursuing this kind of hit against Adel Al-Jubeir. And it runs contrary to their entire national security strategy."

If Iran wanted to punish Saudi Arabia it had a plenty of targets in the region, including in Saudi Arabia itself, Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Persian Gulf region in general. If it wanted to target a diplomat, the worst choice would be on U.S. soil where such an act would be easily uncovered and would not go unpunished. It is not clear why Iran would even target a small functionary of the Saudi diplomatic core. Al-Jubeir is neither royalty nor a significant player in Saudi Arabia's foreign policy.

Since at least 2003, the Iranian national security strategy has been to de-escalate regional tensions and avoid any confrontation with the U.S. or its regional allies, especially Saudi Arabia. It has been in the middle of unprecedented build-up of its military power, especially its navy, nuclear power, and long-range missile programs. Experts believe that it needs at least five more quiet years to finish this phase of its build-up.

6) Ironically, in 2004 the U.S. uncovered an alleged assassination plot by another U.S. national against King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia himself, not his ambassador. In that plot, the U.S. asserted that it confiscated more than $340,000 payoff from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddhafi for the killing of the Saudi monarch.

The Bush and Blair administrations, which were in bed with Gaddhafi at the time, negotiating the surrender of his nuclear programs, did not threaten or impose any sanctions on the former Libyan regime because of the plot. Although the U.S. sentenced the alleged U.S. conspirator to 23 years in prison, the Saudi king pardoned the alleged assassin who was arrested in Saudi Arabia.

However, this time the reaction by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia was not only swift and harsh, but threatening and escalating.

7) Since the inception of the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia has been very nervous. It has sent its army to Bahrain to crack down on the popular protests, while bribing its citizens and inviting the monarchs of Jordan and Morocco to join the GCC alliance in order to halt any movements in these countries towards a constitutional monarchy.

Meanwhile, throughout this year the Saudi media has been relentless in its attacks against Iran, presenting it as a "Shi'a" nation and a "Persian" power set on taking over the Arab Sunni countries in the region. It is an old tactic used by authoritarian regimes to focus the public's attention on an external enemy to deflect from the popular demands for democracy and civil rights and against repression and corruption as demonstrated by the Arab uprisings throughout the region. This alleged plot plays into the hands of those who want to escalate the confrontation with Iran inside Saudi Arabia.

8) But the clear winners of any escalation with Iran are those who want to attack Iran militarily in the region, namely Israel and Saudi Arabia. In one of the Wikileaks documents released recently, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia cabled back to the State Department that King Abdullah wanted a U.S-led military confrontation with Iran. He said that the Saudi monarch wanted to "cut the head of the snake" in the region.

Moreover, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who resigned a year ago, described the current Israeli government as "dangerous and irresponsible." Last spring he told the Israeli Haaretz newspaper that Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would attack Iran and that doing so would be "the stupidest thing." When asked about what would happen in the aftermath of an Israeli attack, Dagan, said that: "It will be followed by a war with Iran. It is the kind of thing where we know how it starts, but not how it will end."

According to The Forward, twelve of the eighteen living ex-chiefs of Israel's two security agencies (Mossad and Shin Bet), have been opposing an open war with Iran and are "either actively opposing Netanyahu's stances or have spoken out against them."

So the trick for the right wing Israeli government has been how to drag the U.S. into this war and make it an American-Iranian confrontation rather than an Israeli-Iranian conflict.

To sum up, this alleged plot actually raises more questions than it answers. It's supposedly led by a "goofy", unsuccessful U.S-Iranian dual citizen, who is neither religious nor ideological; manipulated by an informant of a U.S. law enforcement agency fronting as an assassin for a Mexican drug cartel; recruited without vetting by one of the most elite and disciplined organizations in the world, while paying only 7 percent of the contract to assassinate the ambassador to a country (Saudi Arabia) with which Iran is trying to have a good relationship, in a country (the U.S) with which it is trying to avoid any confrontation, while leaving money transfers, telephone intercepts, and clues behind.

If this sounds illogical, then who is behind this amateurish plot?

It is unlikely that there are so-called rouge elements within the IRGC that want to drag the U.S. into a confrontation with Iran. That would amount to virtual suicide within the Iranian establishment. There is no history of such behavior even when the country was militarily much weaker and politically unstable.

Thus, to best answer the question is to identify those who would benefit the most from a confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. Clearly those who have the most to gain from such a clash are Israel and the Iranian opposition, particularly the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).

While the former seeks to cripple Iran's nuclear program, the later has been in a deadly confrontation with the Islamicly-oriented government for decades, and wants to weaken the regime so it could be toppled. Both entities have tried over the years to sponsor terrorist operations and covert actions within Iran and outside to damage the regime or implicate it in external terrorist acts.

It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that the Israeli Mossad or the MKO were able to recruit an idiot or his cousin or both in a plot that involved assassinating the Saudi Ambassador, while leaving a trove of evidence behind to be found in order to implicate the Iranian government.

But assuming the U.S. was not privy to it, despite the plot being a sting operation, the more important question is then why the U.S. government took the bait and escalated the incident to a dangerous course with uncalculated consequences?

The U.S, Israel, and Saudi Arabia can certainly start a war with a more assertive Iran. But they certainly cannot end it. One only has to look at the recent U.S. adventures on either side of Iran's borders to learn that lesson.

* Esam Al-Amin can be reached at alamin1919@gmail.com

Obama and the Terror Plot Thriller

James M. Wall — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:46:46 +0000

There are so many doubts and questions surrounding the alleged Iranian-sponsored assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador, that for Barack Obama to take a prominent role in announcing the case may prove to be a serious political and diplomatic mistake.

