Re: Saudis Defend the Punishment
 

From the article:

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack avoided directly criticizing the Saudi judiciary over the case, but said the verdict "causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment."

"It is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it," McCormack said.

Horrid response IMO and gutless too. Meanwhile back the ranch:

US readies arms sales to Saudi, Gulf neighbours, US to give Egypt $ 13bn in weapons etc.

The Bush administration is preparing to tell Congress next month it plans to sell Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours billions of dollars in advanced arms as a counterweight to Iran, Syria and militant groups. "We expect to make the formal notification of the initial sales soon," before Congress recesses next month, a State Department official said.

Saudi Arabia is expected to be the biggest buyer. The deals could be worth a combined total of $ 20bn over the years, Pentagon officials have told Congress, which has 30 days to vote to block a proposed sale from the formal notification date, but rarely does so. The pre-notification clock that
started on Tuesday lasts 20 days, meaning the formal process could start as soon as December 4 or so - leaving Congress little time to debate the issues before it recesses for the year.

Re: Saudis Defend the Punishment
 

Meanwhile last week the administration announced with relief that they didn't have to stop shipping boatloads of US taxpayer dollars to the Mussarraf regime in Pakistan, just because our ally in the War to Spread Democracy, the military dictator who seized control in a military coup some ten years ago, declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution, issued arrest warrants for the Pakistani supreme court, and arrested journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists as well as thousands of protestors to forestall a supreme court ruling that threatened his power.

Re: Saudis Defend the Punishment
 

Standard.

Re: Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes
 

[ QUOTE ]
For me, the saliet points are:

1) A country that has a law that says allows a woman to be given 200 lashes for sitting in a car with the wrong person is a f*cked up place.

2) That this country is our strong ally puts a lie to our claim that a major concern of our foreign policy is the spreading democracy and human dignity.

3) Continuing our dependency on foreign oil is a tragedy politically, economically, and environmentally. It puts us in bed with the likes of Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Putin, the crew "running" Iraq, and the sheiks who think it's good policy to have the state decide who you can sit in a car with.

[/ QUOTE ]
very good post. Im sad that America has been forced to ally itself with these types of countries. America used to be a beacon for what was right. Hopefully it will change. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes
 

In the general spirit of this thread, here is another absolutely astonishing case from the Muslim world. A British woman teaching elementary school in the Sudan is under arrest because she allowed her students to vote on names for their teddy bears. Some of the kids named their bears Muhammad. The British teacher was arrested, the school was closed down, and angry crowds gather around the jail in which she is being held. British officials are concerned for her life....because she allowed 7 year olds to name their teddy bears Muhammad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7112929.stm

Re: Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes
 

She had it coming.

But the lashes are wrong imo.