Saudi dissident

"Intimidation secures the kingdom's equilibrium. In a recent interview, a newspaper editor complained about the regime's reach and power; the following day his office called to ask that his name not be mentioned for fear of reprisal.  Al-Qahtani has no such reservations. A former talk show host, he believes, on his good days, that a high profile offers a degree of protection.  "I tell the interrogators: 'I want you to send me to prison. I want to see what's happening inside,' " he said, adding that such publicity could increase international pressure. "If I went to jail it would raise awareness. The authorities don't want to do that. It might be too costly for them. Yet they have to do something. I really think they want to understand me. I have another interrogation tomorrow."    Unease over the kingdom's stability has seeped into the mechanism of power itself. Al-Qahtani's organization has taken on the case of army Capt. Ghazi Al-Harbi, who was released recently after spending seven years in prison on allegations by the Interior Ministry that he belonged to a cadre of officers plotting a mutiny.   Al-Harbi, who said he was targeted to offer up other names in a wider purge, sat recently in a reception hall on the outskirts of Riyadh celebrating his new freedom with family and clansmen. The men-only crowd ate dates, sipped tea and listened to verse read by a tribal poet.  "I had no access to the evidence against me. I was in jail five years before I saw a judge," he said. "They tied my hands behind my back and hanged me on a wall with my feet dangling. They beat me. They accused me loudly of being anti-Muslim and then they put me on a wing with Islamist extremists to incite them to kill me."  He added: "They wanted me to confess but I did nothing wrong. What they did to me will remain for the rest of my life. I trust no one now."  (thanks Abdullah)