A picture worth a thousand words:
One angry young Bahrain woman standing up to heavily-armed, ready for battle, regime thugs and hired foreign mercenaries and Salafi invaders. This picture reflects the situation in occupied Bahrain.
Cheers
mhg
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“Iran has procured a new oil tanker with a capacity of 2.2 million barrels, one of the world’s largest. The tanker, which is valued at around $300 million, will join the Iranian fleet within the next few days. The oil tanker is a ‘floating storage and unload vessel’, said Managing Director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Iran’s oil shipping operator, is expanding its tanker fleet with the first of 12 supertankers to be delivered from China in May, fortuitous timing for the OPEC member as Western sanctions force Tehran to rely more on its ships to export oil, Reuters reported. The new tankers, each capable of carrying 2 million barrels of crude, add much-needed capacity to NITC’s fleet at a time when the number of maritime firms willing to transport Iranian crude has dwindled significantly amid European sanctions. The EU will prohibit European insurers and reinsurers from indemnifying tankers carrying Iranian crude oil anywhere in the world from July, threatening to curtail shipments and raise costs for major buyers like China, India, Japan and South Korea. The NITC managing director announced in December 2011 that 21 new tankers will be added to the national fleet by the end of 2013…………”
Either the Iranians are optimistic about an end to Western sanctions soon or they have one hell of a Plan B. Since I know for certain that Western sanctions will not be lifted or even eased this year, then there must be a Plan B.
Cheers
mhg
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“The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) has received information concerning the sentencing of human rights defender Mohammed Albajady in Saudi Arabia, to four years in prison imprisonment followed by a five-year travel ban. The sentence was handed down following a secret trial in flagrant breach of fair procedures and in total disregard for his right to a fair trial. Mohammed Albajady co-founded the Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association (HSM), in October 2009. He was previously the host of a weekly on-line forum called “The citizen and his rights”. The GCHR issued an appeal on his case on 10 April 2012 (http://gc4hr.org/news/view/116). On 10 April 2012 the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh, established to try terrorism and security-related offences, reportedly held a secret session during which the four-year prison sentence was handed down. According to information received, soldiers in military uniforms and representative of the governmental National Human Rights Commission attended the trial. However, neither Mohammed Albajady‘s family nor his legal representatives were told of the court session…………”
This was a classic Saudi kangaroo court: his lawyers and his family were not aware of the court session that sentenced him. That means Mohammed al-Bejady was alone in a room facing some sycophants of the al-Saud princes calling themselves “judges”. In the secret trial, he was sentenced to two prison sentences. The first sentence is four years in a small al-Saud cell. The second sentence is five years travel ban: in effect five years in a larger al-Saud cell.
Arab regimes, especially on the Gulf, love to sentence people to travel bans (it is probably against the laws and against human rights to do so, but who cares). A reminder of the old Soviet Union. I guess our potentates on the Gulf look at it this way: four year not traveling means four years staring at the pictures and videos of the princes all over the media. Not only do they oppress and rob you, but you are forced to watch them honored for it everyday. Just adding some insult to the injury. That ought to be punishment enough.
Mr. al-Bajady will now serve nine years: a sentence passed by faceless Wahhabi Salafi judges appointed by the al-Saud princes. Many others have been sentenced the same way, some to prison, some to flogging and beheading in the Kingdom without Magic. Many thousands are in prison, many of them have yet to be charged and sentenced.
