Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink and Global Exchange. She is one of America’s best-known and courageous activists. Medea is the recipient of the 2012 U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation’s Peace Prize. She is the author of the book Drone Warfare. And her latest “Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S. – Saudi Connection.”
About “Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S. – Saudi Connection”
In seven succinct chapters followed by a meditation on prospects for change, Benjamin–cited by the L.A. Times as “one of the high profile members of the peace movement”–shines a light on one of the weirder, and most important, elements of our foreign policy. What is the origin of this strange alliance between two countries that have very little in common? Why does it persist, and what are its consequences? Why, over a period of decades and across various presidential administrations, has the United States consistently supported a regime shown time and again to be one of the most powerful forces working against American interests? Saudi Arabia is perhaps the single most important source of funds for terrorists worldwide, promoting an extreme interpretation of Islam along with anti-Western sentiment, while brutally repressing non-violent dissidents at home.