This is a most comprehensive file on the phenomenon of Shabbihah in Syrian regime areas of Syria--published in Al-Akhbar which is still banned from Syria by the Syrian regime.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Fear and prejudice in US
"There are no triangles, circles or other geographic shapes that can demarcate a population or religion or phenotype or (gasp) civilization as “the homophobic one.” The sad truth is that homophobia and misogyny are unavoidable global hegemonic forces that shape everyday life. The United States is no exception to this rule. In the past six months over one hundred anti-LGBTQ bills and laws have been tabled and discussed across the United States. These are governmental and structural manifestations of the devaluing of queer life. The most prominent of these laws are all out assaults on trans bodies and their uses of bathrooms. This law will ensure that trans people will experience even more violence and hatred than they already do, and in an already vulnerable space (bathrooms). Queers of color, queer women of color, and trans people of color (especially trans black women) are daily assaulted, killed, incarcerated, criminalized, brutalized, and raped across this country. The criminalization and wholesale removal of homeless populations from our cities also disproportionately targets queers, and those that are most vulnerable, young queers of color. Yet these daily and hourly attacks (often against the more and most vulnerable within the LGBTQ community) rarely inspire national outrage, as Sima Shasksari reminds us. They do not elicit twenty-four news hour cycles or “special programming” on mainstream news outlets."
Some trends in Arab social media
Among the most circulated and revealed on Arab social media, including among Islamists, are by far Che Guevara, Ghassan Kanafani, Leila Khaled, Naji Al-`Ali, Amal Dunqul, Ahmad Fu'ad Najm, Um Kulthum, Fayrzu, and Nizar Qabbani. Very interesting indeed.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
An Arab communist in the US
I bet you that an Arab communist in the US would not be able to buy that automatic rifle obtained by the shooter in Orlando. I am sure that the FBI would be immediately flagged. Hell, I bet you that the FBI is notified any time an Arab communist purchases a kitchen knife in the US.
Israel spin doctors move to exploit Orlando massacre
"The effort to tie Palestinians in particular and Muslims more generally to the Orlando massacre is part of a long-standing campaign by Israel and its supporters to present Palestinian resistance as part of a bigger “jihad” against “the West,” rather than being a response to Israel’s violent occupation and colonization. Israel then presents itself as the vanguard of this civilized West faced with alleged Islamic barbarism. This war of civilizations narrative suits Israel because it absolves it of any responsibility to change its behavior toward Palestinians." (thanks Amir)
Michael Lerner and Ali's funeral
This tribute is undeserved. Not only due to the vapidness of Michael Lerner's "politics of meaning"--do you remember that one?--but also because the premise of Lerner's views on Palestine has always been typically racist: that Israeli occupation is bad not for what it has done and does to the Palestinian and Arab people but because it causes great "anguish"--here is that dreaded word--to the Israeli occupation soldiers.
A significant change in Arab media references to gays
There is one noticeable impact of the Orlando shooting: Arab regime media suddenly stopped referring to gays as "sexual deviants". Even Saudi regime media stopped this practice--for the time being at least.
PS It could be temporary in light of the tragedy. The newspaper of Turkish prime minister still refers to gays as "sexual deviant".
PS It could be temporary in light of the tragedy. The newspaper of Turkish prime minister still refers to gays as "sexual deviant".
A Saudi newspaper solves the case of the Orlando shooter: he worked for Hizbullah
I am not making it up: the Saudi paper Ukaz claims that the FBI has "confirmed" that the shooter worked for Hizbullah.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Micah Bass explains in the Times how Arabs can't be gay
"Micah Bass, the owner of the M Hotel and Revere, a large gay club in the area, said that someone resembling Mr. Mateen requested to add him as a friend this week on Facebook. He said he looked at the person’s picture and noticed that a lot of his friends had Arabic writing on their pages. Mr. Bass said he figured the request must have been sent in error, so he deleted it."
On "The Muslim Silence on Gay Rights"
People in the West know that there is a need, nay a political necessity, for articles and books about the universal Muslim problem, that many Muslims are eager to join in with contributions that merely echo what is said by non-Muslims about Muslims. But when Muslims say it, or even those who refer to themselves as "former Muslims", it attains false credibility. Look at this article in the New York Times hours after the shooting in Orlando.
