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
9/11, Al-Qaeda, Iran, Saudi Arabia, September 11

Iranian 9/11, Jewish Barbarossa, Tooth Fairy of Qandahar………..

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“Former investigators on the 9/11 Commission, which uncovered tantalizing but inconclusive evidence of Tehran’s ties to the plot, tell The Daily Beast they welcome the lawsuit, because they believe the U.S. government has done little to follow up on the commission’s evidence of Iranian complicity. The lawsuit, they say, may offer the best hope of getting to the truth about whether Iranian government officials had advance knowledge of the plot and worked with al Qaeda to make it easier for several of the hijackers to travel undetected in the year before the attacks. The suit, brought in the United States District Court in Manhattan on behalf of the families of dozens of 9/11 victims, is promising testimony from three Iranian defectors, all of them identified as former members of Iran’s central spy agency, who will implicate Iran and its terrorist proxies in Lebanon in the Sept. 11 attacks. In court papers filed last week that outlined their testimony, the defectors were not identified by name out of concern for their safety, said Thomas Mellon, a Pennsylvania lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is representing the families…………”

I don’t know: this is like saying that the German Nazis were financing or plotting with the Jewish Agency to take over Palestine. Or that European Jews planned Operation Barbarossa (look it up). The mutual dislike and contempt between Shi’a Iran and Salafi Wahhabi al-Qaeda is that strong. This Thomas Mellon sounds like another D.A. Jim Garrison (google him and Kennedy and Dallas and Louisiana). It is not clear what they needed the Iranians for. They got all the money and leaders and volunteers from Saudi Arabia (with a couple of others). They had the planners in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Germany. As for the ‘Iranian defectors’ who will testify: I’d require blood tests on them first for alcohol, drugs, airplane glue, among other ‘substances’.

Okay, the truth is, I think it is the most ridiculous, nay most asinine, story I have read today. More ridiculous than the story about the prime minister of Bahrain, butcher of Manama, wondering why people can’t just get along. I may be wrong, I am wrong one in a while, but probably not on this one.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Torture, US Foreign Policy

Arabs Doubling Down after the Obama Speech………….

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“Bahrain has allegedly arrested and abused local journalists working for foreign news agencies in an escalation of the crackdown just days after Barack Obama, US president, called for dialogue. Local journalists have been arrested and beaten since the authorities violently cleared pro-democracy protests in mid-March, but this is the first time that journalists working for overseas outlets have been targeted in a broadening assault on the media. Mazen Mahdi, a photojournalist with the German press agency and Defense News, and Nazeeha Saeed, a reporter for France24 and Radio Monte Carlo, were detained for hours and questioned about their reporting. Both said they were abused during their detention and released late Sunday and early Monday.……… Reeling from negative media coverage, the authorities have been targeting local and foreign media amid the broader crackdown of arrests, torture, sackings and destruction of religious sites…….. Local journalists at Al-Wasat, the country’s only independent voice before changes made under government pressure last month, have also been arrested. A founder of the newspaper, businessman Kareem Fakhrawi, is one of four people who have died in detention since the clampdown began. Mansoor Aljamri, a former exile who edited the paper, is on trial for publishing false news.………”

This is one example of the reaction of Arab despots to the Obama speech last week. From Libya to Yemen to Syria to Saudi Arabia, even in Morocco, they have tightened the screws on the people.
Bahrain is only the most flagrant case, which also reflects the wish, nay the orders, of the al-Saud. Just after the Obama Middle East speech the al-Khalifa ruling clan has doubled down on their oppression of the people of Bahrain. Mr. Obama mentioned the repression, but unfortunately he also noted that the Bahrain regime “needs” to maintain order. They are betting that their al-Saud masters will take care of the West. They are betting that petroleum and weapons contracts and money are more important to Western governments than human rights, and they are most likely right about that. They have been right so far: Obama basically equated the two sides in Bahrain, Britain’s Cameron received the crown prince and the foreign minister last week (both are al-Khalifa, as are most of the cabinet), and Sarkozy would likely send forces to help put down the uprising if asked. So the Obama speech somehow emboldened the Bahraini regime: somehow they have interpreted it as a tacit green light.
Maybe Mr. Jeffrey Feltman and Mr. James Steinberg, who were in Bahrain just before the Obama speech, had reassured them that it was just a speech for media consumption.
(BHCR, Bahrain’s Human Right group reports that Mr. Fakhrawi was tortured and electrocuted to get him to ‘confess’ to ties with Hezbollah ad Iran. He died under torture.)

