Category Archives: GCC

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Iraq, Libya, NATO, North Africa, Syria, US Foreign Policy

On the Western Liberation of Iraq and Libya and Syria and………….

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      BFF

“Al-Asaad told us that despite being grossly under-resourced, he is getting more and more recruits every day. The latest reports put the size of the armed opposition force at anywhere between 1,000 and 25,000. In his interview, the colonel told us that he unequivocally is not seeking a coup and supports the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the people. He also stressed that the force he is assembling is inclusive and non-sectarian. Finally, he makes a plea to U.S. President Barack Obama to offer quick and decisive support for the resistance and underscores that the establishment of a buffer zone, as proposed by Turkey and France, could accelerate defections and change the course of the conflict……….”

The Syrians who did not like American intervention in Iraq are now eager for American and French and British (and possibly Israeli) intervention in Syria. That is after the NATO intervention in Libya, which was aided and abetted by the Arabs. The hypocrisy some Arab leaders, and some opinion-makers of the Wahhabi faux-liberal stripe, especially in the Gulf GCC, is breath-taking (I like this last word more and more these days).
These Arabs cheered and helped and participated in the invasion (or liberation) of Iraq, only to turn around and bitterly criticize it when things did not go their way. They even pushed for a second American liberation of Iraq, a retake, just to set things right from the Wahhabi point of view. They practically pushed (an eager) NATO to intervene and liberate Libya from its ruling dynasty even as they helped chain the people of Bahrain to their repressive and corrupt dynasty of thieves.
Now they want to the USA and NATO to liberate Syria from its ‘current’ despotic rulers. Some claim they want the West to liberate Syria from the Assad regime, others that they want NATO to liberate Syria (politically) from Iran, some say they want it liberated from both. Some of them also want to liberate Syria fully by aligning it with the royal theocracy of the People’s Democratic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I wonder if they also want to liberate the Golan, and from whom.
Cheers
mhg


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Apartheid, Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, GCC, Human Right, Media

Shaikh bin Goebbels of Bahrain Continues Fibbing on Alarabiya………….

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      BFF

“If you have no shame, then do (and say) whatever you wish….” A good Arab saying

The divisive sectarian approach of Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network is breath-taking, especially on its Arabic website. It never misses a chance to highlight Shi’a-Sunni differences and divisions and to stoke their sectarian fires, especially in the Gulf region. Here it is writing about Bahrain, in the language of the official media of that country:

“Shaikh Fawaz Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa, Chief of the Information (Propaganda) Authority of Bahrain, asserted that none of the opposition were ever prevented from appearing on the Bahrain television. He revealed that more than 300 Shi’a personality from among the opposition and government employees and civil society activists were invited but they all declined, either by refusing directly or pretending to be sick…….. About why the Bahrain government did not present any evidence of Iranian involvement in the Bahrain ‘events’ he said that has to do with future security reasons. He added that there is much evidence of Iranian involvement………….”

I am thinking of changing the middle name of the ruling family from Bin Technocrat al-Khalifa to Bin Goebbels al-Khalifa.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC, Saudi Arabia

A Call on the People’s Democratic Kingdom of (Saudi) Arabia to Guide Egypt………….

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      BFF

“What Egypt is witnessing today is a revolution against the coup and a new beginning for the revolution of change. There are new rules for the game from now on and it is important for all players inside and outside of Egypt to return to the strategy-drafting table. The United States and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should be playing essential political roles right now. The necessary investment that must be made in Egypt cannot wait until after stability is restored, but rather the opposite. There is an opportunity for influential countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help Egypt’s youth shape the future of their country under a secular civilian government away from ideologies, religious and sectarian struggles. Egypt is not alone in the balance. The Arab future all together is largely dependent on what Egypt’s future turns to be. The GCC is now playing a prominent role in shaping the new regional order in collaboration with the League of Arab States not by sidestepping it. The Arab League is fundamental in securing that the regional order does not get shaped exclusively by the likes of Turkey …………..”

These writers and analysts of the Saudi semi-official media can’t help pushing the Saudi model. This Lebanese writer is from the Saudi semi-official daily al-Hayat, owned by Prince Khaled Bin Sultan al-Saud (deputy defense minister). She is here pushing for the Egyptians to look toward the People’s Democratic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for help and perhaps as a role model. Maybe by now the people of Egypt have forgotten the time when the Saudi king called them “foreign infiltrators and agents”. That was only last January.
(She forgot here to insert something appropriate about the role of Hezbollah, the favorite bête noire of the Saudi media).
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Media, Bahrain, GCC, Hezbollah, Iran, Kuwait, Media, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism

GCC Breaking News: Plots in Bahrain, Plots in Kuwait, Hezbollah under Every Bed, Shi’as Occupying Mecca……….

