A satirical Arabic website, much like The Onion, poked fun at a royal wedding in Jordan in June. Not long after, it was blocked. “We’re totally backsliding,” said one cartoonist in the kingdom.
The United States was told last year that Saudi security forces were shooting, shelling and abusing groups of migrants, but it chose not to raise the issue publicly.
A Human Rights Watch report says the guards regularly fire on African migrants trying to enter the kingdom from Yemen and have killed hundreds in a 15-month period.
Ian Fishback, who left the Army with the rank of major, was a dissident-in-uniform who died at the age of 42 after entering a dizzying mental health spiral.