Category Archives: Arab Counterrevoltion

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Cairo, Egypt, Human Right

Egypt’s Revolution Faces an Illegal Abortion: It’s the Toothpaste, Stupid……………

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      BFF

“Egypt’s state security prosecutor should immediately close “treason” investigations into Egyptian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) accused of receiving foreign funding, Human Rights Watch said today. The Egyptian cabinet announced on September 14, 2011, that a Justice Ministry report had identified more than 30 NGOs that are receiving foreign funding and are not registered with the Social Solidarity Ministry as required by the Associations Law and that it had submitted this information to the prosecutor. The offense is punishable with imprisonment under Egypt’s Associations Law. Restricting foreign funding can effectively deny civil society groups the ability to operate since under former President Hosni Mubarak, local funding sources shied away from funding controversial groups, Human Rights Watch said. “It sends alarming signals about the transitional government’s commitment to human rights that Egyptian authorities have started a criminal investigation with the same methods Hosni Mubarak used to strangle civil society, …………”

The military junta (SCAF) keeps nibbling at the freedoms Egyptians gained with their blood  since last January, even before then. It keeps testing the people’s will, trying to abort the march toward a more just and more free society. But that may be natural: it is unusual to see a non-elected regime encourage free elections and other freedoms. No doubt the junta is being urged by some sisterly and brotherly oligarchies in the neighborhood. But it is impossible to push the toothpaste back into the tube, and the Egyptian toothpaste is definitely out of the tube.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Corruption, Finance, GCC, Middle East, Saudi Arabia

Tony Blair as Scarlett O’Hara: Blair-Gate and the never Ending Saga of International Corruption………..

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“Tony Blair is facing calls for greater transparency in his role as Middle East peace envoy after it emerged that he visited Muammar Gaddafi in 2009 while JP Morgan, the investment bank that employs Blair as a £2m-a-year adviser, sought to negotiate a multibillion-pound loan from Libya. Blair also championed two large business deals in the West Bank and Gaza involving telecoms and gas extraction which stood to benefit corporate clients of JP Morgan, according to a Dispatches investigation to be broadcast on Monday night…………In Palestine while working as the quartet envoy, Blair persuaded the Israeli government to open radio frequencies so mobile phone company Wataniya could operate in the West Bank. The company’s owner, Qtel, a Qatari telecoms company, is a client of JP Morgan and its deal to buy Wataniya was funded with a $2bn loan that JP Morgan helped arrange..……..”

And the beat goes on: in terms of corruption, the life of Tony Blair is a gift that keeps on giving. A veritable Blair-Gate. It started with his killing of the investigation of the British Serious Frauds Office (SFO) of BAE Systems bribes to Saudi prince Bandar Bin Sultan. Tony has never looked back. From oil potentates to international bankers to the most despotic dictators and absolute tribal kings, Blair seems to be their man. Along the way he also went to war. He is also at the forefront of the right-wingers who are calling for yet another bloody war in my Gulf, no doubt he is getting some benefit from the potentates as well for that effort.
Tony Blair, the ‘former’ Laborite, now reminds me of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. When Scarlett rises from the dirt and promises “I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again”.
Scarlett kept her promise, but she was much more discriminating and more gracious than Mr. Blair about how she did it.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Animal Farm: King Welcomes Some Foreign Intervention in All Arab States……….

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      BFF

Arab media report the King of Saudi Arabia said in a speech that he was happy about the return to “normality and peace” in Bahrain. The low level sectarian civil war now going on in Bahrain is considered a “return to normality and peace”, although I am certain the king has never read 1984 (Orwell), never even heard of it. He forgot to add that he was also happy about the return to peace in Afghanistan and Waziristan and Libya and Gaza. The report did not specify what the King and his speechwriters had been smoking before his speech.
(Actually some ‘tribal liberals’ on my Gulf had declared the situation in Bahrain to be “back to normal” from the day Saudi troops invaded in March: apparently the situation is still quite normal and getting even more normal by the day).