The American public loves intrigue and simplistic narratives, good versus bad. What they don't like is to be lied to in the narrative. We were fooled once by the Iraq-WMDs "mushroom cloud" campaign orchestrated by Bush-Cheney. As a result we are still fighting two seemingly endless wars in the Middle East.

By highlighting a "terror" plot that involved a Mexican drug cartel, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and a highly unstable potential assassin, Obama brought us Bush-Cheney, the Sequel.

As Obama announced the Justice Department action he promised "strong sanctions" against Iran. The Justice case alleges that an Iranian-American, Manssor Arbabsiar, was introduced to a man he thought had a connection to a Mexican drug cartel, very bad guys with assassination skills. Arbabsiar's "contact" to the cartel was, in fact, an undercover US Drug Enforcement official, who was setting up a standard FBI "sting".

The indictment also includes Arbabsiar's cousin Ali Gholam Shakuri, an officer in the Iranian Qods Force. It is that elite army unit that allows the Department of Justice to claim that the plot has ties to the "highest" levels of the Iranian government. Obama said there was evidence that additional connections were made, but they have not been included in the indictment, and may never be, on security grounds.

A "sting" most often targets a major player believed to be a serious threat to American peace and security. Arbabsiar may yet emerge as a serious player, but that is no reason why Barack Obama should be in the White House as the nation's lawyer, announcing the case . He has an Attorney General to perform those duties. Criminal case announcements should be made in the Justice Department, not in the White House.

Instead of waiting for these criminal charges to make their way through the US judicial system, President Obama used a press event in the White House East Room, to address his domestic audience with tough talk about "sanctions" against Iran, a largely meaningless threat since we already have saddled Iran with "sanctions".

Who is this dangerous Iranan-American at the center of this "terror plot thriller"?

The Washington Post spoke with an Arbabsiar friend, Tom Hosseini, a store owner in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hosseini has known Arbabsiar since the late 1970s, when both came to the United States as students. The Post profile on Arbabsiar portrays the alleged assassin as someone who did not appear to be capable of carrying out a sophisticated death plot.

Hosseini wonders how anyone, especially an elite military organization such as Iran's Qods force" the unit the US Department of Justice alleges was running Arbabsiar would be involved with his long time friend.

"It's a puzzle," Hosseini said. "Maybe somebody offered him some money. He doesn't have the brain to say no."

Within the small Iranian American community in this Gulf Coast city, Arbabsiar, 56, was well known and well liked. But he was also renowned for being almost comically absent-minded, perpetually losing keys, cell phones, briefcases, anything that wasn't tied down. He failed at a succession of ventures from used cars to kebabs.

"He was just not organized," said David Tomscha, who once owned a car lot with Arbabsiar.

University of Michigan Middle East scholar and well-informed blogger, Juan Cole, finds the government's case against Arabsiar, "falling down funny".

Under a heading that recalls a movie about public gullibility and a TV show about a less than competent secret agent, Wagging the Dog with Iran's Maxwell Smart, Cole wrote on his Informed Comment blog:

That a monumental screw-up like Arbabsiar could have thought he was a government secret agent is perfectly plausible. I'm sure he thought all kinds of things. But that he was actually one is simply not believable.

OK, Qasim Soleimani, the head of the Qods Brigade special operation forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, may not be a nice man. But he is such a competent man that US officials in Iraq widely believed that he repeatedly outmaneuvered and defeated them there.

The allegation that Soleimani was running a hard-drinking incompetent with no memory and no sense of organization like Arbabsiar on the most delicate and dangerous terrorist mission ever attempted by the Islamic Republic of Iran is falling down funny.

This case has what the Guardian calls "the ring of a far-fetched Hollywood thriller". Even the senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation admitted that "the alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US did not fit with what was known about the methods and practices of the supposed perpetrators, the Al Qods force of the Revolutionary Guards."

MJ Rosenberg has serious reservations about the narrative the Justice Department has outlined. He writes on his blog, Political Correction:

At this point, it is impossible to say how serious the plot was and, more importantly, if it even had anything at all to do with the Iranian government. Are we ready to believe that the cold and calculating people who govern Iran are contracting out assassination plots with Mexican drug traffickers or that they would pick Washington as the best place to attack the Saudi ambassador (knowing that being found responsible for a major explosion in Washington would mean war with the Saudi Arabia and United States)?

This is not to dismiss the plot as phony or contrived. But after the Iraq war experience, it would be awfully stupid of Americans to simply accept without question anything we are told about nefarious Muslim states that must be stopped before a "mushroom cloud" appears over downtown Washington.

The Main Stream Media is an essential co-conspirator to our political leaders in this hyping of "terror" stories. Andrew Kilgore, publisher of The Washington Report, recalled one story that began in 1981, shortly after the start of Ronald Reagan's first term.

Breathless articles about Libyan "hit [assassination] squads" began to occupy the front page of The Washington Post. For three weeks, Post readers—and the U.S. government—were obsessed with these squads, which reportedly originated in the Middle East, had reached Europe, and were currently in Canada, where they were poised to cross into the United States like a swarm of northern killer bees.

Five years later, after Reagan was safely reelected to a second term, the truth emerged. As narrative, the ending fizzled. Kilgore explained:

Manucher Ghorbanifar, a small-time Iranian exile working in Washington for Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence service, confessed in 1986 that he had dreamed up the hit squads. Why? "To hurt Libya, an enemy of Israel."

Why does the American public keep falling for these thrilling, but questionable, tales? The media likes to peddle them and the public needs its circuses.

On the website, Reader Supported News, John Cook goes inside one media operation to demonstrate how this worked around the tenth anniversary of 911.

ABC News president Ben Sherwood. . . . told his staff in a morning conference call to stop reporting news of a potential terror plot timed to the 9/11 anniversary in such a "measured way" and to "turn this into a thriller."