1) with 1.6 billion Muslims of the world, there is really not much usefulness in analysis about Islam and Muslims. (I am reading Shahab Ahmed's new book, What is Islam by Princeton University Press, and he wonders whether the label of Islamic carries meaning even from a scholarly point of view). How could one speak about Muslims without regard to geography, social class, and nationality. How could one not make distinctions between Arab Islam versus non-Arab Islam, between Islam in Beirut or even South Lebanon and Islam in the tribal areas of Pakistan. There are communities of gay people in most cities of the Arab world, for example. As one gay relative once told me (and he lived in Lebanon, London, and San Francisco): in the Arab world, you are mocked, and in the West you meet people who want to bash your head. He recounted how he encountered people with homophobic aggression which he never encountered back home. The crazy homophobia of the shooter in Orlando is home grown homophobia. In Beirut you can be Muslim born and have open gay or lesbian relationships. And this is not entirely unique to Beirut anymore.
2) The writer of this article must be confined to Islamic-oriented individuals on social media. On Arab social media, support for gay and lesbian rights is not taboo anymore and has not been a taboo for many years now. Yes, there is an intense debate about gay and lesbian rights, but there is no one point of view, and there is no one dominant view. In fact, among the intellectual elite, there is now accepted support for gay and lesbian rights. The writer of the article must be stuck on conservative and religious pages of people. Whenever I post something in Arabic supportive of gay and lesbian rights and anti-homophobic, there are still Middle East men who write in disagreement but there are also Middle East men and women who also write passionately in support. But this the problem with Western writings about the Middle East: they don't carry the debate, and they don't bother to cover debates. It is more interesting and exotic--and certainly more prejudiced--to speak about a monolithic Arab world and a monolithic Islamic world. There is one Arab and one Muslim. Any discussion of diversity and debate deviates from the long established stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.
3) Homophobia, like anti-Semitism, was nurtured and cuddled and sponsored with the Western church, and as a result those who speak homophonically among Arabs or Muslims merely reproduce Western homophobic statements or claims, just as Middle East anti-Semites (the most active among them happen to be active in local Middle East churches) also reproduce the anti-Semitic literature of Western anti-Semites. Not that there are no anti-gay elements in religion--or statement that can be interpreted as anti-gay by modern-day Western-influenced clerics of various religions, but there is no body of literature as there is in the West.
4) Yet again, the infusion of fanatical and misogynistic elements into Islam, or what is being promoted and exported as Islam, is the work of Gulf regimes. They are the ones who supply mosques and Islamic centers worldwide with the literature of hate and intolerance, and they do that under the eyes of Western governments and security agencies. There is no debate that Gulf regimes (the so-called moderate Arab regimes) are the exporters and founders of the most fanatical brands of Islam.
5) the writer of this piece in the Times is comical here: "But for Muslims, this is also a moment to reflect more deeply on how we feel about living in a country where gay rights are central, where marriage equality is real and coexistence is the only way forward." Which country is he talking about? US? Or some imaginary future republic of virtue? Is he implying here that there is a consensus in US, or even in the West, over issues like gay rights and marriage equality? Or is he generalizing about the West (favorably) just as he is generalizing about Islam unfavorably?
6) Muslims are not silent but it is not their fault that the only voices you hear among them are either ISIS or the Gulf (and Jordan) potentates.
1) with 1.6 billion Muslims of the world, there is really not much usefulness in analysis about Islam and Muslims. (I am reading Shahab Ahmed's new book, What is Islam by Princeton University Press, and he wonders whether the label of Islamic carries meaning even from a scholarly point of view). How could one speak about Muslims without regard to geography, social class, and nationality. How could one not make distinctions between Arab Islam versus non-Arab Islam, between Islam in Beirut or even South Lebanon and Islam in the tribal areas of Pakistan. There are communities of gay people in most cities of the Arab world, for example. As one gay relative once told me (and he lived in Lebanon, London, and San Francisco): in the Arab world, you are mocked, and in the West you meet people who want to bash your head. He recounted how he encountered people with homophobic aggression which he never encountered back home. The crazy homophobia of the shooter in Orlando is home grown homophobia. In Beirut you can be Muslim born and have open gay or lesbian relationships. And this is not entirely unique to Beirut anymore.
