Category Archives: Arab Revolutions

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain

Joe Trippi Lobbying for Gulf Apartheid Regime? It is the Money, Stupid!………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Joe Trippi & Associates is a D.C.-based media firm headed by Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi, (@JoeTrippi) who managed Howard Dean’s 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign. He was hired some time before August by Dr. Saqer Al Khalifa, Ph.D. on behalf of Bahrain’s ministry of information. According to the registration documents, Trippi is tasked with providing “strategic counsel” and assisting “with outreach to members of the media and non-governmental organizations.” The documents don’t mention how much the Bahrain government is paying for the services…….”

Now Joe Trippi is selling his services to the despotic Apartheid regime of Bahrain. Oddly, his old Democrat boss Howard Dean is also being paid by the secretive and cultist Iranian opposition Mujahideen Khalq (MEK or MKO), a current favorite of the Republican extreme right-wing. Oddly, again, other Democrat luminaries like former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson have also been paid for the same ‘services’, now he is calling for a tougher stance in the Gulf region.
It is the money, stupid!
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Saudi Arabia

Arab Spring Finally Reaches Eastern Arabia? Wahhabi Faux-Liberals of the Gulf………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Security forces in eastern Saudi Arabia clashed with armed people provoked by a “foreign country,” the Saudi Press Agency said Tuesday, citing an official source at the Interior Ministry. The incident occurred Monday night in Awamiyya, in the Qatif region of Eastern province, where many Shiites in the predominantly Sunni country live. At least 14 people were wounded. “A group of instigators” congregated in the town’s roundabout and “used motorcycles and Molotov cocktails to undermine security and interfere in national sovereignty,” according to the report…….The ministry said that it “will not tolerate any threat to the security and stability of the homeland and its citizens, and will respond with an iron fist.”………”

“Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that clashes on Monday night that injured 14 people including 11 policemen in its oil-rich Eastern province, home to a large Shi’ite population, were the work of an unnamed foreign power, usually code for its rival Iran. Saudi Arabia applies the Wahhabi austere version of Sunni Islam, and minority Shi’ites say that, while their situation has improved slightly under reforms launched by King Abdullah, they still face many restrictions and discrimination. The government denies these charges. Shi’ites have long complained of second class status in the absolute monarchy. They also want the release of Shi’ite prisoners, some of whom were arrested during previous protests. Shi’ites, who make up to 15 percent of the 19 million Saudi population, say they are not represented in the cabinet, they struggle to land senior government and security jobs and are viewed as heretics or even agents of Iran by the Saudi authorities and hardline Sunni clerics. …………”


The fear is also vanishing in Saudi Arabia, just as it did in other places from Tunisia through Libya and Egypt and Syria and Yemen and Bahrain. The fear is gone or going away. Now the “Saudis” even have a Facebook page for what they call their “revolution”. Today it is Qatif, but who knows, maybe tomorrow it will be Riyadh and Jeddah in spite of the many who have vanished, like Khalid al-Jehany and Ashmawi and many others. The regime is already claiming that the protesters are “Iranian” agents, a predictable claim for Gulf absolute polygamous monarchs when they are in trouble. This old tune of the despots has lost its charm. Only the so-called self-styled palace liberals, really Wahhabi faux-liberals, in the media of some GCC Gulf states, including my hometown, pretend to believe this nonsense anymore. The despots can fool their people only so many times with the sectarian card that they and the Bahraini rulers have overused.

The solution can be simple: give people back their full God-given rights, the rights they were born with before you usurped them.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Iraq, Racism, Saudi Arabia

Sectarian Wahhabi Logic of a Saudi Mouthpiece………….

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“These words mean that the al-Assad regime is trying to win over the minorities by scaring them of the dangers posed by the majority. Yet the real problem here is not the al-Assad regime, but rather what the minorities themselves have done in our region; the Christians in Lebanon and Iraq, even the Shiites in Iraq and Bahrain, who are committing a grave mistake by sliding into the quagmire of supporting dictatorships, under the pretext that they will be protected against the majority. It is important here to repeat what I heard from a rational, liberal friend, who is far removed from sectarian views, about his reaction to the actions of minorities these days in our region. My friend’s opinion reflects the view of a substantial portion of the rational liberals in our region……….This is the mistake which befell the Shiites in Bahrain, and although they are not a minority in their own country, they are amongst their Arab surroundings. The same thing happened with the Shiites in Lebanon, given their surroundings, especially because they believe that there are embers [of an uprising] under the ashes in Iran…..” Asharq Alawsat (Saudi daily)

