Free Republic

Saudi Arabia is scheduled to begin building the world’s tallest tower next week, which will soar 1km in to the sky when completed. The Kingdom Tower in the coastal city of Jeddah will measure 3,280 feet (1km), some 568 feet (173 meters) taller than the current Guinness world record holder, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands at 2,716 feet (827 metres). At an estimated cost of $1.23bn, the tower in Saudi will require approximately 5.7 million square feet of concrete, 80,000 tonnes of steel for its 200 floors and will take five years to complete, according to The Saudi Gazette. The...

Opportunities for the West to hurt the Russian economy are limited, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Europe cannot stop buying Russian gas without inflicting pain on itself, and if the US tries to lower oil prices, the dollar will suffer. If the West tries to damage Russia’s influence in the world energy market, efforts will likely backfire, the Russian President said during his twelfth annual televised question and answer session. To really influence the world oil market a country would need to increase production and cut prices, which currently only Saudi Arabia could afford, Putin said. The president added he...

LONDON — Germany was expected to reject a request by Saudi Arabia for hundreds of main battle tanks. A leading German newspaper said the Berlin government would not approve a Saudi request for up to 800 Leopard-2A7 MBTs. The newspaper, Bild, said the deal was opposed by leading members of the government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, particularly Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel. “Without agreement from the economy minister, the deal has no chance,” Bild said. If correct, the newspaper report could signal the end of Berlin’s plans to become a leading military supplier to the Arab world. Many in parliament...

In the aftermath of the disastrous, for both the US and Saudi Arabia, false flag campaign to replace the Syrian regime with one which would be amenable to allowing a Qatari gas pipeline to pass underneath the Al-Qaeda rebel infested country, there were numerous rumors that the reign of Saudi's infamous former ambassador to the US and current intelligence chief, Prince Bandar "Bush" bin Sultan - the man who we suggested was the puppetmaster behind the entire failed operation - had come to an end. Some two months ago, Shia Post reported that "News sources announced that the chief of...

The Muslim Brotherhood is reported to be fleeing its recently established headquarters in London following the announcement of an investigation into their activities by Prime Minister David Cameron. A report in the Daily Mail makes mention of the fact in addition to former Prime Minister Tony Blair's foundation being linked to the Islamist group, the newly established London HQ of the group it set to be abandoned in favour of a base in Graz, Austria. The Muslim Brotherhood's new international office in London, which was also reported to be serving as their new global headquarters after a brutal crackdown on...

Germany’s weapons industry is booming, and even the vice chancellor’s attempt to stop selling tanks to the Saudis is a minor concession for the world’s third biggest arms exporter. But the trade is destabilizing security. […] Henrik Heidenkamp, German defense industry expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told The Local the economic value was not the point, but about nurturing Germany’s defense industry so that it will be able to supply arms to the German army and its allies. “Only a commercially viable defense industry can deliver needed equipment to the armed forces in order to sustain the national...

An Israeli hacker team published on Tuesday images and personal details of members of the Anonymous hacker collective who participated in the OpIsrael attack against Israeli sites earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Israeli Elite Force gained access to the computers of 16 Anonymous members and was able to capture screenshots and photos of the anti-Israel hackers with their own webcams. The Israeli team published the information in a Dropbox document via their Facebook page, saying, “Anonymous, next time do not mess with us.” The file includes the names of the attackers, their countries of origin, and usernames and...

A Saudi court in Jeddah has ordered the permanent closure of a liberal website for publishing what was perceived as “anti-Islamic content”, Al Arabiya reported on Sunday, citing the Saudi news website Sabq. According to Sabq, a number of Saudis had demanded the closure of the Saudi Liberal Network for posting stories and comments that are considered against religion and morality. …

t has been learned that one week prior to the Benghazi attacks that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, CIA Director David Petraeus met with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. This finding, reported by Hurrieyt at the time, further bolsters brand new claims by Seymour M. Hersh, the man who broke the Abu Ghraib prison scandal story in 2004. In early 2012, the Obama administration, along with the administration of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reached an agreement that would have Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia provide funding for an operation run by then CIA Director David Petraeus (the Petraeus...

It died just a few hours after its birthAn ewe sheep in Saudi Arabia gave birth to a sheep with a human face but it died just a few hours after its birth, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. The ewe had given birth to the bizarre baby sheep at a farm in the southern town of Samita after a nine-month pregnancy although such animals normally have average pregnancy period of five months, the Arabic language daily Sabq said. “I was very surprised when this sheep remained pregnant for nine months as humans,” its owner Abu Abdullah said. “I was shocked...

