All posts by Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Dr. Mohammed Haider Ghuloum: trained as an economist, been called a few other names..... الشرقية للبنين- المتنبي- ثانوية الشويخ
CIA, Culture, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, USA

From America to France to the Middle East: Active Generals and Risky Sex, Catfights and the Federal Religious Police …….………

   

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“The FBI is making a new push to determine how a woman who had an affair with retired Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was CIA director obtained classified files, part of an expanding series of investigations in a scandal that also threatens the career of the United States’ top military commander in Afghanistan. Senior law enforcement officials said that a late-night seizure on Monday of boxes of material from the North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell, a Petraeus biographer whose affair with him led to his resignation last week, marks a renewed focus by investigators on sensitive material found in her possession. “The issue of national security is still on the table,” one U.S. law enforcement official said. Both Petraeus and Broadwell have denied to investigators that he was the source of any classified information…………….”

The Petraeus media reports highlight the cultural differences between various parts of the world. Besides all the strange FBI investigations of a private affair and the house raids (at least one so far), there the broader issues. You’d think the FBI are the American equivalent of the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (the Religious Police,) the way they have undertaken to dismantle not only the professional lives but also the private lives of the people involved. All for being involved in a relationship that is not against the law. So let’s compare:


  • USA. Freedom of consensual liaisons between adult humans is guaranteed. But the remnants of that old Puritan Ethnic are hard to shake off. The shadow of John Winthrop hangs over many hooked up couples, whether they were in the back of a car in the old days or in a motel or a hotel, or at someone’s home. Americans concede that ‘it’ is part of life, even most Republicans concede that, but it is wise not to get caught doing it. If an aggrieved partner or rival doesn’t bloody you, then there is the brutal schadenfreude, which can and does ruin the ‘afterglow’. Then there is General Allen, who exchanged emails with some other chick. He called her ‘sweetheart’ and the Religious Police apparently interpreted that as tantamount to consensual sex. Shouldn’t these guys be catching terrorists, real or created or encouraged, rather than worry about emails and bedrooms? Then there are the and drug lords and traffickers , etc., etc.
  • France. Sex is a red line in France, even if it often becomes public. It is not haram to have sex before, during, after, inside, outside, and around marriage. It is haram to meddle in it, ban it, moralize about it, or use it in politics. A general can have all the mistresses he wants, all the mistresses who are willing to seduce him, all who accept his “attentions”, all that he can afford, as long as he performs well in the field (field of battle or whatever it is French generals are supposed to do at the office). That is part of French-ness: the French Tea Party and the French Salafis would insist on it. French Evangelicals would insist on it. Even Marine Le Pen would insist on it.
  • Britain. The Brits get really kinky and off the “beaten track” in their sex scandals of high officials. Quite interesting for a people known (perhaps mistakenly) for eschewing public sex. The mildest scandal involves at least hookers (i.e. prostitutes) and progresses to foreign spies, Russians, Chinese, Abominable Snowmen, and it degenerates and gets worse (or is it considered “better” over there). 
  • Middle East. Oh, never mind. Forget about it. In some ways we are more advanced: we have institutionalized it all. You can get thrown in prison or flogged publicly for being alone with a woman in a car or at the beach or even at a cafe in some countries. Yet a General Prince Bin Technocrat Al-Kleptocrat can lead his ‘private’ life as he pleases without, er, interruption. So can a Field Marshal Shaikh Bin Kleptocrat Al-Technocrat. But we also have our public solutions to the natural order of things. Polygamy, temporary marriages, part-time marriages, sex-only no-cohabitation no-responsibility marriages, and other creative “halal”, “kosher” if you prefer, sexual arrangements that take care of it all. We are, after all, more moral and holier than thou (that means you heathens).


Cheers
mhg
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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Iran, Syria

A Funny Iranian Report on Syria, a Strange Meeting on Syria, SAT…………

   

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”The Syrian government and opposition parties will send their representatives to Tehran next week to attend a “National Dialogue” meeting, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced on Tuesday.
“Syrian government officials as well as representatives of ethnic, political, minority, and opposition groups will attend this meeting,” Amir Abdollahian told FNA Tuesday evening. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi reiterated the necessity for the peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria, and called for more talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces.
Salehi’s remarks were made in a meeting with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Idris Barzani in Tehran. On Iran’s diplomacy about Syria, Salehi said that the Islamic Republic is in favor of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups to create stability in the Middle Eastern country. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria……………………”