A few days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, government sources raised the alarm that according to a single, uncorroborated source, at least three Al Qaeda operatives had been dispatched to the U.S. to strike Washington, D.C., or New York City on or around the anniversary.

How did the ABC News folks initially treat this information? Like a "news story." They reported it, on the news.

Sherwood is smarter than that. "News stories" are boring! People don't want "news." They want drama! Action! Thrills! Which is why, according to a transcript of Sherwood's morning conference call with ABC News staffers on the eve of the anniversary weekend that a tipster sent us, he told them to sex it up a little. . . .

Sherwood told his news staff to treat the story like a Hollywood movie script, as opposed to a boring old real story involving actual people and things.

Here's how Diane Sawyer breathlessly recounted the story on World News Tonight two nights before the tenth anniversary of 911:

"We are a nation coming together tonight to remember 9/11 ten years ago, and to stand sentry on the new threat that has been leveled against the United States. As the clock runs down to the anniversary on Sunday, police, bomb-sniffing dogs, and National Guard are all out in force in New York and Washington, D.C.

Intelligence officials are poring over the names on flights from abroad, and ABC News has learned new details on this terror threat."

Can you hear that clock ticking? Brian Ross' report that night featured 24-style time-stamp graphics as he counted down the story:

"Thursday night, as the President arrived to address Congress, the FBI and the CIA were in high gear."

To his credit, Ross also included this quote from former counter terrorism official Richard Clarke, though he didn't let it get in the way of the thrills: "So far, we haven't been able to find any evidence in the real world that this report is true."

As we now know, there were no "terror attacks" on the tenth anniversary of 911. But for much of the days preceding this anniversary, ABC had its "thriller", and journalism plunged more deeply into the darkness of entertainment posing as news.

Meanwhile, back in the White House East Room, President Obama proudly announced the opening of a new "terror plot thriller". These are not good days for the Republic.

* James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois. From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine. Jim launched personal blog April 24, 2008.

Saudi Women Drive Again as European Union Offers Support

SR Editor — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:21:44 +0000

by Radhika Marya

More Saudi Arabian women drove their cars in the streets of capital Riyadh Wednesday, continuing a campaign - largely rooted in social media - to push the kingdom into overturning a ban on female drivers. At the same time, one of the European Union's top diplomats sent a long-requested message of support for their campaign.

The drivers were Sara Al-Khalidi, who was accompanied by her mother, and Azza Al-Shamasi, who was accompanied and filmed by blogger Eman Al Nafjan. The group was also filmed by Saudi media group Rotana.

http://youtu.be/4uTTyUpout0

Al Nafjan also filmed another drive on June 17, the original day the Women2Drive movement called for Saudi women with international licenses, or licenses issued by foreign countries, to drive their own cars. According to an email from Change.org Human Rights Editor Benjamin Joffe-Walt, someone later broke the car's glass and left a note in English that said, "Don't drive again, Bitch."

"This could have been a Saudi man or a hired driver worried about losing [his] job," Joffe-Walt says.

A note is placed next to the shattered side-view mirror of a car belonging to Saudi Iman al-Nafjan's family which the family says was put as a warning after she drove in Riyadh on June 22, 2011. Fayez Nureldine / AFP - Getty Images

MSNBC has a photo of a similar note attached to a smashed side mirror. The note appears to say "Plz Do Not Drive" on one side and "biatchhh" on the other. Al Nafjan's family says it was placed as a warning after she was part of the June 22 drive through Riyadh, according to MSNBC. Al Nafjan could not be reached for comment.

The Saudi driving ban on women is not based on any written law, but religious rulings enforced by police have prevented most women - Saudi and foreign - from driving. This has caused Saudi women to rely on live-in drivers or male relatives for transportation, leading to the Women2Drive movement, which began picking up momentum on social media sites around two months ago.

Women did go driving on the designated date of June 17, even though key organizer Manal al-Sherif was arrested and jailed for a few days in May after posting a video of herself driving on YouTube. Some women, like the ones who ventured out Wednesday, are also driving on later dates. According to most reports so far, women stopped by the police have only been briefly detained since they began driving June 17. At least one woman, Twitter user @Maha1410, received a ticket.

Al-Shamasi says she feels the campaign is moving slowly. But Al-Khalidi says she thinks it's starting to move in a big way, adding that she's even heard some positive feedback from the more conservative members of Saudi society.

"It seems that a lot of people are appreciating what's happening," Al-Khalidi says. "We are not against anyone. We are not trying to provoke anyone." She does know of some women who have heard negative feedback, while she herself hasn't received any.

Meanwhile, even Al-Shamasi thinks the campaign might pick up speed. "I think more people are going to drive soon, and we can see that through YouTube," she says.

International Support

Women2Drive continues receiving attention outside Saudi Arabia. The latest message of support comes from Catherine Ashton, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Ashton released a statement describing the women's movement as "courageous."

"The EU supports people who stand up for their right to equal treatment, wherever they are," the statement reads. "The Saudi women who are taking to the road are exercising their right to demand that equality. They are courageous and have the High Representative's support."

The message came after more than 7,000 people signed a Change.org petition asking Ashton for a public declaration of support, and just one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced her support during a news conference.

Source: mashable.com

Arab autocracy: Thank you and goodbye

SR Editor — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:08:06 +0000

For good or ill, change is coming to Egypt and Saudi Arabia soon

THE fate of the Arab world's two most important states lies in the hands of ageing autocrats. Hosni Mubarak, an 82-year-old air-force general who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is widely reported to be grievously ill. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who assumed the throne of the Arabs' richest country five years ago but has run the show for longer, is reckoned to be 86. The grim reaper will bring change in both places soon.