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Gulf states

On My Gulf: Mercenary Nations………

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Some governments on my Gulf seem to have a fascination with foreign mercenaries:


  • Saudi Arabia was reported several times in Western and Pakistani media as asking for a contingency plan to have Pakistani soldiers deployed on its soil in case of domestic political trouble.

  • The United Arab Emirates have relied on Jordanian security agents and interrogators for years now. Now there is the credible New York Times report that they are setting up a special mercenary army under Blackwater executives in Abu Dhabi. These foreign mercenaries reportedly come from places as far flung as North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. I once suggested here that the al-Nahayan should think of recruiting from among the Mexican drug cartels: they have some of the “most effective” interrogators around. Then there are the retirees of Mossad…..

  • When it comes to mercenaries, the al-Khalifa clan of Bahrain take the cake. They have been in that business of hiring foreign mercenaries to kill and maim their people for decades. They have hired British, Pakistani, Jordanian, Syrian, Yemeni, possibly Saudi, and God knows what else mercenaries to keep the people of Bahrain oppressed. Even now Pakistani military and other media have advertisements and news items of Bahrain recruitment delegations interviewing and hiring veterans. When their own tribal allies and their foreign mercenaries could not cope with the people, the al-Khalifa invited Saudi troops to enter the country and help crush the uprising. I can’t think of a regime that is more vile (or is it viler) than one that first hires foreign mercenaries then invites foreign invaders into its country to kill and torture its people. Governments have done one or the other, but it is rare that a regime does both.

  • Only two GCC countries seem not to have this need for, nay fascination with, mercenaries. Not yet and hopefully never.


Which makes you think: what kind of countries are these that they need to hire foreign mercenaries against their own people? They shouldn’t need to, if only they were less greedy with power and wealth. If they were more fascinated with empowering their people than with foreign mercenaries.
Cheers
mhg


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environment, Iran, Water Wars

Ahmadinejad on Water Wars, European Fears, and Emma Lazarus……….

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“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!“ Emma Lazarus (definitely NOT Europeans)

“Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that Western countries are plotting to generate drought in some areas of the world, including Iran. “According to reports about climate, whose authenticity has been verified, the European countries have used certain equipment to discharge clouds and prevent rain-bearing clouds from reaching regional countries such as Iran,” President Ahmadinejad said on Thursday. He made the remarks in the inauguration ceremony of a domestically-built dam in the central Iranian province of Arak. Ahmadinejad said the matter would be pursued by Iran’s legal authorities, IRNA reported. The Iranian president said such measures by European countries are aimed at creating tension and hostility in the maritime borders of regional countries. “Just as it was said before, I believe that the war of the future will be the war over water.”……….”

He is right in one thing although he is not original: that water will very likely become a cause of future conflict. It already is: from the water disputes between Egypt and Nile-source African countries to the ‘issues’ Iraq has with Iran and Turkey and Syria over control of river water. Even the long Iran-Iraq war which was a result of Ba’athist aggression had water as its main component: the Shatt al-Arab waterway. That is the part Ahmadinejad is right about.
As for the rest, I suspect he is out of his mind if he is serious about it. Europe has seen one result of the droughts and desertification in Africa: the waves of unwelcome immigrants crossing the Mediterranean. Europe is also now worried about the impact of the Arab revolutions on creating a new wave of immigration to its shores. The last thing the Europeans want is to create another drought in the Middle East with more immigrants creating more neo-Nazis like Geert Wilders and Le Pen and others. I am not sure about Sarkozy, though, playing Napoleon and a softer version of a racist Fascist, desperate for his reelection. (There is no European equivalent of Emma Lazarus and her immortal verses on Liberty Island).
Sometimes I think Ahmadinejad shoots his mouth without thinking, then is forced to stick to his announced position out of pride. It is a Middle East thing. I have suspected that his Holocaust “quasi-denial” is also along similar lines.
(Later a professor of environmental science at Tehran University politely but firmly refuted Ahmadinejad’s assertion of European-induced droughts).
Cheers
mhg


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Pakistan, UAE

The Abu Dhabi Empire Extends to Pakistan?…………..

