Below The Beltway

If someone can please tell me the difference between the mullahs in Iran and the mullahs in Saudi Arabia, I’d appreciate it:
(New York, May 13, 2008) – Courts in Jeddah should dismiss cases against a Saudi web critic and a Turkish barber charged with “insulting” Islam, an unequivocal violation of freedom of expression protected under [...]

President Bush is back in Saudi Arabia meeting with our “friend” King Abdullah:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — With the price of oil hitting record highs, President Bush will use a private visit to King Abdullah’s ranch here Friday to make a second attempt to persuade the Saudi government to increase oil production so that American [...]

A Saudi Arabian woman was the victim of another insane honor killing recently for the “crime” of having a Facebook profile:
A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged.
The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the [...]

The King of Saudi Arabia has pardoned the rape victim who was sentenced to 200 lashes for being in public with a man:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has pardoned a female rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes for being alone with a man at the time of the [...]

Last week, I wrote about the case of a Saudi woman who was sentenced to flogging and prison time after being raped.
Now the Saudi government is trying to justify the brutality of its 12th Century justice system:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The Saudi Justice Ministry announced that a girl gang raped by seven men and [...]

Not sure if this was deliberate, or if Abdullah even realized what happened, but it’s pretty funny:

H/T: Andrew Sullivan

It’s not Afghanistan, it’s not the mountains of Waziristan in northern Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is rumored to be hiding, it’s not Iraq, and its’s not Iran.
The primary hub of the terrorist machine lies in the heart of a supposed American ally:
With oil prices surging, Saudi Arabia is growing in prosperity and embracing some [...]

The latest news from the 9th Century, Saudi Arabian edition:
A SAUDI woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother was sentenced to 90 lashes - for a meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported.
In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the 19-year-old said she was blackmailed [...]

In the Arab world no less:
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — When he was a college student in Washington state, Saudi Arabia’s most popular blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, donned a T-shirt emblazoned with “Animal Rights Equals Human Rights” and slept on the campus lawn during a hunger strike protesting the slaughter of foxes.
That type of freedom during six [...]