Saudi intelligence forgeries

I know that Brian Whitaker needs to rely on the news of Al-Arabiyya (the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) but the quality of Saudi intelligence forgeries has become quite comical.  People have been mocking them all day yesterday.  Judge for yourself.  My favorite is one "document" that shows a Syrian intelligence official informing Bashshar Al-Asad that fighters of Hizbullah have arrived in Aleppo.  Those documents would really fit in the next installment of Pink Panther movies.

PS Al-Arabiyyah has announced the defection of Faruq Ash-Shar` more than ten times already.  Some of those claims were published in the Western media.  Ash-Shar` appeared yesterday with Bashshar Al-Asad.

Trotskyist Salafites

"In addition to these voices, however, there are figures that, without supporting Assad’s regime, have become alarmed by the “militarisation” of the Syrian uprising, and with it the risk of Western military intervention. These include the popular Lebanese blogger As’ad AbuKhalil, Palestinian professor Joseph Massad, Guardian columnist Seumas Milne, and veterans of the global anti-war movement like Tariq Ali and Sami Ramadani."  No, dear. My concern (and the concern of comrade Joseph) is not about militarization: it is about the ideology and sponsors of militarization.  Get it now?  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

As much as I love books and manuscripts (and collet them), I am more worried about the people of Timbuktu

"The safety of Timbuktu’s manuscripts is less assured. As the rebels descended on Timbuktu, Mali’s cultural authorities told the owners of private libraries in the city to hide their wares. But not all of them are safe. A big collection at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, which has 30,000 manuscripts, is under threat. Ansar Dine has occupied it."

For the West, sanctions are a success when the people suffer

"The West, it was stressed, had no quarrel with the Iranian people—only with a regime that seemed bent on getting a nuclear bomb, or at least the capacity for making one. Yet, as sanctions have become increasingly punitive in the face of Iran’s intransigence, it is ordinary Iranians who are paying the price.  On October 1st and 2nd Iran’s rial lost more than 25% of its value against the dollar. Since the end of last year it has depreciated by over 80%, most of that in just the past month. Despite subsidies intended to help the poor, prices for staples, such as milk, bread, rice, yogurt and vegetables, have at least doubled since the beginning of the year. Chicken has become so scarce that when scant supplies become available they prompt riots. On October 3rd police in Tehran fired tear-gas at people demonstrating over the rial’s collapse. The city’s main bazaar closed because of the impossibility of quoting accurate prices."  That is what US officials call "biting sanctions".  When the people can't bite food anymore. 

Hizbullah drone

Israeli flies fighter jets and drones daily over Lebanon.  It is never a news story in the Western press.  But one drone over Israel is a front page story in US media.  Chutzpah.

Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm

No contemporary Arab intellectual has ever insulted, defamed, and declared as treacherous all his rivals and enemies as Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm has.  This is a man who accused Hisham Sharabi and Walid Khalidi and many others and almost every Arab intellectual living in the West or even whoever met with an American as being a CIA agent or a Mossad agent.  He used to accuse anyone who met with Harvard professor, Roger Fisher, as being a pawn for the CIA.  I find that to be ironic these days. Very ironic.

The new revolutionary symbol

Turkish foreign minister clearly defined what is meant by "Syrian revolution".  He wants Faruq Ash-Shar` to be the leader of Syria.  A revolution? ...my potato.

Now they are talking

Many months later, and after mocking and dismissing any talk of Salafi and Jihadi armed groups in Syria, Yasin Hajj Saleh, laments the dangerous roles of Salafi and Jihadi groups and regard them as harmful to his "revolution".  As we say in Arabic: صح النوم خيّوه
(thanks Ghassan)

Mo' money, they want mo' money

"The donations of nonlethal aid to the Syrian opposition by Washington are often called small-scale, to the extent that none of the half-dozen fighting groups visited by journalists for The New York Times, or the many commanders interviewed in Turkey, claimed to have seen, much less received, American aid.

“We haven’t received anything from the outside,” said Thayar, a member of the ad hoc governing body in Kafr Takharim known as the revolutionary council. (He asked that his last name be withheld to protect him and his family from retaliation.) “We read in the media that we are receiving things. But we haven’t seen it. We only received speeches from the West.”"

religious shows on Arab stations

Joy Slim writes a critique of religious programs on Arab TV stations.

lousy criminal Syrian regime and the Tal Az-Za`tar massacre

People in Lebanon and beyond were glued to their TV sets yesterday watching the second part of the interview with Ziyad Al-Rahbani on Al-Mayadin TV by Ghassan Bin Jiddu.  Among the many things Ziyad said was that Fayruz is close to his political stance (a leftist who supports resistance to Israel and who supports Syrian opposition figure Haytham Al-Manna`).  But he also revealed information about the 1976 secret meetings in the house of his parents between Phalanges leader and leaders of Syrian regime in which they coordinated the assault on Tal Az-Za`tar camp.  When I wrote about the complicity of the Syrian regime in that brutal war, there were some who questioned the story.  It was a war on a refugee camp that had the endorsement of both Syria and Israel.  Ziyad said that he secretly taped the meetings and that Tal Az-Za`tar was responsible for his political radicalization.

Free propaganda for the Free Syrian Army in the Western press

"But he offered a warning to the West now commonly heard among fighters seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad: The Syrian people are being radicalized by a combination of a grinding conflict and their belief that they have been abandoned by a watching world.

If the West continues to turn its back on Syria’s suffering, he said, Syrians will turn their backs in return, and this may imperil Western interests and security at one of the crossroads of the Middle East."  So those folks are very moderate and secular and are friends of the West--whatever that means--but they will become fans of Bin Laden if the US does not intervene on their behalf in Syria.  Is this a paid advertisement?

Recruiting hackers for the US government

If China or Russia were running such a program, the US would be up in arms and would call for a special UN Security Council meeting.

Chavez

I never was a fan of Chavez but all articles on him in the Western media (including in the Economist) are just ridiculous.  There isn't even an attempt to be fair or professional.  Today, in a front page story, the New York Times referred to him as "polarizing".  Which president is not "polarizing"?

US PR firms in Libya are really overplaying their hands: do they really think that we believe that those sympathy protests were NOT staged?

Krim sent me this:  "Look at the top picture. In fact, if you're going to post this don't just post a link, post the actual picture. Reminds me of how Kuwaiti's were lined up alongside the highway with American flags to thank U.S. troops after the first Gulf war, only to later find out that it was stage managed by the CIA."  Yes, I am sure that old folks in Libya know what "R.I.P." means when I only learned of its meaning a few years ago only.  Does the US plan to mimic the dumb propaganda of the Mossad?

Tareq Mitri can't tell the truth

""Les partisans du 8-Mars pointent la proximité de M. Mitri avec l'ancien premier ministre sunnite Fouad Siniora, honni par la majorité actuelle pour sa gestion économique du pays et ses relations avec Washington, dont M. Mitri a été l'une des plumes. Après les fuites de WikiLeaks, l'universitaire a aussi été accusé d'avoir souhaité, comme d'autres ténors du 14-Mars, l'écrasement du Hezbollah durant la guerre de 2006 avec Israël - ce dont il se défend. A l'époque, il est l'émissaire du gouvernement Siniora aux Nations unies pour y plaider un cessez-le-feu, tandis que le conflit ravage le Liban. "Tout le monde, même le Hezbollah, m'envoyait des messages de soutien", raconte-t-il.""  Of course, he is lying here because his lousy speeches were resoundingly criticized in Lebanon.  In fact, I criticized his lousy speeches at the UN and for that he is suing me in Beirut court of publishing.  (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

Please don't discuss policy issues with President Dorman of AUB

A source at AUB sent me this email that was sent by FEA (Faculty of Engineering and Architecture) at AUB:
"President Dorman has agreed to spend the coffee hour on October 10 with us. He wants to socialize with us and take this opportunity to get to know us better. Please make an effort to come and another please, avoid discussing any policy issues. He wants to enjoy the hour."  Also, the natives will be allowed to shake hands with president Dorman. 

Amnesty's standards

Abbas sent me this:  "Amnesty appears to have adopted the Azerbaijan BDS cause. Can you ever imagine it issuing a similar statement on Israel?"

Dostoevsky in Notes from the Underground

Mahmoud in Tunisia sent me this:  "From the daily dose of sanity you kindly provide, I took the following today:

"Who can talk about himself/herself as "vile and despicable" except Rousseau in his Confessions?"

I would say Dostoevsky in Notes from the Underground."