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“During a recent, rare briefing to parliament, a top Pakistani air force commander made a surprising claim: a remote southwestern airfield long suspected of housing US drones used in missile strikes was actually under the control of the United Arab Emirates. The comment stunned lawmakers and ordinary Pakistanis, who – in the wake of the May 2 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in northwest Pakistan – had been questioning whether their nation has been surrendering its sovereignty. But this week, a UAE official only added to the mystery by strongly denying to The Associated Press that the Gulf state has any operational role in the Shamsi airfield, although, the official, said wealthy Arabs have occasionally used it to fly to Pakistan on hunting expeditions……The extent of its involvement today is that UAE sheiks and others may use the airfield for “recreational purposes” such as hunting expeditions, the official said. Those private, civilian planes that come in for hunting and falconry trips must get clearance from Pakistani aviation authorities and file flight plans, according to the UAE official. The base “was never operated nor controlled by the UAE,” said the official, who had been briefed on the subject by the Gulf state’s Foreign Ministry and requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject. The US used the Shamsi field as a forward staging point in the initial period …..….”
A strange story: a Pakistani airfield under UAE control that is used by the United States? It almost sounds like a script for a cheap action film.
 
Shamsi Airfield. The Shamsi are a UAE clan with close ties to the ruling family. They are like the Al Al Shaikh in Saudi Arabia: they dominate many government organizations and businesses. Could that be the source of the name? So the Abu Dhabi honchos spend millions a year on Pakistani religious schools that reportedly raise Salafi terrorists, then invite the U.S. to bomb the same from “their” base? Somehow it doesn’t sound accurate. I need to investigate it.

(It is true , though, that the Pakistanis give certain preferential treatment to some Gulf potentates from ruling families, especially Saudis and Emiratis. They are allotted areas in which to hunt even while others are banned. I read over a year ago that some potentates have set areas where they have exclusive hunting rights. Some of these are in supposedly ‘protected’ reserves).
Cheers
mhg


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CIA, Espionage, Iran

The Iran ‘CIA’ Espionage Plot Thickens……….

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“Government officials were among those netted in an Iranian counterespionage operation that Tehran’s intelligence ministry touted this weekend, a news website reported Sunday. The semi-official Fars news agency (link in Persian) reported “a number of Iranian government managers” were among the 30 arrested on suspicion of having ties with the CIA. Fars quoted “an informed source” as saying a manager of one of Iran’s ministries and a number of other officials employed by government bodies were arrested. One official had worked at one of Iran’s ministries for 25 years and was allegedly gathering information for U.S. intelligence with the aim of immigrating to the West and keeping his son out of military service, the source told Fars. The man allegedly had prepared “a very important package about the activities of this body, which included information on ways to sabotage it.” But he was foiled by intelligence officers “minutes” before he sent it off, the source claimed to Fars. Another official gathered information about “how to blow up and conduct espionage activities” at his employer but was arrested before dispatching the information, Fars said……..”

This is becoming more interesting, if the published report is true (Fars quotes an ‘informed source’ which may indicate a certain degree of accuracy). Now they talk of plans for sabotage and explosions. This now seems to indicate that some higher officials, at least middle-tier managers, were involved. That is the official story. It requires careful reading to try and discern wtf is going on inside Iran’s intelligence community. Is Muslehi (intelligence minister and a mullah) anxious to show his credibility by hurrying arrests? Is he flailing around for culprits? Was there such an extensive network of sabotage? All of the above are possible: Iran has seen some bombings and assassinations of nuclear scientists over the past few years. They also had top scientists and military officers defect and/or kidnapped while outside the country. In this dame, anything is possible
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Politics, Culture, Egypt, Religion, Saudi Arabia

Sir Thomas More Al Shaikh, Saint Thomas Becket of Al-Azhar………..

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Thomas Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by his close friend King Henry II. Becket took his job in the church seriously and would not side with the king on many issues, when he thought the king was wrong. He was murdered in 1170, possibly with the encouragement of the king.
Sir Thomas More was appointed Lord Chancellor by King Henry VIII with the apparent assumption that he would do the king’s bidding against the Catholic Church. More took his job seriously: he could not in good conscious side with the king who had raised him so high and appointed him chancellor. Sir Thomas was tried for treason and beheaded in 1535, as he no doubt expected.

Shaikh A Al Al Shaikh, Mufti of Saudi Arabia, head of its Commission of High Religious Ulema (clergy). He would never disagree with the king or any of the princes. He would, and has, issued fatwas banning any criticism and opposition to the king, any king. His most famous fatwa was issued last March, banning any protests against the government, calling them ‘acts against Islam’. The excited Saudi government published two million copies of his fatwa and distributed them across the country. It never made the list of N Y Time or Amazon bestsellers. Perhaps if Shaikh Al Al Shaikh could start traveling around the world, signing copies of his fatwa at Border’s and Barnes & Noble.
Shaikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. Appointed two years ago by Hosni Mubarak as head of al-Azhar and its chief Mufti. He was a member of Mubarak’s ruling party at the time. On his first few months as Mufti he legalized Saudi-style temporary part-time marriages in Egypt (the mesyar or mesayar), allowing funny summer vacation marriages between elderly Saudis and poor Egyptian girls. Immediately after that he announced to Saudi media that he will be watching carefully for Shi’a expansion in al-Azhar and work to stop it, wtf that means. He opined against the Egyptian Revolution that started on January 25, 2011, but after Mubarak fell he changed him mind.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran

Gruesome Justice in Iran: Talmudic, Biblical, or Quranic…….

