Our Need For Crude Oil Makes Strange Friends

Our government is good friends with Saudi Arabia. Our private sector businesses do a lot of trading with the Saudis. We sell them some of our most advanced weapons so that they can defend themselves. We need the oil buried under their deserts. It is a strange relationship because this is how they treat their own citizens (from the Associated Press - click the link to read more)...

The sentencing of a 75-year-old widow to 40 lashes and four months in prison for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives. The two men, including one who was Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The woman's lawyer, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, told The Associated Press on Monday that he plans to appeal the verdict, which also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her prison term. He declined to provide more details and said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media.

If the God of their religion is the true God - most Americans are in for a rough time of it in the after life because he's a real prick.