yes the american are very happy with their relation with the saudi the saudi arabia for example where there is shortage of export from media they increase their production toll more than one million barrel a day it is true also of a saudi help american to remove saddam hussein from power but the saudi people are the people who can decide the future of the united states foreign policy in the region and also that you know the existence of the strength of their royal family gene so i think that american should push very hard on the saudi royal family not now but long term mogul to be for itself to actually reform to put an end to the corruption put in state the rule of law i just underlined is that all offload the equality the justice that that transparency that election election not only that i'm going to simple council but also that you know the parliament the we need our parliament there's a very bitter present of people and we need a constitutional of one of the key they're not actually the royal family contrary controlling every drop every in benghazi every. business so we have to y

saudi arabia and other g.c.c. countries will interview number three and what is essentially a domestic dispute but they won't send troops to libya and that's a feeling that i think is very pronounced amongst many many people in this region that while gadhafi is attacking his own people the arabs will not send troops in order to help but they will send troops and it's very interesting want to thank you good libyans will that's something the libyans will not forget and i don't think it's something that public opinion in this region will forget either one i think really and this is a tangent that we just heard here the americans must somehow just be relieved i mean they have a huge naval base on the american on the island itself the must be relieved that it's least protected ok and that well there saudis are allies with the united states anyway i mean behind closed doors a little bit of relief because the united states has been caught so flatfooted in the arab world of the last few months and maybe this one they got

there is very little in the way of rule of law there is no no elections to speak of in saudi arabia and so an absolute authority area and government has been brought in to repress a crowd. that's the man being where democracy on the other hand the saudis do it here to the one hobby form of islam which historically has been extremely if you shiite has attacked shiites as repress them for the sunni monarchy a better reign to deploy one how deep saudi troops against his own people really we can see his legitimacy i think it's a tragic and perhaps fatal error ok fatal error pretty good in cairo a fatal error is that a good way of describing it. well there are several issues here peter first of all of the battering is existing behind the government by the saudis to come into their country under an agreement that was formed quite a number of years ago and was designed to protect bahrain from external invasion or from extra or forces trying to invade bahrain the way that they've invited the saudis on this particular occasion is really about a domestic affair so it stands to be quite dubiou

the united arab emirates oman and saudi with saudi arabia leading it i think that if we're realistic we have to see that this is part of the macro game in which saudi is poses the major sunni power in the area and iran is poses a major she of power in the area there's already been disruptions in iraq among she is there protesting against the in vestment of bahrain and frankly what i'm seeing on my internet is she is in pakistan she is in the united states she is in other parts of the world are very very alarmed very upset are protesting about this and frankly i don't think they're trying to turn it into a sectarian conflict but i think for them it has very loud sectarian residences one in your first response to my first question is that you thought it was a tragic mistake and we're hearing that from other members of the panel here what do you mean tragic mistake being the division is already there in the in the islamic world and we heard iran being brought up here i mean this goes back to the geo political implications that i was trying to kind of tease out of you guys a tragic mista

because of that so i think that american lifted too late for the saudi people for the saudi the ruling family to say to them look enough is enough you have to care about your people and we think of you in washington that's a very good point because in looking at all of these regimes that are failed are failing or will fail in the arab world the united states is critically just focused in on dictators elites and forgotten about the people and you think that's the same process as we just heard from washington is that washing is never really seemed to people's all due respect to the ambassador on the program its focus has always been the regime in keeping it in place and i live here in washington and have lived for a while in the states and i have. you know the administration and. you go to then have said you know what people of the positions and i've heard ministration and frankly speaking i don't think i'm not an apologist for the american government i think we've got some lousy things in the middle east including supporting dictators but i think that their major. ministrations at least

follow a well known across dot com peter lavelle the divide within islam the shia and sunni the saudi invasion and suppression of the shia majority in bahrain again highlights how sectarian differences can inflame passions and impact the geopolitical order in the arab world and how will these divisions be played out as the arab awakening continuous. can. discuss the prospects for the arab awakening i'm joined by juan cole in an arbor he's a professor of history at the university of michigan in cairo we go to he somehow or he is a fellow at the center for research in ethnic relations at the university of warwick and in san francisco we cross the steven schwartz he is the executive director of the center for islamic pluralism and another member of our crosstalk team yell in the hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk you can jump in anytime you want one can you give me your impressions what is the importance the geopolitical importance and maybe the religious importance as well of the so the saudi incursion into bahrain to suppress what people say suppressing the majority shia pop

