Clinton said in a July 2 letter to Haim Saban

" “I know you agree that we need to make countering BDS a priority,” Clinton said in a July 2 letter to Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul who has been a major fundraiser for Clinton in the past. “I am seeking your advice on how we can work together – across party lines and with a diverse array of voices – to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.” "

Real risk of famine in Yemen as death toll passes 3,000

"Conflict-ridden Yemen, where more than 3,000 people have been killed and one million displaced since war broke out in March, is at risk of famine, aid chiefs said on Tuesday, the day after the conflict's highest one-day death toll was recorded." (thanks Amir)

This is Zionism

What Israel did in Gaza: tell this to the American socialist Bernie Sanders

"One year ago today, Israel invaded, bombed and shelled Gaza, and continued to do that for the next seven weeks. According to the U.N., at least 2,104 Gazans were killed — 1,462 of whom (69 percent) were civilians, including 495 children. A total of 6 Israeli civilians, and 66 soldiers, were killed. The shockingly high civilian death rate in Gaza included the now-iconic imagery of four young boys from the same family being killed by Israeli warships while they played on a beach in front of a hotel filled with foreign journalists.

Months after the attack concluded, U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza and labeled the destruction “beyond description,” far worse than prior Israeli attacks. At least 17,000 homes “were obliterated or severely damaged during the conflict,” and it will take two decades to rebuild them; that means that “nearly 60,000 people have lost their homes.” On countless occasions, entire large families of Gazans were instantly extinguished by Israeli violence. Because the population of Gaza is so young — 43 percent are under the age of 15, while 64 percent are under the age of 24 — the majority of its residents know little beyond extreme suffering, carnage, violence and war."

Shame on the Independent for this kind of shoddy journalism on North Korea

"It is understood that the manager was shot shortly after this visit, the Daily NK reports, citing multiple sources." But wait: the Independent asked an expert to confirm the story: "The bizarre story sounds even too extreme for the heavy-handed and authoritarian North Korean state, but Professor Remco Breuker, an expert in Korean studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told The Independent that it's likely the story is true.  "There's a good chance this happened," he said."  Do they teach this method of documentation at Western journalism schools these days?

Remembering that children that Israel killed in Gaza

Lebanon's new Air Force (don't laugh)

"And there you have it, folks. One commercial prop-plane from Textron, plus a bit of tinkering by Orbital ATK, and a stack of boomsticks from Lockheed Martin, and you have an instant, budget-priced ground attack warplane for Lebanon. Similar cheap "militarized" Cessna 208s are among the top 10 most popular combat aircraft in the world. And as it turns out, this is not all Lebanon is buying from us.

Just this past week, in fact, we learned that the DSCA is back in Congress  seeking approval for a sale that would instantly double the size of Lebanon's air force. Even before their new Cessna arrives, the Lebanese have begin seeking permission to buy six A-29 Super Tucano fighter planes."

US-backed military coup that toppled democratically elected Honduran president

"The Hillary Clinton emails released last week include some telling exchanges about the June 2009 military coup that toppled democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, a leftist who was seen as a threat by the Honduran establishment and U.S. business interests. At a time when the State Department strategized over how best to keep Zelaya out of power while not explicitly endorsing the coup,"

U.S., Saudi Arabia guilty of war crimes In Yemen

"Both the United States and Saudi Arabia should be held accountable for war crimes, a U.S.-based peace activis claims." "According to U.N. records, Saudi attacks in Yemen have killed more than 2,600 people and injured at least 11,000."

Israel's ties to al Qaeda angers Golan's residence--but not US or EU

"There is also documentation of what may be weapons transfers between the IDF and members of the Syrian opposition. One report provided details of the evening of January 20, 2015, in which “UNDOF observed two trucks crossing from the Bravo [Syrian] side to the Alpha [Israeli] side, where they were received by IDF personnel. The trucks were loaded with sacks before returning to the Bravo [Syrian] side.” On another occasion trucks with anti-aircraft guns parked near the fence on the Syrian side, but the terrain blocked the view of UNDOF observers so they could not determine the extent of “interaction between individuals on each side of the line.” "As a result many analysts doubt the Israeli government’s claim that it is steering clear of Nusra." (thanks Amir)

Comrade Joseph Massad on AP fabrications: "AP corrects story falsely claiming homosexuality is illegal for Palestinians"

"Massad says that the original, incorrect AP report “is part of the more generalized racist campaign by Western pro-Israel news organizations that want to insist on pinkwashing Israeli crimes with the added benefit of propagandizing against neighboring Arab countries.”

He observes that ILGA itself “used to be part of such propaganda efforts, claiming without evidence” in the 1993 edition of its annual Pink Book that Jordan criminalized homosexuality.

“It seems the Associated Press was simply repeating such propaganda and might very likely have relied directly on it, not having updated its sources,” Massad states.

Massad says that ILGA’s website later corrected the mistake, “by referring to a mostly ignorant Orientalist book written by a German and an Israeli collaborator – even if in this one case the authors got the story right – rather than by referring to the actual text of the law.”