2) The writer of this article must be confined to Islamic-oriented individuals on social media. On Arab social media, support for gay and lesbian rights is not taboo anymore and has not been a taboo for many years now. Yes, there is an intense debate about gay and lesbian rights, but there is no one point of view, and there is no one dominant view. In fact, among the intellectual elite, there is now accepted support for gay and lesbian rights. The writer of the article must be stuck on conservative and religious pages of people. Whenever I post something in Arabic supportive of gay and lesbian rights and anti-homophobic, there are still Middle East men who write in disagreement but there are also Middle East men and women who also write passionately in support. But this the problem with Western writings about the Middle East: they don't carry the debate, and they don't bother to cover debates. It is more interesting and exotic--and certainly more prejudiced--to speak about a monolithic Arab world and a monolithic Islamic world. There is one Arab and one Muslim. Any discussion of diversity and debate deviates from the long established stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.
3) Homophobia, like anti-Semitism, was nurtured and cuddled and sponsored with the Western church, and as a result those who speak homophonically among Arabs or Muslims merely reproduce Western homophobic statements or claims, just as Middle East anti-Semites (the most active among them happen to be active in local Middle East churches) also reproduce the anti-Semitic literature of Western anti-Semites. Not that there are no anti-gay elements in religion--or statement that can be interpreted as anti-gay by modern-day Western-influenced clerics of various religions, but there is no body of literature as there is in the West.
4) Yet again, the infusion of fanatical and misogynistic elements into Islam, or what is being promoted and exported as Islam, is the work of Gulf regimes. They are the ones who supply mosques and Islamic centers worldwide with the literature of hate and intolerance, and they do that under the eyes of Western governments and security agencies. There is no debate that Gulf regimes (the so-called moderate Arab regimes) are the exporters and founders of the most fanatical brands of Islam.
5) the writer of this piece in the Times is comical here: "But for Muslims, this is also a moment to reflect more deeply on how we feel about living in a country where gay rights are central, where marriage equality is real and coexistence is the only way forward." Which country is he talking about? US? Or some imaginary future republic of virtue? Is he implying here that there is a consensus in US, or even in the West, over issues like gay rights and marriage equality? Or is he generalizing about the West (favorably) just as he is generalizing about Islam unfavorably?
6) Muslims are not silent but it is not their fault that the only voices you hear among them are either ISIS or the Gulf (and Jordan) potentates.
You may read this in passing: the ex-wife of the Orlando gunman talks about his mental illness
"The ex-wife of the Orlando nightclub gunman says he was "mentally unstable and mentally ill." Sitora Yusifiy, speaking to reporters in Boulder, Colorado, says Omar Mateen was bipolar and also had a history with steroids. She says that in the four months they were together he cut her off from her family and regularly beat her. She says that her family visited her and saw she wasn't OK and rescued her from the situation. Yusifiy says they literally pulled her out of his arms. She says she left all her belongings and has had no contact with him for seven or eight years. She says Mateen was religious, but she saw no signs of radicalism. Of the nightclub massacre she says, "there was no sign of any of this at all."
Former Israeli ambassador to US gives bigotry advice to Donald Trump
"Full Michael Oren quote I cited earlier. Hebrew transcript posted above."
U.S. drones have killed 1000 civilians, including 200 children in Pakistan
"The U.S. drone program has killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and more. Pakistan is the site of more U.S. drone strikes than any other country. The Obama administration has carried out more than 370 drone attacks in Pakistan, killing as many as 1,000 civilians, including up to 200 children, according to data collected by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The exact number of civilians killed is unknown, because the U.S. is very secretive about its program, and because it essentially redefines militant to mean any man of military age in a targeted area."
Saudi regime arrests a popular Saudi academic
"A highly prominent and controversial Saudi media academic was arrested by authorities in Mecca early on Monday. Sources have told The New Arab that this was on the back a case brought against him by pan-Arab news channel al-Arabiya, which has long been a subject of his widely followed online campaign. The arrest of Ahmad bin Rashid bin Saeed al-Tamimi, known by his Twitter handle @loveliberty, is the latest in a spate of arrests of outspoken and prominent figures with massive followings on social media. The professor of political communication has long been a critic of the MBC media empire and its news channel al-Arabiya, shooting to fame after his highly successful online campaign #DeconstructingZionistNarratives managed to garner a huge pan-Arab following and hundreds of thousands of engagements."
