My Nordic source reports that the Nobel Committee has denied that U.S. Representatives Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) and Louie Louie Goh-mert (R-Texas) were ever officially nominated for the Peace Prize. There had been rumors that the two Republicans (Ya ne znayo nechevo) were put on the final short list after their stormy visit to Cairo. In Cairo, they managed the nearly impossible feat of extolling the virtues of free electoral democracy while praising the military coup that overthrew Egypt’s elected president. And they did it by having Michele Bachmann read her script at a slow kindergarten level for the Egyptian people, the sort done for ESL classes across the United States. As for Louie Louie Goh-mert, oh, well, nobody could ever figure out what the f—k he was about anyway. Louie Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) always reminds me of that good old song………..
Egyptian media quote a campaign to nominate Generalissimo Abdelfattah Al Sisi for for President of Egypt. Calling itself “Demand by a Nation”, the campaign claims it has collected 7 million signatures, three million of it in only one day during the 40th anniversary of the alleged October “victory” (referring to what Americans and Israelis call the Yom Kippur War of 1973)………… Some media are now beginning to report that Al Sisi is leaning toward running, thus formalizing the facts on the ground. It is of course possible that he and his allies are behind the whole campaign. Except that they have to do something about that pesky Muslim Brotherhood guy named Mohammed Morsi who was elected and is still rotting in a military prison. Funny, a lot of state media don’t mention his name now, they often just refer to him as “el-m’azool=the deposed”, period.
Lately the military has been using tiny bits of its not-so-secret vast wealth, distributing cash and food and gifts on the populace, often dropping them by airplanes on villages and festivals. Even the uber-decadent Macedonian Ptolemies did not do that in their hay day in Alexandria. The Ptolemies did not have access to airplanes or chewing gum or Tutti Frutti.
“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.
“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
“Despite all that, there has been a determined drive by Egypt’s pro-coup media to present Sisi as an independent, even anti-American, figure. There’s even an effort to link him with Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s popular Arab nationalist president of the 50s and 60s. That’s partly because Nasser repressed the then US-backed Muslim Brotherhood (along with communists). But it also reflects the fact that Nasser’s reputation as a genuinely independent and progressive leader who stood up to the west and Israel is still strong in Egypt and across the region – and the coup mongers want to use it to give themselves some spurious legitimacy. The idea that the US-dependent Sisi, whose military hierarchy controls vast commercial interests, is a new Nasser is ludicrous. But the propaganda ploy is revealing. Despite his failings and authoritarianism, Nasser is remembered as a leader who stood for regional unity and independence, economic development and social justice………….A democratic 21st-century Nasser …………..”
Al Sisi is no Nasser. Nasser was a once-in-a-century phenomenon in the Arab world. As he himself opined in his manifesto Philosophy of the Revolution, he came along and found a role seeking someone to fill it. That sounded self-serving, but he was right: he appeared at the right time and in the right place. And Nasser had characteristics that no Arab leader since has shown. He had charisma and independence and humility and a feeling of responsibility to the less fortunate masses of Egyptians. All those who came after him made their families and their cronies rich from their positions. Nasser’s family reportedly lived on his state pension. Imagine if Bill Clinton or Barack Obama had to live on their government retirements? It would cramp their lifestyles. As I said, no Arab leader ever came close to Nasser charisma and oratorical skills, not remotely close. The nearest is probably Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, and I don’t think he comes even close to Nasser, and not only because the Lebanese, like the Syrians, make lousy crowd orators. As for Generalissimo Al Sisi, I have never heard him, but I have doubts. He is acting more like a Pinochet right now. The Arab peoples are a good and generous people and deserve much better than the blood-sucking despotic clowns who rule them from Morocco to Bahrain. Arabs deserve better than the thuggish robber clans like Al Saud, Al Khalifa, Al-Bashir, and others. They deserve better than being pushed around and manipulated by foreign powers, both regional and far away powers. But the outlook is not promising. Not yet.
