Great Arab Revolution

Lately, I have been reading the documents and accounts about the Great Arab Revolution--so called--of WWI.  Here were the Europeans promising Arabs full support for their freedom and independence if they revolt against the Turks.  The rest is too well known.  But the scenario is not different from today.

Under the auspices of US and Germany: the Syrian day after

Joerg in Berlin sent me this:
"today the German weekly "DIE ZEIT" reports, that for months round about 50 Syrian dissidents met in Berlin to discuss the future constitution of Syria. They were invited by "Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik" (SWP), a German think tank, affiliated with the government. Sponsor of the top secret meetings was also USIP (US Institute for Peace). The project began in January and was called "Day After". The article points out, that no member of the government was involved, so that it won't be possible to call the participants traitors. The director of SWP stresses, that the participants were selected by the Syrian opposition itself. Germany only wanted to provide a save haven for their discussions, but not influence a future government. But:

"Zwar nehmen auch Angehörige der Freien Syrischen Armee teil, die in Syrien die Kämpfe der Rebellen anführt, doch der Weg hin zum Sturz Assads und die damit verbundene Debatte um Fluch und Segen militärischer Interventionen wird in Berlin bewusst ausgeklammert. Die Frage bei den Treffen lautet: Wie kann der Übergang zu einem demokratischen Syrien organisiert werden? Das unweigerliche Ende des Regimes wird schlicht vorausgesetzt, als eine Art Arbeitshypothese. Darin zeigt sich, dass die Bundesregierung schon viel länger mit dem Sturz des syrischen Regimes kalkuliert, als Berliner Diplomaten zugeben können. Und: Deutschland ist sehr viel stärker in die Vorbereitungen der syrischen Opposition einbezogen, als man bisher öffentlich erklärte. (...) Die Bundesregierung zieht mit der Förderung der syrischen Opposition Konsequenzen aus der Fehlentscheidung, im Libyenkonflikt mit Russland und China gegen eine Intervention gestimmt zu haben. In diesem Zusammenhang sind auch die offiziellen Aktivitäten Deutschlands im Rahmen der Freundesgruppe des syrischen Volkes zu sehen. (...) Deutschland hat in der Freundesgruppe zusammen mit den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten die Verantwortung für die Arbeitsgruppe Wirtschaftlicher Wiederaufbau und Entwicklung übernommen. (...) In Berlin wurde jüngst ein Sekretariat eingerichtet, das die Sitzungen koordinieren und den Kontakt zur syrischen Opposition halten soll (...). Deutsche Diplomaten äußern sich erfreut, dass der Syrische Nationalrat, der größte Zusammenschluss oppositioneller Kräfte, sich beim Treffen der Arbeitsgruppe klar zu Marktwirtschaft und Korruptionsbekämpfung bekannt hat."

This is not in the article: The result of the discussions at SWP, a paper of 70 pages in English, shall be published in August. Samir Aita from "Le Monde diplomatique" already criticised the results - in Arabic."

PS Dont you like that the market economy is already on the table.

picture of Ahwaz hanging

Jari tells me that the picture I posted yesterday alleging recent hanging in Iran was from 2006.

colonialism with a humanitarian face

""Given that America has used its vast armoury to cause more destruction around the world than any other nation over the past 10 years, it is bizarre that Amnesty should be pleading with it to lead the way on restricting the flow of guns to the 'wrong' countries.""

Russian-Israeli alliance

""Moscow pursues a hypersensitive approach toward arms supplies to the Middle East and is constantly in consultation with Israel and the United States on what it should or should not deliver to countries in the region, and when," he added."

the civil republic that is promised by Muslim Brothers and their tools

"Thousands of Syrians are fleeing into neighboring Lebanon -- not entirely due to fear of the Assad regime. The country's minority Christian population is suffering under attacks waged by rebel troops. In the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, Christian families are finding temporary refuge, but they are still terrified." (thanks Asa)

Mr. Cigar Tlas

Akram sent me this:
"Q: What Are the plans of Mr. Cigar Tlas?
A: To live in safety with his family [he meant his wife, but as a devoted Muslim who already accomplished Al-Oumra, he can't say it explicitly] and children.

Q: Why?
A: Because he cannot accept being safe while his people [as his car or his cigar] is not.

But don't worry. This brave man doesn't plan to stay abroad forever. When safety in Syria is restored and the Syrian people believed this, he will be amongst the first people there. Meanwhile, he'll keep traveling all over the world urging Syria's friends to supply arms, ammunition and, if necessary, fighters, so the peace is guaranteed to prevail in the Syrian territory".

speaking in Saudi Arabia

I have accepted an invitation from Saudi protesters in `Awamiyyah in east Saudi Arabia to address a rally against the Saudi regime next Saturday.  I shall be arriving to the kingdom via video.

another proof that exile Syrian opposition is a tool of Saudi Arabia

Saudi cleric, Shaykh Nimr An-Nimr, was unequivocal in his public remarks.  He equally denounced the regimes of Bashshar Al-Asad and the Bahraini royal family.  He was clear in his stance against tyrants.  Yet, there was not one voice from any member of the Syrian opposition to support him or to call for his release.

