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Saudi Arabia

29
26-27
26-27
77-79
81-83
26
25-26
20-21
18-20
50-55
13-18
39-48
24-29
63-64
19-22
37-56
840-849
813-826
174-196
Jun 2006

Length, in miles, of a barrier that Saudi Arabia has proposed to build in order to seal its border with Iraq: 560

Number of electronically controlled gates that would be placed along its length: 135

Source:

Middle East Economic Digest (London)

Nov 2005Percentage change since January in the total value of Saudi Arabian stocks: +83
Source:

Tadawul (Riyadh)

Jul 2005Number of Saudi men who were imprisoned and flogged for “behaving like women” at a party in March: 100
Source:

Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.)

Jan 2005Estimated value of a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set given to Laura Bush in 2003 by the Saudi crown prince : $95,500
Source:

U.S. Department of State

Nov 2004Minimum number of customers trampled to death in September at the opening of a Saudi Arabian Ikea : 2
Source:

Ghasson A. Al-Sulaiman Co. Ltd. (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

Oct 2004Ratio of the minimum number of beheadings by the Saudi government last year to those by Saudi terrorists so far this year : 50:1
Source:

U.S. State Department/Amnesty International (N.Y.C.)

Jun 2004Estimated value of a painting that the Saudi ambassador has given George W. Bush for his future presidential library : $1,000,000
Source:

National Archives & Records Administration (Washington)

Mar 2004Percentage change between 2001 and 2002 in Saudi Arabia's PR spending in the United States : +1,700
Source:

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (Washington)

Jun 2003Amount the U.S. Air Force spent on a "nostalgic juke box" for a base in Saudi Arabia in the last two years: $14,835
Source:

U.S. General Accounting Office

Apr 2003Rank of Kim Jong Il and the Saudi royal family among the world's worst dictators, according to Parade magazine: 1, 2
Source:

Parade, 2/16/03

Sep 2002Number of the September 11 hijackers whose entry visas came through a special U.S.-Saudi "Visa Express" program: 3
Source:

Embassy of the United States (Riyadh)

Feb 2002Minimum amount the Saudi government spent last fall on multi-page U.S. print ads touting King Fahd: $3,200,000
Source:

Harper's research

Jan 2002Minimum number of Saudis who have been trained in Al Qaeda camps: 5,000
Source:

Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (London)

Feb 1999Amount the family of Osama bin Laden was paid by Saudi Arabia to construct U.S. barracks there this year: $150,000,000
Source:

U.S. Department of Defense

December 23, 2008An eight-year-old Saudi Arabian girl was denied a divorce from her 58-year-old husband because she was too young to file.
Source:

Guardian

November 24, 2008Officials in Rochester, Minnesota, said that the city's economic woes were relieved for the year after an eight-day visit by Saudi King Abdullah and hundreds of his family members, who spent up to $2.5 million during their stay.
Source:

Local 6

October 21, 2008 Saudi authorities indicted 991 people on charges of participating in terrorist attacks.
Source:

New York Times

August 29, 2008Hip-hop mogul P. Diddy announced that the rising price of fuel had forced him to give up private-jet travel. “Can you believe this, I'm actually flying commercial!” he said. “Gas prices are too motherfuckin' high. I want to give a shout-out to all my Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters and all my brothers and sisters from all the countries that have oil. If y'all could please send me some oil for my jet, I would truly appreciate it.”
Source:

E!Online

June 25, 2008 Saudi Arabia announced that it had detained 520 people suspected of links to Al Qaeda.
Source:

BBC News

June 22, 2008 Oil reached a record $139.89 a barrel. Four Western companies met with Iraq's Oil Ministry to finalize no-bid contracts to tap Iraqi oil fields, and the Nigerian government distributed billions of dollars of windfall to corrupt state officials. Thirty-five countries and 25 oil companies met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to try to fix global oil prices, which have caused strikes, riots, and inflation around the world. Many OPEC countries blamed speculators for the price increase, as did some representatives of oil companies and oil-dependent industries. United States Energy Secretary Sam Bodman blamed supply and demand, as did lobbyists for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
Source 1:

ABC

Source 2:

AFP via Google

Source 3:

BBC

Source 4:

NYT

Source 5:

Jakarta Post

Source 6:

NYT

Source 7:

LAT

Source 8:

WP

Source 9:

AP via Mercury News

Source 10:

WYTV Ohio

Source 11:

Bloomberg

June 16, 2008King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pledged to calm the world by raising his kingdom's oil production.
Source:

Independent

August 3, 2007Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo said that, if elected president, he would respond to terrorism on U.S. soil by bombing the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Source:

Slate

May 26, 2007 Cairo customs officials prevented a smuggler from carrying 700 snakes onto a plane bound for Saudi Arabia.
Source:

USA Today

April 29, 2007 Saudi Arabia arrested 172 men suspected of plotting to fly planes into oil wells, execute mass prison breaks, and assassinate members of the Saudi royal family.
Source:

Reuters

April 13, 2007In Saudi Arabia, a widely circulated text message claimed melons entering the kingdom from Israel were infected with AIDS.
Source:

Ynetnews

June 18, 2006 Baboons in Saudi Arabia ruined a picnic.
Source:

Arab News

May 16, 2006King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked newspapers to refrain from publishing pictures of women.
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AP via MyWay.com

February 24, 2006In Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda attempted to bomb the Abqaiq oil facility but was thwarted. Two guards died in the attack.
Source 1:

BBC News

Source 2:

NineMSN

January 13, 2006In Saudi Arabia 345 people were trampled to death while attempting to finish the “stoning-of-the-devil” ritual of the Hajj. “This was fate,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, “destined by God.” Officials said that they were working out a plan to allow 500,000 people to stone the devil per hour.
Source:

The Seattle Times

January 6, 2006A building collapsed in Mecca, killing 76 people.
Source:

Forbes.com

November 11, 2005 Saudi Arabia was told it could now join the World Trade Organization.
Source:

BBC News

September 28, 2005Karen Hughes visited Saudi Arabia and expressed hope that women in that country would someday be able to "fully participate in society." A woman in the audience countered, "We're all pretty happy." Another audience member charged that the United States had become "a right wing country" that did not allow freedom of the press.
Source:

The New York Times

August 20, 2005Peter Schoomaker, the Army's top general, revealed that the United States was developing a plan to keep at least 100,000 soldiers in Iraq through 2009. Senator Chuck Hagel (R., Nebr.) called the plan "complete folly." "It would further destabilize the Middle East," he said. "It would give Iran more influence, it would hurt Israel, it would put our allies over there in Saudi Arabia and Jordan in a terrible position."
Source 1:

AP

Source 2:

AP

August 1, 2005 King Fahd died.
Source:

New York Times

June 2, 2005 Saudi Arabia was considering whether women should be allowed to drive.
Source:

ABC News

April 4, 2005In Mecca, a man stabbed his father to death after the father threatened to tattle on the man for not praying.
Source:

Arab News

March 31, 2005A Saudi Arabian princess was arrested for keeping slaves in Winchester, Massachusetts.
Source:

BostonHerald.com

March 11, 2005The United States announced plans to reduce the number of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay by freeing some and sending others to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Yemen.
Source:

The Guardian

February 11, 2005 Saudi Arabia denied that it was shopping for nuclear weapons.
Source:

Dailytimes.com.pk

December 30, 2004Suicide bombers attacked Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry.
Source:

New York Times

November 22, 2004The mayor of Riyadh announced that no foreign observers would be welcome in Saudi Arabia's municipal elections, nor would women be able to participate as voters, or candidates.
Source:

Arab News

September 23, 2004After maintaining for three years that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan, was so grave a threat to the United States that merely permitting him to meet with his lawyer would fatally compromise national security, the Bush Administration (having been told by Justice Antonin Scalia that "the very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive") declined to defend its case against Hamdi in open court and announced that he will be stripped of his citizenship and released in Saudi Arabia.
Source:

Boston Globe, Washington Post, ZNet

September 2, 2004Three people were trampled to death at an Ikea grand opening in Saudi Arabia.
Source:

New York Times

July 24, 2004 Saudi authorities found the severed head of an American hostage.
Source:

The Age

June 19, 2004 Saudi militants beheaded an American hostage.
Source:

Reuters

June 10, 2004There were reports of a Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi royal family.
Source:

New York Times

June 9, 2004An American military contractor was shot dead in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Source:

New York Times

May 31, 2004Suspected Al Qaeda militants killed 22 people and took many hostages in an attack on the oil industry town of Khobar, in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Source:

Reuters

May 23, 2004 Oil prices were still near $40 a barrel, and OPEC rejected a Saudi Arabian proposal to increase oil production.
Source:

New York Times

May 3, 2004 Militants in Saudi Arabia attacked the offices of a Western engineering company and killed several people; one American engineer was dragged away behind a car.
Source:

New York Times

April 22, 2004 Suicide bombers attacked a government building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and
Source:

New York Times

April 20, 2004Bob Woodward's new book continued to shape the news; it was the source of accusations that the Bush Administration improperly diverted funds to prepare for the conquest of Iraq, and that Saudi Arabia promised President Bush to deliver low fuel prices to help with his reelection.
Source:

New York Times

March 11, 2004 Saudi Arabia established its first nongovernmental human-rights group.
Source:

New York Times

January 22, 2004 Saudi Arabia's highest-ranking cleric said that women's rights are anti-Islamic.
Source:

New York Times

December 17, 2003 Saudi Arabia banned the importation of stuffed animals, female dolls, crucifixes, and statues of the Buddha.
Source:

San Francisco Chronicle

November 10, 2003A suicide car bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 17 people, including 5 children, in a housing compound inhabited by foreign workers. Al Qaeda was blamed for the attack.
Source:

Associated Press

August 31, 2003King Fahd of Saudi Arabia told Muslim clerics that it was time to start fighting religious extremism.
Source:

Reuters

August 2, 2003According to those who have read it, the redacted section lays out far more financial connections between the September 11 hijackers, fifteen of whom were Saudi, and the Saudi government than had been previously revealed. The most specific allegations concerned Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi man who had provided funds and assistance to two of the hijackers in San Diego; the classified section says that Al Bayoumi received $3,000 per month from the Saudi government, and speculates that he may have been employed by Saudi intelligence.
Source:

Los Angeles Times

July 30, 2003President George W. Bush refused to declassify the twenty-eight pages of Congress's September 11 report that pertained to Saudi Arabia, despite calls to do so by members of Congress and by the Saudi government itself, which said it intended to rebut the contents.
Source:

New York Times

July 30, 2003The Saudis were continuing to capture suspected Al Qaeda militants in police raids; the government insisted that most of those captured had been trained in Afghanistan, but admitted that a few "perhaps were trained on farms and the like inside the country."
Source:

Los Angeles Times

July 25, 2003A joint congressional committee released an 850-page report concluding that the September 11 attacks could have been prevented; a 28-page section detailing the Saudi Arabian government's links to the terrorists was redacted.
Source:

AP

June 15, 2003 Police in Saudi Arabia said they had prevented a terrorist attack when they raided a booby-trapped apartment in Mecca; five militants and two police officers died in the shootout.
Source:

Newsday

May 16, 2003 Robert Jordan, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, accused Saudi Arabia of ignoring a recent request for more security in Riyadh.
May 15, 2003Car bombs killed 34 people, including nine terrorists, at foreign compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Al Qaeda was blamed for the attacks, which were carried out by 15 Saudi citizens.
December 24, 2002 The Department of Justice added Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Armenia to the list of countries whose adult male citizens residing in the U.S. must register with federal authorities but later dropped Armenia after it was pointed out that most Armenians are Christian.
December 11, 2001 Afghan refugees, particularly children, were dying in great numbers; Uzbekistan finally agreed to allow humanitarian aid to cross its border at the “Friendship Bridge.” The CIA asked Pakistan for help in finding Osama bin Laden, whose mother told a Saudi newspaper that she was disappointed in her son.
December 11, 2001 Saudi Arabia's King Faisal Specialist Hospital filed suit in the Grand Islamic court seeking $2.9 billion from tobacco companies to cover 25 years of treating smoking-related illnesses.
December 4, 2001 President Bush again warned the terrorists of the world to watch out and made a foray into lexicography: “If anybody harbors a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they fund a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they're terrorists. I mean, I can't make it any more clearly to other nations around the world.” Saudi Arabia was still refusing to freeze terrorists' bank accounts.
December 4, 2001 Saudi Arabia was not yet on the list.
October 30, 2001 Saudi Arabia's King Fahd asked his people to pray for rain.
October 9, 2001An American was killed by a package bomb in Saudi Arabia.
July 24, 2001Human-rights groups were putting the finishing touches on Peekabooty, anticensorship software that would defeat all Web filters and allow Internet users in countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, and North Korea access to government-censored sites.
May 22, 2001 Police in Saudi Arabia gave seven teenage boys 15 lashes each for leering at women at shopping malls; the offenses included slipping girls phone numbers, whistling, talking to them, even winking.
April 3, 2001 Saudi Arabia banned Pokémon because it has “possessed the minds” of children and “promotes Zionism.”
March 20, 2001Chechen terrorists hijacked a Russian plane and flew it to Saudi Arabia, landing in the holy city of Medina.

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MERMAID FEVER
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Also: Dave Hickey and Wendell Berry