“The court action, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks nearly half a billion dollars in penalties from three Lebanese financial organizations — the now-defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank and two Beirut-based money exchange houses — and 30 auto dealers in the United States. The $480 million in penalties is the sum of the drug proceeds that are alleged to have been laundered; the government is also seeking to freeze and seize assets traceable to those companies………… Thursday’s complaint offers fresh details about the workings of what it says was a scheme to launder South American cocaine cash and Hezbollah’s own money, naming the American-based auto dealers and people it says were Hezbollah operatives. For example, the action charges that Oussama Salhab was a Hezbollah operative in Togo who ran a network that transported cash from cars sold in Benin on flights to Beirut. Prosecutors say he worked with Maroun Saade — suspected of being a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Lebanese Christian political party allied with Hezbollah — who has been charged in a separate case with aiding the Taliban………”
I wonder what Mel Brooks is up to these days? Is he teaming up with Oliver Stone? Could those two be working on something like this, this topic of my piece here?
Is it just the holiday season or is the world going crazy around me? At least from my current perspective in the Pacific Northwest it seems like many heretofore otherwise sensible people are going mad. Look at all this:
Hezbollah alliance with the Taliban (across fourteen centuries of separation, across five nations of separation)?
Iranian alliance with al-Qaeda which is the mortal Wahhabi enemy of the Shi’as (including Iranians and Iraqis and Lebanese and Bahrainis and Pakistanis and all others)?
Iranian and al-Qaeda alliance allegedly but ridiculously improbably going way back to the 1990s, mostly via the good offices and miraculous guesswork of Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia?
Iranian-Mexican Drug Cartel-Texan Nutcase alliance to blow up a restaurant in Georgetown and its famous clients just because it serves mediocre food to smug bureaucrats and charges too much? This last one allegedly courtesy of the DEA and the U.S. Department of Justice, and possibly Mujahideen-e-Khalq, among others.
Iraqi-Iranian-Syrian (wtf?)-Lebanese alliance to conquer Bahrain as a prelude to conquering the rest of the world and forcing Rick Santorum and Rick Perry to become Muslims and make the Hajj to Mecca?
Lebanese-Columbian-Taliban-Hezbollah-Maronite Christian plot to make money from a new triangular trade but without the rum and the African slaves.
WTF is going on here? Is everyone going paranoid or are all of these plots real? Should we start looking under our beds each night for Iranian mullahs and Lebanese Shi’as? Are the Wahhabi princes now financing the hated Shi’a militants as well? Or is it just that the ‘plots’ are thickening? Cheers
mhg
“JEDDAH: A terror cell planning attacks against the Saudi Embassy, the King Fahd Causeway and other vital installations in Bahrain has been broken up, a Bahraini Interior Ministry spokesman said Saturday. Four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country, said Gen. Tareq Al-Hasan. The alleged targets also included the Bahraini Interior Ministry and other individuals. Al-Hasan said the four arrested in Qatar had been traveling by car from Saudi Arabia. Security officers at a checkpoint seized “documents and a computer containing information of a security nature (and) details on certain vital sites.” They were also carrying US dollars and Iranian rials………..”
If I were an Iranian official plotting terrorism in Bahrain or in Saudi Arabia, I would never hand the terrorists Iranian money, for two reasons: (1) American dollars, or Euro, or Gulf currencies are easier to use, and (2) Iranian money would look suspicious if these men get caught. A smart Iranian “control” would have them carry wads of Israeli NIS. If I wanted to make sure everyone “knew” the Iranians were behind a plot, I’d give the terrorists some Iranian currency, a lot of it. So, somebody is very stupid: it can be the Iranians, or the Bahrainis, or the Saudis. Who do you think is that stupid? Could it be all of the above? I suspect any of the above have operatives who are stupid enough. The good news (or is it the bad news) is that we have not read anything (yet) linking this “plot” to an Iranian used car dealer in Texas named Arbabsiar. But it is early.
The Bahrain and Saudi media are running away with it. Saudi semi-official network Alarabiya headlines that members of the appointed Bahrain sectarian “parliament” have claimed Iran and Hezbollah were involved (they forgot to add North Korea). Qatari media have not reported on this, yet. Which is also odd, but maybe they are as suspicious of the timing of this as I am.
I think somebody somewhere ought to quit while they are ahead: the question is where is that somebody? Tehran or Manama or Riyadh? Cheers
mhg
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
Back in May 2006, when the West (USA) and the Great Libyan Socialist Jamahiriya were becoming fast friends. Americans were asked a question: “Libya says it will work with the United States to spread democracy. What do you think?…..”
The answers were “interesting” if not necessarily brilliant:
“If we really want Libya to help spread democracy, we’d better give them their (WMD) weapons back.”
“Libya might seem like an unlikely partner, but, given our current international standing, every partner is an unlikely partner.”
A favorite: “The same thing happened with my boyfriend and me, sort of. As soon as I agreed to give up my virginity, he agreed to remove me from his personal list of state-sponsors of terrorism.”
