Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on August 13, 2013
Saudi prince defects: ‘Brutality, oppression as govt scared of Arab revolts’
Saudi Arabia, a major supporter of opposition forces in Syria, has increased crackdown on its own dissenters, with 30,000 activists reportedly in jail. In an exclusive interview to RT a Saudi prince defector explained what the monarchy fears most.
“Saudi Arabia has stepped up arrests and trials of peaceful dissidents, and responded with force to demonstrations by citizens,” Human Rights Watch begins the country’s profile on its website.
Political parties are banned in Saudi Arabia and human rights groups willing to function legally have to go no further than investigating things like corruption or inadequate services. Campaigning for political freedoms is outlawed.
One of such groups, which failed to get its license from the government, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was cited by AFP as saying the kingdom was holding around 30,000 political prisoners.
Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Farhan Al-Saud, who spoke to RT from Dusseldorf, Germany, confirmed reports of increased prosecution of anti-government activists and said that it’s exactly what forced him to defect from his family. He accused the monarchy of corruption and silencing all voices of dissent and explained how the Saudi mechanism for suppression functioned.
“There is no independent judiciary, as both police and the prosecutor’s office are accountable to the Interior Ministry. This ministry’s officials investigate ‘crimes’ (they call them crimes), related to freedom of speech. So they fabricate evidence, don’t allow people to have attorneys”, the prince told RT Arabic. “Even if a court rules to release such a ‘criminal’, the Ministry of Interior keeps him in prison, even though there is a court order to release him. There have even been killings! Killings! And as for the external opposition, Saudi intelligence forces find these people abroad! There is no safety inside or outside the country.”
Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-Saud
The strong wave of oppression is in response to the anti-government forces having grown ever more active. A new opposition group called Saudi Million and claiming independence from any political party was founded in late July. The Saudi youths which mostly constitute the movement say they demand the release of political prisoners and vow to hold regular demonstrations, announcing their dates and locations via Facebook and electronic newspapers.
Human rights violations are driving people on to the streets despite the fear of arrest, according to activist Hala Al-Dosari, who spoke to RT from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We have issues related to political and civil rights, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. These are the main issues that cause a lot of people to be at risk for just voicing out their opinions or trying to form associations, demonstrate or protest, which is banned by the government.”
The loudest voice of the Saudi opposition at the moment is a person called ‘Saudi Assange’. His Twitter name is @Mujtahidd, he keeps his identity and whereabouts secret and is prolific in online criticism of the ruling family, which has gained him over a million followers.
“The regime can destroy your credibility easily and deter people from dealing with you if your identity is public,” Mujtahid wrote to RT’s Lindsay France in an email.
Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-Saud announced his defection from the Saudi Arabian royal family on July 27.
“They don’t think about anything but their personal benefits and do not care for the country’s and people’s interests, or even national security,” his statement reads as cited by the website of Tehran-based Al Alam International News Channel.
The prince criticized the royal family for silencing all voices calling for reforms and said he learned of the common Saudis’ sufferings having gone through “horrible personal experience,” without specifying exactly what it was.
The Twitter activist’s anonymity is understandable. The most recent example of what can happen to activists is the case of Raif Badawi, the founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, who was found guilty of insulting Islam through his online forum and sentenced the activist to 600 lashes and seven years in prison.
In June, seven people were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for ‘inciting protests’ via Facebook. The indicted denied charges and said they were tortured into confession.
“The government is obviously scared of the Arab revolutions. And they’ve responded as they usually do: by resorting to oppression, violence, arbitrary law, and arrest,” Prince Khaled says, adding that so far the tougher the measures the government took to suppress the dissent, the louder that dissent’s voice was.
“The opposition used to demand wider people’s representation in governing bodies, more rights and freedoms. But the authorities reacted with violence and persecution, instead of a dialogue. So the opposition raised the bar. It demanded constitutional monarchy, similar to what they have in the UK, for example. And the Saudi regime responded with more violence. So now the bar is even higher. Now the opposition wants this regime gone.”