Maybe the old men will manage to control their succession. President Mubarak has been preparing the ground for his son, Gamal, to take over (see special report). King Abdullah's anointed successor, Crown Prince Sultan, one of his 18 surviving brothers, has long been poorly, but there are plenty more where he came from (see article). Decades of repression have ensured that the opposition is quiescent in Egypt and virtually inaudible in Saudi Arabia. But they have also made these countries vulnerable to violent disruption. Transition in autocracies often means instability.

The fate of these two countries matters to the West for two big reasons: energy and security. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been reliable, if flawed, allies. Should they stumble, the West's interests in the region will be imperilled. That is why those regimes need to be encouraged to liberalise their countries' economic and political systems further and turn them into places where change brings hope not fear.

What's wrong with them...

The problem of Arab governance is by no means confined to those big two. In the past few centuries the Arabs, once pre-eminent in a host of skills, from astronomy and algebra to architecture and engineering, have seen their societies stagnate and fester. Though blessed with natural resources, especially the oil that has enriched Arab dynasties and their subservient elites while often leaving the masses in penury, few Arab countries have seen their non-oil economies flourish or their people enjoy the public services or freedoms taken for granted elsewhere.

Of the Arab League's 22 members, not a single one is a stable and fully fledged democracy. Fragile but sophisticated Lebanon may come nearest, despite its lethal rivalries between sect and clan and failure to get a single national army to control all its territory (see article). Post-Saddam Iraq has had genuine multiparty elections but is mired in corruption, violence and sectarian strife. The Palestinians had a fair election in 2006 but the winners, the Islamists of Hamas, were not allowed to govern. A handful of other countries, such as Morocco and Kuwait, have multiparty systems, but monarchs still rule the roost. And where they have given way to republicans, new dynasties, such as Syria's today and Libya's probably tomorrow, still hold sway. Even sub-Saharan Africa has a better record of electoral freedom.

The rulers of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, ancient as they are, have made improvements. Egypt's economy has belatedly begun to grow quite fast. The Saudi king is educating his people, even women-though he still won't let them drive a car. He has spent more than $12 billion creating just one new university near the Red Sea port of Jeddah, while pouring many more billions into ambitious projects, such as high-speed railways, that should benefit everyone. But the closed political systems of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the uncertainties of dynastic power-mongering and the corruption inherent in patronage-ridden autocracies still often leads to plotting at the top and frustration that could spill over into anger at the bottom. That becomes more likely as the internet, mobile phones and easier travel make people far less easy to control.

It would be naive to urge or expect either country to become a full-blooded democracy in a trice. Each could descend into chaos, winding up with a fundamentalist version of Islamist rule that would make the present regimes look cuddly by comparison. Many Egyptians, including reform-minded professionals, fear that the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, the unofficial opposition, would never relinquish power once they had won it at the ballot box. Sensible Saudis know that those who sympathise with their compatriot Osama bin Laden would impose an incomparably nastier regime than the present one, if given the freedom to do so.

All the same, the suppression of Egypt's Muslim Brothers, who have a large following, has been unwise as well as unjust. Thousands of them are in jail; many have been tortured. Leading Brothers repeatedly disavow violence and jihad, insisting that they, like Turkey's mild Islamists, would hold multiparty elections if they ever won power-and would graciously bow out if the voters told them to. Mr Mubarak must seek to draw the Brothers openly into the parliamentary and perhaps even ministerial fold, and test their sincerity, at first by giving them a chance to run local councils. And in the presidential election due next year, all the obstacles that make it nigh-impossible for a relative outsider, such as Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, to compete, should be swept away. As for the Saudis, their king should at least encourage his Allegiance Commission, an inner family body of some 35 princes that is meant to oversee the succession, to skip a generation rather than plod down the geriatric line of the surviving sons of the founding king.

...and what's to be done

Elections, though vital in the end, are not an early panacea. What the Arabs need most, in a hurry, is the rule of law, independent courts, freeish media, women's and workers' rights, a market that is not confined to the ruler's friends, and a professional civil service and education system that are not in hock to the government, whether under a king or a republic. In other words, they need to nurture civil society and robust institutions. The first task of a new Saudi king should be to enact a proper criminal code.

In the Arab lexicon, the concept of justice means more than democracy. In the end, you cannot have the first without the second. But the systems that now prevail in the Arab world provide for neither.

Source: The Economist

Stars’ Photos Removed from Leviev Website as Celebs Seek Distance from Rights Abuser

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:51:40 +0000

After letters from Adalah-NY to Eight Stars, Leviev Removes Celebrity Photos

New York, NY, December 19, 2008 - Following complaints by at least four major Hollywood stars whose photos were posted on Israel diamond mogul Lev Leviev's website, Leviev staff removed the entire celebrity photo section from his website www.leviev.com this week. The photos' removal came after Adalah-NY and Jews Against the Occupation-NYC sent letters to and spoke with representatives for Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie MacDowell, Lucy Liu, Whitney Houston and Sharon Stone, all of whose names and photos, apparently wearing Leviev jewelry, were featured in a Celebrity section of Leviev's website.

After learning of Leviev's involvement in rights abuses in Palestine and Southern Africa, representatives of four of the stars told Adalah-NY that they had contacted Leviev to have the stars' photos removed. Subsequently, on Monday, December 15th, Leviev staff removed the entire Celebrity photo section of the website. Back in October, Oxfam Ambassador Kristin Davis' photo was removed from Leviev's website.

Ethan Heitner from Adalah-NY explained, "We are gratified that these stars have joined UNICEF, Oxfam and a growing list of others who have distanced themselves from Leviev over his companies' settlement construction in violation of international law in Palestine, and rights abuses in Angola and Namibia. Some immediately expressed concern when we explained that Leviev was using their photos to whitewash his unethical business practices. Their actions show that Leviev's wealth and diamonds can't buy impunity."

