No.. they weren't from Abu Dhabi.. I can't recall .. but Atta was Egyptian.. one was from Yemen.. another from Pakistan.. I will look it up later.......
The other 13 were from about five countries including KSA.. They reported one Saudi as a high-jacker killed on 9-11.. but he had died a year earlier in a student solo crash out of the Jet Port in Pompano Beach.. I remember it well because it took me HOURS to get home from work.. But it took them MONTHS to confirm their error.
Why were Saudis allowed to fly out of THIS (the US) country after the planes hit when Americans weren't allowed to fly at all? I know they were close personal friends of the Bush's but why would Saudis get special treatment?
The Saudis get special treatment because they are a very unique and special case in the Muslim world. Above everything else, the Saudis are the keepers and the protectors of the holy sites of the Islam faith. They have been entrusted by the rest of the Muslim world to be neutral so that they can ensure that the Holy land is open for Haj to every Muslim. They can be neither Sunni or Shi'ite and they tread extremely carefully when siding with one faction or another in a war or political struggle. Terrorism is a disruption to their singular purpose of ensuring pilgrim's safety to the holy land and they, along with the UAE have been our greatest allies in fighting terrorism. By their position, they try to remain neutral in almost everything they do. Because of this, they are almost always an exceptional case in almost all Middle Eastern matters.
So they are more important than Americans, above the law, to be given anything they want because by birth they are innocent of any wrong doing and will be forever.........I think I just discovered GODS!
It depends on the capacity in which he was living while in Saudi Arabia. If he lived in an American or British enclave provided by Aramco, he can actually live in the Middle East and still know next to nothing about the country, but he would still be better suited than you are to evaluate news and information coming out of the Middle East. If he lived with a Saudi family, learned some Arabic and had daily interaction with the culture, then he would be even more suited to judge news and opinions about the Middle East. If he spent decades in country, then that would provide even better and more nuanced insights. - - - Updated - - - I am pretty sure those words are more a product of histrionics and not so much about anything I wrote, said, or thought.
It's pretty much another way of saying what you posted. They seem untouchable and far above any evil doings , I'm sure. It certainly doesn't matter anymore (or ever)what they did after 9/11. They could've left a signed confession on the Bush's dining room table as they fled the country..... ..and Bush Jr would've got his war with Iraq anyway , a war he planned for in 1997. It didn't really matter WHO flew those planes or planned the attack.....and certainly doesn't matter now...
Irrelevant. So far you have provided nothing but hearsay and anecdotes. That does not work in a debate.
No. It isn't pretty much another way of saying what I posted. I chose my words carefully. It is, however, what you heard through your own cultural biases.
Oh, here we go with the "cultural" thing....I just don't understand their "culture" and that's why I don't trust them or believe they're saints.....if only I understood their culture I would think they are innocents saving the world.....forget it....
My brother came back with some pretty awful stories. And being a gay man myself, there is no way in hell you'd ever catch me anywhere near a hellhole like Saudi Arabia.
Forgive me for interjecting this, but aren't first hand accounts of actual events the gold standard for news and historical events? Aren't first hand accounts backed up by other first hand accounts a fairly high standard? And what sort of debating discounts the closest source to an event? - - - Updated - - - So your impressions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are pretty much controlled by a strong negative bias which you readily admit to. I am glad you brought that up and we will consider your opinions about the Middle East with that fact in mind.
Only if they can be verified, which in this case, they have not been. Look, I'm only holding you and Margot to the same standards everyone else is held to here. Don't act like this is something new. - - - Updated - - - Hmm- yeah, especially when I see things like this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...where-homosexuality-may-be-punished-by-death/ Care to dispute that? Is that a "bias"? Seriously? And if you want more, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia It's all sourced on the page. Don't get me started on how women are treated over there.
They were horse people and had NOTHING to do with 9-11.. Before the attack Saudi families came to the US every summer to shop, tour and go to Disney World.. Some rented homes in the mountains.. They spent about 30 million every summer. The Saudis had NOTHING to do with 9-11 and were as horrified as we were over the attack.. I was on the phone that week with a number of Saudis.. including Saudi journalists. .. more horrified in that they too knew it was Muslims who had done this horrible thing.. Did you read the Arab newspapers after the attack?
How women are treated? Have you lived there or do you simply equate a culture of modesty for men and women with "abuse"? Saudi women have always had the right to buy and sell, inherit, own property.. the right to write the marriage contract, the right to divorce and support and child custody when Western women had NO such rights up to the 1950s.
not allowing women to drive, vote, or walk around without covering their whole body and faces is 12th century bull(*)(*)(*)(*). women are not slaves. they are not property.
Oh really? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia Yep- that's neat. You were saying?
Bedouin women have been driving for decades... but KSA has some unique traffic problems that make driving VERY dangerous.. Nobody votes.. The SAG tried to get out the vote in Hofuf in 1956 .. nobody was interested. Modesty is their cultural norm as it once was for Jews and Christians. Its not so bad.. While I have never worn an abaya, all the American women I ever knew dressed modestly.... and modesty does tend to protect a pretty girl or woman from lecherous behavior .. Its culture and tradition.. If you don't like it don't go there. - - - Updated - - - That depends on the family.. but believe me... most of what you read about KSA is crap written by people who have never been there or perhaps they visited for a week..
why are you defending misogynist traditions and practises in the 21st century? you have a problem with us exposing and condemning their ways? tough luck. I respect women, and see them as equal human beings, not cattle or slaves. KSA is a misogynist state and we should sanction them for it. imagine if a country didn't treat women like this, but blacks...or Jews? there would be international sanctions, and rightly so.
The Jews I met in Jiddah didn't seem to have a problem.. What is YOUR experience of KSA? Do you know any Saudi men and women?
