US media dishes dirt on Saudi blockade of Qatar
So Trump went to Saudi Arabia. The Donald feasted with hereditary rulers as the world saw the President of the US glowing as a leader among sheikhs and kings. Trump’s visit sanctified the Saudi version of Islam, the product of the brutalist, fundamentalist Wahabi/Salafi cult that justifies their rule and founded el Qaeda. he called the Kingom the home of Islam!
As seen from the Saudi throne, Trump’s royal visit also justified Saudi efforts to repress their version of Alt New .. the free press represented by Qatar’s Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is widely seen across the Muslim world and the Middle East as a voice of Muslim liberalism … meaning support for democracy with an Islamic flavor. Explicitly this included AJ’s exposés of despotic and nepotistic rule as in Egypt and the Saudi coalition. So, after Trump, we got the Saudi led effort to ban Qatar.
So Trumps still naive Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has been left with the unsavory task of leaning up after the banquets. It’s been a bad week for the Saudi rulers in the US media. A slew of embarrassing stories got wide coverage, with the seeming intention of undermining Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies. Not coincidentally, the Saudi-led bloc then capitulated in its standoff with Qatar.