There is an informative article about Saudi Arabia's new King Abdullah up at Salon which is worth checking out (all Salon articles are available to non-subscribers if you sit through a brief flash ad and get a "site pass"). It gives a rundown of the policies of the previous King Fahd which led to blowback in the form of Al Quaeda and the Iraqi Bath party and then looks at the different tack Abdullah has been taking over the past few years while he has been in de-facto control over the country.
The article is written by Juan Cole of the blog Informed Opinion. His blog is regularly linked to with approval by Kos and other hard-left blogs but has received sustained criticism from other sources. Examples here, here and here. A couple of the deficiencies (depending on your point of view) noted in Cole's writings are on show here, such as his unquestioning aceptance of the viability of a pre-'67 Israel borders + a Palestinian state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it generally strikes me as a fair assessment.
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Tony Walker wrote a very good article on King Abdullah, and Saudi Arabia's problems, in AFR on Saturday. So, uh, for people who prefer going and digging through the old newspapers in the Rowden White to simply clicking on Jeremy's link and going straight to the article in question, I'm glad I could be of help...
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