Castro was the name of a US psychological-political disease.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
US war on the Cuban population
This will go down in history--when the US narrative is no longer the prevalent propaganda narrative--as one of the most cruel and savage wars by a state against a civilian population. Castro's domestic reaction to this US savagery and sinister infiltration and sabotage was mild in comparison.
Ask Chomsky this question:
Is there a difference between Democratic and Republic commentaries about Castro?
Excuse me, who pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust? The New York Times on Castro
"and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war". He pushed the world? He did not have nuclear weapons to push the world. No one pushed the world to t he brink of a nuclear war except that one country which dropped nuclear weapons on Japanese civilians to test its military power and to send a message of toughness to the world.
Friday, November 25, 2016
How nuclear weapons fuel was diverted to Israel: From NASA archives
"Those reports indicated that Zalman Shapiro, throughout the time he headed NUMEC, collaborated with a number of Israeli officials. They included people from the “Science Attaché” office at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and others from the Israeli intelligence agencies Shin Bet and Mossad, all believed to be part of Israel’s scientific intelligence organization (LAKAM), which collected nuclear technology in the United States to aid Israel’s nuclear weapons program."
Fake heroes: Aung San Suu Kyi don't know about human rights violations under her watch
"Amid reports by Rohingya refugees and human rights organizations of arson, rape and killings, the lacklustre response of Burma's state counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticised by media and human rights groups." (thanks Amir)
Take this as a rule: the last person I wish to hear from in the world is this buffoon
"Dalai Lama: "I have no worries' about Trump's election". I am shocked that this man does not have an act in the circus.
First they tell you....
First tell you that that you should vote for Hillary because she is the lesser of two evils, and then they would tell you to vote for Paul Ryan because he is the lesser of two evils.
How both US and Russia manufactured news for the Syria war
Of course, all sides who engage in propaganda engage in spreading false news. Remember the propaganda of false news by US occupiers in Afghanistan? Syrian regime and Syrian rebels have both been engaged in spreading false news, as have the Qatari and Saudi and Iranian regime media. It has been a festival. US PR firms have also been involved in intense propaganda efforts which included fake news. This story was clearly one of many false news stories inserted by the propagandists of the US in Western and Arab media.
General Mattis and Arab culture
"Mattis called in experts in Arab culture to lead cultural sensitivity classes. As Thomas E. Ricks recounts in Fiasco, Marines were taught to remove their sunglasses when talking to Iraqis, and when searching a home, to respect the head of the household by seeking his permission to enter rather than roughing him up." Who were those experts in Arab culture, I wonder? John Bolton and Fouad Ajami?
Chomsky and Hillary
Why are some leftists acting that Hillary was some great progressive war? I tell people: Hillary posted a bigger danger to the world, while Trump poses bigger danger to the US. Who knows: he could pose biggest dangers to both, as would Hillary. But to see some progressives in mourning over Hillary is inexplicable. Chomsky even said that those who did not vote for Hillary made a mistake. That is some 75% of the American population, if you count non-voters. His statement implies that things were just wonderful under Obama and that we need to extend the Democratic war era.
The only democracy West of Mars planet
"Satirical Facebook Post Criticizing Celebration of Israel Fires Lands Arab in Jail". Deep down do you think that fanatical Zionists like Alan Dershowitz really believe that this occupation entity is a democracy which practices free speech?
This is not true: shuffling the deck in Saudi regime media
What is the big deal? This is not unusual at all. Saudi regime media are treated by the House of Saudi as one apparatus of propaganda and it is very common to transfer one editor-in-chief from one mouthpiece of one prince to another mouthpiece of another prince. Very common. And it is not true that this is the first time a non-Saudi was appointed editor-in-chief. There were two others: Jihad Khazin and `Irfan Nidham-ad-Din. End of story.
This Western correspondent in Beirut claims to speak for "many in the Middle East", that they want more US wars
"Many in the Middle East will be hoping for a recalibration of US policy after the Obama administration’s generally hands-off stance, particularly toward the war in Syria – despite anxieties fed by Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. If Trump generally follows Obama’s policy of limited involvement, it could bode poorly for Syrian rebel groups." By many in the Middle East he of course mean Israel and Gulf regimes and of course, the Hariri family, which he adores. (thanks Basim)
Kenneth Roth of Human Rights produces fake news--while complaining about fake news (by which he means news bothersome to US/Israel)
This is the quality of documentation for this wealthy human rights organization, called Human Rights Watch. People were in disbelief. Roth was retweeting this today on Twitter with carries propaganda undocumented esteemed of the murder of children in Syria which basically absolves Jihadi groups (and of course US and its allies). Worse, the Arab source of this "fake news" is a Gulf funded shop which never told us how it collected those number and how it assigned responsibility for the murder of those children. Oh, and look at the source of the source of this.