Warning: people in certain places in our region may find this posting offensive. In fact they may not find it even humorous. This includes people in: Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Central Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi, among other places. Cheers
mhg
American media raised a storm last week when an Evangelical religious pastor supporter of the Texas Governor called the Mormon (sect) of Mitt Romney a “cult”. Initially, having been conditioned back on my Gulf to certain derogatory remarks, I was surprised at the media storm. In recent years on my Gulf people often call each others’ sects and faiths things that are worse than a mere “cult”. This has been especially the case since growth of the imported Salafi Wahhabi cult. It has exasperated sectarian divisions into open hostility. This pastor must have been reading the website of the sectarian Saudi Alarabiya network, or maybe he has been watching the extremely sectarian-baiting television and other media of the Bahrain government. At least he did not call Mr. Romney a terrorist plotter and an agent of a foreign regime (not the Saudi regime). And he does not need to import foreign mercenaries and import officially-approved American weapons, all with Saudi money, to shoot at Mr. Romney.
“Meshal al-Zaidi says he was drawn into Kuwait’s protest movement by political ideals, not the economic grievances that helped spur revolts in poorer Arab countries. “My friend drives a Porsche Cayenne, another a Porsche Panamera, you’ll see the best cars at Kuwaiti protests,” said al-Zaidi, a 25-year-old who runs a public relations firm and attends rallies seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah. “It’s not about money, it’s not about oil, it’s about real democracy.”………” Bloomberg News
No, it is not all about real democracy. It is hardly about democracy. God knows there is plenty of corruption and mismanagement in Kuwait, although not nearly as much as in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain. Hell, they even hired Tony Blair as a consultant: now that can’t reflect any true commitment to honesty and clean management, can it? But then all that is really lowering the bar. Although some, a few, of the protesters want more freedom and accountability, there are many more among them who have no desire for democracy. Just ask almost anyone who shows up at these small events about Saudi Arabia, and they’ll either praise that country’s regime or get evasive. Unfortunately most of the so-called protesters are either of the local Wahhabi faux-liberals or the Islamists (die-hard Salafis) with a few bored-to-death others thrown in. Some may be part (pawns) of an intense power struggle within the ruling elite.
The Wahhabi faux-liberals are already tweeting and ‘column-izing’ against the currents protests in Saudi Arabia, labeling them an “Iranian” plot, just as they do in Bahrain. I don’t think they are stupid, nobody can be that stupid (or can they?). The Salafi Islamists among them have no desire to have any form of enhanced democracy, but they are great opportunists. Some of these Islamists seem to be the loudest, more media-grabbing among the “protesters”. They failed to get rid of the current prime minister through a parliamentary vote since most members voted against them (either out of conviction or for self-interest). That is when they tried the street. Many of these same Salafis have pushed for more restrictions on the freedom of expression in the legislature. They mostly look toward Salafi Wahhabi corrupt Saudi Arabia as the “model”, to the extent of pushing for some form of political ‘consolidation’ presumably under some form of Saudi rule (perhaps a satrapy like Bahrain?). This local columnist here gives a glimpse into some of the “Saudi” loyalties at work. He is too shy to mention the country’s name directly. He points out that the government is guilty and responsible for past policies that created the current atmosphere of corruption and unrest. Cheers
mhg
“Transport and Communications Undersecretaries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states discussed here Monday the establishment of a railway authority, as well as linking Yemen with the yet-to-be-established GCC railway network. Director General of UAE’s national transport authority, Dr. Nasser Al-Mansouri, in a keynote speech to the meeting, underlined importance of the railroad project that would link the six GCC countries. He said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has established the federation trains company and issued relevant legislations to pave way for the construction of the UAE’s railroad network. GCC Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs Abdullah Al-Shubaili, in remarks on sidelines of the meeting said the officials discussed feasibility study of the railroad linkage with Yemen, safe regulations of small ships and inspection on vessels…..….”
I can’t believe these F-heads seriously talked about a rail extension into Yemen. Yemen is having a popular rebellion, nay multiple rebellions, against their favorite dictator. Yemen is experiencing several civil wars on several fronts. Yemen has a serious al-Qaeda presence. Yemen faces American drone bombings from bases most likely in Saudi Arabia. Yemen will be unstable for years to come mainly because of the dictatorship. It is absurd enough that they want to invite Morocco and Jordan and Monaco and Brunei and Zimbabwe and Colombia to join. And now this. What is the matter with these watermelon dignitaries of the GCC? Cheers
mhg
Arab media report the King of Saudi Arabia said in a speech that he was happy about the return to “normality and peace” in Bahrain. The low level sectarian civil war now going on in Bahrain is considered a “return to normality and peace”, although I am certain the king has never read 1984 (Orwell), never even heard of it. He forgot to add that he was also happy about the return to peace in Afghanistan and Waziristan and Libya and Gaza. The report did not specify what the King and his speechwriters had been smoking before his speech. (Actually some ‘tribal liberals’ on my Gulf had declared the situation in Bahrain to be “back to normal” from the day Saudi troops invaded in March: apparently the situation is still quite normal and getting even more normal by the day).
