Monthly Archives: July 2013

Iran, Israel, Mossad, Mujahideen Khalq, nuclear Iran

Next Year with the Bomb: Mossad’s Iranian Proxies Claim Secret Nuclear Site………

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“An exiled Iranian opposition group claimed on Thursday to have evidence of a hidden nuclear site located in tunnels beneath a mountain near the town of Damavand, 70 kilometres (44 miles) northeast of Tehran. The Paris-based militant group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), alleges the site has existed since 2006 with the first series of subterranean tunnels and four external depots recently completed. The group also claims the recently elected president Hassan Rowhani, a former nuclear negotiator, had a “key role” in the programme…………….”

MEK, MKO, PMOI, former pals and henchmen of Saddam Hussein, are as credible on Iranian nuclear matters as the North Korean intelligence services are on South Korean politics, possibly less. In matters Iranian and nuclear, they are as credible as Mr. Netanyahu, who has been predicting an Iranian nuclear bomb “next year” since the 1990s. Which points them out as being much less credible than the Mossad.
The Iranians retaliate by claiming that the MEK was involved as proxies for Mossad (even for some Western agencies) in murdering Iranian academics and scientists and their families inside Iran. (But that can’t be, can it? After all, that would be called terrorism if the targeted victims were Westerners). They have also claimed that the MEK were involved in terrorist acts abroad for which the Iranian regime was blamed (maybe). Normally this new secret site would have been reported to the United States intelligence community and the Mossad (not necessarily in that order) before publicizing it in the media, if it were true. Unless the newly legitimized MEK has gone off the reservation. Therefore, my fatwa is that it is probably not true. Besides, with more than half the world’s satellites focusing their powerful cameras and audio receivers on Iran there is not much the mullahs can do that is not known by Western governments (and I mean they better have that noisy fan on and the curtains closed when necessary)……………

On Nuclear Weapons and Authoritarian Regimes and Crying Wolf Deliberately

Obama Goes Nuclear in Israel: Pushes Iran Threshold Beyond 1995 and 2001 and 2007 and 2013 and……..

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Culture, Egypt, GCC, Humor, Muslim Brotherhood, UAE

UAE: Liberator of Egypt Retires from Twitter……….

      

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Liberator of Egypt and his ‘nooq’: proud family man


I noted in an earlier post that Dhahi Khalfan, chief of Dubai Police, might be part of a high-level delegation of UAE potentates that visited Egypt. As it turned out, he was not. General Khalfan is quite a character. He is allegedly widely considered the true “liberator of Egypt” by many of his compatriots, including some UAE journalists and academics and intellectuals who are not currently on trial or serving prison terms for their political views. He hinted last week that his battles on Twitter were instrumental in provoking the military coup led by General Al Sisi that overthrew the elected Muslim Brotherhood regime led by Mr. Morsi and replaced it with some Mubarak veterans.

It seems, from the photo posted above, that Mr. Khalfan may have retired from Twitter and other social media in order to spend more time with his family. You might notice him standing proudly, facing his four camels (called nooq نوق in Arabic in this particular case). Remember, they are four and only four of these “nooq”.

FYI: I have always written here that the camel is one of my favorite animals. It still is.
Happy Ramadan
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, U.S. Congress, US Foreign Policy

Lieberman Pushes Israeli War Agenda from Outside the US Senate…………

      

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“While the tumultuous events in Egypt and Syria have focused the public’s attention on civil strife in those countries, Iran remains the biggest threat to the United States in the Mideast, says former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. “The most dangerous challenge to U.S. national security brewing in the region continues to be the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear-weapons capability,” Lieberman, who served in the Senate as both a Democrat and an independent, writes in The Wall Street Journal. The most important recent development in Iran is last month’s election of Hasan Rouhani as president and reaction to that result has generally been divided in two ways, says Lieberman, now senior counsel at the law firm……………….”

