hmmm we will see what happens
 

Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt - Middle East, World - The Independent

Saudis Mobilize the Military - Thousands of Troops to Quell Growing Revolt

By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent
Saturday, 5 March 2011

Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week's "day of rage" by what is now called the "Hunayn Revolution".

Saudi Arabia's worst nightmare – the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom – is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain , where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will.

The opposition is expecting at least 20,000 Saudis to gather in Riyadh and in the Shia Muslim provinces of the north-east of the country in six days, to demand an end to corruption and, if necessary, the overthrow of the House of Saud. Saudi security forces have deployed troops and armed police across the Qatif area – where most of Saudi Arabia 's Shia Muslims live – and yesterday would-be protesters circulated photographs of armoured vehicles and buses of the state-security police on a highway near the port city of Dammam .

Although desperate to avoid any outside news of the extent of the protests spreading, Saudi security officials have known for more than a month that the revolt of Shia Muslims in the tiny island of Bahrain was expected to spread to Saudi Arabia . Within the Saudi kingdom, thousands of emails and Facebook messages have encouraged Saudi Sunni Muslims to join the planned demonstrations across the "conservative" and highly corrupt kingdom. They suggest – and this idea is clearly co-ordinated – that during confrontations with armed police or the army next Friday, Saudi women should be placed among the front ranks of the protesters to dissuade the Saudi security forces from opening fire.

If the Saudi royal family decides to use maximum violence against demonstrators, US President Barack Obama will be confronted by one of the most sensitive Middle East decisions of his administration. In Egypt , he only supported the demonstrators after the police used unrestrained firepower against protesters. But in Saudi Arabia – supposedly a "key ally" of the US and one of the world's principal oil producers – he will be loath to protect the innocent.

So far, the Saudi authorities have tried to dissuade their own people from supporting the 11 March demonstrations on the grounds that many protesters are "Iraqis and Iranians". It's the same old story used by Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt and Bouteflika of Algeria and Saleh of Yemen and the al-Khalifas of Bahrain : "foreign hands" are behind every democratic insurrection in the Middle East .

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr Obama will be gritting their teeth next Friday in the hope that either the protesters appear in small numbers or that the Saudis "restrain" their cops and security; history suggests this is unlikely. When Saudi academics have in the past merely called for reforms, they have been harassed or arrested. King Abdullah, albeit a very old man, does not brook rebel lords or restive serfs telling him to make concessions to youth. His £27bn bribe of improved education and housing subsidies is unlikely to meet their demands.

An indication of the seriousness of the revolt against the Saudi royal family comes in its chosen title: Hunayn. This is a valley near Mecca , the scene of one of the last major battles of the Prophet Mohamed against a confederation of Bedouins in AD630. The Prophet won a tight victory after his men were fearful of their opponents. The reference in the Koran, 9: 25-26, as translated by Tarif el-Khalidi, contains a lesson for the Saudi princes: "God gave you victory on many battlefields. Recall the day of Hunayn when you fancied your great numbers. So the earth, with all its wide expanse, narrowed before you and you turned tail and fled. Then God made his serenity to descend upon his Messenger and the believers, and sent down troops you did not see – and punished the unbelievers."

The unbelievers, of course, are supposed – in the eyes of the Hunayn Revolution – to be the King and his thousand princes.

Like almost every other Arab potentate over the past three months, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia suddenly produced economic bribes and promised reforms when his enemy was at the gates. Can the Arabs be bribed? Their leaders can, perhaps, especially when, in the case of Egypt , Washington was offering it the largest handout of dollars – $1.5bn (£800m) – after Israel . But when the money rarely trickles down to impoverished and increasingly educated youth, past promises are recalled and mocked. With oil prices touching $120 a barrel and the Libyan debacle lowering its production by up to 75 per cent, the serious economic – and moral, should this interest the Western powers – question, is how long the "civilised world" can go on supporting the nation whose citizens made up almost all of the suicide killers of 9/11?