Also sprach Iran’s Fars News Agency.
My first reaction on reading this was a resounding WTF? Only it was not just the acronym I uttered. An Arab League-West-Syria conference has just ended in Doha (Qatar). Now the Iranians are holding their own meeting on Syria. It is not clear who are the Syrians who will attend, but I suspect this group will never gain power in post-Assad Syria, nor will it compete for power. They can’t be too opposed to the current regime, otherwise they wouldn’t be invited to Tehran. Just a hunch. It would be like the Qataris inviting the Ba’ath Party or Hezbollah to “their” Doha meeting, or like the Saudis sponsoring a conference for the Bahrain government and calling it the opposition. You figure that last one out: it is a teaser, like those SAT questions.
Cheers
mhg
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Arab Revolutions, France, US Foreign Policy

Hollande Triggers Syrian Retaliation: From the Gulf to Paris to Kentucky…………..

   

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Media report that French President has decided today to “elect” the new Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people. The French president is also reported to have recognized the Al-Saud clan as the sole representatives of the “Saudi” people, and the Al-Khalifa clan as the sole representative of the Bahrain people, and Saad Hariri as the sole representative of all the Lebanese people. 
The Al-Assad regime for its part, in retaliation, has decided to recognize Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni as the sole representatives of the French people. The Syrian regime has also threatened that if the Obama administration recognizes the new Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people, Damascus will retaliate accordingly. The Syrians will announce that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Elaine Chow, and Newt Gingrich (WTF-Georgia) are recognized as the sole representatives of the true American people.
Cheers

mhg
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Africa, Israel

Sudanese WTF: Al-Bashir Going Nuclear or Democratic?…………..

   

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“Omar al-Bashir emerged on Sudanese television shortly after his second surgical procedure in four months on Thursday to issue a series of threats to Israel and assurances to the Sudanese people.“I am in good health and our reaction to Israel will be painful,” he said. “Israel is our enemy, our number one enemy, and we will continue calling Israel our enemy,” he added. Various Sudanese government officials have already vociferously blamed Israel for the explosion which shook the heart of capital shortly last month, but this is the first time the president has spoken about the event.The 68 year-old leader told Sudan there are two possible reactions to Israel’s alleged military transgression. The first would be to normalise relations with the Jewish State, a move he said he would never make.“The second choice is to have a technology that allows us to do an identical attack against Israel. I cannot say this is impossible. We are trying to have this technology,”…………….”

Which means Al-Bashir will have to do two things: go democratic and go nuclear. First he can go democratic: once he goes democratic, after 25 years of dictatorship, then he can defeat anyone. He could even have kept the South Sudan. I submit that even the Syrian regime could defeat Israel and regain the Golan if it goes completely democratic and allows the freedom of expression. So could the Jordanians and the Saudis (they might even defeat the Huthis of Yemen) and all the rest of the Arab potentates. 

Back to Al-Bashir, who is allegedly wanted by the Interpole and the International Court but nobody seems eger to arrest him when he travels (unlike Saudi dissidents). After going nuclear (easy peasy) he will have to train his staff on how to fly ‘undetected’ over the Red Sea and through the Negev.
But the Israelis have one important trump card: they know this is not going to happen. But it is no great secret: we all know that.
Cheers
mhg
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Arab Revolutions, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Syria: New Ineffectual Coalition, Little Arab Napoleons with Shadow Clerics …………..

   

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“Until now, concerted action on Syria has been thwarted by divisions within the opposition, as well as by big power rivalries and a regional divide between Sunni Muslim foes of Assad and his Shi’ite allies in Iran and Lebanon. Cajoled by Qatar and the United States, the ineffectual Syrian National Council, previously the main opposition body based abroad, agreed to join a wider coalition on Sunday. “What happened in Doha is a step forward,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris. “It is still not sufficient to constitute a provisional government that can be recognised internationally. But it’s on the right track.” Britain’s foreign minister, William Hague, also said more needed to be done to rally support inside the country before London would recognise the coalition led by AlKhatib as the rightful government of Syria. “It is a very important milestone,” Hague told reporters at the meeting of Arab and European  ministers at the Arab League………………….”

Western powers gave lukewarm encouragement to yet another alleged representative body of the “Syrian people”. That was wise. This new body, Syrian National Coalition, confirms the Islamist take-over of Syria‘s exile opposition even as it claims to be seeking to broaden its appeal. That is all fine and dandy. This new body, like the old body, will get a lot of money and diplomatic support from our freedom-loving potentates of the Gulf GCC. They will get to “mobilize” media and exiled politicians and try to get NATO to liberate Syria in the way it liberated Iraq in 2003. But this still does not make the Syrian uprising a “liberation” movement. Successful liberation movements are unified: this cannot be said of Syria.