This from one of the chief editors of the semi-official Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat. His masters’ voice. He is blaming the people of Iraq for again not letting the remnants of the Ba’ath regime, those who would not even defend Baghdad against the invaders, maintain power. He is blaming the people of Bahrain for resisting the Wahhabi-inspired policy of discrimination and Apartheid applied by the Al Khalifa rulers. He is drumming up that old sectarian and racist nonsense that his Saudi masters and their paid Salafi agents and fifth columnists have used effectively around the Gulf. He is urging the oppressed people of Bahrain to co-exist with others, meaning that they should accept second class status under an unelected minority regime (he might add: worse than the one in Syria which is repressive and dictatorial but does not apply a policy of Apartheid).
He is also taking a swipe at Christians and a few other minorities in the Arab world, perhaps because they are not allied enough with his Wahhabi masters.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Anti-Semitism, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, Human Right, Muslims, Qatar, Religion, Saudi Arabia

Yusuf al-Qardawi: ‘Pay as You Pray’ Anti-Semitic Shaikh of Islam……………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

Yusuf Al-Qardhawi represents some of the worst aspects in a certain class of Islamic clergy. He is a loud demagogue, and his dogma is quite flexible, depending on who wants him to be flexible. Which makes him, like the rest of us, inconsistent. That flexibility presumably comes at a price. He supported the uprising in Egypt toward the end. He supported the uprisings in Libya and Syria after the fact and especially after his Qatari masters started supporting them. He is against any uprising in Bahrain and has said so, and certainly in Saudi Arabia, for the same obvious reasons. Some might say that is because the Saudis and Qataris can pay him well, better than anyone else can.

Some of his opinions can be found on his website, but only some of them. Others he would not revisit, like his pro-Nazi ranting about Hitler being the instrument of God to punish the Jews. He opined that Hitler was part of God’s punishment of Jews and expounded on how Jews are enemies of God and how they exaggerate the Holocaust. All these anti-Semitic remarks within two minutes in this video.
Cheers
mhg

Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Saudi Arabia

New Rumble in Manama: People to Face Regime & Imported Mercenaries & Western Arms……….

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Chief of Public Security Major-General Tariq Mubarak Bin Daina
on Monday ordered a ban on forming human chains, a notification
for which was submitted by three citizens to the General Directorate
of the Capital Governorate Police in view of Al Wefaq National Islamic
Society’s plan to form a human chain along a vital road in Manama
tomorrow.
Major-General Bin Daina said that the ban had to be imposed since
the notification does not fulfil the criteria laid down in Decree Law
No. 18 of 1973 on public gatherings, rallies and processions……….”

The people of Bahrain are planning what they call “the Deluge of Manama” or “Manama Tsunami” while the regime calls it by other names. They have drawn a map of the “human chain” route they plan on taking tomorrow. The regime forces, mostly consisting of imported foreign mercenaries and possibly Saudi forces, will be waiting for the people with the best weapons that the freedom-loving West can produce and export.

(This worthy is not even of the ruling family, just a retainer. He is one of the very few top fuckheads I have seen whose last name is different. Must be some in-law).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Politics of Apartheid in the Persian-American Gulf…….

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF
“When King Hamad came to power in 1999, he initially sought to put an end to the violence and sectarian tension that had characterized much of the 1990s by releasing political prisoners, expanding freedoms for the press and civil society, abolishing the most repressive aspects of the security apparatus, and encouraging dialogue with the opposition to help draft a new constitution that would devolve authority to an elected parliament. These efforts gained overwhelming support from most Bahrainis who yearned for more political and civil liberties, and particularly from Shi’a who faced systemic discrimination in the political, economic, and social spheres. Despite initial expectations, however, the resulting 2002 constitution failed to deliver on the King’s promises, dashing hopes and creating deep mistrust between the ruling family and the political opposition. Tensions were exacerbated when an alleged government report was leaked in 2006 detailing a plan to weaken the Shi’a community politically and alter the country’s demographics through the systematic naturalization of Sunni expatriate workers…………..”

Not only did the al-Khalifa fail to fulfill their contract with the people of Bahrain, the one agreed at independence. (Their failure to democtratize as promised did not much bother the elite who were not victimized and it certainly was welcomed by the other oligarchies of the Gulf states). It was, it is, the apartheid system that they and their retainers of the elite have insisted on keeping in place. Of course getting rid of the apartheid system would mean a more open political system and more freedoms. More important, it would mean the election of an effective legislature and accountability for corruption by the ruling dynasty. That is why the rulers of Bahrain and their masters and protectors in Saudi Arabia, the absolute tribal princes, insist on keeping the discriminatory system in place. That is why they have resorted to fanning the flames of sectarian fears and passions among the people of Bahrain and the people of the Gulf GCC region. That is why they are willing to foot the bill for the importation of foreign mercenary thugs and torturers by the regime.
What they don’t understand is that the people of Bahrain (and one or two other Gulf states) are not like the people of Saudi Arabia who have been trained and terrified over several generations to silently bow and accept the writ of the princes. Even the people of the Arabian Peninsula are stirring now against the restrictions imposed by the potentates and their Salafi lackeys among the clergy.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Arab Revolutions, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Politics, Wall Street

Arab Spring Misses Riyadh but Lands in New York…………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon. The police said it was the marchers’ choice that led to the enforcement action. “Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.” But many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered………..”

