Caryle Murphy

Caryle Murphy is Saudi Arabia correspondent for GlobalPost. A long-time reporter for the Washington Post, Murphy has been a foreign correspondent in southern Africa and the Middle East. In...

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Caryle Murphy's Notebook:

January 20, 2009 08:28 ET | Updated: January 20, 2009 11:25 ET

This is What They Hope For

Mr. Mazen Motabagani was in the middle of lunch with his family when I reached him on the phone. The scholar said he's just got one question about Obama: "Is he going to look for his re-election or America's real interest?"

Asked what issue is most important for him, Motabagani replied: "Justice in the Middle East. Real justice, not just for one party over the other. I hope Obama gets that message."

Motabagani, who heads the Occidential Studies Unit at Riyadh's King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, added that he hoped the new U.S. president would work for that goal even if it endangered his re-election possibilities.

"If it's one term and one good term, that's better than 40 years."

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January 20, 2009 08:27 ET | Updated: January 20, 2009 11:29 ET

Riyadh: A Muted Reception

It's now late afternoon in Riyadh, the capital. Thousands of miles away, Americans are already gathering on the National Mall as dawn breaks in Washington. But here, Obama's inauguration is not generating much public excitement.

None of this morning's Arabic newspapers noted the inauguration on their front pages. A couple had short stories inside, noting that Obama had pledged to remove U.S. troops from Iraq. Another ran a piece suggesting Obama  will only be different in “Packaging” and “Style" from his predecessor.

Only one, Okaz, noted that history was being made today in Washington.

To be sure, some Saudis are quite happy and hopeful about Obama. Almost all are grateful that the Bush administration is over because they see it as having been disastrous for the Middle East. But for the most part, any revelry that might happen will be in private living rooms when families gather around their TV sets at 8 pm local time for Obama's noon swearing-in.

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January 12, 2009 15:51 ET

Detainee update

Human Rights Watch responded to my earlier query about the political detainees this evening. Here is their update: Apart from Al Faleh, two other of the 11 detainees have been released since the hunger strike. Another was released some months ago. And, according to a human rights source here, prison conditions lately have improved for the seven still held.

January 12, 2009 06:18 ET

Political reformist freed from Saudi prison

Last November, about 70 Saudis protested the detention of 11 political reformers by staging a two-day hunger strike. The strikers fasted in the privacy of their homes, but publicized what they were doing online, including on Facebook. They did this to avoid violating the government ban on public gatherings.

Now, one of the better-known detainees, Matrouq Al Faleh, 55, a political science professor at King Saud University, has been freed. He returned home Saturday night after eight months in prison, according to his wife, Jamila Al ‘Uqla. 

Al ‘Uqla said her husband’s health is good. But she declined to have him come to the phone to speak with a a reporter.

One other detainee has been released since the hunger strike, and prison conditions have improved for the nine still held, human rights sources here said. One official said he believed the remaining detainees would be freed 'soon.'

January 12, 2009 06:17 ET

Birth Day a Secret? No way.

In the digital age, forget trying to forget your birthday....

"Now, with Facebook, it's hard to hide your birthday," said Saudi blogger Ahmed Omran, whose friends took him to dinner for his 24th last May.