King Abdullah has passed

[ProdigyofZen]

I am hearing from Saudi friends in SA that King Abdullah has passed.

Media is denying the claim. No major outlet is reporting it yet.

This might be an issue for Saudi succession/regime stability and the price of oil.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Thank you PoZ.

[vt]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Successor has dementia?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...3f8_story.html

[Slimprofits]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Prediction: Fewer than 1/2 of 1% of the obits. written for American consumption, will mention that the KSA's second most impactful export, during Abdullah's reign, after oil, was Wahhabism.

[touchring]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

I am hearing from Saudi friends in SA that King Abdullah has passed.

Media is denying the claim. No major outlet is reporting it yet.

This might be an issue for Saudi succession/regime stability and the price of oil.

Does this mean Obama is now the most powerful person in the world?

[GRG55]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Does this mean Obama is now the most powerful person in the world?

Is Obama Abdullah's successor? I hadn't heard.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

I guess it could be worse.

At least it's not as bad as reformer King Faisal who got shot by his nephew in the 70's.

King Faisal was the guy who "modernized" Saudi Arabia to move from the dark ages to somewhere else by getting rid of some examples of official slavery.

[GRG55]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

I guess it could be worse.

At least it's not as bad as reformer King Faisal who got shot by his nephew in the 70's.

King Faisal was the guy who "modernized" Saudi Arabia to move from the dark ages to somewhere else by getting rid of some examples of official slavery.

The Saudis have been behaving as though they are under assault from outside. That's what happens when one pursues an official multi-decade policy of "progress without change".

[GRG55]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

A humorous vignette doing the rounds, as told by a former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia:

You are not supposed to repeat what the Queen says in private conversation. But the story she told me on that occasion was one that I was also to hear later from its subject - Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - and it is too funny not to repeat.

Five years earlier, in September 1998, Abdullah had been invited up to Balmoral, for lunch with the Queen. Following his brother King Fahd’s stroke in 1995, Abdullah was already the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

After lunch, the Queen had asked her royal guest whether he would like a tour of the estate. Prompted by his Foreign Minister, the urbane Prince Saud, an initially hesitant Abdullah agreed.

The royal Land Rovers were drawn up in front of the castle. As instructed, the Crown Prince climbed into the front seat of the front Land Rover, with his interpreter in the seat behind. To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off.

Women are not - yet - allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.

His nervousness only increased as the Queen, an Army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads, talking all the time. Through his interpreter, the Crown Prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.

[vt]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Reminds me of another story that Walter Cronkite told to a company event I attended in 1989:

Walter and his wife were guests of President and Mamie Eisenhower at a D-Day anniversary at the Omaha Beach site in the 1960's. Walter was walking along the beach as Ike was explaining the landing.

Mamie and Mrs. Cronkite were sitting on a porch of a house where they could see the men were walking along the area above the beach. The two men went up to a jeep, got in, and drove off along the cliffs above the beach.

Upon seeing this Mamie stood up in fear. She said "Mrs. Cronkite, your husband is in great danger! Ike hasn't driven since before the war!"

[lakedaemonian]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

A humorous vignette doing the rounds, as told by a former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia:

You are not supposed to repeat what the Queen says in private conversation. But the story she told me on that occasion was one that I was also to hear later from its subject - Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - and it is too funny not to repeat.

Five years earlier, in September 1998, Abdullah had been invited up to Balmoral, for lunch with the Queen. Following his brother King Fahd’s stroke in 1995, Abdullah was already the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

After lunch, the Queen had asked her royal guest whether he would like a tour of the estate. Prompted by his Foreign Minister, the urbane Prince Saud, an initially hesitant Abdullah agreed.

The royal Land Rovers were drawn up in front of the castle. As instructed, the Crown Prince climbed into the front seat of the front Land Rover, with his interpreter in the seat behind. To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off.

Women are not - yet - allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.

His nervousness only increased as the Queen, an Army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads, talking all the time. Through his interpreter, the Crown Prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.

That is a great story.

And I would imagine she might be one of only three women(at most) in the world who could get away with it(along with Hillary Clinton or Angela Merkel), but I would think the highly unlikely event of Hillary/Angela driving themselves combined with the inability to keep to event anything less than a feminist media circus may mean that the one and only person in a position to make a bit of a discrete statement, did.

Good on her!

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

A humorous vignette doing the rounds, as told by a former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia:

You are not supposed to repeat what the Queen says in private conversation. But the story she told me on that occasion was one that I was also to hear later from its subject - Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - and it is too funny not to repeat.

Five years earlier, in September 1998, Abdullah had been invited up to Balmoral, for lunch with the Queen. Following his brother King Fahd’s stroke in 1995, Abdullah was already the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

After lunch, the Queen had asked her royal guest whether he would like a tour of the estate. Prompted by his Foreign Minister, the urbane Prince Saud, an initially hesitant Abdullah agreed.

The royal Land Rovers were drawn up in front of the castle. As instructed, the Crown Prince climbed into the front seat of the front Land Rover, with his interpreter in the seat behind. To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off.

Women are not - yet - allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.

His nervousness only increased as the Queen, an Army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads, talking all the time. Through his interpreter, the Crown Prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead.

Hah, I can imagine the look on his face.

The interpreter must have had a field day.

[don]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

a million laughs . . . .

[GRG55]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

a million laughs . . . .

The land that time forgot...

'We are cut off, isolated and alone': Imprisoned Saudi princesses blame their father King Abdullah as their mother calls on Obama to help free them

• Alanoud AlFayez, 57, appealed to Obama on Thursday as he prepares to visit Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah
• AlFayez was once married to the king but fled to London after he divorced her in 2003

PUBLISHED: 00:59 GMT, 28 March 2014 | UPDATED: 21:14 GMT, 28 March 2014

Two Saudi Princesses who claim to have been imprisoned by their father for 13 years have told how they are 'cut off, isolated and alone' after their mother called on President Obama to help set them free.

Princesses Sahar, 42, and Jawaher, 38, whose mother is divorced from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, say they are effectively being held under house arrest in the royal compound in Jeddah.

[jk]

Re: King Abdullah has passed

Successor has dementia?

worked out ok for reagan.