{"id":41546,"date":"2014-03-31T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=41546"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:35:08","slug":"us-takes-a-break-from-condemning-tyranny-to-celebrate-obamas-visit-to-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/03\/us-takes-a-break-from-condemning-tyranny-to-celebrate-obamas-visit-to-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"US Takes a Break from Condemning Tyranny to Celebrate Obama\u2019s Visit to Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>

President Obama and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in June 2010 in the Oval Office of the White House.
AP Photo\/Ron Edmonds<\/p><\/div>\n

Selecting the year\u2019s single most brazen example of political self-delusion is never easy, but if forced to choose for 2013, I\u2019d pick British Prime Minister David Cameron\u2019s public condemnation of George Galloway<\/a>. The Scottish MP had stood to question Cameron about the UK\u2019s military support for Syrian rebels. As is typical for Western discourse, criticizing western government militarism was immediately equated with support for whatever tyrants those governments happened to be opposing at the time: \u201cSome things come and go,\u201d proclaimed the Prime Minister, \u201cbut there is one thing that is certain: wherever there is a brutal Arab dictator in the world, he will have the support of [Galloway].\u201d<\/p>\n

What made Cameron\u2019s statement so notable wasn\u2019t the trite tactic of depicting opposition to western intervention as tantamount to support for dictators. That\u2019s far too common to be noteworthy (if you oppose the war in Iraq, you are pro-Saddam; if you oppose intervention in Libya, you love Ghaddafi<\/i>, if you oppose US involvement in Ukraine, you\u2019re a shill for Putin<\/i>,\u00a0etc. etc.). What was so remarkable is that David Cameron \u2013 the person accusing Galloway of supporting every \u201cbrutal Arab dictator\u201d he can find \u2013 is easily one of the world\u2019s most loyal, constant, and generous supporters of the most brutal Arab despots. He has continuously lavished money, diplomatic support, arms and all sorts of obsequious praise<\/a> on intensely repressive regimes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Egypt. That this<\/i> steadfast supporter of the worst Arab dictators could parade around accusing\u00a0others<\/i>\u00a0of supporting bad Arab regimes was about as stunning a display of western self-delusion as I could have imagined . . .<\/p>\n

Tommy Vietor at home (Bloomberg TV):
\nhttp:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/video\/from-the-oval-office-to-d-c-s-hottest-free-agent-EEcyljPTQ4O1tfTk9OkTyw.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Until this week. Tommy Vietor was President\u2019s Obama National Security Council spokesman during the first term. He left to form a consulting firm (along with Obama\u2019s former speechwriter Jon Favreau<\/a>) that trades on his White House connections<\/a> by forming messaging and communications strategies<\/a> for corporations that have extensive business with the government, although he still literally adorns the walls of his home with multiple large posters of President Obama (see this remarkable 3-minute video profile<\/a> of Vietor and his new work, which a friend sent with the title \u201cthe care and feeding of a young imperial bureaucrat\u201d (it features a bonus pre-Snowden quote angrily condemning the Chinese for hacking)). Vietor\u2019s function, which he performs quite faithfully, is simple: to express and embody the most conventional, defining views of official imperial Washington about itself.<\/p>\n

On Monday [24 Mar 2014], Vietor took to Twitter<\/a> to try to publicly embarrass Oliver Stone for expressing support for the Maduro government in Venezuela:
\n\"vietor3-300x122\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This, of course, is nothing more than the long-standing favored tactic of official Washington: cynically feigning concern for human rights as a means to undermine the governments that do not comply with US dictates. To the Tommy Vietors of the world, the Maduro government isn\u2019t bad because it \u201cillegally jails opposition leaders\u201d; it\u2019s bad because it opposes US policy, refuses to obey US dictates, and defeats neo-liberal, US-subservient candidates in popular elections<\/a>. That\u2019s all obvious.<\/p>\n

