Springtime in Saudiland

"He said they were released after investigations showed they were not involved
in any criminal acts based on Saudi laws."

Well, I mean, yeah. But then, Saudi law permits (more or less), wife beatings, beatings for religious violations, locking up school girls to be burned to death if they don't wear their headscarves when escaping a fire, public mutilation for minor crimes (what's a hand or two?), beheadings for somewhat more brazen crimes, 'honor' killings if a Saudi dad perceives his daughter does something wrong (just drag her out in the desert -- no need to bother the neighbors), slavery, pedophilia, castration of slaves, killing of infidels, miscellaneous acts of terrorism, up to and including hijacking airliners and ramming them into buildings. And genocide, if you're Israeli.

But who's bothered by all that? It's just their culture after all. We should respect that.
Robb

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Saudi-Guantanamo-Detainees.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Saudi Arabia Releases 9 Gitmo Detainees
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 29, 2006
Filed at 5:13 p.m. ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Saudi Arabian authorities have released nine men who were previously held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as terror suspects, a Saudi security official said Tuesday.

The nine were part of a group of 37 Saudis held in Guantanamo and handed over by the United States to the Saudi government, Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.

He said they were released after investigations showed they were not involved in any criminal acts based on Saudi laws.

In May, the Saudis released three of the returned prisoners after clearing them of any wrongdoing.

Of the 450 men suspected of terror links still being held at Guantanamo, about 83 are Saudis. The Saudi government has previously said it hopes Washington hands them over.

The majority of those being held in the Cuba-based prison were captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led war on terror.