The NSA's New Partner In Spying: Saudi Arabia's Brutal State Police 125
Advocatus Diaboli sends this news from The Intercept: The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world's most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency's plans "to provide direct analytic and technical support" to the Saudis on "internal security" matters. The Saudi Ministry of Interior—referred to in the document as MOI— has been condemned for years as one of the most brutal human rights violators in the world. In 2013, the U.S. State Department reported that "Ministry of Interior officials sometimes subjected prisoners and detainees to torture and other physical abuse," specifically mentioning a 2011 episode in which MOI agents allegedly "poured an antiseptic cleaning liquid down [the] throat" of one human rights activist. The report also notes the MOI's use of invasive surveillance targeted at political and religious dissidents.
Saudi ? (Score:5, Insightful)
At least a country in middle east that have nothing to do with 911, of course...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks
Re:Foreshadowing? (Score:2, Insightful)
I seriously doubt the NSA will be reigned in any time soon; unless we have a coup but don't hold your breath whilst we have a docile population with a severe celebrity fetish.
Re:Heck, we probably already fund them (Score:2, Insightful)
Saudi? Hey! And Israel! Don't forget NSA and Israel [theguardian.com] - the most moral military on earth! They bomb hospitals under UN protection with the morality of the old testament!
Re:What, no panopticon? (Score:4, Insightful)
I worked that argument out with a simple question: "Self, if you were a random peasant with a vocal opinion on how things should be run differently, would you last longer in the West or in Saudi Arabia?"
That the NSA is knowingly supplying the torturer doesn't make the torturer less evil, any more than someone else doing the torturing makes the NSA less culpable for their knowing supply.
Re:Heck, we probably already fund them (Score:4, Insightful)
Some Palestinians have, if at all, just seconds to leave before an attack but many do leave and flee to the school buildings that under control of the United Nations. The schools are opened especially for this and the UN personnel take care of the refugees and keep both "militants" and weapons out of its buildings.
It also provides the Israeli military with the exact coordinates of the schools. So guess what happens next:
Israeli shells hit UN shelter in Gaza [aljazeera.com]:
Four attacks on well known refugee centers within three days. Does anyone still believe that such attacks are some random accidents?
Re: Heck, we probably already fund them (Score:1, Insightful)
What is there to negotiate? Stop shooting and the Israelis will do it too (their excuse is gone too). Near instant peace. Near instant stop of collateral damage.
And the palestinians can spend the money now spent on rockets on more fruitful things like water, food, housing, and their fishermen can spend time fishing etc. After behaving well for a time, the borders with Egypt can be opened and a further improvement of life can be looked forward to.
The above is all easy.
All that has to be done is stop religious nut cases from yelling that allah is on their side (then why do you need rockets; just pray the Israelis to death overnight) and make them realise that allah doesn't exist (given a choice, no soldier will take his favourite religious book to battle over his gun. There are only atheists in foxholes). That is the hard part. Especially in view of this silly idea that the opinion called religion should be treated with respect.
Bert
Re:Heck, we probably already fund them (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone who says Israel have left Hamas no choice is both morally _and_ intellectually bankrupt !!
You didn't watch the video, did you, Mr. Anonymous Coward? The guy in it is the son of an Israeli general who was pretty much a hero to the Israelis, and who in his later life became devoted to the cause of peace and was very much against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. His son, (the guy in the video), lost a beloved 14-year-old niece in a Palestinian attack, yet he is critical of his own government's role in the environment that led to her death, and has managed to make friends among the Palestinians.
These are people who have a serious amount of skin in this game, yet they have risen above their own knee-jerk reactions, thrown off the propaganda they've been exposed to, and made a hard choice to try to heal the wounds and bury the hatchet. Sure, Hamas' actions are evil - but can you see that your actions might be over the top if you were forced into the shit-end of an apartheid relationship and saw your children not having enough food, water, and education as a result? If you had decades of being demeaned and treated as second-class citizens, with the same for your kids, with no end in sight?
The point here is not about who's right, who's wrong, who's better, who's worse. It's about atrocities having been committed by both parties, and about stopping that shit for the good of all of us. It's easy to stand on the sidelines and engage in name-calling. It's hard to get on the battlefield and fight. But the hardest thing by far is to forgive and to try to move forward when some of the bodies on the field belong to your family. The world needs more people who choose the hardest road - I hope I never have to make that choice, but if I do, I sure as hell hope that I take the hardest path.
Responses like yours only serve to escalate conflicts, add fuel to a fire that's already out of control, and encourage propagandists and tyrants. And don't assume that you'd be so different from Hamas if you were put into the same situation. Desperation makes people do things they never thought they would or could, and I seriously doubt you're very much different from the rest of us in that regard.