An American shoot an Arab in Israel

Yaman sent me this:  "

You didn't mention that the victim was Arab!

 
"Family members, meanwhile, mourned the death of the chef, Abed Armando, 33 in an Arab village in northern Israel. They told Channel 2 TV that he was in Eilat because he wanted to work as a chef.
Hershkovitz arrived in Israel about two months ago to participate in the Oranim program, which combines Hebrew study, travel and work at the hotel with a university course on hotel management."

Farce of the US justice system

Ahmet in Tunisia sent me this:  "Asad, look at this farce:" A US judge formally ordered Iran, Al-Qaeda and several other defendants to pay $6 billion compensation to the victims of September 11, 2001, in a largely symbolic ruling. Although Iran denies any connection to 9/11, it was included in the list of alleged culprits by the US District Court in New York, along with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrillas and Al-Qaeda, which took credit for the massive terror attack. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is also named.""

Free Syrian Army claim responsibility for the death of Khumayni

Balazc sent me this:  "Have you heard of this?

Probably bullshit, because "Rebels said Nassif and several of his men had been killed in an ambush by the Free Syrian Army." Knowing their shitty propaganda, this claim makes it clear that they have nothing to do with the death of the commander. I suppose the "rebels" would claim responsibility for an Iranian earthquake too."

 

PS My information confirms that the Free Syrian Army had nothing to do with the death. 

Get out of the Middle East

""Among the slogans written on signs and banners carried by the protesters were: "This War Is Not My War," "No to Imperialist Intervention in Syria," "We Will Halt the AK Party's War Politics," "We Won't Be the Soldiers of Imperialism," and "U.S.A. Take Your Hands Out of the Middle East." ""

Muslim Brotherhood in Power

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar:  "Ikhwan in power".

Imagine there is no...Israel

Imagine if this US citizen was killed by an Arab government.

Obama in the debate

My latest blog post on the US presidential debate for Al-Akhbar English.

Al-Arabiyya news production

Today, I read about this most unprofessional sensational tabloidish (no offense intended to tabloids) new site (owned by the brother-in-law of King Fahd) that people in Iran are resorting to eating only bread.  Kid you not.

Beirut

I posted something about the new book by Samir Kassir and the silly introduction by Robert Fisk but I could not find it. I have to post it again, damn it.

Lebanese Forces writers needs a lesson in Arabic

"لو كنت مكان جان عزيز لتذكرت بانني في الجريدة الكالحة زميل اسعد ابو خليل. أي انني زميل من كتب تكرارا ان رمزي وكيروز وسليم ورفاقهم "قتلى" لا شهداء"

No, I wrote قتلة and not قتلى.  Big difference between the two words.  So he claims that I had described the "martyrs" of the Lebanese Forces as qatla (murdered) when I actually had described them as qatalah (murderers).

"When Salam Fayyad secretly urged the US to block salaries for Palestinian Authority employees"

"Reading through a leaked confidential US government cable from 9 May 2006, I came across a little gem:

Presidential Advisor Akram Hanniyyah and PLC member Salam Fayyad commented to [US] Consul General [Jacob Walles] in separate May 9 meetings that the payment of PA salaries is a critical issue. Hanniyyah pressed for immediate disbursement of the USD 70 million in Cairo, saying it would shift the press story from US blocking bank transfers to Hamas’ inability to govern, once those donations were expended. By contrast, Fayyad thought that any movement on salaries now would let Hamas off the hook and was ill-advised." (thanks Electronic Ali)

Meet the Muslim Brotherhood

Well, they have a history of serving British colonialism:  ""Britain is to provide military advice to the Egyptian government to help it crack down on militants in the Sinai Peninsula who are destabilising relations with neighbouring Israel. In his first meeting with the Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi in New York, David Cameron will announce that Britain's most senior military figure will travel to Cairo. General Sir David Richards, the chief of the defence staff, will lead a British effort that will also see a stabilisation team despatched to Egypt...." (thanks Nu`man)

Saudi academia

"Allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia would mean no more virgins and an increase in homosexuality, according to academics at Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, Majlis al-Ifta' al-A'ala, it has been reported in the Telegraph.  More pornography would be used if women were allowed on the roads and rates of prostitution and divorce would alo rise, the report stated.
Produced in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University, the study into repealing the ban predicted that there would be no more virgins left in the Arab kingdom in 10 years.   Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which bans women from driving.
Professor Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state where “all the women were looking at me“.  “One made a gesture that made it clear that she was available,” he said. “This is what happens when women are allowed to drive.”"" (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

beacon of freedom

""America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation on earth by far, including countries with far greater populations. As the New York Times reported in April 2008: "The United States has less than 5% of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners." Professor Glenn Loury of Brown University has observed that these policies have turned the US into "a nation of jailers" whose "prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history". The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik called this mass incarceration "perhaps the fundamental fact [of American society], as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850".""

