Saudis and the American Gulag

How big will this news be with Amnesty International?

The harsh prison sentences meted out to three Saudi reformists who demanded a constitutional monarchy showed the red lines of the political reform process in the oil-rich kingdom.

"The harshness of the sentences was surprising," said a foreign diplomat posted in the Saudi capital. "One cannot find out what laws they (the defendants) breached."

Ali al-Demaini, Abdullah al-Hamed and Matrouk al-Faleh were sentenced on May 15 to nine, seven and six years of imprisonment respectively.

But then they didn't step on a book or pick it up with one hand, much less without gloves on: they asked for a constitution. Filthy beggars are almost as bad as Americans.