Saudi Arabia and UN human rights council

Sectarian cover story hides US-Israeli-Saudi hegemony

"Even when Israel attacked Gaza a year ago, seeking to destroy Hamas, a Sunni Islamic version of the Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia made no secret of the startling fact that it gave Tel Aviv a green light. What emerges, then, is not a regional politics based on sectarian priorities, but rather a pathological preoccupation with regime stability in the Saudi monarchy, with anxieties arising whenever political tendencies emerge in the region that elude its control, and are perceived as threatening. The people of Yemen are paying a huge price for this brand of Saudi paranoid security politics. Yet much of the world is lulled to sleep, not taking the trouble to peer below this sectarian cover story." (thanks Amir)

The four or five Syrian rebels trained by the US

Any news about the 4 or 5 Syrian rebels who were trained by the Pentagon? I hear that they are making advances on all fronts.  Is that true? Is it possible that after they reclaim Syria they may make their way toward Iraq?  Is it possible that they can dominate the whole Arab world?

Pope and atheists

The Pope said that it is possible for atheists to enter heaven. The question: could they expel all believers from heaven?

When the mouthpiece of Saudi prince covers the Pope's visit to Cuba

On the front page of Al-Hayat, the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Bribes, the correspondent in Havana laments that the Pope did not speak about repression in Cuba. I am not making this up.

Tomorrow in my home city of Tyre

At 6:30PM in Tyre in Abu Dib roundabout young Lebanese are gathering to stone and burn portraits of the Saudi King.  (Dress: casual).

Mark my words

The New York Times will publish in the next few days an obituary of `Ali Salem just because he visited Israel, and as rare as the Times publishes obituaries of Arabs.

Ruler of Dubai's poem about his son

In it he says: (verbatim): "Do you know who your father is?
A man whose very steps shake the earth vigorously".  I kid you not.

"أتدري من هو والدك . .
رجلٌ تهزّها الأرض هزاً وطأة قدميه . "

US ambassador in Lebanon makes a speech in praise of the most hated and most mocked man in Lebanon these days

I always tell youth in the Arab world that there is no life to any Arab youth movement that avoids foreign policy. There is no domestic policy in our lands: it is all intertwined with foreign policy.  Nickel Shammas (the head of the merchants society of Beirut) has been mercilessly mocked for his anti-poor and anti-communist diatribe last week and he is loved by the US ambassador in Lebanon who gave this speech in his praise.

Assassination attempt on Amb. Godley in Lebanon in 1974

In an interview on OTV, Anis Naqqash (who basically infiltrated Wadi` Haddad group on behalf of Abu Jihad--as he told me years ago) talked about the assassination attempt on Godley in 1974.  He said that Fath upon learning saved the ambassador, as it often did toward Western diplomats in Lebanon.  Many Lebanese at the time were convinced that Godley was sent by the US to launch the Lebanese civil war.  His brief tenure witnessed the heavy arming of the right-wing fascist militias in Lebanon.

American "humanitarian interventions"

"According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, there are more than three million Syrian refugees in the Middle East. Inside Syria itself, over 17 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including those internally displaced. Only 350,000 Syrians are estimated to have travelled to Europe. They are the ones you see on television. In Iraq, some 1.8 million people were displaced between January and September 2014, a declared United Nations emergency, and Iraqis are currently the second-largest refugee group in the world." "The situation in Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere is much the same. There is a common denominator behind all of these refugee flows: they are, in whole or in part, the product of American "humanitarian interventions"."

UK and the war on Yemen

From a reader: ""While generously giving aid on the one hand, the UK is fuelling this bitter conflict by selling arms and giving technical support to a Saudi Arabia-led coalition bombing campaign in Yemen in full knowledge of the risk of potential war crimes. Since the conflict escalated in March the UK has issued 37 arms export licences for arms transfers to Saudi Arabia."

Photos of war crimes

Queen of England

"Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is worth £17 billion. Her investments in the arms trade include firms that produce the uranium used in depleted uranium shells."

It is not only Afghan soldiers who rape boys

"The October 12 memorandum, reported in the Washington Post…came to light as more details emerged of the extent of detainee abuse. Formal statements by inmates published yesterday describe horrific treatment at the hands of guards, including the rape of a teenage Iraqi boy by an army translator…

According to the leaked memorandum … it also called for military intelligence officials to work more closely with the military police guards at the prison to “manipulate an internee’s emotions and weaknesses”…

In the Washington Post report, one detainee, Kasim Hilas, describes the rape of an Iraqi boy by a man in uniform, whose name has been blacked out of the statement, but who appears to be a translator working for the army. 