There was a time, at the beginning of the Arab Spring movement in the region in 2011, when the government tried to appease opposition activists by a $60 billion handout program by King Abdullah, according to Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for the Asia Times. He calls that move an attempt to “bribe” the population. However there was also a stick with this carrot.
“The stick is against the Shiite minority – roughly 10 percent of Saudi Arabia – who live in the Eastern province where most of the oil is, by the way. They don’t want to bring down the House of Saud essentially. They want more participation, judiciary not answering to religious powers and basically more democratic freedoms. This is not going to happen in Saudi Arabia. Period. Nor in the other Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] petro-monarchies”.
Escobar points out the hypocrisy of the Saudi Arabian rulers, who feel free to advise other regional powers on how to move towards democracy, despite their poor human rights record.
“They say to the Americans that they are intervening in Syria for a more democratic post-Assad Syria and inside Saudi Arabia it’s the Sunni-Shiite divide. They go against 10 percent of their own population.”
‘Buying favors from West’
Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on opposition has been strongly condemned by human rights organizations, but not by Western governments, which usually claim sensitivity to such issues.
“The White House certainly does maintain a long-standing alliance with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, cemented by common political, economic and military interests in the Middle East,” said Prince Khaled.
Germany came under fierce criticism last week over its arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, which have almost tripled in just two years, from 570 million euro in 2011 to almost one-and-a-half billion in 2012.
And Angela Merkel’s government has approved weapons exports of more than 800 million euro in the first half of this year – suggesting the level will continue to grow.
“With arms they [Gulf States] are also buying favors from the West. They are insuring the maintenance of their legitimacy on spending massive amounts of money that are pouring into Western economies,” Dr. Ahmed Badawi, co-executive director of Transform, which studies conflicts and political developments, told RT.
In 2012, Amnesty International claimed that German-made small firearms, ammunition and military vehicles were commonly used by Middle Eastern and North African regimes to suppress peaceful demonstrations.
“Small arms are becoming real weapons of mass destruction in the world now. There is absolutely no way to guarantee that the weapons that are being sold legally to countries like Saudi Arabia, even Egypt, do not fall into the hands of terrorists. The two important examples are German assault rifles found in the regions in Mexico and also in Libya. And there’s absolutely no way of knowing how these weapons ended up there,” Badawi said.
10 Comments on "Saudi prince defects: ‘Brutality, oppression as govt scared of Arab revolts’"
BillT on Tue, 13th Aug 2013 11:42 am
As the ME breaks down, the West is printing money like mad to keep it’s own citizens from revolting. Japan is leading the printing frenzy. Europe is bailed out/propped up by the US Fed to the tune of trillions of dollars to try to accomplish the same thing. China and Russia are working to destroy the dollar as the world’s currency. And Mother Nature is warming up for another mass extinction event. (No pun intended.)
Yet, most people waste their time watching “Dancing with the Stars” or “American Idol”. Reality is far more exciting than any TV show and far more important.
Arthur on Tue, 13th Aug 2013 2:35 pm
Democracy is an outgrowth of **industrial** society and as such has little or no meaning in the essentially tribal societies of the Middle East. In the west you have the haves (‘conservatives’) and the would-be haves (socialists in Europe and liberals in America) and those who want to clean up the rubbish of industrial society (greens). And of course there is the growing group of ‘identitarians’ aka ‘neo-nazis’, those who prefer to be among their own kind and who are not yet really accepted in the crypto-communist west (communist defined as striving for world government under jewish rule/dominance).