“As pressure mounts on Egypt’s military-backed interim government to forcibly disperse supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi from their massive sit-ins, some of the loudest, most passionate voices calling for security forces to clear the encampments come from liberals here. Liberal commentators, activists and politicians — on-state controlled media and across a spectrum of independent channels — are saying that it is long past time to evict the tens of thousands of Morsi supporters and Muslim Brotherhood backers from their sit-ins around Cairo University and the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque……………..”
Egypt’s liberals have come along way from their “revolutionary” days of two years ago. I mean both types of liberals: the pro-Mubarak felul liberals and the former rebels against Mubarak (probably including leaders of the new tamarrod movement that was led by the UAE shaikhs). Now they want the Egyptian army to do to protesting Islamists at Rab’a what it would not do in 2011 at Tahrir. What many of them did not want it to do in 2011 during the Tahrir protests. They want the military to crush the pro-Morsi protests, something they did not want the military to do when they, the liberals, or many of them, were occupying Tahrir Square to make their (legitimate) political demands. That is “nifaq”, spelling h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Actually in all dialects of Arabic, from Morocco to the Comoros.
“When Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt, Ahmed Helal was locked up four times in Tora prison, officials’ favorite detention facility for perceived enemies of the state. Each time, he was arrested in the middle of the night and thrown in with scores of others whose only offense, they believed, was being Shiite Muslims…………. In the year that recently ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood held power, the threats grew graver. Brotherhood officials denounced Shiite practices and declared that the sect had no place in Egypt. Lawmakers pushed through a new constitution that made Sunni religious doctrine the basis for most laws. One young preacher who converted to Shiism was jailed on charges of insulting Islam. The trouble culminated in a gruesome lynching in a village outside Cairo in June, when a mob dragged the bloodied bodies of a prominent Shiite cleric and three others through the streets while police officers stood by……………….”
I am afraid this sectarian legacy built during the years of both Hosni Mubarak and Morsi will continue no matter who rules in Cairo. Under Mubarak Shi’as were persecuted, prevented from practicing their rites and often imprisoned for who they were. That was the effect of thirty years of continued Wahhabi influence over the once tolerant and accepting Egyptian society. The Islamist regime that was freely elected brought to power a coalition of Muslim Brothers and Salafis, which institutionalized the persecution of Shi’as (and the Christian Copts and other minorities). It made it halal and kosher to openly spout sectarian hatred. Even some of Egypt’s self-proclaimed liberals got into the habit of doing so. I suspect that the treatment of Shi’as will not get much better under any regime in Egypt in the near future. There are institutional and political factors now that will push for its continuation: from the Mubarak bureaucracy to the Al-Azhar bureaucracy to the influential Salafis to the Persian Gulf princes and potentates. It took thirty one years for Egypt to reach the stage where people got lynched in public for their faith while the police watched. It may take at least another generation to return Egypt to its tolerant past. Maybe.
Egyptian have been blessed, if that term can be used here, with two unique presidents during one year:
The first was the elected Mohamed Morsi, whom many of his opponents called “kharoof”. Kharoof means sheep in Arabic, actually a male sheep, a ram. Being like a ram is considered a desirable quality in the West, it indicates strength and stubbornness and a distinct unequal ability to butt heads. Something Mr. Morsi clearly did, which landed him in a military prison after the military coup by the man he had appointed defense minister. But alas some of his people called him a ‘ram‘ in a derogatory sense rather than in admiration: in the Middle East, especially in the Arab world, we don’t appreciate the finer qualities of some five-legged animals. For example, being called a ‘bull‘ is considered a good thing in the West, as long as it is not in a China shop. In our region a bull is considered an insult, a sign of stupidity, which shows how stupid we can be. As for being called an ass, or a jackass or donkey, I would not want to go there, we have too many of those asses who are only willing and eager to replace the maligned rams and bulls. From the looks of things, many of these asses make it.