Cheers
mhg
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“Tehran on Monday warned Arab states in the Gulf that things could become “very complicated” if they do not act cautiously over a simmering islands dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the declaration to Iran’s ISNA news agency on the eve of talks in Doha between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states over three tiny islands in the Gulf and claimed by both Iran and the UAE. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad infuriated the UAE by visiting one of them, Abu Musa, on April 11 and asserting in a speech that historical records proved “the Persian Gulf is Persian,” as state media called his trip a purely “domestic issue.”…………”
“Sheikh Abdullah said the islands were in a “pivotal area”, crucial to the passage of oil. The UAE wants to find a solution to the conflict, but Iran’s behaviour “might bring serious complications and implications”, he said. “We have to have a clear agenda, a deadline for these negotiations.” If necessary the parties should seek international arbitration or go to the International Court of Justice, Sheikh Abdullah said. “But we cannot keep this matter going on for ever.” The Foreign Minister added: “It is with regret that a Muslim and neighbour country with civilisation and traditions behaves in such a manner. It is supposed to behave rationally, not to project its internal concerns abroad. In this case the consequences can be dangerous.”………”
I had thought there was an old agreement between Iran and one of the Emirates (Sharjah), allegedly brokered by Britain which had controlled the island, to share the oil and gas around Abu Moussa. I need to research this, but I thought there was some agreement regulating supervision as well (I can be wrong, but I doubt it).
More Seriously: There are rumors swirling around me that Abu Dhabi wants to lease at least one of the islands to a foreign power as a military naval base. The rumors have it that since the Canadians pulled out of their base, the UAE has had major foreign bases for only the United States, Britain, and France. In addition to some possible facilities to smaller powers like Bosnia and Monaco and the Maldives. Apparently the rulers of Abu Dhabi feel that they need more foreign bases (on the assumption that “the more the merrier“). The rumor says they wish to release an island to the Sultan of Bruni to use as a naval base to protect the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian incursions. The idea is that Western bases and Bruni bases will protect the Gulf from such ‘external’ threats as Iran poses. Bruni-ian and Western soldiers are known to be always eager to defend their national territorial waters in the Persian-American Gulf against outside incursions from faraway foreign places like Iran.
Another rumor, quickly discounted by yours truly, is that the potentates plan to settle their new foreign mercenary brigade formed by Blackwater executives from among Colombians gang veterans, disgruntled white South Africans, rare teetotaler Australians, Mexican drug cartel graduates, and other such Arab nationalists.
The Iranians, remembering Iraq in 2003, may worry that the mercenaries and/or Bruni forces will use the island as a base for launching an invasion of their country with the intention of liberating it. Stay tuned.
I still don’t know wtf Ahmadinejad was doing visiting that island at this time. It is not like he is running for office again; he can’t. Maybe he knows.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]
“Tehran on Monday warned Arab states in the Gulf that things could become “very complicated” if they do not act cautiously over a simmering islands dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the declaration to Iran’s ISNA news agency on the eve of talks in Doha between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states over three tiny islands in the Gulf and claimed by both Iran and the UAE. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad infuriated the UAE by visiting one of them, Abu Musa, on April 11 and asserting in a speech that historical records proved “the Persian Gulf is Persian,” as state media called his trip a purely “domestic issue.”…………”
“Sheikh Abdullah said the islands were in a “pivotal area”, crucial to the passage of oil. The UAE wants to find a solution to the conflict, but Iran’s behaviour “might bring serious complications and implications”, he said. “We have to have a clear agenda, a deadline for these negotiations.” If necessary the parties should seek international arbitration or go to the International Court of Justice, Sheikh Abdullah said. “But we cannot keep this matter going on for ever.” The Foreign Minister added: “It is with regret that a Muslim and neighbour country with civilisation and traditions behaves in such a manner. It is supposed to behave rationally, not to project its internal concerns abroad. In this case the consequences can be dangerous.”………”
I had thought there was an old agreement between Iran and one of the Emirates (Sharjah), allegedly brokered by Britain which had controlled the island, to share the oil and gas around Abu Moussa. I need to research this, but I thought there was some agreement regulating supervision as well (I can be wrong, but I doubt it).
More Seriously: There are rumors swirling around me that Abu Dhabi wants to lease at least one of the islands to a foreign power as a military naval base. The rumors have it that since the Canadians pulled out of their base, the UAE has had major foreign bases for only the United States, Britain, and France. In addition to some possible facilities to smaller powers like Bosnia and Monaco and the Maldives. Apparently the rulers of Abu Dhabi feel that they need more foreign bases (on the assumption that “the more the merrier“). The rumor says they wish to release an island to the Sultan of Bruni to use as a naval base to protect the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian incursions. The idea is that Western bases and Bruni bases will protect the Gulf from such ‘external’ threats as Iran poses. Bruni-ian and Western soldiers are known to be always eager to defend their national territorial waters in the Persian-American Gulf against outside incursions from faraway foreign places like Iran.
