The Iraqi Jell-o, A Gulf Dichotomy of Centrifuges and Prayer Beads, Jordanian Interrogators For Hire, Polygamy and Terrorism
Petraeus, Crocker: the Iraqi Jell-o is no gingerbread.
An Islamic dichotomy on the Gul: of nukes and beads.
Iran announces installing 6,000 new centrifuges.
Is Ahmadinejad seeking trouble? Is he worried about his re-election?
Holy name: a Gulf emirate bans using names on medical test samples.
Jordanian prisons and torturers for hire in the New Middle East.
On polygamy compounds and terrorist havens.
In the most educated city.
Iraq Report:
Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker gave sobering reports about Iraq yesterday. That was the best, and the least, they could do under the circumstances as a professional team of soldier and dilpmat. It is bound to confuse a lot of people. There is something missing here that existed in other war situations, even in Vietnam. Actually Vietnam was a simpler case: it was mostly one people, with some ethnic variation, and everybody knew what the goal was for both sides. And there were only two sides in Vietnam.
Iraq being an Arab country, there are as many sides as there are ethnic and religious groups and subgroups killing each other, which tends to complicate things. It is easy to understand why, to many people, trying to manage Iraq as a coherent country is like buidling a house of jell-o. Gingerbread is much more manageable.
Islamic dichotomy: Of Nukes and Beads
Iran's president Ahmadinejad claimed yesterday that his country is installing 6,000 new centrifuges in its "peaceful" nuclear facilities. That is bad news for the Middle East, old and new, especially for the (Persian) Gulf region. It may be bad news for the Iranians if it spurs the world powers to impose harsher punishment. Ahmadinejad is probably counting on the waning days of the Bush admin to keep him safe from the bombers and missiles. But he deserves some really tightened screws just for his foolish braggadocio- and for the fact that he "most probably" is aiming at a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, across the Gulf in Dubai, a new fatwa has been issued. In cosmopolitan, indulging, almost-anything-goes Dubai. The Department of Islamic Affairs and Charities has ruled that names of people (patients) should not be written on medical samples such as urine and other things. This is not for security or privacy reasons. It is mainly because many people are named after revered prophets and holy persons whose names should not appear on 'certain' samples. From now on, only numbers will be used on lab samples, especially liquid and solid waste. Expect the unexpcted if you have certain samples sent to the labs in Dubai, and keep your fingers, or misbah worry beads, crossed.
About the beads: some people in the West call them prayer beads, which they are, or were originally. I believe they atill are for Catholics- you never see a Catholic playing with his beads (or rosaries) on the way to, say, a new date. Now, as life on the Gulf has become more complex, they are mainly worry beads.
Jordan- Have Prisons (and Interrogators), Will Travel:
Arab media of the non-moderate New Middle East type, like Al-Jazeera among others, have headlined a Human Rights Watch report about terrorist suspects being transferred by the CIA to Jordanian prisons for 'torture'. Jordanian government interrogators for hire have developed a certain 'reputation' in the Middle East since before the 9/11 events. Reports have claimed for about 20 years now that Jordanian agents are sought after by other Arab governments, including some in the Gulf region, for "persuasion' purposes. Some opposition activists in a tiny Gulf island state had complained of the use of Jordanian interrogators in their country since the 1990s at least.
The HRW report mentions the use of electric tools, dogs, snakes, threats of rape, among other tools of trade perfected by Jordanian security agents of the moderate New Middle East.
Most likely this is not why King Abdul de Jourdanie received the honor of addressing a joint session of the U.S Congress and got a standing ovation last year. Many senators are simply too busy to read HRW reports.
Wisdom from crazy mouths:
The raid on the polygamist compound in Texas has been all over the news. Which made someone I know comment that the moderate New Middle East is full of polygamist compounds and palaces. "So," he went, "why not raid them and free all those women?"
That reminded me of Colonel Qaddafi 's comments during the early months of the War on Terror. The Libyan leader was quoted as commenting that if the Bush administration really wanted to bomb terrorist havens, why not bomb London? He reasoned that London held one of the largest concentration of Islamic Jihadists. Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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