Tuesday, May 11, 2004

In the silly US press, there are always laudatory articles in praise of the Jordanian dictator, like this silly one in Slate. Now in fairness, the king is valuable: he attends a barbecue at Sharon's ranch while Israeli forces were (and are) killing Palestinians, he is willing to torture Arab prisoners for the US--not that the US is not doing its own torture of Arab prisoners, he hosts US troops on their way to their invasions, and he is one of the most submissive rulers in the region as far as the US is concerned. This is why you will not read in the US press that this dictator (not to be confused with America's other dictators in the region) has just ordered the arrest of a Jordanian journalist (who is a secularist, not a fundamentalist), Fahd Ar-Rimawi, because he criticized--merely criticized in an article--Saudi Arabia's relations with the US. That will not disturb the human rights champions of this administration. They are busy perfecting the democratic order in Iraq, of course.