so you read his actions open the door for more influence in the backyard of the saudis. well there are two things that i think are being neglected in general discussion of this first is that baccarin has been a kind of safety valve for saudis who go across the causeway to do normal things like in dakar and women can drive cars they are not forced to wear by a niqab and so forth and saudi arabia is concerned that it democratizing process in bach rain could be contagious and especially towards the shias in the eastern province the second thing is it is in my view true that the new arab revolt is essentially about economics and it's about the sapping of the weak links in the global system of economic power and. the problem for me is that the democratizing way of the process of democratization that we saw beginning and tunisia has now encountered two very serious obstacles the first the rampant bloodshed in libya which is a terrible disincentive for anybody in the in the arab world to launch any kind of democratization movement and second now we have the specter that. democr

. >> saudi arabia, protesters call for a day of rage. the government promises tough action to preserve stability. welcome to bbc news broadcast to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. coming up a little later for you, we have a special report following afghanistan's new army recruits and how they are preparing to face the taliban. and the most expensive musical in broadway history has had its opening postponed for a sixth time. welcome once again. pro government forces in libya have tend up their onslaught against the rebels who are leaving after a sustained bombardment. reports from the west say many parts of the town have been destroyed in the recent fighting of recent days with the initiative appearing to swing toward the government, colonel gaddafi's son has ordered a full-scale reaction to quash the rebellion. here is a report from tripoli. >> the rebels and the news teams following them are easy targets on an open road in the desert. this is near an oil town and they were falling back. the rebels have gone up and dow

now, for saudi arabia.and the other gulf arab tyrannies that govern the states adjacent to what we too often forget is referred to as -- by the sunni world as the iranian go. lenny first aid say that i give saudi arabia and to a lesser degree its fellow tyrannies as the nationstate that is perhaps the most dangerous to do united states and to the west, generally. yes, russia and china are threats to the united states, but they are threats washington openly acknowledges. closely watches and assesses, and is fully capable of defending america against. saudi arabia, however, is a serious threat. indeed, one more dangerous than iraq. toy which are governing elite in both parties turns a blind eye. out a leak this easily pretend that we have a closer reliable ally. it keeps america's energy security pendants -- dependent on its enemies by relying on the saudis to play a pro-u.s. role in the world oil market. and it endangers our economy but allowing the saudis to buy an ever larger share, of our evermore out of

it was closed down by the saudi arabian government. al harmain saudi arabia was close down in 2004. al harmain oregon remains an independent entity. if it was relayed it to al harmain saudi arabia, it would not exist as of this date. three of its four board members were related -- where members of al harmain saudi arabia. as of 2003, none of its board members were relate it to al harmain saudi arabia. two members had resigned in 2003. mr. -- had resigned in 2002. as of the first designation, there were no board members who were relate it to al harmain oregon with respect al harmain saudi arabia. we could have shown that al harmain oregon had no connection to anything that al harmain saudi arabia did. we were not able to make any of those arguments. why? because what they did was not provide notice of the charges. they dumped hundreds of pages of documents on us. those pages identified over 200 organizations and individuals as potentially problematic with no indication of the connection we might have to them. it included indictment of a man and there was never indicated of how that w

saudi opposition they've been accused the u.s. administration does their favorite thing they always pull the al qaida of bogeyman out of there had they said oh all of the the opposition in saudi arabia's broad base called the islamic. it goes from secular people all away over to fairly moderate or logistical but they all have one they want democracy now we see this spreading there's a call for a parliament directly elected a united arab emirates we know what's happening in bahrain a call for the ouster of that regime that month monarchical regime kuwait oman yemen all allies of the united states i think they like i say i think they don't want to see any more turmoil look at obama's record i mean he basically approve the co against president ally in honduras democratically elected as the cia for fingerprints on the attempted coup against president correa in ecuador if obama has done nothing to support the red shirts who are going out protesting months after months in bangkok against that military imposed regime obama when it comes

