http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nyt/20011119/bs/companies_compete_to_provide_saudi_internet_veil_1.html
Companies Compete to Provide Saudi Internet Veil
By JENNIFER 8. LEE The New York Times
Nearly a dozen software companies are competing for a contract to help
Saudi Arabia block access to Web sites the Saudi government deems
inappropriate.
Nearly a dozen software companies, most of them American, are
competing for a contract to help Saudi Arabia block access to Web
sites the Saudi government deems inappropriate for that nation's half-
million Internet users.
For the companies, the Saudi account would be important not only for
the direct revenue which analysts say could be worth several million
dollars but also for its value as a flagship that could help win
similar contracts from other governments.
[...]
Saudi security agencies identify the political Web sites that are
considered for inclusion on the blacklist. Among the banned sites are
the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Arabian Peninsula
(www.cdrhap.com) and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
(www.islah.org). Even some less politically charged sites, including
ones that recount the history of Saudi Arabia, are blocked.
[...]
---
[The below message comes from Center Right; subscription information below.
--Declan]
=============
"Friendship and the House of Saud,"
by Jeff Jacoby, the Boston Globe
November 18, 2001
To hear Prince Bandar tell it, Saudi Arabia is devoted to the United States.
"Our role," the Saudi ambassador said in a CNN interview some weeks ago,
"is to stand solid and shoulder-to-shoulder with our friends, the people of
the United States. . . . In 1990, when we needed your help, you came
through for us. And it's our turn now to stand up with you."
That's the official line, the one the Saudis have spent a fortune promoting
over the years. It is a theme the media routinely echo. "No Arab nation,"
Newsweek declared just two weeks ago, "has been as reliable a friend to
America over such a long period of time as Saudi Arabia."
Is it true?
When terrorists slaughtered thousands of civilians in a horrific attack on
Sept. 11, our friends the Saudis reacted with -- silence. Other
governments welled up with shock, grief, and fury. Riyadh said nothing.
As it became clear that most of those who carried out the atrocities were
citizens of Saudi Arabia and that the mastermind behind them was a member
of a leading Saudi family, one might have expected the Saudis to express
great anguish and heartache. One might have thought they would be anxious
to cooperate closely with the United States in rooting out those
responsible for the devastation.
But there were no words of anguish, and there was little cooperation. The
US investigation had barely begun when Riyadh arranged a private jet to fly
scores of its citizens -- including members of the bin Laden clan -- out of
the United States. This meant, of course, that the FBI could not interview
people who might have had valuable information about the hijackers.
That was only the beginning of the Saudis' unhelpfulness. When Washington
asked for background information on the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Saudis
stonewalled. While 94 airlines agreed to identify passengers on planes
flying to the United States, Saudi Arabian Airlines refused. A month after
the attacks, The New York Times reported that "Saudi Arabia has so far
refused to freeze the assets of Osama bin Laden and his associates." Of
particular concern was Riyadh's unwillingness to shut down the Islamic
"charities" that are Al Qaeda's lifeline.
As American war plans took shape, the Saudis barred the use of their
military bases for attacks against the Taliban. Britain's Tony Blair set
off on a Mideast tour to build support for the war effort, but was denied
entry to Saudi Arabia. And just days after the US bombardment of
Afghanistan began, the Saudi interior minister denounced it. "This is
killing innocent people," Prince Nayef scolded. "We are not at all happy
with the situation."
These are our friends?
For years the United States has had an arrangement with Saudi Arabia's
rulers: They would sell us oil and we would pretend not to notice that they
were intolerant dictators who crushed dissent at home while nurturing some
of the world's most violent fanatics abroad. But now we are at war with
those fanatics and the old bargain cannot continue.
It is time to face the truth about our Saudi "friends:" Their money, their
diplomacy, their politics, and above all their Wahhabi strain of Islam --
extremist, intolerant, aggressive, and poisonously anti-Western -- made
Sept. 11 possible. The Taliban and Al Qaeda represent not perversions of
Wahhabism but its full flowering. That is why they had the support of so
many Saudis -- and why the blood of the victims is on Saudi hands.
For years, the House of Saud has had it both ways, posing as a friend of
America while spending lavishly to advance America-hating Islamist
extremism around the world. When forced to choose between the two, they
have generally kept faith with the extremists. In 1996, for example, Saudi
authorities derailed the US investigation into the Khobar Towers terrorist
bombing in Dharahn, which killed 19 American soldiers and maimed 372. The
FBI was not allowed to examine the evidence or question suspects. When a
US grand jury this year indicted 13 Saudis for the bombing, Riyadh refused
to extradite them.
This is not how friends should behave. And absorbing such insults is not
how a superpower should behave.
For years Washington has allowed Riyadh to dictate the terms of the
US-Saudi relationship. Because the Saudis demanded that Saddam Hussein not
be toppled, the Gulf War was aborted before victory had been achieved. But
because Saddam wasn't destroyed, Saudi Arabia required continuing
protection, so thousands of US troops remained inside its borders. That
occupation by "infidel" Americans, in turn, fueled the rage of Osama bin
Laden -- who used Saudi money and Saudi recruits to build up his army of
terrorists and plot the murder of Americans. Our obsequiousness has cost
us dearly.
Saudi Arabia and the United States, as Crown Prince Abdullah himself said
last month, have come to a crossroads. Perhaps it is time they went their
separate ways.
* * *
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe. To receive his columns by
e-mail, send a note with your name and e-mail address to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> .
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CENTER-RIGHT is edited by Eugene Volokh, who teaches constitutional law,
copyright law, and a seminar on firearms regulation at UCLA Law School
(<http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/volokh>http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/volokh),
and organized with the help of Terry Wynn and the Federalist Society
(<http://www.fed-soc.org/>http://www.fed-soc.org/).
Check out (and link to) our Web site,
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