PS The professor has a huge following on Twitter and is a strong and consistent critic of Saudi regime media especially its Zionist leanings. He has Islamist Ikhwan leanings and he supports the Saudi regime and espouses the same sectarian message of the regime. He is US- and UK-educated.
PS The professor has a huge following on Twitter and is a strong and consistent critic of Saudi regime media especially its Zionist leanings. He has Islamist Ikhwan leanings and he supports the Saudi regime and espouses the same sectarian message of the regime. He is US- and UK-educated.
So not only Russia: US bombs what it calls "moderate Syrian rebels": Western correspondents in Beirut won't write long articles on the matter
"The U.S. military bombed a Syrian rebel unit it had trained and equipped in a friendly-fire incident in late May, prompting an internal investigation and raising questions about renewed Pentagon efforts to build local forces to battle Islamic State."
US protests Al-Qa`idah and its cronies in Syria
"In yet another a dangerous US political-diplomatic move in Syria, the Obama administration is going out of its way to protect the interests of al-Qaeda's closest and most powerful ally in Syria, Ahrar al-Sham." "Last December, the Obama administration gave the director of foreign affairs for Ahrar, Labib al Nahhas, a visa to visit the United States for a few days on what was clearly a mission to build political support in Washington for its future role in Syria." (thanks Amir)
Qatar convicts Dutch woman held 'after being raped'
"A court in Qatar has convicted a Dutch woman of having sex outside marriage after she told police she was raped." (thanks Lincoln)
Yet again: the Orlando shooter visited Saudi Arabia for inspiration
"Federal officials told NBC News that Mateen went to Saudi Arabia in 2011 and 2012 — but said it was not immediately clear what he was doing there."
Another "moderate Arab regime" arrests a human rights leader (Bahrain)
"Bahrain Arrests Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab"
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Shooting in Florida: Christian homophobia and Islamist homophobia in the West
There is no question that Islamism in Western societies has been influenced by the tone and themes of Christian fundamentalism, namely in the issue of homophobia. I have noticed this back in 1993, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing. I had read the speeches of the "blind cleric", `Umar `Abdul-Rahman, and noticed that his rhetoric borrows from the rhetoric of Christian fundamentalist kooks in the US, especially his pernicious homophobia. He was far more concerned with homosexuality than I read in the rhetoric of Islamists back home. Christian and Islamist and Jewish fundamentalists in Western countries often share bigotry and misogyny and often work together on "moral" issues. I also have written back in 1993 about Homosexuality in the history of Ararb/Islamic civilization and I note that what passes in today's world as "Islamic issues" is often importation of Western Christian victorian values. Modern Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, for example, has element of Christian puritanism that have been alien to mainstream Islam. You could get away with poetry in the 9th and 10th century in Baghdad or Damascus which could get you beheaded in today's Saudi Arabia. So Islamists in the US, I argue, are influenced by the rhetoric of Christian extremists. We should be concerned over homophobia wherever it comes from and if you surf the US channels you will find homophobia to be pervasive on Christian channels. That should have raised alarm a long time ago. I should also remind you that Western countries when they occupied Middle East lands imposed their Christian rigid homophobia on the region by imposing the codification of criminalization and categorization of homosexuality (See Joseph Massad's Desiring Arabs on that). Middle East media have a role to play: but not a single Arabic newspaper, OTHER THAN AL-Akhbar of Lebanon, combats homophobia and writes sensitively about gays and lesbians (which is ironic because Western media wrongly refer to Al-Akhbar as "Hizbullah paper" when Hizbullah is not in any way opposed to homophobia). The media of the "moderate Arab governments" are complicit in creating a climate of hostility against gays and lesbians and they still routinely refer to gays as "sexual deviants" but that never bothers US embassies which raise hell if they encounter articles critical of Israel.
PS Of course, I don't know anything about his ideology but I am here accepting (too quickly?) the assumption of US media.
PS Of course, I don't know anything about his ideology but I am here accepting (too quickly?) the assumption of US media.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Are you aware how Saudi regime justified killing Yemeni children? It said that they were fighting on the battlefield. Kid you not.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Look how New York Times describes the killing of Israelis versus the killing of (more than) 200 Palestinians since October
"Tel Aviv has suffered a number of deadly attacks since a wave of Palestinian assaults began last October in Jerusalem and the West Bank and spread to cities around Israel. More than two dozen Israelis and two American visitors have been killed in those attacks. Most were killed in stabbings, though there have also been several shootings. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during the same period, most of them while carrying out or trying to carry out attacks, and others in clashes with Israeli security forces." So the two dozen Israelis were innocent, while over the 200 Palestinians were all guilty.