This is a bad morning. I was greeted by a headline in the New York Times that said Defense Secretary “Chuck Mullet” Hagel was planning to submit a budget to Congress to cut the size of the military to a level not seen since 1940, before the U.S. entered World War II. The article went on to say that the Pentagon realized that this would be an inadequate force for even very small wars and certainly would not allow the U.S. to police the world and keep control of contingencies like a North Korean attack on the South or a...

Dozens of Fatah supporters demonstrated in Ramallah on Wednesday in support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The demonstration is the first of its kind in the West Bank since the beginning of the uprising in Egypt. RELATED:For Palestinians, Egyptian unrest is bittersweet The demonstration coincided with the attack that was launched by Mubarak's supporters against anti-government protesters in Cairo. Sources in Ramallah said that the demonstration was initiated by the PA leadership, which has banned anti-Mubarak protests in the West Bank. The demonstrators shouted slogans condemning Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei as a “CIA agent” and warned against foreign...

After watching Congressman Ron Paul get booed at Tampa, we were struck with the thought that it could be, in effect, his last address. The congressman from Texas had been winning his share of the Republican debates by focusing on limited government, constitutional fundamentals, and sound money, the virtues of which are thrown into ever sharper relief with each lunge by the Democrats for federal power. But the booing he got last night was no small thing, coming as it did when he suggested that al Qaeda had attacked us because America has not only occupied Muslim holy lands at...

HEARTLESS: GIRL’S MOUTH AND LEFT EYE SEWN BY HER MUSLIM BOSS FOR PROFESSING HER SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST This young lady had her mouth and left eye sewn with plastic threads for professing her faith. The young girl, who was a servant in Saudi Arabia professed that Jesus Christ was her personal savior. This did not go well with her master who ordered his men to sow her mouth so that she will never say that again. Her left eye was sewn too, as a warning. This is the highest level of religious intolerance in the Muslim world. Let us...

I don’t know of any other food that harms us more than rice, which despite its many benefits is unhealthy if consumed in large quantities. There are only a few countries in the world whose people eat rice in large quantities like Saudis, and they include people in countries in South Asia and in Japan and Indonesia. But these people eat rice in a healthy way - either boiled or steamed. We, on the other hand, eat rice in an unhealthy way by preparing it in oil, butter or ghee and other unhealthy ingredients, all of which are high in...

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Ibrahim Mounir, the Brotherhood’s most senior official in the UK, said that the government’s designation of his organization as a terrorist entity could be interpreted by its followers that violence was an option. Related: • Saudi Arabia designates Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group • Egyptian court sentences 529 Muslim Brotherhood members to death, lawyer says “If this [ban] happened, this would make a lot of people in Muslim communities think that [peaceful] Muslim Brotherhood values . . . didn’t work and now they are designated a terrorist group, which would make the doors open for...

Nine expatriate Christians imprisoned in a probe of house churches in Jeddah fear their detention may drag on despite promises by Saudi authorities, according to sources close to the situation. The men were transferred to the Terahyl Deportation Prison in Jeddah on Dec. 24 after officials promised they would soon be released, said International Christian Concern, a monitor of religious persecution in Washington, D.C. But ICC President Steven Snyder said yesterday that the men are discouraged and believe they could be detained for another several months. They have been imprisoned since last summer. Conditions for the men are very ...

The process itself, rather than peace, has become the goal.Senior Palestinian Authority officialA bit of historyThe notion that "the end justifies the means" is bad even when the end sought might be seen as beneficial. Transitory peace might be a beneficial intermediate end if the price of achieving it is not excessive. We should have learned about that shortly after 1938, when Prime Minister Chamberlain's deal with Herr Hitler allowed German expansion into Czechoslovakia and produced a naval agreement between Britain and Germany. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls?feature=player_detailpage] Video linkPM Chamberlain said this later the same day: My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has...

He stabbed victim many times in the street in front of passers-byA Saudi drug addict in his 30s went into a shop, dragged an Indian worker out and stabbed him to death many times, claiming he wanted to get rid of evil spirits. Panicking passers-by watched with horror as the Saudi stabbed the Indian worker while chanting “God is Great” in the middle of the road in the capital Riyadh. Police said the unnamed killer already had been convicted of taking drugs, having alcoholic drinks and abusing his parents. “We [are] interrogating him and he said that he kept seeing...

BOSTON (AP) — A Saudi Arabian man injured in the Boston Marathon bombings has filed a defamation lawsuit against Glenn Beck, accusing the conservative commentator of calling him "the money man" behind the attack. Abdulrahman Alharbi, 20, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston that his reputation was "substantially and severely damaged" as a result of Beck's statements on the air linking him to the bombings. [snip]

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's appointment of Prince Muqrin as deputy crown prince is a first step towards addressing its biggest dynastic challenge for 50 years and forestalling a possible succession crisis in the world's top oil exporter. The ruling al-Saud family is fast approaching the moment when it must decide how to jump down a generation from a line of brothers born to the country's founder King Abdulaziz to their sons and nephews, a process fraught with difficulty. For a dynasty that now sees itself as governing a rare island of stability in a region aflame with conflict and...

As US president Barack Obama looks to mend ties with Saudi Arabia in Riyadh today, the Saudis hope to shore up regional support. Their $1.5 billion gift has raised suspicions among Pakistanis. Pakistan announced last week that it received a $1.5 billion grant from Saudi Arabia, which it termed a “friendly gift” and an “unconditional grant.” Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have long had warm ties, but the no-strings-attached gift sparked immediate concern from Pakistani journalists, security experts, and opposition politicians, who question whether the grant is part of a behind-the-scenes deal for Pakistan to provide weapons for Syrian rebels. “There...

Halfway home from Saudi Arabia, US secretary of state John Kerry has abruptly changed course. He will now stay in Europe for talks on Ukraine. The news followed reports from Russia that Kerry had spoken to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, by phone, a day after President Vladimir Putin called President Barack Obama. The Russian foreign ministry said Washington had initiated the call between Kerry and Lavrov, adding that they discussed Ukraine and plans for further contact. Flying from Riyadh to Ireland for a refuelling stop on Saturday, Kerry decided to turn around after speaking to Lavrov from the...

BARACK OBAMA may recall a tricky moment when he first met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia five years ago. Bending to shake hands with the octogenarian monarch, the taller American appeared to bow deeply. Republican snipers in America gleefully blasted the president for “kowtowing” to rich Arabs. Such protocols should run more smoothly when Mr Obama heads to Saudi Arabia on March 28th for his second time in office. Unfortunately, however, relations between the two countries have seldom been more awkward. Their close alliance dates to the end of the second world war, when an ailing Franklin Roosevelt met Saudi...

President Barack Obama is considering allowing shipments of new air defense systems to the Syrian opposition, a U.S. official said Friday, as Obama sought to reassure Saudi Arabia's king that the U.S. is not taking too soft a stance in Syria and other Mideast conflicts. A key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia would be likely to cheer a decision by Obama to allow the portable missile launchers into Syria. Saudi officials were dismayed when Obama scrapped plans last year to launch a strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and they have been pressing the White House on the issue. The Saudis...

Riyadh (AFP) - US President Barack Obama meets Saudi King Abdullah Friday as mistrust fuelled by differences over Iran and Syria overshadows a decades-long alliance between their countries. Obama, who is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia late in the afternoon on a flight from Italy, is expected to hold evening talks with the monarch on a royal estate outside Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has strong reservations about efforts by Washington and other major world powers to negotiate a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme.

Over seven decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia forged a strategic alliance that became a linchpin of the regional order: a liberal democracy and an ultraconservative monarchy united by shared interests in the stability of the Middle East and the continued flow of oil. But with President Obama arriving in Riyadh on Friday, the rulers of Saudi Arabia say they feel increasingly compelled to go their own way, pursuing starkly different strategies from Washington in dealing with Iran, Syria, Egypt and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region. “Their view of Mr. Obama is that his entire...

London (AFP) - A former wife of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah appealed to US President Barack Obama on Thursday for help in the case of four daughters she says are being held in a royal palace. Alanoud AlFayez, 57, a Jordanian national who has lived in London since her divorce from the Saudi monarch in 2003, said her children needed to be "saved". "Since 13 years, my daughters Sahar, Maha, Hala and Jawaher are being held captive," AlFayez told AFP. "They need to be saved and released immediately." She added: "Mr Obama should take this opportunity to address these grave...

The administration criticized Saudi Arabia’s denial of a visa for a Jewish White House correspondent wanting to cover President Obama’s visit to the kingdom on Friday, but when asked Tuesday whether it would “reconsider going to Saudi Arabia or anything like that,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said “no.” Michael Wilner, a U.S. citizen who covers the White House for the Jerusalem Post, applied for a visa with other members of the White House press corps but was turned down on Monday. […] “That didn’t cause you guys to reconsider going to Saudi Arabia or anything like that?” a...

