Friday, December 12, 2025

Message from Charles Aulds

Trump said nothing about America's ally, Saudi Arabia, beheading people, which government executioners did on average three times per week in 2015 and 2016. Nor did he protest executions via public stonings, another Saudi government technique to frighten its 28 million people into submission to the monarchy's absolute rule. Burying people in the ground up to their necks so rocks can be thrown at their heads was both a brutal way to kill and a terrifying reminder of the regime's barbaric views on official violence.

Sometimes beheaded bodies are crucified in Saudi Arabia, all this done in public as crowds watch, what journalist John R. Bradley describes as the "only form of public entertainment" in Saudi Arabia, aside from soccer matches.

Those remarks indicate Trump was unaware, or did not care, that the Saudis are the world's largest sponsor of terrorism, far exceeding the Iranian government that Trump frequently denounces for its support for terrorism. The State Department lists sixty-one terrorist organizations, all but two of which are aligned with Sunnis and the extreme Wahhabi sect that is officially endorsed in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis fund fifty-seven of those terrorist groups.
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Excerpt from: It's Even Worse Than You Think, by David Cay Johnston (Pub. 2018)

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