Good old Joe Lieberman. There was a time in 2000 when I thought Al Gore’s best and boldest move was to choose Joe as his running mate. The man who later in 2008 worked so hard to get Sarah Palin elected vice president of the United States. Lucky the American people were smarter than he was. Joe who single-handed screwed up Mr. Obama’s original Healthcare plan. He spent the last few years of his Senate tenure pushing for new Middle East wars, pushing for new and improved American wars on more Arab and Muslim lands. He made sure before he left the senate that the American sanctions, the blockade, against Iran are so water tight they can never be removed without congressional approval, meaning they can never be removed without Israeli approval.
Like Tony Blair, Joe occasionally crawls out of whatever rock he is under, to push for his favorite next war.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt

How Mubarak’s Bureaucracy and Feloul Prepared for the Egyptian Coup……

      

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“The streets seethe with protests and government ministers are on the run or in jail, but since the military ousted President Mohammed Morsi, life has somehow gotten better for many people across Egypt: Gas lines have disappeared, power cuts have stopped and the police have returned to the street. The seemingly miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role — intentionally or not — in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Morsi. And as the interim government struggles to unite a divided nation, the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi’s supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make Morsi fail. Not only did police officers seem to disappear, but the state agencies responsible for providing electricity and ensuring gas supplies failed so fundamentally that gas lines and rolling blackouts fed widespread anger and frustration. “This was preparing for the coup,”……………”

So electricity became sporadic in the heat of summer. Gas became scare with long lines forming. The police vanished so that looting, gang-rapes, and sectarian lynching went unpunished. Mubarak-appointed courts slowed things down. Mubarak’s bureaucrats messed things up. Mubarak’s generals hinted at taking action. Egypt’s secularists and funny liberals sided with Mubarak’s bureaucracy, his generals, and his Salafist allies against the elected Muslim brotherhood regime. Promises of Persian Gulf aid went unfulfilled. All waiting for the military coup they plotted.
After the fact, the US State Department yesterday announced that the Morsi regime was not, repeat not, democratic. As if the Saudi and UAE regimes that aided and abetted and now pay for the coup are democratic. How convenient.
Well, I suspect they got their wishes. The old regime is back, the so-called revolution of 2011 has been annulled by a coalition of Mubarak feloul, Mubark’s court, Mubarak’s military, secular liberals, Salafis, and Persian Gulf petroleum princes and absolute tribal potentates.
One Egyptian blogger naively tweeted “are the feloul that strong as this Times article claims?“. You bet they are.
Egypt’s generals now rule unquestionably supreme, and will continue to do so whoever is allowed by the military to “win” the next elections.

Cheers
mhg

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Al-Qaeda, Arab Revolutions, Hezbollah, Syria

Hearts and Minds in Aleppo, Ku Klux Klan in Aleppo, Warm and Fuzzy Hezbollah…………

      

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“Rebels say their immediate aim is to cut off supplies from government troops, but it appears the blockade is also part of a broader strategy aimed at weakening support for the government and pressuring civilians in government-held areas to leave. If the western part of Aleppo, now home to two million Syrians, becomes empty of civilians, a ground assault by rebels would be easier to carry out and more morally defensible, rebels argue. Abu al-Haytham, a fighter whose unit is among those enforcing the siege, stressed that the Free Syrian Army’s aim was not to punish residents but to block government supplies and prompt civilians to seek refuge elsewhere, opening the way for a ground attack. “Our siege is not just about tomatoes and cucumbers. We want to storm security buildings, and the presence of civilians is obstructing our movement,” he said in a Skype interview. But for citizens trying to get by, it is more basic: it is about eating. Recently, a woman was trying to cross back into the government-controlled part of the city when she was stopped at a rebel checkpoint. Fighters refused to let her cross with the prize she had come for: bags of fruits, vegetables and medicine…………….”

