Category Archives: Arab Revolutions

Arab Revolutions, Syria, WMD

Chemical Baskerville of Syria: WMD Experts Skeptical about U.S. Claim on Sarin……

      

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“Chemical weapons experts voiced skepticism Friday about U.S. claims that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used the nerve agent sarin against rebels on at least four occasions this spring, saying that while the use of such a weapon is always possible, they’ve yet to see the telltale signs of a sarin gas attack, despite months of scrutiny. “It’s not unlike Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn’t bark,” said Jean Pascal Zanders, a leading expert on chemical weapons who until recently was a senior research fellow at the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies. “It’s not just that we can’t prove a sarin attack, it’s that we’re not seeing what we would expect to see from a sarin attack.” Foremost among those missing items, Zanders said, are cellphone photos and videos of the attacks or the immediate aftermath……………..”

So where is the evidence? The WMD expert said: “It’s not unlike Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn’t bark”. He was not talking about anybody in the U.S. Senate, a lot of barking there last week.
Anyway, almost everybody is skeptical about the WMD story, even the Syrian “activists” who probably manufactured and provided the evidence, even the French and British who knowingly pretended it was “evidence”. Even the democratically elected Saudi king and Qatari shaikh. Only a couple of U.S. senators and the compliant dumbed-down US media actually believe it was real.
As for me, I am not just skeptical, I know that they know that we all know that it was manufactured evidence.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria

GCC Cuts Livelihood of Lebanese Shi’as and Waits for Godot, Desecrating ‘Allah’……….

      

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“Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah who are residing in Gulf Cooperation Council states will pay the price for the Shiite movement’s military role in Syria against freedom fighters.
A GCC statement, citing a ministerial council decision, said the measures will affect Hezbollah members’ “residency permits, and financial and commercial transactions.” The statement urged the Lebanese government to “assume its responsibilities toward the behavior of Hezbollah and its illegal and inhumane practices in Syria and the region.” The six-member bloc strongly condemned the flagrant intervention of Hezbollah in Syria and its participation in shedding the blood of Syrian people. The statement came after the Saudi Cabinet condemned Hezbollah’s “blatant intervention” ……………” Arab News (Saudi)

“The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoods and forbidding them from working in the GCC under the pretext that they support Hezbollah. The GCC hopes this will lead to a popular campaign by the Lebanese Shia to pressure Hezbollah and force it to withdraw from the Syrian war and stop supporting the regime. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took another step. It decided to hit where it hurts, threatening Lebanese Shia by cutting off their livelihoodsThe GCC also hopes that the step will increase the pressure on the Lebanese state in general (which, coincidentally, parallels Israeli thinking in all of its wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon). The GCC and their sponsors also hope for an anti-Hezbollah revolution to erupt in Lebanon…………….”

This probably means that Lebanese Shi’as will be targeted for collective punishment; they almost certainly use “Hezbollah” to mean Lebanese Shi’as. A way to use economics to apply sectarian political pressure on Lebanon. Persian Gulf states often tend to inflict collective punishment (I call them dumb punishment) during crises. Hezbollah defeats their favorite Salafi militias of the FSA and expatriate Lebanese Shi’as pay the price.
The ruling shaikhs of the UAE have been doing it for a couple of years, summarily expelling Lebanese Shi’a families long in the country (90% of UAE residents are temporary foreigners, including laborers and imported mercenaries anyway). Bahrain’s regime of course probably does not allow any Shi’as in to start with, and would love to get rid of its own majority Shi’as (it also imports thousands of foreign mercenaries to keep them repressed). A few tribal Salafis in Kuwait staged a “camera” burning of a Hezbollah banner, perhaps not realizing they also burnt the name “Allah”, something they always advise others never to do.
The GCC are also telling their citizens to stay out of Lebanon for security reasons (as if Bahrain and Qatif are very secure). Lebanon is the closest affordable summer retreat for tens of thousands of Gulf citizens. That would hurt both GCC citizens and Lebanon.
The joke is what is said here that: “Lebanon is urged to curb Hezbollah for its inhumane practices in the region”. Imagine the tribal potentates accusing anybody else of ‘inhumane’ practices. Choppers of heads, crucifixions, home raids, tortures, etc. That is like Saudi Arabia and Qatar complaining that Syria is undemocratic (probably true, but…….).

