Arab Spring Makes An Autumn Return: Saudi Police Open Fire On Protesting Civilians
Today's news that Greek protesters were back and getting occasionally violent caught nobody by surprise. However what may be unexpected is that not only is the Arab Spring back (almost in time for Christmas) but it is in the bastion of "stability", not to menion crude oil, Saudi Arabia. As The Independent reports, "Pro-democracy protests which swept the Arab world earlier in the year have erupted in eastern Saudi Arabia over the past three days, with police opening fire with live rounds and many people injured, opposition activists say." What? Never heard of this before? Yes, amazing how efficient the media veil is when it has an agenda.
More:
Saudi Arabia last night confirmed there had been fighting in the region and that 11 security personnel and three civilians had been injured in al-Qatif, a large Shia city on the coast of Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province. The opposition say that 24 men and three women were wounded on Monday night and taken to al-Qatif hospital.
The Independent has been given exclusive details of how the protests developed by local activists. They say unrest began on Sunday in al-Awamiyah, a Shia town of about 25,000 people, when Saudi security forces arrested a 60-year-old man to force his son – an activist – to give himself up.
Mr Rayah added that "there have been protests for democracy and civil rights since February, but in the past the police fired into the air. This is the first time they have fired live rounds directly into a crowd." He could not confirm if anybody had been killed.
The biggest loser when this spreads? Why the US of course.
The US, as the main ally of Saudi Arabia, is likely to be alarmed by the spread of pro-democracy protests to the Kingdom and particularly to that part of it which contains the largest oil reserves in the world. The Saudi Shia have been angered at the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain since March, with many protesters jailed, tortured or killed, according Western human rights organisations.
Hamza al-Hassan, an opponent of the Saudi government from Eastern Province living in Britain, predicted that protests would spread to more cities. "I am frightened when I see video film of events because most people in this region have guns brought in over the years from Iraq and Yemen and will use them [against government security men]," he said. He gave a slightly different account of the start of the riots in al-Awamiyah, saying that two elderly men had been arrested by the security forces, one of whom had a heart attack.
"Since September there has been a huge presence of Saudi security forces in al-Qatif and all other Shia centres," he said. Al-Qatif was the scene of similar protests in March, which were swiftly quashed by security forces.
We ask any of our readers who may be in the region (where unfortunately ZH is blocked), to send us video clips of any riots and any and all police intervention whether with or without use of deadly force.
h/t EscapeKey
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The Careless Whisper Morning Report
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http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2011/oct/oct4a_11.html
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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xle890_battery-plant-boss-jailed_news
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Four Loko Will Comply With FTC Demand To Advertise Each Can Contains As Much Alcohol As Four Beers
http://gothamist.com/2011/10/04/four_loko_changes_label_to_appeal_e.php
Damn... I gotta try one of those Four Loko's on Friday. Or maybe right before my son's soccer game on Saturday, that should make things 'interesting'.
That stuff will do some wierd things to your mind. Think Jack & Jolt.
Think half a six-pack of Colt .45's and a Mad Dog chaser.
Colt .45 comes in 6-packs? I thought you could only get pints and tall boys.
Eeuuwwww.....That sounds nasty.
How about a Bass growler and a Glenlivit chaser instead?
Somehow when a government decides to respond to protesters by... oh y',know... shooting and killing them ... it doesn't really open up much of a debate on who's right and who's wrong.
And since it is the Saudis doing the shooting there won't be any talk of no fly zones.
The oil-intelligence-military complex wants to "save" the Syrians, of course.
Russia, China veto anti-Syria UN effort:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202819.html
Blocking of Security Council Resolution on Syria a "Shocking Betrayal," Says Amnesty International:
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/10/05
Libya and Syria: Western-led military operations:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NAZ20110926&articleId=26774
Careless Whisper indeed. Protests as chance to meet girls says one thing: this sucker 'll be going for "as long as it takes."
http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/weltgeschehen/article13643455/Boerse-in-F...
Frankfurt is closed - bomb threat. Happy trading! :)
OT:
Oct 5, 11:29 AM EDTIMF official retracts statement on bond purchases
BRUSSELS (AP) -- In a dramatic turnaround, a senior official for the International Monetary Fund is retracting an earlier statement that the IMF could intervene in bond markets to support struggling Italy and Spain.
We changed our mind on changing our minds.
OT; #2
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The fees keep coming. Citi is the latest big bank to slap customers with a round of fee hikes. This time, on its checking accounts.
Starting in December, customers who hold its mid-level Citibank Account will be charged $20 a month if they fail to maintain a minimum balance of $15,000 in their combined accounts. Previously, account holders had to carry a minimum balance of $6,000
How many people have $15,000 in a checking account?
BAC did this back in early 2009.
Four Loko will now see a huge increase in sales now that theyre forced to identify 'this can contains more alcohol than 4 beers'.
Heres what Greece and Saudi have iin common:
http://www.defencegreece.com/index.php/2011/10/the-u-s-approved-to-grant...
The US Military will protect the Saudi kings.. at least until we have a deal with the new 'regime'.
