American Workers Urged to Leave Saudi Arabia
Tuesday, June 15, 2004

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government renewed its call on Monday for Americans to leave Saudi Arabia (search) after the recent terrorist attacks, saying the safety of U.S. workers was more important than any effect on oil supplies or the Saudi economy.

An estimated 35,000 Americans have been working in Saudi Arabia and it was unclear how many have left since the increase in attacks, which have come at the same time the Bush administration has been pressing the Saudis to boost oil production to help lower gas prices in the United States.

Referring to U.S. workers in Saudi Arabia, State Department (search) spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We first and foremost have a responsibility to Americans. We need to give them our best advice on how to handle any particular situation overseas."

"As far as the maintenance and continued flow of oil and the economy in Saudi Arabia, that is something I think the Saudis will have to describe, what provisions they can make and how they can operate those facilities."

He would not say how many American workers had chosen to remain in Saudi Arabia as part of the kingdom's huge expatriate work force.

"In this kind of situation, we feel that giving out numbers just identifies how many potential targets there might be," Boucher said.

The U.S. government is in close touch with Saudi authorities investigating the apparent kidnapping of the latest American victim, Paul M. Johnson (search) of New Jersey, who worked on radar systems of Apache helicopters for Advanced Electronics Co., Boucher said. The Saudi firm has U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin among its customers.

By targeting foreigners' housing compounds, the attackers focus on a sizable sector of the Saudi economy. Saudi Arabia's own population is 17 million, and there are an estimated 8.8 million expatriate workers.

Westerners work in oil, banking and other high-level businesses. Some have moved up plans to leave on vacation and will decide whether to return depending on whether violence persists. Others are leaving for good.

Johnson apparently was abducted Sunday by militants who also claimed responsibility for gunning down another American from the same firm the day before. They threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi detainees, a reference to the month-old abuse controversy at Abu Ghraib prison.

Boucher said a U.S. Embassy message in Saudi Arabia "encourages Americans living there to practice good personal security procedures ... to report anything unusual to the Saudi police, and reminds them that the current travel warning ... urges U.S. citizens to depart and for visitors to defer travel."

Islamic fundamentalists apparently linked to Al Qaeda have been targeting Americans and other Western interests as part of a campaign to overthrow the Saudi monarchy in power since the 1930s. They consider the Saudi establishment too hospitable to Americans and other foreign "infidels."

By not taxing cigarettes, you are taxing non-smokers for the societal costs created by smoking. I don't see why your system is better or more fair.

Just think how much money you could make off her if she had a beard.

Are you not paying attention?

I also said that we should not be using tax dollars to pay for the health problems smokers create for themselves either.

If someone smokes until his/her lungs become nothing but big black sponges, that should be THEIR problem, both health-wise AND financially....not my problem, and not your problem.

Mike

__________________
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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

Man, the libertarian world is an ugly place. Smokers get to buy cigs for a nickel a pack. They can't read the warning on the pack, because there aren't any public schools. The poor ones in end stage cancer, turned away from the county hospital, if ther even is a county hospital, cough to death in the alley. Grandma, who has no Social Security, starves next to him. Of course, they've both found refuge from the cold as they expire in Grandma's 72 Pontiac Catalina, which is out of gas like the rest of the country.

Ah, yes. The typical, reactionary, "the government is the solution to your problems" response with a heavy dash of chicken-little syndrome thrown in for good measure.


And just what did people do, praytell, before the establishment of Social Security, Dept. of Education, and Health?


They planned for their old age, usually lived with their adult children when they got too old, actually participated (God forbid ) in their children's education in the local system, where they were taught so well that they were #1 in the world as far as educated students, and listened to their family doctor and used common freaking sense when doing daily activities. I will tell you one thing, 50-60 years ago the average immune system was a hell of a lot stronger due to the lack of over-medication.

Sell chicken-little somewhere else. We don't have any room for it with this abundance of logic and common sense.

