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“Lebanon has long been a playground for spies from across the Middle East. But in 2011, it appeared that U.S. intelligence services were getting badly outplayed by their rivals. More than a dozen informants recruited by the CIA were reportedly captured by Hezbollah and Iran, after the groups learned where the American spies were meeting their agents. The CIA officers made Hezbollah’s job easy by employing shockingly sloppy tradecraft. According to current and former U.S. officials, two Hezbollah agents posing as potential recruits learned the location where the CIA officers met their informants — a Pizza Hut in Beirut. And the code word that the CIA allegedly used to set a meeting? “PIZZA.” From there, Hezbollah’s internal security only had to observe the Pizza Hut………….”

I recall sometime after the September 11 attacks reading a media report about the FBI seeking “Iranian” terrorists in the United States. Apparently they sought to uncover “Iranian” terrorists in the USA by having their agents hanging around “Falafel” joints in San Francisco. Iranian “Falafel” joints? And most sensible people in this country believe Falefel is an Israeli dish (it is now, maybe more so than Pirozhki). This was like seeking Arab terrorists by hanging around Chelo Kebab joints, or kosher delis (a possibility). I posted some advice on that at the time.

Which all reminds me: WTF happened to all these Iranian plotters, like that Jack Arbabsiar of Texas who allegedly plotted with the Mexican drug cartels to blow up the powerless Saudi ambassador in Washington? I recall pundits and columnists rushing to identify the target as Cafe Milano in Georgetown. And I wondered t the time why anyone would want to blow up a restaurant just because the food is mediocre and overpriced. Many in Georgetown are mediocre and overpriced: I would just stay away.
Cheers
mhg

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“Egypt’s interim government and the Muslim Brotherhood traded fresh blows Wednesday, with the prosecutor general announcing serious new charges against deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and the Brotherhood declaring a boycott of next month’s vote on a new constitution. The developments appeared to harden the months-long standoff between the army-backed administration and followers of Morsi, a confrontation that has left thousands of Brotherhood members dead or in jail and harmed the international standing of the government that supplanted his rule. The new charges against Morsi, which could conceivably carry the death penalty, include assisting in terrorist acts and espionage ………….”

The current rulers of Egypt are laying it on thick. They are throwing everything but the ‘kitchen sink’ at Mohammed Morsi, and the kitchen sink may be next.

In some countries they would arrange for a deposed leader to “commit suicide” or to appear to commit suicide. That is what the brutal military junta did in Chile for elected President Salvador Allende after their coup d’etat. In other cases they arrange for him to escape and shoot him while trying to escape. Others arrange helicopter crashes for him.

Egyptians don’t have a history of murdering their deposed leaders; they usually send them into exile or put them under house arrest. They used to be more benign coup-makers. Yet deposed President Morsi might be a first: the military rulers seem intent on hanging him, with all these absurd frivolous charges they keep inventing. They keep adding new charges every few months to the list of crimes he is alleged to have committed, the worst of which is probably getting elected.

Cheers

mhg

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“Louis the Sixteenth was the King of France in 1789.

He was worse than Louis the Fifteenth.

He was worse than Louis the Fourteenth.

He was worse than Louis the Thirteenth.

He was the worst, since Louis the First…………….” Alan Sherman song

I posted and tweeted yesterday about all the charges being concocted by the military regime in Egypt against deposed President Mohammed Morsi. Not even King Louis (seizième) faced similar charges, and he was guillotined.
I mentioned some of the charges being trumped up against Morsi: Murder, Treason, Espionage, Witchcraft, Rape (statutory and otherwise), Terrorism, Piracy, plus contacting Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, AIPAC, Hillary Clinton (he did), Dracula, and Yoda. Now my special source reports that Morsi will also be charged with the additional crimes of: contributing to the delinquency of minor army officers, DUI, DWI, Substance Abuse, Dealing Drugs, Beating his Wife above the neck (banned by the NFL), Urinating in the Nile, Contributing to Global Warming, and Working against World Sustainability……….
Let’s see him get out of all these. He ain’t no Houndini: in fact Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz) would not a lift a finger to help a Semitic Muslim Brotherhood anti-Semite who has called him some nasty Animal Planet types of names on You-Yube.

