Women and education in the US

"A larger proportion of women than men had completed high school or more education.  3 A larger proportion of men had received at least a bachelor’s degree. However, because women 25 years old and over outnumber men aged 25 and over, the number of women with bachelor’s degrees is larger than the number of men with these degrees. Among people aged 25 to 34, the percentage of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 35 percent compared with 27 percent of men."

If you disagree with Le Monde's coverage of Syria, you are an agent of Bashshar

This once serious newspaper now relies on Walid Jumblat for analysis of Syria.  "Après les attaques lancées par les robots spammeurs de "l'armée électronique syrienne" au printemps puis à l'été dernier, nos réseaux sociaux sont désormais la cible d'autres commentaires de lecteurs. Les nuances sont plus difficiles à cerner que lorsqu'il s'agissait de textes automatiquement postés une vingtaine de fois, à la gloire de Bachar Al-Assad."  So it is not possible to disagree with them without being a stooge of Bashshar? (thanks John)

Aljazeera and Morocco

Yassine sent met this:  "So al-Jazeera decided not to air the documentary on Morocco and the 20th of February Movement (nuqta sakhina), which they had been promoting for more than a week. Why not? Again? (In November the same thing happened (back then the al-Jazeera crew was forbidden to go to Tanger and the al-Hoceima area: two centers of the Moroccan uprising).  The Moroccan king recently 'gave' the Qatari emir some 4 5.000 hectares (=450 km²) in the Guelmim area so that the Qatari emir could go hunt there. And also, these two weeks al-Jazeera has been negotiating a possible return to Morocco with the new minister of information. So I guess the negotiations are concluded. Perhaps the documentary was just a card in the negotiation-process. This is Gulf-media""

Anthony Shadid

This article carries translations from my yesterday's long article about him in Al-Akhbar Arabic. (thanks M.)

Syrian regime media fabrications

I am sick and tired having to expose every other day news fabrications by Syrian regime media. Here is another one: the interview with `Adil Imam (the Egyptian so-called comedian) in which he said that he was jailed in Egypt because he supported Bashshar is fake.  It does not sound like him at all.  Another media fabrication by the Asad regime.  

That silly survey that claimed that Syrians support Bashshar

"Looking closely at the survey report, it does not say explicitly how many of the 1,000 people who responded were from Syria. But it does say that 211 were polled in the Levant region, 46%of whom were in Syria.  Doing the sums, this suggests that only 97 people took part. When the BBC checked with YouGov Siraj for the exact breakdown, the company said that in fact there were 98 respondents from Syria (the difference arising from the fact that averages given in the survey report were rounded)." (thanks Aghyan)

Look how nice US intervention is

"After Saturday's shooting deaths of the two Americans at the Interior Ministry, Allen recalled all Western military personnel working in ministries "for obvious force-protection reasons," a serious blow after years of American efforts to make the ministries more efficient and less corrupt. "

shoddy journalism of Aljazeera

Aljazeera "reports" on an op-ed piece by the right-wing advocate of ethnic cleansing, Israeli historian Benny Morris, about the Iranian threat and basically claims that his views were the views of the Los Angeles Times.  

Why Muslim Brotherhood supports Gulf tyrannies

""“It is against our interest to ‘export the revolution’ to the Gulf in the meaning of exporting chaos,” he said. He then added that the Brotherhood “encourages stable and continuous development in the region”. Qazzaz told me that the Muslim Brotherhood was “concerned with stability of the Gulf states” since it is in Egypt’s own interest."" (thanks Ali)

Egypt and Saudi Arabia

"And secondly, I believe that if Egypt and Saudi Arabia change, then everywhere else will change..."

Ma'mun Al-Humsi

Ma'mun Al-Humsi is one of the most repulsive characters in an already most umimpressive groups of exile Syrian opposition.  He is mocked constantly for one saying in a press conference in Lebanon: that he does not take money from the Hariri family and that the Hariri family does not deal with people through money.  People are still having a laugh about that to this very day.  And most recently, he issued a threat to `Alawites: that they would all be exterminated.  So you really can count him as a liberal and secular member of the Syrian opposition in exile.  Here is more:  "Mamoun Al-Homsi is pictured above at the Prague Security Conference (NeoCon) with the Israeli-Italian right wing politician and hardline Zionist, Fiamma Nirenstein. Nirenstein who is a neocon Zionist has spent much of her life in an illegal East Jerusalem Settlement called Gilo where she still maintains a home.   Nirenstein is known for translating books of Nathan Sharansky, Bernard Lewis and Ruthie Bloom; she led efforts on behalf of the Israeli government to thwart the Palestinian bid for full UN membership and Statehood." (thanks A.)

