Asharq Alawsat runs an interview with Michael Petraglia about the archeological potential of Saudi Arabia. I had the pleasure of hosting Professor Petragli during his 2001 visit to the Kingdom as part of the Fulbright Exchange Program. His study includes not only human habitation patterns in the Middle Paleolithic period, but also how climate change affected them. Using satellite imagery, it’s been determined that vast rivers and lakes were found in Arabia in the prehistoric past. How humans reacted to the frequent wet and dry periods, which are currently in a dry span, may have bearing on how we adapt to the changes we are now experiencing.

Archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia are world-clas
Mohammed Al-Shafey

London, Asharq Al-Awsat – Professor Michael Petraglia is Co-Director of the Centre for Asian Art, Archaeology and Culture and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He specializes in Palaeolithic archaeology and the evolution of human behavior and cognition. His primary geographic areas of interest are the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Eastern North America.

Professior Petraglia is currently leading the 5-year long “Paleodeserts Project” (2012-2016) in collaboration with multiple universities and institutions in Saudi Arabia, the UK and Europe, as well as with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. The project will study the effects of environmental change in the Arabian Peninsula over the last two million years. In particular, it will focus on how long-term climate change affected early humans and animals who settled or passed through the region, and what responses determined whether they were able to survive.

Asharq Al-Awsat spoke with Professor Petraglia to discuss his current research project. He revealed why the Arabian Peninsula is such an archaeological source of interest, and why there have been so few studies before in this area. Professor Petraglia also outlined his initial findings, as well as the significance of this research with regards to the issue of climate change in general.

The following is the text of the interview:
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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the close cooperation of the government of Saudi Arabia, thwarted a plot to destroy an airplane in flight. Asharq Alawsat carries this Reuters story reporting that a Saudi-controlled double-agent had infiltrated the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and had been accepted as a volunteer suicide bomber. Once given the explosives, in the form or an ‘underwear bomb’, he reported to US authorities and the plot was ruined.

Saudi intelligence, CIA infiltrated al Qaeda in Yemen: reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bomber from the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen sent to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner last month was actually a double agent who infiltrated the group and volunteered for the suicide mission, U.S. media reported on Tuesday.

Working closely with the CIA, Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency placed the operative inside al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, with the goal of convincing his handlers to give him a new type of non-metallic bomb for the mission, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Western intelligence agencies have identified AQAP as among the most dangerous and determined al Qaeda affiliates in the world, dedicated in part to attacks on the West.

The explosive device was intended to be smuggled aboard an aircraft undetected and then detonated.

The double agent arranged instead to deliver the device to U.S. and other intelligence authorities waiting outside Yemen, the LA Times reported. The agent arrived safely in an unidentified country and is being debriefed.
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Arab News reports that the government of Yemen was unaware of the plot and its thwarting.

UPDATE: Asharq Alawsat reports on the White House’s gratitude toward Saudi Arabia and its counter-intelligence apparatus:

We’re indebted to Saudi Arabia- White House

London’s The Independent reports on a Wikileaks release from 2009 in which US Secretary of State Clinton says that Saudi Arabia was still a problem when it came to terrorist financing. The Saudis, she noted, lacked sufficient control over the flow of money out of the Kingdom and that the money was ending up in terrorist demands. Both Saudi nationals and foreigners in Saudi Arabia were channeling funds toward improper ends. The fact that Saudi Arabia has difficulty in monitoring the millions of people who come in for Haj was highlighted in several cables, including one from the late Richard Holbrooke, then Special Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This matter seems to have been the target of the recently-announced anti-money laundering program. While that program will greatly reduce slippage among financial institutions, there still remains the problem of cash. The country does have laws that require the documentation of large amounts of cash moving in or out of the country, but enforcement of those laws is difficult. They are particularly difficult when it comes to pilgrims who, indeed, bring large amounts with them to pay for their keep while in Mecca and Medina. Too, many pilgrims still look to Haj as an opportunity to sell goods in order to defray their costs, often resulting in a profit. I’m not sure how the government could address these issues beyond requiring that all expenses be pre-paid and banning pilgrims from any sort of trade. That’s more easily said than done.

Saudi Arabia is ‘biggest funder of terrorists’
Rob Hastings

Saudi Arabia is the single biggest contributor to the funding of Islamic extremism and is unwilling to cut off the money supply, according to a leaked note from Hillary Clinton.

The US Secretary of State says in a secret memorandum that donors in the kingdom still “constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide” and that “it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority”.