The report also said that that Saudi Arabia announced its complete rejection of any “foreign interference” in the internal affairs of Bahrain. They said it is okay for foreigners to interfere in Libya and Yemen and Syria and Egypt and Tunisia and Iraq and even in Saudi Arabia. But not in Bahrain, unless the foreign intervention is in the form of Saudi forces shoring up the regime and its imported mercenaries against the people. Which brings up that other Orwell book, Animal Farm.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Culture, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, Women 100

PR Nation: Women to Vote? But for What? About Driving………..

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Saudi king Abdullah announced that Saudi women will be able to vote in 2015. That is interesting because I am not sure the king will be around at that time to see it happen, IF it happens. Even if he is still “there”, he may not be “there” altogether, if you get my drift. Nevertheless, ‘tribal liberals’ on my Gulf are cautiously hailing this “bestowal” as a sure sign of reform and progress.
He was talking about the toothless municipal councils not about any true elections. What this tells me is that the Saudis have changed their PR strategy. They have decided to follow the old Arab oligarch policy of pretending they are holding elections so that there will be less pressure on them from the outside. Potentates like Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Bin Ali, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and Omar al-Bashir, among others have tried that, as have the potentates of Bahrain and even the UAE (to a more limited extent). Like I said before, even dog-catchers are appointed.
Of course, women will still not be able to drive cars in 2015.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Human Right, Muslims, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Counterrevolution: the Hadith Loophole, the Salafi Alibi………

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“The Saudis are afraid of the Arab spring, because they don’t want anti-Saudi forces, including such enemies as Iran and Al Qaeda, to increase their influence in the Middle East, and they believe the revolutions in the region might have just this effect. Some of the older Saudi leaders have seen this movie before. The nationalist revolutions of the 1950’s and 1960’s, inspired and galvanized by Gamel Nasser’s Egypt, nearly toppled the House of Saud. Nonetheless, today’s Saudi princes appear to recognize that something has genuinely changed in the Middle East: The younger generation of Arabs is no longer prepared to accept unaccountable, corrupt, and brutal governments. Saudi Arabia, a self-proclaimed bulwark of Islamic conservatism, where popular democracy has never been considered a legitimate form of rule, has been more aggressive in some arenas than in others. Domestically, the royal family struck quickly, adopting a ban on public demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. The Kingdom’s traditional interpretation of Islam construes political legitimacy in terms of a ruler’s proper application of Islamic law. In return, his subjects owe him obedience within the constraints of Sharia religious law…………..”

There is a Hadith that purports to indicate that Prophet Mohammed urged Muslims to obey their “Muslim” rulers as long as they allowed and facilitated the practice of Islam, no matter how lousy the rulers are. This Hadith has been at the center of Salafi alliances with despotic Arab rulers. It has supplied the rulers with a “loophole” to get away with all kinds of corruption and injustice. It is used by absolute Arab monarchs as an alibi, with the Salafis as allies.  Of course there are other Hadiths against corruption and thievery by rulers, and against despotism, but these are ignored.
I have never believed in the veracity of that Hadith, not even as a kid. Needless to say, I still have strong doubts about its veracity. For 1400 years this particular Hadith has been just too convenient, too useful for ruling tyrants of our region.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Corruption, ethnic cleansing, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US Foreign Policy

Delusional Bahrain: Despots and Miscreants and a Precocious Schmuck Minister………….

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“MOI: Groups of miscreants were out in various areas of Bahrain today in response to calls made through social media websites. Since their movements were illegal, security forces dealt with them and some of the miscreants were arrested and legal actions taken against them.
With regard to incidents at City Center, at around 4:00pm a group of miscreants and lawbreakers broke into the shopping mall to create chaos and spread terror among the public there. As a result the security forces, including women police, had to interfere and deal with them and some of them were arrested and legal actions taken against them.
The Ministry of Interior apologises to the mall management and the public for any inconvenience caused and affirms that the situation everywhere has returned to normal……….”
Ministry of Interior of Bahrain, the body in charge of police, midnight raiders, looters, imported foreign mercenary thugs, politically nationalized foreign goons (from Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and former Iraqi Ba’athists), torturers, and all round nice guys of the al-Khalifa team. All presided over by a precociously schmuck minister of interior. The country is now a ghettoized occupation zone and these ruling schmucks talk about “normality”.