The report also said that that Saudi Arabia announced its complete rejection of any “foreign interference” in the internal affairs of Bahrain. They said it is okay for foreigners to interfere in Libya and Yemen and Syria and Egypt and Tunisia and Iraq and even in Saudi Arabia. But not in Bahrain, unless the foreign intervention is in the form of Saudi forces shoring up the regime and its imported mercenaries against the people. Which brings up that other Orwell book, Animal Farm. Cheers
mhg
“Like the United States, they voiced particular alarm at Iran’s decision to move higher-grade uranium enrichment to an underground bunker — heightening their suspicions of its aims. “The absence of a plausible economic or commercial rationale for so many of the nuclear activities now being carried out in Iran, and the growing body of evidence of a military dimension to these activities give grounds for grave concern about Iran’s intentions,” British Ambassador Simon Smith said on behalf of London, Berlin and Paris. Davies said current IAEA monitoring of Iranian nuclear sites might provide some warning should Iran decide to “break out” and use its enriched uranium stockpile to develop nuclear bomb capability, but “that will come too late.”…………..”
Now it is: the plausibility, stupid! So, I had to go back to the earlier case: remember Iraq and Saddam and the smoking gun and the famous mushroom cloud? Here are some memorable quotes from the halcyon days of 2002-2003:
“We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” –National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (2002)
“It’s a slam-dunk case!” –CIA Director George Tenet, discussing WMD and the case for war during a meeting in the Oval Office, Dec. 21, 2002
“We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.” –Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (2003)
“We know he’s been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” –Vice President Dick Cheney(2003)
WEF?—-> “I think the burden is on those people who think he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are.” –White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, July 9, 2003
“British intelligence has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.” –President Bush, 2003
“King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly exhorted the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” by launching military strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables….” Reuters (2010)
“The release of the BPC report in late June, and the Post op-ed today, coincide roughly with a revealing and important diatribe from the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al-Otaiba, who said this week that the UAE wouldn’t be unhappy at all if the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear program. “I think it’s a cost-benefit analysis,” said Otaiba, the representative of a notorious kleptocracy in Abu Dhabi…..” The Nation
Yada, yada, yada. Which in itself does not mean that the Iranians are not interested in nuclear weapons. It does mean, however, that Western intelligence can be totally stupid and can totally fuck up just a they did in Iraq. It does mean that some Iranian exile groups can also be self-serving in pushing the “nuclear bomb” issue, given that their intelligence sources are unreliable at best. There is a lot of fog around the Iranian nuclear program, some of it created deliberately by the Iranian regime itself and some of it, I suspect, by Western governments and their intelligence sources. Some of this fog is a result of ignorance and some of it is deliberate, on both sides. Cheers
mhg
“Iran has condemned the “negative” position of the Gulf GCC which had criticized the Iranian “provocations” toward some Arab states in the Gulf. The spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Ramin Mehmanprast that the “regional policies of the Islamic Republic has always been one of mutual respect, good neighborliness, and noninterference……Regrettably some have waged a campaign against Iran…….. He considered that the GCC ministers expressing their deep worry about developments in the Iranian nuclear issue” an unnecessary thing……..”
Okay: the “GCC” ministers have criticized Iran’s nuclear program, just as the new Bushehr plant is now providing electric power. The Iranians interpret the IAEA reports different from the way Western powers interpret them (the glass half-full vs. the glass half-empty syndrome). As for me, I have no idea if the glass is half-full or half-empty: there is an important difference, depending on which half is empty and which is full and taking into consideration one of Newton’s Laws. I do hope the Iranians are right and there will be no nuclear weapons in the Middle East (except in Israel), but I have my doubts on this issue. I would dread the prospect of a nuclear arms race between the mullahs in Tehran and the potentates in Abu Dhabi. I also wonder if mullahs would lie to us? In any case, nuclear technology has a logic of its own, sort of like when……..oh well, no sense getting obscene here. What is intriguing in this brief and ordinary report from a daily newspaper in my home town on my Gulf, is the unrelated picture and the caption it added to this report. This picture below is captioned with the words “Iranian Zaroastrians perform their religious rites at the Temple of Fire in Tehran”. Also sprach the mullahs? To foreign eyes it looks quite innocent, maybe even quaint and cute (as it does to me in fact in a different context). Now WTF does the photo have to do with the nuclear program? This is something that divisive semi-official Saudi media outlets like Alarabiya or Asharq Alawsat often publish, not a daily that claims some remnant of the old bygone pre-Salafi liberalism of my hometown. In the Gulf of Madness, such photo and caption only serve to fan flames and divisions these days. Before you know it, there will be retaliation: some Saudi princes will start bowing to al-Lat or Hubal of the good old pagan Jahiliya days, or some Egyptian expatriates who have gone native will start worshiping a Pharaoh again (that era may be over now but there are plenty of princes available). In this age of confessional and sectarian tensions stoked by irresponsible potentates and their retainers……………..
(I found the photo rather cute: men and women performing their common rites. WTF is wrong with that?) Cheers
mhg
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF 
Also sprach the mullahs?