Following the death of king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Jan. 23, U.S. President Obama cut short his trip to India for a visit to Saudi Arabia to pay his condolences. Obama was accompanies by a large U.S. delegation, which included top figures such as Secretary of State John Kerry, CIA Director John Brennan, Commander of U.S. Central Command Lloyd Austin as well as the Republican Senator John McCain.
Key figures of major imperialist powers have all rushed to pay their respects and devote honorific eulogies to the dead king as well as pay their respects to the new one, Salman Bin Abdulaziz, half-brother of Abdullah.
“Sometimes we need to balance our need to speak to them about human rights issues with immediate concerns we have in terms of counter-terrorism or dealing with regional stability,” Obama said, adding: “On this visit, obviously a lot of this is just paying respects to King Abdullah, who in his own fashion presented some modest reform efforts within the kingdom.”
Defending the close ties U.S. administration has with Saudi Arabia, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said, “The trip was an opportunity to both pay respects to the legacy of King Abdullah, who was a close partner with the United States and also to touch base on some of the issues where we’re working together with the Saudi.”
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the monarch “strengthened understanding between faiths.” IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, called him “a strong advocate of women,” albeit a “discreet” one.
Saudi Arabia—an absolute oppressive monarchy
Let us leave these hypocritical eulogies and praises to the dead king aside and take a closer look at this key regional ally of U.S. imperialism, this oil-rich kingdom where public beheadings, executions by hanging, flogging and torture are carried out in the name of law.
To start with, the area that is now called Saudi Arabia wasn’t always called that. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the first imperialist world war, the victorious British empire installed a Sunni family of corrupt landowners as the rulers of this region in the hopes of controlling the vast oil resources in that area. The name of the family: Al Saud —so the country was named Saudi Arabia, literally meaning “The Arabia of the Saud family.”
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. The ruling king is both the head of state and the head of government. With over 7,000 princes holding all the important government and state positions, the Al Saud family dominates the government, controls all the state apparatus and brutally suppresses any social dissent by arrests, prosecutions, prison and death sentences.
The Al Saud family literally owns the country and all its natural resources including some of the world’s largest oil fields. The net worth of the family is estimated to be close to $1.5 trillion.The country is ruled on the basis of their intepretation of Shari’a, the Islamic law that dictates all aspects of social life from politics to economics as well as personal life from practice of sex, hygiene, diet and religion. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, serves as the constitution.
With absolute authority over the judiciary and education system, a group of religious leaders, Ulema, play a significant role in sustaining this despotic rule. The justice system is based on the Hanbali school of law, one of the most conservative systems of Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence, also followed by the so-called Islamic State. Chopping off hands and feet for theft, lashes for “socially unacceptable” behavior, beheading for drug consumption and stoning to death for adultery are some of the typical types of punishment administered under this law.
Just in the month of January 2015 alone, while Obama was busy praising the late king, 16 people were beheaded. In 2014, 83 people were beheaded. A week before the death of King Abdullah, Raif Badawi, a blogger who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for speaking against the monarchy, had already received 50 of his lashes and Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim, a Burmese woman, had already been beheaded in public in Mecca while she screamed “I am innocent!”
For criminal cases, since the legal procedure is mainly based on “confession” by the person accused of the crime, torture ends up playing a prominent role in the process.
Saudi Arabia is one of the worst places on earth when it comes to oppression and discrimination against women. Strictly enforced sexual segregation prohibits women from being in contact with men other than their immediate relatives. Women in violation of segregation can be charged with adultery and prostitution, punishable by being stoned to death. In public places, there are special marked “women-only” entries and exits. All women are required to have a male guardian (father, brother or a husband) and they are forbidden from traveling, marrying or enrolling in higher education without the permission of that male guardian.
Saudi Arabia, a loyal client of U.S. imperialism
In the late 1970s, in close collaboration with the CIA, Saudi Arabia armed and funded a group of jihadist mercenaries (later to become Al-Qaeda) to overthrow the progressive government of Afghanistan, which was in close alliance with the Soviet Union. During the first Iraq war in 1991, as many as 550,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia. Leading up to the second war in 2003, the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia served as a vital command and control center for U.S. aerial refueling tankers and reconnaissance planes in addition to approximately 286,000 flight missions enforcing the no-flight zone by the start of the war.
More recently, in 2010, Saudi Arabia was instrumental in crushing the popular uprising in Bahrain, against the dictatorial rule of King Al Khalifa, another brutally repressive Sunni monarchy. Bahrain is home to U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet which not only backs up the regime’s survival militarily but also serves as an important tool for the imperialist interests of Washington in the region.
By funding and arming the extremist jihadist groups fighting the secular, nationalist government in Libya, Saudi Arabia played a key role in the overthrow of the Ghaddafi government and the total destruction of that country. A similar U.S.-led operation to overthrow the Syrian government has also heavily relied on Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to arm and fund similar extremist groups including Al-Qaeda and its off-shoots such as Jabhat Al-Nusrah, Ahrar ash-Sham as well as the Islamic State. The Saudi monarchy and the reactionary jihadist groups it has sponsored for decades have always served to ultimately advance the interests of U.S. imperialism.
Saudi Arabia also serves as a major sales outlet for U.S. weapons industry. According to a 2012 report presented to the U.S. Congress, in 2011 alone the U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amounted to $33.4 billion.
The hypocrisy of U.S. imperialism
Saudi Arabia is clearly an undemocratic, repressive regime that systematically tortures, kills and jails its own people. Speaking on a state-run TV station, the new King Salman bin Abdulaziz made it clear that he will continue those barbarous and repressive policies: “We will continue adhering to the correct policies which Saudi Arabia has followed since its establishment.”
Senator John McCain eulogized the late Abdullah as “a vocal advocate for peace, speaking out against violence in the Middle East,” while Secretary of State John Kerry referred to him as “a brave partner in fighting violent extremism and a proponent of peace.”
Compare these eulogies for a dead despot by U.S. imperialists to what was said on the death of President Hugo Chávez, someone who had devoted his life to the people of Venezuela and the struggle for social justice and equality: “At this challenging time of President Hugo Chávez’s passing, the United States reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government. As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.”
The truth is, US imperialists could not care less about democracy or human rights. That a murderous, repressive regime such as Saudi Arabia is fully backed by the U.S. as a regional ally—along with the slew of eulogies for its dead despot—serves as testimony to the hypocrisy and double standards of U.S. imperialism when it comes to democracy and human rights. The fact is, U.S. imperialism, driven by the expand-or-die logic of capitalism to dominate the world politically, economically and militarily, has always been centered on the drive to install and maintain client states while pushing for the overthrow of independent ones in order to secure its global domination.
Oppressive regimes like Saudi Arabia will continue to enjoy full support as long as they loyally serve the interests of the U.S. imperialism, while any government striving for independence, such as Syria, Libya, Venezuela or Cuba, will become the target of intervention, either by direct military intervention or economic blockade, another form of war. Backed by mainstream media lies, and despite the fake rhetoric of “freedom, democracy and human rights,” these interventions are always intended to increase profit for its capitalist class and secure its global domination.