Cheers
mhg

Western media, and many Western politicians, like to simplify things when it comes to the Middle East. This is also mutual: Muslims and Arabs tend to simplify things Western, often engulfing them in conspiracy stories real or imagined. Western media is used to picking one or two villains from the ‘opposing camp of the season’, and vilify them. The easiest form of vilification, the best sound bite, the cheapest shot is the “Hitler” comparison. It has been used by the media, by politicians, even recently by Hillary Clinton (about Putin in Ukraine). To his credit President Obama has not stooped down to using the Hitler comparison yet.

Suddenly there is a potential new Arab leader being slowly groomed in the media for the ‘villain’ role. Actually an unlikely one: that is why he is considered a rather ‘soft’ villain, perhaps a bumbling one. That is Nouri al Maliki of Iraq, the man who won the job through parliamentary votes. I know, I know, the Iraqi parliament is divided along sectarian and ethnic lines and probably needs a stiff kick in the derriere, but name one Arab parliament (of those few who have parliaments) where it is not divided along sectarian or tribal or ethnic lines? Lebanon? You can’t get more sectarian than that, with hereditary warlords thrown in for good measure. Egypt? You’d probably get chased out of town if you try to run as member of a smaller Muslim sect (not to mention a Muslim Brother). Gulf GCC? Most members of the GCC have appointed legislatures that the kings or shaikhs appoint and dis-appoint (Kuwait being the only GCC country where the legislature is really elected, although along tribal and sectarian lines). Talking the eastern Arab countries: the western part from Libya to Morocco is somewhat more complex. In Iran candidates require approval to run (or stand if you are British or sit if you are Arab) for office.

So back to al Malilki. The vast media of the kings and princes and potentates of the Gulf are already setting the tone for the next attempted political coup in Iraq. They tried it once before a few years ago, when they sought to push Saudi agent Iyad Allawi to the leadership post. Against the opposition of a majority of Iraqis, but he had no real hope of getting a parliamentary majority. I agree that Al Maliki should not seek a new term, not because of the self-serving claims made in the media of the despotic Saudi and Qatari and UAE potentates. He should not be reappointed for two reasons: (1) because as leader he has failed to keep all Iraqis peaceful and prosperous, (2) a new term would be like clinging to power, almost what all Arab leaders do for too long. If he should go, that would be to set a precedent for rotation of leadership. A good democratic thing to do.

As for Mr. Allawi, Saudi Arabia’s man in Iraq, his name is not even under consideration anymore, which is very realistic indeed.

Cheers

mhg

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Al-Qaeda has come of age: it  has been restructured into the discount superstore of terrorism now. It has morphed over the past few years into what became clear during 2013: the Walmart of Terrorism. It has become leaner and not ‘top heavy’ anymore. It has opened new branches across the Muslim world, most of them also closer to its ‘customers’ and prospective customers: just like Sam Walton’s baby. The loss of the charismatic Osama Bin Laden and emergence of the clunky and boring Al Zawahri has not necessarily been bad for it.

The Wahhabi terrorist organization has extended its influence from Pakistan through northwestern Iraq through Syria as well as parts of Lebanon. The move into Lebanon was thanks to the funding and encouragement of the Saudi proxies among the warlords of the Hariri March 14 movement.
Al-Qaeda is deeply embedded now inside Yemen, close to its Saudi birthplace and source of volunteers and money. Deep enough that American drones based in Saudi Arabia have so far failed to dislodge it. It has also extended its influence into liberated Libya (as Republicans like to squawk: Benghazi, Benghazi!), Tunisia (still trying to remain free but also often reported the home of Jihad sex and all that نكاح الجهاد), southern Algeria, Mali and other Sahel countries. A version of it is also active in Nigeria and other West African states. Its Wahhabi ideology is also alive and well in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Which all means that the Wahhabi groups and its franchises have managed to maintain and ‘protect’ their Persian Gulf sources of money and funding. It is always about the money in this day and age. No doubt indicating a huge failure (and a defeat) for the erstwhile ‘war on terror’.

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mhg

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“French President Francois Hollande will meet former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba in Saudi Arabia, where he arrived Sunday, said a member of his entourage. The meeting with Hariri, a fierce critic of the Syrian regime, comes amid heightening tensions in Lebanon after the assassination of his close aide, former Finance Minister Mohammad Shatah, in a car bomb on Friday in Beirut……… Hollande called for the respect of “constitutional deadlines” in Lebanon, starting with “holding presidential elections in May 2014…………..”

Expect the “socialist” president of France to spend more time in Saudi Arabia. Certainly much more than the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy did. The latter reportedly couldn’t stand visiting the princes, although he went through the motions (as in “close your eyes and think of France!“).