In the ME however, society already is organized to a set of rules as defined in the Koran. There were some attempts in the past to reconcile socialism and islam (Ba’ath parties) but that is on it’s way out since the demise of the USSR. Marxism/anti-racism is typically something to be found in post-christian white secularists, but does not fly in Arabia, where everybody has a tribal pride and segregation is the norm, as every temporary Indian oil worker in SA can confirm. Muslims have zero interest in the NWO or being dominated by jews, that’s why they got along nicely with nazis in the past. In other words: democracy in the ME leads to rule of the biggest tribe (see Iraq) and countries with mixed populations (Sunni-Shia) can only be held together by a dictator (Iraq under Saddam and Syria under Assad) plus oppression apparatus if the minority rules. In SA the Sunni majority rules and suppresses the Shia minority. The ruling Saudi class is under fire from two angles:
1) Iran + Shi’ite minority in SA
2) grassroots revolutionary potential from Muslim Brotherhood.
The very fact that the SA rulers are held in the saddle by the US army + dollars, makes the Saudi rulers very nervous because basically it is an alliance with the hated infidel.
The defection of this prince here is a clear sign that the Saudi leadership is under severe internal strain. The support for the ‘rebels’ is based on fear for Iran. But at the same time a rebel victory in Syria would give the MB the chance for overthrowing the SA rulers. What I read into this defection is that this defector has more affinity to his own head than to prolongued membership of the SA elite. In other words, he does not believe that the ‘House of Saud’ has much future and he votes with his feet, obviously under a humanitarian pretext. Calling for democracy, like in Egypt or Algeria, means calling for grass roots Sunni rule, read Muslim Brotherhood. Prince Khaled Bin Farhan Al-Saud thinks (correctly) that that is coming anyway, so he defects, so he can play a prominent role in SA after the MB takeover. This guy essentially is like the Philippe Égalité of the French revolution, an aristocrat, defecting to the Jacobins (he lost his head anyway).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Philippe_II,_Duke_of_Orl%C3%A9ans
Bill says: “Europe is bailed out/propped up by the US Fed to the tune of trillions of dollars to try to accomplish the same thing.”
For the fifth time: ‘Europe’ is not bailed out, European **banks** got 1 trillion (not trillions) from the FED rammed through the throat as another opportunity to cash interest payments on computer money out of thin air till kingdom comes, that is merely 20 days EU GDP. Europe could start printing like the US does, but is does not, because Germany refuses, which is good policy. Austerity is the name of the game here. The US cannot afford austerity, even if it wanted (it does not), because the country would explode along ethnic lines if it tried to cut on the handouts. Don’t worry, it will anyway as soon as the world stops accepting the dollar, unless the government succeeds in imposing martial law and communism, preferably by starting a war if Washington finds the proper opportunity. In the end the US is to be sacrificed by it’s zionised elites in exchange for world government.
Bill says: “As the ME breaks down, the West is printing money like mad to keep it’s own citizens from revolting.”
Old people are not known to revolt. The revolt in the US will come from the minorities (mobs), supported by elite, Wallstreet + media. It is an open question how the whites are going to react, if at all. If they don’t, communism is next in the US with everybody $1500,- per months and renting the previously owned homes from the state for $300,-.
actioncjackson on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 12:18 am
World wide this is a slippery slope. One of these times too many protesters will get killed and mass hordes of people will decide to go Mel Gibson.
BillT on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 12:28 am
Arthur, European banks with branches in the Us WAS and IS the recipient of over a trillion dollars, so far. Do some research outside of history and you will find the references. Not to mention the quadrillion in derivatives that will take down ALL major banks when the Us fails. (When, not if.)
And Germany is also on the brink as is it’s major bank. Wait and see. Herr Merkel is scared to death that something will happen that causes her to lose her job before the ‘elections’ next month. That is why Europe is quiet now. That, and that it is ‘vacation month’ in Europe when little gets done.
GregT on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 4:09 am
The world is perilously close to systemic economic collapse. A major disruption to the flow of Saudi oil could very well be, the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
This latest weapons and ammunition buying spree across the US, is not a good sign that the US population is going to continue to be complacent. People are getting fed up with the government, and they are heavily arming themselves. There are groups emerging country wide, that are willing to fight and die for the US constitution, and they are mostly white.
