Saudi Arabia’s well-funded public relations apparatus moved quickly after Saturday’s explosive execution of Shiite political dissident Nimr al-Nimr to shape how the news is covered in the United States.
The execution led protestors in Shiite-run Iran to set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, precipitating a major diplomatic crisis between the two major powers already fighting proxy wars across the Middle East.
The Saudi side of the story is getting a particularly effective boost in the American media through pundits who are quoted justifying the execution, in many cases without mention of their funding or close affiliation with the Saudi Arabian government.
Meanwhile, social media accounts affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s American lobbyists have pushed English-language infographics, tweets, and online videos to promote a narrative that reflects the interests of the Saudi regime.
A Politico article about the rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran by Nahal Toosi, for instance, quoted only three sources: the State Department, which provided a muted response to the executions; the Saudi government; and Fahad Nazer, identified as a “political analyst with JTG Inc.” Nazer defended the executions, saying that they served as a “message … aimed at Saudi Arabia’s own militants regardless of their sect.”
What Politico did not reveal was that Nazer is himself a former political analyst at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a think tank formed last year that discloses that it is fully funded by the Saudi Embassy and the United Arab Emirates.
The Washington Post quoted consultant Theodore Karasik of Gulf State Analytics as saying that the “the Saudis hope to demonstrate that they are on the offensive in terms of the Sunni-Shiite divide, and they have just upped the ante on that significantly.”
Karasik is a columnist at Al Arabiya, an English-language news organization based in the UAE and owned by Middle East Broadcasting Center, a private news conglomerate that has long been financially backed by members of the Saudi royal family. Its current chairman is Sheikh Waleed bin Ibrahim, a billionaire Saudi businessman whose brother-in-law was the late King Fahd. (Al Arabiya’s coverage of the crisis is almost comically pro-Saudi, featuring headlines like “Storming embassies.. Iranian speciality.”)
An editorial published by the Wall Street Journal approvingly quoted Joseph Braude of the Foreign Policy Research Institute claiming that Nimr was a violent extremist who advocated a “military option” against Saudi Arabia. But as journalists and editors from the Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, the BBC, and other prominent outlets have reported, Nimr advocated nonviolence and encouraged his followers to protest peacefully. Braude did not provide any evidence for his claims beyond anonymous “Saudi sources.”
Braude is a contributor to several Saudi-owned media outlets, including Al Arabiya and Al Majalla, a magazine owned by a member of the Saudi royal family. Neither of these affiliations were disclosed in the Wall Street Journal editorial. (Braude was also convicted in 2004 of attempting to smuggle 4,000-year-old artifacts looted from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad into the United States.)
Braude’s depiction of Nimr aligns with the Saudi Arabian view. “Saudi Arabia’s terrorism law includes as acts of terrorism merely criticizing the government, merely criticizing the monarchy,” Sarah Lea Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division, told The Intercept.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Embassy is blasting out its message through social media.
As we have previously reported, Saudi Arabia’s lobbyists, including Qorvis and Targeted Victory, a social media company founded by Republican strategists, help to maintain a Saudi Embassy effort called Arabia Now, which puts a positive spin on all things Saudi Arabian.
Arabia Now has retweeted content from a reportedly Saudi government-run Twitter account called Infographics KSA, which produced a slick English-language video and infographic that deride Nimr as a “sedition instigator” and point to 10 years he spent abroad in Iran. On Twitter, the same account has started releasing English-language infographics defending Saudi moves to expel Iranian diplomats and bar air travel to Iran, using the hashtag #SaudiCutsTiesWithIran.
The U.S. government is obviously not eager to alienate a government that President Obama has wooed with warm words and over $90 billion in arms sales. The diplomatic offensive by Saudi-financed flacks and media has provided some space for it to provide a muted response to the execution.
In a statement issued after the executions, the State Department avoided any condemnation, simply expressing concern “that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced.”
Top photo: Demonstrators in Tehran hold posters of Nimr al-Nimr during a protest rally against his execution by Saudi authorities.
Related:
Inside Saudi Arabia’s Campaign to Charm American Policymakers and Journalists
Lockheed Martin, Boeing Rally Around Saudi Arabia, Wave Off Humanitarian Concerns
U.S. Senators Hem and Haw on Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Abuses
Saudi Arabia Continues Hiring Spree of American Lobbyists, Public Relations Experts
For one thing, their PR has not worked with American public and I speak for myself. I am not a bet surprised that these Wahhabi Criminals have killed a clergy who was protesting against them. Now if he happen to a Shia, then these stupid Tyrants are cutting their own throats. What else can we expect from a bunch of Fat cat illiterate, drug abusing women chasers??!
Tell them arms sale are no more!
Curiously, Saudi’s chief US PR arm, Edelman, seems to be missing here.
I thought the most thought twisting articles were from CNN.
Now is the right time to release the 28 paged redacted from the Senate’s report on 911. Time for the American public to learn the truth.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/12/the-missing-pages-of-the-9-11-report.html
Who were the mysterious Saudi family that vanished two weeks before 911 ?
http://gawker.com/5838498/the-mysterious-saudi-family-that-vanished-two-weeks-before-911
The Saudis steal all the muslim wealth and use israel as a diversion. The Sauds killl other muslims directly– some weak country like Yemen which can do nothing! Real men here! They cannot afford to airlift the palestinians home to Mecca and Medina but build frozen playgrounds in the desert! The can also afford to arm muslims to better kill themselves while they party on! The Israel trick is not working anymore so they are desperate trying to cause trouble with Iran. As muslims they could well have helped Iraq, but they just cause trouble to steal from their brothers. Shame. May the Res-IS-tance crush them!
This is a literallly unholy alliance between the Saudis and Israelis to excuse Sunni Arab terrorism, the overwhelming terrorist threat to the US, while focusing the media against Iran and Russia, both of which are fighting Al Quaeda and ISIS with us. Of course, the support of Sunni extremism will ultimately threaten Saudi Arabia and Israel, and unfortunately the US. When will the American public wake up?