But what never ceases to amaze me is the ability of the Tommy Vietors \u2013 like David Cameron before him \u2013 to convince first themselves, and then others, that they are able to issue these denunciations without instantly being driven from the public square in shame. The very same person invoking human rights concerns to publicly condemn Stone for supporting the democratically elected government of Venezuela spent years working to support and prop up far more brutal, vicious, oppressive tyrannies, ones never elected to anything.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration for which Vietor was a spokesman repeatedly supplied arms to the regime in Bahrain<\/a> as they brutally crushed democratic protesters. They vigorously supported<\/a> the repellent Mubarak regime, the long-time US ally, until his downfall became inevitable<\/a>; Hillary Clinton, upon being named Secretary of State, gushed<\/a>: \u201cI really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.\u201d Obama has continually embraced the anti-democratic Gulf monarchs ruling Qatar<\/a>,\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0United Arab Emirates<\/a>, and Kuwait<\/a>. And all of that is independent of the unparalleled political, financial, diplomatic and military support which the US lavishes on Israel as it engaged in all sorts of decades-long occupation, repression and aggression.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the closest US ally of them all, which also just happens to be one of the world\u2019s most brutally repressive regimes: the House of Saud. During Vietor\u2019s tenure, the administration revealed<\/a> \u201cplans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest US arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.\u201d Five months ago, the Pentagon announced<\/a> \u201cplans to sell Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates\u00a0$10.8 billion in advanced weaponry, including air-launched cruise missiles and precision munitions,\u201d a package that \u201cincludes the first US sales to Middle East\u00a0allies of new Raytheon and Boeing weapons that can be launched at a distance from Saudi F-15 and UAE F-16 fighters.\u201d\u00a0The Obama White House has\u00a0repeatedly affirmed<\/a> its \u201cstrong partnership\u201d<\/a> with the Saudi tyranny.<\/p>\n

Today, Obama arrives in\u00a0Riyadh<\/a> to assure the Saudi monarchs that the US is as committed as ever to its close partnership in the wake of Saudi anxiety. He\u2019ll meet with King Abdullah<\/a>, \u201cthe president\u2019s third official meeting with the king in six years.\u201d The purpose of this trip<\/a>: \u201ctrying to smooth relations with Saudi Arabia without making the longtime US ally seem like an afterthought.\u201d Indeed, \u201ctop presidential advisors say the visit is an \u2018investment\u2019 in one of the most important US relationships in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to justify all of this by cynically arguing that it benefits the US to support repressive and brutal tyrannies, go ahead. At least that\u2019s an honest posture. But don\u2019t run around acting as though the US is some sort of stalwart opponent of political repression and human rights violations when the exact opposite is so plainly true. And if you\u2019re someone who has worked extensively to provide the world\u2019s worst regimes with all sorts of vital support, don\u2019t hold yourself out as the leader of the mob condemning others for expressing support for far more benign governments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/span><\/b>: After the meeting today between President Obama and King Abdullah, a \u201csenior administration official\u201d told CNN<\/a> that, despite policy differences over Iran and Syria, \u201cthe United States and Saudi Arabia are \u2018very much aligned.\u2019\u201d Moreover, \u201cObama and Abdullah steered clear of international complaints of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia\u201d (they also presumably \u201csteered clear\u201d of human rights abuses in the U.S., although CNN \u2013 which likely does not recognize the existence of such abuses \u2013 did not indicate whether this was the case). So all in all, it sounds like it was a very harmonious and constructive meeting between these two close, long-time allies and partners.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, commentator, and author of three New York Times best-selling books on politics and law. His fifth book, <\/i>No Place to Hide<\/em>, about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world, will be released in April 2014. Prior to his collaboration with Pierre Omidyar, Glenn\u2019s column was featured at <\/i>Guardian US<\/em> and <\/i>Salon<\/em>. He was the debut winner, along with Amy Goodman, of the Park Center I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism in 2008, and also received the 2010 Online Journalism Award for his investigative work on the abusive detention conditions of Chelsea Manning. For his 2013 NSA reporting, he received the Gannett Foundation award for investigative journalism and the Gannett Foundation watchdog journalism award; the Esso Premio for Excellence in Investigative Reporting in Brazil (the first non-Brazilian to win), and the Electronic Frontier Foundation\u2019s Pioneer Award. Along with Laura Poitras, <\/i>Foreign Policy<\/em> magazine named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers for 2013. He lives in Rio, Brazil.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The closest US ally of them all also just happens to be one of the world\u2019s most brutally repressive regimes: the House of Saud. The administration revealed \u201cplans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest US arms deal ever, and naval missile-defense upgrades worth tens of billions of dollars more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}