Obama Administration Denies Asylum To Gay Saudi Diplomat

Ali Ahmad Asseri, the former first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles,California was denied political asylum by the Obama Administration last week, reportedly to avoid disrupting US-Saudi relations.

Ths Saudi government yanked his diplomatic passport after his sexual orientation and a friendship with an Israeli woman in Los Angeles became known.

Asseri's argument was that he cannot return to Saudi Arabia because under the country's sharia law same sex relations are a capital offense and he would face execution.

Asseri claimed that the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles found out he was gay after having him followed when he went out to socialize at gay bars.

Saudi-American journalist and blogger Rasheed Abou-Alsamh who has written for the Washington Times and blogs over at Rasheed's World was the first one to break the story.

One of his sources claims that Asseri's initial interview with Homeland Security went well, but that things took a turn for the worse after the DHS found out that Asseri had been a public prosecutor in Saudi Arabia, overseeing punishments like lashing, judicial amputations and decapitations.

As a side note, homosexuals are not always executed in Saudi Arabia as they are in Iran and other Islamic sharia jurisdictions. Sometimes they are merely lashed severely and imprisoned. But the possibility of execution is a real one, especially because Asseri is a fairly high profile individual as a former member of the Saudi diplomatic corps.

Another problematic factor is that the Consulate discovered that Asseri had become friends with an Israeli Jewish woman in Los Angeles. The Kingdom does not recognize Israel, has the traditional Muslim attitude towards Jews generally, and promotes hatred for Jews in its schools,mosques and state-controlled media.

Asseri is planning to appeal the decision, so things could stretch out for a couple of years before there's an actual decision.

I hope that homosexuals planning to vote for President Obama are paying attention.


(Vielen dank an meinen guten freund Benny W., reporter extraordinaire! )

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Obama Administration Denies Asylum To Gay Saudi Diplomat

Ali Ahmad Asseri, the former first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles,California was denied political asylum by the Obama Administration last week, reportedly to avoid disrupting US-Saudi relations.

Ths Saudi government yanked his diplomatic passport after his sexual orientation and a friendship with an Israeli woman in Los Angeles became known.

Asseri's argument was that he cannot return to Saudi Arabia because under the country's sharia law same sex relations are a capital offense and he would face execution.

Asseri claimed that the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles found out he was gay after having him followed when he went out to socialize at gay bars.

Saudi-American journalist and blogger Rasheed Abou-Alsamh who has written for the Washington Times and blogs over at Rasheed's World was the first one to break the story.

One of his sources claims that Asseri's initial interview with Homeland Security went well, but that things took a turn for the worse after the DHS found out that Asseri had been a public prosecutor in Saudi Arabia, overseeing punishments like lashing, judicial amputations and decapitations.

As a side note, homosexuals are not always executed in Saudi Arabia as they are in Iran and other Islamic sharia jurisdictions. Sometimes they are merely lashed severely and imprisoned. But the possibility of execution is a real one, especially because Asseri is a fairly high profile individual as a former member of the Saudi diplomatic corps.

Another problematic factor is that the Consulate discovered that Asseri had become friends with an Israeli Jewish woman in Los Angeles. The Kingdom does not recognize Israel, has the traditional Muslim attitude towards Jews generally, and promotes hatred for Jews in its schools,mosques and state-controlled media.

Asseri is planning to appeal the decision, so things could stretch out for a couple of years before there's an actual decision.

I hope that homosexuals planning to vote for President Obama are paying attention.


(Vielen dank an meinen guten freund Benny W., reporter extraordinaire! )

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

War Drums On Iran?

There were a number of interesting developments today that are said to point towards a possible attack on Iran. It's worth taking a look at them and seeing where they lead:

Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu is described in one major story in the British press as 'trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources'.

The Israelis successfully test fired a new ballistic missile, the Jericho 3 that has a range of over 4,300 miles, or 7,000 kilometers, putting all of Iran within easy reach.

Aside from some of the usual Iranian saber rattling, Hezbollah's cockroach-in-chief Sheik Nasrullah threatened Israel with massive retaliation,claiming that if another war starts the rockets will be aimed Tel Aviv first this time.