“If everybody minded their own business,” the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, “the world would go round a deal faster than it does.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Cry insult and let loose the enemies of freedom. Late last week, following days of media clamor, ABC Family canceled a pilot for Alice in Arabia. The show was to have centered upon a young American woman as she attempted to escape from family kidnappers in Saudi Arabia. To be sure, ABC’s critics were vociferous, both in volume and in number. But they should never have been able...

Russia’s aggressiveness in Ukraine is proving a boon to North American energy producers looking for greater export opportunities. Whether for natural gas projects in the United States or for oil pipelines in Canada, the West’s confrontation with energy powerhouse Russia has refocused North American political debates – including the controversy over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – on the need for global energy security. Russia’s aggressiveness in Ukraine is proving a boon to North American energy producers looking for greater export opportunities. Whether for natural gas projects in the United States or for oil pipelines in Canada, the West’s confrontation...

Excerpted from "Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Culture" One of the odder phenomena of the last decade is hearing national security elites, terrorism experts, and career diplomats discuss the finer points of “flow,” “bling,” and the “politics of cool.” American and European terrorism experts have increasingly expressed concerns over “anti-American hip-hop,” accenting the radicalizing influence of the genre. Noting that Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based Islamist group, uses “jihad rap” in its recruitment videos, Harvard scholar Jessica Stern wrote in Foreign Affairs: “The first- and second-generation Muslim children I interviewed for a study of the sources of radicalization in...

The Middle East is falling apart. The United States have ceased even to resemble a world power and force for good. Domestically, the United States are torn apart. It's time for President Obama to divide his remaining time in office between golfing and sleeping.Here's a link to a recent analysis of U.S. contributions to increasing instability in the Middle East. Even principals in the Obama Administration disagree substantively. Martin Indyk, special U.S. envoy for the Israeli - Palestinian "peace process" talks, was present at an Arab League summit in Kuwait to oppose passage of an extremely hard line Arab position on the peace talks -- which the Obama Administration has managed to...

Three more Ethiopians killed by Saudi police. The killing of Ethiopians continues in Saudi Arabia Three more Ethiopians killed in Saudi Arabia Three more Ethiopians have been killed in Saudi Arabia. Thousands of Ethiopians are leaving the middle east country after scores have been killed in the past few days. Hundreds more injured and women are being raped in front of their families. It is astounding and mind boggling the international community is so silent about this shameful actions of the Saudis. "The act of killing innocent civilians is uncalled for, we condemn that," Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told...

Some 150 Israeli Arabic-speaking Christians on Sunday demonstrated outside the European Union mission in Tel Aviv, demanding that the international community stop nitpicking against Israel and start combatting the severe persecution of Christians everywhere else in the Middle East. “Nations, organizations and international missions are quick to raise an accusing finger against Israel at every opportunity,” said Father Gabriel Nadaf, spiritual father of the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, which organized the rally. Those same nations and organizations “don’t life a finger against the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the Middle East,” the priest continued. Father Nadaf went on to explain...

President Barack Obama had planned a week long trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia to highlight global progress in ridding the world of nuclear materials, soak up the positive publicity emanating from Pope Francis and reassure an anxious Gulf ally of the U.S. commitment to the region. Instead, the trip will be dominated by Russia’s military seizure of Crimea and Obama’s efforts to persuade European allies to step up sanctions on Russia, even as critics at home suggest Obama hasn’t been as tough on Russian President Vladimir Putin as he needs to be. Obama, who arrives in the Netherlands on...

Ask Richard Gage how he came to become obsessed with what he calls the “truth” about 9/11, and you hear what sounds an awful lot like a story of religious conversion. It was March 2006, and the mild-mannered California architect was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway on his way to a construction meeting. Bored, he flipped on KPFA 94.1 FM, a listener-supported “free-speech” station out of Berkeley — “to hear what the communists were talking about,” as he later told me in a 2009 interview. Up to that point in his life, Gage had been a staunch “Ronald Reagan...

ABC Family Pulls Plug on ‘Alice in Arabia’ After Muslim Org Backlash Just days after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) expressed concerns over potential stereotyping in the pilot for ABC Family’s “Alice in Arabia” and requested a meeting with execs, the network has decided not to pursue the show that had been announced Monday. An ABC Family spokesperson said Friday, “The current conversation surrounding our pilot was not what we had envisioned and is certainly not conducive to the creative process, so we’ve decided not to move forward with this project.” The show’s premise centered on an American teen...

Bishop Camillo Ballin, Vicar Apostolic of Northern Arabia. Credit: Addie Mena/CNA. Awali, Bahrain, Mar 17, 2014 / 04:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholics in the Arabian peninsula look forward to building a new cathedral in Bahrain, creating a permanent home for the Church and a place to help support Catholics coming to the region. “Our mission is to form a better society, to witness with our love that God loves all,� said Bishop Camillo Ballin, Vicar Apostolic of Northern Arabia, in a March 13 interview with CNA. The Northern Arabia vicariate apostolic serves Catholics in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia....

