Why the west’s view of the Saudis is shifting

S
omething is changing in the west’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. You can read it in the newspapers. You can hear it from politicians. And you can see it in shifts in policy.

Hostile articles about the Saudis are now standard fare in the western press. On Sunday, the main editorial in The Observer denounced the UK’s relationship with Saudi Arabia as an “unedifying alliance that imperils our security”. Two days earlier, the BBC ran an article highlighting an “unprecedented wave of executions” in Saudi Arabia. A couple of months ago, Thomas Friedman, arguably the most influential columnist in the US, labelled the terrorist group, Isis, the “ideological offspring” of Saudi Arabia.

Politicians are taking up similar themes. Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s vice-chancellor, has accused Saudi Arabia of funding Islamist extremism in the west and added: “We have to make it clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over.” In the UK, Lord Ashdown, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for an investigation into the “funding of jihadism” in Britain and pointed at Saudi Arabia.

The sudden increase in concern about Saudi Arabia is driven, in large part, by the rise of Isis. Western policymakers know that the battle with jihadism is as much about ideology as guns. When they look for a source of the Isis worldview, they increasingly trace it back to the Wahhabi philosophy promoted by the Saudi religious establishment.

Saudi influence in the west has also been weakened by other developments. The “shale revolution” in the US has made the west less dependent on Saudi oil. Meanwhile, the turmoil in the Middle East has shone a harsh light on Saudi foreign policy , with particular criticism aimed at the high level of civilian casualties caused by Saudi military intervention in Yemen, and Riyadh’s role in crushing an uprising in Bahrain in 2011.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a33c5e6c-9ccc-11e5-8ce1-f6219b685d74.html

Over the past 18 months the US has approved the sale of more than $24bn of weaponry to Saudi Arabia.

San Bernardino attackers talked ‘about jihad and martyrdom’ in 2013

Source: Washington Post

After the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2 that left 14 people dead, details are starting to emerge about the two shooters. Here's what we know about Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. (The Washington Post)

The attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last week were discussing jihad at least two years before they opened fire in California, the FBI director said Wednesday.

The husband-and-wife duo “were radicalized for quite a long time before their attack,” FBI Director James B. Comey said during an appearance on Capitol Hill. This follows earlier statements by investigators that the shooters had both been adherents to a radical strain of Islam long before the massacre last week.

Syed Rizwan Farook, a 28-year-old county health inspector, and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, had begun communicating online, Comey said. It was during these communications that they began discussing jihadist thoughts, long before Malik traveled to the United States and they got married.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/12/09/san-bernardino-attackers-talked-about-jihad-and-martyrdom-in-2013/

Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of North Face, dies in kayak accident

Source: SF GATE

Douglas Tompkins, an outdoorsman, environmental activist, conservationist and entrepreneur who co-founded the North Face clothing company in San Francisco, died Tuesday in a kayaking accident in southern Chile.

Mr. Tompkins, who also co-founded Esprit with his then-wife, Susie Tompkins Buell, capsized while paddling with five other people on General Carrera Lake in the Patagonia region, according to reports confirmed by North Face officials. He was eventually plucked out of the water, but died of hypothermia at Coyhaique Regional Hospital. He was 72.

General Carrera is a picturesque lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks in the Andes. It is known for spectacular geological formations, unpredictable weather and cold water, generally below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mr. Tompkins, an experienced kayaker, and his fellow paddlers capsized after being hit by large waves in bad weather, according to reports from the Chilean Army. A military patrol boat rescued three of the boaters and a helicopter lifted out the other three, according to the Army.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Douglas-Tomkins-co-founder-of-North-Face-dies-6685004.php?cmpid=brknow

Human Rights Groups Criticize U.S. Arms Sale To Saudi Arabia

Source: NPR

The State Department has approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which includes as many as 13,000 precision guided weapons or smart bombs. The sale comes as Human Rights Watch charges that Saudi airstrikes in Yemen "have indiscriminately killed and injured civilians."

Congress was notified of the sale on Nov. 13 and has 30 days to block the deal — unlikely because congressional staffers have already carefully reviewed the sale. It now appears set to go through this week as part of the Obama administration's pledge to boost military support for Gulf states, after negotiating a nuclear deal with regional rival Iran.

A Saudi-led coalition launched an air war in Yemen in March. The Saudi royals pledged a quick victory after Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and ousted the Saudi-backed government.

