{"id":1532,"date":"2006-08-22T07:51:32","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T07:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2006-08-22T07:51:32","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T07:51:32","slug":"2006-8-22-new-saudi-opposition-group-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1532","title":{"rendered":"New Saudi opposition group"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\">Never heard of <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtontimes.com\/world\/20060820-111538-4183r.htm\">this<\/a> before:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>CAIRO &#8212; A Saudi opposition group is set to breathe new life into the kingdom&#8217;s dormant political reform movement. But in a sign of changing alliances, its founder hopes for a boost from public anger over government criticism of Hezbollah.<br \/>Founded in Paris by the exiled son of the last ruler of part of present-day Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Democratic Opposition Front claims about 2,000 members, mostly in Saudi Arabia.<br \/>It aims to provide an umbrella network for secular and Islamist activists both inside and outside the country who are campaigning for the overthrow of the al-Saud ruling family.<br \/>&#8220;We have founded the Saudi Democratic Opposition Front to push for 100 percent democracy in the country,&#8221; said Talal Mohammed Al-Rasheed, the son of the last ruler of the independent Rashidi emirate, which reigned in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s northwestern region of Hail from 1835 to 1921.<br \/>&#8220;If the al-Saud [family] introduce genuine democracy, we will support them. But if they do not, we will push by all peaceful means to make them give up their power,&#8221; said Mr. Al-Rasheed, 72, who still likes to be addressed as Prince Talal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what to think of these people. I found this interesting though:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Earlier this month, Mr. Al-Rasheed gave an hourlong interview to the Paris bureau chief of the Pan-Arab, Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news network. After announcing the formation of his party and advertising the forthcoming interview with Mr. Al-Rasheed on its news bar at the bottom of the screen, Al Jazeera suddenly removed the information and the interview was spiked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My sources told me that after they saw the information on Al Jazeera&#8217;s news ticker, the Saudi government called the station more than five times in one hour, pleading with them not to air it,&#8221; Mr. Al-Rasheed said, adding that Al Jazeera had &#8220;obviously caved in to the pressure.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Et tu<\/em>, Jazeera?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\">Never heard of <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtontimes.com\/world\/20060820-111538-4183r.htm\">this<\/a> before:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>CAIRO &#8212; A Saudi opposition group is set to breathe new life into the kingdom&#8217;s dormant political reform movement. But in a sign of changing alliances, its founder hopes for a boost from public anger over government criticism of Hezbollah.<br \/>\nFounded in Paris by the exiled son of the last ruler of part of present-day Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Democratic Opposition Front claims about 2,000 members, mostly in Saudi Arabia.<br \/>\nIt aims to provide an umbrella network for secular and Islamist activists both inside and outside the country who are campaigning for the overthrow of the al-Saud ruling family.<br \/>\n&#8220;We have founded the Saudi Democratic Opposition Front to push for 100 percent democracy in the country,&#8221; said Talal Mohammed Al-Rasheed, the son of the last ruler of the independent Rashidi emirate, which reigned in Saudi Arabia&#8217;s northwestern region of Hail from 1835 to 1921.<br \/>\n&#8220;If the al-Saud [family] introduce genuine democracy, we will support them. But if they do not, we will push by all peaceful means to make them give up their power,&#8221; said Mr. Al-Rasheed, 72, who still likes to be addressed as Prince Talal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what to think of these people. I found this interesting though:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Earlier this month, Mr. Al-Rasheed gave an hourlong interview to the Paris bureau chief of the Pan-Arab, Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news network. After announcing the formation of his party and advertising the forthcoming interview with Mr. Al-Rasheed on its news bar at the bottom of the screen, Al Jazeera suddenly removed the information and the interview was spiked.<br \/>\n&#8220;My sources told me that after they saw the information on Al Jazeera&#8217;s news ticker, the Saudi government called the station more than five times in one hour, pleading with them not to air it,&#8221; Mr. Al-Rasheed said, adding that Al Jazeera had &#8220;obviously caved in to the pressure.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Et tu<\/em>, Jazeera?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[60,171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}