When they are proven to have perpetrated crime against America
Great moments in PR, and you are there.
– – –
DON DRAPER: Are you freakin’ kidding me? You landed us what account?!
PETE CAMPBELL: The Saudi Kingdom account. They want good PR.
DON: So. What do they do?
PETE: Well, they chop off heads.
ROGER STERLING: Not very easy to sell. Do the Saudis buy products we can promote?
PETE: They have a total ban on alcohol.
ROGER: (pouring a Johnny Walker Black) Doesn’t help our other clients.
PETE: They promote an extremist form of Islam.
DON: Not very popular in this city after 9/11.
PETE: They hate gay people.
SAL ROMANO: That won’t fly in Manhattan either.
DON: So why are we going to put lipstick on this pig?
BERT COOPER: They pay good money.
DON: We still got our work cut out for us.
ROGER: Well, if you can sell carcinogenic cigarettes, you can sell Saudi to the American public. After all, what kills more of them?
– – –
ANNOUNCER: Now this word for Camel cigarettes!
HAHA! Excellent parody but so true.
Really could not expect much criticism from the US since our proxy junta in Egypt has dozens of Sunni clerics under death sentence.
Yep, they’ll do that.
What is wrong with these Iranian terrorists terrorizing Saudi Government terrorists for executing a peaceful activist terrorist for speaking out against Saudi Government terrorists who are supported by US Government terrorists who slaughter innocent Muslim terrorists by the hundreds of thousands to support fossil fuel monopoly terrorists?
Leave it to the US Gummit to support a terrorist state like Saudi Arabia while criticizing Iran, who actually are fighting ISIS.
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/obama-blamed-for-failing-to-prevent-shiite-022355900.html
I can’t imagine Obama ever actually seriously considering such a thing. Mild criticism, sure but forceful objections resulting in a change of heart by the Saudis? Not likely.
This is all a US-Saudi vs Russia-Shiite OPEC nations fight, and Obama is the arsehole in charge of America, so blame stands.
Not saying there’s not blame there. I just can’t imagine that Obama, et al. give a shit.
Of course they give a shit, they want to crush the Shiites like Saudi do. They are risking everything in a very overt series of actions to achieve this – are you not paying attention?
It is possibly the only thing they DO give a shit about. When it comes to TRILLIONS in oil revenues, these people are capable of an emotional response. It is called Greed plus Anger towards anyone threatening the satisfaction of that Greed.
They want to increase oil prices whilst increasing supply, which goes against basic economic laws. They can only do that by controlling the policymaking regarding oil supply. Saudi are their allies in all this, the Shiites and Russia are their enemies in this. But despite their insane wealth and determination, the Saudi oil reserves sit in Shiite territories and so are at risk from a Shiite grab for power.
Ergo…
Just sayin’ they don’t give a shit about the blame game.
@Manfrengensengen
My Reply button is bad. You wrote:
” But then I’m miffed by the fact that these same two (the Intercept and commenters) still believe that 911 and the WOT were started by Muslim “terrorists,” whether Al-Qaeda or Wahhabi or what not. ”
Aactually after I hit the Submit button, I realized I should have rephrased the sentence: ” 19 Wahhabi terrorists kickstarted the WOT (war on terror). ” to read : “19 Wahhabi terrorists WERE USED TO kick start the WOT (war on terror). ”
But despite all that we now know about that event, the participation of the Wahhabists ( and I am aware of most of the stuff in the helpful URLs that you provided ) even as the pawns that they were, still does not exempt them from the tag of terrorists.
They must have known that many innocent persons would die if a plane was driven into the WTC. But they went along anyway.
And of course, this all assumes that they were not just mere passengers, since no one can say for sure now that they are all too dead to tell what really happened; who they really were and who their real handlers were…
Thanks. My bad.
Where I live, the TV news said at first that Shiite cleric, Al-Nimr was executed with a group of 47 Al-Queda militants, as if he were one of them. In the later reports of the embassy issue, each and every time, they said exactly the same words but the dropped the Al-Q reference leaving the rest unchanged. Perhaps this too is part of the PR campaign? At least they did say he was a vocal critic of the SA government.
I have long hoped the Saudi Arabian government would bring themselves and their people into the 21st Century. They finally did. Too bad, this century has turned out to be the culminating spasms of the death cult.
They must feel right at home.
I assume the “death cult” you refer to is Islam. With over 1 billion followers I assume it will not collapse any time soon. It may undergo large-scale doubt and shifts of populations to more agnostic, secular practices like in Europe.
But you must be mad to think the Saudi Arabian government wishes to move “into the 21st Century”, whatever that means. They are in the 21st Century by default, and they fully intend on modernising Islam, but this may not be a good thing at all and to me at least it always seems rather vain and blasphemous for people to “modernise” religions, when they are supposedly based on the words and tenets of higher powers than themselves.
What is more likely to collapse for me is the faux-Capitalist mess that is the USA, which has had all of its major institutions and centres of national pride – its military, its police force and legal system, its centres of learning, and its capitalist organisations such as its banks and Wall Street and major corporations – shame themselves with selfish and flawed policies and practices as they continually dip regularly into the public pot yet vehemently decrying “Socialist” principles.
Islam looks positively healthy in comparison.
Do low oil prices factor in to this? If Iran and Iraq create more “supply” oil prices stay low which cuts Saudi revenue more than half.
It’s probably about oil.
It is definitely about oil. And increased supply from Iran and Iraq has nothing to do with it as the Americans want to hugely increase the supply, but increase the price at the same time, contrary to basic economic theory.
This whole sorry situation is about oil. America wants to frack its shale oil reserves, worth trillions, but only available if barrel prices soar. They are trying to artificially push oil prices up – whoever controls supply controls price.
