To Really Combat Terror, End Support for Saudi Arabia : Information Clearing House - ICH
But don’t
expect any concerted action from the British
government. Kuwait is “an important British ally in
the region”, as the British government
officially puts it. Tony Blair has become the
must-have accessory of every self-respecting
dictator, ranging from Kazakhstan to Egypt; Kuwait
was Tony Blair Associates’
first client in a deal worth £27m. Britain has
approved hundreds of arms licences to Kuwait since
2003, recently including military software and
anti-riot shields.
And then,
of course, there is the dictatorship in Saudi
Arabia. Much of the world was rightly repulsed when
Isis beheaded the courageous journalist James Foley.
Note, then, that Saudi Arabia has
beheaded 22 people since 4 August. Among the
“crimes” that are punished with beheading are
sorcery and drug trafficking.
Around
2,000 people have been killed since 1985, their
decapitated corpses often left in public squares as
a warning. According to Amnesty International, the
death penalty “is so far removed from any kind of
legal parameters that it is almost hard to believe”,
with the use of torture to extract confessions
commonplace. Shia Muslims are discriminated against
and women are deprived of basic rights, having to
seek permission from a man before they can even
travel or take up paid work.
But don’t
expect any concerted action from the British
government. Kuwait is “an important British ally in
the region”, as the British government
officially puts it. Tony Blair has become the
must-have accessory of every self-respecting
dictator, ranging from Kazakhstan to Egypt; Kuwait
was Tony Blair Associates’
first client in a deal worth £27m. Britain has
approved hundreds of arms licences to Kuwait since
2003, recently including military software and
anti-riot shields.
And then,
of course, there is the dictatorship in Saudi
Arabia. Much of the world was rightly repulsed when
Isis beheaded the courageous journalist James Foley.
Note, then, that Saudi Arabia has
beheaded 22 people since 4 August. Among the
“crimes” that are punished with beheading are
sorcery and drug trafficking.
Around
2,000 people have been killed since 1985, their
decapitated corpses often left in public squares as
a warning. According to Amnesty International, the
death penalty “is so far removed from any kind of
legal parameters that it is almost hard to believe”,
with the use of torture to extract confessions
commonplace. Shia Muslims are discriminated against
and women are deprived of basic rights, having to
seek permission from a man before they can even
travel or take up paid work.
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