Rumors are flying that the Obama Administration is considering an attack on Iranian facilities to prevent Iran from going nuclear in view of recent developments. The latest, sparked by a visit by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to London and British chief of defense Staff David Richards to Jerusalem has NATO,led by the U.S. and UK doing the heavy lifting.

The Israeli Air force just completed a major drill in Italy with NATO forces that is said to be designed to familiarize Israeli pilots with NATO procedures in the lead up to an Iran strike

Okay...now let's look at what's actually going on here.

The Iranians appear to have mostly overcome the damage to their nuclear weapons program caused by stuxnet and other sabotage, including some deliberate slow ups by the Russians building these facilities in order to jack the costs up and get more money out of the Mullahs for their new toys.

The November IAEA report, due out in a matter of days is pretty clear that the Iranians are proceeding apace in their race to nuclear weapons. The current sanctions haven't deterred them one bit. It also details how the Iranians got considerable technical help from the Russians, North Koreans, and the Infamous A.Q. Kahn of Pakistan.

My sources also tell me that the IAEA report clearly states for the first time that a number of the facilities, processes and materials Iran is working with have no possible peaceful applications. That's something you knew well over three years ago if you were reading this site.

The biggest problem is the ongoing dispersal,protection and concealment of Iran's nuclear facilities and stockpiles of material. The most liberal estimates are that in another 12 months or so, getting to them to take them out without massive damage and civilian casualties is going to be close to impossible.

The Israelis understand this very well.What they are essentially saying to the Obama Administration is that time is running out, and if you don't do something about this we certainly will.

The Israelis don't particularly need NATO's assistance( although it would certainly be helpful) , or even the Jericho 3. Israel's drones, pilots and nuclear subs can already get close enough to Iran to hit whatever they need to hit, and an Israeli raid on Iran would almost certainly be accompanied by the Saudis turning a blind eye to Israel flying over their territory for the purpose.

The indications are that the Israelis are fully capable of doing this themselves provided they're ruthless enough to do what it takes to make a thorough job of it. It would probably take multiple strikes, and Israel's inherent limitations would undoubtedly make things messy and might even involve tactical nukes, but the Iranian nuclear program could be crippled for some time.

That, however is not at all what the Obama Administration wants. This president doesn't want to have to choose between alienating all those new Islamist regimes he's so fond of by supporting Israel in a strike on a Muslim country, or alienating even more of the pro-Israel vote at home in an election year by not doing so.

President Obama's preferred scenario is to try and use the Israelis as leverage to try and get support from Russia and China for actual, punitive sanctions on Iran. The fact that they haven't worked yet and likely never would doesn't come into the equation for this president.

The pitch to the Russians and Chinese would go something like this: 'Look, there's only so much I can do with these psycho Jews just now. It's better we all act now like the adults in the room to solve this thing instead of letting it get out of hand.'

If that doesn't work, there are indeed signs that President Obama may be leaning reluctantly towards an Iran strike if he feels it's to his personal advantage. But if it happens, it will be one that definitely doesn't involve Israel, at least not openly.

The first signal was the departure of Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense and a long time Iran appeaser. Along with former Secretary of State Condi Rice, it was Gates who was instrumental in making sure that the Bush Administration kicked this can down the road as well as seeing to it that the Israelis didn't get any kind of green light for it either, back when Iran would have been a lot easier to deal with than they are now. The team of Gates and Rice even attempted to stop the Israelis from taking out Syria's North Korea-supplied reactor and budding nuclear weapons site. fortunately without success. Gates pulled exactly the same trick during his tenure in the Obama Administration on Iran, aided and abetted by Admiral William J. Fallon, then commander of CENTCOM.

The second sign is the coming removal of all US troops from Iraq, scheduled to be completed by the end of next month. For political reasons,(both American and Iraqi) the president is required to finish the draw down by year's end. But it has the small silver lining of removing a nearby target for retaliation and attack by Iran or its Shi'ite proxies within Iraq. True, many of those troops will be redeployed next door in Kuwait, but Kuwait is not controlled by Shi'ites and can be defended a lot easier than Iraq if necessary.