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      BFF

Breaking News: the government of Bahrain has not announced the discovery of any new Iranian or Hezbollah terrorist plots today. They have not identified any installations or individuals who may have been targets of today’s uncovered plot. This is an unusual development for Bahrain.The regime and its imported mercenarise are slowing down
On the other hand, the Kuwaiti-Saudi daily rag alseyassah is taking up the slack. (I find alseyassah entertaining, although not as humorous as, say, The Onion). It reports that Hezbollah has put its sources on alert around the region, and that there was in fact a terror plot in Bahrain and added an extra-credit bonus: that the latest Bahrain plotters got financing from some Kuwaitis, meaning Shi’as in Kuwait (apparently the Iranians and Hezbollah ran out of money!).
Alseyassah, like a couple of other rags in my hometown, fits well into its Saudi patrons’ propaganda drive to divide the Gulf region along sectarian lines.
It also dropped a bombshell that only our overfed “faithful” would believe: it reported that Iranian and Syrian agents were plotting to assassinate three Gulf GCC foreign ministers, no less! Alseyassah has not yet report that Hezbollah and Iran are planning an invasion of Mecca to take over the Kaaba, after blowing up the Vatican. Not yet, but stay tuned.
Saudi media are not as dumb as their Gulf surrogates. They have become smarter, more subtle, with the exception of Alarabiya which is openly sectarian on its Arabic website.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Revolutions, GCC, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE

From Libya to Syria and Yemen and the Gulf: No-Fly Zones, No Freedom Zones………….

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      BFF

Arab media are increasingly mentioning the N-F word, for No-Fly zone in terms of Syria. Apparently some factions of the Syrian opposition want Western no-fly zone established over Syria. Hoping it will be a prelude to the arrival of Western Special Forces of the kind that helped defeat Qaddafi in Libya.
Some Arab regimes have already established their own No-Freedom zones. The Saudis had long established an absolute No-Freedom zone in their own part of the Arabian Peninsula and they have recently extended it to neighboring Bahrain. They would also like a No-Freedom zone in neighboring Yemen where the people are in rebellion. Actually, if they had their way, they’d like No-Freedom zones all over the Arab worlds, from the Persian-American Gulf to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Corruption, GCC, Human Right, Torture

Bahrain Sports: Mixing Soccer, Football, and Torture…………..

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      BFF

“A few days ago, ESPN looked at calls for political change in Bahrain through the lens of sport, and it’s not a pretty picture (I’ve embedded the video below). The story of Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, former stars of Bahrain’s national football team now living in exile, reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where athletes lived in constant fear of Saddam and his sons. Iraq, like Bahrain, has a Shiite majority. And, like Bahrain, Saddam’s Iraq was ruled by a Sunni leader who blithely ignored the wishes of the majority of his population. Such situations corrupt everything. In Iraq, national players were tortured and jailed for poor performances. Many promising Shiite players never got a chance at the national team because of their fate. Now, in a smaller way, Bahrain is emulating Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, brothers and national-team stars, are now living in the shadows, kicked off the national team and humiliated. After being arrested and, according to them, beaten in a Bahraini government detention center, they were also fired from the professional clubs. Why? They joined a democracy protest last February. Like most Bahrainis, they are Shiites, and were angry at the monarchy. Alaa is probably the country’s greatest-ever player, with 21 goals for his country. Of his detention, he told ESPN: “We were living in a nightmare of fear and horror.“………”

No comment this time, but I reserve the right for a rain check. Meanwhile, here is the ESPN video link.
Cheers
mhg


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Corruption, GCC, Saudi Arabia, Weapons deals

Prince Salman to “Modernize” Saudi Military, Generate more Commissions for Princes………

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“Newly appointed Defense Minister Prince Salman assumed office on Saturday as the country’s chief of staff disclosed plans to modernize the armed forces and strengthen its combat capabilities in the face of growing challenges and dangers. Salman thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the new appointment. “I take this opportunity to thank the king for bestowing his confidence in me,” he said and sought the Almighty’s help to carry out his duties in the best form. Addressing top army commanders and officers, the new minister also emphasized the need to strengthen the armed forces not only to defend the Kingdom but also to defend its holy places, its valuable resources and major achievements……..”

Oh oh: we all know what it means, all this talk about “modernize the armed forces and strengthen its combat capabilities “. More billions in weapons imports, which means, more important, more billions to Prince Salman and his kids. He probably figures that the last minister of defense late Prince Sultan and his sons have taken enough, reportedly to the tune of tens of billions in bribes and commissions and by “other means”. Now it is his, and his kids’, turn.
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, Finance, GCC, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Innovative Drug Dealers of Riyadh, American Bankers………