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”An Iranian woman who was blinded and badly disfigured by an acid attack by a spurned suitor has expressed strong support for a retributive blinding sentence set to be carried out against her attacker. The court-ordered plan for “retribution in kind” is to place five drops of sulfuric acid in each of Majid Movahedi’s eyes for the 2004 incident, when he poured a bucket of acid on Ameneh Bahrami, ultimately leaving her blind and forcing her to undergo at least 17 operations.
The acid drops were scheduled to be administered at a hospital in the Iranian capital at noon local time on May 14. Bahrami, now 32, has insisted on Movahedi’s blinding despite being urged by the court to accept financial compensation from the attacker’s family instead. Since the judgment was handed down in 2008, Iranian and international rights activists have expressed horror at the prospect of its implementation…………”

Truly a gruesome case. Carrying the concept of justice to absurd levels. Talmudic, Biblical, or Quranic, in its gruesomeness of “justice”. Even in places like Texas they wouldn’t go that far: sometimes they come close but not that far.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Culture, Saudi Arabia

A Saudi Prague Spring: a Guest of Honor and Shame………..

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“At Book World Prague 2011, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the “guest of honour”. But guest, in this context, actually means high-paying client: an oppressive regime hoping to buy itself some cultural legitimacy with its petrodollars. And honour? Given the dismal Saudi Arabian record on freedom of speech and other human rights, honour basically means shame. Under the soft rainbow colours of an arching art nouveau roof, the Saudis have erected a huge and lavish stand, in the form of a turreted (and carpeted) mock fortress, replete with scale models of Mecca and Medina, children’s play area, some blonde women in Saudi costumes, and plenty of individually plastic-wrapped dates for all. There are even a few books, presumably as a concession to this being a book fair – and one or two of them are literary titles. But where are the Saudi writers?………”

Like the almost-proverbial guys said, or could have said: “You pays your money and you does your thing….”
The al-Saud are such known book lovers, as are their Salafi mutawa’een of the Commission for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). Normally they love to ban books from the country but, barring that, they also love to burn books. Writers can go to prison for writing the “wrong” stuff; they can get flogged for writing the truly ‘wrong” stuff. To prove their love and devotion to books, only a few weeks ago they published and distributed 1.5 million copies of the religious fatwas banning protests against Arab regimes (edited by none other than Shilk A Al Al Shaikh). That was the second printing: the initial printing was half a million copies.

(No need for me to state, again, that the Mufti shaikh A Al Al Shaikh is a direct descendant of Imam Mohammed Bin abdulwahhab and that he is to bedistinguished from the late great Egyptian musician and singer Mohammed Abdelwahhab who was not a Salafi Wahhabi. There are a passel of Al Al Shaikh progeny in high positions in Saudi Arabia).
Cheers
mhg


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Economics, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia

Hariri Family Affairs: of Saudi Masters and Money Troubles………

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Al-akhbar daily (Lebanese secular and liberal) reports that the management of the Arab Bank have refused to confirm or deny reports that outgoing PM Sa’ad Hariri is selling part of his share in the bank to former PM, and Hariri aide, Fouad Saniora. The newspaper cites knowledgeable banking sources that this is true. It notes that Mr. Hariri, a billionaire, is facing liquidity problems after suffering heavy business losses, to the extent that he is facing some difficulty making loan payments in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Al-akhbar reports that his liquidity problems are affecting his relationships with “influential Saudis”, usually a code word for al-Saud princes.
It reports that his difficulties extend to his own family relationships and that it came to light after his sister Hind could not deposit three checks issued by him for US$ 150 million as payment of part of her share from their father’s estate. There were apparently insufficient funds to cash them. The reports claims his huge firm, Saudi Oger has suffered US$ 3 billion in losses and that many “influential Saudis” are angry at him.
Mr. Hariri got into serious trouble with the family of the de facto Saudi ruler, Prince Nayed the Interior Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, etc etc, after calling prince Mohammed, his son and deputy, a “bloodthirsty butcher”. He seems to have lost some of his magic to the Saudis, whose nationality he holds.
Cheers
mhg


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