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Posts Tagged ‘Riyadh’

Saudi Arabian security forces quell ‘day of rage’ protests

March 12, 2011 Comments off

guardian.co.uk

Saudi Saudi policemen form a check point near the site where a demonstration was expected to take place in Riyadh on Friday. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Saudi security forces came out in strength in Riyadh on a “day of rage” organised by pro-democracy campaigners who managed only small demonstrations in the eastern provinces.

Expectations that the unrest sweeping the Arab world in the last few weeks would spread to its most conservative kingdom appeared to have been dashed by pre-emptive security measures and stern official warnings against any protests.

Far larger demonstrations rocked Yemen, where tens of thousands of pro and anti-government protesters took to the streets as President Ali Abdullah Saleh struggled to maintain his grip.

Clashes broke out in Read more…

Categories: days of rage, Saudi Arabia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Suspected Terrorist Had NYC in His Sights

February 24, 2011 Comments off

A 20-year-old Saudi student arrested in Texas on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack with explosive chemicals had looked at New York City as a possible target.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

“It is war … until the infidels leave defeated,” the chemical engineering student wrote in online postings.

Federal prosecutors said he had researched online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.

Court papers said Aldawsari had been researching New York City, including viewing real-time traffic cameras online that showed the city.

The FBI said he also had looked up the Dallas home of Read more…

Categories: Saudi Arabia, WMD Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia is quickly running out of oil

February 9, 2011 Comments off

US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world’s biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%

Aerial View of Oil Refinery
Saudi oil refinery. WikiLeaks cables suggest the amount of oil that can be retrieved has been overestimated. Photograph: George Steinmetz/Corbis

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom’s crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

The revelation comes as the oil price has soared in recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel on global demand and tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts expect that the Saudis and their Opec cartel partners would pump more oil if rising prices threatened to Read more…

Categories: US, wikileaks Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Saudis already have 2 Pakistani Nukes

February 3, 2011 Comments off

It’s a story that pops up again and again. Saudi Arabia has acquired at least 2 functional Nuclear Weapons from cash strapped Pakistan. Certainly Saudi Arabia has the money to buy nukes from sources like France, China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan or even India.

The worrisome thing is that Pakistani nukes may be on the move and the west has very little knowledge or control over it. Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth. It has a population of 185 million and the majority of people there hate the west and hate Americans. Intelligence experts privately concede that the battle for Pakistan is over. They are now a de facto enemy of the U.S. Al Qaida, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood have won. The ties between Read more…

Categories: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,