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BELOW IS MY HEAVILY EDITED VERSION OF "THE WAR STREET JOURNAL's" picks for yesterday's "best" of the web. Forwarding some items about Saudi Arabia and its fraying relationship with the United States. The attached links will probably survive. Note the priceless introductions by the JOURNAL's James TaRANTo, all very much in keeping with this rag's editorial policies and tone. The report from THE WASHINGTON POST updates and expands on a Tuesday Reuters dispatch, "Senator [Levin] Sees End to U.S. Military Use of Saudi Base." Also of interest is January 8 report from THE [UK] INDEPENDENT's David Usborne, "THE WRONG STUFF or: What happened when America's top female fighter pilot refused to put Saudi Arabia's cultural sensitivities before her own," at: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=113299 Finally, the (sometimes) reliable MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE, in a recent dispatch headed "Saudis Getting Closer To Iraq," sees signs of an attempted Saudi "reconciliation" with Iraq that "have alarmed neighboring Iran, which last year signed a security pact with the Saudi[s]." Kuwait "is also said to [be] monitoring the Iraqi-Saudi contacts." MORE LATER. - NC >From http://OpinionJournal.com Best of the Web Today - [FRIDAY] January 18, 2002 By JAMES TARANTO Saudi Saynoara http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64536-2002Jan17.html "Saudi Arabia's rulers are increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. military presence in their country and may soon ask that it end," the Washington Post reports, citing "several Saudi sources." The Saudis fret that "the American presence has become a political liability in domestic politics and in the Arab world"--the Osama bin Laden position. Also, they're "increasingly uncomfortable with a role in U.S. efforts to contain Saddam Hussein, and earlier ruled out use of Saudi territory as a base for bombing raids on Iraq." Well, that's OK. If the Saudis kick us out now, later we can use Iraq as a base for raids on Saudi Arabia. Or, as InstaPundit.com http://instapundit.blogspot.com/2002_01_13_instapundit_archive.html#8811980 puts it: "Miserable cowards. Let's kick 'em out and give Arabia to Turkey." Abdullah Vents http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=661446265 Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi crown price, "has vented his fury against Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite TV in front of fellow leaders of the Gulf Arab monarchies," Agence France-Presse reports, picking up a story from a Lebanese newspaper. "He focused the attack on Al-Jazeera's coverage of the arrest of a Saudi princess in the United States for alleged 'enslavement' of an Indonesian maid, saying the TV station relied solely on the US media's version of events." Abdullah also accused al-Jazeera of serving as "a platform" for al Qaeda--an accurate charge, to be sure, but one that'd have more moral force if the Saudis were more helpful in fighting al Qaeda. Karzai to Riyadh http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1767000/1767647.stm Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai is visiting Saudi Arabia in search of foreign aid, the BBC reports. This is a bit troubling; the Saudis have, after all, used subsidies to places like Pakistan as a way of spreading their fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam. The Bosnian Connection http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64603-2002Jan17.html "In an operation coordinated with the Bosnian government, U.S. troops today seized and removed to an undisclosed location six Arab terror suspects who were released from a Bosnian prison," the Washington Post reports. "The arrests are the first known case of U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism apprehending suspects outside the Afghan war theater." The men, five Algerians and a Yemeni, allegedly plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. Al Qaeda Drag Queens http://www.nandotimes.com/world/story/221341p-2138309c.html Pakistani police have arrested five suspected al Qaeda members disguised in burkhas. Lucky for them they weren't in Malaysia. Agence France-Presse http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,3607277,00.html reports that "a man who turned up in an Islamic court in a miniskirt and high heeled sandals" was jailed for a week after pleading guilty to "cross-dressing and behaving like a woman at a public place." AFP adds: "Mohamad Ade was told by the Shariah court that it was forbidden for a Muslim man to cross-dress and act immorally." Copyright 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
