The Freedom Watch

Men Deemed ‘Too Handsome’ Deported from Saudi Arabia

"At least three men attending an annual culture festival in Saudi Arabia were kicked out of the country after religious police officers deemed them "too handsome" to stay. The men, delegates from the United Arab Emirates, were minding their own business at the Jenadrivah Heritage & Cultural Festival in Riyadh when members of the mutaween suddenly 'stormed' the pavilion and removed the men by force. 'A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices] members feared female visitors could fall for them,' the Arabic-language newspaper Elaph reported this week." Continue reading →

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Pastor Saeed Abedini Loses Appeal Case, 8-Year Sentence In Iranian Jail Stands

"A Tehran appeals court upheld an eight-year prison sentence against an American-Iranian pastor jailed for his role in establishing underground churches in Iran, his lawyer told ISNA news agency Monday. Saeed Abedini, a US citizen who converted from Islam to Christianity, was handed the sentence in January. In March, UN Secretary of State John Kerry demanded Abedini’s release after he was sentenced to eight years in prison for 'creating a private church in his house' and 'harming national security.' The confirmation of the verdict coincided with a visit to Tehran by Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, who has acted as an intermediary between Iran and the Washington." Continue reading →

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Saudi Arabia opens luxury ‘religious extremist’ rehab center for Al-Qaeda militants

"Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed Al-Qaeda militants off religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation centre in Riyadh. In between sessions with counsellors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the centre’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a gym and a television hall. Another centre has already opened in the western port city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for the north, east and south of the desert kingdom. The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first to offer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs." Continue reading →

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In Swat Valley, U.S. drone strikes radicalizing a new generation

"The boys here, aged 8 to 18, were all militants at some point. Some are killers, some helped build and plant improvised explosive devices, and others were destined to be suicide bombers until they were captured or turned over to the Pakistani army. All of them are at the school to be de-radicalized. Ninety-nine percent of the boys, I am told, have never heard of Osama bin Laden, despite the fact he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in the next valley over from here. What has radicalized these boys instead, the school's director says, is what turns teenagers the world over to crime: poverty, poor education, limited prospects and often lack of parental control." Continue reading →

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Is Pakistan preparing to get out of US war on terrorism?

"After having sacrificed over $85 billion and more than 50,000 lives in the US war on terror, Pakistan is now finally preparing to get out of Washington’s war. Political differences apart, both the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and his hot contender for the post-May 11 government, PTI’s Imran Khan, have made it clear that Pakistan would be driven out of the 12-year-old 'war on terror'. Both the political leaders, in their separate statements, have unambiguously rejected the policy of use of force and military operations against the local Taliban to check extremism and curb terrorism. Instead, they have openly supported initiating dialogue with the local Taliban." Continue reading →

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Afghanistan’s opium cultivation to surge in 2013: UN

"Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is expected to increase for a third straight year, expanding even to poppy-free areas this year, a United Nations report warned. 'The assessment suggests that poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012… but also in new areas or in areas where poppy cultivation was stopped,' the survey said. Cultivation is mostly increasing in southern provinces where the Taliban are more active and thousands of international troops are set to withdraw this year. Poppy farmers are taxed by Taliban militants who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against the government and NATO forces." Continue reading →

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A Guide To Understanding the Middle East, Syria, The West and Oil

"Saudi Arabia wants Assad out of power because it considers him a non-Sunni Muslim apostate, an ally of its Shiite enemy Iran and Saudi Arabia can't bear the thought of an Alewite-Shiite ruling over Sunni Muslims, most of whom reject Saudi styled Sunni Salafist Wahhabism. The US and Saudi Arabia are arming and funding Wahhabist radicals in Syria to secure Wahhabist control of the nation. Why? Because Saudi Arabia doesn't have the military power to do it, it likes to pretend that its on good terms with its Shiite neighbors and it prefers that the US do its dirty work. This has been going on for years because the House of Saud happily jumped in bed with western Big Oil." Continue reading →

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Read more about the article How to End the Wars – It really is easy and it’s been done before

How to End the Wars – It really is easy and it’s been done before

"The slaughter of millions of southeast Asians and a rising US military death toll was angering the people. LBJ's war was such a disaster that his re-election was in jeopardy. As the situation grew progressively worse for LBJ, he feared the humiliation of a general election or primary defeat so he decided NOT to run for re-election in 1968. Nixon, a foreign policy hawk, won the 1968 election. The Vietnam War resulted in over 58,000 dead Americans but the hawks were determined to wage the Vietnam War for all eternity. However, Nixon was soon smothered with anti-war Congress Critters who ferociously fought to end the Vietnam War. By 1973, Congress simply refused to fund it." Continue reading →

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Eleanor Roosevelt’s Snippy Letter to Dorothy Day [2011]

"On April 17, 1959 the indefatigable Dorothy Day once again defied the annual civil defense drill in New York City known as Operation Alert. She had been protesting the nationwide test every year since 1955. And, as she had been in previous years, the pacifist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement was promptly arrested and charged. At some point around the time of her initial arrest, Ms. Day had written a letter to the former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, concerning, apparently, Operation Alert. On April 21, 1959 Mrs. Roosevelt replied. The obtuse, schoolmarmish tone of the letter is shocking considering Roosevelt’s standing as the matriarch of liberalism." Continue reading →

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A Congressman who Doesn’t Cotton to the Constitution

"Rep. Cotton has proposed a measure that would punish family members of people who violated U.S. sanctions against Iran with prison sentences of up to 20 years. As Cotton explained: 'There would be no investigation. If the prime malefactor of the family is identified on the list for sanctions, then everyone within their family would automatically come within the sanctions regime as well.' The sanctions measure itself is constitutionally illegitimate, since Congress has no jurisdiction over the military and economic policies of any other nation. Rep. Cotton would compound that offense against the Constitution by imposing collective punishment – without trial – on the basis of kinship." Continue reading →

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