What is Algore Talking About?

Here's a report on Algore's speech at the Jiddah Economic Forum. I've been looking for a complete transcript, but haven't come up with it. So the context of the quotes is a bit difficult to ascertain without a bunch of assumptions.

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.

Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."

Who exactly was indiscriminately rounded up? If they were "rounded up" for overstaying visas or not having green cards, then that's not indiscriminate. And where were they held in "conditions that were just unforgivable?" You mean they were held in jails where those arrested in the US are normally held. Treated in the same manner as an American citizen?

What in the hell is he talking about? This is just further proof that I voted correctly in that election.

Then there is the Oil company mouthpiece:

Also at the forum, the vice chairman of Chevron Corp., Peter Robertson, said President Bush's desire to cut U.S. dependence on Mideast oil shows a "misunderstanding" of global energy supply and the critical role of Saudi Arabia.

In his State of the Union address this month, Bush pledged to cut U.S. dependence on Middle East oil by 75 percent by 2025.

"This notion of being energy independent is completely unreasonable," Robertson said at the economic forum, which opened Saturday.

"I believe Middle Eastern oil can and must play a certain role in the system," Robertson said. "Saudi Arabia's massive resources will continue to promote international energy security and serve as a moderating force in balancing supply and demand."

Yeah, it's a misunderstanding. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more! How is energy independence unreasonable? Of course, he is the representative of the industry that would think having economic and political independence from an oil rich repressive regime is a bad idea. Unfortunately he speaks for a business that is far to popular with the present administration.

I'd truly love to see one of these "wise" men make these same statements before an American audience. We can also be assured that this will get fairly little coverage in the MSM.