Oily Pundits

As President Bush leaves for Riyadh to mark the 75th anniversary of US-Saudi relations, there is for a change something other than terrorism on his mind:


Bush is going to ask the Saudis to do what they can to stabilize oil prices, which to some extent at least, the Saudis can help do by increasing production.

He could be asking the impossible, since the market may be out of control as world demand has surged and speculators are jacking up the market. (Does it remind you of the last couple years of housing price insanity before that bubble burst?)

But Bush's request is not unreasonable because the Saudis have plenty of reason to try to control the market, and oil man Bush knows it. But that doesn't stop the oily pundits from spouting off:

John [sic] Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a caveat of a different sort, warning that the US president should not be too hopeful about winning Saudi cooperation.

"In past years, the Saudis have really put themselves out to help American presidents," Alterman said, adding that "they're not really going to put themselves out to help this president."

Washington, he said, will be hampered by the legacy of its massive missteps in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe over the past few years.

"There is suddenly a need to hedge against US incompetence. That changes the whole way these meetings go, and it changes what happens when the US president says I really need you to do this," Alterman said. (AFP)

The "massive missteps in Iraq" have had many downsides, but it hasn't been particularly detrimental t the Saudis. Bush's boldness in taking on Saddam (yeah, second guess that; I don't blame you) kept the oil markets stable to the Saudi's great benefit.

Plus, our presence in Iraq has probably contained Iran. Who knows where the mad Shi'a mullahs would be if there weren't US troops on their border. Another big favor at Bush's (and our) expense.

Then this: "There is suddenly a need to hedge against US incompetence." I really don't have any idea what Alterman is trying to say here. There is no reason to hedge against Bush any more; he's in his last months and won't be doing much. Besides, even if you say Bush is incompetent, what has that incompetence cost the Saudis? $115-a-barrel oil? It could be worse, eh?

So whose incompetence is Alterman talking about? Obama's? That's credible, but I get the sense he's got an agenda and that's not at all what he means.

Will The Girl of Qatif Reform Saudi Justice?

The Girl of Qatif -- the Saudi gang-rape victim who was sentence to jail and 200 lashes by Saudi Arabia's Islamic Sharia courts -- may bring about some liberalization of the nation's judicial system. (This photo reportedly shows what 50 lashes looks like after 20 days.)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, speaking to AP in Annapolis, said the case would be reviewed by the Saudi judiciary before it moves on to the nation's highest court, in what may be a challenge to the Wahhabi judiciary.

Saudi writer Sultan al-Qahtani said Saud's comment might be the "strongest message yet" from the kingdom's leadership that the judiciary must reform. The international pressure over the case could provide momentum to legal reform efforts pushed by Saudi King Abdullah.

"The controversy over the Girl of Qatif sentence might lead to a strong push for the government, which is inclined toward reform, to confront the other elements that insist the kingdom maintain its extreme religiosity," he wrote this week on liberal Saudi Web Site Elaph.

Liberal Saudi Web site? Hmmm. Oxymoronic, eh?

The AP story did include something I hadn't seen before: The perps didn't just rape the woman, they raped the man, as well! For this, they got between two and nine years in prison -- in a country that previously has beheaded gays with gay abandon.

This underscores the arbitrariness of the Saudi judicial system, where there is no code of justice, just the individual interpretation of Wahhabi clerics. Here are some examples cited by AP:

In recent cases, ... three teenagers were beheaded for attacking a gas station and injuring a worker while a government employee who received thousands of riyals as a bribe was only sentenced eight months in prison. A group of men received 12 years in prison for sexual harassment, compared to the shorter sentences for the Girl of Qatif rapists.

This is the Sharia system Islamic activists are so enamored with; the system the many Muslims would love to impose on Europe and America. Of course, that's a simple proposition to deal with: Over our dead bodies, Mohammed.

The Religion Of Compassion

What is it? Stupidity? Brainwashing? Blind faith with the emphasis very much on blind?

When Western women convert to Islam, women like Yvonne Ridley, we often hear them say it is in part because Islam is so wonderful for them; as Ridley put it, the Koran is a Magna Carta for women. How do these poor lost sheep jibe that thinking with this:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - The Saudi judiciary on Tuesday defended a court verdict that sentenced a 19-year-old victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was with an unrelated male when they were attacked.

The Shiite Muslim woman had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicted of violating Saudi Arabia's rigid Islamic law requiring segregation of the sexes. [Is Saudi as sectist as it is sexist? Would her punishment have been as harsh if she were a Sunni?]

But in considering her appeal of the verdict, the Saudi General Court increased the punishment. ... The ministry implied the victim's sentence was increased because she spoke out to the press.

One would think that being gang-raped would be punishment enough for the woman, but the courts were comfortable with reminding her that her religious sin was worthy of three months in jail and 100 brutal lashes, and her political sin of talking to the media was worthy of another three months and another 100 lashes.

So what do the women of Islam learn from this? They have no rights, they will receive no compassion, and they'd best not complain about their conditions.

Ever mindful of our complex and necessary relationship with the corrupt and vile House of Faud, our official reaction was muted. The State Department said the decision "causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment."

I much preferred Canada's reaction: "Barbaric."

