Conmen posing as state security personnel are looting people in Saudi
Habib ShaikhJEDDAH — E-mail messages are being exchanged in Saudi Arabia between friends and acquaintances warning against conmen who pose as security personnel and relieve their victims of their money, ATM cards, and documents such as Iqama (residence permit), driving licence, and other car papers.
In the course of inquiries, Khaleej Times came across two victims — an Indian and a Pakistani, both residents and working in Riyadh. Coincidentally, both happen to be from the same area of the capital — Hara.
This story from Khaleej Times in Dubai shows that there are some who are not above making a profit (illegal in this case) out of heightened security concerns in the KSA. Inventive, perhaps, but also pretty petty.
Saudi Arabia investment in e-government tops SR3b
DUBAI — The investment strategy employed by the Saudi Arabian Government, which added a further SR3 billion recently, will lay the foundation for the beginning of a comprehensive implementation of e-government.
Although the digital divide between the Middle East and developed nations still exists, the Kingdom is rapidly catching up. The next stage in their e-government implementation plan will be to launch a significant awareness campaign to encourage the general public to embrace e-governance while explaining the key benefits to civil servants, business and society in general.
“KeralaNext” news service, from the southern Indian state of Kerala reports on moves by the Saudis toward e-governance. The investment, worth some US$800 million, is significant. If put into effect effectively, it could provide a great deal of governmental transparency.
Experiencing Guantanamo Part Three
Mohammed Al ShafeyGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, Asharq Al-Awsat – There is a big difference between the prison conditions of the fourth and fifth camps in the US naval base in Guantanamo, in which Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners are detained.
In the Fourth Camp, which Asharq Al Awsat visited accompanied by Commander Katie Hampf from Camp Delta, the group of detainees that we met looked like they were similar in age. All of the detainees are over 30-years old, with long beards, were sitting under wooden parasols to protect them from the burning sun, staring into the wide infinite space overlooking the azure waters of the Caribbean, remembering the past, and thinking about their families and children. They think about the days spent in Afghanistan when they lived in Wazir Akbar Khan, the most exclusive district of Kabul, and about Kandahar, in the proximity of Mullah Omar, the deposed leader of the Taliban. They think about what has brought them to Guantanamo, thousands of miles from their countries of origin.
Asharq Alawsat continues is reporting on a visit to the US military’s facilities at Guantanamo…
JEDDAH: THE Ministry of Higher Education hopes to reshape the Kingdom’s higher education and plans to start by building King Abdullah Science and Technology University in Taif.
“This university is focusing on the higher education which means that students can apply for Masters and PHD dgrees. It is going to attract bright students from across the Kingdom and other countries,†said Ali Al-Ghamdi, the head of higher education section in King Saud University, during the regional scientific conference on giftedness here Monday.
This story from Saudi Gazette talks about the formation of a new technical university that seeks to be the equivalent of MIT or CIT. Currently, the “best” university in the KSA, according to Western standards, is the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in Dhahran. This new university seems designed more toward the blending of business and sciences to improve and expand the country’s industries.
Drastic Solutions Needed for Regional Stability’
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 29 August 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah announced yesterday that Saudi Arabia was seeking drastic solutions to problems threatening the region’s security and stability, including Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon.
Addressing the weekly Cabinet meeting, Abdullah said the solutions to be proposed by the Kingdom would be based on its values and take care of the higher interests of the Arab nation.
“Our efforts are aimed at achieving peace for everybody, beyond narrow personal interests and without promoting a particular thought or imposing a single course of action on anybody,†the king said.
Arab News runs this brief wrap-up of the most recent cabinet meeting. I certainly agree that drastic solutions are needed. I think they are only going to come when both sides realize that they will never achieve 100% of their dreams and will have to be satisfied with something less. Just what that “less” will be is where the “drastic decisions” will have to be taken.
Nasrallah Accused of ‘Adventurism’ for Plunging Lebanon Into Costly War
Samir Al-Saadi & Hasan Hatrash, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 29 August 2006 — With the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah expressing regret Sunday on Lebanese TV for the month-long war in Lebanon in which more than a thousand people died, many people in the Kingdom accused the Hezbollah militia of “adventurism†and being “irresponsible.â€
According to Homoud Al-Bader, a Shoura Council member, Hezbollah’s kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers has taken Lebanon back to “square one.â€
Describing the actions as “miscalculated†and “provocative†Al Bader said that Lebanon had lost hundreds of lives, its infrastructure had been demolished, and now other governments were helping the country to rebuild.
The Saudi media—and at least some Saudi citizens—are not letting up in their condemnation of Hezbollah and its role in starting the most recent war with Israel. One person even likens him to Bin Laden! Interesting reading.
Nine Gitmo Returnees Released, 700 Deviants Reeducated
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 29 August 2006 — Nine of 29 former Guantanamo Bay detainees who were repatriated in May and June to the Kingdom have been released from Saudi jails, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday.