If President Obama does decide on military action against Iran, it will probably come within a few months in the run up to the election to get maximum electoral benefit for the president. It would most likely involve NATO forces, most likely lead by the US, and including the British and the French. It might also include token forces from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates to avoid the 'stigma' of attacking a Muslim country, similar to the coalition President George HW Bush used in the Gulf War for exactly the same reason.

The Israeli role in this scenario would be limited to intel, recon and keeping Iran's proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria busy,so as not to complicate things with the Muslim world.

I must reiterate that this president is far more likely to simply delay things in hopes that yet another round of sanctions will have the desired effect, at least until he's safely out of office.

A lot depends on how the current elections go. and what President Obama sees as more beneficial to campaign on. Will he get more mileage as the president who brought our troops home from Iraq, or as the president who took out Iran's nukes? Will he garner more criticism from his base as President Warmonger or more from people complaining about him allowing Iran to go nuclear on his watch? Would it be better for him politically to take on Iran, or to let Israel do it?

One thing I'm certain of. As much as this president hates decisions,he will try to delay things as long as possible.

As things stand, my money is still on the IDF ending up doing the job.Israel no longer has the luxury of time.Neither do we,but it's a lot more obvious to the Israelis from where they sit.

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War Drums On Iran?

There were a number of interesting developments today that are said to point towards a possible attack on Iran. It's worth taking a look at them and seeing where they lead:

Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu is described in one major story in the British press as 'trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources'.

The Israelis successfully test fired a new ballistic missile, the Jericho 3 that has a range of over 4,300 miles, or 7,000 kilometers, putting all of Iran within easy reach.

Aside from some of the usual Iranian saber rattling, Hezbollah's cockroach-in-chief Sheik Nasrullah threatened Israel with massive retaliation,claiming that if another war starts the rockets will be aimed Tel Aviv first this time.

Rumors are flying that the Obama Administration is considering an attack on Iranian facilities to prevent Iran from going nuclear in view of recent developments. The latest, sparked by a visit by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to London and British chief of defense Staff David Richards to Jerusalem has NATO,led by the U.S. and UK doing the heavy lifting.

The Israeli Air force just completed a major drill in Italy with NATO forces that is said to be designed to familiarize Israeli pilots with NATO procedures in the lead up to an Iran strike

Okay...now let's look at what's actually going on here.

The Iranians appear to have mostly overcome the damage to their nuclear weapons program caused by stuxnet and other sabotage, including some deliberate slow ups by the Russians building these facilities in order to jack the costs up and get more money out of the Mullahs for their new toys.

The November IAEA report, due out in a matter of days is pretty clear that the Iranians are proceeding apace in their race to nuclear weapons. The current sanctions haven't deterred them one bit. It also details how the Iranians got considerable technical help from the Russians, North Koreans, and the Infamous A.Q. Kahn of Pakistan.

My sources also tell me that the IAEA report clearly states for the first time that a number of the facilities, processes and materials Iran is working with have no possible peaceful applications. That's something you knew well over three years ago if you were reading this site.

The biggest problem is the ongoing dispersal,protection and concealment of Iran's nuclear facilities and stockpiles of material. The most liberal estimates are that in another 12 months or so, getting to them to take them out without massive damage and civilian casualties is going to be close to impossible.

The Israelis understand this very well.What they are essentially saying to the Obama Administration is that time is running out, and if you don't do something about this we certainly will.

The Israelis don't particularly need NATO's assistance( although it would certainly be helpful) , or even the Jericho 3. Israel's drones, pilots and nuclear subs can already get close enough to Iran to hit whatever they need to hit, and an Israeli raid on Iran would almost certainly be accompanied by the Saudis turning a blind eye to Israel flying over their territory for the purpose.

The indications are that the Israelis are fully capable of doing this themselves provided they're ruthless enough to do what it takes to make a thorough job of it. It would probably take multiple strikes, and Israel's inherent limitations would undoubtedly make things messy and might even involve tactical nukes, but the Iranian nuclear program could be crippled for some time.

