Funny how The Wall Street Journal, who should know better, and the Washington Post, they would not know much on this subject, keep talking about a “growing civil-rights movement” in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The key word is “kingdom” – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. The subjects obey the king and his ruling family or they go to jail.

Having worked very closely with the Saudi military and security forces of the Ministry of Interior during the Gulf War and then later in 1999-2002, working as the president of a joint venture with a Saudi company in Saudi Arabia, I was able to observe the Kingdom very closely.

The complaint that Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on alleged Islamic extremist has caused the arrest of thousands and the convictions of an unknown number of political activists for “human rights violations” would be funny if it were not for being so naive.

For those who may not be aware the leadership of Al Qaeda wants to destroy the monarchy in the Kingdom and establish an Islamic caliphate or an Islamic republic similar to Iran. For a number of reasons Osama bin Laden hates King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud and the entire royal family as much as he hates the United States.

Unfortunately, the police and security forces see no difference between Islamic extremist and political activist as common threats.

But, why do Americans have such a propensity to make judgements on the rest of the world in comparison to the American way of life.

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The Washington Post, 30 Dec, 2009, “Former Guantanamo Detainees Fuel Growing Al-Qaeda Cell,“ by Sudarsan Raghavan, said: “Former detainees of the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have led and fueled the growing assertiveness of the al-Qaeda branch that claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner, potentially complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to shut down the facility.

They include two Saudi nationals: al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s deputy leader, Said al-Shihri, and the group’s chief theological advisor, Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish. Months after their release to Saudi Arabia, both crossed the kingdom’s porous border into Yemen and rejoined the terrorist network.”

The terrorist group led by former Guantanamo (Gitmo to all who served there) detainees equipped and trained the Nigerian bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutalla has to raise questions on plans to close Gitmo and return those prisoners to their home countries. Another six Yemenis were released last week, and there are now 80 Yemenis left at Guantanamo.

Reports on the number of “Enemy Combatants” at Gitmo are reported to be over 200 and many are heavily radicalized by their capture, imprisonment, and association with hard core extremists. Since 2002, more than 550 “Enemy combatants” captured in Afghanistan and sent to Gitmo have been released.

Well now, before I could get this into Poliquicks.com, New York Daily News reports on 31 Dec 2009, that the 91 Yemeni “Enemy Combatants” at Gitmo scheduled to be released are being looked at by the Obama administration as to whether that’s a good idea or not.

It’s not a good idea.

We’ll see.

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Much of American news media has been focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with little attention to Yemen until the Northwest Flight 253 bombing attempt identified parts of Yemen as the suspected bomber’s Al Qaeda training camp.

It is now verifiable that Al Qaeda has an affiliate in parts of Yemen and has become a new haven for Islamic extremist to flee Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

Recently Shiia-Huthi rebels made a huge mistake when they attacked across the Saudi border and killed and injured Saudi Border Guards. Saudi Arabia responded with air strikes on rebel positions along the Yemen-Saudi border and unconfirmed reports have said that Saudi tanks and regular infantry are now in position to be involved in the fight.

The civil war between the Iranian backed Huthi rebels in the north and the Saudi Arabian back Yemen central government has been going on since 2004.

The Saudi Arabian navy has been patrolling the Yemen coastal waters and recently seized a cargo ship carrying Iranian arms for the rebels. Additionally, it has been reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards are training the rebels.

The Administration has admitted that the U.S. has entered the war in Yemen with Tomahawk cruise missile strikes on reported Al Qaeda base camps.

It would appear that we now have U.S. forces engaged in three wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

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