In a separate diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks last night, the militant group which carried out the Mumbai bombings in 2008, Lashkar-e-Toiba, is reported to have secured money in Saudi Arabia via one of its charity offshoots which raises money for schools.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is complaining about bias on the part of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an organization that was intended to counsel the US State Department on matter of international religious freedom. While I’m not entirely clear on all the elements of the ACLU’s complaints, I do support their view that the organization seems to have a strong bias against Islam, as I’ve noted over the years.

The USCIRF is capable of doing good work. And it’s not as if religious freedom isn’t an important issue. Rather, the issue is that the organization is working inconstantly, with unequal attention paid to and complaints made about different religions. Where the organization slams Islam or Islamic countries, it neglects to complain about similar activities conducted by other religious groupings. It finds objectionable practices within Islam that are unobjectionable in others.

The USCIRF nearly lost its congressional funding last year. As a creature of Congress, that would have put it out of business. Its funding was approved at the last minute.

A Look at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Dena Sher, Washington Legislative Office at 12:31pm

In 1998, Congress created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to draw attention to violations of religious freedom in other countries. The commissioners vote annually to list countries that are of particular concern or place others on a watch list of countries that should be monitored closely for religious freedom violations.

But, since its inception, the commission’s been beset by controversy. People who watch the commission closely say it was created to satisfy special interests, which has led to bias in the commission’s work. Past commissioners and staff have reported that the commission is “rife, behind-the-scenes, with ideology and tribalism.” They’ve said that commissioners focus “on pet projects that are often based on their own religious background.” In particular, past commissioners and staff reported “an anti-Muslim bias runs through the Commission’s work.”

The commissioners’ personal biases have led to sharp divides both within the commission and with the State Department, which it is supposed to advise. One expert calls the commission’s relationship with the State Department “adversarial,” and “not conducive to effective dialogue, let alone cooperation.” And the divisiveness within the commission itself is obvious, ranging from how it dealt with when a policy analyst claimed her contract with the commission was cancelled because she was Muslim to its most recent report in which five commissioners voted to include Turkey on the list of countries of particular concern (alongside a few others like China and North Korea) over the strong objections of the four other commissioners.
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Christian Science Monitor runs a piece about the sources of US oil imports. It notes that over the past ten years, Saudi Arabia’s oil imports have decreased, moving the Kingdom from the #1 position down to #3. Canada has greatly increased its exports to the US and Mexico, while its volume has declined, rises to #2 because Saudi imports have declined more sharply.

Credit: Robert Rapier/EIA

Top 15 sources of US crude oil imports
Here’s where the US is really getting its oil, plus a look at how imports have changed over the past decade.
Robert Rapier

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently published an article on 2011 U.S. crude oil imports. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at where the U.S. currently obtains its oil, and how that has changed over the past decade. The EIA story is: Nearly 69% of U.S. crude oil imports originated from five countries in 2011. I downloaded their data sources for 2011 import data, and then also went into the archives and pulled up 2001 import data to create the above table.

Over the past decade, Canada became our top supplier of oil, largely due to increases in oil sands production. The EIA report noted that U.S. imports from Canada topped 2 million barrels per day for the first time ever in 2011, “because more oil is now being transported by rail.” This is one of the reasons that the Keystone XL pipeline protests may have the opposite effect of what the protesters intend. Lack of pipeline access isn’t going to slow the growth of the oil sands much (Canadian crude oil imports were up 12% in 2011), it just forces more oil onto more carbon intensive transport options (and perhaps to more distant destinations). Note that there is also greater risk from transporting oil via rail versus pipeline.

Saudi Arabia declined in importance as a supplier of oil to the U.S. over the decade, falling from the top supplier in 2001 to the third spot last year. Imports from Mexico were down 13% over the decade, but Mexico moved into the Number 2 position due to Saudi Arabia’s sharp drop. Countries that were in the Top 15 in 2001 that failed to make the Top 15 in 2011 were Norway (#8 in 2001), the U.K. (#10), Gabon (#12), Argentina (#14), and Trinidad and Tobago (#15). Replacing them in the Top 15 were Algeria, Brazil, Russia, and Cameroon.
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I find it interesting that religiously conservative Saudi Arabia is promoting vaccination against cervical cancer while American religious conservatives are militating against it, particularly if states try to make it mandatory. The fear in the US is that a vaccination against a sexually transmitted disease somehow sends a subtle message that premarital sex is okay. In Saudi Arabia, where premarital sex is strictly condemned, it’s not an issue because premarital sex just doesn’t happen, we’re led to believe.