That, however is not at all what the Obama Administration wants. This president doesn't want to have to choose between alienating all those new Islamist regimes he's so fond of by supporting Israel in a strike on a Muslim country, or alienating even more of the pro-Israel vote at home in an election year by not doing so.

President Obama's preferred scenario is to try and use the Israelis as leverage to try and get support from Russia and China for actual, punitive sanctions on Iran. The fact that they haven't worked yet and likely never would doesn't come into the equation for this president.

The pitch to the Russians and Chinese would go something like this: 'Look, there's only so much I can do with these psycho Jews just now. It's better we all act now like the adults in the room to solve this thing instead of letting it get out of hand.'

If that doesn't work, there are indeed signs that President Obama may be leaning reluctantly towards an Iran strike if he feels it's to his personal advantage. But if it happens, it will be one that definitely doesn't involve Israel, at least not openly.

The first signal was the departure of Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense and a long time Iran appeaser. Along with former Secretary of State Condi Rice, it was Gates who was instrumental in making sure that the Bush Administration kicked this can down the road as well as seeing to it that the Israelis didn't get any kind of green light for it either, back when Iran would have been a lot easier to deal with than they are now. The team of Gates and Rice even attempted to stop the Israelis from taking out Syria's North Korea-supplied reactor and budding nuclear weapons site. fortunately without success. Gates pulled exactly the same trick during his tenure in the Obama Administration on Iran, aided and abetted by Admiral William J. Fallon, then commander of CENTCOM.

The second sign is the coming removal of all US troops from Iraq, scheduled to be completed by the end of next month. For political reasons,(both American and Iraqi) the president is required to finish the draw down by year's end. But it has the small silver lining of removing a nearby target for retaliation and attack by Iran or its Shi'ite proxies within Iraq. True, many of those troops will be redeployed next door in Kuwait, but Kuwait is not controlled by Shi'ites and can be defended a lot easier than Iraq if necessary.

If President Obama does decide on military action against Iran, it will probably come within a few months in the run up to the election to get maximum electoral benefit for the president. It would most likely involve NATO forces, most likely lead by the US, and including the British and the French. It might also include token forces from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates to avoid the 'stigma' of attacking a Muslim country, similar to the coalition President George HW Bush used in the Gulf War for exactly the same reason.

The Israeli role in this scenario would be limited to intel, recon and keeping Iran's proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria busy,so as not to complicate things with the Muslim world.

I must reiterate that this president is far more likely to simply delay things in hopes that yet another round of sanctions will have the desired effect, at least until he's safely out of office.

A lot depends on how the current elections go. and what President Obama sees as more beneficial to campaign on. Will he get more mileage as the president who brought our troops home from Iraq, or as the president who took out Iran's nukes? Will he garner more criticism from his base as President Warmonger or more from people complaining about him allowing Iran to go nuclear on his watch? Would it be better for him politically to take on Iran, or to let Israel do it?

One thing I'm certain of. As much as this president hates decisions,he will try to delay things as long as possible.

As things stand, my money is still on the IDF ending up doing the job.Israel no longer has the luxury of time.Neither do we,but it's a lot more obvious to the Israelis from where they sit.

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FBI and DEA Foil Iran Plot To Murder Saudi Ambassador

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency( DEA) were responsible for thwarting what was referred to as an assassin-for-hire plot by Iran to kill Saudi ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubei.

A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard will face conspiracy charges for their part in the plot.

The Iranians, of course are denying it out of hand, although a spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Iranian government was awaiting details about the accusations that he described as a "fabrication" by the U.S.

Meanwhile the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington issued a statement Tuesday thanking U.S. authorities for stepping in.

"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy's statement said.

The Saudi ambassador was not the only one on the hit list. U.S. officials said the suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina. There's a huge Hezbollah cell there, for those who've forgotten.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, later told CNN he was confident the plan was sanctioned by the Iranian government.