The Arabian peninsula gave the world the Prophet and the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans and the Taliban and 9/11 and – let us speak the truth – al-Qa'ida. This week's protests in the kingdom will therefore affect us all – but none more so than the supposedly conservative and definitely hypocritical pseudo-state, run by a company without shareholders called the House of Saud.

ME turmoil !!!
 

Thanks for the updates in the ME. If possible, please post links only. :ouch:

Most of the websites carrying this type of news are blocked in the countries affected (I know .... I'm in one at present), so posting links is not a good idea for some of us.

The link to the article above ..........

با استناد به قانون جرايم رايانه ای
دسترسۍ به تارنماۍ فراخوانده شده امكان پذير نمۍ باشد.

Which I assume means BBIWY !

blocked sites problem
 

links are great text is better,

I can not see Saudi TV carrying the report, but all routes to the news and situation is welcome.

glf

Trouble
 

From recent memory, Saudi tv is state-controlled, so little real news will be broadcast there. And open access to reporters is not at all likely. Most news will come from Twitter, and from private mobiles/internet. Which are again controlled.

Bad situation for all out there, except maybe the fundamentalist troublemakers.

Be wise guys don't criticise Saudi policy too much or else the authroities will cotton on and PPRuNe will get blocked in SA. It happened to a teaching form recently that runs on the same lines as PPRuNe.

Thanks for the input and updates and this forum. Its critical information for us expat crew and our families caught up in the turmoil and uncertainity.:ugh:

Saudi Arabia
 

There are supposedly "Day of Rage" marches planned in Saudi Arabia for Friday 11th & 18th March, but generally people here don't feel that there will be trouble in the Kingdom. The authorities have made it clear that demonstrations are against the law and against Islam. But you never know. In the age of digital communication, all sorts of things seem to happen.

AGAINST ISLAM???? :eek:
So basically all these Muslim people fighting and dying for their freedom are committing sin???

It's in full swing in Bahrain today.

Kicking off again in Oman.
Most media is only covering Muscat, however unrest in the Interior is on the increase.
Ibri tonight is a no-go area with protesting youths burning property.

Options
 

Looks like south east asia or the bottom end of the totem pole in a union carrier are the options if SHTC in the ME:ugh:

Staff blocking entrance to Crowne Plaza hotel just now.
Could not get in.
Security guards standing doing nothing. No police yet.

Things are heating up in the UAE too!

Last week a petition (with over 100 signatures on it!) was handed to the government in Abu Dhabi requesting them to introduce elections in the UAE.

The darkness is spreading!

halas

Signatures, all looked like M Mouse
 

Dubai is Disney land on Steroids, so not surprised.

glf

It gets more "Interesting"
 

I agree with confused
 

The arab union should be the ones to enforce the NFZ, or whatever the outcome is, that the interested LOCAL parties have determined should be the action.

This course of action would raise the credability of the Arab world in the eyes of the rest of the world, and perhaps demonstrate that they are a credible political and military force.

glf

A sad story indeed
 

The Arab League? Backward bunch of dicators, kings, why would they want democracy in this part of the World. The really sad part is that the military in Libya is willing to shoot and kill its own people, what else can be said about such a disfunctional society.
As for Bahrain, the king invites the brutal regime of Saudi Arabia to kill his own citizens. I am glad I do not have such miserable SOB's running my country, a sad day in the Middle East. :eek:

How do you mean, raise their credibility?? They have no credibility to raise. :ugh:

I think you'll find that most "western democracies" (even without the trigger happy yanks) are a lot more aggressive than you think, on occasion.

One more reason to keep them out of there, including the US. Having NATO involved in this mess will not help. The scoundrels and syncophants like Sarkozy, Berlusconi profited enough from the corrupt regime.
I think this is eventually a problem of the Libyan people to get rid of that SOB, and I really hope they do.

If (huge 'if') the Arab league got their air assets into place in time (another huge 'if') to have any effect, it would be interesting in the extreme to see them operate all that cool Western kit they (only ocassionally) fly.

Basil bin Fawlthy (Towers) versus Baldrick abu Blackadder would not be too far off the mark I think.

