Trading Jobs for Torture in Saudi Arabia

In the August 25 e-blast from MiBiz, under the “News You Can Use” section, there was a story about a new General Dynamics contract to rehab military tanks for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Actually, it wasn’t much of a story, it was really just a link to a General Dynamics Media Release, which states in part that the $42.4 million contact will upgrade the entire Saudi fleet of 314 tanks.

It is interesting that MiBiz puts this under their News You Can Use section of their weekly e-mail news bulletin, but not surprising since they are only interested in promoting news that promotes the economic bottom line.

However, a more honest look at what this $42.4 million dollar contract for a Michigan-based company really means would require the business press to ask questions about the value of the jobs and economic investment trade off will mean in Saudi Arabia.

While Saudi Arabia has been a US ally since WWII, the country has no relationship to democracy or freedom. Beyond the absence of an electoral system the country is run by the Saudi Royal Family, which has a long tack record of human rights violations.

According to the 2011 Amnesty International report on human rights in Saudi Arabia, the country engages in systemic violations, including illegal detentions, lack of rights for women, labor abuses and torture. Even a recent US State Department report acknowledges that Saudi Arabia has an atrocious human rights record, that includes:

“torture and physical abuse; poor prison and detention center conditions; arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention; denial of fair and public trials and lack of due process in the judicial system; political prisoners; restrictions on civil liberties such as freedoms of speech (including the Internet), assembly, association, movement, and severe restrictions on religious freedom; and corruption and lack of government transparency. Violence against women and a lack of equal rights for women, violations of the rights of children, trafficking in persons, and discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, sect, and ethnicity were common. The lack of workers’ rights, including the employment sponsorship system, remained a severe problem.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also pointed out that the Saudi government has recently crafted new anti-terorism legislation that will further violate basic human rights and legalize various forms of abuse and torture. The HRW analysis of the new anti-terrorism laws suggests that these will be adopted to prevent an “Arab Spring” from happening in that country.

The lack of human rights begs the question why the US would continue to sell them military equipment. The answer is that the US is more interested in the geo-political role that Saudi Arabia plays, a role that supports long-term US plans for the region. This is the conclusion that former CIA operative Robert Baer provides in his book “Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.” (This book is what the 2005 film Syriana is based on.)

The regional role that Saudi Arabia plays in support of US policy was seen in 2009 when the Saudi military attacked armed insurgents in Yemen, an action that fits in with the larger US War on Terror.

So it seems that in exchange for some jobs and increased profits for General Dynamics the world gets more violence and human rights violations. General Dynamics doesn’t seem bothered by the consequences of their desire for greater profits, since they subvert the democratic process in the US by buying political power in Washington to the tune of $11,534,452 (over the last 20 years).