Submitted by Khalid AlSaeed, Oct 6, 2007 19:43

Dear Editor,

It's regrettable to read such a misleading article as ("In 'The Kingdom,' Darkness Deepens" by Youssef Ibrahim, Foreign; Pg.7, Oct.5) for a writer who's only mission is to blindly barrage the Saudi government with unsubstantiated accusations in an attempt to exploit the limited American public background about Saudi Arabia to advance his own profile.

Saudi Arabia was established only seventy years ago on peaceful Islamic values and divine social justice on what used to be a vital troubled Oasis plagued with bloody tribal chaos, deadly mayhem and the absence of the rule of law in an environment of rampant disease, poverty and with over 80% illiteracy rate. No words would better describe the Arabian Peninsula seventy years ago (Pre Saudi rule) other than a place was living in the dark ages and can only be compared to the worst African conflict taking place in Darfur now.

However, Saudi Arabia is currently enjoying stable political and economic systems with profound and widespread legitimacy in both the Arab and Muslim worlds. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is evolving on all kinds of spectrum of society development taking into consideration our unique respected traditions. Hence, interrupting such delicate progress would dangerously undermine our strategic progress in an unbalanced region.

Regards,

Khalid AlSaeed

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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