<story><title>First they came for the Iranians</title><url>http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3167</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Melchizedek</author><text>Regardless of the hijackers motives, Saudi Arabia is by far the worst country when it comes to exporting and supporting terror. Iran is an island of sanity by comparison, and there are &lt;i&gt;no&lt;/i&gt; Shia terrorist organizations nowadays (Hezbollah are not terrorists - they don&amp;#x27;t blow up random civilians).</text></item><item><author>semi-extrinsic</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a bit more interesting wrt. most 9&amp;#x2F;11 hijackers being Saudis: I think it&amp;#x27;s pretty much confirmed at this point that it was a deliberate choice by al Qaida, attempting to deteriorate US-Saudi relations.&lt;p&gt;But as long as Saudis are omitted from this regulation, it&amp;#x27;s pretty ineffective. Then again, how much of &amp;quot;terrorism legislation&amp;quot; is actually preventing terrorism, as opposed to extending the powers of police and prosecution, or just being populist &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m doing something&amp;quot;?</text></item><item><author>salimmadjd</author><text>Trump is ostensibly using the 9&amp;#x2F;11 play card to justify banning few muslim countries [0]. 
This is obviously a lie, since most of 911 hijackers were Saudis and his executive order is not banning the Saudis. I&amp;#x27;m guessing on the strength of the Saudi lobby in DC [1] AND&amp;#x2F;OR Trump&amp;#x27;s potential business conflict in Saudi Arabia [2].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scribd.com&amp;#x2F;document&amp;#x2F;337545704&amp;#x2F;Draft-Executive-Order-To-Limit-Entry-of-Muslim-Refugees-and-Immigrants&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scribd.com&amp;#x2F;document&amp;#x2F;337545704&amp;#x2F;Draft-Executive-Or...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Saudi_Arabia_lobby_in_the_United_States&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Saudi_Arabia_lobby_in_the_Unit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests&amp;#x2F;508382&amp;#x2F;#Saudi-Arabia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;donald-t...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nir</author><text>I suppose Rafic Hariri isn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;random&amp;quot; as he was after all Lebanon&amp;#x27;s democratically elect Prime Minister when Hezbollah assassinated him, but how about the 21 people who also died in that bombing?&lt;p&gt;I personally know a man who lost his wife (mother of their 3 kids) when Hezbollah bombed the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. 85 civilians were killed, but then again mostly Jewish so not exactly &amp;quot;random&amp;quot; either.&lt;p&gt;It always amazes me how many Western activists approach the world like a Hollywood movie. If Saudis are bad, and Trump is bad, then obviously their Shia rivals must be good!</text></comment>
<story><title>First they came for the Iranians</title><url>http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3167</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Melchizedek</author><text>Regardless of the hijackers motives, Saudi Arabia is by far the worst country when it comes to exporting and supporting terror. Iran is an island of sanity by comparison, and there are &lt;i&gt;no&lt;/i&gt; Shia terrorist organizations nowadays (Hezbollah are not terrorists - they don&amp;#x27;t blow up random civilians).</text></item><item><author>semi-extrinsic</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a bit more interesting wrt. most 9&amp;#x2F;11 hijackers being Saudis: I think it&amp;#x27;s pretty much confirmed at this point that it was a deliberate choice by al Qaida, attempting to deteriorate US-Saudi relations.&lt;p&gt;But as long as Saudis are omitted from this regulation, it&amp;#x27;s pretty ineffective. Then again, how much of &amp;quot;terrorism legislation&amp;quot; is actually preventing terrorism, as opposed to extending the powers of police and prosecution, or just being populist &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m doing something&amp;quot;?</text></item><item><author>salimmadjd</author><text>Trump is ostensibly using the 9&amp;#x2F;11 play card to justify banning few muslim countries [0]. 
This is obviously a lie, since most of 911 hijackers were Saudis and his executive order is not banning the Saudis. I&amp;#x27;m guessing on the strength of the Saudi lobby in DC [1] AND&amp;#x2F;OR Trump&amp;#x27;s potential business conflict in Saudi Arabia [2].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scribd.com&amp;#x2F;document&amp;#x2F;337545704&amp;#x2F;Draft-Executive-Order-To-Limit-Entry-of-Muslim-Refugees-and-Immigrants&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scribd.com&amp;#x2F;document&amp;#x2F;337545704&amp;#x2F;Draft-Executive-Or...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Saudi_Arabia_lobby_in_the_United_States&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Saudi_Arabia_lobby_in_the_Unit...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests&amp;#x2F;508382&amp;#x2F;#Saudi-Arabia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;donald-t...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>saiya-jin</author><text>this is so true. simple fact in face of all those years of propaganda against iran.&lt;p&gt;by no means are they some altruistic peace lovers, but considering other countries in the region, US could get much more if they would be allies since technically there are no obstacles (apart from 1979 US embassy issue, but nobody got killed, all released eventually... worse things happen, ie Behgazi and nobody cares if it serves some agenda).&lt;p&gt;If you go there nowadays, all the signs are in 2 languages - Farsi and English. Everybody speaks at least a bit English. Compared to say France :)</text></comment>