Category Archives: Arab Revolutions

Arab Revolutions, France, Saudi Arabia, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Vice President of Syrian National Coalition: SNC to Attend Assad’s Funeral in Montreux………

      

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“The main Syrian opposition group in exile promised on Saturday that it will not “compromise” its principles after it finally decided to attend the peace talks in Switzerland next week. “We will go to Geneva 2 without compromising any principles of our revolution,” Ahmed al-Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, told reporter in a press conference in Istanbul. Jarba said that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime will “enter its funeral,” when attending the conference……………”

Mr. Jarba is going to Geneva because he was told to do so by his foreign bosses. He can’t help using Baathist jargon (mainly Iraqi Baathist jargon like the talk about ‘funerals’, etc)) when talking about the regime, but that comes from a lifetime of growing up listening to them.
 
He now calls himself ‘President Jarba’ on his Twitter account @PresidentJarba), something that might piss off a certain Saudi prince as well as Bashar Al-Assad and many opposition militia commanders. He is actually the vice president of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), representing only some of the Syrian opposition, especially part of the Saudi faction, but hardly all of it. Everyone knows that the SNC has a king and a president, neither of whom is named Jarba. That the king of the Syrian National Coalition is named Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, that the ‘president’ of SNC is Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Bandar’s lifelong ambition now is to liberate Syria for Saudi-style freedom and democracy and tolerance and human rights. That might be opposite to the Iranian and Russian ambition which is also to keep Syria for their own style of freedom and democracy and human rights. Both goals are also different from the ambition of French president Francois Hollande who doesn’t give a rat’s derrière about Syrian freedom but whose goal is to keep the Saudis buying weapons and other goods from socialist France in the name of freedom and democracy and human rights, as well as ‘liberté, égalité, infidélité’.
All this means that the Syrian people are now trapped into an unprecedented sectarian confessional regional proxy war, which means they are now truly screwed, more than ever.

BTW: don’t hold your breath about Geneva (actually Montreux). There will be no agreement of course; it is a place to see and to be seen. Perhaps there may be only a deal to meet again in, say, six months which will be extended to nine or twelve months.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Britain, GCC

Duke of York in Bahrain: No Tower of London Option for the Former Randy Andy…………

      

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“The Duke of York is due to start an official visit to the Middle Eastern state of Bahrain to promote the UK. The UK government asked Prince Andrew to make the trip, which begins on Tuesday, as part of Britain’s “Great” campaign to boost business and tourism…………..”

“HRH the Duke of York presented an Honorary OBE to Mr Khalid Al Zayani, Chairman of the Bahrain British Business Forum and Chairman of the GREAT British Week Steering Group. Mr Al Zayani was awarded an Honorary OBE in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to UK business overseas and UK/Bahraini relations. Her Majesty The Queen gave permission for the honour to be presented to Mr Al Zayani during the Duke of York’s visit. The ceremony was attended by members of Mr Al Zayani’s family. British Ambassador Iain Lindsay congratulated Mr Al Zayani on receiving his honour, saying “I am delighted that HRH the Duke of York was able to present Khalid Al Zayani with his Honorary OBE.………….”

Prince Andrew, formerly dubbed Randy Andy (but that is okay: who of us wasn’t randy at that age?). Now edified as the Duke of York, he has been a regular visitor to the post-uprising occupied Bahrain, the Bahrain of home raids, mass arrests, torture, foreign mercenaries, and daily tear gas. Of course, like all visiting potentates he doesn’t see all that.
What else is there to do for some of these marginal but bored and possibly still greedy royals? They can’t lock them up in the Tower of London anymore, can they? Those were the days.

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 Revolutions, Iran, Iraq, Syria, US Foreign Policy, WMD

From Iraq to Syria to Iran: the Quest for a Smoking Gun or a Mushroom Cloud or a Slam Dunk or……..

      

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“A series of revelations about the rocket believed to have delivered poison sarin gas to a Damascus suburb last summer are challenging American intelligence assumptions about that attack and suggest that the case U.S. officials initially made for retaliatory military action was flawed. A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government…………..”

Could this be a case of déjà vu all over again (Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc)?Could we be revisiting the same story again this year or next in Iran? You betcha it could and we could.

It is true that this does not prove anyone’s innocence or guilt in the Sarin gas attacks. Yet the suspicion of the whole Sarin claim was there from the outset, at least as far as I am concerned. Even some UN WMD official suggested earlier that the rebels may have used Sarin, but then she went silent. The story and video clips were broadcast initially in Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network, in both cases of reported gas use. Western media picked it up quickly and it became “the story” of the time. The U.S. Congress took it from there.
 