"The quickness of the decisions that were made in order for certain elements of this to fall into place tells us that it is clearly tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government," he said.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, an FBI agent's affidavit released Tuesday alleged.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September. Shakuri remains at large, the FBI said.

Authorities developed the case against them with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, officials and court documents said.

The Mexican drug cartel detail ought to raise some hackles. Regular members of Joshua's Army have known about the link between terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and drug cartels for quite some time. Both groups, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan have drug sales and processing as an important part of their finances and have done deals with various cartels in Latin America,the Mafia and Union Corse' in Europe and the Chinese Triads in Asia. And if terrorism expert Steve Emerson is correct, a number of Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers have already gotten into the U.S. via our porous southern border.

I also found it interesting that Attorney General Eric Holder took a few minutes today to take credit for the FBI and DEA's work. A question comes to mind:Why is it that Eric Holder claims to know absolutely nothing about operations like Fast and Furious that ended in disaster, but is presenting himself as being entirely in the loop and responsible for an operation he had absolutely nothing to do with that ended successfully? Especially ironic since the Iranians may very well have approached one of the Mexican cartels to buy weaponry the cartels got hold of via Holder and Fast and Furious.

And then of course,there's the timing. The announcement of an arrest that took place two weeks ago at a press conference today by an Attorney General who's already been caught lying to Congress and is about to subpoenaed is, well, just a mite suspicious, wouldn't you say?

As for the Iranian plot itself,I remember a time when this would have constituted an act of war, just like seizing a US embassy and taking American diplomats as hostages once would have been. Instead, this is going to be played down, with maybe some rhetoric that signifies absolutely nothing.And Iran knows it.

The Mullahs aren't stupid. They know weakness when they see it, and they see it in Obama the same as they once saw it in Jimmy Carter.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

FBI and DEA Foil Iran Plot To Murder Saudi Ambassador

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency( DEA) were responsible for thwarting what was referred to as an assassin-for-hire plot by Iran to kill Saudi ambassador to the US Adel al-Jubei.

A naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and U.S. passports and a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard will face conspiracy charges for their part in the plot.

The Iranians, of course are denying it out of hand, although a spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Iranian government was awaiting details about the accusations that he described as a "fabrication" by the U.S.

Meanwhile the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington issued a statement Tuesday thanking U.S. authorities for stepping in.

"The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the embassy's statement said.

The Saudi ambassador was not the only one on the hit list. U.S. officials said the suspects also discussed attacking Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington and possibly Buenos Aires, Argentina. There's a huge Hezbollah cell there, for those who've forgotten.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, later told CNN he was confident the plan was sanctioned by the Iranian government.

"The quickness of the decisions that were made in order for certain elements of this to fall into place tells us that it is clearly tied to the highest levels of the Iranian government," he said.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, an FBI agent's affidavit released Tuesday alleged.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September. Shakuri remains at large, the FBI said.

Authorities developed the case against them with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, officials and court documents said.

The Mexican drug cartel detail ought to raise some hackles. Regular members of Joshua's Army have known about the link between terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and drug cartels for quite some time. Both groups, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan have drug sales and processing as an important part of their finances and have done deals with various cartels in Latin America,the Mafia and Union Corse' in Europe and the Chinese Triads in Asia. And if terrorism expert Steve Emerson is correct, a number of Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers have already gotten into the U.S. via our porous southern border.

I also found it interesting that Attorney General Eric Holder took a few minutes today to take credit for the FBI and DEA's work. A question comes to mind:Why is it that Eric Holder claims to know absolutely nothing about operations like Fast and Furious that ended in disaster, but is presenting himself as being entirely in the loop and responsible for an operation he had absolutely nothing to do with that ended successfully? Especially ironic since the Iranians may very well have approached one of the Mexican cartels to buy weaponry the cartels got hold of via Holder and Fast and Furious.

And then of course,there's the timing. The announcement of an arrest that took place two weeks ago at a press conference today by an Attorney General who's already been caught lying to Congress and is about to subpoenaed is, well, just a mite suspicious, wouldn't you say?

