“The Syrian terrorists abducted 12 nuns from Mar Takla monastery, which lies in the historic town of Maaloula in Damascus, and moved them to the nearby town of Yabroud. The Papal ambassador to Damascus Mario Zinara said that the 12 nuns were obliged by the terrorists to leave the monastery in order to follow them to the nearby town of Yabroud. “I think that the twelve nuns are in Yabroud.” There is a fierce battle in Maaloula, and it is hard to determine the exact information,” he added, “We are not familiar with the reasons that pushed the terrorists to force the nuns to leave the monastery.” SANA confirmed that the militants, who belong to al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, entered the Orthodox monastery of Mar Takla in the center of Maaloula……………”

Maaloula has been a point of contention between regime forces and Jihadist rebels for months now. The various groups and militias of Syria’s rebels are predictable, be they simple plain Salafis or die-hard Wahhabi Takfiris. Their second instinct after capturing a village or hamlet or neighborhood is to round up people of other faiths, those who are not Wahhabis, and take them captive as war hostages. Some might add to that last sentence “if they are lucky”, and that ‘luck’ is related to their ‘first’ instinct. Be they Alawis (Alawites), Shia’s, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, or Vegans. They would also no doubt love to grab some Jews, who are still the Wahhabis’ preferable hostages (more prized than the Shi’as as hostages, but more elusive). I know some who would dispute this last assertion.

So, two years ago the putative liberators of Syria captured a bunch of Lebanese Shi’a pilgrims, anointed them Hezbollah and Quds Force fighters, and held them captive. Some months ago they got more ambitious, they captured and took hostage a couple of priests and an archbishop (presumably all Christians since neither Muslims nor Wahhabis have archbishops nor priests as far as I know, and I should know). Then last summer they captured an Italian priest (Father Paolo Dall’Oglio) who was trying to ‘talk to them’. Reports a month later claimed he was killed by the liberators, they probably Daniel Pearled him (most Western media ignored the story).
Now the Jihadis have  a bunch of nuns from an ancient held captive. Let us see how closer that brings them to the liberation and capture of Damascus promised by the unelected GCC potentates, the Arab League, and a gaggle of traveling U.S. senators.
Cheers
mhg

         
                                Video:
A Kenny G Holiday

“Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad…………..”

The story of Sarin use in at least two cases this year was broken through the semi-official Saudi Alarabiya network (a network that is owned and operated in Dubai by an in-law of the late King Fahd). These stories always came out at critical times for the Syrian opposition groups, usually after big defeats on the battlefield: for example one story broke out just after the regime victory as Qusayr. Saudi Alarabiya as usual broke the story through an interview with “activists” who supplied a video. Western media adopted the story with gusto: CNN practically declared its own war. The governments of the USA, Britain, and France jumped on the story, again. The French, always good at cooking food and occasionally cooking up evidence, quickly confirmed the use of Sarin. The French and British governments immediately implicated the Assad regime. The Obama administration seemed more doubtful and was relatively more honest: it often avoided pointing the finger at any one side, merely saying that “Sarin was used in Syria”.

Cheers
mhg

         
                            Video:
A Holiday Song

“Bahrain, where a Sunni monarchy has long ruled over a Shia majority, saw a brief flickering of Arab spring protests in February 2011. The biggest were brutally put down with the help of troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Yet smaller protests have continued……….. Protesters are especially resentful that the government employs many non-Bahrainis in the police. The ranks of the well-paid security forces include many Yemenis and Pakistanis; Shia applicants for police jobs are usually turned away. The extensive use of tear gas has become another bone of contention; a document leaked in October exposed plans by the interior ministry to buy 1.6m additional rounds of the stuff. So far the Khalifas have been able to keep the protests under control, helped by the Saudis and reassured by the presence of America’s Fifth Fleet.…………”

The late Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm once tweeted summarizing the situation in Bahrain, succinctly:
“The neglected Bahrain revolution: in Bahrain you are arrested by a Pakistani, your arrest report is written down by a Yemeni, then you are tortured by a Syrian, after which you are tried in court presided over by an Egyptian judge. You are the only Bahraini among them”.
Cheers
mhg

         
                             Video:
A Holiday Song

“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

Video:
A Holiday Song

“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

[email protected]

         
                               Video:
A Holiday Song

“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

[email protected]