Clearly the gangs and bands of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) are not going to coordinate with or take orders from this exile ”Coalition” or its “Council” part. They will continue to do what they do on the ground: attacking regime forces, kidnapping people they suspect and people they don’t like, slitting throats and beheading and doing what they have been doing. They have their own shadowy sources of money and weapons and volunteers.

Once
broken away from the Al-Assad grip, every Syrian captain or major or colonel thinks of himself an a Napoleon, before Waterloo. Before this civil war is over, every FSA captain or major or colonel will have a Muslim cleric shadowing him. Some already have their clerical shadows who apply the new “law” of the land according to their own unique interpretation of the Holy Book and Hadith.
As I wrote last month: the old tolerant secular Syria is no more.

Cheers
mhg
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Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia

Gulf: Absolute Prince Wishes Absolute Shaikhs Well, of Financial Fellatio………

   

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“In a message sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, to The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the recent unfortunate terrorist acts suffered by the Kingdom of Bahrain were denounced, Prince Saud said that both the Saudi government and people condemned the terrorist incidents that accrued in Manama recently, where blasts resulted in the death and wounding of innocent people. He stressed that his Government was united with Bahrain in combating terrorism in all its forms and all those who support such crimes, wishing the country and its people further security and prosperity..…………”

Okay. Apparently Absolute Prince Saud Al-Faisal Al-Saud, foreign minister of some forty years, is apparently alive and well. Why shouldn’t he be, since he is neither in Morocco nor in New York? In case you’ve been living on another planet: senior Saudi princes usually go to New York for medical treatment, after which they return to Morocco either to recover or to die (sometimes they do both: recover and die). The Prince is wishing the Al-Khalifa clan of Bahrain well (I probably wouldn’t, not yet). Many Happy Repressive returns. Great. Thanks, prince.
(FYI: junior princes live much longer; they don’t start hitting Morocco until middle-age. Unfortunately they keep multiplying, what with multiple wives and nothing else to do in Riyadh besides conjugal bliss, hopefully. As they multiply, they keep on sucking more of the resources of the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula. The Bahrain shaikhs don’t have access to similar resources, but they do wonders with what little resources their blighted island is blessed with. They manage to suck off more of less, quite a feat, and no pun was intended, and I am just referring to a form of financial fellatio).

Cheers
mhg
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Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Activist Goes Mad, Claims All Princes Want Democracy, Wants Future King Tried………………

   

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A known Saudi activist is reported to have gone mad, gone plum crazy as some would say around here. If the report in al-Quds Al-Arabi is true, if. Abdullah al-Hamid is quoted to have declared that most member of the Al-Saud ruling family support the idea of converting the absolute kingdom into a constitutional monarchy. He claimed that also included the king. He is also quoted as calling for the new interior minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef to be tried. He has called for a retrial of all those who were victimized by secret trials.


I call him plum crazy only because he seems to entertain the delusion that the king and most princes want a constitutional monarchy. His other proposals of retrials of victims and the trial of some princes are fine as far as I am concerned. The more (that are tried) the merrier. He could also be eventually committed as crazy for suggesting that the interior minister, probably the most important Saudi prince, be tried. Mohammed Bin Nayef, who controls the “police” part of the Saudi police state, is most likely to become the king of Saudi Arabia within the next few years. King as well as Custodian of the Cave of the Four Thousand Thieves that was exposed by Ali Baba.

Of course, it is possible he just being clever, too clever. FYI: he is disputing some of claims made by al-Quds Al-Arab about him.
Cheers
mhg
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GCC, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Saving the Syrian Opposition, Meeting Where Predatory Princes Roam………..

   

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“Syrian opposition leaders struck a hard-won deal on Sunday under intense international pressure to form a broad, new coalition to prepare for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Delegates, who had struggled for days in the Qatari capital Doha to find the unity their Western and Arab backers have long urged, said the new body would ensure a voice for religious and ethnic minorities and for the rebels fighting on the ground, who have complained of being overlooked by exiled dissident groups. Some details remain outstanding, including who will head the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces and the final assent of some leaders not present in Doha. Diplomats and officials from the United States and Qatar, the tiny Gulf emirate whose oil and gas wealth has helped fund the 20-month-old uprising, have particularly been pressing the Syrian National Council (SNC), whose leaders mostly live abroad, to drop fierce objections to joining a wider body. “An initial deal has been signed. A final formulation has been agreed and signed,” Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, a delegate for the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, told reporters…..……….”