FBI-hatched terrorist plots are uncovered by...the FBI
"In Rochester, a paid informant went undercover and drove a man suspected of being an Islamic extremist, Emanuel Lutchman, to a Walmart in December to buy a machete, ski masks, zip ties and other supplies for a would-be terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve. Because Mr. Lutchman, a mentally ill panhandler, had no money, the informant covered the $40 cost."
David Lamb
In his book, The Arabs (which I don't recommend at all), Lamb coined the term "desert democracy" in describing...Saudi Arabia. Kid you not.
How a Qatari regime mouthpiece is contributing to the propaganda of ISIS
Al-Quds Al-Arabi has become (since it sale to Qatari regime owners and the dismissal of its former editor-in-chief, `Abdul-Bari `Atwan) a blatantly sectarian rag. It has been publishing for many days stories about massacres are the hands of the Shi`ite militias around Fallujah. I thought that I would look around to see if there are stories in Western media. This is what I found in the New York Times (despite my detestation of the Shi`ite militias of Iraq, especially the militia of Hadi `Amiri): "But for the most part, civilians who have fled the areas around Falluja have said they had tired of the grim life under the Islamic State and had been treated well by the militias and Iraqi soldiers." As the Times suggested, ISIS propaganda has been airing stories about massacres in order to keep the civilians as human shields inside its territory. This however does not in my mind excuse any crimes against civilians in ISIS territory by US or Russian raids.
Corruption in Ukraine
When a pro-US regime is in power, US media insist that it is free of corruption. When it falls, they admit that it was corrupt. Remember when they used to write articles about how Hamid Karzai was fighting corruption?
New Visa rules in UK: if you are rich you can stay
"She also has a massive, five-figure problem: She earns less than 35,000 pounds, or about $50,000, which means that under new visa restrictions introduced this spring she could be deported after her visa expires in January 2018."
Freed journalist from Syria
"What began as a revolution against an oppressive regime has been taken hostage by Islamist radicals, Sastre says. Meanwhile, “a regime that bombs its own people is propped up by alliances with Iran and Russia as the rest of the world turns a blind eye, allowing Bashar al-Assad to remain in power."
Teaching hatred to Israeli children
Comrade Eval translated the words of the video in which Israeli children are taught hatred:
"T = teacher 1
W = Dana Weiss, the female reporter
S = a single child
M = either a single child or multiple children
X = Teacher 2 or another person standing next to the reporter and the
teachers
W: When I say "Jerusalem", what comes to mind for you? What is Jerusalem?
M: The holy city!
M: The temple!
W: The temple...
W: Who here believes that the temple will be constructed within the next
few years?
[some raise hands]
W: What's there now, on top of the temple?
S: The [wailing] wall.
M: The mosque.
W: So what's going to happen to the mosque?
M: It will be [destroyed?].
M: It will be [broken?].
W: Broken?
W: Who among you has met an Arab boy over the course of the last year?
[most children raise their hands]
T: [to a specific student] Where? Where have you met an Arab boy?
S: Near the [wailing] wall.
W: Did you talk to him?
S: No. He pushed me but [unintelligible]
W: And what happens when you see an Arab boy, what do you feel?
S: Feelings of range.
M: [We] get away...
W: Rage?
S: I want to murder him!
W: What happens when you meet a secular boy?
S: I pity him for not being born Haredi [i.e. ultra-orthodox Jewish].
W: Why do you pity him, for not being born Haredi? What is he missing?
S: He isn't walking the right path.
W: When you think of Jerusalem in 10 years...
M: Everyone is Haredi.
S: [shouting] Not everyone is Haredi!
S: [shouting] Some are Haredi - some are Arab.
S: Everyone is Jewish, and there are also Arabs who are slaves-
W: Because the Messiah will have arrived, I understand. Yes [turning to
a specific child], what do you say?
S: That there will be a war. All the Arabs will die, and [sic] some of
them will be slaves.
T: [claps hands] You got the entire story you wanted.
