Posted on 09/30/2005 1:25:34 PM PDT by Sabramerican
US State Dept. delays action against Saudi Arabia Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 30, 2005
The United States is delaying considering punishing Saudi Arabia a year after censuring the Arab kingdom for "particularly severe violations" of religious freedom.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice notified Congress last week that she had authorized a 180-day waiver of action "in order to allow additional time for the continuation of discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal agency established by Congress in 1998 to promote religious freedom around the world, disclosed Rice's action on Friday.
A State Department spokesman, Kurtis Cooper, called the waiver a temporary measure that "allows us to continue discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."
Rice raised the issue last week in a meeting in Washington with the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and stressed the importance of continuing to work on this issue, Cooper said.
Last week, the department notified Congress that Rice had banned commercial export of certain defense articles to Eritrea, an African country cited a year ago along with Saudi Arabia and Vietnam as having records on religious freedom of serious concern.
It was the first time sanctions were applied to any country under US religious freedom law.
Evenhanded in the Middle East.
Do I detect more pandering to the Saudis, as was so prevallent when Powell was the go-to guy? As crazy as it might sound, could this have anything to do with oil supply?....as it always has in the past?
Too bad for Eritrea, an African country, that they don't have friends in the White House.
But their checks still clear.
"could this have anything to do with oil supply?"
Haha... ya think? Especially now with this oil crisis. We really have to switch to other sources, that's the best sanction we could put on all of these islamists.
American are dying in Iraq to "bring Democracy to the Middle East" but who gives a damn about "particularly severe violations of religious freedom".
Hey, I'm a Jew. This doesn't concern me. Jews are not allowed in Saudi Arabia at all.
The particularly severe restrictions must be on Christians.
Guess, Christians, such as in Bush's core base, don't care.
all islamic nations look to us in the US as infidels and even some ISRAELIS(selling our technology to china without reservations)-we must treat anyone who has hate and jealousy toward us like they need to be treated-we have the oil and resources to tell all the rest of the world to go to hell if they don't like us or our freedoms-let us tell the kennedys and clintons and the rest of the liberal jackasses to shutup while things get done.
It goes back to FDR. When you control 20 to 25% of the world's oil sold on the global market, you have some leverage. The Saudis pump out 8 to 10 million bbls. a day and can almost singlehandedly control the price of oil since they have some flexibility on production, i.e., the difference between OPEC limits and actual production capacity.
They are if they are with the US military or State Department. However, no one is allowed to go to Mecca or Medina except a Muslim.
What was the name of the poor woman who had her kids kidnapped to Saudi and the State Dept. refuses to help her? The case is ongoing. It's a travesty. The State Dept often acts as its own autonomous authority. If I were President, the first thing I would do is clean house at State - I would fire anyone who did not agree with my political philosophy. I would do the same at Justice.
Twenty years ago, Saudi Arabia was crawling with Eritreans. I don't know if it's like that today. They were doing the jobs that Saudis wouldn't do; come to think of it, Saudis don't do any jobs anyway. Because of Italy's long occupation of that one-time Ethiopian province, most Eritreans are Catholics. The only places they could attend Mass in Jeddah were at the U.S. Embassy or the Belgian Embassy, before the Saudi Interior Minister himself shut that down. And just before I left, the Interior Ministry pulled the visas of the only two Catholic priests in kingdom.
A hotel owner might not be the best source on who's killing them. Then again, he might.
What have those Jordanians and Palestinians and Saudis got to do with us? Shame on them!
Abu Waleed
What those Jordanians and Palestinians and Saudis really need is a secure marshaling and training site in the region.
Somewhere with easy, on the ground access to the Syrian-Iraqi border. Passing through Jordan is no big deal, they've been doing that by the busload from Saudi Arabia since we invaded. But the boat trip around Eilat is boring.
What the world needs is a direct land link from Gaza to the West Bank. It's only fair.
To paraphrase, "It was the Saudis all along."
Your argument appears irrefutable.
I'm sorry to say the only answer to your question is, "Which one?".
There are dozens of cases. And in other Muslim nations as well. Dan Burton has held hearings on the problem, but no one cares.
They are if they are with the US military or State Department. However, no one is allowed to go to Mecca or Medina except a Muslim.
Yeah, and I understand Jews aren't allowed in the new "democratic" Iraq either - at least according to the draft Constitution. Nothing like setting up a tyrannical democracy and calling it "freedom."
It goes back to FDR.
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It is really amazing how many of our problems go back to FDR, the father of socialism in America.
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