Francois Hollande, France’s right-wing socialist president, is already getting some financial payback from the Saudi princes. He is getting paid back for his earlier attempt to block the nuclear deal with Iran and his support for the right-wing Saudi proxies of Hariri and his allies in Lebanon and the Jihadis in Syria. The Saudi ruling family has announced a US$ 3 billion weapons aid for Lebanese army, to be supplied by France.

Any day now the socialist Hollande could announce publicly that the Wahhabi theocratic system of absolute tribal one-family rule represents the best principles of the French Revolution. That it enshrines the common values that join the socialists of France and the quasi-feudal princes of the Arabian Peninsula. Hollande would urge the rival factions in Lebanon and Syria to unite, join under the banner of socialist Wahhabism, under the Saudi leadership of Hariri and Jarba. He may announce that the long-defunct French revolutionary guillotine was a direct tribal descendant of the Saudi executioner’s sword, still actively chopping subversive and occult heads and hands every Friday afternoon in Saudi public squares.

Cheers

mhg

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I have not posted about the recent GCC summit of kings and rulers and potentates that was held in Kuwait. Not much ‘there’ there as someone said so many years ago about a particular place across the Bay in California. The rulers and potentates of the GCC held their annual summit conference in December. Not as much headline news this time as usual:

• The Saudi princes and their Bahrain boot-lickers probably wanted to talk about, push for, the idea of ‘unity’ (they have already decided to drop the past talk about a Gulf GCC ‘confederation’). Oman, as I expected, sensibly would have none of it. Nor would many of the others, but all the rest apparently have decided to kill the idea in ‘studies’ and ‘consultations’. More polite and diplomatic that way. Which shows that there is some wisdom among the leaders once you get out of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

• They also agreed to some joint military leadership structure, which I expect will be no better than the current lousy Peninsula Shield. The recent experience in Yemen showed that the Saudis can’t organize a ‘piss-up in a brewery‘, from a military point of view. Some would argue that the U.S. Navy may be a cheaper, less harmful, and more effective alternative as a shield against
  external trouble, if there is any, real or imagined. More ominously for the peoples of the Gulf, they also agreed on some unified ‘police force’, which usually means unified repression of dissent. This evokes the role of Saudi Arabia in the repression of the Bahrain uprising.
• They also blasted Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad and his regime. They might have added, with a straight face, that the Syrian people deserve the same freedoms and democracy as the peoples of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain enjoy.

• They completely ignored the old Saudi invitation of 2011 to Jordan and Morocco to join the GCC. Hence deserving a futile but still appropriate: WTF?

• My secret source also reported, claimed from her hiding spot on the wall of the conference hall, that the summiteers spent the final session in good cheer, singing a medley of Auld Lang Syne, Kumbaya, and L’Internationale. One of the many eager Lebanese columnists who write for the Saudi newspapers owned by the princes (Asharq Alawsat or Al-Hayat) tearfully wrote about the significance of the fact that many of the summiteers and their retainers have trim goatees, just like Lenin. WTF that might mean.

Cheers

mhg

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“On his eighth trip to fight with the rebels in Syria, in August, Abu Khattab saw something that troubled him: two dead children, their blood-soaked bodies sprawled on the street of a rural village near the Mediterranean coast. He knew right away that his fellow rebels had killed them. Abu Khattab, a 43-year-old Saudi hospital administrator who was pursuing jihad on his holiday breaks, went to demand answers from his local commander, a notoriously brutal man named Abu Ayman al-Iraqi. The commander brushed him off, saying his men had killed the children “because they were not Muslims,” Abu Khattab recalled recently during an interview here. It was only then that Abu Khattab began to believe that the jihad in Syria — where he had traveled in violation of an official Saudi ban — was not fully in accord with God’s will. But by the time he returned to Riyadh, where he now volunteers in a program to discourage others from going, his government had overcome its own scruples to become the main backer of the Syrian rebels, including many hard-line Islamists who often fight alongside militants loyal to Al Qaeda……………..”

The Saudis are going all out to win Syria for their brand of Wahhabi democracy. They have come out of the closet openly in support of Al Qaeda affiliates, based on the old Arab tribal saying that: “Me and My Brother Against My Cousin, Me and My Cousin Against the Outsider” (The Saudi princes have now refined that saying by adding the following: “……… Me and the Outsider against the Zionists, Me and the Israelis against the Shi’as”). Not that they have not supported Al Qaeda before: the terrorist group is Saudi born, bred, and breast-fed at the teat of Saudi and Gulf petro-money.