The Saudis will have to call their military back from Occupied Qatar.
Powderkeg, bitchez
@ Cash, green
I wonder what Arab "democracies" are going to look like? Will they edge to more "Western" values (you know, the ones we used to have like civility, transparency, rule of law, etc.)?
Or will they move to jihadist extremism, and light that powderkeg?
It may look like the current military junta in Egypt.
No wonder women were allowed to vote in Saudi not long ago; smells like a concession.
http://www.pointparkglobe.com/news/saudi-arabian-women-gain-right-to-vot...
That is an interesting development, I missed that one, thanks for sharing that.
Black swans are harder to spot wrapped in white Egyptian cotton.
Supposedly Egyptian Cotton is the best in the world.
It's like the 0.995 American Eagles of fabric.
It tastes great dipped in chocolate.
We can have a mart.
if they wish to move to mars it is their choice.
Until you and others realize that the us and all the others need to get out of the way and let them pick their poison nothing can work.
Maybe nothing can work anyway, but they have to believe they are making their own choices before there is ever buy in to any type of gvt.
Democracy® is a registered trademark of the United States of America. Unauthorized use will result in severe monetary and millitary penalties.
You mean Bahrain right?
Qatari troops in Libya also.
If it gets as far as a new 'regime' then the Saudis must have pissed off the CIA. I think this is an 'unlicensed' protest.
Protesting without a permit is not allowed in Saudi Arabia.
Maybe this time it will be the US and UK vetoing Russian and China-sponsored sanctions on a repressive regime.
“Saudi security forces arrested a 60-year-old man to force his son – an activist – to give himself up.”
What an ABSOLUTE F**KING DISGRACE.
Suadis are now a national threat to their government.
Cue CIA drone strikes.
its wonderful how the U.S. promotes freedom and justice throughout the world by careful support of allies who share the U.S. commitment to such values.... /s sarc
in reality, what do you expect from a bunch of zionist controlled puppet states (including the U.S.)?
I expect the U.S. to purchase Israeli weaponry, including forcing other Western governments to purchase their crap too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Heron
and sell them our equipment below cost.... one big circle jerk that screws the american tax payer, again. supports a racist illegal state (israel) and fees the military industrial complex... all on the back of the U.S. taxpayer. what a world.
Then stop paying taxes or stop bitching about it.
Irwin Schiff stopped paying taxes and ended up in Terra Haute, Indiana, in some "correctional facility". Look him up, he's a notable tax protestor - appeared on 'America: Freedom to Fascism'.
BTW, the he's father of Peter Schiff.
Bitchin' is all we have for the moment.
Bitchin' removed Mubarak from power.
Bitchin' will provoke national attention via Occupy Wall Street
We bitched the British off our continent, bitchez
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
'We bitched the british off our continent". So, native americans weren't bitchin' enough?
not enough of them left alive at the time to accomplish much. biological warefare did wonders for them.
--James W. Lowen: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.
In September 2011, it was announced that the Israeli Government seized 6 Turkish Heron's whilst they were undergoing maintenance at IAI workshops in Israel.
IAI staff maintain that the Turkish Heron's "with its enhanced performance, is better than all existing Heron UAVs operating worldwide”.
Can't see the Turks being too pleased about that.
In March of this year, there was a huge set of pro-democracy protests scheduled all across Saudi Arabia. Of the tens of thousands who joined the protest group on Facebook, only a few hundred actually showed up. there is no telling what happened to those people.
As a side note, the House of Saud offered to buy Facebook for $50 billion, IIRC, to shut down protestor communications.
we threaten and detain and hold people's family hostage in order to get them to turn over someone we have defined as a terrorist.
This is nothing new.
The U.S. has supported and carried out this type of policy forever.
Cut out the self gloss, it makes you look lame or corrupt.
Can you give recent examples?
I feel so comfortable living in a country where the media knows what's best for me and my family to be aware of. This way I can watch Dancing with the Stars worry free.
Do you have access to Al Jazeera in the USA?
Man, they have the best shit besides the hedge.
RT is better... the problem with aljazeera is that the some propaganda is these, just from a different angle.
RT isn't a top tier source like Al Jazeera. AJ has so many programs and coverage with actual funding. I don't think RT has nearly the resources AJ has.
In a world of broken media we have no choice, except the INTERNET WOOO!
There's always webstream on their website. http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/
Sidenote: as aired today on AJ, Turkey is doing massive "military training ops" on the border to Syria.
Merry Xmas!
NATO needs to bomb S Arabia just for humaniterian reasons.
Speaking of which...you might have missed someone else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPU1voQKtVM
Dancing is ? What channel?
The recent uprisings in Saudi Arabia's eastern cities (located above where all the oil is) are an attempt by Iran to remove the last crux of American foreign policy in the Middle East, The Jinn in the Machine:
Categorizing the uprising as pro-democracy may sort of miss the point, if anything they’re anti-Saudi which in turns mean that the Shias who join them are likely going to be just a little bit upset at the foreign power that’s been providing arms, training, funding, and implicit legitimacy to the Saudi government for the past several decades.Should this Shia Spring swell to the point where it begins to threaten access to the world’s largest remaining petroleum reserves, the last remaining keystone of American foreign policy in the Middle East could get crushed by another wave of popular dissent.
