Monthly Archives: July 2012

Arab Revolutions, Culture, Syria

Misogyny Emails: from Bashar al-Assad to the Mufti Al………..

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“Hundreds of emails purportedly written by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad show he sent several sexist or irreverant messages in the months before the ongoing Syrian uprising began. The French website owni.fr on Thursday published extracts from the latest cache of Syrian documents made avaiable by WikiLeaks, which on July 5 started releasing some 2.5 million emails it said were from Syrian political figures. Of those emails, 538 were supposedly written by Assad himself, sent from the address [email protected] and mostly written before the uprising that has lasted 16 months and so far killed 17,000 people. The emails shed little new information on the deadly crackdown but give a glimpse into Assad’s puerile and slightly misogynistic mindset.
“Wife: I wish I was a newspaper, so I’d be in your hands all day,” begins one of the jokes in an email dated December 23, 2010.
“Husband: I too wish that you were a newspaper, so I could have a new one everyday.”……..”

Frankly I did not read anything misogynic in this piece. There must be more of Assad’s emails to warrant that. BTW: speaking of misogyny, when will they publish the emails of the Saudi king and princes. Oh, and don’t forget the Mufti Al who supports taking child brides so long as the girl can “bear a man’s weight”. It would be fun to read their multiple emails to multiple wives, or maybe just one email and then copies forwarded to the rest. Speaking of misogyny and sexism: these potentates put the ‘sex’ in sexism.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Arab Politics, Culture, Religion

Culture: Caliph Omar and the Christian Actor………

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                     
   
                       Neck of the woods
The Director, Hatim Ali, insisted that the actor Thamer Ismael, who plays the role of Omar Ibn El-Khattab (the second Caliph of Islam) in the program is a ‘Sunni Muslim”. He said that after rumors spread that the star is a Christian, adding that he has no problem whether the star was Muslim or Christian, but…………..
On the other hand, some Egyptian ‘activist’ commented that it is okay for an actor to play the role of the Caliph Omar, provided that he will not again play roles that show him drinking or gambling or womanizing. Maybe she was doing it ‘tongue-in-cheek’, but I’m not sure……….
Important, weighty religious issues, no?

Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Arab Revolutions, Salafi, Syria

The Sectarian Free Syrian Salafi Army……………

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“A Syrian rebel commander on Sunday said that 11 kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims are members of Hezbollah, a claim denied by their families. Abu Omar, commander of the Storm of the North brigade, said the men, who were returning from a religious pilgrimage in Iraq when they were abducted by armed rebels in Syria, were members of the Lebanese Shia resistance group that supports Assad. Omar, who said he was ensuring the men were kept in good conditions, added that they would not be released until President Bashar al-Assad leaves power and a new parliament is elected. “(They) are from Hezbollah, their fate will be decided by the new Syrian parliament, because Hezbollah attacked us and is helping the Syrian regime,” Omar said……..”


The Syrian opposition forces are as thuggish and criminal as the regime forces. They use similar methods against their opponents. One difference is that the opposition are more sectarian than the regime: in fact rabid sectarianism is one of their hallmarks. Even their exile leaders like Ghalioun and Sida now talk like accomplished liars. These kidnapped Lebanese men are old and middle-aged men who were kidnapped by the Free Syrian Salafi Army simply because they are Shi’as. Maybe the goal was to draw Hezbollah and Lebanese Shi’as into the Syrian conflict and speed up Western intervention. They were traveling on pilgrimage with women, hardly the behavior of Hezbollah agents in war. In the past they had promised to release them, then reneged. It is simple Salafi jihadist behavior.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Terrorism

Terrorism: Hallmarks of the Bulgaria Suicide Bomber with a “Shaved Head”………

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods


“Mileva said the bomber “had a white face, light eyes, and very thick
brown hair. The facial bones were shattered in the explosion.”On Friday, district prosecutor Kalina Tchapkanova cited witness reports that the suspect had dark eyes………”

“Bulgarian police along with the CIA, FBI and Interpol are struggling to identify a suicide bomber who killed six people, including five Israelis, as the United States said the attack bore the “hallmarks” of Hezbollah. Investigators have released CCTV footage of the person they believe carried out Wednesday’s attack at the airport of the Black Sea town of Burgas on a bus carrying Israeli holidaymakers, which also claimed the life of the Bulgarian driver.……… Burgas prosecutor Kalina Tchapkanova quoted witnesses as saying the man “spoke English with a slight accent” and appeared to be Arab. The car rental service owner’s wife Afrodita Petrova said she was sure he was of Arab origin and had shaved head ………….”