The ideology of the Free Syrian Army

Watch this video and listen to the chants of those folks.  Anyone wants to argue with me that they are seculars? Or that they are not fanatical Islamists?  (thanks Amer)

On the footsteps of the Asad regime

"Syria’s revolution strives to liberate the Syrian people from the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, not to establish a government that will attack Israel, according to Riad Muasses, the France-based Syrian National Council (SNC) press spokesman." (thanks Ahmet)

Aljazeera leaks

Here is a report in Al-Akhbar about Aljazeera leaks. (thanks Khaled)

Santorum communists

It seems that Sen. Santorum comes from an Italian communist family. (thanks James)

When US and GCC manage a transition to democracy

It was a glorious day in Yemen.  Incredible, really.  The US and GCC gently managed the transition to something--not sure what it is but certainly not democracy.  The features of the election are this: 1) there was one candidate only--even Iran allows more than one.  2) The winner received 99% of the votes.  Does this not signal a new beginning in Yemen? I mean, he could have received 100% of the votes but he did not because Yemen is a GCC-managed democracy now.  And silly Tawakul Karman hails the election and hails the fact that the new president comes from the South. Yes, Ms. Nobel Prize. He was the butcher who enforced the violent annexation of the South.  (thanks Farah)

mentors

"Some American personnel work within Afghan ministries as mentors and advisers, particularly on military operations and intelligence."

Saudi Arabia and repression

"Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, pointedly expressed frustration that the world was not doing enough, though his government represses dissent at home. "

Killing `Alawites

The Ikhwan are back to their old trick: of targeting `Alawites: which they did with a vengeance back in the 1970s and 1980s.  Look at this:  "Another exile activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that in the northern city of Aleppo, unknown gunmen shot and killed Mohammad Ramadan, a businessman who supported the government. "  When you read that someone was killed for "supporting the government", it usually means he was `Alawites.  We know the propaganda tricks of the Ikhwan.


PS I am told that he is Sunni, and that is brother of Ahmad who is in the leadership of Syrian National Council. I am told that the Free Syrian Army killed him to punish the council and the regime.

small scale war crimes

"The 72-page report said that the insurgent Free Syrian Army, made up of defectors from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, had also committed abuses, but that those were “not comparable in scale and organization to those carried out by the state.”"

Burhan Ghalyun

Burhan Ghalyun has lived in the West longer than I have. Yet, yesterday, he had no qualms about speaking on behalf of the whole Syrian people.  No wonder he threw a fit and threatened to resign when the Syrian National Council refused to extend his term as supreme leader.

Anti-Jewish rant

This section of Hasan Nasrallah's speech yesterday was so distasteful: he talks about "Jewish conduct" and condemns how "they" treated their own prophets.  It does not make it better if he said "between quotation marks." (thanks Sameer)

Saudi-, Qatari-led Syrian opposition

"Isaac Herzog, a member of Parliament with the Labor Party, said he had been in touch with Syrian opposition leaders in France and the United States"...

Imad Mustafa is in another world: the new Syrian ambassador in China

This former Syrian ambassador in DC is now ambassador in China and he is blogging about...Chinese calligraphy.  (thanks Yaman)

Anthony Shadid, remembered

My weekly article in Al-Akhabr:  "Anthony Shadid and Western media coverage of the Middle East".

Syrian regime media is covering repression now

Syrian regime media are now covering Israeli repression in Jerusalem.

What is significant financial support?

"Although the Qatari government picked up the bill for the Doha meeting and for frequent travel, council members said that no significant financial support from Arab or Western governments had materialized despite repeated promises..."

Wahhabi misogyny

On the front page of this Qatari daily, a "report" that women driving increases car accidents. (thanks Eyas)

Kofi Annan

So Kofi Annan who minded the UN peacekeeping store during the Rwanda massacres will now mind the massacres in Syria?

growing rebellion in Saudi Arabia

"Imagine their shock, then, when Khaled al-Johani, a teacher and father of five, walked straight up to the BBC crew, and said: "The royal family don't own us! We have a right to speak." As government minders closed in on the group, he grew more emphatic: "If you speak, they will put you in jail after five minutes!" When the BBC reporter asked him what would happen to him, he replied, "I will go in the jail with a big smile - because I am already in a jail!"(Al-Johani was arrested that day, and has been in prison since March. He stood trial in a closed court on February 22; the verdict has not been made public.)""

Joint Arab armies

Do people know that the token force of Arab armies that was dispatched to Palestine in May 1948, began its mission of the defense of Palestine by shooting at one another? We don't have an exact figure of many Arab soldiers were killed by fellow Arab soldiers.     

`Ali `Aqlah `Ursan

Look at this long article. `Ursan is a long-time propagandist for the Asad regime and no one outside of Syria knows who he is. But look how extensive this article is and notice that it was all based on MEMRI's dispatches.  I mean, of course, there are fools as propagandists in Syria an in Saudi Arabia, but now is the season.  Also, there are many Israeli racists and fools who won awards in Western capitals but would the New York Times express outrage at those cases?  

Notice that they are not releasing the number of Qur`ans that were burnt

"The potential scope of the fallout from the burning of several copies of the Koran by American military personnel..." Several? How many are several?

Hamid Karzai

"“The president said that ‘according to our investigation we have found that American soldiers mistakenly insulted the Koran and we will accept their apology,’".  How does one mistakenly burn unsaid numbers of Qur'ans in garbage dump?  Wait. I can see that happening.  Let us say one is walking somewhere and then one mistakenly picks up hundreds of copies of the Qur`an, and then mistakenly gently placing them in a garbage dump, and then mistakenly setting them on fire.  I can see that, yeah.

