Saudi Arabia: Five beheaded and ‘crucified’ amid ‘disturbing’ rise in executions

[nadinbrzezinski]

Saudi Arabia must halt a “disturbing” rise in death penalty usage that has resulted in at least 47 state killings in the country already this year, Amnesty International urged after six more people were executed today.

Five Yemeni men were beheaded and “crucified” this morning in the city of Jizan, while a Saudi Arabian man was executed in the south-western city of Abha.

“Saudi Arabia’s increased use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is deeply disturbing and the authorities must halt what is a horrifying trend,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/saudi-arabia-five-beheaded-and-crucified-amid-disturbing-rise-executions-2013-05-21

Why am I linking to a May story? Because a few folks here cannot believe our friends and pals are so great they actually have now carried out these executions.

So The Blaze carried the story of the execution, I know gasp, originating from the AP wire, and the Blaze is a *gasp* Glen Beck outfit. (It is, but clocks, broken clocks in this case come to mind) The Guardian picked up onthe same Wire story incidentally.

Yes, Saudi Aabia *is that barbaric* even if our nominal allies. And yes, they use beheadings, stoning, crucifixion, and firing squads. Their legal system has little in the way of long term sentences of any kind, and make the Chinese look civilized by orders of magnitude.

But to all of you going, but it's The Blaze!!!!!! Go argue with Amnesty m'kay.

[maddezmom]

1. Looks like you made your case here

In the other thread....why post another OP?

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I'm glad someone did, the defenses of that horrific kingdom's atrocities on that thread was hard

to look at. But then again, they have to explain why these are John Kerry's best buddies in wartime so the atrocities have to be excused, denied, waved away, demoted to road bumps...

[pscot]

2. Fucking barbarians

[polly7]

3. Oh come on Nadin ....

Saudi Arabia is one of the most humanitarian places on earth. Why else would they care so deeply for the people of Iraq, Libya and now Syria so much they'd sacrifice funding, weaponry and their death-row inmates to liberate them, if they were as bad as you're making out.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. From what I read on these parts

I sometimes wonder if a few folks missed their class on propaganda 101. It has to remain within credibility, and SA record is well known. You ignore the obvious blemishes of your allies.

[Aerows]

14. But but but

crucifixion and beheading are *much* better than killing people with Sarin gas.

[backscatter712]

26. Warm up the bombers and Tomahawk missiles!

Let's democratize the SHIT out of them!

Hey, you'd think the US would try for a bit of consistency...

[Catherina]

12. That's Bahrain this year lol. They're hosting the pan-Arab court of human rights

despite all the children they've tortured, the activists and journalists they've locked up and tortured and disappeared bloggers.

Bahrain to host pan-Arab human rights court

[Aerows]

16. Pfft.

None of them died in a gas attack, so it's fine.

[Catherina]

18. Did you see this thread? "From one Nobel Peace Laureate to another"

It goes straight to your point.

From one Nobel Peace Laureate to another (from Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to Barack Obama) http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023621013

[Aerows]

22. The hypocrisy of it all

makes me ill. We have rebels eating organs, executing and beheading people, it's all good. A supposed Assad-gov chemical weapon attack takes place and hair is on fire to attack. (See what I did there with the hair on fire insult?).

Anything and everything is acceptable and good as long as it serves our goals, but if we can somehow capitalize on an act, whether it took place as advertised (and I use that word exactly as intended) or not, suddenly, it is imperative to wade right in.

It is no secret that this is about an oil pipeline, and anyone who thinks it has anything to do with humanitarian reasons needs only to turn to Rwanda and Congo to see that humanitarian only matters when there is profit. We are getting a hard sell on this one, which is the main reason why we need to reject it at all costs - because it is neither good for the US, nor for the people we are going to "help" by bombing the hell out of their country.

[polly7]

29. Oh good grief!

Geez ..... I just noticed the picture in that thread of the little boy who'd been lashed.

[Bjorn Against]

4. But they are our allies so they will get a free pass for their human rights abuses

I hope Kerry gets called out to his face the next time he brags that these monsters have agreed to fund our bombing of Syria.