Another rumor, quickly discounted by yours truly, is that the potentates plan to settle their new foreign mercenary brigade formed by Blackwater executives from among Colombians gang veterans, disgruntled white South Africans, rare teetotaler Australians, Mexican drug cartel graduates, and other such Arab nationalists.
The Iranians, remembering Iraq in 2003, may worry that the mercenaries and/or Bruni forces will use the island as a base for launching an invasion of their country with the intention of liberating it. Stay tuned.
I still don’t know wtf Ahmadinejad was doing visiting that island at this time. It is not like he is running for office again; he can’t. Maybe he knows.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]
““In Iran, human rights activists are either in prison or they are incommunicado, meaning no one can talk to them and it’s basically impossible for them to have any activity. Unfortunately at the present time, a lot of people … are afraid to talk. This is why I’ve remained outside Iran, and work for Iran from where I am,” says Ebadi, who moved to London after Iran’s contested 2009 presidential elections. “If something happens in the world, it has to be told so that others will find out about it. It must be known by the world.”……………..”
Cheers
mhg
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“Six activists were jailed after challenging the president of the UAE’s decision to revoke their citizenship for alleged terrorist links. On April 9, the authorities in Abu Dhabi arrested six human rights activists whose UAE citizenship had earlier been revoked. This had been done on the grounds that they endangered the state and had links to “suspicious regional and international organizations and figures,” some allegedly listed by the UN as suspected of financing terrorism. The six men – Sheikh Muhammad al-Sidiq, Ali al-Hussein al-Hamadi, Shaheen al-Hawsni, Hussein Munif al-Jaberi, Hassan Munif al-Jaberi, and Ibrahim al-Marzouqi – are all naturalised Emiratis. Five of them obtained UAE citizenship in the 1970s, one in the 1980s. Four of them had originally come to the country from Iran, and two from Yemen. The group had mounted a legal challenge to the decision to strip them of their citizenship………………”
It says: they obtained citizenship only in the 1970s. I know of hundreds of thousands who obtained citizenship in the 1970s through 1990s in the Gulf GCC states. Quite a few of them are annoying the hell out of people in at least one Gulf country these days. But those others are not activists, they are super reactionaries, a throwback to another century and another country. In Bahrain the potentates are still doing it, naturalizing foreign mercenaries and adding them to their growing collection of security thugs and torturers.
Cheers
mhg
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“The primary issue is mistrust. American and Western politicians continuously reiterate their mistrust of Tehran but seem not to understand that this mistrust is mutual. Iran has profound reasons to distrust the West. The United States and the Britain orchestrated the 1953 coup that removed Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and installed a dictator, supporting him for a quarter century. Following the Iranian revolution, the West unilaterally withdrew from its contractual commitments and left Iran with billions of dollars of unfinished industrial and nuclear projects. In 1980, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, sparking an economically ruinous eight-year war in which Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran, and 300,000 Iranians lost their lives. The United States and the West supported the aggressor in that conflict. In 1988, the U.S. Navy shot down an Iranian civilian jetliner, killing 290 innocent civilians, including 66 children…………. During Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, Iran was among the first countries to condemn the 9/11 terrorists attacks and cooperate with the United States in the “war on terror,” leading to the removal of the Taliban and al Qaeda from Afghanistan in 2001. In return, the United States rewarded Iran by designating it a member of the “axis of evil.”………….”
He is right, of course. This litany of Iranian grievances against the West is long, and likely will get longer before it is over (WTF it is that will be over). It is much longer than any grievances the US government can present against the Iranians, in terms of life, fortune, and national humiliation.
