Now this is REALLY messed up...

[caseydog]

This just really chapped my ass. I had to share it. And we call Saudi Arabia our "friend."

Saudis defend punishment for rape victim
1 hour, 38 minutes ago

The Saudi judiciary on Tuesday defended a court verdict that sentenced a 19-year-old victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was with an unrelated male when they were attacked.

The Shiite Muslim woman had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicted of violating Saudi Arabia's rigid Islamic law requiring segregation of the sexes.

But in considering her appeal of the verdict, the Saudi General Court increased the punishment. It also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the woman, Saudi news media said last week.

The reports triggered an international outcry over the Saudis punishing the victim of a terrible crime.

But the Ministry of Justice stood by the verdict Tuesday, saying that "charges were proven" against the woman for having been in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The ministry implied the victim's sentence was increased because she spoke out to the press. "For whoever has an objection on verdicts issued, the system allows an appeal without resorting to the media," said the statement, which was carried on the official Saudi Press Agency.

The attack occurred in 2006. The victim says she was in a car with a male student she used to know trying to retrieve a picture of her. She says two men got into the car and drove them to a secluded area where she was raped by seven men. Her friend also was assaulted.

Justice in Saudi Arabia is administered by a system of religious courts according to the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Judges have wide discretion in punishing criminals, rules of evidence are vague and sometimes no defense lawyer is present. The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light sentence to death.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack avoided directly criticizing the Saudi judiciary over the case, but said the verdict "causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment."

"It is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it," McCormack said.

Canada's minister for women's issues, Jose Verger, has called the sentence "barbaric."

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the verdict "not only sends victims of sexual violence the message that they should not press charges, but in effect offers protection and impunity to the perpetrators."

[Ira]

There's an old expression they used for guys like Battista in Cuba, Pinochet in Chile, and the King/Princes of Saudi Arabia:

"He's a son of a bitch, but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch."

This is the kind of stuff that turns an ultra-liberal like me into a flag waving, bomb-them-all-to-hell maniac. These are not normal people, and no amount of political correctness is gonna change that.

But they're still our allies. Not always, but often.

Yeah, hard to believe, but I do believe there is such a thing as cultural superiority.

What scares the crap out of me is that although it ain't happening any time soon, the idea is being presented by Iran and Venezuela to trade oil in currencies other than the dollar. (Saudi Arabia opposes it.) I don't understand any of this financial stuff, but I've heard that if that ever happens, it would be devastating to our economy.

Sorry for the hijack Glenn, but can anyone give me the 5th grade explanation about this? That's about the highest level I could understand when it comes to world economies.

[caseydog]

Most mono-theist religions have barbaric laws in their past -- the Book of Leviticus in the Judeo-Christian tradition calls for rape victims to be punished. But, our modern western societies have come to realize that these practices are barbaric.

It just boggles my mind that there are people in the world, in the year 2007, that are still that backwards. And, that WE hold their hands and kiss their butts, just because we need something that they have.

Are they "our son-of-a-bitch", or are we just their "bitch."

CD

[mandy]

Your right this is totaly messed up.

Mandy

[tonyj]

Don't protest too loudly, or they will double her punishment again.

This situation defies all logic.

[sledge]

It's bad , and I Believe gonna get worse, AND our leaders have put us here..... AND the only way out is to cut our depenancy on oil, although very few people even want to think or talk about what that would mean . Just how I feel about it anyway.

[madjack]

...there is another old saying...."when in Rome...do as the Romans do"....these are Barbaric people(in our eyes) but then consider that they are still living in the 6th century...just with cell phones, computers and LOTSSA OIL....It is their country and their law and unless we are willing to pay 10-15 bucks for a gallon of gas, there is not much we can do about it.

Ira, the dollars value was backed up by solid gold, until Woodrow Wilson and the 14th amendment.
Then the dollar was backed by the industrial might of the USA...until we "outsourced" most of it...now it is based upon the perceived value of oil...if it loses that backing then there is not much of value to back it up with...very scary indeed!!!!!!
madjack

[Mary K]

I can not believe the world tolerates this kind of injustice.

I say Nuke Em all!! We can get some diamond bit drills to cut through the glass and get the oil.

Just Kidding Folks, from one extreme to the other.

[Laredo]

Hell with that "when in rome" crap in cases like this. Stand up for what's right no matter where the wrong happens. It's not Islamic law (the Quran does not mandate this). It's Sharia, which is a fundamentalist 'interpretation' of the Mohammedan code -- thought up by a bunch of old men, who delight in thumping anything and anybody that doesn't obey them abjectly. What the woman did wasn't wrong. She wasn't "asking for it." The judges who claim otherwise use their power for their own pleasure, not for justice.