Liwaa al-Tawheed is an Islamist fundamentalist group, most likely another Salafi gang. That is what its name tells me: al-Tawheed, al-Farooq, al-Umma, al-Sunna, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, Abu Qatada, Abu Yazeed, Abu Lahab and a few other “al‘s” and “Abu‘s” that plague Syria these days. The meaning of the name is as clear to me as the Ku Klux Klan in the American Deep South (and elsewhere nowadays).
These guys, these Salafi cutthroats, make Hezbollah, so demonized in American media courtesy of the Israeli lobby, seem like absolutely sweet and warm and fuzzy. Compared to them, Hezbollah is an effete combination of cotton candy and pussy cat (and quiche-lover).
Then of course everybody on all Syrian sides is nervous: the battle for Aleppo is looming. It will probably come after the contest for Homs is settled, which seems to be soon.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt

Odd Democracy: Egyptian Media Toeing the Military Line, for now…………

      

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“Egyptian state media have closed ranks in support of the military and its version of the removal of President Mohamed Morsi as well as Monday’s killing of 55 supporters of the deposed Islamist leader in a shooting at a protest in Cairo. In an atmosphere of extreme polarisation, the country’s state and many independent news organisations are now solidly backing the interim president Adly Mansour, who was installed by the army last week. TV channels sympathetic to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood have been shut down. Foreign media outfits perceived as being sympathetic to Islamists are being attacked, with CNN and al-Jazeera TV singled out for hostility. The US news network has been vilified by protesters as being pro-Brotherhood, partly because it described the military’s move as a coup. In one very public display, al-Jazeera Arabic………………”

Egypt has changed in more than one way over the past week. During the Morsi term, Egyptian media and internet bloggers and social media made a lot of fun of Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood. Rightly so. They called him and his party all kinds of names and epithets: kharoof, “sheep” was one of their favorites, and they were not punished. Nowadays, if you stick your tongue at a photograph of General Sisi you could get beaten up, lynched, or worse. Egyptian media has fallen in line: they are like all beginning to resemble state media now. The Egyptian army, which lost almost every one of its wars with the possible exception of the War on Pigs in 2009, is treated like a bunch of gods. That is because it controls all political power and so much of the economy and it does not hesitate to wield both against the national interest in order to stay in power.
The generals in Egypt are almost like the ayatollahs in Iran. As long as Egyptians revere the generals, Egypt will not achieve democracy.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC

Petroleum Bidding Starts for Egypt………

      

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UAE potentates in Cairo inspecting their new acquisition

“Two of the Persian Gulf’s richest monarchies pledged $8 billion in cash and loans to Egypt on Tuesday, a decision that was aimed not only at shoring up a shaky transitional government, but also at undermining their Islamist rivals and strengthening their allies across a newly turbulent Middle East. The robust financial aid package announced by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates came a day after the Egyptian military killed dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members protesting last week’s military ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi. The aid package underscored a continuing regional contest for influence between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, one that has accelerated since the Arab uprising upended the status quo and brought Islamists to power………………The Saudis and Emiratis were nearly buoyant at the military’s move to oust Mr. Morsi………………………..”

Media report that Kuwait’s government has just joined Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the GCC bid for the Egyptian military. The bid so far is for a total of $12 billion. Qatar is unlikely to join now that its allies were overthrown by the military coup. Bahrain doesn’t have the money, besides it is paying as much as it can for imported mercenaries and American and British Public Relations firms and lobbyists.
Cheers
mhg

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Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism

Hariri Blames Israeli Allies for Beirut Bombing, FSA Aims at Lebanon as it Loses Syria……….

      

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“Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri blamed Israel Tuesday for the “terrorist explosion” that rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs and accused the country of trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite strife in Lebanon. “[The blast] requires the highest level of awareness and vigilance in the face of dangers that surround the country and the entire region, especially while facing attempts by the Israeli enemy to push [Lebanon] to strife by organizing terrorist attacks, as happened today,” Hariri said in a statement. “After of terrible criminal scene that Beirut’s southern suburbs witnessed, the Lebanese can only express indignation and condemnation of the crime that targeted one of the most populated neighborhoods,” the statement said. A car bomb explosion ripped through the Beirut’s southern suburb neighborhood of Bir al-Abed, a pro-Hezbollah area, wounded dozens of people……………”

Mr. Hariri, ensconced in a mansion in Paris or Riyadh, is using a bit of deception here, trying to stave of the expected criticism from Hezbollah and its Christian allies. Most likely the bombers were Salafi allies of the Hariri-Saudi March 14 right-wing movement. The Salafi creations of the March 14 bloc. Or their Syrian allies of the Free Syrian Salafi Army across the border who had threatened to attack inside Lebanon. But this only disrupts things in Lebanon, it does not change the dynamics on the ground in Syria. The FSA needs to win on Syrian soil not disrupt Lebanese politics.