Cheers
mhg

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Africa, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Syria

Morsi Emulates McCain, Urges the Western Powers to Liberate Syria but not Sudan………

      

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So, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi suddenly broke diplomatic relations with Syria, closed the embassy and declared that the Western powers should establish a no-fly zone over Syrian territory. Only one or two days after US President John McCain announces that the United States will deliver more lethal weapons to the Syrian opposition groups. McCain also called for a no-fly zone, in fact he would prefer a full-scale invasion of Syria. Of course Morsi did not mean an Arab League no-fly zone over Syria: regular Arab air forces can’t organize a piss-up in a brewery, something I have noted before, let alone a no-fly zone with all its logistics.
Meanwhile, as Morsi agonizes over the Syrian people, he is has recently returned from visiting Sudan. Morsi is set to receive in Cairo General Omar Al-Bashir, president of Sudan for 26 years. Al Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for massacres (and other atrocities) in Darfur that reportedly have killed more people than the civil war in Syria.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions

One More War: On America in Syria, Bigoted Shaikh Al Qaradawi, and Russia in the Near Abroad…………

      

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The bigoted Shaikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi of Egypt and Qatar, the Nazi-admiring cleric has recently called for a sectarian Jihad in Syria. It is interesting that his call has been heeded by none other than the Obama administration. Supplying weapons and training is not supposed to be “direct” involvement yet, the Iranians and Russians do that too. But the next stage may be set by the Shadow President of the United States, John McCain, who has not met a war he did not like since his days of bombing Vietnamese villages. That nest stage might be a no-fly zone, without the UN approval, and hence an illegal no-fly zone. Who knows, maybe the Russians will learn from the West and start their own illegal no-fly zones in the countries of the “Near Abroad”. The Caucasus region has a plethora of opportunities.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, buoyed by the Obama move (or maybe is it the McCain move), also declared Jihad in Syria. The Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz (owner of the Asahrq Alawsat newspaper) called Shaikh Al Qaradawi to personally congratulate him for calling for a sectarian war in the Middle East.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, GCC, Sectarian, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Obama Joins Middle East Sectarian Jihad: Muslim Brotherhood Elated, Salafis Hopeful, Shi’as Doubtful………..

      

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“HOOAH! Obama moves to deliver another country to Muslim Brotherhood. USA! USA!……..” Drudge Report, tweeting an understatement

“Syria’s president and his Shi’ite allies were denounced by leading Sunni Arab voices on Friday, including Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood, which had reached out across Islam’s sectarian divide but has now called for jihad. The Brotherhood accused Shi’ites of being at the root of sectarian conflicts throughout history and threw its weight behind holy war – just months after a high-profile rapprochement with Iran, which backs Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. “Throughout history, Sunnis have never been involved in starting a sectarian war,” spokesman Ahmed Aref said, adding that Hezbollah provoked the new sectarian conflict in Syria………………..”

So Mr. Obama has been maneuvered into the Syrian sectarian war by some funny doubtful evidence produced by the French (oh so ethical in these matters) and the British (marginally better) in cooperation with Syrian “activists”, as well as some unrelenting badgering by Sen. John McCain and the taunting of Bill Clinton (who called him a “Wuss”) only two days earlier.
Now Syria is not Libya. This is not a domestic uprising anymore, it is a regional sectarian war instigated by some of the tribal absolute rulers of the Persian Gulf, mainly Saudis and Qataris, and the Salafist movement. None of the above three believe in freedom or democracy anymore than Mr. Al Assad does. The Syrian battle was joined, early on, by an influx of Jihadis as well as training and weapons from the West, Russia, Lebanon, and Iran. It has also been joined by supplies and some human assets from all the above places. So the Obama administration has now more firmly joined one side in this regional sectarian civil war. Nay, it has, by its intervention may have expanded the Syrian war from a regional proxy war in the Middle East to a worldwide sectarian war.