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http://comp.uark.edu/~dmgill/signature.jpg

Oh Great One, can you ever forgive me for not hanging on your every word?

That is a logical position, but I think it ignores reality. If people are dying or lacking basic needs, I don't believe that our society will choose to ignore their plight simply because they brought it on themselves. Nor should we.

I think it would be quite in line with reality: The smart survive (non-smokers), the stupid do not (smokers). Works for the rest of the animal kindgom, and it worked for humans for thousands of years. All done without taxes, and without government meddling. Yes, we SHOULD ignore the whining of those morons who willfully and knowingly bring sickness and slow death upon themselves. This would be QUITE effective in discouraging this "undesirable" behavior you guys keep talking about, would it not?

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

Yes! Oh my goodness! How did humans ever survive before we had such a wonderful and all-powerful "national nanny" telling us what to do, what not to do, how to think, how to eat, what to buy, what to wear, where to go, and how to live life as productive, obedient little automatons? Life must have really sucked.

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

Governments do certain jobs well. Social democracy, which most of the advanced nations in the world are currently governed under, has brought us a better world than the Dickensonian nightmare you propose, a nightmare we woke up from in 1933.

Somewhere in our world system of haves and have nots, somebody's got to be the referee so everyone is treated fairly and can live the single lifetime they get on this planet in at least a bare minimum of human dignity

Yes, I suppose it would be an effective deterrent, but the beneficial deterrent effect would be offset by the suffering that would come with such a hard line approach. People wouldn't stand for it, anymore than they would stand for making cigarettes illegal. Personally, I don't think someone should be refused aid simply because he or she brought problems on himself or herself. I prefer the risk of being made a sucker to the risk of people going without. Must be a Catholic thing.

The United States Federal government is under-appreciated. It has done more good, for more people, than any organization in modern history, and probably in all history. I wish we would get rid of the free-loaders, and I wish we could figure out how to prevent people from remaining dependent on the government, but, IMHO, the federal government does much, much more good than harm. The Limbaugh types correctly point out the problem with families who remain dependent on the federal government for generations, but their proposed solutions are, what's the word?, stupid.

Don't knock it til you try it. Study after study has shown that Europeans on average are much happier and less on edge than their eternally anxious American counterparts. They enjoy more vaction time and have much more free time in general while enjoying a standard of living comparable to ours. It was the sight of the life these people were leading, beamed over the Iron Curtain via TV, that was the real reason for the fall of communism, rather than the Reaganesque myth we hear so much about. The new nations of Europe and the nations of the mediterrean rim clamor to be admitted to the European Union, membership in which requires democracy, social justice and respect for human rights, things that seem more and more lacking in this country.

Man, if I were you I would be packing up and headed out on the first boat. Sounds like utopia to me. Why would anyone ever want to live in the US?

Let me put down my bong.

The only segement of the industry that the EU can compete in is avaition, which they subsidize with tax money.

Unfortunately, their version of "social justice" only applies to some groups of people and not others. Notice all the burning synagogues while the French government did nothing.

The Bass fishing is much better in Mexico

__________________
89 300E
79 240D
72 Westy
63 Bug sunroof
85 Jeep CJ7
86 Chevy 6.2l diesel PU

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius

Each society has its strong points and weak points for sure. In America, you get no government health care at all, so I don't see the point of your horror story. Here your friend, if broke and without insurance, would have just died. The real horror story is each month more and more Americans lose employee provided health care, or see there costs skyrocket as we support the most expensive health care system in the world. By the way, when he gets back from Thailand, tell him to buy his scrips over here. That might help him see things differently.

As far as the French synagoge thing, I was not aware the French government was carrying on a pogrom against the Jews. Of course, here in America, we burn black churches instead, and only paint swastikas on synagogues, and our Nazis only blow up Federal buildings full of children. So I guess things are better here. I also would like to point out that the US has the highest violent crime rate in the world, and the highest number of people incarcerated, due to our failure to adopt more European style views on the so called "Drug War".