G6, Boy.Z, XBoys Strike ... In Jeddah?

Praise the Internet, cell phones and television, for they are breaking the Islamists' claw-hold on the minds of the next generation of Saudis. Via Reuters, this from Osama bin Laden's Saudi hometown of Jeddah:

Using spray paint cans, they defaced public property, insulted the police and complained that youths didn't have a voice in Saudi Arabia.

Dozens of young Saudis in the coastal city of Jeddah have challenged the authorities with street graffiti which has highlighted a growing generation gap in one of the world's most socially conservative countries.

Powerful clerics still enforce a strict code of public morals in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where more than 60 percent of the population is under 21.

But today, Saudi youths are growing up in an era shaped by the Internet, mobile phones and satellite television in a marked break from the sheltered upbringings of their parents.

Signed by gang members using names like G6, Boy.Z and XBoys and styled on the gaudy graffiti in big U.S. and European cities, images began appearing two years ago on traffic circles and walls, enraging local residents who valued civic pride.

The graffiti grows out of complaints you would expect from teens in Saudi Arabia. Girls want to drive and be able to play sports outside. Boys want to be able to hang out at malls, which are open to families only.

This is hardly jihad-fodder. These are kids who would gladly embrace a more liberal Islam, so here I am again somewhat conflicted: The downward drag of media and modern society that troubles me when I see it in America elates me when I see it behind the Islamic curtain.

I guess that's the sort of flexibility that ironically comes with conservatism but is lacking in the supposedly more open-minded liberal belief system.

Anyway, let's start shipping spray paint to other Saudi cities.

Allah Knows Best: Off With Her Head!

Rizana Nafeek is a 19-year-old girl from Sri Lanka who was hired by a well to do Saudi family to be a nanny. While she was bottle-feeding the baby, it started choking. Untrained and in a foreign land, Nafeek did all she could, but it wasn't enough. The baby died.

And now, so will Nafeek. Off with her head! Literally:

If her appeal is turned down, she will be taken to a public square to be publicly beheaded.

The Sri Lankan government says it is working for a reprieve, and has until Monday to file the plea. A last-minute pardon by the infant's parents could also spare her. But if her execution goes ahead, it will be the latest in a surge of beheadings that could surpass the kingdom's record of 191 in 2005. (source)

There's a good reason for the beheadings, says Suhaila Hammad: "Allah, our creator, knows best what's good for his people."

"Allah, I have a terrible headache."

"Hmmm. A headache? I believe I know what's good for you."

As in:

Beheadings are carried out with a sword, with police holding back spectators and making sure no one takes photos. Prisoners, usually sedated, are made to kneel, flanked by clerics and law enforcement officials and facing the victim's family.

"The prisoner now recites verses from the Quran while a government official reads the charges and the verdict," according to an account in Arab New, a Saudi daily. "Halfway through the reading the executioner suddenly nicks the back of the prisoner's neck with his sword, causing him to tense and raise his head involuntarily."

Then, in one swift move, the prisoner is decapitated.

"See, my child? No more headache."

Hammad's' got one of the easiest jobs this of Alpha Centuri: head of Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights. Talk about a job that demands little more than the ability to make paper clip chains!

Nothing could be easier than handling human rights for Saudi Arabia, the country responsible for the crushing of human rights not just within its borders, but throughout the world through its global network of Wahhabi jihad-preaching mosques.

If Nafeek is beheaded for desperately trying to save a baby in her care, while the rich princes countinue to feed jihad, and Allah is pleased by all this, then he is one sick god seeing over one sick religion.

A Shi'a-Sunni Summit Of Sorts

Mah- "I'm in the moud for surviving" Ahmadinejad (rhymes with "These Sunnis aren't that bad ... taste like chicken") is on his first official trip to Saudi Arabia, meeting King Abdullah at the airport (right).

So the top proponent of the spread of Shi'a Islam is meeting with the top proponent of the spread of Sunni Islam. They hate each others' guts, but they're all smiles for the camera.

The main focus of the talks is Iraq. Haaretz:

A Saudi official said earlier the Sunni Muslim kingdom would seek Shi'ite Iran's help to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq erupting into full-blown civil war.

"The two parties have agreed to stop any attempt aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the region," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters without elaborating.

The government-controlled Saudi Gazette said the Saudi Gazette the two countries need to address the challenge of how to unite the Islamic world, "which is in danger of fragmenting because of sectarian tensions."

Al Jazeera reports that both Saudi and Iranian sources say the talks will cover Iran's nuclear program, with Saudi Arabia pushing for Tehran to conform with UN resolutons.

The surge is beginning to limit the chaos cased by external Sunni and Shia forces in Iraq. A bit of dialog is progressing between the US and Iran. A new, tougher set of sanctions is in the works. The Saudis are trying to talk sense to the madman from Tehran ... all positive moves and steps away from the brink.

But if the end result is a united Islam, what does that mean for us? It is always better for our enemies to kill each other than to focus jointly on us. So what are we to hope for from these talks? We want a more isolated, more vulnerable Iran, so do we hope that Ahmadinejad slips and calls the king an infidel? Or do we hope the talks will lead to a more peaceful Iran?

All the calls in the Middle East are tough calls.