As for the Iranian plot itself,I remember a time when this would have constituted an act of war, just like seizing a US embassy and taking American diplomats as hostages once would have been. Instead, this is going to be played down, with maybe some rhetoric that signifies absolutely nothing.And Iran knows it.

The Mullahs aren't stupid. They know weakness when they see it, and they see it in Obama the same as they once saw it in Jimmy Carter.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The 'Arab Spring' Reaches Saudi Arabia - Courtesy Of Iran

Saudi Arabia announced that an unnamed foreign country - normally code for Iran - was responsible for unrest in its Eastern Province, after armed men opened fire on police during a protest near the city of al-Qatif on Monday.Eleven Saudi security personnel and three protesters were wounded when security forces clashed with protesters and a group of armed men opened up onthe Saudi forces with automatic weapons and Molotov cocktails.

“A group of instigators inspired by a foreign country gathered in al-Awwamiya village near Qatif at 9pm on Monday and tried to undermine security,” an interior ministry official was quoted as saying in a statement to the Saudi press agency.

While the majority of Saudis are Sunni and live in the western part of the country near the Red Sea where Riyadh and Mecca are located, the Eastern part of the country near the Persian Gulf is home to Saudi Arabia's largely Shi'ite underclass. Just coincidentally, the East is also where the oil is.

The Saudis, aided by the British( who wanted that oil and saw Ibn-Saud as a reliable ally) conquered the Eastern Province in 1925, and its Shi'ites, about 10% of the Saudi population have been subjugated ever since.

Iran sees this as an opportunity to joust with the Saudis, just as it attempted to do using the Shi'ites in Bahrain. The tactic of using an armed militia enveloped in sectarian protests is a time-honored tactic the mullahs used in Lebanon and in Iraq.

This is not the first protest by Shi'ites in the Qatif area. One demand has been the withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain, a goal that means little to Saudi Shi'ites compared with other issues but one that means a lot to Iran. Who's pulling the strings is fairly obvious.

Nor is Qatif a random location. It's close to some major installations in the Saudi oil infrastructure like the Abqaiq processing center, which handles about 70 per cent of the Kingdom’s production.

Expect further protests and unrest in this area...courtesy of Iran.

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The 'Arab Spring' Reaches Saudi Arabia - Courtesy Of Iran

Saudi Arabia announced that an unnamed foreign country - normally code for Iran - was responsible for unrest in its Eastern Province, after armed men opened fire on police during a protest near the city of al-Qatif on Monday.Eleven Saudi security personnel and three protesters were wounded when security forces clashed with protesters and a group of armed men opened up onthe Saudi forces with automatic weapons and Molotov cocktails.

“A group of instigators inspired by a foreign country gathered in al-Awwamiya village near Qatif at 9pm on Monday and tried to undermine security,” an interior ministry official was quoted as saying in a statement to the Saudi press agency.

While the majority of Saudis are Sunni and live in the western part of the country near the Red Sea where Riyadh and Mecca are located, the Eastern part of the country near the Persian Gulf is home to Saudi Arabia's largely Shi'ite underclass. Just coincidentally, the East is also where the oil is.

The Saudis, aided by the British( who wanted that oil and saw Ibn-Saud as a reliable ally) conquered the Eastern Province in 1925, and its Shi'ites, about 10% of the Saudi population have been subjugated ever since.

Iran sees this as an opportunity to joust with the Saudis, just as it attempted to do using the Shi'ites in Bahrain. The tactic of using an armed militia enveloped in sectarian protests is a time-honored tactic the mullahs used in Lebanon and in Iraq.

This is not the first protest by Shi'ites in the Qatif area. One demand has been the withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain, a goal that means little to Saudi Shi'ites compared with other issues but one that means a lot to Iran. Who's pulling the strings is fairly obvious.

Nor is Qatif a random location. It's close to some major installations in the Saudi oil infrastructure like the Abqaiq processing center, which handles about 70 per cent of the Kingdom’s production.

Expect further protests and unrest in this area...courtesy of Iran.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!