X: Children, thank you very much!
W: Thank you very much!
T: Continue doing well and studying here at the Yeshiva's [Jewish
religious scholarship centers]."
Amin Maalouf giving the occupiers the right to dictate conditions to the occupied
Who says Western media don't care about Gaza? What about this?
"Vets on 'heartbreaking' rescue mission to Gaza zoo" (thanks Fred)
Thursday, June 09, 2016
More than 90 US raid over Syria
Explain this to me. US has launched over 93 raids in ten days over Syria. How come there are no tweets and youtube videos of women and children killed (and which get automatic and instant reportage from Western correspondents in Beirut)? I mean in the case of Russian raids (and I oppose both, US and Russian intervention in Syria), the pictures of women and children are posted on social media before the Russian planes leave their bases.
Syrian regime censorship
What is rather hilarious is that the Syrian regime, while claiming that the is fending off an international war, he still has time to censor TV programs.
They are teaching children hate in Israeli schools: will US Congress hold special hearing?
Watch here.
PS Someone should provide English translation from Hebrew.
PS Someone should provide English translation from Hebrew.
How AUB succumbed to direct American Zionist pressures: MESA's Academic Freedom committee responds
"We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom in order to register our concerns regarding the recent cancellation by the university administration of a search for director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). The cancellation of such a search by administrative fiat is a serious violation of the academic freedom of the AUB faculty as they exercise their autonomous judgment in order to determine the candidates they deem best fit to contribute to the university community.
MESA was founded in 1966 to promote scholarship and teaching on the Middle East and North Africa. The preeminent organization in the field, the Association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies and has nearly 3,000 members worldwide. MESA is committed to ensuring academic freedom and freedom of expression, both within the region and in connection with the study of the region in North America and elsewhere.
In 2015, CASAR ran a search for a new director, led by its interim director, visiting Professor Lisa Hajjar of the University of California, Santa Barbara, along with a committee that included AUB Professors Hatim El-Hibri, Waleed Hazbun, Syrine Hout, Anjali Nath and Adam Waterman. In mid-March 2016 the search committee submitted its recommendations to Dean Patrick McGreevy that the position be offered to Dr. Steven Salaita, who holds the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at AUB (2015-16). On March 29, Dean McGreevy took the CASAR director recommendation to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee. As English would be the most appropriate disciplinary home for Salaita, the chair of the English Department intended to put the matter of an appointment to a vote at the next meeting."
On March 30, the university unexpectedly cancelled the search, claiming there had been “procedural irregularities,” namely, that junior faculty and visiting professors were not permitted to serve on search committees. As chapter 2, section 3.10.b of the University Faculty Manual states, “evaluation of candidates for appointment shall be restricted to the voting faculty members of equal or higher ranks than those of the faculty members being considered,” which would seem to invalidate the service of Professor Waterman, who holds the rank of Assistant Professor, and Professor Hajjar, who is a visiting professor. However, Section 5, article 3, of the AUB Bylaws of the Faculties indicates, “the dean can appoint faculty members of appropriate professorial rank from other departments/tracks to serve on extended departmental committees.” In other words, it was permissible according to university regulations for Professor Waterman to serve on the committee. Furthermore, not only does this also mean that it was permissible for Professor Hajjar to lead the search committee, but given her position as acting director of CASAR, it was absolutely essential. While university regulations stipulate that visiting professors may not vote on such appointments, there was no procedural violation here given that the chair of a search committee does not have voting privileges. Indeed, Professor Hajjar did not cast a vote."
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
Regarding the Saudi Blackmail of the UN to remove it from list of killers of children worldwide
"The caption says: Removal of Saudi Arabia from the blacklist of violators of children's rights in Yemen, hours after protests of the Saudi ambassador at UN".
How I miss the League of Nations: "Saudi Arabia Threatened to Break Relations With U.N. Over Human Rights Criticism in Yemen"
"Saudi Arabia threatened this week to break relations with the United Nations and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to its humanitarian relief and counterterrorism programs to strong-arm the U.N. into removing Riyadh and its allies from a blacklist of groups that are accused of harming children in armed conflict. The threat — which has not been previously reported — worked, and the U.N. subsequently dropped the Saudis from a rogues’ gallery of the world’s worst violators of children’s rights in conflict zones."
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