Saudi Arabia asked if it can supply weapons

[darrels joy]

Quotes of the day

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posted at 9:30 pm on March 6, 2011 by Allahpundit
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“Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a “day of rage” from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington’s highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago…

“Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi’s strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and Nato – not least from Republican members of Congress – to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced…

“If the Saudi government accedes to America’s request to send guns and missiles to Libyan rebels, however, it would be almost impossible for President Barack Obama to condemn the kingdom for any violence against the Shias of the north-east provinces.”

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“After weeks of internal debate on how to respond to uprisings in the Arab world, the Obama administration is settling on a Middle East strategy: help keep longtime allies who are willing to reform in power, even if that means the full democratic demands of their newly emboldened citizens might have to wait.

“Instead of pushing for immediate regime change—as it did to varying degrees in Egypt and now Libya—the U.S. is urging protesters from Bahrain to Morocco to work with existing rulers toward what some officials and diplomats are now calling ‘regime alteration.’

“The approach has emerged amid furious lobbying of the administration by Arab governments, who were alarmed that President Barack Obama had abandoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and worried that, if the U.S. did the same to the beleaguered king of Bahrain, a chain of revolts could sweep them from power, too, and further upend the region’s stability.”

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“[A]nalysts and officials say that while Obama has laid out general principles to deal with the ‘Arab spring,’ he is eschewing a rigid US philosophy for a region in tumult…

“‘The closest we have to a policy is to allow the different revolutions to take place at their own pace, based on the timing of the people involved and intervening only through general statements of support,’ said Julian Zelizer of Princeton University.

“‘Other than that I don’t think there is any consistent principle.’”

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“Saudi Arabia’s top clerics condemned Sunday as un-Islamic calls for demonstrations and petitions demanding reforms in the desert kingdom, a day after authorities warned against protests…

“‘Reform and advice are the Islamic way and would carry benefits and prevent evil, and that does not happen through intimidating and seditious statements on which signatures are collected,’ it said.

“The council called upon the authorities to ‘do their job in line with the law of the land,’ in what seems to be a religious permit to use force against demonstrators.”

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video here...

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/0...f-the-day-616/