Ministry Should Concentrate on Culture, Not Banning Books

Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, comments@d-corner.com

Along with the new name, the indomitable Ministry of Information, MOI, has now a new minister.
Personally, I have decided not to use the new title, which includes the sonorous term ‘Culture,’
until the ministry actually produces something that merits such
high-flying terminology. (more…)

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06.15.2009

Prized in America, Banned in Arabia

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:59 pm by admin

Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy USMC and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East was named Biography of the Year by the Benjamin Franklin Awards 2009, only to be banned in Saudi Arabia. Selwa Press publisher Tim Barger shares his comments on book banning in the kingdom. (more…)

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08.6.2008

Forgotten Colonel is Remembered in Biography

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:59 pm by admin

Eddy - 1958

Author and journalist Don DeNevi writes in the Quantico Sentry

“By the time the reader has turned a dozen pages of ‘Arabian Knight — Colonel Bill Eddy USMC and the Rise of American Power In the Middle East’, he or she will realize what an unsung Marine hero Eddy was.”

DeNevi adroitly sketches the highlights of Eddy’s life and precisely places them in the context of the times - be it Belleau Wood or Vichy Casablanca. He concludes …

‘‘Arabian Knight” is a priceless gem among recent military biographies. Small and easily read because Lippman’s prose is at once taut and graceful, the book should be read for its mixture of 20th century history and current Middle Eastern insights by all professionally minded Marines, regardless of rank.

Buy Now

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08.6.2008

A Marine for All Seasons

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:59 am by admin

Now available, the long-awaited biography of an extraordinary, but unheralded, Marine officer by one of the nation’s leading experts on the Middle East.

As George Crile used Charlie Wilson to examine CIA involvement in Afghanistan, Tom Lippman has used the astonishing life of Bill Eddy to trace the rise of American involvement in the region - from a handshake between FDR and Ibn Saud on the deck of an American cruiser in 1945 to the first Marine landing in Lebanon in 1958, where as one observer noted, “Pepsi and 7-Up umbrellas on the beaches sheltered vendors who prayed that fresh waves of Marines would land.”

Fascinating in its detail and sweeping in its scope, Arabian Knight is the rare book that fuses biography and political history into a compelling, enlightening read. It is the story of a warrior, a scholar, a spymaster and a diplomat. It is the story of Colonel Bill Eddy, a Marine for all seasons.

To learn more about Arabian Knight, please visit AramcoExpats.com

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04.8.2008

A Lineman In Arabia - Wallie Ballor

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:06 pm by admin

Bechtel hired Wallie Ballor in 1944 to install a high voltage line from Dhahran to Ras Tanura as part of the construction of the refinery at Ras Tanura. With two crews of installers - one Italian and the other Saudi, he installed power poles between the towns and wired them up. It was a thankless task, digging deep post holes in the sand and sabkha every 50 yards or so, and raising the 40 foot poles in the heat and humidity and in spite of shammals (sandstorms). After he was done he helped wire up the refinery itself, no small task in itself.

His photographs are a rare look at a contractor’s life in the great postwar expansion of Aramco and a reminder that it was the efforts of countless people from all walks of life that built the company that endures to this day.

Some of his photos can be seen at the Wallie Ballor Gallery

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03.25.2008

Vicci Thompson, Publisher of an International Community Newspaper

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:57 pm by admin

Vicci at Shaybah in 2003 flanked by Stephen Sapienza of Azimuth Films

After World War II in Aramco there was born an informal newsletter that informed the employees about events and activities, by the early fifties this newsletter became The Sun & Flare, a weekly English newspaper that carried the latest news and announcements of community interest. (more…)

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03.4.2008

Arabia Is Not Cattle Country

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:33 pm by admin

 

It is fitting that Range Magazine, the voice of the American West  would publish this excerpt from Discovery! in the Winter issue.  Steve Furman was in charge of feeding the 100 Americans cut off from supplies during WW II and when one day he met Mutlaq he set in motion a 1200 mile cattle drive from Yemen to Dhahran the likes of which had never been seen before in Arabia and hasn’t been seen since. (more…)

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01.19.2008

The Tale of Three Covers?

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:30 pm by admin

 

In his essay in the SF Chronicle Philip Fradkin writes that Discovery! “proved popular within the company and went through three printings, each with its separate heroic cover. ” (more…)

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