I have expressed doubt from the beginning, and not only because I automatically suspect almost anything that is publicized by Saudi media (I do, I also suspect many things that are published in official Iranian media). Several things did not smell right, were neither halal nor kosher, including the timing: these claims (and revelations) always cam right after the Syrian opposition had suffered big military defeats or were about to be ejected from strategic positions (Qusayr, etc). It also did not make sense to use WMD to kill a few dozen civilians, when bombing and bullets had done the same grizzly “job” in the past without an international outcry and outrage. But all this is not new: I and others have pointed this out during the past year.

No wonder the Obama administration for long insisted on only saying that “Sarin was used in Syria“, without specifying the regime or the opposition as the user. That lasted until it came under pressure from congressional microphone-macho type (of both parties) and the Saudi princes and potentates.
This new report is not conclusive, yet neither were the other reports, apparently. But the long quest continues: for the Smoking Gun, the Mushroom Cloud, the Slam Dunk, the Lost Ark………


Cheers
mhg

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Al-Qaeda, Arab Revolutions, Jihadis, Syria

Syria: a Side War Among Worst Enemies, Jarba and Buffalo Selected……

      

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“The two Islamist fighting forces in Syria affiliated with al Qaida on Tuesday appeared to be on the edge of an all-out conflict amid reports that dozens more captured soldiers and civilians have been executed at the hands of the more radical of them, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Abu Mohammad al Julani, who heads the Syrian-based Jabhat al Nusra, or Nusra Front, charged that the rival group had pursued “misguided policies,” “had a significant role in instigating the conflict” and warned: “We will defend ourselves against any aggression directed against us, from whatever the source.” The surprise offensive that Nusra and other Syria-based regime opponents began Friday against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has forced the Iraq-based group, consisting mainly of foreign volunteers, to abandon many of the bases and towns it occupied in the past six months in northern Syria. Heavy fighting was reported Tuesday………………….”

It is a side war, a Wahhabi vs. Wahhabi battle for control of the Syrian opposition. Speaking of the Syrian opposition: I read that a bunch of members of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) have resigned last week. One source claimed the resignation was in protest against the re-selection of Saudi-appointed chief of SNC, Ahmad Al-Jarba (Badr Buffalo Jamous was appointed his deputy). Another source reports the resignations were a protest against participation in the Geneva “peace talks”.

Even as these meetings are held, even as Western “Friends of Some of Syria’s Opposition” are meeting in Paris, other groups and militias are breaking away. New blocs are formed among the militias, like mutations in a stagnant pond. Some breakaway groups are holding their own ‘conferences’, in Spain and other venues. The Syrian “opposition”, all of them including secular exiles and Muslim Brotherhood and armed rebels and Jihadis and kidnappers and warlords, are their own worst enemies.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Persian Gulf, US Foreign Policy

Chuck Hagel Going Gulf Native: Support for “Unique” Political Reform in Bahrain………

      

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“The United States, he vowed, will continue to guard “the free flow of energy and commerce” from the Persian Gulf and keep Iran nuclear-free, through the presence of 35,000 US military personnel or the (as-yet-unproven) regional missile defense system. Hagel also trumpeted the American commitment to “political reform” in the gulf region. But the Pentagon chief uttered not a word about the hundreds of Bahrainis languishing in prison—many without adequate medical care—for demanding the very rights he says they deserve. Bahrainis have engaged in nearly daily demonstrations against the Al Khalifa monarchy for the past three years. This resistance started on Valentine’s Day, 2011, when thousands gathered at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital city, Manama, to demand free and fair elections, real power for the popularly elected lower house of Parliament, the release of political prisoners and an end to government corruption. From the beginning, the monarchy has sought to suppress this activism with home raids, torture, show trials and lengthy prison sentences……………….”

It says: “Hagel also trumpeted the American commitment to ‘political reform’ in the gulf region”. Oh, it would be fun if he said that publicly in Riyadh. It would be even fun-ner if he said it wearing native attire (Gulf dishdasha or Saudi thobe and shmagh): the security agents would then suspect him of a native seeker and reform, converging on him. Then he would discover how truly reform-minded the ruling families of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Saudi Arabia, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Bandar Goes to Washington, May Seek Syrian Presidency…….

