Hi Lawry, <<<< Your description of the British who are in jail caught me by surprise; I hadn't realized that they had been there so long or under the conditions you describe. There is an incongruence here; it has not been a Saudi pattern to treat foreigners the way you describe, and so I am wondering whether there might not be more to the story than we know? >>>>
My previous message shot off into the ether before I finished it. The answer to the above is that I don't know what the present situation is (apart from the fact that I think one or two are still in the clink). As you suggest, there may be something else in it. Maybe they were UK secret service. (Certainly we could expect that the US and UK and maybe one or two more European countries -- all with vital oil interests -- would have spies in SA, considering that it's such a closed country.) It is, in fact, rather strange that, apart from the occasional mention in the press and TV, there hasn't been any great clamour, particularly from our tabloid papers. This is rather reminiscent of what used to happen 40 years ago with the one or two English "businessmen" who were prosecuted and jaoled as spies by the Russians. Despite initial outbursts in the press, the news soon died down (presumably because the families were pacified by the Foreign Office) until they were released years later -- so the present impasse in SA is slightly suggestive that they were spies. Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