Vaccination against cervical cancer stressed
RIYADH: MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWS

Currently around 2.2 percent of the female population in Saudi Arabia suffers from cervical cancer, according to an oncology expert in Riyadh yesterday.

Dr. Ismail Al-Badawi, section head of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Oncology at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh, was speaking at a media roundtable conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Riyadh to discuss the importance of vaccinations and how they work.

The event organized by MSD was arranged ahead of the EMRO Vaccination Week, which will take place throughout the region from April 24 to 30.

The week is dedicated to celebrating and promoting immunization for people of all ages through advocacy, education and communication activities.

The gynecologist said cervical cancer is the 11th most common cancer in Saudi Arabia amongst women in general and the eighth most common amongst women aged between 15 and 44.
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Well, railing against the lack of smarts in the general population clearly isn’t limited to the US. Late-night TV host Jay Leno regularly produces cringe-worthy examples on his ‘Jay Walking’ segments where people on the street (the so-called Vox Populi are asked basic cultural questions and fail.

Emad El Din Adeeb at Asharq Alawsat takes a look at Arab Culture and how little the average Arab knows of it. His examples include their knowledge about very basic Islamic concepts – like the Hijri calendar – and suggests that if you want to know about the Arab, Islamic world, you might be better off asking someone who is not Arab, is not Muslim. Logic, even basic logic, seems to not hold much weight.

This isn’t surprising. People talk because they like to talk and hear themselves talk. They often talk, with great authority, about things of which they know little. That’s not an ‘Arab trait’ or a ‘Muslim trait’: it’s a human trait. It does serve as a useful reminder, though, to consider what sources are used to verify information. While the opinion of the average person is important, that does not mean that the opinion has much to do with the facts of the matter.

Right now, there’s a great opportunity to see this in action in the US. President Obama’s health care law has just gone under three days of argument in the US Supreme Court. The American people are divided about the plan. Current polling shows about 65% of the population oppose it. But the argument isn’t about whether people like the plan. The arguments in the court are not about whether it’s a good plan, a necessary plan, a desirable plan. They are about whether the plan is constitutional – whether the Congress, which passed the law, actually had the power, within the limits of power allocated to Congress through the Constitution, to pass the law. In brief, it’s whether the ends justified the means. It’s an issue about which people have opinions, often strong opinions, opinions which flood the newspapers and airwaves. But their opinions don’t actually matter here. They don’t matter because the issue is a technical issue that comes down to the interpretation of law. Even if the program is the best in the world, if it was not passed constitutionally, it is likely to be thrown out. If it is, in fact, unconstitutional, then it needs to be thrown out. One can only reach legitimate ends by way of legitimate means. Arguments based on how good the plan might be, or how worthy its goals entirely miss the point.

The world would be a much better place, of course, if only people who knew what they were talking about were given a public soapbox. But that’s not going to happen. No one will readily acknowledge that they’re speaking with less than perfect authority. Too, that would be the death knell of the Internet, the greatest purveyor of ungrounded opinion in the history of the world.

Pseudo- intellectuals!
Emad El Din Adeeb

If you want to know the true value of a so-called “Arab intellectual” you need only look at the state of Arab culture!

Arab culture is in the gutter thanks in no small part to our intellectual elite!

Our cultural output in recent years, according to human development reports, confirms that in a single day, American publishing houses produce the same number of books as all publishing houses – both private and public – in the Arab world in one year.

Illiteracy in general, Arabic cultural illiteracy in particular, reveals the state of cultural deterioration in the Arab world.

Arabs under 21 years of age receives 68 percent of their information from television, the rest from the internet, and only 3 percent from the press!

We are a people who do not read; we watch, listen, and forward rumors, rather than relying on available knowledge and scientific research.
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With oil selling on the international markets at around $107/bbl, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will increase production to drive prices lower. It seems to have had an effect, with prices dropping a few dollars/barrel.

Kingdom vows measures to bring down oil prices
ARAB NEWS

Saudi Arabia announced yesterday it would work individually and in coordination with the GCC countries and other producers to ensure an adequate oil supply to bring down prices to reasonable levels that could accelerate global economic recovery.

The Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, took the landmark decision after realizing the negative impact of rising oil prices on the world economy, especially on the economies of developing countries.

The Cabinet meeting reiterated Saudi Arabia’s efforts to stabilize the international oil market as it was the largest oil producer and exporter in the world enjoying surplus production capacity and maintaining good relations with other countries.
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A foreign exchange firm notes, too, that the US Dollar has gained strength over the past few days and that this is also a factor in lower oil prices. Both, of course, can be true at the same time.