Unfortunately for them, lucky for us in a way, they do not control supply, so are engaging in a policy of attacking, undermining and discrediting their opponents.
Saudi backs this because to do so means hiking up oil prices – Saudi gets double what it is earning right now and its main ally – the USA – gets to play Masters of the Universe with its trillions, helping any allied governments along the way.
The Shiites and their Russian allies DO NOT want this – they rightly fear an oil-rich America striding the Earth like a bullying giant and an even richer Saudi exporting its Wahhabi brand of Islam and funding a Turkish strong-arm throughout the Middle East. The South Americans do not want this because they too do not want an oil-rich America running riot in their sovereign states.
This Cold War-themed rivalry will be the main story for the 21st century, along with whatever stance China takes, which I assume will be resistant to American imperialism – for example the newly ratified AIIB and their aggression over oil reserves in the South China Sea region.
It is sadly amusing that some people still beat the Zionist conspiracy theory claptrap drum, when there is a way more obvious inanely rich and manipulative Saudi Arabia involved in all sorts of shenanigans and America and the 5 Eyes spying on everyone and ramping up the Imperialist bullshit to benefit a few megalomaniacs, all funded by taxpayer money and “austerity” programs.
What a bunch of greedy megalomaniacal cunts, eh?
And we all hoped we’d be driving Neil Young-designed eco-cars and democratically electing good governments via the Internet. Sorry kiddos, the 21st Century will be the WORST EVER I am afraid.
The Saudis and gulf states set the price low at the behest of JSIL and US, their muscle,in hurting the Iranians,Venezuelans and Russians.
In the process they destroyed tar sand viability,an unforeseen good consequence for US environment,but not to the US oil rich boys.
Typical idiotic machinations by yuppie scum.
If you think Israel is not involved in this intentional destabilization of the Middle East, then you don’t know much. Learn about the Oded Yinon Plan. Sometimes, conspiracies are just theories.
I meant to say, sometimes, they aren’t just theories. Not saying Israel was involved in this specific incendiary event, but it is cooperating with the Gulf states to try to drive out the secular Assad.
In all seriousness do you have a blog, or anything for that matter, that you use to rant about things? That last comment was incredibly interesting and well worded.
“Terrorism” in Saudi Arabia means making a billionaire Wahhabist sheik uncomfortable. Daesh has nothing on these guys.
Daesh is created by these guys. But you are right, they are bonkers. They are totally dependant on the US for “protection”, which of course assumes someone would come and take it from them. What is far more likely is an internal collapse of the House of Saud and resulting regime change. So this would take away their money and put at risk all the kickbacks and arm sales the US political leaders and businessmen get. It is the Greatest Gravy Train on Earth and it is shitting itself as America wobbles, its most hated neighbour closes in on nuclear armament, the rest of the world drills up plenty more reserves, and alternative technologies finally become realisable.
This is the Great Saudi Shit-kickers Dance, and the Gravy Train Riders are out in force, arming all the Jihadi Johns and ignorant musclehead fucks the Sunni world and America can muster. I can’t see them winning, but fuck it will be messy whilst they try.
My ignorant speculation: the thing to watch here is the King Fahd Causeway. Bahrain was one of the countries to expel Iranian diplomats, even though its Muslims (70% of the population) are only 30% Sunni .. because its royals are Sunni. Who rule as a de facto absolute monarchy and were much reviled during Arab Spring, but held on. Were that country to go into turmoil, Saudi Arabian troops would stream over that causeway they built and crush all resistance. Ergo, before everything hits the fan, the causeway will cease to be there, and then the question is whether Saudi Arabia’s small navy can do the job without the U.S. rushing forward to help its stalwart ally put down vast crowds of protesting Shiites by whatever means necessary.
I watch English Premier League football and occasionally the awful soap operas my wife loves. I think there will be plenty of other places to watch as WW3 kicks off. America MUST have its fracking oil trillion – I say watch Josh Fox, when he gets assassinated, the move is ON.
Only kidding, Josh – LOVE YOU and THANK YOU! :)
The SA troops did cross the causeway and put down the arab spring in bahrain a few years ago (with our blessing)..they probably do hold bases in manama now, no need to cross any causeway.
There was news that Bahrain tried to offer citizenship to pakistani sunnis to change the balance!!
Certainly western countries do, but I didn’t see anything about Saudi Arabia. I don’t know much about it, but I get the feeling using military bases as a route of attack is … tricky. In the Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S. didn’t march anyone in from Guantanamo, for example. Countries always seem a little worried that abusing one military base might cost them another down the line, or maybe they’re just afraid they’ll airlift in a bunch of soldiers and equipment and then the rebels menace the runway with some missiles and trap them.
Lets not forget that that Saudis executed this guy for his political views. Not that I sympathize with either side of that political debate.
The report is about them executing him for his political views – for us to “forget” that would make us totally moronic.
Some of us on here are at least trying to not be moronic about these terrible and all-to-often interconnected events, and in doing so are “sympathizing” with particular sides and engaging in “political debate”.
If you sit on the fence or have no sympathies, you have nothing worth saying. Do you even KNOW what the political debate is? Is it even simply “political”? When does Saudi do anything that isn’t a (US-backed) disgrace?
WW3 is brewing and John has no sympathies with “that political debate”. Bless. Moron is as moron doesn’t, I guess.
We don’t have very many real friends who listen to us. Saudis are still good friends because of which they want us to stop fracking so that we don’t destroy our environment. In return we look away when they use their swords. At least they look more dignified with shining swords than the cheap way ISIS looks with Chinese-made jagged knives of fake stainless steel.
I thought it was already established that America arms ISIS – Gen. Flynn admitted as much on Al Jazeera. That’s probably why it looks cheap and fake.
We support and arm only the moderately good terrorists. The ISIS are not good folks, and we don’t arm them. Sometimes the moderates are in need of cash, so they sell off their weapons. We are right now trying to convince them not to, but then you can’t really trust any Muslim folk.
