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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’.

Cheers
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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“Bahrain’s crown prince met the Shi’ite Muslim opposition leader on Wednesday in search of a way out of a three-year political deadlock, a week after reconciliation talks were suspended in a setback for efforts to stabilize the U.S.-allied Gulf state. The breakdown in the reconciliation process raised jitters in the tiny Gulf Arab island monarchy in the middle of a regional tussle for influence between Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Muslim powerhouse Saudi Arabia. The meeting between Crown Prince Salman al-Khalifa and opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman was the first since shortly after major unrest among majority Shi’ites demanding democratic reforms and a bigger say in government broke out in early 2011….…………”

The Bahrain uprising will be three years old on St. Valentine’s day in about two weeks. From the outset in February of 2011 there have been various reports and occasional speculation in Western media about Bahrain and its ruling family. One argument has been that the ruling Al Khalifa family are divided among ‘hawks’ and ‘doves’. The ‘hawks’ want to keep chipping away at what little freedoms (very little) remain from Bahrain’s original post-independence constitution. Their goal, presumably, is a Saudi-style form of democracy where the ruling family senior shaikhs are the only voters (they are almost there). The ‘doves’ presumably want to limit that ‘chipping away’. The two sides of the ruling family have at least one thing in common: they both have no respect for their original post-independence covenant with the people.

The Crown Prince Salman is reportedly listed as one of the ‘doves’. So, they report a meeting with some of the opposition as the Bahrain uprising enters its fourth year next month. Too close to the anniversary and to another round of the Formula One Grand Prix event next spring.

This is all useless, all this talk about a dialog between the ruling family and the opposition who, as a group, represent the majority of the people of Bahrain. The crackdown on opposition protests at Lulu (Pearl) Square started with the Saudi invasion of 2011 under the guise of the GCC Peninsula Shield. The Peninsula Shield was supposed to help member countries against foreign aggression, not help the regimes against their peoples. The only opportunity it had to do so was when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait: but at that time the Saudi princes were quaking in their boots (I wouldn’t be so rude as to say they were soiling their underpants) until U.S. forces arrived.

Anyway, the Saudi entry in Bahrain started the ratcheting up of the repression that continues to this day. That is because the Saudi princes have a certain view of what should be ‘allowed’ in Bahrain, and they will veto everything else. Anything too divergent from the Saudi-style absolute tribal family rule will not be acceptable to the foreign Wahhabi overlords of Bahrain. They “own” the regime of Bahrain now, and no solution is possible as long as Saudi forces and security agents occupy the country.

Since it is unlikely that the Saudis will withdraw willingly, well, then you can draw your own conclusion as to how this will go in the coming months. Maybe more Saudi forces and agents to bolster the thousands of foreign mercenaries the regime keeps importing from places like Pakistan and Yemen and Jordan and Syria. Which will make it even harder to reach a compromise.

And the beat goes on……….

Cheers

mhg

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“Al Qaida’s central command publicly has disowned its Iraqi affiliate over that group’s brutal activities in Syria in an unprecedented break that analysts say may weaken the Syrian insurgency and impact al Qaida’s operations across the Middle East. In a statement posted on jihadist forums late Sunday, al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri and other commanders formally declared the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, not an al Qaida affiliate over its defiance of an order last year to limit its operations to Iraq and to leave operations in Syria to the official al Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front……………”

Remember when the Syrian “opposition” groups protested when Washington, correctly, declared Al Nusra Front a terrorist group? Even the so-called “secular” opposition leaders and thinkers and theoreticians ensconced in five-star exile objected. The usual Wahhabi enablers and financiers of Al Nusra and its ilk also objected at that time. Now Al-Qaeda HQ, if there is such a thing anymore, has come out that, yes, Al Nusra is its franchise in Syria.

Cheers

mhg

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