and into the deep sea there and find oil the some some scientists think it's another saudi arabia. or brazil it's the oil is there it's a political question of whether the anglo-american oil giants and the governments behind them the military are going to let the let these countries develop that for their own use. so let's assess the political critical decision this is it's a chia logical question those fields you describe are at the very edge of tip technological capacity and they made the five even the most strongest political will to do so but even on the model of these were one or less trees the peak oil thing is a myth that was created by more importation author and selling oil than the oil driving the growth and maximum prices and you're being very very valid and you've been very patient go right ahead go ahead. thank you a lot of the projections about oil demand kind of discount how much demand will be coming from china over the next twenty or thirty years and i think there is soon being a wealth growth in china because course china wants a lot more energy they're going to i

all that said, i think that the saudis also have to make a calculation. there almost certainly is a debate between saudi arabia as to whether or not they want to have their forces actually opening fire on bahrainy civilians. some of the more hard line elements in the kingdom may think this would have a palliative effect whereas the more moderate elements probably recognize this would create all kinds of problems for saudi arabia elsewhere in the region. >> warner: does this move by the bahrainees, the gulf states, the saudis, also represent a split with washington on how they should be responding to all these calls for reform? >> i think that this does illustrate the fact that the saudis in particular have a very different view of what's happening in the region. i think that one of the hardest things that washington has been dealing with is how to on the one hand welcome forces of democratic change in the region while simultaneously reassuring the united states more traditional conservative allies like saudi arabia, which while on the one hand being willi

saudi arabia from the invasion of of yemenis trying to enter into saudi territory and sell this to his partners both in saudi arabia and united states all right so this give us some geography here where is this wall and where is it who did a separate exactly if you were to look at a map of southwest the radio you'll see that saudi arabia and yemen share obviously a very long border because the border stems from the inwards and this is an area that was captured by saudi written in one thousand nine hundred eighty s. but they are under agreements with the people who live on both side of this border they really didn't enforce the border so people on both sides were able to travel back and forth so if you look at this scenario called national a city or the region these people are historically yemeni and as this as the saudi kingdom expanded territory to conquer mecca medina jeddah and then further south here in this region called. because they were a had no means of actually physically. intimidating and conquering extrusion they a sickly left the door wide open for to look to conduct their

primarily led by the saudis and with the. predictable i should say it raining in response to that intervention the difficulty here is that not only is there the brain is on the wrong track and the saudis on the wrong track but if this is allowed to continue in its current form we could see the iranians on the wrong track as well and that bodes well for nobody at all but the saudis are one of our key allies right so you have to question how the u.s. really feels about the fact that they either you're lacking a bag i think he allies but come on let's admit it we are very friendly with these people so how does it play out for us that the saudis are now intervening. that they think we aren't going to say anything or some of said quite the opposite it's a slap in the face because robert gates was just there last weekend talking about the need for this to calm down and the day he leaves or the day after he leaves the saudis rushing with troops you know one of the difficult things that a relationship is even if you have a good relat

shocking the united states has a great deal at stake in saudi arabia though americans often look at saudis with distaste as one senior saudi government official once asked me what does the united states share with a country where women can't drive the qur'an is the constitution and beheadings are commonplace she tries to answer that's a tough question but the answer quite simply is geopolitics and that we know and like saudis us educated liberal elites cronyism so we have a few cronies there so why do we care if they suppress and repress the entire population as long as they give us their cheap oil as she mentions here she says they're generally committed to reasonable oil prices yeah i mean this whole idea you heard from tony blair during the iraq war invasion there's no such thing as blood for oil and this israel you obviously blood for oil it's tony blair is guilty of this george bush the current administration barack obama of course by his reluctance to get involved in the freedom fighting movements early on and it's got a very standoffish attitude about it that's blood for oil that's