“The people of Bahrain have won a victory for democracy by their very high participation in the ‘supplementary’ elections……” Regime Spokesman

The rulers of Bahrain are holding another phony election which most of the people of Bahrain have decided to boycott.
Nobody in the whole wide world believes what the regime says on this issue except the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, a couple of other GCC potrntates and some experts in the United States State Department (okay, the latter pretend they do, like the lady in bed who only “thinks of England”).
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Cairo, Corruption, Egypt, Gulf states, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Arab Absolute Monarchs Funding Democracy in Egypt? Democratic People’s Republic of (Saudi) Arabia………

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“A mini-crisis of sorts erupted between Egypt and the United States over foreign funding. The spark was probably the congressional testimony of the new US ambassador to Cairo, Anne Patterson, in June, in which she said that the US was earmarking $40m for USAID democracy and governance spending…………..Fast forward to this month, and the question of foreign funding is changing tack. A few days ago, the Egyptian press revealed (from government sources) that several of the largest transactions to civil society organizations have come from the Gulf, not the West. The numbers are quite telling. According to these reports, over LE181m ($30m) was given to the Ansar al-Sunna association, a very conservative religious group, by Qatar’s al-Thani Foundation. Kuwaiti and Emirati religious associations also donated significant sums, ones that dward(sic) what secular human rights groups might be receiving at the moment…….…”

Last time I looked, neither the al-Thani nor the al-Nahayan were on the verge of changing their own quasi-feudal fiefdoms (Qatar and the UAE) into model democracies. Anymore than than al-Saud are about to declare a Democratic People’s Republic of (Saudi) Arabia. I mean these are the same people who tried to keep Mubarak in power, they even got pissed off at Obama for not ‘somehow’ keeping him in power (Qatar excepted in this case). Last time I looked, they were all clinging to power and inherited privilege at all costs, and I mean ALL costs. Now their Salafi allies are trying to influence the elections in Egypt, nay trying to buy the elections in Egypt.

(Come to think of it, how about a Great Jamihiriya Socialist “Emirates” Republic of Al-Nahayan?)
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Gulf states, Human Right, Persian-American Gulf

Civil War in Bahrain? in everything but name………….

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      BFF

“IN THE villages inhabited by Bahrain’s Shia majority on the outskirts of the capital, Manama, protesters battle with police every day. Seven months after demonstrators called for democratic reforms by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers, prompting a harsh crackdown, there is still no sign of sectarian reconciliation. A set of by-elections on September 24th for 18 of the 40 seats in the lower house of parliament is meant to convey a sense of progress but may well do the opposite. Pro-democracy campaigners, nearly all of them Shias, have called for the villagers to unite in a mass march back to Manama to reclaim Pearl roundabout, the hub of the protests until government troops routed demonstrators there in March. Since then at least 35 people have been killed. Any march back to the capital will be blocked by a large-scale security presence. Another violent confrontation is quite likely. The elections are unlikely to improve matters. The 18 seats were abandoned in February by Shias who walked out of parliament in protest at the government’s repression. Bahrain’s main opposition party, Wefaq, is boycotting the poll…………“People are not afraid any more,” says Mr Matar, who was beaten in prison and spent 45 days in solitary confinement, sometimes hearing the screams of other inmates. “They have seen the worst that the government can do and they have kept coming back.……”….”

Also sprach The Economist. The harsh crackdown by the Bahrain regime is probably seen now by some sane members of the ruling al-Khalifa clan as a big mistake. The regime threw what it thought were its best cards on the table. It threw everything in its arsenal at the people: security forces, snipers, foreign mercenaries, Saudi and Emirati troops, killings, beatings, prison, torture, sexual assault, mass firing from jobs, expelling from schools and colleges. It has not been enough: so what else can they do, other than the logical obvious they refuse to do? As the man said: people are not afraid anymore, they have seen what the despots can dish out, and they are not impressed.
What Bahrain has experienced since last February is a low level civil war, with each side using the best weapons it perceives at its disposal. The protesters are not using lethal weapons, but they are battling the well-armed regime and its local goons and foreign mercenaries and foreign occupation forces. The regime clings to its policy of apartheid and disenfranchising most of the people. The people now insist on nothing less than full rights: political and economic. It is a low level civil war that risks spreading, a direct result of the foolish policies of the Al Khalifa kleptocracy and their closest allies, nay their masters, across the Gulf.
It is a low level civil war that has no end in sight unless one of two things happen: the people give up their rights and accept despotism and apartheid or the rulers see where all this is leading their small country and give the people back their rights.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, censorship, Iran, Saudi Arabia

From Tehran to Riyadh: Cranking up the Censorship Machine………

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“Saudi Arabian bloggers and journalists say the arch-conservative Islamic kingdom will find it hard to douse glimmers of more open reporting despite a tightening of media rules after the spread of popular revolts through the Arab world………… The world’s number one oil exporter announced a series of stricter regulations for journalists after “Arab Spring” unrest hit neighbouring countries earlier this year……… In a royal decree issued in March as protests were boiling over in the region in March, Saudi King Abdullah forbade criticism of senior members of the Sunni Muslim clergy. A new media law issued in April then threatened fines and the closure of publications that offended top figures or were seen to jeopardise stability. More recently, a leaked draft of an anti-terrorism law classified “endangering national security” and “harming the reputation of the state” as terrorist offences………..Twenty years ago, newspapers were so worried about upsetting the Saudi government that they waited days before reporting on Iraq’s invasion of the kingdom’s neighbour Kuwait………..”

I don’t see that it makes any difference. Nobody inside the Kingdom without Magic has ever openly criticized the princes or the top clergy openly, not unless they wanted to vanish (a few who did, did). Or unless they are in the safety of exile.

As for this part: “Twenty years ago, newspapers were so worried about upsetting the Saudi government that they waited days before reporting on Iraq’s invasion of the kingdom’s neighbour Kuwait ”. Yeah, unfortunately I remember that one: the princes were scared s–tless, to use a vulgar high-school term, from Saddam’s Baathist military which proved to be like a hollow Mexican piñata (sans the candy) when faced with the Americans. It took a visit by Dick Cheney (then US Secretary of Defense) and the promise of US troops to get them to mention the invasion and to cooperate. All this is not mentioned in our ‘genteel’ Gulf media: it is considered un-brotherly, or perhaps un-sisterly, to mention it in mixed company
.
All this is a regional phenomenon, not just a Saudi one. From Iran through Riyadh and all the way to Algeria, they all seek ways to stifle free opinion. Their main worry now is the Internet, a newish beast that they can’t seem to figure how to control. Unless they ban it as Saddam did in Iraq.
Cheers
mhg





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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Libya, NATO

Is the Libyan Insurgency becoming the Libyan War?…………..

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“With armed loyalists of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the fallen Libyan leader, still ensconced in his hometown and a few other redoubts as the seven-month-old Libyan conflict winds down, NATO announced a three-month extension of its bombing campaign on Wednesday. “We are determined to continue our mission for as long as necessary, but ready to terminate the operation as soon as possible,” the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said in a statement from the alliance’s Brussels headquarters. It is the second 90-day extension, and it was approved less than a week before the campaign was set to end…… As if to answer him, Britain’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that its warplane contingent in the NATO Libya operation had attacked loyalists’ military deployments in three areas. Tornado GR4’s hit targets in Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown, Surt; in the loyalist desert enclave of Bani Walid; and in the north-central town of Hun………..”

Now, is the formerly “Libyan insurgency” becoming the “Libyan War”, with NATO and a faction of the NATO-baked former rebels facing a new insurgency by Qaddafi loyalists? If Colonel Qaddafi and his Qaddafistas linger and regroup and the new Tripoli regime proves incapable of handling them, rooting them out. If, as the verse says. Libya covers a lot of ground, borders six countries and the sea. Yes it can, yes it can, but let’s hope not.
(I also wonder how they pronounce the middle name of Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Libya)
Cheers
mhg


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