And don't kid yourselves, there is plenty we can do about it -- for starters, we can tell the truth about who was driving the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon and crashed in a Pennsylvania field on 11Sep01. Every last one of them were Saudis.

IT was the Saudis who financed the Wahhabist cult that Khomeini belonged to, when he was kicked out of Iran. It was the Saudis who financed him while he was in Paris. It was the Saudis who gave him money to spread tapes of his sermons throughout Iran during his exile.
It was the Saudis who financed the students who took over the US embassy in 1979. It is the Saudis today whose money keeps bin Laden alive and running, and it is Saudi money that buys the arms for the Iraqi insurgency.

The need to find a way around our dependence on foreign oil was clear in 1973, but the media and therefore the nation chose to ignore the writing on the wall. Gas lines rocked our world, and they'll be back before you know it; CAFE regulations and the 55 MPH speed limit were poo-pooed by big business, big money and big oil, and look at the mess we're in with their bitches Bush and Cheney in the White House.

Biodiesel, solar and wind power, and conservation measures are a necessity, despite what Exxon-Mobil and British Petroleum want you to believe. If you lived on the West Coast in 2000 -- 2002, you know what kind of damage a manipulative and crooked energy trading monopoly can wreak. Power shortages, brownouts and outright ripoffs were Enron's stock in trade, and the people who brought you Enron are neither in jail nor in the ground; Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were the highly-touted geniuses, but literally thousands of Enron's employees are still working in the energy trading sector.

But first we have to see the reality of the concern Ira raised: the dollar isn't the currency of choice for petroleum suppliers anymore. This is largely because the approach of the past six to ten years' US fiscal policy isn't just backfiring, it's melting down; but to answer Ira's question, the notion that Iran, Venezuela, maybe Mexico, and definitely the Arabic members of OPEC except for the Saudis want to market their oil for Euros instead of Dollars bodes very ill indeed for our national currency.

Ira, a few years ago the big scare in political / economic circles was that the Japanese were going to own not just factories here but stock in other companies and real estate here; that hasn't changed. Other countries -- including Saudi Arabia -- have bought real estate, stock and corporations in the US, and the US has financed the Iraq war by selling its debt to China. When -- NOT IF, BUT WHEN -- the Chinese decide they're tired of waiting for their money, what do you think the dollar will be worth? That OPEC doesn't want to depend on the value of the dollar to determine the worth of its petroleum products can only hasten that event.

It's not a fifth-grade explanation, but there's more here:

Before the March 2003 "shock and awe" event, look what Iraq did:
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut/
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/19.html

Iran's doing the same thing now, and Cheney's beating the drums for a US attack on them.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/14-05-2006/80261-iran_oil-0

Ron Paul gave the following analysis:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul303.html

And Joseph, if you're out there -- yes, I cited Ron Paul and I cited Pravda.
Even busted clocks are right twice a day.

[Jiminsav]

MK, i've been saying we should nuke um and drill through the glass for at least 10 years..
but then, I've always been ahead of my time..

[starleen2]

maybe I'm wrong – oil markets are dependent upon the market in which it sells. The American market is separate from other global markets. Oil (per barrel) is not sold or futured at the American dollar price in other countries – it is sold at the currency of the purchasing market, with each market brokering for itself. If the demand is high for the market and sources are scarce – then you bet higher prices. Ever wonder what oil is sold for in Afganistan, Iran, Iraq ?? THEY DON’T NEED IT. Iran has to import its Gasoline because it lacks the refineries to produce its own. Sure oil is high and the profits go where?? To the investors (don’t complain too loud, your retirement funds may be tied to them!) And quess who has the oil??? Bum deal for ISREAL (Gen. 12), they get the promised land and years of unrest and fighting, and what do the Arabs get – the oil!

[Nitetimes]

MK, i've been saying we should nuke um and drill through the glass for at least 10 years..
but then, I've always been ahead of my time..

Yep, me too. That's been my choice right from the start. Just think how much cleaner the whole operation would be.

[ErikF]

imo its such a shame that the saudis are given a free pass on som much because they are one of the few "friends" of us in the M.E.

as someone refernced. its a shame the lack of foresight used by our government alot of the time.

ie, castro, hussein, and everyones favorite osama bin laden. as well as the others mentioned before.

wheres the emoticon where the smily slaps his hand against his forehead?

[PaulC]

imo its such a shame that the saudis are given a free pass on som much because they are one of the few "friends" of us in the M.E.

as someone refernced. its a shame the lack of foresight used by our government alot of the time.

ie, castro, hussein, and everyones favorite osama bin laden. as well as the others mentioned before.

wheres the emoticon where the smily slaps his hand against his forehead?

This one

Cheers
Paul

[Classic Finn]

What happened to the Rules on this Board..

Classic Finn