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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (25998)	5/4/2002 10:14:58 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 59480

thats true...but Edie needs a hairdo!! (Fox and Friends)

To: sandintoes who wrote (25998)	5/6/2002 7:02:25 AM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

MSNBC Reporter Tells Tale of Saudi Censorship It's no surprise that Saudi Arabia's concept of press freedom is a tad different than that of the U.S. of A. After all, have you ever seen a Saudi official hold a news conference? When President Bush meets with foreign leaders, they almost always take questions from reporters. But during his visit to Crawford, Prince Abdullah behaved like he was in the witness protection program. It's a closed society run by an autocratic (and very large) family. With a state-controlled press that whips up anger toward the Israelis. No muckrakers roaming around the desert kingdom, exposing abuses and sticking microphones in people's faces. Still, you would think that our nominal ally would want to put its best foot forward when an American journalist comes to visit. To polish the old image a bit, engage in some basic PR. You would be wrong. Consider what happened to Dr. Bob Arnot the other day. You may remember him as a medical reporter (hence the everpresent "Dr." in his byline). Arnot is now a foreign correspondent for MSNBC who went to Saudi Arabia and, not to put too fine a point on it, got manhandled. In fact, the tactics were reminiscent of the old Soviet Union. Even Vladimir Putin would be appalled. Arnot's visit does paint the Saudis in a whole different light, although not the one he originally intended. Here's his report: "During an MSNBC visit to Saudi Arabia, students were surprisingly open in their comments about Sept. 11, the United States and the Mideast conflict. 'Film anything you want. We are a free and open society,' said an official at the information ministry in Jeddah. The ministry, along with the Arab News newspaper, helped set up interviews. Too good to be true? You bet. "I left Jeddah on a Saudi Arabian Airways flight headed for the city of Riyadh and then on to Dubai. During a stopover in Riyadh, a Saudi official asked me to step off the airplane to talk with security. "He told me I would be arrested if I did not comply. At the end of the gangway, nearly 40 men met me. Most wore traditional Saudi dress. The others were dressed in police uniforms. They identified themselves as 'security' and asked for my videotapes. I told them I could not give them up. That began a five-hour standoff. . . . "A Ministry of Information official said that if he could look at the one tape in my camera, I would be free to leave. He looked through the footage on my digital video camera and spied pictures I had filmed of a vehement anti-Arab e-mail received by the Arab News newspaper. One contained an animated cartoon of a man relieving himself on the Saudi flag. "'This is a very serious offense,' said the official, a 'capital offense.' The official then ordered everyone on the flight off the airplane. Some passengers were in tears, others were angry. They sat for more than five hours as officials bargained with me for my freedom. Each promise they made, they broke. . . . "After several promises to allow me to leave, the officials said they wanted to examine my luggage, and I was taken to customs, where my checked luggage had been brought. A dozen men went through it, piece by piece, taking every videotape they could find. Several men shoved me around roughly. . . . Now they wanted to look at my laptop. They opened every file, ever single program on it, all my notes, pictures of my children and my recently deceased father. . . . "They took my $5,000 Apple G-4, on which I do my video editing and store all my scripts. As I boarded the plane, I was given a long handwritten note and asked to sign it. It was written in Arabic script. I wrote at the bottom, 'Cannot read. . . . under duress.' With that, I was finally free." Which is more than we can say about Saudi society. Some actual movement to report in the Middle East, after months of mounting violence and political stalemate. Arafat finally getting sprung from house arrest, perhaps because Israel feels it made its political point by humiliating him and got an acceptable compromise on the terrorists holed up with the Palestinian leader. "Israel and the Palestinians yesterday accepted a U.S. proposal aimed at lifting the Israeli army's monthlong siege of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat inside his West Bank headquarters," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The deal, based on a proposal by President Bush, would release Arafat from weeks spent trapped on two floors of his shattered offices in Ramallah and defuse one of the most contentious issues dividing the two sides. Palestinian officials said they expected the siege to be lifted as early as today. "At his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush praised the Israeli and Palestinian decisions as 'important steps along the path to peace.' . . . article continues @ washingtonpost.com