[efoods]

“I saw [name blacked out] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15-18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [blacked out], who was wearing the military uniform putting his dick in the little kid’s ass,” Mr Hilas told military investigators. “I couldn’t see the face of the kid because his face wasn’t in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures.” 

It is not clear from the testimony whether the rapist described by Mr Hilas was working for a private contractor or was a US soldier…

Another inmate, Thaar Dawod, describes more abuse of teenage Iraqis. “They came with two boys naked and they were cuffed together face to face and Grainer [Corporal Charles Graner, one of the military policemen facing court martial] was beating them and a group of guards were watching and taking pictures from top and bottom and there was three female soldiers laughing at the prisoners,” he said."

Full protections for LGBT people in its national constitution in Nepal

"Incredibly, while many western countries have legalised same sex marriage, none have provided for explicit and full anti-discrimination legislation in their constitutions. Thus, Nepal joins South Africa and Ecuador as the third country to provide full protections for LGBT people in its national constitution." (thanks Nikolai)

Reporters without Borders: the ranking

This is way out of whack.  UAE and Jordan and Qatar are ahead of Turkey in freedom of the press? Are you for real?

Why US media don't report when Syrian rebels kill children?

"At least 14 civilians, including seven children, were killed Sunday when rebels in Syria shelled a government-controlled neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo, the government and an activist group said." "The rebel coalition, known as the Army of Conquest alliance, includes Syria's al-Qaida branch, the Nusra Front, and the extremist Jund al-Aqsa group, and is backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia."

US-supported war crimes in Yemen

"Air raids by Saudi-led coalition warplanes killed 15 people in Yemen's capital in one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in months, aid workers and witnesses said Saturday. One rescuer told AFP at least 10 civilians were among the dead. "Ten members of the same family were killed in the Al-Falihi neighbourhood, in Sanaa's old town," he said."

Photos

Again: Saudi Arabia "wins" bid to behead of UN Human Rights Council panel

" “It is scandalous that the UN chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. “Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights.” “We cannot forget that the U.S. and the EU refused to utter a word of protest when we urged them, together with Saudi dissidents, to oppose the monarchy’s election in 2013. It’s a sad comment on our world that oil continues to trump basic human rights principles.” "

UK has sold arms to 19 countries that the UN lists for grave violations against children

"In the last five years the UK has sold arms to 19 of the 23 countries that the UN lists for grave violations against children, or where child soldiers are used in conflict, despite the fact that the UN has told governments to “expressly prohibit” such sales. In Somalia the UN has documented the recruitment of 1293 child soldiers. Yet the country has received £6.7m of arms from the UK since 2010." "Many parts of the world still haemorrhage wealth to Europe, even as we believe we’re "helping" them through our aid programmes. For example, it was recently calculated that governments and multinational companies are extorting $50 billion annually out of Africa, through schemes avoiding tax payments to some of the poorest companies of the world." (thanks Amir)

How Shi`its and `Alawite villages and towns in Syria have no civilians in them

"Al-Foua and Kefraya are being defended by pro-government militia supported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The border town included in the ceasefire -- Zabadani -- has meanwhile been targeted in a weeks-long offensive by the Syrian army and Hezbollah. 

Rebels said the rebel-held town of Madaya, next to Zabadani which is also included in the ceasefire and where thousands of civilians have taken shelter, had witnessed heavy shelling overnight by the army ..." (thanks Basim)  No word on the thousands of civilians trapped in Fu`a and Kefrayya.

Saudi gift to Yale Law school

"The Yale gift makes a mockery of this rich history. Saudi money should not be funding any more programs in the United States or elsewhere because the money is stained with both blood and oil. It was extracted from the ground, but the extractors got to where they are by stomping upon the bones of their fellow Muslims. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall, goes the ancient quote, but justice will never be done if this organized crime family continued to buy our loyalty. Mr. Kamel's check should be returned to him and his Saudi patrons with clear instructions that they spend the money making amends for The Family's many crimes against humanity, their genocide of Islamic civilization."

PS Damn. Husayn is not a nephew of the Prophet; he is his grandson.

