Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

10/13/2004 – Another good deed from a US ally.

Another good deed from a US ally.

Just in case you missed this tidbit from the BBC website. I guess the mixture of oil and religious nonsense explains why the US continues to support this repressive regimes among the many all around the world?

“Saudi women barred from voting”

The Saudi interior minister has said women will not be allowed to vote in the country’s municipal elections starting in February 2005. In response to a question about women’s getting the vote, Prince Nayef bin Sultan said simply: “I don’t think that women’s participation is possible.” An election law published in August did not explicitly ban women from voting. This led many campaigners for women’s rights to hope for a substantial breakthrough for Saudi women. The Associated Press quotes an unnamed Saudi election official as saying that the main reasons for barring women from the election were administrative. The official told AP that there were not enough women electoral staff to run women-only voter registration centres, while only a fraction of women in Saudi Arabia had photo identity cards.”

10/1/2004 – Bush and the Saudis

Friday

Bush and the Saudis

 

I saw this picture several months ago in the newspaper and was very struck by what it says about the relationship between Bush and Bandar, the ambassador from a foreign country. Today it popped up again in the current issue of the New York Review of Books. With only a few moments search I found the original color photo.

 
The caption in the New York Review of Books: “George W. Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Ambassador to the US, at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX, August 27, 2002.”

The body language and social conventions displayed here tell me the following:

This is a very comfortable social setting for the two of them, intimate even.

Bush is entirely at ease and not feeling the need to hold any poses with regard to Bandar or the presence of the photographer in the room. Bush is at a lower level looking up to Bandar.

Bandar for his part seems almost unimaginably familiar and casual with Bush. Put yourself in the living room of someone you know quite well. Would you sit on the arm of an upholstered chair to chat? Would you do this with the President of the US (or any other country for that matter)? Only if you had been in the house frequently and you were on very good relations.

Is there any further need top wonder that Bush arranged to have all of the important Saudi’s flown out of the US immediately after 9/11 while even hid mother and father could get a flight anywhere.

BTW – the credit for the photo: Eric Draper/White House website