← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Sertorius
Thread ID: 20478 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-10-01
2005-10-01 15:47 | User Profile
With all the problems the US has with oil production and refining, this is one of the absolutely stupidest things the Bush Administration has thought of doing. It isn't anyone's business what they do over there concerning religion. It is less the US's business when the US is trying to get them to raise their production of oil. This is not the time to be threatening oil producers with idiocy. Maybe Bush thinks that once he destroys or gets the rest of the oil producers to embargo the US he can get Pat Robertson to grab a staff, strike a rock out in the Permian basin of Texas and magically out from the rock will sprout various valves marked "diesel", "premium", etc. to supply the nation with.
Bush Delays Action Against Saudi Arabia
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
September 30, 2005, 11:17 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has postponed punishing Saudi Arabia for restricting religious freedom, giving the U.S. ally six more months to show it has made progress in its treatment of religious minorities.
One year ago, the State Department declared that religious freedom was absent in the Arab kingdom. Under U.S. law, the Bush administration could have imposed sanctions such as trade restrictions -- as it has done with some other countries.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice notified Congress last week that she had authorized a 180-day waiver of action against Saudi Arabia "in order to allow additional time for the continuation of discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."
Rice raised the issue last week in a meeting in Washington with the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and stressed the importance of continuing to work on it, said State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper.
Last week, the department notified Congress that Rice had banned commercial export of certain defense articles to Eritrea. The African country was cited a year ago along with Saudi Arabia and Vietnam as having records of serious concern on religious freedom.
It was the first time sanctions were applied to any country under the U.S. religious freedom law.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal agency established by Congress in 1998 to promote religious freedom around the world, disclosed Rice's action on Friday.
Cooper said the waiver was a temporary measure that "allows us to continue discussions leading to progress on important religious freedom issues."
Vietnam, the third country cited last year, reached an agreement with the State Department in May to improve religious freedom conditions.
The delay on Saudi Arabia coincided with a just-ended public diplomacy venture by Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes designed to promote democracy in Muslim countries.
Stopping in Saudi Arabia, Hughes praised leaders of the kingdom for their counterterrorism work.
The religious freedom commission, in a statement, said real progress was absent in Saudi Arabia on religious conditions and that the U.S. government should use the 180 days to achieve real progress.
Otherwise, the commission said, licenses should not be issued for exports to Saudi Arabia of technology that could be used in military programs and Saudi officials responsible for religious freedom violations should not be permitted to visit the United States.
"Freedom of religion does not exist," the State Department said last year in summing up the situation in Saudi Arabia in a report that covered religious freedom in 191 countries.
The report said that those who do not adhere to the officially sanctioned strain of Sunni Islam practiced in the country can face "severe repercussions" from religious police.
It also cited instances in which government-paid mosque preachers "used violent anti-Jewish and anti-Christian language in their sermons."
Last week, President Bush waived financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia for failing to make significant efforts to stop slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.
Saudi Arabia was one of 14 countries the State Department listed in June as failing to address the problem adequately. But Bush decided it was not in the national interest of the United States to punish Saudi Arabia as well as Kuwait and Ecuador, who were among the 14 censured nations.
Rice is expected to release this year's worldwide religious freedom report next Thursday.
Copyright é 2005, The Associated Press [url]http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-religious-freedom,0,7388894.story?coll=nyc-nationhome-headlines[/url] [QUOTE]Last week, President Bush waived financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia for failing to make significant efforts to stop slave trade in [B]prostitutes[/B], child sex workers and forced laborers.[/QUOTE] He could get on to Israel for the first one and I wouldn't be surprised if they were guilty of the other charges as well.