For the Saudis and Gulf allies, the Houthis, supported by Iran, are a proxy for Iranian expansion in the region. The Saudis have vowed to counter Iran. But the war has dragged on, devastating Yemen and the country's fragile infrastructure, with more than 2,000 civilians killed and more than 5,000 injured.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/12/08/458959437/human-rights-groups-criticize-u-s-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia

U.S. Agent Gets Six Years Prison for Silk Road Bitcoin Theft

Source: Bloomberg


A government agent who stole $820,000 in bitcoins while investigating an online drug emporium was sentenced Monday to almost six years in prison after a prosecutor said his deceit amounts to a “breathtaking abuse of trust.”

Shaun Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service, hijacked the account of an administrator for the Silk Road black market website to syphon off bitcoins. The U.S. said Bridges deserved a harsh sentence because the administrator was working as a government informant and was put in danger when Silk Road’s founder assumed he was the thief and tried to have him killed.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-07/u-s-agent-gets-six-years-prison-for-silk-road-bitcoin-theft

The Alzheimer pandemic: is paracetamol (acetaminophen) to blame?

Abstract
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The clinical recognition of a form of dementia closely resembling Alzheimer's disease dates from around 1800. The role of analgesics derived from coal-tar in the spread of the pandemic is traced in terms of the introduction of phenacetin (PN) in 1887; its nephrotoxicity; the observation of lesions characteristic of the disease by Fischer and Alzheimer; the discovery of paracetamol (PA) as the major metabolite of PN; the linking of kidney injury and dementia with high PN usage; and the failure of PN replacement by PA to halt and reverse the exponential, inexorable rise in the incidence of Alzheimer-type dementia. Fischer observed his first case before Alzheimer; it is proposed to rename the syndrome Fischer-Alzheimer disease (F-AD). Disease development: PA-metabolising enzymes are localised in the synaptic areas of the frontal cortex and hippocampus, where F-AD lesions arise. The initiating chemical lesions in liver poisoning comprise covalent binding of a highly reactive product of PA metabolism to proteins; similar events are believed to occur in brain, where alterations in the antigenic profiles of cerebral proteins activate the microglia. ?-Amyloid forms, and, like PA itself, induces nitric oxide synthase. Peroxynitrite modifies cerebral proteins by nitrating tyrosine residues, further challenging the microglia and exacerbating the amyloid cascade. Spontaneous reinnervation, N-acetyl cysteine administration and tyrosine supplementation may attenuate the early stages of F-AD development.

CONCLUSION:
F-AD is primarily a man-made condition with PA as its principal risk factor.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24350947

Syria air strikes 'kill 26 civilians'

Source: BBC

Syrian activists say at least 26 civilians, including children, have been killed in the north-east of the country by air strikes possibly carried out by the US-led coalition.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, says the village of al-Khan, near al-Hawl in Hasakah province, was hit.

A US spokesman in Iraq said the reports would be looked into.

Separately, the Syrian government said three soldiers were killed in a strike.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35031531

Three men

U.S. struggling over what to do with Syrian rebels once tied to al Qaida

Last July, an ultraconservative Islamist rebel group made a splash by publicly offering to work with Western powers to resolve the Syrian civil war and build “a moderate future,” a surprising overture from a force that regularly fights alongside al Qaida loyalists.

But the very next month, the same rebel group eulogized Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban chief who sheltered Osama bin Laden before and after the 9/11 attacks, as a steadfast warrior who embodied “the true meanings of jihad and sincerity.”

The mixed messaging from Ahrar al Sham poses a serious dilemma for the Obama administration and its allies as they determine which rebel militias are acceptable partners in a revived diplomatic effort to resolve the Syrian conflict.

Ahrar al Sham is one of Syria’s largest and most effective rebel forces, and its involvement in – or exclusion from – peace negotiations could determine the viability of any settlement hatched from a new series of negotiations in Vienna. The group is too important to exclude from talks on the country’s future, say officials and analysts who monitor the conflict.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article48058665.html#storylink=cpy

Bombing them might be a start.

Photo of San Bernardino shooter without burqa causes controversy

Source: SF Gate

Al Jazeera producer Hashem Said is being criticized after tweeting that ABC News should have respected San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik by not sharing photos of her without a burqa, the Gateway Pundit writes.

One individual responded to Said's comment by posting a picture of Malik after she was shot and killed by law enforcers. Malik is shown lying on her back on pavement as one arm covers her face. The individual who posted the photo wrote "Here is a picture of her without her face."

Said has since retracted the tweet and apologized for his remark on Twitter. He also issued several tweets clarifying that he didn't mean to offend anyone by his comment, and he explained that what he meant to say is that the image ABC used could be offensive to Malik's family.

ABC News was the first to reveal an image of Malik. Malik typically donned a burka but the image they used reveals her face.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Photo-of-San-Bernardino-shooter-without-burka-6679589.php