Friday, May 14, 2004

I was getting ready to grade some papers (I have graded none so far), when a familiar voice from the TV blasting outside came on. It was the Saudi Crown Prince's advisor on National Security, `Adil Al-Jubayr, who resides in Washington, DC. Now imagine if "Bush"'s National Security Advisor resides in Paris, France. That is hilarious. He was on MSNBC's Hardball (how much Mathews hated me the one time he had me on). He took it upon himself to lecture the US about humane and civil treatment of prisoners. I kid you not. Now `Adil and I go a long way back. He took some classes with me at Georgetown and Angry Arab had some fun at his expense in a few classes. At one point, in one IR class, I had to turn to him and say in front of the class: "You really do not have to propagandize for the House of Saudi IN CLASS. Do that outside of class." It was incredible. And this Al-Jubayr was telling the American audience today about the civilized methods of interrogation in Saudi Arabia, where beheading of lovers still takes place, and where women are still stoned, and where people who enjoy their drugs are executed, and where the prisons of Prince Nayif are run like medieval dungeons with routine torture, and urination over the heads of inmates. And the propagandists of the House of Saudi are now allowed to preach tolerance and humane treatment on US TV?