The mystery suicide bomber with a “shaved head”: who almost looked like a European Neo-Nazi.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the consummate opportunist, predictably and quickly accused Iran, then accused Hezbollah, then both Iran and Hezbollah. That was before anyone said anything about any suspect. Bulgarian press initially said he was a Swedish-Algerian al-Qaeda member who had served in Guantanamo, a Mr. Ghezali. The Swedes denied that was him, cryptically saying Ghezali is “not in Bulgaria”. It is possible that Hezbollah was behind it, or more likely al-Qaeda, or some European neo-Nazi group (with shaved heads).
One thing is certain: this was a suicide terror bombing targeting civilians. Hezbollah and Iran don’t use suicide bombings. It is not part of their operational style, the ‘suicide‘ part. That would be more like al-Qaeda Salafi jihadists who commit suicide terror attacks then wait for the promised rivers of wine and the renewable virgins on the other side. Netanyahu of course knows that, as do most Western intelligence services. Apparently most and not all, given that some US “official” told the New York Times that the operation was Iranian-Hezbollah, just as Netanyahu claimed. The American official said, apparently with a straight, that the operation bore the “hallmarks” of Hezbollah. Someone ought to have asked him: when was the last time Hezbollah used a suicide bomber? They may have done some bombings in the past, but not ‘suicide‘ bombings as far as I know. Unless they have changed their operational methods (or their ‘hallmark’ drastically. 
Now about that shaved head, European neo-Nazi style………….
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Arab Politics, Culture, Religion

Ramadan Kareem: Wars and Zalabia and PF Chang………..

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“Traditionally, Ramadan, which began Friday in most of the Arab world, is a time for introspection, for charity toward the poor, for an increased focus on religion. It is a time when Muslims strive to avoid not only drinking, smoking, eating and having sex during daylight hours, but also gossiping and swearing — and even fighting with one another. The holy month is a time for solemn reflection during the day, and festive meals with family and friends at night……. This is the second Ramadan to fall during the Arab Spring, and in Syria especially, violence showed no sign of taking the holy month off, as government forces clawed back ground from rebels in the capital, Damascus………… Roundups of dissidents continued in Bahrain. Even in Dubai, where relatively timid activists have asked for more rights to free speech, United Arab Emirates authorities have responded with the arrests of 14 people since Monday on murky charges of antigovernment activity. Ramadan begins on Saturday in Iran, Iraq and many Shiite Muslim areas, unlike Friday for much of the Sunni world………...”

Even within each country, Ramadan is often on different days, based on the advise of the clerics. Back home, my family starts on Saturday while some neighbors started on Friday. It is supposed to be based on sighting of the moon’s earliest waxing crescent, but nobody really sees the early crescent anymore. Times have changed since the days of the Prophet, since even the days of my own childhood (long after the days of the Prophet). Too much light in the cities and towns and villages, too much pollution, even weaker eyesight, make it nearly impossible to see the moon on the first lunar night. Maybe some rural Bedus deep in the Saudi desert can still see that crescent, but not the top clerics ensconced in their palaces in the cities.
Another issue is that it is not just a Shi’a-Sunni difference. Morocco is Sunni, yet its Ramadan starts Saturday, along with Iran and Iraq and the people of Bahrain. So do a few other countries.
A third observation is that the most delicious food, the most plenty, is consumed in Ramadan. Which is a lot of fun, but it might make it the least healthy month as well. Of course all this can be just sour grapes on my part since I am far away and don’t have access to the Mehalbiyya and Harees and Zalabia and Lqimat and Kunafa and Gabboot and ……… As a consolation, we shall break our fast at P.F. Chang tonight.

