http://www.signorile.com/articles/nyp9.htmlNow that America has taken on religious persecution in Afghanistan-and boasted about it from here to kingdom come, with our First Lady leading the charge-will we have the courage to do so right here in our own country? And what about in those other Islamic fundamentalist states?
During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, while many Americans celebrated the fact that we’d liberated Afghans from the Taliban, our dear friends the Saudis beheaded three men because they’d allegedly engaged in homosexual acts. If the beheadings were anything like those of the past, the men were taken to a "Chop Square," which is usually located outside a mosque, where men gather after prayers and watch the event. An executioner lifts a big sword and lops off the restrained prisoners’ heads. The decapitated body is then sometimes crucified. Such is the punishment for homosexuality and a lot of other offenses against Islam in the lovely desert kingdom. It doesn’t seem that the U.S.’s increasing economic and military relationship with Saudi Arabia over the years has changed things a whit. Beheadings have in fact risen in the years since we saved the Saudis’ asses-and the oil fields-from Saddam Hussein.
You probably didn’t hear about these recent atrocities because, as usual, they were largely ignored by the corporate American media, and certainly by the U.S. government. The Saudi story that has been given much more media play since Christmas has been about how Saudi-led OPEC decided to cut oil production to boost oil prices. And that story of course underscores why the U.S. stays mute about Saudi Arabia’s increasing human-rights abuses and its flagrant violation of a UN charter it signed prohibiting torture (in addition to beheadings, public floggings have been occurring in Saudi Arabia as well).
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Comments by american_typeculture:
And they did 9/11
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