more in need of a dangerous for the west, however, are the saudi funded -- saudi regime funded activities of clicks and united states and europe, especially in the united kingdom. for more than 30 years, the saudis domestic religious establishment which controls education, social policy and missionary work, has brought western muslims to the kingdom for theological training in its religious universities. these men returned to the west to preach what only can be described as a martial oriented islam is into realism, a vision of the world has holy islamic, which for the west would mean that christian and jewish populations could convert, accept subordination to islam, or face elimination. these saudi trained preachers are prominent in mosques in the united states and in europe, and have secured positions as chaplains in western universities, prison systems and militaries. this is not to say, let me stress, that all of american or european muslim communities share this martial and expansionist orientation. but it is very much to say that these saudi trained clerics have attained enough posit

with of course you know it's the kingdom of saudi arabia who are. using yemen as a kind of launching pad for all kinds of. things which of course of direct impact on the people on the ground who have just how now for our let's talk about the comparison to the one nine hundred eighty nine for the fall the berlin wall now i think looking back with a lot of historians are coming to the conclusion that the soviet union effectively economically was spent and of course now in the case of yemen thousand arabia you could say that about saudi arabia and you can economy that spent as a matter of fact it's a very strong economy that's a petro. petro whatever you would like to call it a pep talk or see or something of that order it's got huge oil reserves so they're very well funded so that's that dynamic is missing the saudi yemenis in their quest to push back against this this occupation i guess you could call it are fighting and they're up against a very well funded photo in this sense so talk to me about the chances of this going forward what we're going to

so we buy more from canada and less from saudi arabia. no? somebody else will buy more from saudi arabia and less from canada. we can't secede from the world oil market. that is except in the event of a world war. for all practical purposes, it's one pot of oil and we don't do a damn thing to resolve our problem by buyingmore from canada and less from saudi arabia. so almost all of the solutions either do next to nothing like drill baby drill. drill baby drill helps with the balance of payments. we could maybe save a few days worth of imports by drilling a lot. but drill baby drill does almost nothing. the other solutions all have to do with electricity. so almost every speech th you get from piticians or people advocating a solution starts with foreign oil and ends up with something that deals with 1.5% of the problem. so what do we do? well, i tend to think that capturing co2 from coal-fired fire plants is affordable, 25 to 30% added cost. but sequestering carbon dioxide, have to be in saltwater aquifers, nationwide set of pipelines for co2

saudi arabia however is a serious threat, indeed, one more dangerous than iraq.h the governing elite in both parties turns a blind eye. our elite deceitfully pretends that it is a close and reliable ally. it keeps america's energy security dependent on its enemies by relying on the saudis to play a pro u.s. role in the oil market and in gingers the economy by allowing them to buy an ever larger share of our ever more out of control federal debt. in addition, the saudis over the past 30 years have built a highly effective lobby in the united states which is as pernicious, effective and corrupting as high tech but more quiet and subtle. the lobby employs former u.s. ambassadors, generals and seniors intelligence officers to argue the case in the white house, the congress and the media. and especially in the "wall street journal." and needless to say, the lobby's work is enthusiastically assisted by our oil and arms leading corporations whose concerns have less to do with the u.s. security than making sure they keep their seats on the saudi retrain that is even now

the reports show that they could be looking to saudi arabia to play the middleman so we'll have details on what that would mean and who said anything about being transparent even though then president elect obama promised to run a transparent open government his latest battle to bring down leakers seems to be promoting another message so should those leaders fear what the government might do that and a new update on the hacker who's taking on sony after a court ruling anybody who obtained information on how to hack the playstation three is now going to have their ip addresses sent directly to sony so we're going to bring you all the latest on this attack on your privacy and it's a new face to the american dream gone are the days of owning a home with a white picket fence now replaced by people forced to pay rent on after month year after year so we'll take a closer look at the new housing market and the dying roles of fannie mae and freddie mac. and some states are pushing for new regulations on voters details on what some voters are now going to have to show in the upcoming elections a

protesters set up roadblocks as 1000 at saudi troops entered the country. hello. millions in the parts of northeast japan hammered by last week's quake and tsunami have spent their fourth night without food, water, electricity, or gas. at least 500,000 people have been left homeless, but even now, much is still unknown. communications are still down in many areas. about 2000 bodies have been found washed ashore. half of them in a town that was flattened by the water. as japan struggles to deal with an emergency, fears are growing about the safety of the fukushima daiichi power plant. we have this from the edge of the nuclear exclusion zone. >> inside the plant, workers are trying to avert a nuclear catastrophe. but today, a second explosion. this time at reactor no. 3. the blast was huge. there was believed to be a buildup of hydrogen. just hours before, people living nearby were trying to leave by any means possible. this was just 3 miles from the site. those who ignored earlier warnings were desperate to get out. in towns for the runway, fears of further contami

