The Saudi king is dead, long live the Saudi king
Many thousands of Saudi men are in the field with Isis. But the Saudi royal family itself is so extended and dominant that it is unclear who is linked to what when it comes to the export of extremism from and by Saudi Arabia. The absolute monarch is dead, long live the absolute monarch.
We are told that under King Abdullah the lot of women, for example, improved. Indeed, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, announced this morning that “in a very discreet way, he was a strong advocate of women”.
But the fact is that the tributes issued from the capitals of the western world have touched not at all upon the terrible events that cascaded across the globe while King Abdullah was in power – for, in effect, he has been king of Saudi Arabia since 1995, when his brother King Fahd suffered a stroke.
Hence 9/11 was on his watch, as well as the export of radical Wahhabism to madrassas across Pakistan and to towns and cities in the western world, from Detroit to Birmingham.
Throughout it all we have traded guns for oil. Who can forget Labour’s decision to shut down the corruption probe by the Serious Fraud Office into the BAE systems contract with the kingdom? (BAE Systems has denied all allegations of wrongdoing).
The day it happened, I met some of the SFO people working on the investigation. They claimed they had it nailed. They were incandescent. My contact was told never to speak with me again.
And then we are reminded this very month of the state of human rights in Saudi, well detailed by both Human Right Watch and Amnesty International. Somehow Raif Badawi was sentenced to 50 lashes a week until he had received 1,000 – for blogging.
He was so hurt by the first 50 two Fridays ago that both last Friday and yesterday, doctors ordered that he was still too badly wounded to survive more lashes.
In our own House of Lords on 15 January, Lord Avebury asked the Foreign Office whether sanctions were being considered against Saudi Arabia for cruel and unusual punishment under the international convention on civil and political rights.
Lady Anelay replied this very day, 23 January, for the FCO. No sanctions are being considered. Further, she added that the UK Justice Minister, Mr Grayling, and the Saudi Justice Minister, Mr al-Issa, had recently signed a memorandum of understanding which will “further help us to support Saudi Arabia’s efforts at reform in the judicial sector”.
So today letters of condolence issued by both Tony Blair and David Cameron are online for your inspection. This is, after all, cross-party in most western democracies. They say it all. There is no hint of the terrible security risks involved in our dependence upon Saudi “friendship”.
The Economist magazine is no missile-throwing organ of revolution. Its views tend toward the moderate and safe. They cannot have known that King Abdullah would die as this week’s excellent article was going to press It urges America to reconsider its relations with Saudi.
Follow @jonsnowC4 on Twitter