The writer may assume that those about whom he is writing will never read his article because of a language barrier or because they live in a remote part of the world. Consequently, he does not fear legal repercussions. I read with regret the article "The Terrorist State We Dare Not Name" by Jim Freeman. Both motivations seem to be present in Mr. Freeman's article.
In his article, Mr. Freeman could not hide his hate toward Saudi Arabia. He takes the reader on a journey of accusations which include pointing out that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, accusations that Saudi judges do not follow the law, references to capital punishment in Saudi Arabia, punishing theft by amputating hands and a few others.The self-interest served by Mr. Freeman's journey was his stance on the $20 billion US arms sale to Saudi Arabia. He used his hateful journey to pave the way for his speaking out against the arms deal. Had he started out writing about the arms deal, Mr. Freeman may not have gotten his readers to buy into his point of view. I would like to explain how Mr. Freeman exaggerated some of the issues about Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is a society which welcomes foreign workers and executives from all over the world, including the US and Europe. These workers come and go freely year in and year out. The public punishment of a murderer is to protect the lives of others, not to humiliate the murderer as Mr. Freeman implies. Anyone who takes the life of an innocent person deserves both humiliation and punishment and most of the people on earth agree with that.It is almost impossible to commit theft so extreme that it is punished by the amputation of a hand. There has to be three witnesses and it has to be proven that the thief did not desperately need that which he stole. In all of my 50 years, I've known of only 2 or 3 cases. Honor killing is not recognized by Saudi courts and no one is allowed to take the law into his own hands. Anyone who follows the media in the Middle East will tell you that honor killing is mainly heard of in Jordan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and even in those countries, it is against the law. Now we come to the abused and meaningless statement repeated by everyone who wants to link Saudi Arabia to terrorism. 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Al Qaeda employs men of all nationalities, including Americans. Which nationality they turn to to carry out specific terrorist activities depends on the desired outcome. In the case of 9/11, the desired Al Qaeda goal was to cut all links between Islam and the West. They chose Saudis, who were brainwashed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, to represent Islam and chose the US to represent the West. However, in the case of Saudi Arabia, the country is blamed for the crimes of a few.
