No kidding: US military support for foreign governments encourages terrorist groups to attack Americans, demonstrates a new study from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Essex. Terrorist attacks on Americans are more likely to come from countries where the US provides military aid, stations troops and sells arms finds…
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
So much for that grand “coalition” for Libya invasion
Welcome to the world of Western foreign policy; only certain kinds of repression are troubling. Pepe Escobar in Asia Times: You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the…
American firms happy to assist with Arab dictatorships
Middle East brutality brought to you by good old capitalism: As Middle East regimes try to stifle dissent by censoring the Internet, the U.S. faces an uncomfortable reality: American companies provide much of the technology used to block websites. McAfee Inc., acquired last month by Intel Corp., has provided content-filtering software used by Internet-service providers…
Serbia 1999 vs Libya 2011
Leading Australian academic Scott Burchill has some thoughts about Libya: 1. Military intervention like this can make the humanitarian crisis worse, as it did in Serbia in 1999. Milosevich’s attacks on Kosovars only escalated after NATO’s bombing campaign begun. So even though the West controls the skies over Libya, expect ground attacks by Gaddafi loyalists…
We were for Gaddafi just before we were against him
Thank you, Wikileaks: Following a meeting in Tripoli between Libyan leader Colonel Qaddafi, his son Muatassim and a United States Congressional delegation led by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman on 14 August 2009, the American embassy classified diplomatic cable to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton highlighted the close working relationship both nations enjoy to…
US-backed thugs in Saudi Arabia armed by Western arms firms
As Saudi Arabia crushes peaceful pro-democracy protesters, let’s not forget the Western firms doing business with the brutes: A newly-released secret U.S. diplomatic cable has alleged that British-based defense contractor BAE Systems PLC bribed Saudi officials in return for lucrative arms deals. The cable from the U.S. embassy in Paris, released by WikiLeaks on Friday,…
Obama very happy to change little in the Middle East
The New York Times clarifies what the Obama administration is really thinking about the Arab world. “Pragmatism” is the key word. In other words, backing autocrats who do the dirty work of Israel and America. Anybody still in love with the supposedly grand visions of Barack Obama? In the Middle East crisis, as on other…
Voices of change rise in Saudi Arabia
Extract from a statement released on 5th March by a number of young Saudi men and women: We are young men and women from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As other young Arabs are bringing about the grand political and cultural change that the Arab world is witnessing today, we find that we share with…
Libya isn’t a Western plaything
While parts of Libya begin to imagine a life without Gaddafi – wonderful quote in this typically incisive Anthony Shadid piece in the New York Times: “There is no call for the overthrow of the government; only Colonel Qaddafi is mentioned, as lackey, tyrant and the man with really bad hair” – Western powers are…
Tariq Ali: who is denying democracy to Arab world?
In many countries, the Western powers that back military dictatorships in places such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Yemen and Libya: