“The debt crisis sweeping southern Europe and lapping France is cause for alarm in Washington and Beijing, but not it seems for the rank and file of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party. On the contrary, at a meeting of Merkel’s Christian Democrats the mood among delegates ranged from triumphalism over Germany’s economic strength to complacency about the crisis and blind faith in Berlin’s ability to shield Germany from it. Merkel warned on the first day of the congress Monday that Europe faced what could be its “toughest hour since World War Two.” But her message didn’t register with many of those in the hall or with the German media. Much press coverage focused on domestic issues – the minimum wage, childcare and education………… Unemployment has fallen to its lowest levels since German reunification in 1990 and the smaller “Mittelstand” firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy have strong order backlogs.…….”
That “alles” also includes the United States, speaking of economics. While U.S. corporations have rushed during the past two decades to export more jobs than products, German firms have focused on keeping jobs inside Germany. German government policies have helped. The American corporatist right-wing has been making a lot of noise about patriotism, while facilitating the opposite: the weakening of the Middle Class in favor of corporations. Even Dick Cheney’s beloved Halliburton, beneficial of so many American government contracts moved its headquarters to the Persian-American Gulf, to be near the potentates so beloved by the Cheneys, and for patriotic tax purposes. Remember all the swooning over the “Japanese model”? I was in graduate school in those days and I remember that it immediately preceded the long stagnation of the Japanese economy. Forget the Japanese model, forget the crazy Tea Party model. Go the German model, but that may require some sort of mass lobotomy for the corporate and political leaders. And who is going to perform that? Will Obamacare cover that (Germany, like all other industrial countries except the United States, has a robust public health system)? Cheers
mhg
““I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” King Abdullah told the BBC. “If Bashar has the interest of his country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.”…….” (King Abdul of Jordan)
This is the closest that the Jordanian king has ever come to humor, as far as I recall (unless you consider his Star Trek scene). No Arab leader has ever shown any inclination to leave office unless forced to. No Arab bureaucrat has ever shown any inclination to leave office unless forced to. That includes kings, dictators, and their flunkies and minions. It includes Jordanian kings (his father King Hussein killed a lot of people, mostly fellow-humorless Palestinians, in order to stay in power). Maybe I have been wrong about Jordanians; maybe there is a glimmer of some humor somewhere over there. But I need more evidence. (Of course, the Syrians use their own interrogators and torturers, they don’t import any from Jordan, Unlike the regime in Bahrain and UAE) Cheers
mhg
BFF Alquds Alarabi quotes Saudi media reports that a Saudi cleric (they call him ‘Aalim Deeni) has issued a fatwa that it is alright for non-Muslims to be cured through the Quran. Shaikd Dr. Ali al-Twuaijri, professor at the Holy Quran College at Islamic University said that the Quran has several benefits as a method of cure through the use of its verses. He added that is “behooves a Muslim to rely on the Holy Quran for his cures from physical and non-physical illnesses” Fine and dandy, no doubt the Quran has many “preventive” health benefits if followed, most holy texts do. Now non-Muslims have access to the Quran as well. But I assume non-Muslims have always had access to the Quran: nothing stopping me from using the Bible or Torah if I wish. Then there is the sensitive of the issue of the royal princes, the so many Custodians of the Holy Shrines, and their sidekicks, who eschew Quranic preventive lifestyles as well as cures for the worldly cures of Mayo Clinic or the many other exclusive medical centers in the West. All at state expense, of course. They also eschew Quranic method for recuperation and convalescence for the worldly diversions of resorts in North America, Europe and parts of North Africa.
