Saudi blogger released
April 27th, 2008 at 3:45 pm by David FarrarAssociated Press reports that the Saudi blogger jailed without charges has finally been released:
Fouad al-Farhan was jailed for (ironically) writing about political prisoners.
It would be nice to say NZ had a hand in getting him released, but we bravely “monitored the situation” without even once saying to the Saud Government that sending people to jail merely for criticising the Government is a bad thing.
Related posts:
- Saudi Blogger arrested
- Thanks from the arrested Saudi blogger
- No action on Saudi blogger
- The barbarity of Saudi Arabia towards women
April 27th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
i think they were monitoring it more with an eye to seeing how effective it might be here….
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
“without even once saying to the Saud Government that sending people to jail merely for criticising the Government is a bad thing”
They (the left/ the Klark government) don’t say much to China either. Or Cuba. Both have dungeons full of prisoners who dared to promote democracy. Too much risk to the kudos of the free trade deal I guess, and with Cuba, it would disturb all of those happy memories of spitting on returning Vietnam soldiers, and calling them killers and barbarians and invaders, at the same time as they (the so called protestors) were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the image of the psychopathic mass murderer of urban and rustic Cubans, the Argentinian Che Guevara.
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Indeed Lee C – look for the next amendment to the EFA.
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Saudi Arabia??? Isn’t this the same Saudi Arabia that sits on the UN Human Rights council? Surely a nation on that council would honour freedom of speech which is why NZ only needed to ‘monitor the situation’.
GAWD!! I hate this hypocrite government!
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
From memory we are negotiating an FTA with the Saudis, to go with the China and Burma ones. Winston is working hard with the NORKs for one but is finding it hard to get our Dear Leader to settle for four million photos of their Dear Leader in exchange for 90% of our agricultural exports.. it’s the photo competition that annoys her.
JC
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
REALLY OFF TOPIC Sorry Mr Farrar, please no demerites,really off post, I see the unwashed masses,real people were barred from the statue opening in Sidney for the KIWI part on the bridge after Anzac OUR STATUE.This worries me i see two HALFWIT LIARBOR pms organised it and our stupid pm didnt notice that the public were not there, THICK, NEED I SAY MORE , TWO HALFWITS, please dont ask them to open the wine bottles, or taxi doors , they are halfwits, and they could injure their selfs. ps does helen have a pants organizer, to help her dress as shes a can short of a six pack( I FEEL THE PROF MEDIA ARE BECOMMING SIDE BLINDED BY HER /ITS MASSIVE MEDIA CORPs, bright,but lacking REMEMBER THE PUBLIC WERE BARRED.opps the was a security problem, opps Mr Farrar might have turned up, WHO KNOWS , only two halfwit LIARBOR pms knows
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
The Saudi’s blog is over here noting his release
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
DAVE sorry , back to your post, and the saudi blog, always remember the degenerite house of saud is respected by the liarbor party. and remember search google and you WILL find women being hung to death from cranes for being ladies, and pissing of the strange males there, but REMEMBER helen LOVES the degenerite primative muslim house of saud, bought into existance by the Brits and the yanks after the great war ,to end all wars
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
“criticising the Government is a bad thing.”???
Vote:But not in NZ, where it is most likely to be a sign of intelligence and integrity. I propose that the next National government collects the names of all such fine individuals so they can be given awards/medals etc at the annual honours thing. Order of Merit, QSO or QSM etc. What would you like for your award DPF?
April 27th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
JSF2008, I bet you and Philu went to the same school.
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
mr side show bob , i went to my colleges 50th very recently up north and Philu might have gone there but who knows,(joke) But then sorry this how i feel there is good on both sides of the political ledger but if i think its dog shit and looks and smells like it i will say so as i dont believe in the pc crap that scares the crap out of posting honest comments, ssb, are you truly happy how our country is?????TELL THE TRUTH,in your heart of hearts.ssb think the best are leaving in droves. and i have my daughters(grand) children keeping us here
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Do you reckon if Saudi Arabia had been able to have good, uncensored blogs a decade or two ago, Osama might have got everything off his chest without getting into bombs and the other guerrilla stuff?
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
While of course the NZ govt should condemn this arrest there are other world leaders who like to cosy up to the house of Saud.
http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/123063/2111846/2116263/050426_BUSH-ABDULLAH_ex.jpg
[DPF: Yet his Government still did the right thing and publicly called for the blogger to be released, unlike the NZ Govt]
Vote:April 27th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
JSF, I think SSB was referring to your (lack of) grammatical style, punctuation and capitalisation. You seem very keen. Well done. Try to be lucid as well. Note: when humans scan words, they are interpreting the shape of the word, not reading every letter. Online resolution is a fraction of that of paper. Therefore, you slow people down considerably by inappropriate capitalisation and the other unconventional tactics you’ve used. This is to your detriment, not ours.
Re: political support for the House of Saud, it’s a fact of course the entire Bush family is close to them: just read this book.
Quite what this fact has to do with the release of this blogger I don’t know, but I note it’s yet another example of the redundant left-right political divide, which is becoming an increasingly worthless tool in geopolitical analysis.
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