Monday, December 17, 2007

Obama: Saudi Arabia fosters human rights violations

Jason Clayworth, The Des Moines Register (US: Iowa)

Barack Obama pointed to a situation in which a 19-year-old gang rape victim in the country was sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated man. “The human rights record sometimes in Saudi Arabia is not one that we should align ourselves with.” Obama told the audience that such close ties with Middle East countries is “mortgaging some of our future” because it has weakened the value of the U.S. dollar as well as helping to finance terrorist activities. “We can’t keep on sending billions of dollars every single month to Saudi Arabia because, number one, that money is often finding its way into activities that are contrary to our long-term interest,” Obama said. “There’s no doubt that some of the financing of terrorism as come from these areas.”

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