Now about Sigmund Freud and Obamacare……… Cheers
mhg
“A 24-year-old man died tonight at Qasr El-Eini hospital in Cairo after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure and heart failure after allegedly being tortured by prison officials. Essam Ali Atta Ali was serving a two-year prison sentence in the maximum security ward at Tora Prison after being prosecuted in a military court on 25 February in relation to the illegal occupation of an apartment. According to the victim’s cellmates, prison officials sought to punish Ali after catching him smuggling a mobile SIM card into the ward. Prison officers reportedly pushed hoses into Ali’s mouth and anus, causing severe bleeding. Ali’s brother told media that he saw his brother’s corpse at the hospital and it exhibited signs of serious injuries. According to several media reports, an officer from Tora Prison left Ali at the hospital as he lay in a critical condition. Attending physicians immediately noticed liquid secretions emanating from Ali’s mouth and suspected foul play. In the late hours of Thursday, MD Aida Seif El-Dawla of El-Nadeem Centre for the rehabilitation of victims of torture, broke the news of Ali’s death to the public through Facebook and Twitter. She called on activist lawyers to support a traumatised family in their quest for answers. Ali’s mother told media that her son was a victim of police brutality and that she will not rest until his killers are brought to justice………”
Is Egypt going back to the future? The military trials for civilians, arrest of bloggers, and torture continue, proving that the new Egypt is not much different from the rest. The SCAF junta is writing its own constitution for the country. It looks like Egypt is back into the camp of Arab moderates of the New Middle East again. Trials of civilians in military courts, arbitrary arrests and torture are nothing new in our region: both moderate and radical regimes have used them extensively. From Tehran to Riyadh to Manama and Cairo and Damascus, and a few other places. They all imprison and torture and execute and exile. The only difference is that some are called republics and others are called monarchies; some are allied to the West others are hostile to the West. Cheers
mhg
“Insanity combined with intelligence can be
defined as “genius” in some cases. Insanity combined with stupidity can
be defined as “Republican candidate” these days.“Me
“Saturday’s Republican debate, sponsored by CBS and the National Journal, revealed a Republican field that is promising war on Iran and a revival of the use of torture, as well as horrible relations with the new governments in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya (according to Herman Cain, they have gotten “out of hand,” and he and Gingrich want to deal with them by supporting a muscular Christianity)………. The only adults in the room were John Huntsman and Ron Paul, who have no realistic chance of being the standard-bearer. They denounced water-boarding as torture and generally punctured the warmongering of the others. But it is shameful that potential US presidents are even talking about torturing people and launching wars of aggression………..These people just like the idea of war. War is good for munitions firms and security firms, who give a lot of money to Republican candidates. They’re actively looking for a war. It is good for business, for them……….” Juan Cole
These people must be a mix of insane and/or stupid, most likely a combination of both. Insanity combined with intelligence can be defined as “genius” in some cases. Insanity combined with stupidity can be defined as “Republican candidate” these days. (One exception is John Huntsman and maybe Ron Paul to some extent). It is like watching an old film reel of the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe. Minus the beer halls and minus the brownshirts and blackshirts. Is Iran the new Czechoslovakia? Or is it the new Poland? How about Danzig and the Persian Gulf Corridor? Or will it be a Pearl Harbor in reverse? After all, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor for ‘nearly’ the same reasons these candidates want to attack Iran. Cole is also right: maybe these people are smart after all. There is a lot of money to be made by corporations in a war. On the backs of the American people, who will see their services deteriorate as the deficit grows to a few trillion more from a possible “Mother of all Middle East Wars”. Cheers
mhg
“A commander of the Revolutionary Guard killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot west of Tehran was a key figure in Iran’s missile programme, the elite military force said. General Hasan Moghaddam was killed alongside 16 guard members on Saturday at a military site 25 miles south-west of Tehran. The Revolutionary Guard said the accident occurred while military personnel were transporting munitions……..”
Time Magazine reports, quoting intelligence reports, that the Israelis were behind the explosion. Meanwhile, the tit-for-tit of espionage and arrests continue. Bahrain has announced yet another of their weekly Iranian plots. I think soon they will start discovering Iranian plots on a daily basis (maybe even more often if Hezbollah is thrown in as well). WTF of the week: Iranian authorities have arrested an Iranian who reports for the BBC. They must consider correspondents for foreign media as spies now. The shocker is that the Iranians also claim they have arrested two Kuwaitis (reportedly journalists for a Kuwait TV network) who they claim were spying in the oil center city of Abadan on Shatt al-Arab. It is hard to believe: Kuwaiti spies? Highly unlikely. The charge is almost as ridiculous as the weekly (soon to be daily) Bahrain regime claims. Cheers
mhg
BFF
“Ynet raises the possibility that it was a deliberate act of sabotage on not just a missile base, but an intelligence facility. Teheran Bureau says the IRG is telling the Iranian media that the incident was not an act of terror, but purely an industrial accident. An Iranian who worked at the base for several months and was interviewed by Iranian media discounted the likelihood of an act of sabotage since security at the base was extremely strict. However, an Israeli source with extensive senior political and military experience provides an exclusive report that it was the work of the Mossad in collaboration with the MEK. Israeli media is humming with similar reports and Channel 10′s intelligence correspondent went so far as to say, a bit coyly perhaps: If it was the work of western intelligence it was a high successful and impressive achievement. It is widely known within intelligence circles that the Israelis use the MEK for varied acts of espionage and terror ranging from fraudulent Iranian memos alleging work on nuclear trigger devices to assassinations of nuclear scientists and bombings of sensitive military installations……….”