The Saudis have been seeking surrogates to fight for their goals in Syria (and in Lebanon and Iraq and Iran). At one point or another they had thought the Americans were on the verge of attacking Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. But the Obama administration seems to have dodged that bullet. Now they seem to believe the French, those habitual and opportunistic invaders of West Africa, could help them. They also seem to be under the illusion that the Lebanese Army can hand Lebanon over to the Wahhabi cause. Hence the announced $3 billion of weapons to be supplied by France to Lebanon with Saudi money. Some generals and warlords are licking their chops waiting for the kickback money: it is really a bribe to the leaders of the army and some Lebanese potentates. They are as amenable to Saudi money as (almost) anybody else in Lebanon, but the majority of the soldiers are not. Once the army gets involved in domestic conflicts, the soldiers will dissolve back onto their respective religions and sects and militias: and hereditary warlords. That is Lebanese politics for you.

Cheers

mhg

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“Three years after the start of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday calling for another military man to become their leader. The anniversary rallies came against the backdrop of deadly Cairo bombings in a country deeply polarised between supporters and opponents of Mubarak’s successor, the deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. At least 29 people were killed in clashes across Egypt during Saturday’s rival rallies…………….”

“Tens of thousands of people gathered in the square, carrying Egyptian flags and holding posters bearing photos of Egypt’s Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of Egypt’s late president Gamal Abdel Nasser and even of Mubarak. The crowd that occupied the square until midnight was the second layer of civilian-security sifting: A photo of Sisi or a banner emblazoned with a poetic slogan urging him to run for presidency would grant whoever was carrying it full immunity. Those without such protection tools could see an angry mob turn against them in a matter of seconds and in a manner described by many as simply bloodthirsty. Tahrir Square was a deadly trap for anyone who is not publicly and boisterously applauding the current military-backed regime. Several journalists were harassed or attacked by regime loyalists and by noon, it was clear that foreigners were considered spies ………….”

Nothing like this level of violent repression was seen in Egypt during the combined long years of King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, or Anwar Sadat.The number of the dead keeps climbing. Over fifty this past weekend, officially. Many more have probably died in the six months since the military coup of July 2013 than died during the uprising against Mubarak. Not many died under Morsi, yet he will be ‘tried’ for murder. Many more will die now, either at the hands of the military, its security, or at the hands of Islamist terrorists. Tahrir Square, once a symbol of an uprising
against a dictator, now has its mobs clamoring for another strongman,
one of Mubarak’s generals, to take over in name what he already has. In the old tried and true style of Franco, Peron, Pinochet, Suharto, Mubarak, and others.

Tahrir Square, named Liberation Square by Gamal Abdel Nasser, is now unofficially Sisiplatz, or AlSisiPlatz.

Cheers

mhg

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“The army chief, who also serves as defence minister, led the toppling of former president, Mohamed Morsi, in July. Analysts say Monday’s announcement was intended to show that he has the full support of the military establishment. Earlier, interim president Adly Mansour had promoted Sisi to the rank of field marshal…………..”

So Al Sisi stages a coup d’etat, digs Adly Mansour Al Zombie out of bureaucratic obscurity, dusts him off and appoints him interim president of all Egypt. Oh mother of the world. Now Adly Mansour Al Zombie returns the favor: he promotes Al Sisi from a mere general to field marshal. I had told him, right here, not to promote himself, but he did it against my wishes and my best advice.

Now Al Sisi is the equal in rank, if not in experience or cunning, to such illustrious soldiers as Erwin Rommel, Bernie Montgomery, Ney, Zhukov, and Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa Al Khalifa of Bahrain. No battles necessary anymore. No need for El-Alamein, Auzterlitz, Stalingrad. Or maybe it was the old Egyptian War on Pigs of 2009.

Even fat Marshal Hermann Goering was a war hero of WWI, an air force ace before he became a Nazi and a gluttonous thief. Even the late Gamal Abdel Nasser was humble and modest and did not promote himself above the colonel he was when he took power. Come to think of it, even the maniacal Gaddafi remained a colonel until his death.

Mansour also pushed the parliamentary elections back to after the presidential elections. Marshal Al Sisi will win the elections by a huge majority. He will appoint Mr. Adly Mansour Al Zombie as, oh maybe chief of some court or minister of justice, or maybe his private chauffeur. Or maybe a chef.

Cheers
mhg

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