Saudi Arabia: US citizen jailed for 16 years over tweets was tortured, says son | Hacker News Reader

Saudi Arabia: US citizen jailed for 16 years over tweets was tortured, says son

middleeasteye.net

60 pointsrsj_hn26 comments

One mistake in U.S. policy over the last decades has been in regards to the internet and information flow.

The U.S. should have really undermined attempts by authoritarian regimes to censor information by providing funding for open source (etc.) software to thwart it and by heavily taxing companies that provide technology support to these regimes to implement censorship.

These old men in power killing people need to be heavily pressured by society.

tor? (not sure if the CIA still fund it though)

it's not just old men. MBS puts on a show of being more civilised, but he's no less brutal then his predecessors.

I am in Saudi Arabia. Tor and anything commercial VPN doesn't work here. They blocked it completely and they have a REALLY strong and comprehensive filter list. All traffic go through a a huge filter... I had to go to Linode.com, create my openvpn container/vm in Newark/NJ and connect to it.

Not everyone is literate enough to come up with their solutions.

A push button solution to this is needed.

Wouldn't a push button solution just get analyzed and blocked right away once it hits the market and gets some attention?

Needs sneakernet compatibility :)

Great idea - and alienate one of their most important geopolitical allies straight to the arms of their biggest rival (China)

Brilliant

It wouldn’t have alienated them 20 years ago when they were begging to be a part of the WTO.

Information flow should have been part of the WTO contract.

I agree, though I think it should be pointed out that that mistake was a deliberate policy choice, not an unforeseen outcome...

The USA HAS tried to do it You truly misunderstand that their civilization and ideals are different than yours.

Empires go to die in the middle east.

Better get used to a multi-polar war, it's way inevitable after the US lost Afghanistan.

Ideals are different, sure, but even their citizens recognize the danger of a leadership in fear of telling the truth (Chernobyl, imprisoning the Covid whistleblower, etc).

That’s just logic.

The US should not pay their bills: they have plenty of money and don't do their own work. They beat migrant workers (for blasphemy and other illegal oppressive offenses), take their money, jack up the oil price (by as a cartel lowering not price but production rate), and then US soldiers guard their state company's oil fields.

Then: "Thou shalt not blaspheme the false, slaving God."

US/you: Let's provide free military support services to them.

When did they start using noninvasive BCI on US citizens?

If they do not respect the rights of all people - per the UNDHR - they should not receive military support from the US.

(Bin Laden was jailed and then banned from Saudi Arabia, for Zawahiri-like hateful religious blasphemy; and then that became an expense for the United States.)

((EDIT: BBC "Power of Nightmares" (2004) https://g.co/kgs/Egcn8E ; What do neoconservatives and religious fundamentalists have in common? Strange bedfellows indeed. Who just took our money over this? Accept it.)

And why shouldn't they be allowed optimize the price they can generate from their natural resources? Shouldn't we applaud them in helping green revolution by driving prices higher?

That's the only thing they are doing right

Saudi government has shown this is who they are over many years, who is surprised? They butchered a guy with no consequences. But who cares they have a golf tour now

> They butchered a guy with no consequences.

They are an ally, according to US policy (petrodollar etc.). On the other side, US is going against every other ruler who is not aligned with its interests for much less. Double standards. Which is why no one (outside of the western bubble) buys fairy tales the US pushes through its political system, diplomacy and media.

the US both in obamas tenure and again during biden has been doing everything they can to strengthen and legitimize nuclear weapons for SA's biggest regional enemy. all in exchange for nothing of value - a purely political victory while iran arms and trains terrorists and enemies in yemen and elsewhere.

the reason people arent buying fairytales is because they know its too late to stop iran from getting the bomb and the us wont actually step in.

i expect to hear saudi arabia will have acquired nukes or nuke tech just as soon as iran confirms they have. nobody over there is willing to let iran dominate just because the us has stupid leadership. nobody ever thought the agreement the us was attempting to negotiate did anything more than legitimize irans nuclear ambitions. iran called the bluff and now everyone else is legitimately preparing for a nuclear war in the middle east.

Can you provide a source which backs up your claim that Biden is helping Iran get nukes?

Can you provide a source which backs up your claim that Obama helped Iran get nukes?

Ideally, said source also backs up your implicit claim that Trump reversed whatever Obama's presumed policy decisions were which helped Iran get nukes, and that Biden reversed Trump's reversal.

Thanks.

I mean if butchering people was a disqualifier then we’d be in deep shit too.

Make no mistake that human rights is a PR/Political tool. Not an actual thing any state gives a shit about.

It never ceases to amaze me who we in the west have ended up allied with. SA makes Iran look like rational secular friendly people.

Both are quite terrible when it comes to dissent and their perceptions of morality. Iran will execute citizens for mocking their leader. In 1988, some reports say 30,000 political prisoners were executed. Today, Iran routinely executes people with alternative lifestyles. A woman was recently beaten to death by Iranian "morality police" for not wearing the hijab. I am in no way defending the brutalization of SA citizens by their government, I'm just pointing out that the Iranian regime is wholly evil. There isn't really anything friendly about Iranian government.

I don't really disagree but... Saudi Arabia tortured and murdered Kashogi in their embassy in a foreign country for criticism of their leader.

Yes, I know and stated as much, so there isn't really a "but." Both regimes are problematic in terms of human rights.

"OPEC+ cartel's recent vote to cut oil production by up to two million barrels per day from November"

Oh goody, I love paying more for fuel.

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