That is, until, science discovers the gene that makes us Muslims untrustworthy, and finds the cure.
Genetically there is no great difference. All of us have approximately 23 pairs of chromosomes, so I gather. What matters most is the temporal authority from whom we take orders.
Please tell me that your incoherent, ridiculous drivel is meant to be satire.
No, it’s very serious matter but it won’t be coherent to you.
No, it won’t be coherent to anyone with a pulse. Now go back into the dark, miserable hole you crawled out of.
Alana, Gen Hercules is one of the main arseholes who “contribute” on here. He thinks America is amazing and exceptional, even as all his rights and freedoms vanish and his tax payments get wasted chasing insane dreams of being Masters of the Universe. He will get some middle-aged disease sooner or later and finally be silenced at the staggering cost he must pay for even the most basic healthcare, then he will develop a social conscience and turn left wing and bitterly denounce those he is currently arse-kissing.
Mock him at your leisure, but don’t bother trying to reason with him, he’s what we call “a bit thick” back in England. And when we say “a bit” in England we mean “totally and utterly” and in this case “irredeemably” also. He is probably single, in a shit job, lacks friends, gets a hard-on over modern weapon systems and army guys with muscles, and has a collection of cheap military guff and books on being an army specialist should WW3 break out, but can’t even cook his own dinner properly. Bless.
You look like a potential ISIS chap. If I were in Scotland Yard I’d keep a good slanted eye on you.
Nor any other well adjusted individuals presumably
Saudis are upset with Russian Syrian intervention. thus lashing out at Iran.
That’s random, but almost right. Saudi hates Iran and Syria and Russia and are involved in funding a complete revision of Islam that seeks to once and for all destroy the Shiite faith. Saudi makes money ONLY from oil so the higher the price of oil the better everything is for Saudi. America wants to RAISE OIL PRICES TO INSANE LEVELS so they can frack the Midwest and the Appaluchians into a toxic mess and make trillions. Saudi likes this because, well, oil prices go up and America hugs them closer to their nuclear-armed breast. The Shiites don’t like this, nor do the Russians, and nor does anyone else with a brain and a pulse, because we all use oil and bear its cost in everything we buy, so it is nice when it is cheap, and also America has proven of late that it is not the benign and fatherly figure it wishes to portray to the world. It is instead spying on EVERYONE and murdering opponents throughout Africa and the Middle East with drone attacks.
But you may be right – when I am angry at my wife, I always kick the dog. Except I don’t have one, so I kick the neighbour’s dog instead.
Saudi Arabia is one of several evil countries in that part of the world that the U.S. supports because of oil. I agree with the commenters that SA is a disgusting country. But if you feel strongly about U.S. support of disgusting pigs like that, you should do something about it. Start by organizing your life so you don’t have to drive regularly and then give up your car. Every drop of oil you consume is a vote for support of the Saudi regime and another oil war.
WE GET NO OIL FROM SAUDI
Yeah, actually you.
A lot of oil. Straight feom their desert to your refineries.
Yeah but we only get like 13% of our oil from the Saudis. All of this is partly about oil but mostly about hegemony and control of countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria…control of the region in general. And having the monstrous, dumb-as-shit Saudis under our thumb helps with that.
Alas, Alana, you seem as stupid as General Hercules who you put down elsewhere.
This is all about oil, or more precisely the trillions available from America’s oil shale. The Saudis are far from being “dumb-as-shit” and they are not “under (y)our thumb”, their enormous oil wealth has been bankrolling American arms developments, businesses and politicians for decades and in return you protect them and keep the House of Saud in power.
America is not interested in territorial gain, it is interested in globalisation and profiteering through the trials and tribulations of others. To that end, they are happy to stir up proxy wars and prop up all manner of insane regimes so that they can install their businesses and their laws and their arms with minimal resistance and maximum profits.
But the wheels are falling off the juggernaut and there is about to be one almighty CRASH…
If Carbohydrates are a string of simple sugars, what is a string of simple idiots called?
How could someone who works for CBS news or CNN read a story like this and not be ashamed of themselves? Seriously I wonder what the people at the networks or in the big newspapers think about this sort of coverage?
Shame is anathema to their corporate culture.
They have no shame, and neither does the UN Security Council, who are happy to condemn the burning of Saudi Arabia’s precious embassy, but fail to condemn the barbaric execution of 47 people:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35229385
Your use of the word ashamed is naive because “this sort of coverage” is every bit as slanted as mainstream coverage… the only difference being that it’s slanted in another direction.
Don’t just doubt what the mainstream media says, doubt everything, question all authority, even the reporters here.
What,the Zionist media haven’t been protecting the Saudis since 9-11?Along with their own bought media of course.
I gave up on AJ during Libya.They are just as bad as the Zionists in lying continually.
Remember the used Iranian car salesman and his attempted hit on the noble Saudi,that was supposed to arouse US against Iran?I bet he wishes somebody did.The ultimate patsy.
I’m not very impressed by Saudi Arabia’s PR machine since, so far as I know, they have not convinced a single state in the US to adopt their humane beheading protocol. Consider a typical execution in the US:
Hopefully with its newly acquired cachet as Chair of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia will be able to convince more countries to renounce barbaric forms of execution which last for hours. Although globalization is often criticized, it does provide a mechanism for promoting best practices if everyone simply maintains an open mind and a willingness to learn from others.
As long as the scimitar is sanitized between uses. You don’t want to spread anything.
Naivety as evidenced by these clueless “journalists” is why the Middle East is where it is. Saudi Arabia has supported the U.S. by being its oil pump in bad times, and for supporting U.S. interests in Afghanistan, Egypt, and other countries with its money. And their thanks is a kick in the butt from the sanctimonious hypocrites who have no problem blowing up a wedding party with a drone missile, but who duck squeamishly when a professional executioner cuts off a person’s head. The only difference; is distance. Look to your own ethics first, hypocrites! Oh, and for all of the support Saudi Arabia has given the U.S.-be careful that you don’t chase off one of the few friends you have left!