(FYI: Muslims and Arabs never stop their wars because of Ramadan. The Libyan and Syrian fighting continued and continue through Ramadan. The bloody Iran-Iraq war continued through eight Ramadans. Bureaucrats are even less helpful, more difficult in Ramadan. Despots are at least as despotic during Ramadan. Kelptocratic princes and dictators continue to rob their country and people during Ramadan, but they pray more for forgiveness).

In other words: the people get better during Ramadan, but the rulers remain as rotten and pray more to cover it up.

Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Iran, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

Wild West Mullahs: a Ministry for Stupid Foiled Foreign Plots …….

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“New York police believe Iranian Revolutionary Guards or their proxies have been involved so far this year in nine plots against Israeli or Jewish targets around the world, according to restricted police documents obtained by Reuters. Reports prepared this week by intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department (NYPD) say three plots were foiled in January, three in February and another three since late June. Iran has repeatedly denied supporting militant attacks abroad. The documents, labeled “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” said that this week’s suicide bomb attack in Bulgaria was the second plot to be unmasked there this year. The reports detail two plots in Bangkok and one each in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Baku, Mombasa and Cyprus. Each plot was attributed to Iran or its Lebanese Hezbollah militant allies, said the reports, which were produced following the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria of a bus carrying Israeli tourists. Iran on Thursday dismissed “unfounded statements” by Israel linking Tehran to the Burgas blast, saying they were politically motivated accusations which underscored the weakness of the accusers………….”

The Iranians must have a special Ministry for Stupid Foreign Plots That Are Always Foiled in the West. I am almost, almost serious here.
Somebody in Tehran must be spending his days and nights concocting ways to get his agents in New York and Washington and Texas and Michigan and Samoa and Guam caught in traps set by New York’s Best (and apparently brightest). Nine Iranian plots so far foiled this year alone. It is a wonder the theocratic regime is still standing, given its track record of failed plots.
Then you can add the plots foiled in Washington and other states, and the plots in Azerbaijan, Thailand, India, Cyprus, Las Vegas, Tegocigalpa, Africa (especially South Africa), Bahrain (nicknamed a popular uprising), Saudi Arabia (nicknamed a popular uprising in the Eastern Province), Egypt (called spreading Shi’ism and Communism and Masonism and perhaps even Zionism), Bulgaria (Netanyahu has ordained that it was a joint Iranian-Lebanese plot), and others. Maybe a good case can be made for a new war. Did I leave out September 11 New York City? September 11 was declared an Iranian plot by some federal judge in New York or Washington earlier this year. Adding all this to the nuclear program and adding in arming and supporting the Syrian regime and Hezbollah.
Now, whoever heard of any other peaceful nation arming a repressive regime of a dictator or an absolute tribal monarchy (not talking about Saudi Arabia or Bahrain here)? Whoever heard of a peaceful nation arming a band of militias that disrupt their repressive government (not talking about the Free Syrian Army here)?
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Arab Politics, Egypt, GCC, Iran

President Morsi to Skip NAM Tehran Summit, will Tantawi Attend?………..

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast expressed Iran’s hope that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi attend the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Tehran, describing him as a principal guest in the event. Egypt currently holds NAM’s presidential seat. Press TV, an Iranian channel, quoted a statement made by Mehmanparast to Iran Daily Saturday that confirmed the invitation, mentioning that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had personally invited Morsi to the summit via telephone earlier this month. Mehmanparast said it is natural for Egypt to be concerned with the movement at this time of change in its history…………..”

Morsi (or Mursy, wtf) is technically the president of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) now. It is a NAM meeting in Tehran, not an Iranian meeting. I could never figure what are they Non-Aligned about anyway? There is no more cold war, no two nuclear camps. Unless they are non-aligned between the Iranian camp and the Saudi camp. Or maybe nonaligned between the Sunni camp and the Shi’a camp? Possibly nonaligned between the Hatfields and McCoys.
Back to Morsi: he has to decide whether to attend the summit and anger the Saudis and the Qataris and the al-Nahayan and the Salafis and the Muslim Brothers who basically got him elected OR not attend. I guess he will not attend: so far he has not shown much guts in the face of our Gulf potentates or the Saudis (he groveled at the Saudi embassy when there were protests outside in support of detained Egyptians, and he groveled to the princes in Riyadh two weeks ago).
Joke of the day: will Tantawi attend?

Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear

Iran Seeking 50-60% Enriched Uranium? Netanyahu Loses Hair…….

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                
   
                       Neck of the woods
“Iran needs 50-60% enriched uranium to power commercial ships: MP TEHRAN, July 20 (MNA) — MP Abolqassem Jarareh has said that Iran needs highly enriched uranium in order to fuel the ships that it plans to equip with nuclear propulsion systems. “This fuel should certainly be (purified to a level) higher than 25 percent, something about 50 to 60 percent,” Jarareh, who is a member of the Majlis Industries and Mines Committee, said in an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency published on Friday. The Majlis Industries and Mines Committee recently approved a plan which calls for Iranian oceangoing tankers and other commercial ships to be powered by nuclear fuel in order to eliminate their need to be refueled while on long voyages. The parliament must endorse the plan before it can be implemented………..”


This chap seems to be upping the ante, but only at first glance. There is some method to his ‘seeming’ madness. The West, as ordered by the Likud government in Israel, prefers no enrichment beyond 3% (concentration of uranium-235), while the Iranians are near 20%. Now this MP, out of the blue, has introduced 50-60% as another possible demand. That is much closer to weapons-grade uranium. But that is probably his own opinion, or possibly some bargaining chip as he sees it, or a political statement. But it underlies a more legitimate issue: nuclear-powered ships do need higher grade enriched uranium, a legitimate need, and that should present the West with yet another dilemma. A couple more of such proposals and Bibi Netanyahu will go completely bald, unless he gets to have his war that he wants the West to wage.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

The Coming Brawl for Saudi Succession: a Kingdom of Principalities…..……….

   

    Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter                      
   
                       Neck of the woods
“Sons of Princes Sultan and Nayef hold the main posts in the ministries of defence and interior, respectively. The National Guard, which protects oil installations, is a purview of King Abdullah’s own branch; the governorship of the Eastern Province, a giant territory that contains nearly all the kingdom’s hydrocarbons, has been held by a son of King Fahd (Abdullah’s predecessor) for three decades. The recent reshuffle among King Abdullah’s siblings went more smoothly than many had feared; the shift to this next generation will surely be trickier. The kingdom is now a complex, diverse country far removed from the Al Sauds’ Bedouin origins. Lineage and loyalty cannot trump competence for ever. “The Al Sauds’ central nervous system has grown weak,” says a Riyadh lawyer. “They can respond to pain, but not to stimuli like complaints or new ideas.”……… There was no Saudi spring …….…”

Last year I wrote here on Saudi succession in a posting titled: “Saudi Legs and Bellies: Roots of Instability, the Coming Age of Warlord Princes”, sagely noting that:
“All this is part of maneuverings by various branches of the vast Al-Saud clan to position themselves for the coming death of the sons of old king Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud). Besides the various ministries, the senior princes have also staked out the various provinces as their personal fiefdoms. This province system also creates the potential for an eventual “soft” division of the country among the various branches (fukhooth “legs” and butoon “bellies”) of the al-Saud clan. Even the armed forces, the traditionally unified force within the Arab states, are divided into spheres of princely influence (Defense vs. National Guard). The Saudi system of power transfer is inherently unstable, and is very likely to become more so. The “commission of allegiance” (Bay’a) that was supposed to select the rulers reflects the rivalries within the family, which means it is as unstable as the family relations and rivalries. Once the last…….”

This is an ongoing process, with the balance of power shifting with each death of an old king or an octogenarian prince and his replacement with another octogenarian prince. With time the turfs are solidified, the borders of the fiefdoms become semi-permanent. The Arabian Peninsula will eventually become like a confederation of principalities each ruled by the sons and grandsons of one of the sons of the late Ibn Saud. Assuming they will last in power, of course (perhaps a big assumption beyond the medium term). Yet who will dominate the two biggest prizes: the oil-rich Eastern Province on the Gulf and the Hijaz, homeland of the prophet and birthplace of Islam?
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]