http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/
So much for democratic reforms: Saudi royals back to business as usual The Saudi royal family has quietly ended its pretense of democratic reforms. After the sham municipal elections of February 2005 won some praise from the United States, the royal family has returned to its traditional approach of governing: attack and co-opt. Pro-democracy dissidents continue to be hounded in the kingdom. Many have been jailed or harassed in an intensified campaign over the past few months. The victims include independent journalists and those who sought to organize pro-democracy marches. Islamists are being bought off. Diplomatic sources said the kingdom plans to use its oil revenues to bolster the religious police and Islamic seminaries. Islamists will be encouraged to serve the kingdom abroad whether as fighters in Iraq or missionaries in Africa. Money will be no object. The government in Riyad has also been drafting plans for new social welfare programs to win hearts and minds. With a $60 billion surplus, the government has been ordered to organize huge projects to provide jobs and other perks for another decade. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