Yes,the Saudi Israel US alliance,straight from hell to the people of this world.
For anyone who doesn’t know much about the history of Saudi Arabia and it’s horrendous relationship with the West in general and the U.S. in particular, I highly recommend this episode of Abby Martin’s Empire Files (which was also the first episode of the series to air): http://youtu.be/TmSRWXCosxc
It’s a really great primer for understanding not only the sheer horrors of that medieval country, but also for understanding how corrupt and degenerate the US and the capitalist system in general are as well. It’s really a poisonous, rotten, cancerous system that has caused tremendous suffering around the world, and that includes the propping up of the terror-loving/funding Saudis.
TYVM for the link. Also worth watching is Abby’s interview with Max Blumenthal. This type of reporting needs to be front and center 24/7.
I wish only to add to these recommendations our Abby’s recent ‘Empire’ interview with Chris Hedges, as found on TheRealNews right outa Baltimore.
This is excellent journalism that I just don’t see very often from other outlets. It is timely and based in demonstrable facts. Great work!
It is superb journalism, and presents the factual truth, whilst exposing the manipulative and deceitful US media. It is also great to see the links to the other related reports so that as a reader you can see the full picture of what is going on. I would also like to see detailed information on the charges and severity of the crimes of the 47 people executed in a single day by Saudi Arabia, and on the 151 or more executed in 2015.
I hope that everyone tweets and shares this report across every single social media platform, and with friends, family and work colleagues. It is brilliant journalism and deserves maximum possible distribution. Fearless, factual journalism at is very best !
Superb report Lee and Zaid, and thank you for exposing more of the manipulation and deception of the US media, and for highlighting the $90 billion of arms sales which the US Government signed off between October 2010 and October 2014.The reason why the US Government is so keen not to alienate the Saudi Government as you stated.The real cost of these arms sales in human lives is detailed in the report by Amnesty International below :
http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/10/Yemen-call-for-suspension-of-arms-transfers-to-coalition-and-accountability-for-war-crimes/
The article says Al Arabiya receives funding from the Saudi royal family but why some of their reporting seem to be written word-by-word by Israelis?
Because the Saudi family is degenerate, capitalism-loving filth that stands for nothing…and naturally that means towing the Washington line on foreign policy – including on Israel. Being the US’s bitch means you have to bend over for Israel too.
Well, one reason is that both regimes were founded by ethnic cleansers, and have become hostage to religious extremists that they relied on for internal legitimacy. The other is that if the Israeli regime didn’t recommend the PR service companies that are giving them the image management and message control ability the article points out and hints at, the Sauds went to such companies and say they wanted what the Israeli regime was getting.
It seems that way because Israel and the Saudis are allied, for the moment, in their list of enemies. Why let a few be-headings from the despotic and cruel monarchy get in the way of a lasting friendship? Israel often mirrors us, and in this case they are on the same page as the USA with regard to the Saudis.
I’d also like to add that I hope I live long enough to see the downfall of that revolting, vomit-inducing, worthless Saud family. They’re the only people on Earth, besides maybe Netanyahu and his Zionazi pals in the Israeli government, whose heads I’d love to see rolling.
@rrhead
Thank you. I think you told it like it is.
Everyday, it becomes clearer and clearer what an absolute fucking joke the United States is. I can’t imagine how utterly stupid a person has to be to still believe – after 70 years of brutal, blood-soaked foreign policy that has propped up/supported some of the most murderous, psychopathic dictators all over the world and that has made dominating, conquering, and obliterating sovereign countries to fulfill US capitalist interests – that the US gives a rat’s ass about “freedom” and “democracy” and “human rights”…whatever the fuck those words even mean anymore.
And it took you how many decades to come to this conclusion. Now if we can only get you and the rest of your social group to stop voting for dems and republicans we might start to make a little progress.
Ok first of all, I’m in my early 20s. Second, I do not vote for the Democrats or Republicans.
*and neither does my “social group”
So whom do you vote for? Do you have any choices? Is that democracy?
Sure it’s a pretend democracy. The pie must be cut into smaller pieces. Alana may be an independent, and this may be her first time to vote for a president, so go a little easy–saying that to deheded too. I’m just glad she has found The Intercept, and reads it.
We’ve got to cultivate these young folks. I can say that because I’m old enough to have been lied to so many times by the press, and it does my heart good to see The Intercept calling bullshit.
I’m voting for the Green Party. Jill Stein. My hatred for Hillary Clinton MIGHT lead me to vote for Sanders in the Democratic primaries, but I’d be doing it through clenched teeth.
And no, this is definitely not a democracy. Not even close.
To those who truly believed at one time, that the U. S. stood for democracy and freedom around the world, nothing has undermined that narrative more than the company that the U.S. itself keeps. And protects. Like the likes of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy. Decade after decade. Dictator and draconian ruler after another.
Today, Saudi Arabia is a country that is seen by most as little more than the extension of America’s hand in the region, incapable on its own of intervening anywhere or fighting anyone or making any foreign policy decisions without tacit support and approval from Washington. And more importantly still, incapable of serving or protecting Arab interests at home and beyond.
This alliance is the reason why Saudi beheadings are apparently more tolerable or even acceptable to the U. S. whereas ISIS beheadings seem to draw superlative revulsion.
Yet nothing contributed to terrorism more than the well-funded madrassas that churn out hundreds of thousands of radicalized young kids tutored under the Wahhabism brand of Islam, under the sponsorship of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabism the most dogmatic of Islam, can be found live and thriving as we speak, in the madrassas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and God knows where else. Wahhabism is the brand of Islam that the Saudis practice and export.