[sibelian]

5. Let's bomb them!

Let's bomb them with sexy bombs! I'm stoked!

bombbombbombbombstokeystokey

[Iggo]

21. Plus, there's oil there!

Bonus!

[markpkessinger]

30. Hey, now . . .

. . . that's just pure coincidence!

[TeeYiYi]

40. Sexy bombs...

Who wouldn't be stoked, with sexy bombs? I'm stoked! Ridin' the sexy Tomahawks...





TYY

[The Straight Story]

8. Said in the other thread, will here: Dead it dead, no one cares how they died

Chemical weapons, guns, hanging, etc - we all now from DU of late that dead is dead and how people die in another country is not our business. Assad and the Saudi's own their people and may do with the 99% whatever the 1% desires and we here in the US will back their right to do so 100%

I don't know why assad should even attempt to deny using chemical weapons since we all know no one would care if he covered kids in oil and burned them alive to keep his back porch lit at night (if he used them to light smokes though, holy crap the bombs would fly).

We get, we know, and we support the right of others with power over (mostly poor) people to act how they want. If those people don't like it they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get better jobs and move elsewhere.

....and people call me the libertarian.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Actually people care

But people are helpless to do anything about it.

We, as citizens, should throw the triple standard at our government

[Catherina]

10. I can't believe there's such a ruckus of denial. It's not like it's a new topic at DU

Wed Nov-04-09 Saudi court upholds child rapist crucifixion ruling

Tue Nov-03-09 Saudi rapist and murderer to be beheaded and crucified

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5747973

Saudi beheads and crucifies murder convict (publicly)]

Chop Square - homosexuality in Saudi Arabia


But now they're our friends or something.

Thanks Nadin

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. You welcome

It is not denial, it's an inconvenient truth.

But, but, IT'S THE BLAZE!!!!!! Or 'thing

[Violet_Crumble]

32. I'm curious where you and the one yr replying to are seeing a ruckus of denial...

Or does 'ruckus' translate as one or two DUers who dare to be suspicious of a stinky RW source that the OP posted and they're questioning the method of execution?

Name all these DUers who deny that Saudi Arabia has long had an appalling record when it comes to meting out brutal forms of 'justice'. I'd like to see who they are.

The OP of the other thread has confirmed in this thread that her motive for posting it was to go 'BAD USA for wanting to do something that the Saudis want them to do! Therefore anyone who wants the US to intervene/bomb etc is also BAD and support what the Saudis do!' That's a form of argument that's bound for failure and probably egg on face. It reminds me of back at DU2 where supporters of a Palestinian state were told that if they support a state they support homophobia because the PA have some homophobic laws in place. It was lame then and the similar attempt now is equally lame. As I said in the other thread, what the Saudis do is shit, what the US wants to do to Syria is shit, but they're two different sorts of shit and trying to mix the whole stinky mess together as one is going to result in a bit of a shit backspatter...

[polly7]

37. Did you miss how these strikes are

being sold as humanitarian? How can they say that, when they're admitting they could possibly be funded by one of the worst human-rights abusers in the region? It's not lame at all, it's just another reason to think it's got nothing to do with caring about anyone.

[Violet_Crumble]

38. I don't miss much, Polly...

Nor do I miss that the US is one of the world's top human rights abusers. See, what's really incredibly lame about the attempt to argue we should oppose any attack by the US is because Saudi Arabia are nasty and want the US to do it is that I oppose any attack and don't give a flying fuck what Saudi Arabia wants. The entire logic is applied to other issues like the I/P conflict by 'supporters' of Israel, and waves of 'look at how bad they are! If you support a Palestinian state you must support that!'

What I don't get is why when there's so many good and convincing arguments against the US attacking Syria, there's a few DUers who have to take the silly road and go all hyperbolic and use things that have got nothing to do with any attack on Syria. It's almost as though they're in a competition to see who can come up with the most ridiculous thing. I suspect they get bonus points when they sit there and accuse other DUers of things like denying that Saudi Arabia has a habit of lopping off limbs that would make Joffrey proud

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. So I guess the hyperbole over their

Human rights abuses are hyperbole and none should mention them. Let me call Amnesty International, who has been keeping tabs on that for now decades...poor dears. By the way, they also keep tabs on the US.

