Free Republic

... Many Saudis are fed up with the inordinate interference of religious authorities in their lives, and one can even speak of an anti-clerical movement. The liberals, however, speak a language that is alien to the world of official Wahhabism and the majority of Saudis and is therefore hardly likely to influence them. ...

A cable that was released in the massive intel dump by Wikileaks on Nov. 28 makes mention of a party put on by an unknown prince and “US-based energy-drink company.” The party which was attended by Saudi royalty and other wealthy Saudi youth is purported to have cocaine, hashish, and black-market alcohol all available to the patrons. The cable, entitled “UNDERGROUND PARTY SCENE IN JEDDAH: SAUDI YOUTH,“ goes on to elaborate, “that a number of the guests were in fact “working girls,” not uncommon for such parties.” This comes as a surprise due to the fact that Saudi Arabia is...

More than a quarter of a million classified cables sent from U.S. embassies around the world to Washington have been leaked on the Internet. Despite warnings from the U.S. government that the leaks could put lives at risk, the website WikiLeaks published the files in conjunction with several major international newspapers.

Developers of the controversial Park51 Islamic community center and mosque located two blocks from Ground Zero earlier this month applied for roughly $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The audacious move stands to reignite the embers of a divisive debate that dominated headlines surrounding the ninth anniversary of the attacks this fall, say people vested in the issue. The application was submitted under a “community and cultural enhancement” grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment...

In an attempt to link members of the Saudi royal family to the financing of Al Qaeda, lawyers for Sept. 11 families and their insurers have collected several hundred thousand pages of interview transcripts, government reports, financial records, court testimony and other material. Four of the documents, not entered in the court record but provided to the New York Times, are shown here. Lawyers for the Saudi royal family deny any connection to the financing of Al Qaeda and say the links claimed by the Sept. 11 families are tenuous and misleading. The Supreme Court is expected to decide this...

In new memoir, former US president says "those theories were false. I was sending our troops into combat to protect the American people.” WASHINGTON – In his new memoir out Tuesday, former US president George W. Bush flatly rejects the notion that Israel was behind his decision to invade Iraq. Referring to critics who cast aspersions on his motives, Bush dismisses those who “alleged that America’s real intent was to control Iraq’s oil or satisfy Israel.” He stresses, “Those theories were false. I was sending our troops into combat to protect the American people.” In the 30 pages he spends...

The Board of Supervisors met last night to vote on the lease renewal by the Saudi government of county-owned buildings for the notorious Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, Virginia. The Islamic Saudi Academy is a school in Northern Virginia and is operated by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Regular Atlas readers are well aware of this dangerous institution -- see here. Their valedictorian is serving life in prison for plotting to assassinate then-President Bush. Back in 2008, State Department officials would not close the Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia that failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in...

French Minister Says Saudis Have Warned Europe, Notably France, Of Al-Qaida Terror Threat U.S. Department of State ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press Writer 3:18 p.m. CDT, October 17, 2010 PARIS (AP) — Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from al-Qaida against Europe, particularly in France, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday. He said the warning of a potential attack by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was received "in the last few hours, few days." European officials were informed that "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France,"...

The recession may have ended in June 2009, according to a panel of respected economists, but try telling that to people in eight states still not enjoying the recovery, limp as it may be. The most recent data from the latest Adversity Index , produced by Moody's Analytics and msnbc.com, show that those states — Nevada, Michigan, Vermont, Rhode Island, Georgia, Mississippi, Illinois and New Mexico — were still in recession as recently as July (of this year).

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi police raided a secret Catholic mass in Riyadh last week and arrested a dozen Filipinos and a Catholic priest, charging them with prosyletising, a local daily reported on Wednesday. The raid took place as some 150 Filipinos were attending the mass in a Riyadh rest house on Friday, the second day of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, Arab News said. The twelve Filipino men and the priest, whose nationality was not specified, were "charged with prosyletising," the daily quoted an official from the Philippine embassy in Riyadh as saying. They were all released Sunday on...

