Anti-monarchy protests in Saudi

I'm sure there's lots of other country leaders that wish they could do this to anyone that protests against their regime, and get away with it. In today's Arab Times, we get a glimpse of life in the Magic Kingdom next door:

Saudi to jail, lash 15 for anti-monarchy protests

RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi
court has sentenced 15 people, including a woman, to prison terms and lashings
for taking part in an illegal street protest against the royal family, Saudi
media said on Wednesday. Newspapers said the 15 were put on trial for
participating in rare anti-monarchy demonstrations in Jeddah on Dec. 16.
Government officials were unavailable for comment. The demonstrators were given
jail sentences ranging from two to six months and ordered to receive between 100
and 250 lashes apiece, newspapers said. A further six defendants are awaiting
trial in the Jeddah court. The state prosecutor called the sentences too lenient
and said the government would appeal for stiffer punishment.

Me thinks the State Prosecutor would like to see heads roll. Well if you stifle opposition & suppress the people it's going to get worse, a lot worse. And then, before you know it, it's you're head that's rolling, a la Nicolae Ceausescu in Roumania. [insert appropriate proverb...] Why do I get the sense that Al Qaeda appears to be winning this war? No indications in this story that there is a spirit of reform in Saudi... I don't think shwe-shwe (arabic for slowly-slowly) is always the answer.

And we're now up to more than 30 suspects in the Hawalli shoot-out, according to today's Arab Times...

KUWAIT (Agencies): Kuwaiti authorities have detained more than 30 Kuwaiti
and Saudi Islamists for questioning about a deadly shootout this week between
suspected militants and state security forces, security sources said on
Wednesday. "The authorities have arrested at least 30 Islamists, most of whom
are Kuwaiti as well as several Saudis ... for questioning over the shootout," a
security source told Reuters. He said state security officials had previously
questioned most of the detainees over suspected "extremist activity" and that
some of the men had spent time in Afghanistan...

..."The interrogation is ongoing with 30 suspects," the Interior Minister,
Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, told Al-Anba newspaper, after Monday's
gunbattle. The minister did not rule out that the perpetrators of the incident,
a rare occurrence in Kuwait, could be among those detained. The arrests came as
part of a major crackdown by security forces in areas used by suspected Islamist
militants following the gunfight, which triggered a new US warning to its
citizens in the country. Those arrested include the assailants' alleged
ideological mentor, who is a former mosque preacher and a hardline Islamist, a
security source told AFP.

And here's a gem from the paper earlier this week:

2 held for indecent signs: The Mubarak Al-Kabeer police have arrested a Kuwaiti
man, with past criminal records and a compatriot woman for allegedly making
indecent signs at a camera monitoring traffic. The suspects have been referred
to the authorities, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Wow. Big brother is everywhere!