The bigger point, he says, is that since “Western propaganda is based on a chain of propagandistic fabrications, you end up getting [organizations like] AP quoting ILGA quoting other German and Israeli sources. What is always absent is an actual Arab documentary source.”

Massad notes that, as in the AP story, “the law itself is never quoted nor is a history of its case application even explored, but rather what is presented is anti-Arab propaganda buttressed by any opinion that would help the AP Jerusalem bureau prove Israel’s superiority over the Arabs.”"

U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos

"These activities were given the green light by the CIA (in fact, the opium was transported on Air America flights, an airline covertly operated by the CIA). The worst destruction, however, came from the sky: from 1964 to 1973, the United States flew 580,000 bombing missions over Laos." "Since 9/11, the United States has used cluster bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. The US has also exported cluster bombs to numerous countries, including Israel (which used them in its assault on Lebanon in 2006) and Saudi Arabia (which used them to attack Yemen in 2015)." (thanks Amir)

This is purely my own discovery: Sayyid Qutb

Doesn't Sayyid Qutb resemble the Egyptian comedic actor, Ibrahim Sa`fan?


 

Sandra Mackey is dead: she was truly one of the most ignorant and obliviously racist writers on the Middle East

Here is an old post I had written about her.

Saudi soldiers flee from their positions in the face of a Huthi assault

Israel's "mow the lawn"

"Israel’s effort to “mow the lawn,” or as others have termed it, “occupation management,” resulted in the death of more than 2,000 Palestinians (alongside another 10,000 injured), most of them civilians, more than 500 of whom were children. And don’t get me started on widespread and corroborated claims the IDF used Palestinian civilians as “human shields”. Ok, do get me started. The Israeli High Court found the IDF used Palestinians as human shields 1,200 times in the years 2000 to 2005 alone." "When the children of settlers are old enough to join the military, they enter with pent up anti-Arab resentment. “Death to Arabs” becomes the mantra. “Death to Arabs” is chalked on military shells meant for Gaza."

"An attempt by the U.S. to rebrand al-Qaeda as kinder, gentler jihadis"

"But the Syrian army has been losing ground since March this year and an expanding area is being seized by a coalition led by Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate, in the north, which is reportedly supported by Sunni states such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies. There is an attempt to rebrand al-Nusra as kinder, gentler jihadis, but those who believe this propaganda should reflect on al-Nusra’s unstinting praise for the perpetrators of 9/11. Assad may be about to lose the city of Daraa in the south to the Southern Front, an alliance of groups which present themselves as more moderate than Isis or al-Qaeda, and is financed and supported by the Military Operations Centre (MOC) in Amman that is staffed by agents from the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE and other anti-Assad countries." (thanks Amir)

Is this for real? An American politician dares to accuse China of hacking?

"Hillary Clinton Accuses China Of Hacking". I know that she is bereft of ideas to run on but come on.

Mujid Kazimi, leading educator and researcher in nuclear technology, dies at 67

He was a Palestinian and was active in the AAUG since its founding after the 1967.  He always traveled cautiously and in secrecy because he knew that the Zionist entity targets Arab nuclear scientists like himself. I hope that his family does not rule out foul play from the investigation of the causes of death.

The TV presenter and the guest were banned by the Saudi king

This was not covered in the Western media, naturally: a Saudi TV presenter and his guest are banned by the Saudi regime for praising the current king and implying criticisms of the last king.

Remembering The Passengers of Iran Air Flight 655

"In an act that the US would call terrorism if committed by any other country, the USS Vicennes blew an Iranian commercial airliner out of the sky on July 3, 1988. We have never even apologized or accepted legal liability."

"The US still has more than two thousand juvenile offenders serving life-without-parole sentences — a punishment no other country in the world imposes on minors."

"The US still has more than two thousand juvenile offenders serving life-without-parole sentences — a punishment no other country in the world imposes on minors."

Britain's complicity in Saddam's WMD program

"In the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war, it emerged that Britain had been among several western countries which were used by Iraq, often with the knowledge of intelligence services in those countries, to source both equipment and raw materials for chemical weapon manufacturing." (thanks Amir)

European and US media in Arabic

It is noticeable that US and European Arabic media are almost an exact replica of Saudi media. It is partly due to the fact that the Arabic staff of such media don't dare to burn bridges with oil and gas media, and partly because US and Western media in general embrace all Saudi policies and wars.

Jordanian repression

Jordanian repression never gets covered in the Western media. The King, not liking the Muslim Brotherhood organization (which is by far the largest political movement in Jordan) basically, started his own version of the Muslim Brotherhood and stole the assets of the old organization and gave it to the new. All that while repression in Jordan continues unabated without a whimper from Western governments and media.

Saudis jail Pakistani who allegedly criticized Yemen airstrikes

"ِA controversial Pakistani commentator has been jailed in Saudi Arabia and reportedly sentenced to receive 1,000 lashes for allegedly criticizing the Saudi government while on a religious pilgrimage.."