Charles Lister 
Nassib Taleb and the statistics of war in Syria
Now let me explain right at the outset: that I don't agree with Taleb's outlook about Lebanon and language and political identities. We clashed on Twitter before (and be immediately blocked me but later unblocked me), and that his take on the Arab East suffers from an acute case of sectarianism and a typically Lebanese disease of assuming that history in the region stopped as soon as the Muslims arrived into Lebanon. But he is right that there should be questions raised about the statistics of the war in Syria: you have Qatar and EU and US funding various shops which produce numbers and figures and yet with no substantiation whatsoever. There is never even an attempt to document the collection of number. They are all arbitrary and unscientific. People forget that UN stopped counting in Syria a few years ago because they admitted it is too difficult. So Western media copy from Western-funded shops and treat their production as "native knowledge". Look at the number of victims the Hamah massacres: I always thought that it was around 10,000 (a huge number of course and a horrific war crime) but the number is being multiplied by the day as of late. I don't think it is 2000 as Taleb's maintains though. "It hit me that I needed to look into the estimates of Syrian refugees in Lebanon –here again numbers are flying without much rigor, swelling upwards from report to report. But we can assess the bias: they are potentially overstimated. For, at a certain municipality in Lebanon, I was told that the number of refugees in the town, while large, was considerably lower than what was used by the bureaucrats of the U.N. The real number is about a third of what is published. While this is very optimistic for Lebanon (there should be fewer refugees than claimed, so let us worry less about the stability of the place), it is not good for the economics and funding of U.N. agencies and the lifestyle of their bureaucrats. Now, the real number of casualties in the Syrian war. We hear half a million people died in Syria. We are also told that many are “murdered” by Putin, Assad, and Catherine the Great (who came down to bully the Ottomans in the Levant after her invasion of the Crimea). It is easy to verify that much of the information we get about “butcher” of Damascus are suspicious: some Saudi-Qatari funded P.R. firms in Washington and London have shown evidence of hyperactivity. Just as the number of hospitals in East Aleppo where Al-Qaeda is based (and from where it shells civilians in other parts of the city), just as the number of hospitals per capita there appears to me several times that in the rest of the world (every day we hear that the Russians have destroyed another hospital, yet the State department spokesman John Kirby could not place or name any of the five hospitals he was recently discussing). I see propagandists and Al Qaeda apologists such as Charles Lister (at the Salafi-funded Middle East Institute) throw numbers that get cited –yes, some idiot will cite numbers from the Al Qaeda propagandist Charles Lister, and may eventually be cited in turn by some decent newspaper, hence get fixed for posterity. I once saw a serious American journalist (“expert” on Syria) posting on social media macabre scenes as a testimony of Assad’s murders: it turned out that a picture of “dying children victims of Assad” was likely to be from Libya four years earlier; it appeared to be promoted by a Qatari-funded P.R. firm. Her reaction was unapologetic: “Don’t you think Assad is capable of these crimes?” Trust none of what you hear, some of what you read, half of what you see goes an old trader adage. As a trader and quant/mathematical statistician, I have been taught to take data seriously, trust nobody’s numbers, and avoid people naive enough to engage in policy based on lurid but questionable pictures of destruction: the fake picture of a dying child is something nobody can question without appearing to be an asshole. As a citizen, I require that the designation “murderer” be determined in a court of law, not by Saudi-funded outlets — once someone is called a murderer or butcher, all bets are off. I cannot believe governments and bureaucrats could be so stupid. But they are." His skepticism--but not his outlook--should be kept in mind in dealing with Western and Arab propaganda on Syria.
The prices of Hashish in Lebanon
Al-Akhbar published an article last week in which it was claimed that the prices of Hashish have gone down. I have received from various people "who know" in Lebanon messages that this is not true and that the industry is doing well.
What is the difference between "sneak attacks" and "preemptive strikes" and "preemptive wars"?
In the US, you still read that Israeli war on Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine was a "preemptive war". Why is it not a "sneak attack" like Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Who is Syrian dissident Rana Qassis who met with Eric Trump?
So it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Eric Trump met in Paris with Randa Qassis who claims to head a small opposition group. But Syrian opposition groups and rebel groups hate her and accuse her of being a secret supporter of the Asad regime. She is very close to the Russian government, and those opposition groups and personalities who are close to the Russian government are not trusted by other Syrian opposition groups. She is a blunt advocate of strict secularism in an amateurish way (that "secularism is the solution to all problems"). She also was vilified by all groups and people on social media for meeting with Israeli war criminal, Shimon Peres.
fires in occupied Palestine
As one Saudi wrote on Facebook: the burning of Palestinians generated less sympathy than the burning of trees.
Just to be clear: I would accept--if offered--the UN ambassadorship
And I won't use the veto power except against US resolutions. The fun I would have (oh, and I would have free access to the room service of the Waldorf Astoria).
Another Zionist to the UN
"She signed state legislation to thwart a pro-Palestinian disinvestment campaign against Israel, known as Boycott, Divest, and Sanction, or B.D.S. — which made Israel one of the first to welcome her nomination for the post."
Keith Ellison: the Muslim Zionist
While the Israeli lobby is fighting Keith Ellison, Ellison reiterates his Zionism.
Egyptian regime forces deployed in Syria in support of the regime
I have not seen this in Western media. The Paris correspondent of As-Safir reports that there has been a contingent of Egyptian troops deployed in Syria in support of the regime. He has been reporting on development of closer relations between the two regimes. I wonder if Trump is sponsoring this new alliance. How will GCC regimes respond to this?
U.S.-allied rebels terrorizing hospitals & doctors in Yemen
"Rebels allied with a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition have been “terrorizing” hospitals and doctors in Yemen, according to a new report by Amnesty International." "U.S.-backed, Saudi-led airstrikes have taken an even larger toll on hospitals inside Yemen."
Blaming Palestinians for fires and natural disasters
From Eyal: "During the Black Plague in the Middle Ages in Europe, Jews were sometimes scapegoated, with accusations of having poisoned the wells to infect crowded cities (see )
Now, for the past several days Palestine/Israel has experienced a wave of fires [1]. due to the unusually dry and windy weather. Israeli police has already rushed to claim that this is the result of arson. And who, do you think, might be the suspects? Palestinians, of course. "The Shin-Bet is
investigating: Arson Terrorism!" says the YNet headline. Police chief Ronni Al-Sheikh (he's not a Sheikh, that's just his family name), who is a former top Shin-Bet official, announced [2] that "it is reasonable to assume that the arson had nationalist motives and arrests have already been made". Ron Ben-Yishai, a security pundit, writes "Even a person wh's not an expert understands that most fires are the result of arson whose perpatrators know how to locate the places in which maximum effect would be achieved." [3] MK Aiman Odeh, was interviewed by YNet and asked questions such as: "Do you know for a fact that these are not cases of arson?" and after saying does not know it for a fact and that if some person is responsible, than he is a wretched person, be he Jew or Arab, the next question was "So why do you object to the use of the term 'an Intifadah of Arson'?" [2]
Gotta love the Israeli media. It's like they haven't learned anything from last big forest fire in Haifa, 6 years ago, where arson was also suspected, someone was arrested, but of course nothing came of it.
Louisa Loveluck: another Western correspondent in Beirut
When Louisa Loveluck writes on Syria, she is keen on seeking out the views and opinions of experts who are objective and who have no stake in the conflict, like this fellow: "a resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, a Washington-based think tank.".
Saudi regime media insist: Trump really loves Saudi Arabia
It is hilarious. Despite many years of expression for disdain of the Saudi regime, the Saudi notoriously sleazy news website, Al-Arabiyya (owned by King Salman), has a lead feature today: "Is it true that Trump hate Saudi Arabia"? Their answer is that no, because he once said that he loves Saudis. In fact the quotation in question was in mockery.
Western media still refuse to talk about pro-US potentates' praise for Trump: here is the King of Jordan
"I have had the opportunity to speak to President-elect Donald Trump last week. The synergy was very good in the phone call conversation. I know many members of the transitional team"
How delusional can Maryam Khawaja be?
"“At least when you met with [the Obama] administration, you could use human rights language,” said Maryam al-Khawaja, an activist in Bahrain, where an uprising in 2011 was brutally suppressed." So you talk the human rights language with the Obama administration while the Obama administration sells weapons to the Bahraini dictatorship? What a great achievement really.
It is hilarious that I still read Westerners expressing outrage over the slaughter of sheep in the Hajj in Mecca
"Three hundred million turkeys are killed in the U.S. each year, many for Thanksgiving and Christmas."
U.S. officials on Saudi-Israeli-backed MEK payroll
"The MeK has paid Giuliani handsomely for years—$20,000 or more, and possibly a lot more—for brief appearances before the group and for lobbying to have it removed from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), which occurred in 2012. Among other MeK devotees are former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton—another secretary of state in waiting—and champion Trump booster Newt Gingrich. Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao (also the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), who suddenly appeared at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Monday for a meeting with the president-elect, has also been on the MeK payroll, as has former Bush 43 security aide Fran Townsend, whose name has been in play as a possible Trump secretary of homeland security or director of national intelligence." (thanks Amir)
Conventional wisdom on Syria
For all my years in the US, I thought that it was hard for Middle East studies academics to deviate from the conventional wisdom on Israel. Now I believe that it is even harder for the community to deviate from the conventional wisdom on Syria.
Henry Wallace and the Democratic Party
If you think about it: the Democratic Party has been moving to the right since the days of the 1940s. The big moneyed interests and the southern segregationists succeeded in weakening the union leadership's influence and in moving the party to the right. They were the one who engineered the coup against Henry Wallace and the installation of Truman as vice president in 1944. If you go back and read some of the statements of Wallace, it is stunning that no one would say those things now. He denounced imperialism and used that language and denounced colonialism (hell, even FDR denounced British colonialism). If you read what Wallace said about the races, you won't have the "first black president" ever utter such denunciations of white racism. The Democratic Party--the tears of liberal Hillary's supporters notwithstanding--is really a right-wing party whose only connection to liberalism is history only.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley was the first governor to sign an anti-BDS measure. But then again: do you really think that there will be a different between Nikki Haley and Samantha Power?
So Hillary won the election?
So according to liberal media, Hillary simply made a mistake: she was under the impression that the US presidency is won in popular vote and she had no idea that there is such thing as the Electoral College.
Liberal media talk about the worst showing for a US president among minority groups
"But Bush and Reagan both did far better with Hispanic voters, capturing 35 percent and 34 percent, respectively, according to exit polling data compiled by the non-partisan Roper Center for Public Opinion Research." So he lost 5% support compared to Bush among Latino voters. How much support did Hillary lose among all voters compared to Obama in 2008?
Why Israeli leaders are welcoming rise of anti-Semitism in U.S.
"In a column for Israel’s Ynet, Yaron London, long a prime-time host on Israel’s Channel 10, wrote that “a worldview which supports white supremacy matches our government’s interests.” “If Trump’s people are more disgusted by Arabs than they are by Jews … we have struck quite a good deal,” he adds, noting that “Trump and his friends see Israel as a forefront against the barbarians.” “To put it more sharply, anti-Semitism is the generator and ally of Zionism,” London states."
U.S. voted against anti-Nazi resolution at UN to protect its neo-Nazi allies in Ukraine
"The United States says it was one of three countries to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism over freedom of speech issues and concerns that Russia was using it to carry out political attacks against its neighbors." "Ukraine and Palau were the other no votes."
Boycott HP: Technology of Israeli apartheid
"There are clear parallels between HP’s biometric access control system as currently employed to confine and control Palestinian movement in Israel/ Palestine and the racist passbook ID system used by South Africa’s apartheid government, for which the U.S.-based Polaroid Corporation provided imaging services. In the 1970s, there was a boycott and divestment campaign targeting Polaroid for its complicity in South African apartheid. The campaign was eventually successful, andPolaroid’s dramatic 1977 withdrawal from South Africa increased pressure on other complicit companies across the globe, accelerating international efforts to end South African apartheid. Leaders of the Polaroid boycott and divestment campaign, such as Caroline Hunter, the Polaroid employee who discovered her company’s role in South Africa and helped launch the boycott campaign, are today calling for a boycott of HP companies." (thanks Ami)
UN rights official commends Saudi prison conditions
“I can say that the Mohammed bin Naif Counseling and Care Center’s work according to the applied standards is a role model,” Emmerson said." Is this the counseling center which sends people back to Jihadi terrorism? The problem is that Jihadis are the best treated among the political prisoners in the kingdom. (thanks Basim)
"Evanston Public Library Books About Islam Defaced With Swastikas, Racial Slurs"
Zionist classification of Syrian rebel groups
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