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When I hear Saudi Arabia I always remember William Sampson, a Canadian citizen who was arrested while working in SA and tortured so badly he lost his mind for a

When I hear Saudi Arabia I always remember William Sampson, a Canadian citizen who was arrested while working in SA and tortured so badly he lost his mind for a time. Needless to say he confessed to everything countless times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNM-zZgNSM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNM-zZgNSM8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sampson_(author) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sampson_(author)

elevenoh 5y ago
Jesus. What an appalling nightmare, I can't image what William went through. Thanks for sharing.
sascha_sl 5y ago
Not defending the Saudis here (I'm illegal in their country), but the US does those things too, except you don't even have to touch US soil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri
- dandare 5y ago
  a) That is technically true and it makes me super angry that US in a way normalised torture. b) While it is technically true, I assume the prevalence is orders of magnitude smaller. Still, cases like Abu Zubaydah are extremely disturbing.
  - waynesonfire 5y ago
    Putin speaks a lot of this and we call it "what-about-ism"
    - sascha_sl 5y ago
      Nobody was even talking about Russia, something has gone seriously wrong if you preemptively have to defend torture in paranoid expectation of downplaying other torture.
    - kar5pt 5y ago
      whataboutism would be the original comment bringing up American torture when someone criticized Saudi torture
mclightning 5y ago
Saudi Arabia is just practically ISIS. Their ruling elite is following same fundamentalist version of islam as isis. PS : I don't mean to start a flamewar or offend anyone. But just how is this any different than ISIS capturing western journalists and doing all the unspeakable horrible things to those caught in their system.
- _tik_ 5y ago
  ISIS is more violence and extreme. Saudi is Wahhabi and ISIS is Wahhabi on steroid: Wahhabi plus : Global Caliphate and Apocalyptism.
  - DataGata 5y ago
    How much of Wahhabi not being a global caliphate is that they just can't right now?
908B64B197 5y ago
And the Canadian government did nothing? That's not very surprising considering the Canadian government recently paid 10M dollars to an enemy combatant and terrorist who murdered and wounded several US Soldiers [0]. And of course, received full apologies from Trudeau. [0] https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-veteran-blinded-in-omar-khadr-ambush-says-payment-is-treasonous https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-veteran-blinded-in-omar-khadr-...
- sofixa 5y ago
  What is this bullshit? Khadr was an enemy combatant in an invasion of his country, abducted illegally when he was a child (15 year old), taken to Guantanamo, probably tortured, and sued for murder ( since when does Guantanamo have jurisdiction over killing between armed men in a war in Afghanistan??). You really have to have a very fucked up view of the world to think illegally detaining and torturing a child is OK, whatever the circumstances. Where are the trials for the US war criminals in Afghanistan ? Why are their war crimes acceptable, but fucking children get sent to Guantanamo for fighting?!
  - cbnotfromthere 5y ago
    If he was a child, he couldn't have been a lawful combatant, isn't it? You undermine your own narrative by even mentioning SOME (not all) of the basic facts.

elevenoh 5y ago

Jesus. What an appalling nightmare, I can't image what William went through. Thanks for sharing.

sascha_sl 5y ago

Not defending the Saudis here (I'm illegal in their country), but the US does those things too, except you don't even have to touch US soil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri

dandare 5y ago
a) That is technically true and it makes me super angry that US in a way normalised torture. b) While it is technically true, I assume the prevalence is orders of magnitude smaller. Still, cases like Abu Zubaydah are extremely disturbing.
- waynesonfire 5y ago
  Putin speaks a lot of this and we call it "what-about-ism"
  - sascha_sl 5y ago
    Nobody was even talking about Russia, something has gone seriously wrong if you preemptively have to defend torture in paranoid expectation of downplaying other torture.
  - kar5pt 5y ago
    whataboutism would be the original comment bringing up American torture when someone criticized Saudi torture

mclightning 5y ago

Saudi Arabia is just practically ISIS. Their ruling elite is following same fundamentalist version of islam as isis. PS : I don't mean to start a flamewar or offend anyone. But just how is this any different than ISIS capturing western journalists and doing all the unspeakable horrible things to those caught in their system.

_tik_ 5y ago
ISIS is more violence and extreme. Saudi is Wahhabi and ISIS is Wahhabi on steroid: Wahhabi plus : Global Caliphate and Apocalyptism.
- DataGata 5y ago
  How much of Wahhabi not being a global caliphate is that they just can't right now?

908B64B197 5y ago

And the Canadian government did nothing? That's not very surprising considering the Canadian government recently paid 10M dollars to an enemy combatant and terrorist who murdered and wounded several US Soldiers [0]. And of course, received full apologies from Trudeau. [0] https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-veteran-blinded-in-omar-khadr-ambush-says-payment-is-treasonous https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-veteran-blinded-in-omar-khadr-...

sofixa 5y ago
What is this bullshit? Khadr was an enemy combatant in an invasion of his country, abducted illegally when he was a child (15 year old), taken to Guantanamo, probably tortured, and sued for murder ( since when does Guantanamo have jurisdiction over killing between armed men in a war in Afghanistan??). You really have to have a very fucked up view of the world to think illegally detaining and torturing a child is OK, whatever the circumstances. Where are the trials for the US war criminals in Afghanistan ? Why are their war crimes acceptable, but fucking children get sent to Guantanamo for fighting?!
- cbnotfromthere 5y ago
  If he was a child, he couldn't have been a lawful combatant, isn't it? You undermine your own narrative by even mentioning SOME (not all) of the basic facts.