Innocent people are never shot at by NATO troops or their puppets

Imagine if US media talk about "protesters died in Syria during clashes".  Look at this language:  "Four Afghans were killed in confrontations..."

Non-violence in Syria

For how the long the notion of non-violent struggle in Syria will continue?  "The international community can draw on the power of nonviolence..."

Arab armies in Syria

I am in fact in favor of sending Arab armies into Syria.  Let the Arab armies fight it out.  Those armies don't fight Israel and they only fight their own people.  And this would make for good TV.

House of Saud's Shari`ah

So according to House of Saud: demonstrations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are against Shari`ah, but they are obligatory in Syria.  Kid you not.

Who is dying in Syria?

Syrian regime media only acknowledges that its security forces and soldiers are killed in Syria, and on occasions they say that they killed members of "armed terrorist groups".  And the Ikhwan media only say that innocent people are being killed in Syria by regime troops.  One thing is for sure: members of the Saudi and Qatari royal families are not dying in Syria.

Dumb president of Lebanon

Yesterday, the president of Lebanon responded toughly to a statement by Netanyahu.  Sulayman bragged about Lebanese humiliation of the Israeli army as if the Lebanese Army did not the job, and not young volunteers in the resistance movement.  Now, Nasrallah pointed out that there was no statement by Netanyahu.  But he should have said that the statement was invented by the Syrian regime's propaganda machine.  Every day they invent an interview or a statement or a news story.

Western academics as military experts

She is not a Middle East expert, but what the hell. Everybody is these days, as long as you are fanatic supporter of Israeli aggression.  Look at this: "Establishing these zones would require nations like Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to arm the opposition soldiers with anti-tank, countersniper and portable antiaircraft weapons. Special forces from countries like Qatar, Turkey and possibly Britain and France could offer tactical and strategic advice to the Free Syrian Army forces. Sending them in is logistically and politically feasible; some may be there already."  I mean, here is what sinister about these casual calls for arming groups (some of which are Bin Ladenites by US admission): can you imagine those experts debating on the pages of New York Times ways to arm Palestinian groups during various successive Israeli wars of aggression and massacres?  Would any of them dare suggest that the Palestinians be armed with stones and pebbles?  Would they dare?  Ask any of those who are merely debating the options.  Would they dare debate options of arming the Palestinian resistance?

Flash II

Many demonstrators are protesting Arab GCC countries and the US in Tunisia.  The Hariri anchorwoman at Al-Arabiyyah (news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law), Najwa Qassim, insisted that those protesters are Syrian shabbihah (armed goons).  Here correspondent on the ground in Tunis had to correct her: he said that they are Tunisians and not Syrians.  

Flash

Clashes outside the meeting place of the "Friends of the US" conference in Tunisia.

Mouncif Marzouki is now a fan of GCC "solutions"

"Mr Marzouki said he believed the best way forward would be to push for what he called a "Yemeni solution", where Syria's President Bashar al Assad, like Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, would be given immunity from prosecution and encouraged to leave the country."  Why should any Arab dictator be given immunity?  Marzouki rightly accuses the Syrian president of perpetrating massacres but then calls for giving him immunity?  Secondly, the recipe of the GCC in Yemen basically preserves the regime and protects the dictator.  Is that what the Syrian people want? (thanks Ahmet)

Conspiracy in Syria: Bin Laden and Brzezinski

This piece on Syria makes no sense to me, whatsoever.  It basically represents the conventional wisdom in the Western press where certain things have to be claimed: that there is no conspiracy in Syria; that the uprising is led by radical socialists and feminists; that Syrian opposition is not tied to reactionary countries, etc.  Forget about responding to the article (comrade Dirar Hakim does a good job responding to her in the comment below), but at least one point: Yes, Bashshar Al-Asad talks about conspiracy in Syria.  The writer polemically but not persuasively wants reader to reject the presence of a conspiracy just because Bashshar alleges it.  I mean, what logic is that?  Of course, there is a conspiracy in Syria: it is not a conspiracy when the conspirators are gathering today in Tunisia looking for way to help their clients in the Syrian opposition.  The conspiracy is even more transparent than the conspiracy that preceded the American invasion of Iraq--although I discount the possibility of an American military intervention in Syria.  Bashshar, of course, is disingenuous: because he conveniently relies on a counter-conspiracy led by Russia and includes Iran and a few other countries.  But the US/Israeli conspiracy in Syria is now quite open: the statements of Bassma Kodmani only reinforces that. To be sure: the nature of the conspiracy is not to be understood in the framework of the dumb and kooky Syrian regime media which lately have been relying on kooky Western websites.  Yesterday, in a report on Dunya regime TV, they presented what they said was a picture of Z. Brzezinski with Bin Laden.  Kid you not.  They find the most nutty scenarios on the internet and they bring it to viewer.  Kookiness of Syrian regime media notwithstanding, there is a conspiracy in Syria that is so massive and big that it reminds me of Suez 56.  Of course, Bashshar is no Nasser: he can't dream of being anything but a regular, over the counter petty dictator, like the rest of the Arab dictators.