It’s getting very close to the time, to get out of dodge.
Arthur on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 7:49 am
“People are getting fed up with the government, and they are heavily arming themselves. There are groups emerging country wide, that are willing to fight and die for the US constitution, and they are mostly white.”
I doubt that the majority of US citizens are arming themselves to protect the Constitution, although a sizeable minority indeed does. More likely most of them arm themselves to protect themselves and their families against mobs and looters, not so much the Feds.
“The world is perilously close to systemic economic collapse. A major disruption to the flow of Saudi oil could very well be, the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
It is a guess, but if I were a gambler I would put my money on political trouble in Saudi-Arabia as the initiation point of global geopolitical change. A disruption of flow of oil and gas from the Gulf would hurt Europe more than the US btw.
“Arthur, European banks with branches in the Us WAS and IS the recipient of over a trillion dollars, so far. ”
Nobody denies that. But you make it sound as if the Feds were going door to door to rob US taxpayers from 1 trillion $ just to keep poor weak EU afloat out of a sort of alliance solidarity. That’s not what happened. What happened was that EU banks, with endless faith in the strength of the US economy had bought up 1 trillion worth of US mortgages that turned out to be worthless (‘subprime’ drama). So these EU banks had to write off 1 trillion of assets that weren’t any. Then the Fed stepped in and said: “we are sorry EU banks for your losses, but what we can do is provide you with 1 trillion fresh dollar cash reserves (out of thin air) against a friendly small interest fee until the end of times/US/Fed”.
BillT on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 12:24 pm
Arthur, the trillion plus came from the door to door Americans without their consent. That’s robbery in most courts. The Fed is keeping the European Banks solvent, not Europe. They are two separate things as you will find out someday soon. The banks are all so interwoven that if one goes down, they will all fall. They don’t give a damn about you or what you have in them. It is all a giant ponzi scheme that has run it’s course and is about to end either in a world wide depression or a world war. Wait and see.
Arthur on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 8:18 pm
“Arthur, the trillion plus came from the door to door Americans without their consent.”
If you are saying that the FED collected a trillion from door to door Americans then you are confusing the FED with the IRS. The FED has no money collecting facilities, and it does not have to, as it is the institution that has the monopoly on creation of dollars and can do this to heart content. But I think you are smart enough to know how the FED works. What the FED achieved was injecting another trillion of fiat money into the world money system, against interest. It did not cost ordinary Americans a single penny (apart from slightly increased inflation). Besides only ‘foreign banks with US-based operations’ got the injections.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-21/thanks-qe-bernanke-has-injected-foreign-banks-over-1-trillion-cash-first-time-ever
actioncjackson on Wed, 14th Aug 2013 9:35 pm
What I don’t understand is why the bailouts of 08′ were paid for with tax payer money, but now money is being created out of thin air. Why didn’t they just print money back then to bail out the banks?
Arthur on Thu, 15th Aug 2013 12:10 am
“What I don’t understand is why the bailouts of 08′ were paid for with tax payer money, but now money is being created out of thin air. Why didn’t they just print money back then to bail out the banks?”
The bailouts WERE paid with money created out of thin air by the FED. The lunacy of the situation is that the US government has to add all these trillions acquired from the FED to it’s debt and the tax payer has to pay the interest over that debt (in the old days that was called usury, but that term is now considered antisemitic), because the FED and government are two seperate entities. The FED is NOT a government institution, as it should have been, but owned by a scheming cabal somewhere in candle lit rooms in London. The last one who actively tried to change this insane situation was JFK. Together with his opposition against Israel acquiring nuclear weapons, this was enough for Ben Gurion to decide to waste Hitler admirer JFK. Mossad chief operations Yitzak Rabin then carried out the dirty work in Dallas.