The madrassas have all but given Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the unfortunate label of being terrorist states because of the terrorism carried out by Wahhabist graduates in these two countries. Also keep in mind that 19 of the 21 alleged 911 terrorists were Saudi nationals. But of course, we had to invade Iraq for that.
If there appears to be a contradiction between the Saudi support of terror through its support of terrorism through Wahhabist terrorist incubators on the one hand, and the U. S. fight against terrorism on the other, then maybe appearances alone do not tell the whole story.
Terrorism as a phenomenon is a highly profitable business. Dedicated capitalists never miss an opportunity to turn a buck, out of triumph or tragedy alike.
You need terrorists to have terrorism. 19 Wahhabi terrorists kickstarted the WOT (war on terror). Without thousands of Saudi financed Wahhabi madrassas everywhere they can set one up, there would still be terrorists but way fewer than we see today.
These madrassas are like terrorist assembly lines. And without terrorists there would be no WOT, without which there would be no profits…
BTW how are your weapons stocks doing lately? I hear they are going through the roof lately. Hope you are happy…because when blood is spread around, all comply through acquiscence. No one understands this than the incubators of these tragedies.
http://freedomfchs.lefora.com/topic/7442322/nanodevices-in-sensory-overload-mind-control-torture
The Saudi government is such a handy example of the contradiction between US discourse and reality that I’m surprised the Saudis haven’t been ditched for propaganda purposes. Financial gains from the relationship must be significant.
I go to the Intercept for revelations about the lies and other regularly committed acts of totalitarianism by the U.S. and Israeli war-and-propaganda machines in their Big Brother campaign of domestic and international surveillance and global terror. And I read smart comments by people like Pat B above. But then I’m miffed by the fact that these same two (the Intercept and commenters) still believe that 911 and the WOT were started by Muslim “terrorists,” whether Al-Qaeda or Wahhabi or what not. Do you not know the now-documented long history of false flag events in which the U.S. (and, in the case of 911, with the help of the Israelis) has initiated acts of terror — often against “itself” and its own people — as pretexts for subsequent war? This should be common knowledge by now, especially if we’re ever going to fully understand the massive con that is “democracy” in America. The first step is to know this history (begin here: http://www.911review.com/articles/anon/false_flag_perations.html and here: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/41-admitted-false-flag-attacks.html) so that bullshit like blaming Muslims for the WOT can stop.
The WOT was initiated and funded by the Israeli-controlled US war machine, is marketed (you could say “brilliantly,” I suppose, using “brands” like the scary CIA-Mossad-created Al-Qaeda and now the even scarier ISIS) to the masses of fearful emotional sheep who only believe what they hear and will do whatever they’re told for “security” purposes, and consists of a decades-long series of timely “acts of terror” (in which actual innocents are killed (911) or none are (Sandy Hook)) that are merely pretexts for legislative (“patriot”) acts to further strip you of your individual rights and to continue the obscene funding of the war machine ($16 billion of your “democratic” tax money in NOVEMBER alone doled out to 159 defense contractors: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/12/04/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-november-2015/). Or as pretexts for actual military action again sovereign nations, based on false intelligence and at the expense of thousands of mostly innocent lives (https://www.iraqbodycount.org/).
On 911, watch Massimo Mazzucco’s excellent “September 11: The New Pearl Harbor”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b6ngPu-ezY
On the controlled demolitions that brought down the three WTC buildings:
http://www.ae911truth.org/gallery/evidence.html
On false flags: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-biggest-secret-in-history-false-flag-terror/5441247
On the culture of fear in America: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/12/17/a-culture-of-fear-the-epigenetics-of-terror/
Assuming they aren’t reading, whichever ‘theys’ that could cause problems if any of these are still around, back in the 1970s, I knew quite a few Saudi students in the USA and they used to joke that Saudi Arabia was the 51st state. They told me about an aborted attempt to overthrow the monarchy and how heavy the repression was. They were great people and I really loved them. Belote, anyone? The Saudi people deserve a better government but then so do we all.
Our strong allies in the ME!
Well, there is the Beheadestan – otherwise known as Saudi Arabia!
What is the difference between ISIS and Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia has only on “S”!
Then we have Turkey as an ally. Jailing journalists and killing Kurds.
And, we can go on…
Hey, as long as the money comes in for the campaigns, Saudis are friends.
You forgot Israel, the apartheid state.
It is ironic that, in an article highlighting the propaganda the Saud crime family uses to keep the American public from reacting with outrage and disgust to what it is doing, a bit of that propaganda is treated as fact. The Saud lead efforts to crush the prodemocracy movements in Bahrain and Yemen, like its efforts to crush them within its borders are not ‘proxy wars with Iran’ but direct, outright wars on the people of Yemen, Bahrain, and, yes, Arabia. Iran has less involvement in those than the US had in the Tianimen Square uprising/protests, or the Prague Spring uprising, and anyone who repeated as fact the claims of the USSR or China that those were ‘proxy wars’ with America would be dismissed as a mouthpiece of those regimes. That said, I do see a high potential for either an incident in Syria (a semi reverse of the shooting down of the Russian plane by a Turkish commander that, for all the wrong reasons, could not be publicly condemned by the US or Turkish governments) or an Iranian ‘humanitarian’ intervention in Yemen (say the declaration of a no fly zone for those Saud warplanes that have been bombing hospitals, schools, and civilians) that will end up seeing Iran actually pushing the Sauds with something more forceful than words and prayers.
Here’s a good one: http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/859601
Now we can take this straight from the Grand Mufti appointed by the Guardian of the Two Mosques: wealth is an objective that can be justly served by execution. If you believe in a religion founded by a pirate, you end up believing stuff like that!
Our reaction to this should not be to pick up the Great White Burden and try to defend a side. Do I know if Nimr al-Nimr shot live rounds at police or crashed into a cop car trying to escape? Do I know if he was in such fear for his life I could call it self-defense? No. All I know is that the Saudi system is all rotten, starting with the religion it is based on.