What Thomas Friedman demands of Arabs

"Thomas Friedman dreams of a Syrian/Arab/Sunni/Shiite/Egyptian/Tunisian/Libyan Mandela, a short history: " (thanks David)

It is about memory training

"Prayer is a custom in which thought is invested".  How so? it is mere recitation?  If you recite poetry by heart, you probably achieve the same results.  Since George W. Bush prays regularly it proves that thought is not involved at all in prayer.

I doubt that Feminist Majority which championed a war on Afghanistan will champion a war on Israel

"Jerusalem police commander Niso Shaham has been placed on leave by his boss, as has been Shaham’s deputy. The unofficial Israeli police forum Hashotrim reports that he’s been charged with raping a woman. He responded to the charges by claiming that the sex act was consensual. Another rumor alleges that he’s sexually harassed policewomen (which means that it’s possible the accuser is a policewoman)."

The Illogic of Thomas Friedman

"Just on the level of basic cogency, this makes absolutely no sense. Friedman says that a country will be “stuck in Hobbes — a war of all against all — unless” it has America there. But Iraq did have America there, and — as Friedman himself points out just a few paragraphs later — it got “stuck in Hobbes,” precisely because America was there (“Because of both U.S. incompetence and the nature of Iraq, this U.S. intervention triggered a civil war in which all the parties in Iraq — Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds — tested the new balance of power, inflicting enormous casualties on each other and leading, tragically, to ethnic cleansing that rearranged the country into more homogeneous blocks of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds”). He literally negates his own principal claim — a country that overthrows its dictator can only avoid Hobbes if it has a U.S.-like force occupying and controlling it — in the very same column in which he advances it.  But incoherence is the least notable aspect of this column. Did you know that “everyone on the ground” in Iraq “trusted” America to manage the transition from Saddam to Switzerland? This would probably came as a great surprise to the actual Iraqis on the ground, as reflected by U.S. government and independent polls in 2006".

A Lebanese summoned to fight secularization

"Pope Benedict XVI appointed Boulos Matar, the Maronite bishop of Beirut, Wednesday to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, a department aimed at countering growing secularization." (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

Wahhabi court

"A court in Khobar Governorate in eastern Saudi Arabia will hear the case against two people who allegedly helped a Saudi woman convert to Christianity. The defendants are a Saudi citizen and a Lebanese national.  Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal in Saudi Arabia, but the case is the first of its kind to be considered by a Saudi court." If this was in Iran, it would have been lampooned in every US paper and TV show.

foreign fighters in Syria

"Regardless, foreigners are coming across into Syria. One prominent Syrian smuggler in a border town near Turkey said that he ferried 17 Tunisians across the night before. It was a marked uptick in his business. He said he hadn’t seen many foreign fighters for about a month prior to the Tunisians. “Before that, every day there were new people, from Morocco, Libya, and elsewhere,” he said. (In the course of several hours of waiting to cross back into Turkey, I saw at least a dozen Arabs who were clearly not Syrian, and identified as foreigners by the smuggler.) It’s unclear how large the Jabhat and Ahrar are, given their shadowy nature, but it’s clear that their activities are becoming more public. Both participate in operations alongside regular FSA units, although some FSA commanders remain suspicious of them and jealous of the deep Gulf pockets funding them. “Where were the Islamists when the revolution started?” is spray-painted on the wall of one town in Idlib. The response, spray-painted beneath it, was equally curt: “In prison.”  Abu Mohammad, a local FSA commander with 25 men, said he dealt with the Jabhat because he needed their “explosives, bullets and other things.” “They have experience that I can benefit from and I can also give them some help, information that benefits them.”"

`Abd-Karim Al-Khalil

On August 1913, `Abdul-Karim Al-Khalil (an early proponent of Arab nationalism) stood before the Sublime Porte and spoke about Palestine and the conspiracy and the selling of lands there.  I read about that account in As`ad Daghir's Mudhakkirati `ala Hamish Al-Qadiyyah Al-`Arabiyyah (this old book should have been translated a long time ago).  By the way, Al-Khalil was later executed by the Turks.

Right-wing Lebanese as experts on Syria

Every right-wing Lebanese who is a supporter of March 14 (the coalition that sponsored the hateful racist campaign against Syrian workers in Lebanon) has been introduced in the American media as "Syria expert" and is identified as a "long time lover of the Syrian people".

Syrian defectors

I am dying for a Syrian official--at any level--to defect from the Syrian regime and NOT seek refuge in Riyadh or Qatar.  Such moves proves beyond a doubt that those are paid defectors, or mercenaries.  Also, if people defect out of outrage over the killing of civilians, are all defections not way too late by now?  If they had real conscience, they would have defected early on when demonstrators were being shot at.

Manaf Tlas and the Saudi plot

Saudi propaganda has the subtlety of a speech by Saddam Husayn.  They have been working hard in promoting Tlas: i think that want to compete with Qatar and throw their own candidate in the arena of exile opposition.  Saudi media are promoting Tlas big time.  Read his first interview with the mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, and read the last passage of praise for the Saudi rulers and their Arab nationalism.

PS Of course, the vulgar interview (a tool for Prince Salman's son) asked him about the Iranian role in the Syrian regime.  Tlas disappointed him but saying that he never saw anybody and that he was not in the top leadership circle but that he "heard things".  

Nasrallah on Syria

"My latest blog post for Al-Akhbar English on Nasrallah and Syria.

What a wonderful world

"On July 24, after leaving Syria some 12 days prior, Manaf Tlass for the first time announced his opposition to the regime that he embodied, as though its transgressions had begun in March 2011. And the external “opposition” benevolently embraced him, as did the Saudis, who admitted Manaf to their kingdom for the‘umra (lesser pilgrimage). As Louis Armstrong sang, “What a Wonderful World!”" (thanks Sultan)

Ammar Abdulhamid and Asaf Shawkat

After the death of Shawkat, Ammar Abdulhamid came out with this account of his meeting with Asaf Shawkat.  It is just interesting that he waited until his death to produce this account: certainly he was worried that Shawkat could contradict this account.  Now of course Abdulhamid had the privilege in Syria of being the son of Syria's top actress (Muna Wasif, a supporter of the regime).  But I can tell you that I don't believe this account.  So according to him, he went to see Shawkat: yelled at him and cursed him (did he also kick him in the head?) and then he received a hug from Shawkat is just not believable.  Most likely, Abdulhamid prostrated in that meeting.  Abdulhamid prostrates before every Zionist in Washington, DC and I am sure that he perfected the art of prostration while in Syria.  A man who prostrates in one city, prostrates in other cities as well, by my book.

PS Do you notice that those exile Syrians, like this guy or Cicero, has really bad command of English when they speak but they miraculously produce op-ed pieces in flawless English.  Am I suggesting that their Zionist sponsors write or editor their pieces?

Ghalyun: could not take not being the "president" of a shop

I knew it: that Burhan Ghalyun would not be satisfied with the role of non-leader at the Syrian National Council.  So under the auspices of Qatar he established a new exile opposition shop and made himself its leader.  

The token Arabs to the rescue

When you see the names of a handful of Arabs at the bottom of a letter drafted and signed by who-is-who in the Likud camp in the US, do you really think that the token Arab contributed a letter to the letter? And in the past the token Arabs were always invariably Lebanese but now you see a Syrian or two.  Times change.

How much Arabs hate Israel

You have to watch this.  MEMRI showed only a section of this but they gave it some different headline.  In an Arab version of candid camera, Egyptian actors and singers were invited on shows and while there were told that the station is an Israeli one.  Just watch the violent--literally--reactions of guests.  (thanks Ihsane)

secularism

""There have also been persistent, though difficult to confirm, reports of rebels executing government forces that surrender to them, with Alawi soldiers far more likely to be killed than fellow Sunnis.""

Western media

Bob sent me this:  "They figured it out, 16 months after the start of the war. They figured out that they have been fooled by the so called opposition in Syria. They also figured out that they can NOT rely solely on anonymous sources and cover such a war via skype, facebook and twitter. They also figured out that most of those fighting are Islamists. Way to go Western media. Very smart."

"as many as a quarter of the 300 rebel groups may be inspired by Al Qaeda"

"U.S. officials have worried that some of those groups may be linked to, or sympathetic with, Al Qaeda affiliates. By one U.S. estimate, as many as a quarter of the 300 rebel groups may be inspired by Al Qaeda, says Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee."

The token Christian in the SNC

By the way, the Syrian National Council basically said today that any statements by the token Christian representative, George Sabra, does not represent the council and that only statements made by Sunnis represent the policies of the council.

racist Israelis

Protesters wear surgical masks to symbolize their belief that Africans carry contagious diseases (photo: Mya Guarnieri)

Al-Qa`idah song: and the American who joined the Syrian "revolution"

Is the song in the video not an Al-Qa`idah song?  (thanks Christian)

German Intelligence on Syria

"German intelligence estimates that “around 90” terror attacks, which “can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups,” were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July. As reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, this was revealed by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question. In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified “by reason of national interest”…" (thanks Thomas)

Israeli propaganda

Every few years, the Israeli government resorts to the gas masks propaganda scheme.  I mean, how many times are we supposed to be fooled?  Also, who threatened whom?  It was clear that Israel has been threatening Syria with military intervention and not vice versa.  For record.

Are those true?

I received this picture alleging that they are the recent victims of hanging by the lousy repressive Iranian regime in Ahwaz. Can people confirm if true?

the same headlines in Arab newspapers

I noted yesterday how two Arabic newspapers (one Saudi funded and the other Qatari funded) carried the exact same headlines yesterday.  A reader alerts me that An-Nahar carried the same headline as well.

killing the Syrian revolution

Akram, Angry Arab correspondent in Syria, sent me this:  "The video, posted on YouTube, is one more bit of evidence that Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists are doing their best to hijack the Syrian revolution, with a growing although still limited success that has American intelligence officials publicly concerned, and Iraqi officials next door openly alarmed.

It's clear that NYT wasn't there when USA and its GCC tails killed the revolution the very moment they composed the Free Syrian Army".

the talents of Neil MacFarquhar

A reader sent me this:  "How else, other than immense journalistic talents, can you explain how this paragraph was written from Beirut:

"The clamorous heart of Aleppo, the ancient city with its cobbled streets and mazy bazaars, fell silent on Tuesday as residents there and across Syria’s sprawling commercial capital fled the streets and cowered indoors, dreading the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire and the echoing roar of government helicopters"

If only I could do that!!!!"

Watching Arabs kill Arabs

""Armed with binoculars and cameras, tourists in Israel are flocking to the Golan Heights in the hope of seeing the bloody conflict in neighboring Syria, sparking a trend among tour operators.""

The inspiration behind the Mali Salafites

"The Ansar al-Din, a Tuareg jihadist faction led by the Salafi Iyad Ag Ghaly, Mali's former consul in Saudi Arabia, is intent on imposing sharia in several northern cities, including Timbuktu, which he conquered with the assistance of AQIM and newly acquired weapons from Libya."

back channel

"Now, Mustafa [his father] and Tlass's sister, Nahed Ojjeh, are living in Paris, where Ms. Ojjeh is a prominent socialite who once dated a former French foreign minister.

"France has a longstanding relationship with the Tlass family, going back to the 1980s. Manaf’s sister … throws lavish dinner parties and infiltrated the French political and media elites,” says Mr. Bitar. “When she became the mistress of a foreign minister, there was a national security risk for France, but the president then chose to turn a blind eye because he felt there was need for backchannel diplomacy between France and the Assad regime."

"Given these old ties, France today might be thinking of grooming Manaf Tlass and counting on him to play an important role in the post-Assad transition phase.""

The real Munaf Tlas

Ghassan Saud and Firas Al-Shufi are both reporters at Al-Akhbar.  They both knew Munaf Tlas rather well.  Both agree that the real beef (or tofu) of Munaf was that he wanted to replace Maher Al-Asad in his position.  Ghassan reports to me that Munaf used to spend hours raving about Hasan Nasrallah and that his wish was to have a picture taken with him.  Firas reports on his FB that Munaf (who has just appeared exclusively on Al-Arabiyyah) used to say that Al-Arabiyyah (the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) is worse than Yedi'ot Ahronot.

PS I should add that both Ghassan and Firas have been supporters of the Syrian regime.

Salafite on wheat and Shi`ites

A Syrian Salafite warns against giving even a speck of wheat to a Shi`ites.  In other news, I read in the Western press that the Syrian armed rebellion is led by Sufis, liberals, and alcohol drinkers.

generosity of the Syrian people

Ibn Battutah in his famous book reports that the people of Damascus never had their Iftars alone in Ramadan: that they would always invite friends and poor people.

The other side of the Free Syrian Army (always mentioned in passing and always justified and watered down)

"Residents said there were clashes not just between the government and the insurgents, but also between rival militias from the countryside fighting for control of individual streets in at least one southern neighborhood. In a central old quarter, one man said a friend had warned him not to visit because young gunmen had established a checkpoint to rob car passengers...Majed Abdel Nour, the spokesman in Aleppo for the Shaam News Network, an activist organization, said 22 people had died in urban fighting. He denied that any real Free Syrian Army units were fighting for control of individual streets or robbing people. “There are individual cases — some people are doing it, but it’s not the F.S.A.,” he said...It is just so hard to figure who is F.S.A. and who is a thug,” said one 25-year-old woman reached via Skype. “In brief, I am just terrified.”"