My organization, Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), just released a video showing 6th graders from Wellesley, MA as they rise from prostrating themselves alongside Muslim men in a prayer to Allah while on a public school field trip to the largest mosque in the Northeast. Teachers did not intervene. Parents have not been told. embedded by Embedded Video YouTube Direkt The video was taken inside the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center – Boston’s controversial Saudi-funded mega-mosque – during a Wellesley Middle School social studies trip to the mosque, ostensibly taken to learn about the history of Islam first-hand....

He was asked if he will meet with family members of those who were killed on 9/11. Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the so called "Ground Zero Mosque," would not answer. In fact, when reporters asked him that question, he turned around and walked out of the room. He was a guest of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a dinner marking the Muslim holiday Ramadan at the Mayor's official residence, Gracie Mansion, though Bloomberg lives in his private home. Daisy Khan, the wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is behind the project, also attended the dinner. Reporters...

Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told The Associated Press by telephone from there. He said one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialized facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, saying it could...

So what is really going on with Cordoba House aka 9/11 Mosque?

Dearborn Underground has learned that last January’s disruptive behavior by five Saudi males on Northwest Flight 243 from Amsterdam to Detroit (“Unruly Saudis Disrupt Plane Before Being Released Without Charges By U.S. Customs”) included sitting in scattered locations around the cabin, refusing flight attendant requests to sit down, suspiciously frequent trips to the lavatory, and putting blankets over their heads – the same way Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid under a blanket to arm his bomb on the very same flight from Amsterdam hardly more than two weeks before. One of the Saudis unbuckled himself after the cabin and passengers were...

Muslims around the world could be setting their watches to a new time soon when the world's largest clock begins ticking atop a soaring skyscraper in Islam's holiest city of Mecca. Saudi Arabia hopes the four faces of the new clock, which will loom over Mecca's Grand Mosque from what is expected to be the world's second tallest building, will establish Mecca as an alternate time standard to the Greenwich median. The clock is targeted to enter service with a three-month trial period in the first week of the holy month of Ramadan on or about August 12, according to...

Democratic Party front group Media Matters for America has been loyally defending First Lady Michelle Obama's luxurious Spanish vacation this week even as other liberals concede the Obama administration made a politically insensitive call in signing off on the trip.Today, Media Matters attacked Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit/Pajamas Media for his critique of Michelle Obama's trip. The headline of the attack piece: Michelle Obama derangement syndrome: Instapundit posts pic of First Lady as Marie AntoinetteNot only does the headline reinforce the growing meme that Michelle Obama is acting like a rich pig, but upon opening the article one is confronted with...

JEDDAH: Lawyers and human rights activists have demanded changes to sponsorship rules after a housemaid in Taif was reportedly denied a final exit visa after the death of her sponsor. Taif passport police were alleged to have told the Asian maid to transfer sponsorship to her employer’s son before she could leave the Kingdom. she had become hysterical when she was refused the final exit visa. It was further revealed that any transfer of the iqama to the late sponsor’s son would only be completed when he brings two witnesses to testify that his father had agreed to the switch...

Yesterday's unanimous vote by the city Landmarks Preservation Com mission cleared the last municipal impediment to construction of a 13-story mosque and community center just blocks from Ground Zero. But important questions linger. The vote, which denied landmark protection for a building that must be demolished to make way for the mosque, was hailed by Mayor Bloomberg and others as an affirmation of religious liberty of a peculiarly American sort. As, of course, it was. Just imagine the city fathers of, say, Riyadh so graciously clearing the way for construction of a 13-story cathedral in the Saudi capital. As if....

The United States President will spend four days of his holiday in the town with his family during August The President of the United States, Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha, will spend part of their summer holidays in Marbella. In what will be his first visit to Spain as President, he will stay from August 4 – 8 in the luxury Villapadierna Hotel. Before returning to the United States, Obama will travel to the Marivent Palace on Mallorca to meet with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. He’s also expected to meet with the...