[Uncle Miltie]

Whether the protesters were Islamofascists or classical Liberals is not stated in the article. It is possible the Saudis are rounding up democrats, and passing it off as a crackdown on Islamofascists.

At least the "journalist" could have determined who was being repressed.

[swarthyguy]

Many of the "reformers" are jihadis who feel the Royals are not islamic enough.

This points to a severe weakness in our Democracy for the Arabs strategy; increasing democratisation will IMO, result not in western style liberals coming to the fore, but rather jihadis who would demand an increased sharia state.
Rational people may well ask, how much more?

On the bright side, liberalising under US pressure, could very well cause the same reaction that happened in Iran.
Sorta like a dam, once that initial crack occurs, watch out.

Since we won't explicity go after the Saudis, perhaps this misguided strategy of encouraging liberalistion is the best hope for a meltdown in the Tragic Kingdom.

Whatever the help, and it is significant, that the Saudis have offered in the past 60 year US alliance, was negated by the Attacks on America.

Now how long can the Oil Companies and their defence contractor and assorted politically connected buddies, shore up what may very well be a Potemkin Village type facade of the current Saudi state? Who knows, but history shows that sometimes just a little loosening up of the chains on a people is the worst thing a totalitarian, reactionary regime can do. Inshallah!

Just as a sidebar, what if the Iran Contra affair was a Saudi inspired leak to the Beirut rag that leaked the story in order to stop the Americans from getting closer to the Iranians......

[piasa]

... Two of the men contacted by Bin Laden in Britain — Khaled al Fawwaz and Ibrahim Eidarous — are now in prison awaiting extradition to the United States for their part in the embassy bombings, which killed 224 and injured thousands.
However, another senior terrorist suspect, Mustafa Nazar, is still on the loose. He spent up to two years in Dollis Hill, north London, recruiting for Al-Qaeda. A key figure in Bin Laden’s terror training camps, he left Britain in 1998 and was last seen in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taliban.
The telephone records have come to light following the trial last year of four Al-Qaeda terrorists who planned and carried out the bombing of the two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
According to trial documents, the telephone [the one bin Laden used] was bought in 1996 with the help of Dr Saad al Fagih, 45, a bearded surgeon who heads the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia. This fundamentalist Muslim group is dedicated to the overthrow of the Saudi Arabian government but is not part of Al-Qaeda.
Al Fagih, who has been regularly used by the BBC as an expert on Bin Laden, has in the past explained that Muslim scholars said the killing of civilians, including children, was allowed by the Koran as “collateral damage” in the holy war.
It was al Fagih’s credit card which was used to help to buy the £10,500 Compact-M satellite phone in the United States and it was shipped to his home in north London, according to American court documents. His credit card was also used to buy more than 3,000 minutes of pre-paid airtime.
Last week al Fagih, who has not been arrested or charged in connection with any of these actions, said: “I am willing to speak to the authorities if they ask me about this or any other issue, but not to the press.” ...------ "Bin Laden called UK 260 times," by Nick Fielding and Dipesh Gadhery, The Sunday Times (U.K.), 03/24/2002