Above: Saudi Arabia’s military from MirrorSpectrum.com
Kingdom of the Unjust; a sit down with activist & author Medea Benjamin about her latest book and how US/Saudi ties perpetuate human rights violations. Saudi Arabia was left off Trump’s Muslim Ban despite the fact that they regularly invest in terrorist organizations, despite being home to 15 of the 9/11 hijackers and indeed despite being the founders of Wahabbism, the perversion of Islam that both ISIS and Al Qaeda follow.
So, what gives? In her book and our conversation, Medea Benjamin discusses the inner workings of the Kingdom – from the grotesque treatment of women and immigrant workers to the extremist brand of Islam that perpetuates hate and war in the region. She also outlines our ties to the country, going back to an agreement made over black gold and military protection in the 1940s. In the present day, our ties continue to hold, despite the fact that we only receive 13% of our oil from Saudi Arabia. In lieu of that, we get monstrous military contracts that bolster our war machine, our 1% and their human rights violating wars like the current one in Yemen.