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[Not Me]

We have no one to blame but ourselves for the problem that is Saudi Arabia today. We have become a gluttonous nation who refuse to make any type of sacrifice. Instead of calling for cheaper oil, we need to call for those of you who drive these gas guzzling cars to get a social conscience and exercise some fucking self restraint. You are pigs and you are hurting us all!


http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=617472004

• HOW secure now is the Saudi Arabian regime? And how safe from terrorist attack are the country’s huge oil installations, on which the world relies for its energy? Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil supplier. The latest deadly al-Qaeda attack in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar, in which 22 people were killed, including an American and a Briton, cannot but deepen anxiety over the threat to a key artery of the world economy. In attacking oil-related installations and personnel, al-Qaeda is effectively hitting two targets at once: the Saudi royal family that it has pledged to overthrow, and the world’s economy, in particular that of the United States.
  
  The weekend’s horrific attack is by no means an isolated incident. In early May, five foreigners were killed in an attack on a petrochemical site in the city of Yanbu. There, the increasingly tattered body of a western oil engineer was lashed to a car and dragged through the streets. There have been 12 deadly terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in the course of the past 12 months. In May last year, suicide bombers attacked three Riyadh compounds housing foreigners, killing 35 people.
  
  With the world oil price already above $40 and Iraqi oil production running below the levels achieved in the dying months of Saddam Hussein’s regime, western governments have every reason to be deeply concerned at developments in Saudi Arabia. They underscore the dependence of the international economy on Saudi oil and the vulnerability of oil installations and personnel to terrorist attack, and further undermine confidence in the Saudi regime. Another likely consequence is the growing involvement of the US, however covert, in protecting its oil workers and assisting the Saudis to combat the al-Qaeda threat.
  
  Such terrorist attacks are likely to drive the regime ever deeper into a trap that could prove its undoing. Saudi Arabia is not a democracy. Political demonstrations are banned. In "normal" circumstances, the authorities could prudently move towards liberalisation and an opening-up of the government. But terror attacks may encourage it to do exactly the opposite: intensify security, hunt down known opponents and put any talk of democratisation on ice.
  
  Such attacks raise searching questions about the stability - and durability - of the Saudi government. It has been widely held until now that, because there is no serious alternative to the dominance of the Royal Family, it will survive. But others disagree. Some view these attacks as the beginning of the end, suggesting that the Royal Family is losing control and that the regime has only two or three years left if it does not undertake serious reform.
  
  The Saudi Royal Family gave the first hints that it would embark upon some limited, cautious reform last year, with talk about human rights and the promise of local elections. However, some members are believed to be terrified of making any change, and there are many issues that may open up deep divisions within the regime itself, such as allowing women to vote, undermining the uneasy alliance between religious hard-liners and the Royal Family. In the meantime, immediate action is needed, to reassure foreign oil workers and the world that Saudi Arabia is a safe country in which to work and that its oil facilities can be protected from al-Qaeda.