State Department’s April assessment of Saudi Human Rights Abuse unreported in the West paves the way for Obama’s Reckless Weapons dealing

Saudi Arabian State Terror

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Friday, 30 December 2011 11:22
By Stephen Lendman
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saudi-womenAnnually, the State Department publishes human rights reports for over 190 countries. Its latest April 8, 2011 Saudi Arabia assessment discusses “significant human rights abuses and the inability of citizens to change its absolute monarchal rule.

Abuses include:
– torture and physical abuse
– poor prison and detention center conditions
– arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention
– denial of fair and public trials and lack of due process in the judicial system
– political prisoners
– restrictions on civil liberties such as freedom of speech (including the Internet)
– assembly, association, movement, and severe restrictions on religious freedom
– corruption and lack of transparency.”

Also mentioned were inequality and violence against women, human trafficking, no labor rights, discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, sect and ethnicity, and violations of children’s rights.

Saudi’s absolute monarchal rule is despotic, lawless and brutal. It’s a police state practicing state terrorism internally and regionally. It’s also Washington’s main Middle East ally after Israel.

In early December, Amnesty International (AI) published a report on the kingdom titled, “Saudi Arabia: Repression in the Name of Security.”

Largely unnoticed in the West like the State Department’s April assessment, major media scoundrels suppressed its ugly findings.

AI quoted Khaled al-Johani addressing reporters in Riyadh on the March 11, 2011 “Day of Rage,” saying:

“I am here to say we need democracy. We need freedom. We need to speak freely. We need no one to stop us from expressing our opinions.”

Shortly afterward he was arrested and charged with “communicating with the foreign media.” He’s now held incommunicado in Saudi’s notoriously repressive prison system.

On March 5, Press TV reported the arrest and detention of senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Tawfiq al-Amer. At issue was his call for constitutional monarchal rule. …more