Ninety-five of Saudis are still held in at Guantanamo. In July Saudi Ambassador to United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal said he expected all of them to return to Saudi Arabia within a year.
In a report published in Al-Watan newspaper this month, Mohammed Al-Nejaymi, head of the Advisory Correction Committee, said that two former Guantanamo detainees were sentenced to a year in jail.
Al-Nejaymi expected the release of more of the remaining 20 Saudi detainees being held after their return home, but insisted that if any of them was found to have committed any crime in Saudi Arabia or abroad he would be tried and, if found guilty, punished.
According to this Arab News article, at least some of the Saudis released earlier this year from Guantanamo have been released back into the general public. Others, it is reported, have received additional jail sentences. Definitely worth reading.
Women’s Prayer Area in Haram Might Be Shifted
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 26 August 2006 — The proposal to shift the prayer place of women within the circumambulation area (mataf) to two places inside the Grand Mosque, away from the Holy Kaaba, has drawn mixed reactions from both Saudis and expatriates. Some said the move was discriminatory while others said it would reduce overcrowding in mataf and facilitate tawaf (circumambulation).
Saudi clerics want to restrict women praying at Mecca
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi clerics want to impose restrictions on women praying at Islam’s holiest shrine in Mecca, one of the few places where male and female worshippers can intermingle.
But women activists in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of the religion where a strict version of Islam is state orthodoxy, say the idea is discriminatory and have vowed to oppose it.
These two articles (the first from Arab News, the second from the UAE’s Khaleej Times) talking about moving prayer space designated for women near the holy Kaaba in Mecca. Is this an “anti-woman” move? It is only making a better use of limited space? I’m sure there will be more discussion of it.
Saudi “Corrects” Ideas of 700 Qaeda Sympathizers
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has released over 700 suspected militants after clerics “corrected” their thinking in a special program aimed at stemming a three-year-old campaign of violence by al Qaeda, officials said.
“They are sympathizers. There are many of this kind of people, who are subject to the process of an advisory committee. Hundreds of them have gone through this and been released,” Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.
The men have been released at different stages over the past three years, he explained.
“They were arrested in the first place because they were suspicious, but there was no hard evidence against them linking them to any terrorist act or planning,” he told Reuters.
Turki said the men had believed in ‘takfiri’ ideology, which permits branding Muslim governments or ordinary Muslims as infidels because of policies, behavior or beliefs.
Militants around the world swearing allegiance to the al Qaeda network headed by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden use this idea to justify attacks on governments, foreigners and civilians.
In Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda supporters began a campaign to bring down the U.S.-allied royal family with suicide bombings in May 2003 against Western housing compounds in Riyadh.
Officials say more than 136 militants and 150 foreigners and Saudis, including security forces, have died since then, but the violence has ebbed in the face of toughened security measures against what official rhetoric calls “the deviant group.”
The New York Times carries this Reuters piece about re-educating Saudi militants to show them the error of their ways. The article continues, making an important point about the Saudi education system. As bad as it may be (and it is bad) it is not, in itself, a sufficient explanation for the growth of extremism. All Saudis have gone through the same system. Had the system been an adequate cause of extremism, all Saudis would be extremists. Clearly they’re not. It suggests some of the other possible factors. Worth reading.
Hosh Bakr: A City Within a City
Zainy Abbas, Arab NewsMAKKAH, 28 August 2006 — Walking through the area of Hosh Bakr behind the Al-Mansour Street of Makkah, you could easily think you were in Africa. The disarray of a developing country is found here in this wide plaza nestled among the un-zoned residential neighborhoods in the hills that surround this holy city.
Hosh (Straw/Grass) City is a place where mostly-illegal immigrants gather in the sacred city of Mecca. It’s also become a center for the fencing of stolen goods. Not quite the picturebook image of Mecca…
Iran and Lebanon: Between the Imam and Nasrallah
Hussein ShobokshiThere is a lot of talk these days concerning the increasing role of Iran in the Middle East in general and in Lebanon in particular. The most common example to identify this phenomenon is the “extraordinary” relationship that currently exists between Hezbollah and Iran. However, there are interesting origins behind of the depth of the relationship between Iran and Lebanon.
Shobokshi, a Saudi businessman and commentator, offers a very interesting look at the origins of the relationship between Hezbollah and Iran, increasingly at the cost of its relationship with Syria. Worth reading.
34 Militants Rounded Up
Samir Al-Saadi, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 27 August 2006 — The four militants arrested in Jeddah on Monday were part of a group of 34 men rounded up in different operations around the Kingdom, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
According to this article, the recent clashes with militants in the Jeddah were part of a coordinated effort. I’d like to see a lot more information on how they tie together, but have no reason to doubt the story.
[UPDATE:Asharq Alawsat has further information, but not much.]