The Al Saud and their palace clerics and the Salafis and the Wahhabi liberals of the Gulf and Lebanon will be pleased. I imagine the tribal Salafis are praying that Allah would further guide the infidel heathens of the West toward supplying heavy weapons as well as a passel of no-fly zones, all for the glory of Allah and the Gulf potentates (not necessarily in that order).
In any case, the sectarian battle is joined and the result does not bode well for Syria or its neighboring countries.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Rocky Choices in Syria, no Hobson’s Choice in the Gulf GCC………

      

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“Hobson’s Choice:
1 an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative
2 the necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives “

“Besides, the rebels are losing support, in part because the regime has had some success in stirring sectarian fears. Many Syrians originally sympathetic to the rebels have been horrified by events such as the reported execution on June 9th of a 14-year-old boy by jihadists in Aleppo, allegedly for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Downtrodden Sunnis who six months ago were the mainstay of the opposition may be thinking again. “I hate the regime,” says a woman from a poor Damascus suburb. “But if forced to choose, perhaps I would rather live under them than the rebels. I am tired of the violence.” Qatari and Saudi support for the opposition has also scared a lot of Syrians. “This is now a war in Syria, but not a Syrian war,” says a dissident artist in the capital. “I have no illusions that the Gulf backers are interested in us having democracy.”…..……….”

Also sprach The Economist. The excellent magazine’s record is not perfect. It has a past record of some quality mis-prognostications about the Middle East (Iranian Revolution, Iran-Iraq War, Battle for Basrah, Syria, Lebanon, etc, etc………). Probably not this time: it covers an aspect of the Syrian civil war that is ignored by most Western media, nay an aspect that many in the West and many Arabs would consider heresy. The choices facing the Syrians are tough.

Syrians are caught between several clichés: a rock and a hard place, the frying pan and the fire, you name it. Like most Arab peoples, they have a plethora of bad choices among clichés, to pick from. The last word up there, by a skeptical Syrian citizen, got it right: “I have no illusions that the Gulf backers are interested in us having democracy.”
In Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the financiers of Syrian ‘liberation’, states that are seemingly gung-ho on Syrian “freedom”, the people have no such choices, not even between bad alternatives. Their own peoples don’t even have a lousy Hobson’s Choice.

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Syria, US Foreign Policy, WMD

How Clinton and Willful Europeans Got Obama into the Syrian War: the Lame Fool “Wuss” that Roared…….

      

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“What happens when you don’t intervene in Syria? Bill Clinton said that Obama risks looking like a ‘wuss,’ a ‘fool,’ and ‘lame’ by sitting on the sidelines………. “

Wednesday night Bill Clinton was reported in an interview to have opined that if Mr. Obama did not intervene in Syria, he would look like a “Wuss”, a “Fool”, and “Lame”. No doubt Bubba was taunting Obama, possibly having heard from Hillary and his own leftovers in the National Security team (female and possibly male). Possibly having heard from his pals and big contributors among Persian Gulf potentates.
Now what guy, including a US president, would not be stirred by these words (Wuss, Fool, and Lame)? So, next day Obama said that, yes, these funny French (and British) Sarin samples he had doubted for months are real. The Syrian regime has used Sarin: used a WMD several times and ended up killing more than 100 people. Not sure why he did not use bullets which are less controversial and cheaper than using Sarin several times to kill a mere 100+.
The mainstream US media were ready: they have been ready for months for two wars, Syria and Iran. Nay, the media have been ready for three wars, I forgot Lebanon. Just as they were ready for the liberation of Iraq (2003) and Panama (1989), and the Dominican Republic (1965), and Vietnam, all the way back to Spanish Cuba after the USS Maine was blown up.
As for the European part, I just add the following links to earlier posts:

WMD: How Qusayr and Syrian Activists and Willful European Leaders Revived the Doubtful Sarin Issue

A Grain of Salt: Cameron, Hollande, and the Free Syrian Salafi Army Have Sarin Evidence

Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Syria, US Foreign Policy, WMD

Did McCain Try to Hijack US Policy on Syria and the Middle East?……….

      

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Thursday we heard from the networks that the Obama administration has bought the French and British ‘discovery’ and now believes the Syrian forces had used Sarin, a form of WMD. No sooner was this news on the networks than they shifted to the Senate floor; that McCain and Graham were going to deliver the speeches that Obama or Jay Carney should have delivered. No doubt the networks were alerted by McCain and Graham, hoping to force Obama’s hand and to spin the news the way they prefer. Effectively they tried to hijack the administration’s foreign policy on Syria and the wider Middle East. Before the administration announced the news, the two senators declared it and detailed what policy the US government is going to follow and should follow.
The news was that the administration now believes that the Syrians used Sarin on “several occasions” and that between “100 to 150” people died. Nobody seems to have thought about this last fact: used “several time” and killed just over “100”. Now what kind of weapons of MASS destruction is used to kill only a handful of people each time? All that was lost in the noise all over the media and the social media. The social media are smarter, because average people can now opine and average people are smarter (on average) than the news-hungry media types. Most of the doubt over this new shift was expressed in the social media.


Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Blockade of Iran, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Will it be North to Aleppo? a Socialist-Tribal Campaign for Syria………..

      

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“As fighters with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement wage the battles that are helping Syria’s regime survive, their chief sponsor, Iran, is emerging as the biggest victor in the wider regional struggle for influence that the Syrian conflict has become. With top national security aides set to meet at the White House on Wednesday to reassess options in light of recent setbacks for the rebels seeking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, the long-term outcome of the war remains far from assured, analysts and military experts say. But after the Assad regime’s capture of the small but strategic town of Qusair last week — a battle in which the Iranian-backed Shiite militia played a pivotal role — Iran’s supporters and foes alike are mulling a new reality: that the regional balance of power appears to be tilting in favor of Tehran……………..”

This man from the so-called Gulf Research Council is putting the usual mandatory GCC spin on events with all the talk of the threat of some imaginary hegemony. So I shall not argue that point: after all it comes from the UAE.
It is too early to wisely predict the final outcome of Syria. But it is true that the tide is now with the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah side. If they consolidate their hold over the rest of Aleppo, the back of the military opposition will have been broken effectively. (Retaking the rest of Homs can be a mop-up, a footnote for future action). That does not mean Bashar Al Assad can relax and resume his pre-2011 autocratic role in Damascus. No, the Syrian genie is out of the bottle, as it is in most Arab states, but it will not be a Salafi genie based on foreign tribal Wahhabi fighters fed by royal petro-money.
Wars, even civil wars, can turn around several time. Only months ago, and for more than a year, it was predicted that Al Assad will be out in a few weeks. So, it may not be wise to predict that he is home free in Damascus to stay. Who knows, the joint French-Saudi campaign to save Aleppo (and hence Syria) for Wahhabi-style democracy may prevail. Shall we call it the Franco-Saudi Socialist Polygamous Tribal Democratic Alliance?
Cheers
mhg

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Arab Revolutions, Jihadis, Syria

Jihadists Flooding Syria: Go to Al Sham, Young Salafi…………

      

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“Foreign Islamist extremists are streaming into Syria, apparently in response to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah’s more visible backing of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a development that analysts say is likely to lead to a major power struggle between foreign jihadists and Syrian rebels should the Assad regime collapse. Researchers who monitor the conflict said this week that they’ve detected the influx of foreigners in firsthand observations on the battlefield, spotting them in rebel videos posted on the Internet, observing a recent spike in reported deaths of foreign fighters and studying their postings on social media sites. And while many foreign fighters have been absorbed into established Syrian rebel groups, there are signs now that an increasing number are remaining in free-standing units that operate independently and are willing to clash with other rebels and Syrian communities to implement their own rigid vision of Islamist governance……….. Elizabeth O’Bagy, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War who just returned from a two-week research trip to study rebels inside Syria, said that “without a doubt” she saw far more foreign fighters than on her previous trip two months ago, including foreigner-only fighting groups……………….”

It is a distortion to claim that foreign extremists are streaming into Syria as a response to Hezbollah’s new role. Actually foreign Jihadists have been streaming into Syria long before Hezbollah sent a single fighter into the country. Just before the legitimate Syrian uprising was twisted into a military confrontation by foreign Wahhabi extremists and by foreign money from the Persian Gulf Salafis and potentates. The Syrian regime’s inflexible violent initial response to the protests made matters worse. When I first saw who was the most eager to support the Syrian “opposition”, I suspected that it was a lost cause. I would read calls on social media by Salafi extremists from the Gulf to “go to Syria”, to donate for “Syria”.  The sectarian nature of the opposition militias (Free Syrian Salafi Army FSA, al-Nusra, and all the other Als) was clear from the spring of 2011, easily pointed out by the kidnappings, gruesome AlQaeda- style executions, hostage-taking, defacing religious shrines, and evictions of people of other faiths (Alawis, Shi’as, Christians, etc).
Iraq has hundreds (possibly more) of these Wahhabi terrorists in prison, many of them Saudis and other Gulfies, but some from other Arab states. The Saudis have a whole committee following up the cases and the fate of their citizens on trial in Iraq, where they went to blow up civilians. The Syrians possibly have even more of these in prison, although many of them were likely executed for entering the country with the intent to commit terrorism during war. Sort of like the punishment that the British and Germans meted to each others’ spies and terrorists during the Second World War.
Cheers
mhg

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