Somehow the Arab Spring overflew Saudi Arabia and landed in New York City. It must be the power of that old fear: it was vanquished in Tunisia and Egypt and Libya and Syria and Bahrain and Yemen, but it still rules supreme in Riyadh.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

9/11, Al-Qaeda, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Iran, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

From the Middle East to the Caribbean: It was the week of “Stupid”………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF
Al-Qaeda calls Ahmadinejad ‘stupid’. They advised him to be “logical” not “ridiculous”. The Salafi terrorist group is pissed at the Iranian president for disseminating conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks at the UN. Ahmadinejad was probably just trying to needle the U.S. government with his talk, but he also got an unintended benefit by pissing off the Salafi terrorists.

Castro calls Obama ‘stupid’
. Castro maybe at least half right about that. The whole Cuban blockade by the United States is stupid. It has nothing to do with freedom for the Cuban people; it has to do with winning elections in Miami and some other congressional districts. If freedom was the goal of these boycotts, Saudi Arabia would be the first country on the American boycott list (and Bahrain would have NATO planes bombing it).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC, Human Right

Human Rights: GCC and Egypt and Jordan and Morocco, Terra Humorless…………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

This new rumor about inviting Egypt to join the Gulf GCC could be a way to inject some Egyptian humor into the GCC. Is it to offset Jordanian lack of humor? A humorous Egyptian to offset a surly Jordanian (some claim, probably unfairly, that is the only kind of Jordanian there is), although it might take more than even a sunny Egyptian or two to offset a truly surly Jordanian. Egypt would be a great candidate, humor-wise, to join the GCC. These eighty or ninety million humorous Egyptians will more than offset the 20 million or so GCC citizens who are mostly humorously-challenged (I admit) plus the five million totally humorless Jordanians and any among Moroccans who lack a sense of humor. (My knowledge of Moroccan humor is extremely limited, although I had some great fun with a couple of Moroccan friends I had met in Vienna when we were all younger. I also know something about Algerian humor: they are still waiting for it at the station).
Of course all this would not be relevant to the GCC if the citizens of the GCC were a little bit more humorous (actually if they were a lot more humorous). But we do have a trace of a sense of humor, which is an improvement over, say, Jordanians or even Syrians. (Did I ever write about my experience with Turkish humor? It is probably second only to Jordanian and Palestinian humor in terms of non-existence, but close enough to Syrian and Lebanese).
Anyway, let me cut the bull and say it: the GCC needs Egypt, especially now that it plans to expand into Jordanian territory, terra humorless. Humor should be considered as a human right, even in Jordan.

But what about all the talk and other stuff about elections in Egypt? Will that mean the potentates of the Gulf will also have to run for their offices in elections? And how can, say, five thousand Saudi princes run for office? Will they have to introduce an elected office titled “prince”? Then the Bahrain and UAE potentates will have to run for the job of “shaikh”. Then wtf will the Omani potentates run for since they have neither princes not shaikhs?
Or will the Egyptians elect another absolute king and stay with him for another 30 years?
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Lebanon, Libya, Terrorism, US Foreign Policy

Oh Oh Lockerbie, and STL of Lebanon, and Tony Blair, and the Fab Four………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Four U.S. senators visiting Libya say they talked to the country’s new rulers about the need for justice in the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. The four are part of the highest-ranking American delegation to travel to Tripoli since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted last month. Libya was implicated in the bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, many of them Americans. Scotland has asked the new transitional leaders of Libya for help tracking down those responsible now that Gadhafi is no longer in power. Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Thursday he is confident the new Libyan government will help. “We’d like to know who else was connected with this”…….….”

These four senators are ‘an item’ now. Let’s call them the unfabulous Fab Four.
I can tell him who was involved. At least two Western governments, only one of them British. Several Western corporations and major banks. Many two or three faced politicians who feigned concern for the victims of Lockerbie and their families while winking and nodding at the deal the British government made with Libya. Then there is Tony: just follow your nose. Tony the Poodle Blair, the one man “have bank account, will travel; no deal is beneath me” show.
Not that I am convinced anymore that Mr. al-Megrahi was the perpetrator. These “international” investigations and courts sometimes have methods and ways that are not kosher (in almost any religion). Not always, but sometimes. Look how they truly fucked up the STL Hariri investigation of Lebanon: most Lebanese don’t believe that they did an honest non-political investigation, nor do I, nor does any other half-wit who has followed the case. Most also think they and their “findings” are irrelevant now: most except for the March 14 in Lebanon and a gaggle of Saudi Gulf journalists.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]