Closer To Home

As part of a superb article which originally appeared in this week's Spectator, and with my emphasis added, Taki writes:

Issa bin Zayed, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family, got peeved at Mohammed Shapoor, an Afghani trader, and had him lashed with a plank of nails, raped with an electric baton and run over by an SUV. And reminiscent of a certain ex-president of Liberia, who was video-taped by the henchmen of his successor while his ears were being cut off—and I hate to think what else—Issa baby video taped the unfortunate rice trader during the torture. The Abu Dhabi torture tape barely caused a ripple in Britain, or in Europe for that matter. Medieval torture is okay if the torturers own a major Premier League football club. The thinking is, so what’s an electric prod or two up one’s bum when the prodder can buy us a place in the top four.

Closer to home, in London’s Landmark Hotel, a Saudi multi-millionaire member of yet another ruling family is alleged to have strangled and bludgeoned his man servant to death weeks after he had beaten the poor man to a pulp, a beating that went unreported. The camel driver has a leading criminal defence barrister representing him. Looking into my crystal ball I predict the Saudi will go free, just as the Abu Dhabi bum did. The Saudis have oil and moolah, as do the Libyans and the Abu Dhabians. The Blairs, Browns, and Camerons of this world will kiss their arse and to hell with a few tortured or dead bodies. They’ve even got the Saudi on CCTV beating up his aide, but take it from Taki. The guy will walk.