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Kuwait Sentences Two Men To Jail For Tweets Criticizing Ruler
New submitter Oxide writes "A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second person to be jailed for the offense in as many days. The Gulf state has clamped down in recent months on political activists who have been using social media websites to criticize the government and the ruling family. What's interesting is that the tweets in question did not mention the ruler directly but just indicated it might be him it is referring to."
As it's obvious this ruler was Imperial.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Cripes, reading this makes the US sound like the Land of the Free.
The Compass or the Set-Square ?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
What did they post? "Your numbers aren't fully in line!" "You don't take exact measurements! " "Being flat and metal with writing all over you is evil!"
That would make the problem hidden, not solved.
I still remember with bitter disappointment the day I discovered that the 30cm on one edge of my ruler didn't exactly line up with the 15" on the other side after all.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah al-Streisand effect.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Should have let Saddam have them.
Didn't the west stop an invasion of Kuwait a few decades ago? Kinda a big thing at the time. Hmmm if this is what that conflict led to maybe stopping the invasion was not entirely a good idea hmmm
And the point here is? It's not a technical story, just that they used an internet service to communicate their thoughts.
don't say it at all. Or learn to create a fake name and use the Tor browser.
Enough said.
Good thing the US saved these scions of freedom from the clutches of a tyrant, eh?
So, did Al-Jazeera cover this?
Coming soon to any American who criticizes Obama!
Everything you say can and will be used against you.
I think we should have let it become part of Iraq and then taken Iraq.
Sometimes, most of the time, I say we should stay the hell out of the middle east. It's not the "American peoples' business." Sure, there are some people in the US who have business there and so be it. Let THEM pay for their armed assistance defending their business. Why should US tax payers pay for the armed defense of their business? Do we get tax breaks or rebates? Sure, we get cheaper prices at the pump, but cheaper compared to what? I think the result of higher gas prices are well known... higher cost of employees and a shortage of the ones employers want. That would lead to more use of public transportation and/or telecommuting and all the things the oil industry dreads because it's all a reduction in the use and dependency on big oil. It all serves big oil's business interests which are:
1. Maintain everyone's dependence on big oil
Short list of interests right?
What is acceptable or unacceptable depends on each country's culture.
Remember that british guy who posted that Jimmy Savile joke on tweeter and got fined ? How is that any different ?
I'm so glad we liberated Kuwait, so that they could get their tyrannical regime back.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Darn, Kuwait is pretty progressive - most countries in that region would have sentenced them to death!
Seriously though, as much as I might complain about what's wrong with America, it's comforting that we are free to criticize our government without fear of prison or worse.
If I want to say that the House of Representatives is the most wretched hive of scum and vil... *pounding at door* ... oh, scuse me one sec... +++CARRIER LOST+++
The Digital Sorceress
If things like this already do not happen in the United States, they will start happening. Bush layed the framework.
Same thing happened in India also last month - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/11/19/facebook-comment-tests-freedom-of-speech-in-india/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Buddhi
NUKE THEM ALL
In the future, just let the neighboring despot invade and take over, THEN invade and "liberate", that way you get two countries for the price of one!
Of course one might argue that Iraq might have used the additional resources in money and oil to further militarize the area. Then again, so long as you don't wait overly long it shouldn't be a problem. Might take 4 days rather than 3 to totally wipe out their forces. Additional, that way rather than having to fight insurgance all day long, you automatically recieve your own insurgance force to use presumably.
this BS will not happen.
Twitter: @dainsanefh
If we put people in jail for insulting the president of the united states, there sure would be a lot of people in jail right now :).
There just ain't no justice!
Have gnu, will travel.
When the British left the Middle East, in most important senses it really did not. Pseudo regimes like Kuwait's do exactly what their British masters tell them is appropriate.
Britain has been leading the way, in the West, for prosecuting online speech. Political activists have their homes raided, and all their computer equipment confiscated, regardless of charges. In the UK, the police boot regularly stamps upon anyone who challenges the state.
The 'ex-colonies' are instructed to use the British acts of suppression as a model AND a justification. So, when someone burns a poppy (symbol of British warmongering through the ages) online, or expresses powerful anti-war sentiments, they are arrested in the UK. The UK has no right to free speech. The trick used to eliminate this was to push POLITICAL CORRECTNESS and to state that offending anybody with your words is a potential crime. Anti-war views 'offends' those in the armed services, so are illegal when powerfully expressed by ordinary people.
