Was king abdullah a dictator

Answer 1

Yes. Absolutely.

Under King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia adheres to a punitive justice system in which young teens can be sentenced to death and defendants tortured. Women are more oppressed than in any other country-they can't even seek medical care without a male guardian's permission.

Although Abdullah did not become king until 2005, he has ruled Saudi Arabia since his half-brother, Fahd, suffered a stroke 10 years earlier. In Saudi Arabia, phone calls are recorded and mobile phones with cameras are banned. It is illegal for public employees "to engage in dialogue with local and foreign media." By law, all Saudi citizens must be Muslims. According to Amnesty International, police in Saudi Arabia routinely use torture to extract "confessions." Saudi women may not appear in public with a man who isn't a relative, must cover their bodies and faces in public and may not drive. The strict suppression of women is not voluntary, and Saudi women who would like to live a freer life are not allowed to do so.

U.S. LINK: Every President since the 1940s has sought good relations with petroleum-rich Saudi Arabia. American companies have sold its government more than $15 billion in arms in the last decade. Last year, U.S. oil imports totaled more than $30 billion. King Abdullah promised to crack down on extremists after we learned that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Yet researchers at West Point say that the largest number of al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq still come from Saudi Arabia.