MEK has a history of siding with anyone who is against the Iranian regime (since 1981). In the process, it has also sided with some who are enemies of the Iranian people. Siding with Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party during the 1980-88 war is one example. Siding with Saddam during the Persian Gulf War (Desert Storm 1990-91) is another example. There have been reports that they participated in the suppression of rebellious Iraqis in the south after Desert Storm in the Spring of 1991. Mujahideen Khalq, still on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, has deep pockets and pays generously to top former and current American officials to speak at its conferences in France and other places. Among them has been Rudy Giuliani, Bill Richardson, Ed Randell, James Woolsey (briefly CIA director under Clinton). It is not clear where the money comes from, but I strongly suspect it originates from “somewhere” on the shores of my Gulf. These days the MEK are popular with many Gulf potentates (and their media) who were their friends during the 1980s before they became their enemies during the 1990s, only to become their friends again after the first Iraqi elections of 2005. I am not sure how much support it has inside Iran, but my educated guess is that it has little popular support. It has degenerated into a marginal cult group over the past three decades. But if this report is true, it must have enough operatives inside Iran to help the Israeli and Western acts of sabotage and assassination against Iranian targets and scientists. Yet these “incidents” are sporadic and not effective for the goals of either regime change or derailing the nuclear program. Cheers
mhg
“A new report on the conditions of Palestinians jailed in Israel says that since the Shalit prisoner transfer deal last month, the situation has improved little, leaving many to wonder if it was a bad bargain. A report recently published from the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs stated that improved conditions for Palestinians in Israeli jails agreed on in the swap deal freeing Israeli IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, are not being implemented. The report noted that 60 prisoners in Ashkelon jail have been banned from buying goods from the prison store for two months and have also been denied family visits for more than one month. The prisoners are withheld higher education, room raids are commonplace and beatings from prison administration often occur, the report said………..” I don’t know: releasing over a thousand Palestinians for one scrawny Israeli soldier seems like a good deal for the Palestinians. It even almost seems like a good deal for the Israelis too, apparently since they had only one captive. An exchange rate of 1 : 1000 is steep, and it is not necessarily good for the Palestinians to exchange, say, 2000 of their own for one scrawny Israeli soldier. It has certain unfortunate implications of human valuation: if some think one scrawny Israeli is worth more than one thousand Palestinians, maybe two thousand. There is no way to go around this. On humanitarian grounds, both sides gained by getting their captive people back. Cheers
mhg
“Iran has developed a software program that can “control” the newly discovered Duqu spyware, the director of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization has announced. “The software, capable of controlling this virus (Duqu), has been provided to organizations and institutions,” IRNA quoted Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali as saying on Sunday. Duqu, discovered on September 1, 2011, is a sophisticated Trojan which acts as a backdoor into a system and facilitates the theft of private intelligence. Security software manufacturer Symantec says parts of the Duqu code base are nearly identical to the infamous Stuxnet worm, “but with a completely different purpose.” The Duqu malware has reportedly infected a number of systems in Iran. “All of the centers and apparatuses suspected of being infected with the virus are under control,” Jalali said, adding that countering and cleansing processes have been carried out at the infected institutions. Stuxnet, first indentified by Iranian officials in June 2010, is a malware designed to infect computers using supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems made by the German company Siemens …………..”
This Duqu in a new one. Duqu, Stuxnet, Stars, WTF, why not? Let them come: that is a clean war, better than the bloody alternative that some regional absolute potentates are hoping to goad the West into. Anything beats a shooting destructive war, or a war of terror street assassinations that kills civilians, or any war on behalf of absolute kleptocratic tribal princes. Cheers
mhg
BFF
What does the promise of New Saudi defense minister Prince Salamn to “improve” the Saudi armed forces also means, besides fat commissions for the princes? It means bad news for the potentates of the UAE. Now the oligarchs of Abu Dhabi will have to spend more money, try harder, to catch to the Saudis in terms of being the biggest importers of weapons. And in terms of bribes and commissions paid to the potentates and their retainers. It is a race between our Gulf potentates to see who, which dynasty, can fleece the people faster and more effectively than the others. Cheers
mhg
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF