I've been invited to a beheading, "Just come to see the unbelievable actually happens" But haven't gone, nor do I intend going.

There's a paragraph in the paper telling you the time and date and who will be performing the beheading. Some executors are more famous than others, a clean slice and the victim's head falls into a basket he is kneeling in front of. This is considered the best type of execution all not all are capable of it.

You don't always get to know the crime, nor the name of every criminal. They are just led out and beheaded. You are left to wonder what he did. Publish a leaflet? Made sexual boasts? Was in a Gay relationship? Protest a judgment? Murder someone? You'll never know, to ask would be to court trouble. It's got very little to do with justice, much more to do with intimidation of the population. "This is what we do to those that displease us." Its Terror. The whole country is terrorized.

My inviter did attend and gave the following account. Women are allowed to lift the veil to watch. Young men go just to see the faces of the women. The women make the best of the day by wearing lipstick and eye makeup. The women are on the balconeys around the execution square and the men glance quickly up at them. They dare not stare as this would bring them to the attention of the Mutawwaeen ( morality police ) The women feign indifference but lick their lips to drive the men wild. In this atmosphere of sexual tension and excitement men are led out to be executed.

The Sauds is the name of the tribe that runs Saudi. In, i think 1901, the tribe were given modern weapons to guard the oil fields by the British, Oil becoming a valuable resource. They quickly realized they could use these to grab power over the whole peninsular by defeating the other rival tribes, the Hasids, Rashids, Qatifs etc.. They did this but found it difficult to maintain so they reformed an old alliance with a local religious sect the Wahabists to keep the regional population under control. Its a testament to their control that the peninsula has been given their name.

The Sauds get to do what they want, dress how they want, eat what they want, drink what they want, listen to what ever music they want. I've been to a party and the daughter of a Saudi business man sang Britney Spears songs dressed in a short skirt, that same week a nurse was flogged for showing her knees in public.

I hate the place and one day it is going to fall. I predict the Iranians will be the source of this downfall. They bear a deep grudge due to the Saudis funding Saddams war on them 1980-88. There is a Shiite minority in Saudi, (Iran is Shiite) and this minority by fantastic coincidence sit atop the oil fields. (There's a phrase the Arabs use, "find Shia find oil." I've heard of a US General who said "Iran can take the oil fields with 10 mullahs and a sound truck") Bahrain the island is opposite the oil fields. It is Ruled by a Sunni held in place by the Sauds. This is why the US tacitly allowed the Sauds to crush the Shiites. I don't think the saudis postion s strong, the old tribal tensions are still there. Should they need ousting the US could do it simply by allowing the other tribes a voice and demanding greater democracy. They rule by brutality not consent, always a weak position.