What I think we should accept is, oh, about a 35% tariff on the import or export of bulk fossil fuels to or from North America, supposing we can get Canada and (optionally) Mexico to agree. I don’t really like the oil industry, but I’d rather our own domestic oil drillers go ahead and claim a reliable livelihood, even at the cost of higher gas prices, if it means we have the peace of mind to know that we don’t have to think about what happens in the Middle East unless whatever goes on with pricing gets absolutely ridiculous. Hope and Islam are never natives of the same country … we should try to disengage at all levels with that part of the world, and no longer concern ourselves with trying to control — let alone command — its daily massacres. There’s nothing for us there – nothing that doesn’t cost more than it’s worth in due time.
(sorry for the repost… I really should have waited for the relevant article to come out before putting this up)
I believe in that religion, but I didn’t ending up believing “stuff like that”, and I know many likeminded.
Maybe I’m letting my “lower self” off the leash this time … the Saudis get that kind of reaction out of a person … still, I remember the last time we went this around you ended up apologetically explaining how in the perfect society in the time of Muhammad, it was just to chop off hands of thieves. And however perfect their society may (not) have been, I doubt they had antibiotics and so I doubt that was a perfectly (or approximately) safe thing to do even in terms of sheer survival. I don’t deny that just about any of us, complete with lower selves and practical insecurity, doesn’t have the temptation to harm a thief; but who taught us in Western countries to show restraint and avoid, at least, going to such a gruesome extreme? It was not Muhammad!
SA is not an Islamic country, and anti-SA sentiments have been growing amongst the Muslims.
Almost no Muslim will ever apologize for what the Quran says.
But understanding its meaning and deciding what’s applicable and appropriate for our times is another matter, and there’s much debate and dusagreements
A problem I have with putting wealth before life, whether one does so as a robber or kidnapper or while enforcing laws in a brutal way, is that it expresses a fundamental sort of, not just materialism, but a belief that those who win the battle for resources have God on their side. Islam seems to teach the first will be first, that God loves an emir more than a poor man, that the ability of the Caliph to hold territory is an expression of his right to rule, and wars are fought – and refought to this day – to prove which Caliph has more God on his side than the other. Christianity, by contrast, is the religion not of someone who carries out executions but of someone who was executed. Every cross is a visible statement that bad things happen to good people. Now that opinion is not without its dissent, but looking at the two religions, it would appear that Christianity is in a far better position to stir the pot against social injustice and mindless cruelty, due to the character of its founder.
What you present is your Islam, not mine or of those I’m familiar with.
http://www.zahrapublications.com
Strange that The Intercept writers (especially Glenn and others) have never mentioned crane-execution of Sunni-Muslim clerks and separatists that Iran has been hanging over the last many years.
Even Jews and Christians are enjoying great religious-freedom in Iran than Sunni-Muslims.
Why doesn’t it get into heads of Glenn and his brigade that not all of Iran is Shiite-Muslim and that there exist too many Sunni-Muslims who are deprived of their religious freedom and rights. It is because of that devil (Saudi) regime that Iran is likewise suppressing Sunni-Muslim minority in Iran from rising up?
Don’t take out evil horrors of Iran perpetrated against its minority. Finally, I loath both Saudi and Iranian regimes, for doing everything to create sectarian conflicts. Don’t forget that one of the reasons why the terrorist devil called “Daesh” came to power, was because of Iran’s intention of bringing top departments of Iraq under Iraqi Shiite-Muslims.
Both sides are equally responsible for the blunder. Saudis are causing strife but their points are not worthless when they accuse Iran of pushing in the Arab countries.
@ Truth
Really? Demonstrate how Iranian Sunni-Muslims are “deprived of their religious freedom and rights” other than ability to construct mosques in major cities in Iran.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/iranian-sunnis-complain-discrimination-2014397125688907.html
The same Sunni-Muslims are destroying other minorities in their controlled and where minorities have no say right? right?
I say its only fair.
@ The Eye
Not sure I understand your point.
What I find strange is that you equate emphasis with omission. Good journalism should include a critical analysis of one’s own governments actions and those of its allies. If you prefer an outlet where “reporters” devote their entire lives to exposing the crimes of foreign governments while ignoring the crimes of their own, you should have plenty of options to choose from. Just saying.
You watch too much FOX!
First, this is about beheadings and executions in SA, and for you to try to create a parallel with unequal treatment of Sunnis in another country is — shall we say “distraction”.
Second, you really watch too much FOX! Daesh was not a creation of Iran. It was the blowback from the US invasion of Iraq, funded by the US allies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and overlooked by the US (wink wink).
@ Jay
You left out Turkey and its support for ISIS.
You are right…I forgot the Hitler loving Erdogan!
Although I did offer Turkey an honorable mention in a post above — for jailing anybody who dares expose their hand-in-glove relationship with Daesh.
And this:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/01/04/will-the-u-s-fall-for-saudi-arabias-deliberate-provocation/
@ Avelna2001
Iranian leaders seem to be about half again as smart as the Saudis or US. The Saudis would never do anything more than fund proxies to work against Iran’s interests in the region indirectly. They’d never engage Iran directly without the support of the US and Israel militaries.
And the day America or Israel decide to bomb Iran for any reason whatsoever the game is up–you’ve got WWIII on your hands and that’s no bueno for anybody.
I don’t think it will happen for that very reason. Iran is no Iraq and never was. America knows exactly what would happen if it sought to facilitate an invasion or bombing of Iran–America’s “interests” in the region would go up in smoke. Between the Russians backing the Iranians and the Iranians own non-nuclear defensive military capacities, they could cripple the US and the global economy in a heartbeat.
And China sure as shit isn’t going to let that happen with all the “development” yuan/dollars its been spreading around ME and SE Asia. They’ve got hundreds of billions invested in infrastructure projects from rail to energy all over the region and they aren’t going to be on board with the West turning that to dust in defense of Saudi Arabia’s backwardness and barbarity.