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      BFF

Saudi media report of two enterprising drug dealers, Yemeni expatriates, who were busted this week in Riyadh. Apparently they sold their dope (including hashish) on easy installments, like many other things on the Gulf. The report says they even sold dope to kids on installment. It also says they lived in luxurious hotels in order to avoid raising suspicion. They did basically what banks in the USA have been doing to kids: sending credit card enticements to students, with easy installments for the rest of their lives. What most people don’t realize is that most Gulf citizens need these “easy installment” deals and that is how they purchase almost all their needs, apparently including drugs. The Gulf potentates and retainers are the exception; they probably buy everything, including their drugs, with cash. These tow dealers did not even charge interest. In that, they were probably more Islamist than Islamic banks that charge interest without calling it so.
Cheers
mhg


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Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US Foreign Policy, Weapons deals

Gulf Arms Race: UAE JDAMS Bunker Busters, Bunkers of Sharjah and Fujairah……

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      BFF

“The U.S. government may soon announce plans for a large sale of precision-guided bombs to the United Arab Emirates, a source familiar with the arms sales plans said late on Thursday, as tensions mounted with Iran over its nuclear program. The Pentagon is considering a significant sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions made by Boeing Co, adding to other recent arms deals with the UAE. These include the sale of 500 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles about which U.S. lawmakers were notified in September. The sale of Boeing-built “bunker-buster” bombs and other munitions to UAE, a key Gulf ally, is part of an ongoing U.S. effort to build a regional coalition to counter Iran. No comment was immediately available from the Pentagon’s press office or the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which oversees foreign arms sales. Boeing has sold thousands of JDAM bombs to the United States and its allies in recent months as they have replenished their arsenal of the popular precision-guided bombs……….”

The Unit Arab Emirates claims to have almost 1 million citizens (the rest are temporary foreign laborers, housemaids, gardeners, doctors, bankers, mercenaries, etc). There are opinions that the actual number is much less than one million. The absolute oligarchy of the UAE has been in a tough arms race, no not with Iran, but with the rival absolute tribal princes of Saudi Arabia. For several years they were the second biggest importers of weapons in the whole wide wonderful world. Last year the Saudis moved to number one and the Abu Dhabi potentates were threatened with being relegated to number two (no pun intended here). Now they are trying to catch up with the al-Saud in terms of weapons imports, and coincidentally in terms of bribes commissions that the potentates and their retainers receive.
The UAE already has American F-16 fighters that are capable of carrying JDAMS bunker busters. It is not clear why the shaikhs of the UAE want JDAMS bunker busters, and whose bunkers they might want to bust. Nobody is likely to want to attack them, not even the shaikhs of Bahrain. The Iranians most likely are concerned with bigger fish, like the Americans or the Israelis. Besides, who is going to use all these sophisticated weapons? They can keep borrowing personnel from Pakistan, or maybe even train some humorless Jordanians. Or maybe they can train their new mercenary security legion headed by Blackwater veterans and manned by Colombians, Australians, white South Africans and others.
Either way, it is not clear whose bunkers these Abu Dhabi shaikhs want to bust. Hopefully not the bunkers of Sharjah or Fujairah.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Iran, Religion, Saudi Arabia

Arab Counterrevolution: Stoking Royal Salafi Fires on the Gulf…………..

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      BFF

“The external opposition continues to fudge its stance on external intervention, and with good reason: the internal opposition rejects it. This is the flaw to the model – for the majority in Syria deeply oppose external intervention, fearing civil conflict. Hence Syrians face a long period of externally mounted insurgency, siege and international attrition. Both sides will pay in blood. But the real danger, as Hannah himself noted, is that the Saudis might “once again fire up the old Sunni jihadist network and point it in the general direction of Shiite Iran”, which puts Syria first in line. In fact, that is exactly what is happening, but the west, as before in Afghanistan, prefers not to notice – so long as the drama plays well to western audiences. As Foreign Affairs reported last month, Saudi and its Gulf allies are firing up the radical Salafists (fundamentalist Sunnis), not only to weaken Iran, but to do what they see is necessary to survive – to disrupt and emasculate the awakenings that threaten absolute monarchism. This is happening in Syria, Libya, Egypt…………..”

It is all part of the Saudi-led GCC-funded Arab Counterrevolution. Its only goal is to maintain the status quo on the Gulf , at any price. Status quo means only one thing: keeping the al-Saud dynasty in power, with absolute unquestionable authority. Before the Arab “Spring”, it was aimed at any change in the broader Arab status quo. At the time they used developments in Iraq, post the invasion they had supported and participated in, to stoke sectarian fires. Even old Hosni Mubarak managed, with Saudi help, to ‘discover’ plots by Shi’as to convert his people and take over Egypt. They exaggerated fears of an Iranian threat with the goal of dividing the somnolent and often tame peoples of the GCC states into Sunni and Shi’a factions. It always works on the Gulf: fearful Sunnis seek the protection of the corrupt ruling dynasties, angry Shi’as become more vocal in their demands, which in turn is used by the palace Salafis to further stoke the fires of division.
Amazing how one ancient doubtful Hadith about absolute loyalty to the (Muslim) ruler is being used by Salafi clerics to counter the Arab revolutions, but only in selective countries.
Cheers
mhg


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