The second Egyptian president of the year is even more questionable if only because he seems invisible, even with his girth. That would be Mr. Adly Mansour, whom I correctly dubbed early on as president Adly Mansour Al Zombie. He did then and he still does look like a zombie.
It is not clear who the next president of Egypt will be. Will he be another kharoof (ram)? Will he be another zombie? Or will he be the usual Arab ass?
“Egyptian security officials say an Israeli drone fired a missile in the northern Sinai peninsula, killing five suspected Islamic militants and destroying a rocket launcher. Residents heard a large explosion Friday in the region near the border with Israel. The officials say the attack was in cooperation with Egyptian authorities. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Israeli military said they are looking into the report. Egypt’s military and security forces are engaged in long battle against Islamic jihadists in the largely lawless peninsula..………….”
American drones have been blasting Muslim and Arab territory in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, North Africa, the Sahel with impunity for a few years. The intended targets have been Al-Qaeda terrorists, but many civilians have been killed and injured. They have also been spying on whoever they have not been bombing, including Iran (remember the hacked RQ-170 Sentinel drone of Dec. 2011?). Now Israel seems to be getting into the act. Israeli drones have reportedly been violating Lebanese and Syrian, possibly other, airspace for some time. Now they seem to be engaged in attacks over the Sinai Peninsula, almost certainly with the consent of the Egyptian military. The Egyptian military, good at overthrowing governments and shooting civilians, apparently cannot pacify the Sinai any more than it can win wars. It seems to have decided to subcontract the security of the Sinai to the Israelis. If media reports today are correct.
So what we have are foreign drones waging war over Muslim and Arab territory, a battle-front extending from South Asia to the African Sahel. Now the Sinai has been added. Next target of drone attacks to fill the gaps? Possibly Gaza and Libya.
“Each summer, wealthy male tourists from Gulf Arab states flock to Egypt to escape the oppressive heat of the Arabian Peninsula, taking residence at upscale hotels and rented flats in Cairo and Alexandria. Many come with their families and housekeeping staff, spending their days by the pool, shopping, and frequenting cafes and nightclubs. Others come for a more sinister purpose. In El Hawamdia, a poor agricultural town 20 kilometres south of Cairo, they are easy to spot. Arab men in crisp white thawbs troll the town’s pot-holed, garbage-strewn streets in their luxury cars and SUVs. As they arrive, Egyptian fixers in flip flops run alongside their vehicles, offering short-term flats and what to them is the town’s most sought-after commodity – underage girls……….. A summer-long misyar or “visitor” marriage runs from 20,000 Egyptian pounds (2,800 dollars) to 70,000 Egyptian pounds (10,000 dollars). The legally non-binding contract terminates when the man returns to his country. The “dowry” that Gulf Arab men are prepared to pay for sex with young girls is a powerful magnet for impoverished Egyptian families in a country where a quarter of the population subsists on less than two dollars a day…………..Some 75 percent of the respondents knew girls involved in the trade, and most believed the number of marriages was increasing. The 2009 survey indicated that 81 percent of the “spouses” were from Saudi Arabia, 10 percent from the United Arab Emirates……………” Misyar, the part-time for-sex-only no-commitment marriage is quite common in Saudi Arabia, its birthplace, and has spread across the other Persian Gulf monarchies. It is almost like ‘going steady’ in the West if you get my drift. As I recall, Saudi-style part-time summer “misyar” for-sex-only marriage was made legal (halal, kosher) in Egypt by Al Azhar shaikhs only a year or two before Hosni Mubarak was deposed. I commented on it in a posting here at the time. It was apparently part of, the icing on the cultural shift that Egyptian society experienced under thirty years of the Mubarak regime and his opening of Egypt to Wahhabi cultural and religious influences of his Saudi allies. Misyar in itself, like the Mut’a among some Shi’as, is not necessarily harmful or criminal. If it is done between consenting adults, except that it is not in this Egyptian case. This report here deals with a more criminal version of Misyar, basically pedophile trafficking in poor underage Egyptian girls. Selling and buying them as sex salves. Cheers
mhg