Gifted monkey to zooA Saudi man paid nearly SR3,000 (Dh2,950) to end the slavery of a monkey used by his owner in Pakistan to entertain people in return for money. The unnamed man, in his 50s, had vowed to help “anyone” in need when he left hospital in Karachi after undergoing a successful back surgery. “He was walking in the street when he saw a man forcing a monkey to entertain people by using ropes and chains,” Mzmz news site said. “He offered to buy the monkey but the man refused, saying it fetched him nearly SR550 a month. The...

Europe has acute concerns about Russia's military intervention and annexation of Crimea – it's doling out aid to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russian individuals. But its potentially most punitive weapon – blocking Russian energy exports – remains out of reach. However much Europe might like to express its displeasure by targeting a major part of Russia's economy, it confronts one inescapable fact: It needs Russia's natural gas and oil. Europe's dependency has concerned both the European Union and the United States for decades, but the current political crisis in Ukraine has driven home the urgent need for Europe to...

My order is inevitable for it is simply The Father's will concisely done in full view and commitment of My Witness that is My spirit in you . . . Acts 17:28 28 For in him we live and move and are! As one of your own poets says it, ‘We are the sons of God.’ John 14:12 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. Job...

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has banned 50 names they argue contradict the culture or religion of the Kingdom, according to reports by local media. Parents in the Kingdom will reportedly no longer be able to call their children by names such as Linda, Alice, Elaine or Binyamin (Arabic for Benjamin) after the civil affairs department at the ministry issued a list of the prohibited names. Binyamin is believed in Islam to be the son of Prophet Jacob, but is also the name of the current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. …

Thanks to Fracking, U.S. Will Pass Saudi Arabia In Oil Production 12 March 2014 Thanks to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a process used to extract oil from shale, the United States will soon pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer....

Dozens of rockets as well as mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip Wednesday at southern Israeli towns. Hours later the IDF fired tank shells at what it termed “terror targets” in the Strip. Israeli reports put the number of rockets at over 60, and Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for the attack, said it had fired 90 rockets at Israel. The organization said in a statement that it had launched an ongoing “military operation,” which it termed “Breaking the Silence.” No Israeli casualties were initially reported in the largest attack from the Strip since Operation Pillar of Defense...

This isn’t really new, but some of the most interesting material comes from Rafael Medoff’s demonstration of how the material was buried and misreported by historians sympathetic to liberal presidents. When FDR endorsed quotas for Jews in the US and even North Africa, liberal historians claimed that he was being “practical” or actually trying to help Jews. And then there’s the story of the efforts to bury and lie about FDR’s exchange with Stalin about the Jews.

Did you hear the biggest news of the week? No, it’s not that Russia invaded the Crimea and is “occupying” Ukraine. Sure, that nearly tanked world markets, but it was bush league compared to the other news, involving a major strategic American ally, that slipped under the radar. Qatar had its ambassadors pulled by their neighbors: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Yes, it seems that these three countries don’t quite appreciate the Qatari-backed Muslim Brotherhood/al Qaeda revolutionary program, nor do they like the fact that Qatar refuses to pledge to desist in aiding and sheltering people who...

US wants to combat anti-homosexuality movement worldwide By Julio Severo The Associated Press reported on February 26 that the United States, “troubled” by an anti-homosexuality movement in Uganda and across much of the world, is launching a new effort to combat what Secretary of State John Kerry described as a “threat to human rights.” Comparing a Ugandan anti-homosexuality law to oppressive government crackdowns on German Jews in the 1930s, Kerry said that according to the AP report, he was going to direct American ambassadors to look at “how we deal with this human rights challenge on a global basis.”...

Saudi Arabia has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, in a move that could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies. The U.S.-allied kingdom has also designated as terrorist the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Interior Ministry said in a statement published by state media. Friday's move appeared to enforce a royal decree last month in which Riyadh, which backs some rebel groups in Syria with money and arms, said it would...

Like in horror movies, swarms of bats attacked a Saudi village and caused panic among its residents, who said they were even more frightened by the birds’ screams. Residents of the village in the southern Saudi province of Jazan near the border with Yemen said some of the birds attacked children and other people outside their homes. “The residents said they are frightened to leave their homes after the bats attacked some of them,” Sabq Arabic language daily said. “They said they were even more frightened by the bats’ screams, which they described as horrifying. They called on authorities to...