The New York Times explains who Jihadi groups emerged in Syria

"Some Syrian rebels who asked for American arms in 2011 and 2012 eventually gave up and allied themselves with more radical groups".  (Of course, the person cited in this theory is a Zionist expert at WINEP).  Let us see: so basically, the rebels were secular and liberal and feminist and waited for US arms in 2011 and 2012, but when the arms did not come, they grew beards and became Jihadis. Do the editors notice the stupidity of those theories or all is allowed for purpose of propaganda? 

Ultimate insult: Barbar sandwich shops in the Washington Post

1) who but a Western correspondent in Beirut would refer to barber as "kabab house"?  It is so much more than that.
2) Who but a Western correspondent in Beirut would write an article about food and not invoke Hizbollah? "After violently taking over Barbar’s neighborhood in 2008, fighters linked to the country’s Shiite Hezbollah movement even dropped by for scrumptious treats, employees say."  Notice that he makes it sound that Shi`ites of Hizbollah don't belong to Beirut. As if they came from another land to eat there. Secondly, he talks about May 7, 2008: it is a MERE ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE CITY, damn it but in Western reportage it is made as if it was as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  Thirdly, on that day, it was NOT Hizbollah which took that part of the city, but their secular allies, the SSNP, who are residents of that quarter of Beirut.  
3) Look at this sentence: who but a Western correspondent in Beirut would consider CNN the world expert on Kabab: "Two years ago, CNN ranked Barbar first in a list of the world’s best kebab places, coming ahead of restaurants in Israel, Iran and Greece."  Coming ahead of Israel?  Are you sure? That is impossible.  Israeli kababs are world famous, as you know.  Simon Peres brought the best Kabab recipes from Poland with him.

Why Rashid was dismissed by Muhammad bin Rashid as crown prince

"It’s perhaps his love of maintaining an athletic physique, and the rumored steroid addiction that’s resulted from it, that was the root cause of the most damning allegation yet made against His Highness, which supposedly resulted in his father finally deciding once and for all to settle the succession on Prince Hamdan, and ban Rashid from ever playing a role in Dubai’s government. According to a confidential 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable authored by David Williams, the acting U.S. consul general in Dubai at the time, entitled Dubai Designates Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler, and subsequently published on Wikileaks, it was widely rumored at the time that Hamdan was designated Crown Prince that Rashid, perhaps in a steroid induced rage, murdered an assistant in his father’s “office.” Which of the many offices of the King the assistant was done away with in, or whether or not the assistant worked for Rashid or his father, or even the gender of the assistant, and the circumstances of the alleged crime, are all unspecified in the report. While an Arab prince murdering a servant is hardly a novel crime, either in the Middle East or elsewhere, the public nature of this rumored incident, and the fact that it would’ve been impossible to hide from Sheikh Mohammed’s gossipy subjects, whose image of him as their ultimate benefactor he definitely values, certainly would’ve been enough to force the King’s hand and prevent him from leaving his throne to his unstable oldest son." (thanks Yusuf)

How come the US edition is different, I wonder

"ISIS leader fought under U.S. umbrella"

Former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has since admitted that the rebels funded by the State Department included ISIS and other Al-Qaeda fighters in their ranks. He recently told McClatchy reporter Hannah Allam that he had called Okaidi to tell him that his public cooperation with Abu Omar Shishani and associates was “extremely unhelpful, extra unhelpful”:

Ford was referring to Col. Abdel-Jabbar al Oqaidi [or alternately Okaidi], then-commander of the Aleppo branch of the Free Syrian Army. The problem was that the American-backed colonel had been filmed celebrating his men’s joint victory with al Qaida-affiliated fighters, creating a public relations nightmare for the Obama administration, which was trying to show Congress and the American public that it was boosting moderates and isolating extremists on the battlefield."

(thanks Amir)

This is an actual headline in Al-Arabiyya (news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) about heroism of Syrian rebels loyal to GCC

"Insurgents attack two Syrian Shiite villages with 5 car bombs, 370 rockets".  Huffington Post published an article this week by a Hariri center fellow at AC in which the 40,000 civilians were rendered as Hizbollah and Syrian regime fighters.

It would have been nice if Israeli WMDs were mentioned even once in this letter

"73 Prominent International Relations Scholars Say Iran Deal Will Help Stabilize Middle East"

What is the deal with the Economist in its coverage of Saudi Arabia as of late?