      

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AlQuds AlArabi of London (reportedly still Qatari-financed), reports that chief of Saudi Intelligence Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Al-Saud is heading to the United States for medical treatment. It doesn’t say what ails him, but if afterwards he goes to Morocco for recuperation, that would be an ominous sign. Other princes reportedly have ended their Moroccan recuperation ‘feet first’, as the saying goes.
The daily also reports that the prince, who is the effective leader of the Syrian opposition and Lebanon’s March 14 bloc, will use the trip to smooth over Saudi-American relations. Among topics to be discussed: the Arab Peace Initiative for Israel-Palestine (actually it was a Thomas Friedman Initiative which the Saudis hijacked), Syria (Saudis want to show that they can also selectively side against some of the Jihadis fighting against Al-Assad, even as the opposition continues its happy disintegration). The report claims that relations between Washington and Riyadh warmed up after American officials, finally, announced that Iran will not be attending the Geneva 2 conference on Syria. Having apparently blocked Iran from attending Geneva (on Syria but not on the nuclear issue), the Saudi goal now is to prevent Bashar Al-Assad from running for president next year, presumably for fear that he might defeat Prince Bandar in the election…………

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Media, Syria

Journalists and Syria’s Liberator-Kidnappers………

      

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                           Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Thirteen international news organizations, including the BBC, The Associated Press and The New York Times, have written a letter to the armed opposition in Syria asking for assurances that their reporters will not be abducted. Over the past year, the letter says, the organizations have “witnessed a disturbing rise in the kidnapping of journalists while on assignment within the northern provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and al-Raqqa,” and elsewhere in Syria. The organizations estimate that more than 30 journalists are now being held, the letter said, and that as a result many of them have “decided to limit their coverage of the war.”…….. “We understand that, as in any war zone, reporters face great risk of injury and death,” the letter says, “and we accept those risks, but the risk of kidnapping is unacceptable……………….”

What a polite letter to the Jihadis. They
worry about the risk of kidnapping. The risk of being shot and getting
beheaded is apparently not so bad.
For more than two years Western media ignored the role of the Syrian opposition groups in the deaths and kidnappings of journalists and other civilians. Headlines were given only to journalists who were killed by regime forces; some others were killed by “unknown” parties and blamed on the regime. The major media fell in line with government policy in such a smooth transition that the old Pravda would have envied, that the Syrian daily Tishreen would envy. But that could go on for only so long, especially now that kidnapping rather than ‘liberation’ seems to be the major avocation of some of the armed groups. They re even kidnapping each other now, including each others’ wives.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Syria, WMD

Hersh on WMD of Choice: Syrian Sarin and French Haute Cuisine………..

      

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                                Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad…………..”

The story of Sarin use in at least two cases this year was broken through the semi-official Saudi Alarabiya network (a network that is owned and operated in Dubai by an in-law of the late King Fahd). These stories always came out at critical times for the Syrian opposition groups, usually after big defeats on the battlefield: for example one story broke out just after the regime victory as Qusayr. Saudi Alarabiya as usual broke the story through an interview with “activists” who supplied a video. Western media adopted the story with gusto: CNN practically declared its own war. The governments of the USA, Britain, and France jumped on the story, again. The French, always good at cooking food and occasionally cooking up evidence, quickly confirmed the use of Sarin. The French and British governments immediately implicated the Assad regime. The Obama administration seemed more doubtful and was relatively more honest: it often avoided pointing the finger at any one side, merely saying that “Sarin was used in Syria”.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Jihadis, Sectarian, Syria

Syrian Islamist Rebels: ‘Have 12 Hostage Nuns, Will Trade for Concubines or Prisoners……..

      

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“A Syrian Islamist rebel group wants to trade 12 kidnapped nuns for 1,000 women prisoners held by the government, a pan-Arab newspaper has reported. A spokesman for the “Free Qalamoun” group told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the nuns were safe. He said they would not be freed until several demands were met. These include the release of 1,000 Syrian women held in regime prisons according to the spokesman. The reports have not yet been independently confirmed. An official at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus said the nuns were safe but would not comment on which group had taken them. Islamist fighters who captured the Christian village of Maaloula north of Damascus moved the nuns from the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla.………….”

My initial thoughts were: If this is true, it will mean that the flow of foreign females for Jihad sex from Tunisia and other venues has dried up. The Salafis now have to resort to grabbing nuns (probably considered old and not very sensuous) and trading them for younger females. There have been reports of chicks from other places, Chechnya and Bosnia (and let’s not forget Ingushetia) going to Syria to entertain the cutthroats and indirectly help liberate Syria. As a result, they can also contribute to the future Islamic State of Syria by populating the place with many new little Wahhabis.
I still don’t understand why the Wahhabi folks on the Persian Gulf who supply money and weapons and some of the volunteers can’t also supply the women. They can always impose some of their Salafi values by insisting that there be no cross-tribal or even cross-national fraternization or conjugation (or that other kind of “ation”).
PS: Initially they responded by saying they had the nuns in ‘protective custody’. Now apparently the kidnappers-liberators have changed their minds: they are now asking to exchange the captive nuns with some of the female prisoners. Otherwise…….. what?

Cheers
mhg

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