the current president put into saudi arabia and now here pre-print also out of the country he was in one clinics and meet weekly from force out of the saudi arabia for three months and then you come back so they're out there in an area he said well i now get fitted and then brick in my pocket thirty six billions is dollars for all young generation for the. working places for the creation and for other social programs it's the most very smart decision. after one day if it's coming it's coming back korea was in the us as a nation holy so the rebels. there you know came capello in the other came from jordan he started to make reforms change of his government orders are the first. the most rigid if you can call this and that's really two cases of fish control station two for the. local mystics off neighbors it's good lessons for all who sold this area i have a quote from today's republican paper journalist named out of there to start dealing he air writes that the promise. that the king promised billions in subsidies that they they probably will not come down the growing the growing sati

analysts are already beginning to doubt whether saudi arabia could fill the gap. crude oil traded in london at $115 this wednesday. these prices will choke off the economic upswing in europe if they persist. >> the oil facility is a prized both gaddafi loyalists and his opponents want to win. it is one of the key oil refineries in libya. only the security guards remain. hundreds of workers have fled over the past few days. for weeks, libya's oil output has been minimal. but that has not led to shortages worldwide. many countries hold massive reserves. germany has enough for around three months. even so, oil analysts are nervous. if unrest spreads across the arab world, there could be further interruptions in supply. the world is dependent on oil from the middle east and north africa. it is 36% of the global supply. around 20% comes from europe, russia, and asia. much of the rest is produced in north and latin america. saudi arabia is the only oil- producing country which could increase its output in the short term. serious political unrest there would likely creat

protesters in saudi arabia have taken to the streets before a so-called day of rage. police fired on them using stun guns to disperse the crowd. the saudi authorities placed far in journalists under tight restrictions. -- foreign journalists under tight restrictions. we have this special report. >> saudi arabia tonight, young men run in front of security forces. this is a town where the shiite minority lives. this is partly about local grievances. for some, the so-called day of rage has already begun. this shia intellectual has a reform agenda. the unrest on the streets has alarmed the government. he stresses he once peaceful change. -- wants peaceful change. >> it has to start somewhere. >> many people do love the king. they worry that democracy will bring conflicts with tribal society. >> our government is the best government for us and we love it. this is a bad way. we do not like it. >> never get, this is saudi arabia, a country named after one of the family. begunbdallah has some reforms, but this is a place where the government remains very much in control. >> p

has reportedly asked saudi arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in being gal's eat the saudis of have been told that the owners of. tank rockets and mortars those of you as a priority to hold off attacks by khadafi armor and ground to air missiles to shoot down his fighter bombers the situation in libya is critical as it is with hundreds of people bad and with gadhafi saying he will not be he will fight until the last man standing and this reported arm supplied that could come from the saudis upon the request of the united states could inflame the situation even more the saudis assisters again if confirmed would would allow washington. to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain even though the arms would be american and paid for by the saudis it is also being reported that supply supplies could be could reach within forty eight hours so we could be some two days away from a full fledged civil war in the here with the involvement of western powers by now we know that the u.k. has decided to send its visors few forces for several days now u.s. surveillance aircraft

it is not an easy task in saudi arabia. next to her is the founder of women for women international. an immigrant from iraq. she has an incredible history from her own background and what brought her to the united states and put her front and center of the international battle, for women's rights. so i want to start with you first because dahlia, we have all been energized by what happened in your country. before that it was tunisia. i had a fantastic time reporting from there. tahrir square has become really the word for the uprisings. but you started before people started to take to the streets. what were you writing? what was your poetry and your blogging? >> i have been bloggindg since 2006 or the dream of someday having eaten to be a stable democracy. by liberal democracy i mean that it will rise to all including muslims and non-muslims, and men and women. i was looking for equality, for civil rights and individual rights. thank god i am seeing this happen now. >> what was it about that date, january 25 to, that put pe