Seriously doubt European nations would be on board either given their investments and perceived future interests in the region.
“…Saudi Arabia’s backwardness and barbarity”
I agree with you… but you will be stupid to make the believe as the Iran is progressive and champion of humanity.
Iran is definitely not “progressive” the way most people in the West understand that term. It’s definitely got a lot of work to do. But compared to Saudi Arabia, it’s fucking paradise. I’m not trying to downplay Iran’s theocracy or socially repressive ways, but anyone who knows anything about both countries would run to Iran if they only had a choice between the two.
@ Truth
I didn’t mean to suggest Iran was the zenith of progressivism or the preeminent champion of humanitarianism. But neither are Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.
But I generally agree with Alana, “[Iran] compared to Saudi Arabia-[Iran] is a fucking paradise” compared to the revanchist fanatics that pull the strings in Saudi Arabia and anybody who knows anything about the two countries is well aware of that fact.
America’s foreign policy relationship with Saudi Arabia is based on exactly two things historically–Saudi’s willingness to be a US proxy against communism in the region and the oil and weapons trade.
And that says all you need to know about America’s moral compass as well. I love the idea of my country, and absolutely detest what its leaders have done since WWII in service if its elites perceived “interests”. Because I can guaranfuckingtee you that America’s foreign policy over the last 60 years has nothing to do with the “best interests” of the American people, humanitarianism, human rights or the “interests” of any other people on the planet despite the cradle to grave propaganda apparatus in America that has a significant majority of American’s believing such transparent twaddle as “American exceptionalism” or “we are always well intentioned, we just make mistakes” when it comes to the mass slaughter of non-Americans all over the globe.
There hardly a fucking dictator on the planet that hasn’t been backed by the American government and its business elites, politically and/or economically, so long as they are pliant when it comes to towing the line on America’s “interests”. The only notable exceptions might be the leadership of North Korea, Putin and maybe a handful of African dictators (and only for the reason America’s elites could not give a crap about Africa until recently and that’s a function of wanting to economically exploit the continent but being late to the game). Short of that we’ve been in bed over the last 60 years with almost every single known scumbag government on the planet.
Another well known factoid is that America was arguably the last “civilized” nation on the planet to stop backing the Apartheid government of South Africa. And it only pulled its backing once the financial pressure on its interests, globally and specifically in South Africa, became too great.
Anybody that doesn’t understand the above is deluded, propagandized beyond repair and/or doesn’t know their American history.
You’re kidding yourself and delusional if you think Iran’s military could come close to standing up the that of the U.S. If Russia and/or China were to get involved, that would bring nukes into the conflict, but that’s the only way that any of these militaries would not be crushed by the U.S. The U.S. spends something like more than the next ten countries COMBINED on its military, no one else is even close.
Do you believe that the US military actually won its war with Iraq, then?
@ Jeff
You mean the way the US military defeated Afghanistan and Iraq, the former having no military and the latter having next to no military? I’ll tell you who is delusional–any American who thinks the American military could defeat anybody with a viable military without the help of the world. I’m not denying the American military can smash a lot of shit from 30,000 feet in the air and 20 miles out at sea from the safety of their cockpits and cubicles.
But Iran is perfectly capable without Russia or China’s help of blocking the Straight of Hormuz (despite America’s claims) and directly and in conjunction with its allies and proxies setting fire to America and all its allies logistical and military installations in the region.
And if you really want to watch America go up in smoke, watch it try and put “boots on the ground” in Iran. It would be a decades long slaughter. Iran has 77 million people. Iraq had about 35-40 million. The Iranian standing military has 425,000 regular personnel split into three branches equivalent to army, navy and air force. It has 120,000 standing Revolutionary Guards with five branches. And an estimated 3 million (some estimates say 11 million) combat capable Basij militia under control of the Revolutionary Guard.
America has approx. 1.2 million and possibly another million or so in reserve.
But more importantly, Iranians would be fighting on soil they know like the back of their hand–their own. And if you want to know the strategic and tactical abilities of Iran, read up a little bit on the Iran-Iraq war where America and the West were backing Iraq and the Iranians drove them out of Iran, captured parts of Iraq (that they eventually retreated from) and fought them to a standstill (basically Iraq gave up).
Look Iran was capable of convincing their old and young to wade into fire with no bullets in their guns just to get Iraqis to waste bullets on them. They consistently outmaneuvered and tactically outthought the Iraqis who were quite familiar with the terrain they were fighting on and with Iran’s military assets. And Iraq still lost.
America does not want to fight a nation like that, thousands of miles away from home, with vulnerable supply lines, because it will get its ass handed to it short of using nukes. Vietnam had nowhere near the military capacity, or trained military personnel, that present day Iran has and look how that turned out for America despite years of carpet bombing.
If people see Iraq as the biggest military fiasco in our history (not sure why Vietnam isn’t) then they have no idea how much worse it would be if America sparked it up with Iran. An ancient and proud people that would fight to the death of ever able bodied person on their own lands. Just think about some nation’s military trying to invade fat overweight soft America on its own shores. It would be ugly to say the least for whoever tried. The Iranians are a much tougher people who have suffered in ways Americans can never understand and we’d be fools to test their resolve and toughness. IMHO.
I agree. I can’t see the US being stupid enough to become involved in a bombing action against Iran (unless almost any Republican gets elected and, even then, I doubt the US military would acquiesce.) No one, except maybe Israel and the Rethugs, wants to see nukes flying. But I do think that SA is really hoping to scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran and I hope they’re not successful in that venture.
Not surprising:
“The Jewish roots of the Saudi Royal Family”
https://www.facebook.com/notes/hidden-truth/the-jewish-roots-of-the-saudi-royal-family/277683585596093
Oh, YAS…facebook as an authority.
Cute reply for a boy, but exactly which part do you disagree with, and what is your source?