From December 1st - 15th, Adalah-NY sent letters to and spoke with representatives of eight of the sixteen stars whose photos were featured on www.leviev.com - Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie MacDowell, Lucy Liu, Whitney Houston and Sharon Stone (December 8th screengrabs of their photos on the Leviev website are available on request by emailing info@adalahny.org). Adalah-NY had not yet been able to contact the other celebrities on the site - HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Ginnifer Goodwin, Katharine McPhee, Teri Hatcher, Lauren Graham, Estelle Lefebure, Zara and Dita Von Teese - before all the photos were removed.

In addition to UNICEF and Oxfam's renunciation of Leviev over rights abuses, Leviev was also dropped from the sponsor list of the star-studded Carousel of Hope Ball last October. On top of his companies' construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank in violation of international law, Leviev's companies have been accused of human rights abuses in the diamond trade in Angola and Namibia. In December, the Israeli financial journal Globes published an expose of Leviev's serious rights abuses and failure to fully comply with the Kimberley process in Angola (English translation).

Signaling growing outrage at Leviev's businesses' global rights abuses, on December 12th and 13th human rights advocates in Dubai, London and two West Bank Palestinian villages held protests against his settlement construction. According to Gulf News, the December 12th Dubai protest, unprecedented in the UAE, focused on Leviev's sale of his diamonds through Arif Bin Khadra's Levant jewelry stores in Dubai, despite a commitment by a Dubai official to ban the sale of Leviev's jewellery. In London, on December 13th, rights activists protested outside Leviev's Bond Street store. The British government is under pressure not to rent space for its new Tel Aviv embassy from Leviev. On December 12th in the West Bank, the villages of Bil'in and Jayyous protested the construction by Leviev's companies of settlements and the construction of Israel's wall on those villages' land. Both Bil'in and Jayyous have been devastated by Israel's seizure of at least half the villages' agricultural land for settlement construction, despite hundreds of nonviolent protests.

Adalah-NY will hold yet another protest on Saturday, December 20th at 1:30 PM at Leviev's Madison Avenue store, with participants singing parody holiday carols highlighting Leviev's rights abuses.

Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East
Media Contacts:
Ethan Heitner (347) 651 8853
Lubna Ka'aabneh: (917) 573 2566

Saudi supercomputer

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:56:21 +0000

At last, something worth the money spent:

Saudi supercomputer lures researchers

By Asma Alsharif

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A new science and technology university in Saudi Arabia will house one of the world's largest supercomputers and it is helping lure top researchers to the conservative desert state.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is due to open next year on the Red Sea coast near Jeddah, the most liberal city in a country where religious conservatives have extensive control over society.

Inside the campus, male and female students will be able to mingle freely, contrary to strict gender segregation enforced in most of the country. The university is part of a series of reforms by King Abdullah aiming to open the country up.

"The supercomputer is the cornerstone of this knowledge-based economy that we are seeking," said Majid Al-Ghaslan, in charge of the acquisition, design and development of the "Shaheen" supercomputer.

Named after the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of up to 340 kilometers per hour, Shaheen is expected to reach 222 teraflops, a measure equaling a trillion floating point operations per second, Ghaslan said. This will make it sixth most powerful computer in the world.

Shaheen will be able to simulate the Red Sea environment and model oil fields in three dimensions.

Although Saudi Arabia has immense financial resources as the world's biggest oil exporter, the parameters of school and university education are governed by religious strictures and many subjects are even off-limits for women to study.

The new university will offer research in biosciences and bioengineering, material sciences and engineering, applied mathematics and computational sciences.

With a $10 billion donation to its endowment from King Abdullah, it is able to lure experts from around the globe with the promise of almost unlimited funding for research work.

"KAUST is a remarkable addition to the world's resources in high-end computing," said David Keyes, Chair of the Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Engineering Division, who is moving from Columbia University in the United States.

"The machine that is being purchased here is one of the main attractions to me," he said.

The supercomputer will be used by KAUST and its partners including Cornell University, the University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Texas A&M University.

Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:14:34 +0000

This is just getting out of hand. Ridiculous...

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

The question of how much of her face a woman should cover is a controversial topic in many Muslim societies.

The niqab is more common in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but women in much of the Muslim Middle East wear a headscarf which covers only their hair.

Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd. [Source: BBC]

This is how Saudi ladies will look like from now on :-(

Why don't they enforce full-face cover and kill the issue? What do you call this? Religion and Islam? No Way!

Oh... by the way... anyone knows which eye should be covered? Left of right? (I assumed left because they keep on telling us to do things with our RIGHT thing... Ah... now I'm getting the rule. "Do the Right things with the RIGHT things only." This is where the Human "Rights" came from and here we see it in action.

Long live "One-Eye Veil."

Saudi woman killed for chatting on Facebook

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:56:48 +0000

The latest crime "in the name of social customs and religious rules."

A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged.

The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported.

The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the "strife" the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation.

Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki has emerged as the leading critic of Facebook, claiming the network is corrupting the youth of the nation.

"Facebook is a door to lust and young women and men are spending more on their mobile phones and the Internet than they are spending on food," he said.

The woman was murdered in August but her death was highlighted following Maliki's comments.

Social customs and religious rules oblige women in Saudi Arabia to cover their head and figure with a veil so that men are not distracted by the female form.

Critics also allege that Facebook is an avenue for the promotion of homosexual relations in Saudi Arabia. More than 6,500 people have signed the online petition in a bid to stop the conservative Muslim kingdom following Syria in banning access to the network from local internet servers.

There are estimated to be more than 30,000 Facebook users in the oil-rich kingdom. Many Saudi women use nicknames and post comic images or drawings on their pages instead of photographs. Some Saudi bloggers have dubbed the network "Faceless".