As others ahve said before me, since nothing but talk has been done to now, it's all but over for the rebels - un less a stray cruiise missile (deniable?) were to find its way into the rigfht compound in Tripoli and the right time.

If that little miracle were to occur, it would be a whole new ball game - which in my opinion, despite all their pious pontifications to the contrary, I really don't think any of the European political leadership want. A potentially radical Islamic republic immediately under Italy? They'd prefer Gaddafi with every wart in place to that.

The only winners out of this sorry situation will be Al Qaeda and the shadowy men who run the boats carrying refugees to Malta and Italy.

State of emergency declared in BAH

BBC News - Bahrain king declares state of emergency after protests

Bahrain
 

Anyone living in Bahrain. What do you think about security for crews on layovers there?

Not Good News
 

Bahrain is probably trending to a sectarian conflict . Looks like there is a lack of educated folks in the leadership. They had so many opportunities to end this diplomatically. The usual hard headedness of the ME prevails.:ugh:

What happened to this place? They are kiling in Bahrain! If I was there I think I would leave on the next plane. Is it still possible to even work for Gulf Air? I heard the load factors are way down. I mean seriously even as a passenger I would not fly with them! :eek:

I think it is hardly appropriate to talk of democracy and the problems in the Arab world after the examples of the so call "Western Democracies"

Didn't America and the UK destroy Iraq on the pretence of WMD (their own intelligence having proved there were none) to help themselves to the oil there? Wasn't the company awarded the most lucrative contracts that on whose board the US Vice President sat? Didn't they kill thousands of civilians as "co-lateral damage" and trigger a civil war?
These sound suspiciously like the actions of war criminals to me.

Wasn't the whole financial collapse that has put millions below the poverty line because the Treasury Secretary, Chairman of the Fed, Head of the SEC etc. all worked for or took money from companies like Goldman Sachs who benefited hugely from the whole debacle?
This bunch sound a lot like plain thieves and fraudsters.

No one has been prosecuted or gone to jail. Their own people have not kicked them out because they cannot. The banks and mega corporations ensure they remain there.
This does not sound like democracy to me.

Let us not critisise too harshly the Arab world when the West is run by murderers, cheats and thieves.

You are right
 

Murderers, war criminals and thieves run the Western governments as well. Iraq was just the beginning and it spun out of control with all its puppets, kings, dictators and other CIA stooges and sycophants in the wake. What will happen if the Japanese want to cash in those toxic US bonds? What will happen to the US Dollar and the currencies in the Middle East? :eek:

And now it's Syria's turn

http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor...-east-12749674

DoD offers to move families in Bahrain
 

Well, someone has an evacuation plan in place

Note the link below is not an official DOD website
DoD offers to move families in Bahrain - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

DXB ???:hmm:

time to go, chaps
 

Daily Telegraph Thu 17 MArch
The fan has been hit.

Good grief people!!!:confused:

Wait! Wait! I thought we were still bashing the West! lol

At least there aren't tanks currently rolling through Washington, London, or Paris...:rolleyes:

Can't speak for London or Paris, but the APV's would be a good idea in most inner cities USA, well at least they are a LITTLE bit more difficult to carjack :ok:

This is getting really ugly! Local news now showing an unarmed demonstrator in BAH getting shot at point blank range by uniformed forces!

that video is kid stuff , here is one better
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Do7vZEryzsEo
(note you will have to log in to youtube.com to watch that video : description of said video if you are not planning on losing your lunch --- imagine cracked melon with the insides of the melon missing )

more relevant to this forum Eurocontrol: Libya shuts airspace to all traffic
SO, whos flying in to Libya currently and who enforces this one? these guys ? :ok:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2jaalh5.jpg

41 killed and more than 100 wounded in Yemen. The government there declares a state of emergency.

A link to Israeli news sources is not likely to be available to our colleagues in the ME, Roadrunner.

They have torn down Pearl (Lulu) roundabout!

In Kuwait think im safe? :eek: