Category Archives: Arab Counterrevoltion

Arab Counterrevoltion, Bahrain, China

Bahrain Prime Minister Meets another Dong in Manama……


      


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“Following HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa’s achievement as the winner of The International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International) President’s Gold Award, a group of prominent BPW International Goodwill Ambassadors and representatives have journeyed to Bahrain to personally present HRH the Prime Minister with his award. This group includes three of the four jurors of the Nomination Committee: Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, former Vice-President of Taiwan, Dr. Dong-Sung Cho……………”

But the prime minister is a guy not a woman, as far as we know, so how can he win a Professional Women Gold Award? Can’t they just give him a Professional Men Gold Award?

As far as I am concerned, that makes two Dongs meeting in Manama………… 


Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Elections, Egypt, GCC, Saudi Arabia

The Pope and Synods of GCC: Punking Al Sisi, Excommunicating Qatar……..

      

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“Saudi Arabia had long seen Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood as a threat. After his ouster, it quickly pledged $5 billion (3.7 billion euros) in aid to Cairo, with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates offering a combined $7 billion. King Abdullah also urged “brothers and friends to avoid meddling in Egypt’s internal affairs,” warning that harming Egypt would amount to “harming Islam, Arabism and Saudi Arabia.” The king appeared to be referring to Qatar, the only Gulf country to back Morsi, and whose relations with Saudi Arabia and most of its other neighbours in the region have been strained………….”

Saudi palace bureaucrats, with the help of the vastest and most expensive media oil money can buy, are trying to recreate the image of their king Abdullah. Even as the king is basking in the diversions of Morocco. (FYI: senior Saudi princes like to spend R&R in Morocco, it is a beautiful and relaxed country in which they often die).
The palace minions and the vast controlled media have been trying to show their king as some kind of Wahhabi Pope, but nobody outside the Persian Gulf states is buying it. Actually very few outside Saudi Arabia are buying it, with the exception of Bahrain’s ruling family and some tribal Wahhabi liberals in one other Gulf GCC state (Hint: it is not Oman or Qatar or the UAE). As for the wider Arab world, nobody is buying it except for the Salafis whom I correctly consider to be a fifth column for the princes.

This week, the Saudi king, or maybe rather his palace minions, surprised General Al Sisi after his election victory (he got 97% of those who bothered to vote) by sending him a public congratulatory message that is also a combination road map and twenty-five year plan for Egypt. Basically telling him to keep  good thing going. It was a backhanded congratulatory message: basically the old king, or his minions, told Al Sisi and the Egyptians what to do. In other words, the oil potentate effectively punked Generalissimo Field Marshal President Al Sisi. Talk about interference in the internal affairs of another sovereign country.
The princes are also trying to pressure the
Qatari potentates into surrendering by abandoning their support for the
Muslim Brotherhood. Failing that, the King’s message also threatens to ‘excommunicate’ and expel Qatar from the GCC synods.


On the brighter side, the king called for a conference of all donor states to Egypt, presumably to drown the country with oil money, provided it continues to toe the Saudi line. As a down payment, 20 thousands heads of cattle arrived in Alexandria, with 80 thousand more to follow, gifts from the UAE rulers. The sheep and cows did not originate in the United Arab Emirates, but like almost everyone else in that country they were imported from elsewhere.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Elections, Arab Politics, Egypt, GCC, UAE

The GCC Livestock Exchange: Cattle from the UAE, Votes from Egypt………

      

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Egyptian media report that 20 thousand heads of cattle have arrived by ship at the port of Alexandria. They are the first payment of a 100 thousand head of cattle grant from the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Egypt.
The political heads of cattle arrived suspiciously just after Generalisimo Field Marshal Al Sisi was declared the winner of the election by 97% of the vote. But the timing could be a coincidence, or maybe not. Yet, in the brotherly and sisterly world of official inter-Arab relations, a free lunch is an illusion. After all, the potentates and princes did not give a fig about the Egyptian people when Morsi was president.
On the other hands millions of heads of cattle voters voted for Al Sisi in the election, which gave him a modest 97% of the vote. That is modest by the standards of Yemen, where president general Hadi Al Zombie won by 99.8% a couple of years ago (and it is not true that only GCC rulers and Saudi princes voted in his election). In comparison, it is expected that Bashar Al Assad will win the Syrian election by a relatively modest margin, as he is unlikely to win more than 85% (my prediction).
The Saudi king woke up from his sleep long enough to announce that the election of Sisi heralds a new Arab awakening (he was in a rare mood to flaunt fancy words). Overall the Egyptian deal is not so bad for the potentates: 100 thousand heads of cattle in exchange for millions of heads of…………..

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Politics, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

Watermelon Countries: Al Sisi and Al Saud in a Partnership Made in Heaven……

      

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“The Bahraini Arabic language newspaper al-Wasat reported on Wednesday Apr. 9 that a Cairo court began to consider a case brought by an Egyptian lawyer against Qatar accusing it of being soft on terrorism. The “terrorism” charge is of course a euphemism for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have designated a “terrorist” organisation and are vowed to dismantle. The two new partners and the UAE also loathe Qatar for hosting and funding Al-Jazeera satellite TV. The continued incarceration of the Al-Jazeera journalists and dozens of other journalists on trumped up charges is no coincidence. The court case is symptomatic of the current Saudi-Egyptian relationship in their counter-revolution against the 2011 pro-democracy upheavals………….The pro-autocracy partnership between the Egyptian military junta and the Saudi ruling family goes beyond their opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and the perceived threat of terrorism. It emanates from the autocrats’ visceral opposition to democracy and human rights, including minority and women’s rights.…………… According to media and Human Rights Watch reports, at least 15,000 secular and Islamist activists are currently being held in Egyptian prisons, without having been charged or convicted…………….”

Egypt is rapidly going back to pre-2011. Soon it will be more Mubarakist than it was even under Mubarak: at least they could joke about Mubarak in private. Generalisimo Al Sisi is not president yet, he is not even a minister anymore, he is allegedly just a private citizen candidate. But mocking him can land you in prison. Now they are going back to the absurd court cases brought by lawyers with political leanings against citizens and against foreign countries they disagree with. Even the country’s institutions are back to the old habit of bending backward, or maybe bending forward, to accommodate the Arab potentates across the Red Sea. Will anybody dare bring a lawsuit against the military for overthrowing an elected government and for killing unarmed civilians? Will anybody sue the foreign princes for arresting Egyptian citizens on trumped-up charges and not bringing them to trial? Will any of the feloul courts hear such cases? Maybe on a day when pigs start flying over Egypt.

Counter-Revolutionary Egypt is now well on its way to becoming a certified Watermelon Country (ديرة بطيخ), as we say back home on the Gulf. As a (ديرة بطيخ), certified by the Secretary General of the Gulf GCC, himself a certified watermelon bureaucrat, it is qualified to apply for membership. But that can wait until Generalisimo Field Marshal Al Sisi starts his thirty years in power.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood

Baghdad on the Nile? Egyptian Kangaroo Courts add Drug Charges to Morsi Trials……

      

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“All Arab political courts are like bad jokes, except to their victims.” Me?


“A son of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi will face trial for alleged possession and use of hashish, judicial sources said on Monday, but no date has yet been fixed. Abdullah Morsi, 19, was arrested on March 1 along with a friend for allegedly possessing two joints while they were in a car parked by the roadside in Qalyubia province north of Cairo. The two were freed the next day pending investigation after agreeing to give urine samples which the prosecution says tested positive. Morsi’s other son Osama has denied the charges against Abdullah, saying the authorities were “fabricating the case” and that his brother’s arrest was an attempt to “defame the family”……………..”

The judicial absurdity does not stop in Cairo, it gets even more absurd by the day. Now they are hounding the family of Morsi, in the true style of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist justice.

 
I wrote last month that: They are doing it again in Cairo. My special
source, snuck secretly into Cairo, reports that Egyptian courts have
been ordered to add some new charges to the litany of charges against
deposed president Morsi. The elected Mr. Morsi was deposed by a military coup d’etat led by Generalisimo Abdelfattah Al Sisi……….. just in case, just to make the case against
Morsi watertight, she reports they have decided to add new charges to
the old ones. The new charges could include contributing to global
warming, African threats of diverting Nile waters, the loss of East
Jerusalem to the Jews (King Hussein is dead), the jump in Syrian war
victims from 75 thousand dead to over 100 thousand dead during his year
in office, topless German tourists switching their sun
bathing-activities from Egypt to Cyprus, as well as any epidemic and natural
disaster that may befall Egypt and neighboring countries. She also reports that they toyed with a new charge against the doomed Morsi……………


Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC

Al Sisi in Abu Dhabi under Iranian Drones, Burning the Reichstag………

      

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Speaking of Egypt and hooking up with the Gulf GCC:

I fatwa here and now that it will not happen. Egypt will not become a member of the Gulf GCC. It just ain’t gonna happen, and that is all there is to it. That is also the fatwa I issued when the Saudi princes shocked everyone but not me by inviting humorless Jordan and floating Morocco to join the GCC. That was before they politely dis-invited them (is there a polite way, maybe an app to dis-invite someone?). The princes and the potentates often act as if they have no clue as to WhatTheFuck(1) is happening or will happen. So, I am saving them the trouble as a public service.


Speaking of which. Generalisimo (sorry, Field Marshal) Al Sisi is already exploring his putative future domain. He is in Abu Dhabi visiting the UAE. Allegedly reportedly the potentates of Abu Dhabi shared with the Saudi princes the cost of financing the military coup d’etat that overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood and the ensuing police campaign that locked up anybody who is a member. No, the Reichstag was not burned down in Cairo, but pretty close to it. Egyptian media is speculating that he may resign as Minister of Defense next week in order to run for president. Yet he may have a problem: once he is not Minister of Defense, does not control the tanks officially, what authority will he have over the government? How can he guarantee a huge win (or, maybe 80%-85%)? How can he be sure of a win at all? Something for the General (sorry, Field Marshal) to think about.

The Iranians probably have their domestic drones flying right above his bald spot, getting the measure of the officer whom Morsi trusted. To his regret. 


——————
(1) Note: I don’t often use expletives, especially in composite form and the full WTF, but the potentates often inspire me. The best way I know to describe some of their statements and actions, succinctly.
 
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC, Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

GCC Egyptian Hook-Up Game: Saudis Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places……

      

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“Saudi Arabia is also now bruiting the induction of Egypt into the Gulf Cooperation Council, presumably with the proviso that Egypt will be allowed to extract enormous strategic rent from the GCC. In return, Egypt will protect the very wealthy but very weak GCC from Iran and Shiite Iraq, and from the Brotherhood. Anonymous Egyptian sources I saw quoted in the Egyptian press when I was there last week were speculating that if al-Sisi becomes president, he can bring in $240 billion in investments and aid from the Gulf………………..”

“PAMP (Polygamous
Arab Male Potentates), seeking poor family-ruled Arab country that does
not believe in democracy, and is willing to send troops and security
agents when needed. Money is no object, up to a point. Preferably no
Shi’as or Hasidim or Haredim among the population.” Possible GCC Personal Want-Ad


That PAMP mock want-ad reflects the state of Gulf GCC regimes since 2011. It is actually the state of the Saudi royal family, since it is the princes who have been flailing to grasp some accommodating Arab regime that can be invited to keep order when needed in exchange for money. From Jordan to Morocco, and now to Egypt.
 

Perhaps they are better off staying with the U.S. Navy for external protection from any real or (more likely) imaginary foe. Whoever heard of the Egyptian navy? Or the Jordanian navy? Or the Moroccan navy? But protection from whom? What the princes really want is a land force for protection from their own people, protection from change: that is why they have hired mercenaries from Asia and Arab countries (Bahrain) and even Latin America and Australia (UAE).

Modern Egyptian military history, its effectiveness, is very iffy (I am being polite here). In spite of the heroics of Al Sisi. After all, the four wars with Israel were not exactly ringing victories, starting with the first defeat at the hands of the ragtag Haganah bands in 1948, what we call the Palestine War. Actually in that war five Arab armies were defeated by graduates of the European concentration camps and survivors of the butchery of the civilized world. It was all downhill from then.
They may have won their last campaign at home: the war Mr. Mubarak declared on Egyptian swine in 2009, the so-called War on Pigs. Egypt’s native swine, the country’s largest minority for thousands of years seem to have all but disappeared, reportedly eliminated. Long before anyone ever heard of Mohammed Morsi. Although some of them are probably hidden inside the government and the military, sanctioned within the bureaucracy.
 

The Saudi princes are notoriously unstable (or maybe just stupid). They surprised everyone, perhaps even each other, by unilaterally inviting Jordan and Morocco to join the GCC in 2011. Then they spent the next couple of years trying to walk back from that stupid proposal.
Now they are toying with economically strapped Egypt, a country that keeps getting more crowded along the banks of the Nile. Egypt needs to stop and then reverse its population explosion, otherwise no GCC money can help. Besides, dreams of tens of billions are just that: dreams. They will get a few billion, but at a price of letting the Gulf princes and potentates pick their leaders (as they did in 2013 and 2014), and at the price of deciding their foreign policy. At the price of turning the country even more into a ‘watering’ hole for hungry and thirsty and, er, ‘socially’ frustrated and repressed Wahhabi men.
Here are some links to previous postings on this topic:

GCC Summit in December: Auld Lang Syne and L’Internationale

Bahrain Poised to Import Even More Jordanian Mercenaries?

Morocco and Jordan and GCC Constitutional Monarchy

Moroccans are from Mars, the GCC from Venus? Democracy and Humor

Saudi Leadership of GCC: Three Major Failures, Three Strikes but not Out, not yet

Gulf GCC: on Jordanian Accession, Roman Dinarius, Israeli Shekel, and Kosher Currency

Saudis in Denial: Expanded GCC? What Expanded GCC?

Expanded GCC? Picking Security over Economics, More on Black Magic

Gulf GCC: Moroccan Couscous Controversy, Jordanian Humor Controversy

Riyadh Marriage Proposal: GCC, Morocco, Jordan……

Freedoms the GCC will Bring to Morocco and Jordan……

Fatwas on GCC Expansion: Jordan, Morocco, and the Muftis

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Wahhabi

How to Say “Vive la Révolution” in Wahhabi? Egypt Goes Back to the 99% Solution ………

      

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“BREAKING: Official says 98.1 percent of voters approve Egypt’s new constitution in first vote after coup” AP

The new incarnation of the Mubarak regime (now called the Sisi regime) did not want to look greedy. It could have opted for 100% approval for its constitution. Instead it decided to make it more ‘competitive’, decided to get only 98.1%, not even the typical Arab 99% we are used to. Of course the Saudi rulers and other potentates in the Gulf do better: they get 100% of the vote from the day they are born. It is love and larceny from the first bite, the first breath. And if you don’t believe this, try visiting the state security prisons in places like Riyadh and Manama, among others.
 
Generalísimo Al Sisi, dubbed Egypt’s newest sex symbol, has said last week that he will decide on running for president if the Egyptian people show that they want him to run. That presumably meant that if the Egyptian people approved his constitution, then he will run. So, it looks like he will run unopposed or against token opposition, a la Mubarak. As for the Egyptian people, I am becoming more convinced by the day that most of them don’t know WTF they want. Worst, most of them seem not to know WTF they are ‘voting’ for anymore. Meanwhile, the truly elected hapless deposed president Mohamed Morsi looks set to rot in prison for the rest of his natural life.
As for the so-called Arab uprisings, the Wahhabi princes own them now, from the Nile to the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. How do you say: “vive la révolution” in Wahhabi?

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Egypt

Cairo Counterrevolution: Kangaroo Courts Reopen In Egypt………

        

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“Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will be put on trial next month, the state news agency reported Wednesday. Morsi, who has been detained since the military forced him from office on July 3, will face charges of inciting the killing of opponents, an accusation that his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood have called trumped-up. The trial is set to begin Nov. 4 in the Cairo Appeals Court, according to the official MENA news agency. In the months since the Islamist leader was ousted, his followers have taken to the streets en masse, demanding his reinstatement and clashing repeatedly with police and troops. In the deadliest confrontation, security forces in mid-August broke up protest camps set up by Morsi’s supporters, killing nearly 1,000 of them…………….”

Here is what is happening in Egypt:

  • The Ancien Régime military is now back in power in Cairo.
  • It has ordered the Ancien Régime‘s Kangaroo courts back in business, to put Mr. Morsi on trial.
  • The old dictator that the “uprising” of 2011 allegedly overthrew is effectively out free, his felul forming the “interim” government.
  • The only elected president is in prison awaiting trial. Okay he was incompetent and fundamentalist, but show me an Arab leader, any Arab leader, who is not incompetent. (Don’t show me any oil potentates, because they can always cover up the incompetence with money, for a while).
  • The old dictator’s regime is fully back in power.
  • The counterrevolution is complete, long live the counterrevolution.
  • Meanwhile, the unelected tribal Arab leaders and potentates cheer the military takeover of Egypt even as they claim to want democracy and Wahhabi-style freedom for the Syrian people.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Counterrevoltion, Bahrain, Egypt, GCC

Cairo: President Zombie and King Honey Boo Boo Hold a Tiny Summit of sorts………….

      

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“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, following meeting with Egyptian President Adli Mahmoud Mansour, delivered a press statement, in which expressed delight in the continuation of the course of relations and coordination between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Egypt that asserts the strength of relations between Egypt and the GCC countries and the issues of common concern, and expressed appreciation for the Egyptian stance and its people towards the Kingdom of Bahrain and its people………… HM the King underlined Bahrain’s role as President of the current session of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in supporting the solid relations between Egypt and GCC countries to achieve the common goal of Arab countries…………….”

It is fun to read these inane stupid almost-always meaningless communiques that come out after two impotent Arab potentates meet. And there are no Arab leaders who are more impotent than those two, both sidekicks of someone else.
Mr. Adly Mansour bin Zombie Al Mubarak, is the Mubarak-appointed judicial bureaucrat who was appointed interim president by General Al Sisi. He met with the self-promoted King Honey Boo Boo in Cairo in a mini-summit to exchange pleasantries and look important and relevant. Yet they did not fool anyone except their tame and controlled media. Neither one of them is relevant to anything that happens in the wider Arab world or Middle East. Neither is relevant to what happens in their own respective countries that are saddled with them.
Cheers
mhg

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