This report has come out now: “The group, named the Special Forces 313 Brigade, uses the black, red, green and white colors of the flag of the Syrian opposition, and Islamic terminology………….”
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, GCC, Persian Gulf

GCC Bestseller Book: Gulf Dynasties for Dummies, a Theory of Sustainable Looting……………

      

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I posted the other day, only half-seriously, about a black and yellow book titled “The Presidency for Dummies” to be read by Egypt’s military-appointed interim figurehead president Adly Mansour, General Al Sisi and Mr. Morsi. From that it was just a matter of hours before I realized that other countries need such a book. I scanned the map and my eyes stopped immediately at the Gulf (Persian Gulf not Gulf of Mexico nor Gulf of Maracaibo). How about “Gulf Dynasties for Dummies”?

“Gulf Dynasties for Dummies” could especially benefit the rulers of Saudi Arabia (although I don’t consider these rulers Gulf people). They can learn how to restock their inventory of princes: how to more quickly dump the older princes for newer models. They might want to cut back the mandatory 8-12 months between princely demises, make it 3-6 months. A crown prince should have a period of six months, maximum, to get to the throne. Otherwise, it is away to some New York clinic, rehab in Morocco, then adios Zapata. Within a couple of years, they’d have no choice but to pick younger princes to rule. Unfortunately that would be good for select branches (legs and bellies as they are called) of the ruling Al Saud family but it might screw the people real good. They’d be stuck with another generation or two of Ali Baba’s enemies.

The book might teach the ruling family gangsters of Bahrain about the Theory of Sustainable Looting. How to keep power and loot the country without help from foreign mercenaries (from Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, etc) or the Saudi religious police (Society for the Propagation of Vice). They might learn that sustained the looting of a country is more an art than an exercise in brute force. Especially a country with limited resources where every bit of land and every dollar of revenue and foreign aid should count.

Such a book might even come in handy for the ruling Bin Zayed Al Nahayan potentates, owners of Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
They have the advantage of safely ignoring about 90% of the population of their country: these are temporary foreign expatriates who don’t count in the political game. Most of them don’t understand or speak Arabic anyway (I mean the expats not the shaikhs). Not yet. All they have to worry about are the 10% of the population who are citizens. Still, they can’t seem able to handle these small numbers either. Hence the build-up of the special mercenary force of Colombians, Australians, White South Africans, possibly Israelis, and others.
Or maybe I should alter the title of the book to “Dynasties for Gulf Dummies”? Or how about “Dummy Dynasties for the Persian Gulf”?
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Syria

Is Homs about to Fall? Ahmad Jarba and the Pigs of Egypt…..

      

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“Syrian government forces appeared to be close yesterday to seizing the last rebel-held areas of Homs, Syria’s third city, consolidating a recent string of victories for the Assad regime.Videos uploaded to the internet showed scenes of devastation in the Khaldiyah district in the northern half of the city. Streets were strewn with rubble and buildings badly damaged from shellfire and pockmarked with bullet holes………..”

Homs is divided between the Syria army and the opposition FSA and other Salafi groups. It looks like regime forces are steadily defeating the rebels and pushing them out. That explains the calls by Ahmad Jarba, the current Saudi Arabian tribal pro-consul of the Syrian National Coalition for a Ramadan ceasefire. Even Ban Ki-Moon, who can’t tell Ramadan from Christmas, has called for a Ramadan ceasefire.
No doubt the Syrian people need a permanent ceasefire. They need an end to this civil war and free elections. They need to put their lives back together. It is highly unlikely Mr. Al Assad will agree to a Ramadan truce. Typically, and logically, the losing side in a battle calls for an immediate ceasefire and the winning side refuses if they can. That explains why in 2009, during Mubarak’s War on Pigs, the pigs called for a ceasefire but the Egyptian army refused. The generals, possibly led by Tantawi and Al Sisi, thought they were winning. The pigs of Egypt were in deep doodoo, as pigs are wont to be

Cheers
mhg

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