WINEP wants war, fast

""Assad's regime got markedly weaker this week, and will get weaker still as Turkey paves the way for action against Assad, one strike at a time."" (thanks Amir)

Inheritors of South Lebanon Army

March 14 folks are the inheritors of the South Lebanon Army.  They have the same role, exactly.

It is not terrorism: he was not Arab (can you imagine the US reaction if he were an Arab-American?)

"A 23-year-old American citizen snatched a security guard’s gun and opened fire in an Eilat hotel on Friday morning, leaving one person dead and three others suffering from shock.Two people were evacuated to the Joseftal Medical Center. The New York man was in Israel as part of an Oranim exchange program, supported by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and was fired from his internship in the hotel kitchen a day before the shooting." (thanks Christian)

Palestine, 1896

(thanks Christine)

Shi`ite leads in prayer in Mecca

Lebanese Shi`ite cleric, `Abdul-Husayn Sharaf Ad-Din leads Muslims in prayer in Mecca in 1340 HA.  It shows you how much Saudi Wahhabi changed Islam.  (thanks Jamal)

PS I grew up with the picture of `Abdul-Husayn Sharaf Ad-Din, the Mufti of Tyre, in my memory. His portrait was the only one not belonging to the family in my grandfather's house.  He was a close family friend.

political rallies in the Hajj

"Saudi warns against political rallies in hajj".  Do those Saudi rulers allow political rallies in other times of the year?  (thanks Basim)

Judaism and Zionism in Egyptian film

This article talks about the portrayal of Jews and Zionists in the Egyptian movie industry. It makes an interesting point how Jews were visible in Egyptian movies prior to the creation of the Zionist usurping entity.

Meet the mastermind of the most dangerous bomb plot in the US (on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guards)

"At school in Baton Rouge, La., he recalled being easily distracted by New Orleans, and going to clubs on Bourbon Street. “I was a party boy,” he told Dr. Saathoff...F.B.I. agents also told Dr. Saathoff that in their dealings with Mr. Arbabsiar, they had portrayed one agent as being President Obama’s “right-hand man.”“ ‘That impressed him. He wants to be important,’ ” Dr. Saathoff quoted the agent as saying about Mr. Arbabsiar.  Mr. Arbabsiar’s suggestion that his case might be resolved through a deal appears to have grown out of his view that because no one had been hurt or killed in the plot, such a resolution might be acceptable. He said that if he had killed someone, he should go to prison. “But nothing happened,” he is quoted as saying, “so I think that there is a chance to make a deal that works for both of us."  How could you after this doubt this story of the sinister plot?

This is how the US fight terrorism: undermine all Palestinian charities

"The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it slapped sanctions on two Lebanon-based charities controlled by Hamas."  You may donate money to the Israeli terrorist army but you may not send money to Palestinian widows.

palace buffoons

I don't know why I remembered yesterday the expression that Gibbon in his history of the Roman Empire used: his reference to "palace buffoons".  I think that we should bring back to use this useful expression.  We can think of those examples of such buffoons in every royal or republican court.  Sa`ib `Urayqat for example would be designated as the chief palace buffoon in the PA Israeli court.

The stupid forgeries of Al-Arabiyya on Syria

I know that Brian Whitaker gets his news on the Middle East from Al-Arabiyya (the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law), but in the Arab world the station and its website are regarded as nothing less than a stupid sensational unprofessional website.  It has been publishing what it claims are documents on Syria: but its intelligence service and its forgerers are as dumb as the Saudi princes who run them.  Just look at this alleged document and judge for yourself. 

PS I should mention that the Persian in the letter is far worse than my Persian. 

Rousseau

Who can talk about himself/herself as "vile and despicable" except Rousseau in his Confessions?