The war targeted Gaza but Western media sympathies lie with the occupiers

"A year after Gaza war, southern Israel slowly recovers". (thanks Basim)

In my lifetime

In my lifetime, I went from living in a land in which burning the American flag was a political ritual, to a land were worshiping and revering the American flag is a political ritual.

Literature of Falsehood

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "(Political) Literature of Falsehood: On Nasserism and on Communism".

Censorship in mainstream media

"Here's a hard example. In the U.K. they have something called the Defence Advisory Board [The Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee]. It has monthly meetings with the editors of the newspapers, and they have agreements about what should and shouldn't be published."

Yemeni man lost 27 family members in Saudi-led air strike

"The rights group interviewed al-Ibbi, who lost 27 members of family, including 17 children, when the Saudi-led coalition bombed his home in the Houthi stronghold city of Saada in north Yemen." "More than 21.1 million people - over 80 percent of Yemen's population - are in need of aid, with 13 million facing food shortages."

Please, Western powers: stop your peacekeeping missions already

"" “Two French soldiers on mission in Burkina Faso were suspected … of engaging in acts of a sexual nature with two children,” France’s defence ministry said in a statement." "There are about 900 French soldiers in CAR, where the initial quota of 2,000 was gradually reduced to make way for a UN peacekeeping mission. UN troops have also been accused of abusing children in CAR."" (thanks Amir)

New York Times on Greece

Is this biased language?

"Today, critics argue that Mr. Tsipras is distorting democracy, not strengthening it, by holding a rapid-fire vote in which people lack the time to understand what they are voting for."

New York Times on Greek economic advisers

"For Mr. Tsipras and his two main advisers — Nikos Pappas, a hot-tempered Scottish-trained academic with a decades-long friendship with Mr. Tsipras, and Yanis Varoufakis, a polarizing economics professor who had spent more than a year schooling Mr. Tsipras in the intricacies of eurozone politics — the rebuke seemed to confirm their most pessimistic views."  I would say this is objective language, wouldn't you?

Saudi officials linked to jihadist group

"Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, had high-level contacts with America’s most deadly adversary in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, according to purported Saudi diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks." "Successive U.S. administrations have been careful not to accuse Gulf governments of complicity in sponsoring terrorism, however."

U.S. commitment to nuclear nonproliferation

"The lawsuits aim to enforce the NPT, arguing that the nuclear states are violating the Article VI of the Treaty, which calls for negotiations toward timely nuclear disarmament." "During the NPT Review Conference just concluded, the United States tried to divert the focus of the participants from efforts by the nuclear weapons countries to indefinitely preserve and improve their nuclear weapons stockpiles. Instead of reaffirming a commitment under the treaty's Article VI to seek disarmament, the United States declared that it will not "pursue new nuclear warheads, and [nuclear warhead] life-extension programs will not provide new military capabilities." At the same time, the US government is planning to spend more than $1 trillion on weapons-production infrastructure, ballistic missiles, submarines, and bombers over the next 30 years."

Africa's 'green revolution' a mask for a profit-led corporate bonanza

" "The unfortunate reality is that many aid agencies, whether it's USAID or DfiD, have become the handmaidens for the corporate sector," said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, a thinktank in the US. "They have become the handmaidens for privatising and the commodification of resources in the developing world. They come in cloaked in the language of development and poverty eradication but if you look at the impact of the projects that they are investing in, they are eradicating the poor themselves." "

Saudis pumping millions to promote Wahhabism in India

"The documents also reveal that the Secretariat General of the Muslim World League in Mecca, a controversial organisation with alleged links to terror funding, had requested Saudi Arabia to establish the organisation’s Salafi or Wahhabi centres in India."

This is how Haaretz describes the UC, Berkeley campus--not a German university in the 1930s and 40s

"but on a campus seething with anti-Semitism".  This is insane.

U.S. police killings in 2015

"This video shows the figures up to 29 June 2015, when 545 had been killed."

Canada has made Saudi Arabia a priority weapon market despite its human rights record

"The Canadian government carefully courted Saudi Arabia in the years leading up to an unprecedented $15-billion arms sale to Riyadh brokered by Ottawa that remains shrouded in secrecy, documents show." "The transaction, backed by Canadian taxpayers, has come under fire because Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records in the world today." (thanks Amir)

"Which Lebanese and Arab Media Covered #SaudiCables and Which Ones Didn't? "

"The silence of major newspapers and media outlets towards more than half a million leaked documents from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is deafening."

In this Hillary's email: Saud Al-Faysal asks permission from the US government to send a grant for a medical project in Cuba

Hillary emails: early projection about March 14 victory in 2009 election in Lebanon (of course, the US was netural in that election and didn't spend money)

Huma Abedin Advises Hillary Clinton on Islamic matters: the Hillary Emails

There is "probably no greater Islamic authority for Sunni Muslims" than the Saudi Mufti?? hahahaha