Western powers, Arab potentates and assorted despots, and Syrian opposition groups are meeting to “save” the Syrian opposition, basically saving it from itself. Which is something that is sorely needed. And where are they meeting? In Doha, Qatar, where not even dog-catchers (as Americans would say) are elected, where not even sheep-herders are elected (as the Mufti should say but won’t). They meet in an absolute unaccountable monarchy, aided and abetted by such great supporters of freedom, self-determination, and democracy as the Al-Saud and Al-Khalifa.
While they are at it, why not discuss repression in nearby places. Like a stone’s throw across the Persian Gulf waters in Bahrain, or just across the border in the Arabian Peninsula where the wild and avaricious and predatory princes roam and plunder?
Cheers
mhg
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Arab Counterrevoltion, Fatwas, Saudi Arabia

A New Friday Scientific Fatwa, a Warning of Treason, and WTF in Arabic……………

   

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The Saudi Mufti Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al Shaikh, who is also president of the Commission of Higher (Ulema) Scientists, has issued a new (scientific) fatwa. He has made it (scientifically) ‘haram’, taboo, not kosher, to communicate with foreign satellite television networks and cooperate with them in publicizing the country’s secrets. His shaikhness noted that these networks aim at spreading confusion, anarchy, and division (fitna) among all Muslims and that they destroy the unity of the umma (wtf that be).
His Scientific Muftiness said that the proper Shari’a way to deal with public issues and concerns is to write to officials about them rather than go to media outlets or protest publicly. (Like you can write the King about stopping all the Al-Saud prices looting the country’s resources and end up spending the rest of your life in prison, probably without being tried for it).
His Scientific Muftiness said that providing any information to such media is a form of treason and helps the “enemies” of Islam. He also warned against covering up for or helping hide or sheltering anyone who tries to organize assassinations or other unlawful acts.
At the end of his sermon during the Friday prayers at the Imam Turkey Bin Abdullah he no doubt left some of his congregation muttering: WTF, in Arabic?
Cheers
mhg
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Arab Media, Mossad, Sex

Tzipi Livni’s Sex: Intimacy with Arab Leaders, Scientific Shaikhs, and the Secret Fatwas……….

   

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                         Neck of the woods                    No. Highly unlikely

“A leading Egyptian daily falsely claimed that former foreign minister Tzipi Livni conducted sexual relations with Arab officials during her years as a Mossad agent in an attempt to entrap them, and used what it said was a 2009 interview with The Times of London as ostensible proof. The article in Al-Masri Al-Youm, an independent and widely read Egyptian daily, was headlined: “Livni: I had sex with Arabs in return for ‘political concessions.’” It featured prominently in the paper’s Saturday print edition and was still leading its website on Sunday afternoon. The article went up on Al-Masry Al-Youm’s website Friday night and was its most widely read story over the weekend. It had garnered 20,000 Facebook shares and 1,800 tweets as of Sunday morning, and was quoted extensively in Egyptian and Arab media. Sources close to Livni told The Times of Israel that “this report is ludicrous and crazy.” Needless to say, they said, the story was without foundation. “There are apparently those who fear Livni’s return to politics, where she will strengthen Israel’s standing domestically and internationally,” the sources said………………”

The idea that Tzipi Livni slept with Arab politicians and leaders in exchange for information and other benefits is taking hold in Arab media and in the wild Arab imagination. Sexual repression does lead to wilder imagination. I think secretly she must be considered to be still “hot” among some of the region’s potentates and opinion makers (hey, it’s a matter of personal taste).
The normally not excitable Al-Quds Al-Arabi headlined an article today (November 10, 2012): “Arab leaders in Livni’s bed”. The piece quotes a London Times interview in which she allegedly admitted having used sex against (or is it with) Arab leaders and scientists. It seriously wonders which leaders were among the chosen (or is it ‘targeted’) ones.
Personally I don’t know if Tzipi Livni slept with any Arab potentates for her country. As for ‘scientists’ I can’t think of any scientific information that we in our region have that the Israelis need. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of information, but I was talking of the ‘useful’ kind. Most of the ‘scientists’, especially in the Gulf region, are called “ulema” which also doubles as clerics or religious shaikhs (or scientists). BY that measure, any Mufti or Imam is a “scientist”.
Maybe they gave Tzipi information about how they reach their famous secret fatwas that make no sense to anyone else, especially me.
Cheers
mhg
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