Don't Worry. It's only sex trafficking if "bad people" do it. For Saudi Arabia, it's free market tourism

One of the golden rules in Washington is that, if you have some really messed up policy decisions to announce, you wait until the entire country is distracted by something else. It seems that, with Rita barreling towards Texas and/or Louisiana, thousands homeless from Katrina, and Iraq spinning out of control, the cover was deep enough for Dear MisLeader™ to let his buddies in Saudi Arabia off the hook for sex trafficking offenses.

President Bush decided Wednesday to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism, for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.

In June, the State Department listed 14 countries as failing to adequately address trafficking problems, subjecting them all to possible sanctions if they did not crack down.

Of those 14, Bush concluded that Bolivia, Jamaica, Qatar, Sudan, Togo and the United Arab Emirates had made enough improvements to avoid any cut in U.S. aid or, in the case of countries that get no American financial assistance, the barring of their officials from cultural and educational events, said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman.

Cambodia and Venezuela were not considered to have made similar adequate improvements.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Kuwait -— another U.S. ally in the Middle East -— were given a complete pass on any sanctions, Jordan said. Despite periodic differences, oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United States have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation.

Where do you even start with this list without being stoned to death for being "too obvious" for the readers? Let's see.... the report says that Saudi Arabia hasn't done enought to stop slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. Why would they get a pass?

I don't suppose THIS could have anything to do with it, could it? The Bush and Saudi "royal families" have been in the oil business together for years. Why on Earth would Dubya consider sanctioning them just because some wealthy businessmen are flying in there to have sex with children?

Kuwait pretty much falls into the same basket, having been rescued by Bush Senior in Gulf War Part One. But Venezuela will be sanctioned for the same offenses. Hrmmm... I wonder why that could be?

In the case of Venezuela — which has had a tense relationship with the United States under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy — Bush also allowed funding for strengthening the political party system and supporting electoral observation.

I suppose we can still fund anything that might help get Chavez out of office so he'll stop pestering Bush, eh?

I have to give a big hat tip to Oliver Willis for this one.

It'’s not a crime when Saudi Arabia does it. They can traffic in humans, fund terrorists, subjugate their women, manipulate the fuel supply - Saudi Arabia simply lives by a different set of rules than any other nation. Wonder why?

Oliver has the answer. "It's the morality, stupid."

Even if the Saudi Arabian royalty enjoys status as "the Golden Child" under the Bush dynasty, they may want to be more careful when they go speaking in public. Even Dubya may lose patience with them if they keep going around making statements like this.

Saudi Warns U.S. Iraq May Face Disintegration

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war.

"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart." He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration.

That one came, as it so often does, from Steve Soto at The Left Coaster.

The Saudis want everyone to conveniently forget that they were one of the cheerleaders for the war, and now they are willing to shoot Bush in the back by saying that the Administration made several mistakes, such as Bremer's removal of the Sunni Baathists from the new government. Now the Saudis are concerned that Iran is too powerful, and that the Bush Administration is a little too pollyannish about the January election and the upcoming constitutional referendum.

I'm having a Forrest Gump moment. "Steve Soto always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them."