Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Next Terrible Move

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Two reports in local Saudi Arabian media reveal that a mass execution is planned to take place in that nation in a few days. The prisoners are not named, but one report states that more than 50 individuals are to be executed and that all of them are from the eastern part of the country, and another explains that all of the prisoners have been charged with terrorism.

Both of these statements describe Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the young man who was arrested when he was a teen; his uncle, Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr; and Ali Saed Al-rebeh, Mohammed Faisal al-shyookh, Dawood al-Marhoon, Abed allahhassan al-Zaher, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, and Mohammad Suwaymil. Each was charged with terrorism and they all are from the east.
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‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness’

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Playing the part of The Gad About Town on last night’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO was Dylan Ratigan, a former anchor and reporter for CNBC and MSNBC who is no longer on television because he tended to say true things correctly with his outdoors voice. The show is aired live, so it was a subdued one because last night’s violence in Paris was still unfolding.

Bill Maher addressed his panel, “When the Charlie Hebdo thing happened, the week after, everybody said ‘Je suis Charlie.’ But not really. They didn’t really stick with them … I’m gonna ask you this question that people asked after 9/11, because I don’t think we really know the answer: Why do they hate us?”
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A Bloodthirsty System

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In a police state, the presumption is that if one is arrested, one has done wrong. No defense can be mounted for a person who stands accused in a system that is as divorced from logic, grants no respect to human decency, lacks human rights as one that assumes an accusation is the same thing as guilt.

Police states force anyone accused of a crime to mount an argument against the logic that makes arguing a crime. It is also common for justice systems in police states to keep the accused wondering what exactly they have been charged with or will be charged with, which makes mounting an appropriate or effective defense almost impossible. Important matters like evidence or the lack of evidence are rendered moot.

Saudi Arabia is only one such nation; there are others, certainly.

The case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia has attracted much attention in recent months, in this website and elsewhere. The young man was arrested at a protest and charged with so many crimes of such scale and scope that it would be comically impossible for one person to have committed them. He was arrested as a youth and treated as an adult, which flouts international conventions. Nonetheless, Ali was convicted and sentenced to die by public beheading; furthermore, after the beheading, his body is to be publicly displayed, crucified, to show him, to show others like him, to show the world … well, what exactly? I do not know.
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