Backpedal, backpedal. After a Guardian story on Saudi plans to increase tourism, the government quickly changed their website to remove some of the most inflammatory terms and conditions. The original website read:

Visas will not be issued for the following groups of people: An Israeli passport holder or a passport that has an Israeli arrival/departure stamp[,] Those who don't abide by the Saudi traditions concerning appearance and behaviors[, and] Jewish People.

The post-Guardian version simply says, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's visa regulations are available at the Kingdom's Consulates. When erroneous information was noticed on SCT's website, it was removed. SCT regrets any inconvenience this may have caused."

In any case, don't think you're going to find a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Riyadh anytime soon; the visa application from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still lists "religion" as a necessary field.

The Guardian also noted that the al'Sauds had a history of arresting tourists on spurious charges of terrorism, which brings us to a not-unrelated piece of news: Two British men are suing Saudi government officials for damages, claiming that they were tortured into confessing to a series of bomb attacks against Westerners in 2000.

Sandy Mitchell and Les Walker spent two and a half years in prison, and were sentenced to beheading and crucifixtion before being released in 2003. Their lawyers claim that the Saudi government tortured the men and five other foreign nationals with beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats in order to coerce false confessions from them.

The Saudi government, which linked the bombings to rivalries between alcohol smuggling gangs, has denied any coercion. But others outside the government argue that the kingdom has tried to cover up the involvement of Islamist terrorists in the bombing wave, which has continued since 2000 to injure and kill Westerners in Saudi Arabia. Saad al'Fagh, a Saudi dissident now living in London, has told reporters that splinter terror groups have taken credit for the bombings.