Free Republic

Greetings from Boston where the Sabbath doesn't start for quite a while. I was not on the ground very much yesterday, and when I was, I was trying to deal with a lost suitcase.... Nasser al-Rashid, an adviser to the Saudi royal family and one of the richest men in Saudi Arabia, has emerged as one of the largest donors to the Clinton Foundation, and his family members have emerged as large donors to the Democratic party. Nasser al-Rashid, one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest figures and an adviser to the country’s royal family, has donated somewhere between $1 million to...

CAIRO, Egypt - Iran and its U.S.-allied Arab neighbors have long had testy relations. Now the talk is getting tougher as they compete for power in the Middle East. ADVERTISEMENT Nowhere was the friction more evident than at the World Economic Forum held in Jordan over the weekend. The conference was supposed to promote regional collaboration. Instead Arab nations gave Iran the cold shoulder, underscoring their resentment to Tehran's growing influence in the region. Iran set the hostile tone when a few delegates led by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki harshly criticized the Arabs along with the United States and Israel,...

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - US billionaire financier George Soros said at the Jeddah Economic Forum the American administration's policies were based on a "false ideology" of power, newspapers reported. AFP/File Photo The trouble with President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s administration is not merely their policies "may be wrong" but that "they are wrong," the Saudi Gazette quoted him saying on the last day of the forum in this Saudi city. "They are bound to be wrong because they are based on a false ideology," which holds that international relations are relations of power, the Hungarian-born investor...

EVEN if we were not attempting to prosecute a war against terror, the time would have long since arrived to reconsider our relations with Saudi Arabia. That the Saudis, of all people, should now be regarded as a virtual ally in this conflict only underscores the need at last to settle matters between us. Although the catalog of disagreements on our agenda is long, and many of the items are by now familiar, it is helpful to review the list. BY ANY modern standard of civilization, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a bizarre place. In an age of spreading...