Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, CDHR, Washington DC

September 13, 2019

Dispensable Oil Ministers, U.S. Military Redeployment, Kushner and Women Activists

CDHR’s Analysis And Commentaries

 Khalid Al-Falih and His Predecessors Sacked on the Altar of Absolutism

CDHR Commentary: Sacking Saudi oil Ministers like Khalid Al-Falih is a royal tradition of enabling royal corruption and ensuring absolute royal domination over all aspects of national wealth and decision-making processes. The Saudi ruling family, especially King Salman’s wing of the family (the Sudairis,) has treated the country and its wealth as its private property, as this leaked cable clearly describes. This institutionalized practice is likely to continue as long as there is no governmental transparency, without which the rulers cannot be held accountable for looting the oil revenues. The first oil minister exposed royal corruption and raiding of the country’s oil revenues, for which he paid a high price. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

Tortured Saudi Women Rights Activists Don’t Make Up Stories

CDHR Commentary: As has been profusely documented by the Saudi regimes’ friends and enemies, violations of basic human rights are the norm, not the exception, in Saudi Arabia. This practice has substantially widened and intensified under the watch of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

As this and many other accounts demonstrate, torture in Saudi dungeons is not a fabricated conspiracy by the royal family’s critics, but common practice. Loujain al-Hathloul, Aman Al-Nafjan and many other resilient advocates of human rights and social justice have been languishing in Saudi prisons, where they have been subjected to unspeakable torture.

Unlike Powerful Politicians and Other Celebrities, Artist Nicki Minaj Chose American Democratic Values Over Lucrative Saudi Contract

CDHR: Commentary: Unlike President Trump, Mariah Carey, Wall Street CEOs and Ivanka Trump, Nicki Minaj chose to embrace the values that shield her against the enemies of freedom of choice and freedom of professional and social expression. “Nicki Minaj is pulling out of a concert in Saudi Arabia because she said she wants to show support for women's rights, gay rights and freedom of expression.” Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

King Salman Wants American Troops Back

CDHR Analysis:  It’s ironic that the man who is said to have played a major role in expelling the American troops from Saudi Arabia in 2003 wants them back, ostensibly ‘to increase joint cooper ation in defense of regional security and stability’.

Salman, was the governor of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, when Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula carried out brazen attacks on fortified westerners’ and other expatriates’ compounds in and around the city in 2003. The brazenness and precision of the attacks and proximity to royal palaces shook th e foundation of the Saudi oligarchy. One of the victims of the attacks was Mohammed al-Blaidh, the son of one of Salman’s trusted officials. Salman and his two powerful full-brothers, Naif and Sultan, blamed the attacks on the American soldiers’ presence on “holy” Saudi soil. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

Yemen: A War No One Can Win Militarily

CDHR Commentary: The deadly attacks on a military parade in Aden, South Yemen, on August 1, 2019, by the Houthi rebels that left dozens of dead and injured Yemenis, is another tragedy that most Yemenis have experienced since the blood-stained civil war began four years ago. Yemen, like Iraq and Syria, is a Saudi/Iranian proxy war that is reducing Yemen to ghost towns, famine, malaria, death and destruction. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

“The Heart of the U.S-Saudi Relationship Lies in the Kushner-Prince Friendship”

CDHR: Commentary: There are two commitments President Trump cannot be blamed for not fulfilling:  His family interest and circumventing Human Rights. As this well-substantiated account elucidates, the President lives up to his commitments, including defending rulers known for giving orders to kill prominent critics. No American president has emboldened and defended the Saudi rulers more than President Trump. Even after the heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammed, was implicated in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and columnist for one of the most powerful American newspapers, President Trump continued his defense of the Saudi rulers. Full analysis: www.cdhr.info 

Allowing Saudi Women to Drive or Apply for Passport in the 21st Century is Neither Revolutionary nor an End to Inequality

CDHR Commentary: While the recent social initiatives, decreed by the Saudi king, are psychologically important, in reality men’s control over women’s lives continues. Royal decrees (pronouncements) are not designed to translate into institutionalized rule of law in Saudi Arabia where the judicial system is based on arbitrary interpretation of the Quran and Shariah law by mostly misogynistic clerics, who consider women physically and mentally undeveloped, thus “perpetual minors.” Full analysis: www.cdhr.info

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