That was an odd behavior after September 11 in 2001. A bunch of Saudi and other Salafi terrorists, funded by Saudi princes and Salafi Wahhabi sympathizers around the Gulf, attacked the United States, the Iranians showed sympathy for the United States and cooperated with the US in Afghanistan against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda terrorist guests. So the Bush administration quickly returns the favor by labeling Iran part of this “axis of evil” and moves closer to the Saudi princes. That odd policy must have been engineered by that old foreign policy guru of the Bushes, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud.
Cheers
mhg
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“In the past, Turkey defended what it called Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program and even voted against U.N. sanctions on Iran two years ago. But Turkey’s relationship with Iran has changed, as it began aligning itself with its Western allies on a series of issues. Richard Howitt is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on Turkey. “Turkey has come back into line on Iran. Turkey really lost some trust on the Iran issue and suffered in public relations terms by its opposition to sanctions, which frankly we worked very hard for at the U.N. and EU,” he said.
A factor in Turkey’s changing role is Syria, an important regional ally of Tehran…………”
The Turks can all dye their hair blond and adopt German or French as their national language. They still will not be admitted into the European Union. The Turks fought with the West faithfully for more than sixty years, from Korea to being the southern bulwark of NATO during the Cold War. They supplied the labor that post-war Germany needed to revive its economy. Yet the old enemies of the former Warsaw Pact are being quickly admitted into the EU, but not the Turks. Eastern European gangs that deal in drugs, human trafficking, and murder are more welcome than the Turks. They are not considered a threat to Europe’s “culture”, but Turkish mosques are.
Now the Turks are being accommodating again, on the Iranian issues, hoping for some morsels from the European table, hoping for approval “There is a good Muslim boy”. They still won’t allow them in. As the Maginot Line said: Ils ne Passeront Pas.
Of course the old Maginot Line did not work as it was supposed to: it forgot about Belgium.
(Q: Do the Turks need to be in the European Union?)
Cheers
mhg
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“Yet Wasserman Schultz decided to abruptly pull out of speaking at EMERGE’s annual dinner last week. “We never agreed to do a fundraiser, nor an event,” claimed Wasserman Schultz spokesman Jonathan Beeton. Yet EMERGE had previously widely advertised Wasserman Schultz’s participation at the fundraising dinner without apparent complaint from the congresswoman’s staff. “We were interfacing with congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s people for about a year to try to get something together,” said Siddiqui. “So when she agreed to the banquet, we were elated.” There’s a much more likely explanation for her abrupt refusal to attend the event than a simple miscommunication. For months, Islamophobic websites and a far-right congressional candidate waged a smear campaign against EMERGE, pressuring Wasserman Schultz to back out of the event. With her withdrawal, it appears that they won. The smears can be traced back to an article in right-wing McCarthyist David Horowitz’s Front Page Magazine. In a February article, Joe Kaufman – who is vying in a Republican primary to challenge Wasserman Schultz for her seat in Congress – teamed up with Militant Islam Monitor’s Beila Rabinowitz to claim that EMERGE was part of a “nefarious agenda of placing Islamists into positions of American power and influence.”……..”
Speaking of “placing Islamists into positions of American power and influence”. Come on now, I hate to be “ethnic” oriented but, just to show the absurdity of that point: Wasserman Schultz (an excellent person, probably better than most Muslims that I know or possibly even those I don’t know), David Horowitz, Beila Rabinowitz, Joe Kaufman, Joe Lieberman, Edelstone, Abe Foxman, Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Michael Bloomberg, Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Eric Cantor (poor lonely guy)? Most of the elected ones among those listed are excellent public servants (with the exception of Lieberman and Cantor). The bloggers and opinion-ators among them are just the usual racist idiots that come in all shapes, colors, and faiths. Not to mention all the Christian (real or nominal) ones. I haven’t even got to the Vegans yet. And these guys worry about “Arabs or Muslims” in positions of power?
I am tempted to type exactly the sound that I just expressed to the consternation of my best friend: hahahahaha.
Cheers
mhg
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