Women users' contact details and email addresses are often pseudonymous. The popularity of sites for singles has broken taboos on people making contact outside family and class connections.

One of the most popular Facebook groups among Saudi Arabian youth is Single and Looking in Saudi Arabia, which has 1,823 members and hosts many sexually explicit images. [Source]

I just hopes this is not "April's Fool", but even if it is, I have no doubt that sooner or later this will happen!

Highest is everything!

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:10:02 +0000

If you thought that Burj Dubai is the end of the "Arabian Dream", you are mistaken.

The new race in the Arab World (to be particular, the Gulf region) is building the highest towers.

Few years ago, Dubai announced that they are going to spend few "Billions" of Dollars to build the highest tower in the world, Burj Dubai, a 818 meter high building.

The tower is in progress and any visitor to Dubai can notice this landmark from anywhere around Dubai.

But that was just the beginning of the race to highest. More proposals are coming to reality!

Kuwait is planing to beat Dubai by building its own "highest tower" in the world, "Mubarak Tower," which is going to be a 1001 meter high. So once this tower is built (God knows how many years) it is going to be the highest tower in the world and is going to washout "Burj Dubai" record.

Of course Dubai doesn't like to be a looser, so they are planing to challenge their own record (Burj Dubai) as well Kuwait's Tower and spend more billions of dollars to take back the for Dubai. New proposals are in action and one of them is to build another tower, "Al Burj." Rumors are saying that it will be as high as 1050-1200 meter. So, Dubai wins again, but between Kuwait and Dubai new plans, Bahrain have a proposal to build something in between, "Murjan Tower," 1022 meter high, and the race goes on...

But wait, this is not the end of the "highest race". Saudi Arabia and it's multi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal is going to join the race through his version of the "highest building". But this one is really impressive.

Mark this...

"Mile High Tower" is the name of the tower which Al-Waleed is intending to build. As the name implies, it is going to be a "MILE HIGH", that is 1600 meter high (which is twice the hight of the yet to be highest tower, Burj Dubai). I say impressive because this number (1600m) is really crazy and will be crazy to compete.

(Click picture to enlarge)

"Mile High", the tallest in the world, will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and no doubt it will beat all the records and hopefully stop the race. For ever! (I wish)

Will Dubai (and others) take a break and spend some of these billions in the development or building something other than towers?

If we have so many "freaks" for height, maybe they should think in spending these billions (or at least some) in building things like the "Space elevator" or something useful other than buildings?!

The first Saudi female soccer team, Congratulation!

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:04:09 +0000

On behalf of the Palestinian soccer fans and the Palestinian National Women Football team, I would like to congratulate the first Saudi female soccer team.

The first soccer match between female teams has taken place in Alkhobbar (Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province). The match was held between two teams of university students. The Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University team defeated their guests, the Al Yamamah College.

Although the match was held at a 35,000 capacity stadium in al-Dammam, no men were allowed in the stadium, and the referee and her linesman, as well as the fans, were also female.

Looks like the tied is changing -slowly- in Saudi Arabia. Few days ago there were news about allowing Saudi females to drive their cars (next day a lady was arrested for driving!), then Saudi Arabia eases rules for women to stay in hotels alone, today they are playing football, that is great and hoping to grant women more rights in Saudi.

[Source: Iqbal Tamimi - Palestinian Mothers]

Silence Day for Fouad Alfarhan

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:13:19 +0000

Today is a 'Blog Silence Day' to protest the imprisonment of Fouad Alfarhan.

Fouad Alfarhan is a Saudi blogger who uses his blog, alfarhan.org, to promote political reform and greater freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. He was forced to stop blogging at the beginning of 2007 after being harassed by government officials, but then resumed writing in July 2007. He was arrested without charge on Tuesday, December 11,2007, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

To learn more about the campaign to free Fouad, please visit the Free Fouad Blog, which has content in both Arabic and English.

Arab in Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:12:50 +0000

It's time of the year for Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007. With all my reservations regarding Reporters Without Borders neutrality (having doubt after knowing that France is their financial supporter, although they are an NGO!), yet, their report was always a good indicator, if not the closest to reality - at least from my experiences as a blogger from the Middle East with all the sorrow and sad stories that I went through and heard of - when it comes to measure the freedom of speech in general and freedom of press in particular.

Every now and then we hear about new rules and regulations around the Arab World that makes it harder for press to speak the 'truth'. Not to mention the censorship applied in many Arab countries such as - but not limited to - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc... worst is to know that this list is getting bigger day by day, but with different terms and means such as the official watchdogs of local authorities to monitor and nail bloggers and detain them, e.g. Egypt cases.

Having said the above, lets look on how do 'Arab States' stand this year, but before this, let's note the leading paragraph of the report:

Bloggers now threatened as much as journalists in traditional media

Doesn't sound good news at all... following that by few paragraphs,

Outside Europe - in which the top 14 countries are located - no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists.

And who are these 14 countries? Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Slovakia, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Latvia, Netherlands and Czech Republic. Congratulations to these leading countries, and shame on the rest!

Note that the Big Brother and the Queen are not in the above list. But anyway, they are better than some others.

Back to Arab States ranking, the story is as expected. Looking at the leading countries from the bottom we find that Somalia, Palestine and Iraq are ranked 159, 158 and 157 respectively. Not surprised by this due to what they are going through with the Israeli occupation from one side and from the USA 'Freedom Operation' on the other side, beside Somalia's 'brothers war', but this is not enough excuse for them to be leading the bottom.

The battle raging between Hamas and Fatah is the main cause of the large number of serious press freedom violations in the Palestinian Territories (158th). Hostage-taking, arrests, physical attacks and ransacking of news organisations - the Palestinian media and the few visiting journalist are threatened from all sides.

In Iraq (157th), what journalists fear most are the armed groups that target them without the authorities ever finding a way to put an end to the litany of violence. More than 200 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Next comes Libya ranked 155, which is not far from Palestine and Iraq, but I guess this country is going through worst that Israeli and USA occupation, so they are excused.

Now comes Syria as rank 154 and they are also excused because the are in "continuous state of war" against God knows who?! (if you know, let me know).

Who's next? Saudi Arabia (148), Egypt (146), Tunisia (145), Yemen (143), Sudan (140). Great mix and match. Rich and educated countries with poor and highly illiterate percentage of the population countries, that if we give Sudan the excuse like their Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian brother and assume that they are in war against 'poverty'!

Algeria (123), Jordan (122), Bahrain (118), Morocco (106) and Lebanon (98). Not really good and can do much better, specially Lebanon. Next comes Qatar (79), United Arab Emirates (65), Kuwait (63) and Mauritania (50), which is the best position that any Arabian country could reach this year, so congratulations to Mauritania for being at least among the top 1/3 of the list!

Some non-European countries have made their first appearance in the top 50. They are Mauritania (50th), which has climbed 88 places since 2004, Uruguay (37th) and Nicaragua (47th).

Wow! Big hand for them.

Quoting the report again and looking at the Big Brother:

There were slightly fewer press freedom violations in the United States (48th) and blogger Josh Wolf was freed after 224 days in prison. But the detention of Al-Jazeeraâ€™s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 13 June 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo and the murder of Chauncey Bailey in Oakland in August mean the United States is still unable to join the lead group.
[...]
We regret all the same that only two G8 members, Canada (18th) and Germany (20th), managed to be among the top 20.

And as a blogger, this is the worst part of the report:

Government repression no longer ignores bloggers

The Internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations. Several countries fell in the ranking this year because of serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.

In Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), for example, bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible. "We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship," Reporters Without Borders said. "More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media."

At least 64 persons are currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country's universities.

Free Kareem!

Complete list in attached image (click to enlarge).

Miss Bahrain, Miss Arab World 2007 and Stereotypes

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:49:39 +0000

I admit I have missed the news when it was announced end of last July, but better late than never.

Honored to be Bahraini by soul for living in Bahrain for the last four years, I am very happy to know that Wafaa Ganahi, a 23-year-old teacher from the Law Faculty of Bahrain University, won the title, while the first runner-up was Miss Egypt Shaimaa Mansour and Miss Lebanon Rula Bahij, 23, was the second runner-up. Out of seventeen women from 15 countries attended the final competition.

On the other hand, what does this contest and these photos tells us other than the general perceptions about such events? Well, for me they mean a lot.

First, let me congratulate Miss Arab World, Miss Bahrain. She deserved it, and this leads me to my first note. As you can see from the attached photos, Miss Bahrain is a veiled lady, which leads to the conclusion that Miss Arab World - as well miss world - does not need to be unveiled to win a beauty contest. At least in beauty standards if you agree with me that veil does not hide beauty. I know that bikini show in such beauty contests is suppose to be a standard event, which probably every male in this universe are looking for :-) but Miss Arab World, and Miss Bahrain broke this rule - if I may consider it as a rule - and won for her beauty, real beauty. Not only that, but she also received official tribute which reflects how open Bahrain is.

Second, I'm not surprised to see some unveiled beauties from the last place one can expect, such as Saudi Arabia. The girl is gorgeous, but I bet that she is on the 'top wanted list' by Saudi religious men now, not for anything related to terrorism, no, but for her unveiled beauty and daring to show up. In my terms, Miss Saudi Arabia won Miss Arab World for her braveness to participate with all what we know about how she was perceived in her home country. Most probably she lives outside Saudi and her dreams to visit her homeland vanished forever.

Third, I'm really surprised and happy to see beauties from other conservative Arab countries such as Miss Yemen and Miss Sudan. They are setting new standards along with Miss Saudi Arabia and breaking all the stereotypes that we hear day and night by the Western media. Yes, behind the Hijab's, Niqab's and Burqa's we have very pretty ladies and we are not ashamed of showing them, in a modest way. A new generation will always fight the taboos for better life.

Last but not least, as a Palestinian, I'm proud to see Miss Palestine participating in this event despite all what Palestinians and the occupied lands are going through day and night by the Israeli terrorist occupation. Unlike Miss Israel, just imagine how many crosscheck she had to pass to reach an Israeli occupied port to be able to travel to Cairo for the event. Even if she lives in Israel, her journey will be under the same rules that govern the travel all Arab and Palestinian from Israel (more humiliating example).

Alright, enough blah blah... back to business, here are some photos I gathered from different sources around the web. In no particular order, take a look at Miss Bahrain, Miss Libya, Miss Saudi Arabia, Miss Lebanon, Miss Tunisia, Miss Egypt, Miss Morocco, Miss Kuwait, Miss Iraq, Miss Jordan, Miss Syria and Miss Algeria.

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

Saudi Arabia: Sex-segregated sidewalks and women’s car driving

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:09:03 +0000

One more brain fart by Saudi Mutaween:

Saudi Arabian religious police call for sex-segregated sidewalks - Saudi Arabia's religious police are insisting that authorities of Medina, one of Islam's holiest cities, should build separate sidewalks for women, the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper said Friday.

The country's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), tasked with enforcing Sharia law, believes men and women should not be allowed to mix on the streets of the Islam's second holiest place, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried.

The clerical police, or Mutaween, are authorized to arrest unrelated men and women caught socializing, anyone suspected of being homosexual or a prostitute, and to enforce Islamic dress codes.

The Mutaween enforce Islamic female dress codes, ordering women to wear headscarves and abayas, long black dresses covering the whole body except for face, hands and feet. Women are not allowed to leave their houses without their husbands or immediate male relatives.

Saudi women are also not allowed to ride a bicycle or drive a car, because if the vehicle breaks down, a woman might have to talk to an unknown male.

The police widely apply corporal punishment, including flogging, to punish suspected offenders.

One of the most widely criticized incidents, involving women rights abuse, occurred on March 11, 2002, when schoolgirls were prevented from escaping a burning school in Mecca, because they were not wearing headscarves and abayas. Fifteen girls died and 50 were injured as a result.

I'm just wondering when will these heavenly angles called "Mutaween" will disappear?!

Did prophet Mohammed ordered to have two sidewalks; one for men, another for women? It's ironic to think of having a 'women sidewalks'... I mean, how will they mark them? Paint them in pink? Maybe black to match black abayas and hope that women walking there will become invisible. For God sake, someone with courage should stop this stupidity and send these Mutaween to some true Islamic pre-school and teach them true/basic Islam rules.

On the other hand, for few weeks now, a group of Saudi women are back in the news with their everlasting "Car Driving" rights. A Saudi writer and human rights activist described it well when she said: "Cats and dogs in the developed world have more rights than Arab women," but to be more accurate she should have said "Cats and dogs in the developed world have more rights than SAUDI ARABIA women," for I belive that women in the Arab world, but Saudi, enjoys most of their rights -and sometimes better rights- than many in the 'developed world'. This lady (or group of ladies) is more interested in driving a car than having the right to breath clean air and live normally. But for them it is "something is better than nothing":

Saudi Women Petitioning Govt for Driving Rights - "We demand that the right of women to drive is given back to us," says the petition. "It's a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom to (utilize) the means of transportation in those times."

The issue has been a matter of heated debate for many years. In 1990 a group of middle class women were arrested when they staged driving protests. The ban comes from a strict interpretation of the woman's need to be with a legal guardian (a mahram) in public. While this is claimed to be another "Islamic" taboo, but the fact it is not:

"Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said previously that it is not a political issue, it is a social one, and that the government does not object (to women driving)."

...which I believe is true. It is not about politics or religion, but a social matter. Therefore, I personally believe that "Saudi Women Rights Movement" (whoever that be) lacks strategic planning to win back women rights in Saudi. Driving a car is one of the rights, however is not the most critical but for these women who can afford to have a car. What about the "right to live normally"? C'mon, you can't even walk freely in the street... Ladies, you have a hell of a job to educate your society to accept you as an "equal" human being. While I agree that you should have the right to drive a car, however, I believe that will bring you more trouble than you wish and will halt any further improvement in winning more rights. What about the new "women sidewalks" that you have to march on? What about education, marriage, traveling, shopping, work, etc...

Is Israel Falling Apart? In Reversal, Israel Praises Saudi Peace Proposal

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:49:50 +0000

Foreign observers of Israel tend to focus so intently on the dangers the country faces from its Arab neighbors that they have largely missed an astonishing story that has been accelerating over the past few months: that of the Jewish stateâ€™s possible move toward internal collapse. If you consider this an exaggeration, just take note of what the past couple of weeks have brought about.

Mr. Wahrman is Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Director of the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the Indiana University History Department (adjunct in English, Jewish Studies, Cultural Studies) writes in more details to answer the question: Is Israel Falling Apart?

[Excerptâ€¦] There certainly has never been such a deep crisis of leadership in the country that touts itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. The leader of the ruling parliamentary coalition, Avigdor Yitzhaki, said so publicly a few days ago. And the Minister of Education has suggested that all schools devote special classes to the â€œgovernment crisisâ€, so that children can speak out about what might well seem to them like a total collapse of all systems that control their lives. Suddenly the Palestinians and the Hizbullah, and even Iranian nukes, have taken a back seat: Israel does indeed seem in danger of imploding from within, at least as a viable democracy.

To add insult to injury, look at the great news coming from Israel these days. In fact I canâ€™t think of how stupid the mainstream media think we are to believe that Israel wants peace. I canâ€™t believe what Iâ€™m hearing these days. The penny drops late for Israeli leaders 5 years after rejecting Saudi Initiative.

[Excerptâ€¦] Five years after the Saudi initiative was rejected by Israel, it has become a costly die on the game board on which Israelâ€™s future is determined, and the countryâ€™s leaders are working hard to hold on to it. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in an interview with Channel 10 last week, said she thought Saudi King Abdullahâ€™s original plan was a positive one; Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a speech at Ben-Gurionâ€™s tomb three months ago, cited the plan as a possible basis for the beginning of regional talks; Minister Meir Sheetrit announced last month that he had proposed that Olmert invite all those involved in the Saudi initiative to begin negotiations on parts of it. These are new tunes.

For those who have forgotten: When the Saudi initiative was first revealed (in Thomas L. Friedmanâ€™s New York Times column of February 17, 2002 and later proposed by Arab League), prime minister Sharon declined to even respond to it. The â€œsophisticatedâ€ excuse was that it had not been officially presented, it was only a proposal brought up in a newspaper.

But donâ€™t hold your breath. The Israelis are not really after solving anyoneâ€™s problem but theirs. In other words, they want the full recognition of Israel and permanent peace with the Arab states, which the Saudi initiative promises, but not that they return for a withdrawal to 1967 boundary lines, the establishment of an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, and â€œan agreed, just solutionâ€ to the refugee issue in accordance with United Nations resolution 194, adopted in 1948!

There you go, â€œit is positive and good basis for conflict resolution,â€ Israelis say, â€œbut donâ€™t talk about 1967 borders, Jerusalem and refugees.â€ Give everything but donâ€™t ask for anything in return. Give me peace (Israel) and go to hell (Palestinians).