The Jurist law-blog reports that legal efforts to pull Saudi Arabia back into a civil suit seeking compensation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks has again been rebuffed. The legal motion was dismissed as having already been decided in a 2005 case by the same court (sustained in a 2008 appeal to the US Court of Appeals). The newest case did not present any new evidence that would call for earlier rulings to be overturned. The plaintiffs, however, say they will appeal this newest case.

Federal judge dismisses motion to reinstate Saudi Arabia
as 9/11 defendant
Sung Un Kim

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) [official website] on Thursday dismissed a motion to reinstate Saudi Arabia as a defendant in the civil compensation lawsuit by victims and commercial insurers against the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks [JURIST backgrounder]. Judge George Daniels found no sufficient basis to grant the plaintiffs’ motion [Reuters report], noting that such a motion was already presented to SDNY and rejected in 2005 by Judge Richard Conway Casey, who dismissed Saudi Arabia as a defendant [JURIST report] at that time. For grounds to reopen the case, the plaintiffs cited a November decision [opinion, PDF] of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] that allowed a similar claim to proceed against Afghanistan, but Daniels stated that decision does not allow the claim against Saudi Arabia to be reinstated because the case was closed years ago [JURIST report] and the recent Second Circuit decision has no bearing. The plaintiffs nevertheless plan to appeal the dismissal. Lawyers for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia noted the claim has already lost on appeal of the 2005 rejection, and the US Supreme Court at that time reviewed but declined to hear the case. The plaintiffs originally sued over 200 entities and governments–about 100 are still listed as defendants, and active litigation concerns less than 10.

The claim against Saudi Arabia was dismissed [JURIST report] in 2008 by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit because there was insufficient evidence that the Kingdom’s princes had actual knowledge that their money was going to be used in the 9/11 attacks. Even after 10 years, cases brought by victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack against other governmental entities did not come to an end. In December, Iran denied the allegations [JURIST report] that it was actively involved in the terrorist attack after a default judgment [text, PDF; findings of facts and conclusions, PDF] in Havlish v. Bin Laden [case materials]. In June Judge Daniels dismissed 49 other terrorism lawsuits [JURIST report] based on lack of evidence.

[Go to the linked article to follow other links to court documents and other reports.]

The American space agency, NASA, has published several pictures of Saudi Arabia taken from the International Space Station. The most recent is this one, from February 21, showing the agricultural area of Wadi Al-Sirhan, in the far north of the Kingdom. The water used to irrigate the fields is drawn from underground aquifers, about 200m below the surface. As the Wadi is actually in a basin, some 300m below the surrounding plateaus, the aquifer is better fed than many farther south.

Source: NASA

Agricultural Fields, Wadi As-Sirhan Basin, Saudi Arabia

Northern Saudi Arabia hosts some of the most extensive sand and gravel deserts in the world, but modern agriculture has changed the face of some of them. This photograph from astronauts on the International Space Station presents an almost surreal view of abundant green fields in the midst of a barren desert.

As recently as 1986, there was little to no agricultural activity in the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin. But over the past 26 years, agricultural fields have been steadily developed, largely as a result of the investment of oil industry revenues by the Saudi government. Crops grown in the area include fruits, vegetables, and wheat.

The fields are irrigated by water pumped from underground aquifers. That water is distributed in rotation about a center point within a circular field—a technique known as center-pivot agriculture. The approach affords certain benefits compared to traditional surface irrigation, such as better control of water and fertilizer use. This so-called “precision agriculture” is particularly important in regions subject to high water loss due to evaporation. By better controlling the amount and timing of water application, evaporative losses can be minimized.

For a sense of scale, the agricultural fields in active use (dark green) or fallow (brown to tan), are approximately one kilometer in diameter. While much of the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin shown here is sandy (light tan to brown surfaces) and relatively flat, low hills and rocky outcrops (dark gray) of underlaying sedimentary rocks are visible at image left and right.

Saudi Gazette also runs this photo and press release.

As in many other things, Saudi Arabia is a bit peculiar when it comes to taxes. As a Muslim state, it supports the concept of zakat, the giving of a percentage of one’s assets to charitable ends. It is a religious duty, but as Saudi Arabia completely mingles church and state, it’s also a legal obligation. Generally speaking, a Muslim is to give 2.5% of his total assets (or the cash equivalent) to some charitable purpose, such as feeding or clothing the poor. Money or assets can also be put into a charitable foundation (waqf) pre-existing or established for a charitable purpose, e.g. a mosque or school.