The UK uses the trick of NOT prosecuting those seen as having a 'professional' voice like journalists. All the news agencies in the UK are establishment, and have the closest ties to the UK intelligence services, so no mainstream British journalist poses any kind of threat. Citizens, on the other hand, are a very different matter.
The UK government actually has high ranking members of the UK police force acting as senior advisers in these gulf states. The crack-downs you see in places like Bahrain and Kuwait are a result of direct suggestions by these representatives of the UK. They actively use examples of free-speech prosecution in the UK as models for action in places like Kuwait.
Far from punishing these states for their Human Rights abuses, the UN actually hosts major international conferences in the West friendly gulf states, corruptly enjoying the massive luxury resorts that have been built their for the untouchable elites. Unbelievably, these conferences are often discussing 'Human Rights' issues.
Again, I must point out that it is the UK, not the USA, that is encouraging and helping the crack-down on regime opponents in these ex-colonies. By-and-large, the USA is just the (very) dumb muscle.
Iran has a democracy that seeks votes from every adult citizen, male or female. Kuwait does not. Saudi does not. Bahrain and the other emirates do not. Syria has a democracy that seeks votes from every adult male and female. Now think about the Gulf nations that Obama and Slashdot are ALWAYS attacking. Saudi? Nope! Kuwait? Nope! The Emirates? Nope.
Slashdot and Obama only attack the Middle East regimes where the regime, by and large, represents the will of the people. This story may be about Kuwait, but go check the history of Slashdot articles. If the US State Department is attacking a nation, the owners of Slashdot move heaven and earth to find stories that bash that nation too.
Kuwait needs a new ruler, the ruler the currently have is obviously way too short, not even a 04 on a scale of 12, not even a proper ruler.
Aren't we all just thrilled that we have been ensnared in two costly wars in that region all started by (supposedly) us protecting this ruler's power?
In Washington, the US state department said it had seen the reports of the two men's sentences and had raised the issue with the Kuwaiti government, which it urged to respect freedom of speech.
"We call on the government of Kuwait to adhere to its tradition of respect for freedom of assembly, association, and expression," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "You know how strongly we feel about locking people up for their use of Twitter."
Yeah, how many Americans have been locked up or are now labeled terrorists for saying dumb things on the internet?
Well, then I'm going to say that ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah is a fucking piece of goat-fucking human trash who can suck diseased dick cheese from the penis of a dead inmate. Also, he likes it when fat, hairy women shit on his chest.
That is all.
lol capcha puberty wow.
Kuwait is and was a member of the UN and it was invaded by Iraq whose leader announced his intent to annex the place. This violated the most basic rules of the UN and UN membership, so if the UN had not intervened and kicked Iraq out, then the UN would have been truly pointless. I dislike Bush41 rather intensely but I am always amused when so many people who like the UN denounce Bush41's gulf war as some form of evil ..... no Bush41 Gulf War == irrelevent UN.
They covered the Egyptian revolution very very different viewpoint from, say, the New York Times. If you read only American press, you'd think that Mohammed Morsi was a dictator. If you read or watch Al-Jazeera English, you'd know that he was the duly elected winner of a hotly contested election.
So what? The NAZIs covered WWII from a different viewpoint ..... just reporting from a "different viewpoint" is of no value without establishing WHAT that viewpoint is and that it is an honest viewpoint. Also, if you watch Fox News then you are quite aware that Morsi was elected .... so I presume you are either being ignorant or are only aware of the DNC-approved US media
They exposed the details of a negotiation session between Israel and Fatah over who was going to own what in the West Bank, including actual video. The editorial aftermath was highly critical of both sides.
So what? Being "critical of both sides" has no particular value if by it you mean: "those jerks at Fatah dared to talk to the Jews, who should all be killed .... and those Jews are vile rats who should all kill themselves"
They've reported on the effects of US drone strikes beyond the typical "US officials say that 15 militants were killed in a drone strike in Pakistan today."
So what? First, most American media will not cover this because their guy (Obama) is doing it and because it's only bad people being killed. It's either militants dying, or the civilians who are allowing the militants to hide behind them. When the middle east is full of evil women who teach their children to embrace jihad and evil men who raise their sons to be suicide bombers there is nothing there worth saving. It's a matter of perspective, of course.... I doubt Al-Jazeerah spends much time on the individual humanity of the American or English or other western people who've been slain by jihadists over the past few decades