"With so many people from so many places crammed together in the heat, exhaustion, dehydration and infections are common. Saudi Arabia is struggling to put an end to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a deadly virus. The government has set up 25 hospitals nearby; the Red Crescent will run 69 medical centres.

The logistics will only get harder. The Saudi government is spending billions of dollars on expanding the holy sites’ capacity (luckily the haj makes the country some $8.5 billion each year, by one estimate). The Grand Mosque will soon be able to accommodate 1.6m pilgrims at once: extra floors, 21,000 toilets and hundreds of escalators and lifts are being built." This reads like the glossy brochures of the Saudi embassy.  

May 1959: Lebanese UN ambassador Charles Malik

When Lebanon was officially in adherence of boycott of Israel, this right-wing fanatic, Charles Malik, was sipping champagne with Israeli diplomats in NYC.

Crimes of the heart

It says in Arabic: "Execution by hanging for whoever breaks the heart of a woman in this quarter".

How romantic. (from Gaza)

"Patriarchal regime is a killer"

Also from protest in Beirut (a week ago).

"One free capitalist with every shoe"

This is from the anti-capitalist protest in downtown Beirut today.

PS Arab Leftist political manifestations are consistently ignored in Western media.

Mac and Word

So now you can write in Arabic on Word no iPad and iPhone but not on Mac? What gives?

Update. Flash. EXCLUSIVE. Dubai Ruler is lying: his son didn't die from a heart attack (at 33): he was killed in Yemen from a rocket

Dubai ruler's son, Rashid bin Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktun, was in Yemen with his country's troops when a rocket hit the base.  Rashid was immediately hit and was taken to a hospital after they vacated all hospitals in the area (including those we were getting urgent cancer treatment) in order to hide the identity of the injured.

PS: Dubai ruler skipped Rashid in succession and favored his other son, Hamdan, due to personal problems. And now another source tells me that he died from an overdose. I will check my sources again and report back to you.

US plan from 2006 to destabilize Syria

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Wikileaks: a US plan from 2006 to destabilize Syria".

PS. This is the document in English that I talk about.  

A Palestinian child challenges Israeli terrorists

Watch in English.

The worst Palestinian

"Abbas asks Pope Francis to intervene to stop "Israeli aggression" in Jerusalem".  Why not ask the Kardashian sisters to help you?

Qatari prince in Beverly Hills

A Qatari prince just wants to have fun in LA.

His days are numbered: just give them a few billion more

"The CIA spent $1 billion to fund early efforts to unseat Assad."

Vouz-êtes toujours Charlie?

"A former University of Mississippi student who admitted helping place a noose on a statue of a civil rights activist is going to prison."

Crucifixion of teenager in Saudi Arabia highlights Britain's business deals with despots

"Whenever we think the barbarism in the world cannot get any worse, someone proves us wrong. This week the Saudis have tried to do it again: they plan to crucify Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a juvenile." "The British government has a project called "Just Solutions International", one of those euphemisms that almost certainly covers up a plethora of wickedness." "One of the "just solutions" upon which they have embarked is to accept money to "conduct a training needs analysis for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prison service staff." What does this entail: How to torture a juvenile? How to affix him to the cross?" "When will the government learn that to cosy up to despots means that we are on the wrong side of human rights, and ultimately the wrong side of history."

Saudi diplomat accused of raping maids leaves India under cover of immunity

"To outrage in India and Nepal, a senior Saudi diplomat accused of holding captive and repeatedly raping two Nepali maids at his luxury apartment has left Delhi under the protection of diplomatic immunity." "In shocking testimony, the women alleged that they were often gang-raped by up to eight male visitors at a time in the spacious apartment where the diplomat lived with his wife and family. Medical tests have reportedly confirmed that they were victims of sexual assault."

Canada not tracking Saudi rights record despite $15-billion arms deal

"Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs has not done a human rights assessment of Saudi Arabia in the past two years even though Ottawa is brokering a $15-billion arms deal to sell fighting vehicles to Riyadh, a regime with an abysmal record for treatment of women, dissenters and offenders." "Under Canadian law, the government should do an official assessment of whether the transactions will further endanger human rights in Saudi Arabia." "The Islamic kingdom, which has beheaded at least 85 people so far this year, is advertising for new executioners to carry out an increasing number of death sentences, Reuters reported."