Foreigner firms or non-Muslim entities doing business in Saudi Arabia are not required to make these religious donations. Instead, they are charged an income tax, currently at the rate of 20% of profits. Assets are not taxed per se.

Now, the Saudi government is working to regularize the collection of zakat. It will require all Saudis and Muslim individuals and companies from the GCC to officially report their assets and to pay the requisite sums annually. Failure to do so will lead to a summons and potentially a ban on travel outside the Kingdom.

Because Saudi Arabia lacked an overall income tax system in the past, it was unable to know just how much money there was floating around, never mind being able to track its movements. This led to an inability to track whether wealthy individuals were diverting parts of their wealth to terrorist elements and allegations of bad faith on the part of international organizations and countries trying to combat terrorist financing. The KSA was honestly unable to track the movement of money because it had no idea how much money there was. It did know how many Saudi Riyals were in circulation and how they were moving through the economy, but had no way of knowing what foreign assets were held by Saudi nationals. As zakat concerns all assets, not just those held in the Kingdom, it will now have a handle on some very important numbers.

The new tax regime will not be an income tax, but will require the annual recording of assets. This is, to my eye, more intrusive than an income tax, but as it’s coming from a different starting point, it seems rather straightforward. I do think it a proper role of government to understand how its economy works and how money flows through (or around) it. It should also help the country’s reputation when it comes to countering terrorist financing.

Zakat defaulters will be dealt with sternly, warns official
JEDDAH: GALAL FAKKAR, ARAB NEWS STAFF

The Court of Grievances will be the final decision maker in any dispute between the Zakat payer and the Zakat and Income Tax Department over matters of assessment involving this Islamic obligation, an official has said.

“The new Zakat regulation, which has reached its final stage prior to implementation, has been prepared after studies of expert committees and on the basis of relevant fatwas, ministerial decisions and royal decrees,” said Ibrahim Al-Mufleh, director general of the department.

The new regulation also empowers the department to summon any defaulter of Zakat payment in addition to banning a defaulter from traveling outside the Kingdom, he said.
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In his latest op-ed for Arab News, Abdulateef Al-Mulhim responds to a question that’s bouncing around the region, wondering where is America and American action when it comes to Syria. He correctly identifies several issues that stay America’s hand, starting with the fact that the opposition to the Assad regime is scattered and uncoordinated. Who, exactly, should America be supporting? Worse than picking the wrong party to back is to just jump into a situation where the fall of the government results in chaos. That’s a lesson the US learned and continues to learn from its intervention in Iraq – and likely Libya as well.

While the upcoming US elections are certainly on American minds, I’m not sure that they are a strong reason for American reticence. Sure, the American people are getting tired of intervention in foreign countries where even good intention reap ambiguous results. If a strong case for intervention in Syria were made – and there were a strong likelihood that intervention would lead to a better solution – I think the government would take the political risk in order to do the right thing. At the moment, though, neither of those conditions pertain.

Al-Mulhim is right, too, in pointing out that Syria’s Russian support is not something the country should count out to pull its chestnuts out of the fire. Russia will make the right political statements in the right political venues. It may even offer some low-level aid. But Russia will not commit troops or warships to protect Syria. Syria is only useful to Russia as a goad toward both the US and Israel, not worth going to war over.

In concluding his piece, Al-Mulhim also notes a fact of the modern world: The US will be blamed whether it acts or it doesn’t act. Choosing one or the other only serves to define which populations, which countries get to hold the hammer of public denunciation. Right now, the US is more content to take the pounding for inaction.

Syria — where are the Americans?
ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

January 26, 2011 was the first day of the Syrian uprising. The protests started as a continuation of what became known as the Arab Spring. During the Arab Spring, we saw violent and drastic changes in the Arab world, in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and finally Syria.

The Syrian uprising is the longest and so far the bloodiest. All Syrians who are participating in the protests against Bashar Assad asked the question of where are the Americans and their mighty war machine? What makes Libya different from Syria?

The Syrians’ question is countered by an American question. Why are the Syrians asking for the American intervention in the first place? Hasn’t Syria been anti-America for many decades, and America is the mother of Imperialism? Wasn’t it the Syrians who said, it is America, who is the enemy of all Arab people. And wasn’t it the Syrians who wanted the people of the Gulf states to boycott America and American goods? However, the question still remains, why America didn’t interfere in Syria, as it did in Libya?
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