Yes, a Shia Spring (Autumn) in this case. I doubt very much any Shia countries will be looking anything like Western democracies for deacdes...
When (if?) do we see an Iranian Spring again? Will the USA do something if it happens again?
All that oil in the Middle East... The Trickster's best joke yet!
shia muslims have every right to be pissed off at western/zionist support of sunni puppet states in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc... these regimes exploit the resources and people to enrich themselves and foreign powers. As far as the failed protests in Iran... the whole smells of covert opps, like in Syria and Libya. once you understand who the players are, it gets easy to spot a real uprising as opposed to outside interference to accomplish globalist ends...
Saudi Arabia does not have a dictator, they have a king with many princes, unlike Lybia - sarc
Don,t believe the bullshit MS-media talks about the progress of NATO, the North American Terror Organization. check here for news from the other side
http://www.mathaba.net/1freeText.shtml?vid=911&cmd%5B911%5D=c-3-Libya
It's good to be King. In San Francisco however it's better to be Queen.
Are you serious? This is a dream come true for the MIC. More war. Whoopee.
TTD nails it - it is a Suni / Shia thing. If you are a Suni US protectorate you can brutalise your citizens without fear of criticism. Just look what happened in Bahrain - atrocities by any measure. The Shias are not going to forget about it. The west only cares for the flow of oil, we will make friends with whoever controlls it. as long as some of the resources can be sold cheap to a Rothschild interest.
Russia and China should table a United Nations resolution against Saudi Arabia.
Too hot to protest and dodge bullets there in the summer.
Should be bullish for Cu.
1984 bitchez
..with support from the US...of course no shock when the present administration supports child soldiers too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/obama-child-soldiers-waives-pen...
President Barack Obama has decided to waive almost all the legally mandated penalties for countries that use child soldiers and provide those countries U.S. military assistance, just like he did last year.
I guess if you're not a group of smelly, unemployed hippies banging on bongo drums and demanding more "regulation" and free health care, the corporate media outlets don't give a fuck about you.
Again, all this government action is good for Entitlement Reform, Unemployment and reducing Green House Gases! Kill 'em All and let Allah Sort 'em Out!
Z
Woah there. Oil already up?
Hey there Mr. Muslim, Merry Fuckin' Christmas
Put down that book 'The Koran'
and hear some holiday wishes.
In case you haven't noticed,
It's Jesus' Birthday
So get off your heathen Muslim Ass
And fuckin' celebrate.
[/mr. garrison]
Soon we'll see Nicolas "Little Napoleon" Sarcozy kicking and screaming how "democracy" MUST be delivered to Saudi Arabia by NATO-bombers.
LOL. We'll be waiting a long time before we see that.
only if ZATO concludes that the current puppet regime is doomed to collapse... then the parasites scramble to set up a new puppet state, ala Egypt.
http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/this-is-true-25.jpg
Saudi - The real hub of terrorism.
Yes, along with WDC!
Saudi the REAL AMERICANS.
They exist only due to your fiat funded Great AMerican Army.
Who cares about terrorism, we need oil.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/04/unmanned-...
and other signs of Spring
Libyan Rebels Accused of "Ethnic Cleansing," Black Genocide
President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers
We are going to pay a big price for al of ths some day. Especially when it comes to turning over our defenses to this type of technology.
in the not too distant future killer drones will be deployed domestically for our safety and the sheeple will give thanks
Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/06/20/world/20110620-DRONES-2.html
Must want free health care. All debts public and private to be wiped out. Everybody to be paid the same livng wage regardless of what they do. Free college tuition for everybody which makes no sense since everybody will be paid the same. Why go? Oops..Wait wrong country. The arabs are protesting and dodging bullets because they want to eat and feed their families. Our protesters want life handed to them without working for it.
Yes indeed quite a difference.
But, do not be surprised if what the Arab demonstrators want is Jihad...
I think the world is getting ready to release one giant fatwa.
and after the shit dealt to them , I hope they get it.
A war isn't over until both sides say it is.
good line, that.
Here are some - (I'm in the states though) - most extensive video is the first video. Chaos at the 6 minute mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwoYUtA3iE4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Wf89hCtiU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lsDZHbQrd0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFZ469YvwtY
Pretty cool.
http://www.infowars.com/russia-and-china-veto-un-resolution-against-syrian-regime/
Qatif area in SA long, long a place of discontent. It's mostly a Shi'a area.
Stay long the peace process. As oil prices keep tanking we'll have more stories like this. Now welcome to Alt Energy Today as we've already replaced the oil here in the USA. The only restraint is the usual: the folks doing the replacing are trying too hard to make money before making product. Apple teaches us first adopter as low cost leader is the winner.
Glad to see the word Christmas hasn't been banned from ZH.
Frankfurt stock exchange evacuated?