Not surprising for many in the know, Saudi Arabia, has a long history of beinga police state,a nd constantly recording most phone calls. In the late 70's, early 80's, an american delegation went to Riyadh, where they set up a special phoneline to washington. which used the Saudi Networks. When they left, they Saudi's gave them a huge bill, which the Americans denied using (they had only used it once or twice), anyway, it turns out one of the delegation had been phoning his wife every day for a couple of months.
Anyway, the Americans refused to believe the bills until the saudis offered to give them an audio copy of every phone call that was made!
Because of the tribal system in Saudi, many people have been handing over infomration on their own families to the police rather thant he shame that would go with it, the same reason, many of the women, and their husbands who participated in driving round Riyadh after the gulf war committed 'suicide' shortly after. |