What if we told you these barbaric executions, which according to Amnesty are increasing, are not about Syria but the great ally that has offered to pay for the whole thing if we lose our little sanity left and actually put boots on the ground?

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. It's more than a couple

And one is now on ignore.

But I am posting this, again, as education.

The blaze ran an AP Wire Story

That is not a Blaze story, but an AP story that the Blaze chose to run, together with oh the Guardian, for example.

There are rules on how subscribers to the AP wire use their stories, and the AP are fanatical to protect their IP. Incidentally, the same applies to Reuters and AFP for example.

The Union Trib, my paper of record, is worst than the Blaze, and they also use wire stories regularly. Glen Beck's project is mostly a news aggregator, with a few native stories.

If I see a wire story, don't care what the site is. What matters is who is the news originator, not the aggregator.

I realize people who do not work in media realize this.

[OneGrassRoot]

13. Please be careful not to dehumanize entire groups of people...

Criticize the government, the systems (religious, secular, legal, education...I don't care) and individuals directly engaged in or condoning/applauding barbaric and savage behavior.

It becomes all too easy to label all people/citizens who live in the Middle East as "savages" for those who are inclined to do so.

Labeling an entire country -- "Saudi Arabia is that barbaric" -- in such a general way plays in with the tendency for many humans to demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people, the vast majority of whom do NOT condone nor engage in barbaric behavior.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Would you prefer Wahhabism instead?

The social system in SA is indeed barbaric by any standards in their treatment of women and prisoners.

[OneGrassRoot]

17. Are you saying the vast majority of citizens...

individuals themselves, NOT the systems, in Saudi Arabia are savages and barbarians, in your opinion?

I think it's important to distinguish systems from individual human beings (by lumping together an entire citizenry) as savages and barbarians.


Edited for clarity.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. The system is

I know that is hard to understand. It s as barbaric as the Special Institution in the South was. Is that clear enough?

[OneGrassRoot]

20. It's not hard to understand when you specify "the system."

I was trying to distinguish if you were saying the Saudi Arabian people are barbarians/savages ('cause that's a LOT of people being broad-brushed with that label and we see it happening all the time), versus the SYSTEMS in Saudi Arabia being savage.

Because just saying "Saudi Arabia is barbaric" could apply to the entire citizenry and that would be wrong.

Thank you for clarifying you were referring to the system.

[LukeFL]

33. Oh please! Too much explanation?

The country in its entirely is barbaric

There I said it. Don't slice and dice my statement.

[OneGrassRoot]

34. Are all Middle Eastern people barbaric in your view? n/t

[Raksha]

23. K & R

[backscatter712]

24. Even a broken clock's right twice a day. Even the Blaze carries a truthful story occasionally.

Because Amnesty Int'l is carrying the story, that gives it credibility.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Amnesty has carried these stories for years.

What is of note is that it's accelerating.

[backscatter712]

27. Very true. n/t

[felix_numinous]

28. Saudis are one of the big families

and whenever the ultra rich 1% want to make a change in the power structure, us pawns get moved around the board whether we like it or not.

They want leaders that play along with them, and Iran has been out of their control since the Shah puppet dictator got deposed in '79.

All of these atrocities are war theater to them, they are in it for the resources--and we are Arabia's bitch. So they expect us to do their bidding, all violence and ethics aside.

I have grown jaded, sorry.

[JI7]

31. the United States still has the Death Penalty so who are we to judge

[L0oniX]

43. But we kill them nicely and humanely ...like a dog or cat. n/t

[dembotoz]

35. crucification--maybe they are becoming christian

[ThirdWayCowplop]

36. Religious fundamentalism in all its shining glory!

ALL Religion is poisonous and destructive and needs to be eliminated from the world.

[L0oniX]

42. 15 Saudis, 911, Iraq and now Syria ...yeah it all makes sense ...or NOT!