FLASH: a big Saudi ragedy--breaking news

I eulogize to you and to people of the world Prince Hadhlul bin `Abd-ul-`Aziz, one of the brothers of the Saudi King. 

thanks you, o White Man, for bombing us

""There is no denying that "Lawrence of Arabia" (celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) is Mr. Lean writ large. But few other approaches suggest themselves in telling the story of T. E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole), the British army officer who was improbably plucked from making maps in Cairo to lead the Arab uprising in World War I."" (thanks Khelil)

Prince Al-Walid bin talal and his three wives

Prince Al-Walid is now promoting his wife, the princess, in the Western press.  You should know that he is a polygamous who has three wives.  But wait: are Arab polygamous not cute when they are puppets of the US?

Obama on Edward Said

"Remnick then quotes a friend of Obama’s who also took the course: “My whole thing, and Barack had a similar view, was that we would rather read Shakespeare’s plays than the criticism. Said was more interested in the literary theory, which didn’t appeal to Barack or me.” According to Remnick, the young Obama referred to Said as a “flake.”" (thanks A.B.)

All articles on the humaness of Syrian armed rebels are based on claims by Syrian armed rebels

"As they approached the checkpoint, however, they decided there were still too many civilians around, so they called off the attack.  "We will hit it later," said the commander of Al Furqan militia, who goes by the name Abu Rahaf."  Oh, how humane.  I bet that they also behead mercifully too.

Westerners are cute when then censor speec that is offensive to their religions

"A theatre in southern Russia has stopped selling tickets to the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" after prosecutors launched a probe into whether it is offensive to devout Christians, officials said Saturday."

Jefferson and slavery

"The Virginia abolitionist Moncure Conway, noting Jefferson’s enduring reputation as a would-be emancipator, remarked scornfully, “Never did a man achieve more fame for what he did not do.”" (thanks Robert)

I like how blatant Zionists are in their racism

"The world ignores wars fought between savages. Just look at Syria. Look at Africa.  IT IS this savage culture that the Western world is trying to appease. And it will fail." (thanks Fadi)

The West believes in free speech with a few exceptions

"BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner broadcast details of a private conversation with the queen during which she supposedly told him she had complained to the last government about radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.

The queen was said to be upset that Britain had not arrested him after he preached fiery anti-Western sermons outside a mosque in London after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States."

Ruler's speeches are alwasy most significant: Aljazeera

"Al-Jazeera's editorial independence has been called into question after its director of news stepped in to ensure a speech made by Qatar's emir to the UN led its English channel's coverage of the debate on Syrian intervention.
Journalists had produced a package of the UN debate, topped with excerpts of President Obama's speech, last Tuesday when a last-minute instruction came from Salem Negm, the Qatar-based news director, who ordered the video to be re-edited to lead with the comments from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Despite protests from staff that the emir's comments – a repetition of previous calls for Arab intervention in Syria – were not the most important aspect of the UN debate, the two-minute video was re-edited and Obama's speech was relegated to the end of the package.
There are hints at staff dissatisfaction within the film, available for viewing on al-Jazeera's website and YouTube, which notes that the emir "represents one of the smallest countries in the Arab world … but Qatar has been one of the loudest voices condemning Syria".
The episode left a bitter taste among staff amid complaints that this was the most heavy-handed editorial intervention at the global broadcaster, which has long described itself as operating independent of its Qatari ownership.
An al-Jazeera spokesman said the emir's speech was "a significant development" that day and the broadcaster "consequently gave it prominence"." (thanks Sultan)

Yesterday demonstration in Qatif

From Angry Arab correspondent in Qatif. 

More government control techniques in Saudi Arabia

From an Angry Arab correspondent in Saudi Arabia:  "The three major phone companies in Saudi Arabia sent their customers a message requiring entering the national ID number each time they charge their pre-paid cell phones! People looked at it as another attempt from authorities to intimidate people and squeeze the limited freedom of speech left via smart cell phone (which is used effectively to bring stories can not be told by government-backed media). I have strong feeling it won't work! People got sick of everything they see!!!"

Western media always like to hear the views of average Arabs

"“We watch Seinfeld, Friends, the presidential debates—a lot of Saudis love America. I swear to God, if you come, you’ll see Saudis watching American TV.”" (thanks Ramiz)

Unreported Israeli terrorism

"Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported, Friday, that a Palestinian fisherman was killed by Israeli navy fire west of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The fisherman’s brother was wounded in the attack."

Obama and Edward Said

Look. The matter is settled despite what is being vomited by right-wing media.  Obama took one course with Edward Said and he did not like it (according to David Maraniss book).  Furthermore, when Barry was interviewed for his first community organizing job, he asked the interviewer: I hope you are not one of those leftist outfits, or words to that effect. 

Yemeni puppet president pleads: please bomb my country

"The president of Yemen gave an unqualified endorsement of American drone strikes in his country during a visit here on Friday, cementing his status as a favored counterterrorism partner of the United States." (thanks Adam)

An Anti-Semite receives the Rafiq Hariri Award: fitting

"Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad received the 2012 Rafik Hariri United Nations (UN) - Habitat Memorial Award at a ceremony held at the New York Public Library here last night." (thanks Daniel)

The speech was ridiculed around the world except in the Times

"Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an adviser to Mr. Netanyahu during his first term as prime minister in the 1990s, said that interpreting the diagram in terms of enrichment was mistaken.

“Netanyahu cannot draw a line at 90 percent enrichment,” Mr. Gold said. “If you get to 90 percent enrichment, the whole of the West is in big trouble.”"  Are other planets also in big trouble or just planet earth?   So Times analyzes the speech by seeking the opinion of one his advisers. Imagine if they analyze a speech by Ahmadinejad by seeking the opinion of his adviser.

Muhammad Mursi before he grew up

It says: Title above is: a short story on the anniversary of the death of leader Nasser.  1) The man is holding a deed to a land and it says: Abd-An-Nasser gave me 5 Fiddans, and I will spend the money on Muhammad and his brothers.   2) Abd-An-Nasser established free eduction and I will educate Muhammad and his brothers.  3) The arrow above the man says: Muhammad [Mursi] after he grew up, and he says in the caption: And what you know about the 1960s, which is a statement that appeared in a lousy speech by Mr. Mursi (who is having a meal as we speak at a naked restaurant in New York City).  (thanks Reem)

Ben Habil Nitin Yahoo

Arabs can be very inventive in their humor: are you aware that young Arabs write Netanyahu's name thus: بن هابيل نتن ياهو
(It can't be translated but something like: Son Of Idiot Rotten, hear ye).

Charles D Smith in the Times

"In the past week The Times has published an important interview with Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi (“Egypt’s Leader Spells Out Terms for U.S.-Arab Ties,” front page, Sept. 23), and Pankaj Mishra’s Op-Ed essay, “America’s Inevitable Retreat From the Middle East.” What they have in common is the argument that the United States can no longer act as an imperial power in the region, dictating actions and responses from Arabs or Muslims. Part but not all of this has to do with American support of Israel.

Propping up dictators (Egypt, Tunisia, the shah of Iran) or overthrowing them (Iraq) and assuming that Washington can control the results will no longer work.

I am reminded of a quote from Samuel P. Huntington’s much misrepresented book “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order”: “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas, values or religion ... but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”

CHARLES D. SMITH
Tucson, Sept. 24, 2012"

PS Charles, of course, wrote the best college textbook on the Arab-Israeli conflict.  I remember he told me after the first edition that a British publisher said about his manuscript that it was not sensitive enough to the Palestinian side, while the American publisher said (about the same manuscript) that it was not sensitive enough to Israel.  

Further deterioration of Aljazeera

I can't believe this: this is the poll that was posted on Aljazeera website yesterday:
"Do you think that Arab nationalists, secularists, and leftists are hypocrites?  Yes.  No."

هل تعتقد أن القوميين والعلمانيين واليساريين العرب منافقون؟

نعم 
 لا
PS Aljazeera removed the poll from the site.  

Anti-`Alawite bigotry

In Western media (and even in sectarian Wahhabi Qatari and Saudi media) there is a mantra that sectarianism was created by the Syrian regime.  I believe that Ba`thist rule is a ruthless dictatorial rule that does not discriminate in murder and repression (and even in the rewards of obedience).  I am yet to see one evidence of sectarian discourse in lousy Asad regime media.  In fact, you won't see it, but you are told that it exists mostly by people in Western media (who can't read Arabic) and who rely for their every word on Syria on "activists".  I say that because I just looked around some Syrian opposition websites on FB:the level of sleazy disgusting sectarian discourse against `Alawites and Shi`ites is like nothing I have seen.  It is very Goebbels like in the mixture of sexual violence with sectarian bigotry.  I don't recall I read one article in the Western press about this level of disgusting hostility to `Alawites ever.  To be sure, Wahhabi media always carries sectarian hatred but this is a very high level even by House of Saud's media standards.  In Saddam's media there was a not-to-subtle sectarian tone in articles about Shu`ubiyyah and Safawiyyah and such but I don't see such tone in Syrian regime media, as repulsive as it is at all levels. 

Muslim Brotherhood Sleaze--live on the air

Meet the new Egyptian Minister of Information from the Muslim Brotherhood.  He tells the talented anchor, Zeina Yaziji, live on the air, "I hope that your questions are as hot as you are, ha ha ha ha."

Michel Sulayman's plan

My weekly article for Al-Akhbar:  "Michel Sulayman's Defense Plan" (it rhymes, in English this time).

The political transformation of Edward Said

My latest blog post on Edward Said for Al-Akhbar English.

Aljazeera: how it is viewed in the US

When Qatar was in disagreement with US foreign policy during the Bush years, Aljazeera was accused in the US media of being a voice for Bin Laden.  When Qatar became in full agreement with US foreign policy during the Obama years, Aljazeera is now presented in the US media as a voice for democracy.  Figure that one out. 

A revolution led by a Tlas: as they say in Syria ولي على قامتي

"In his first interview with a western newspaper since leaving Syria, the country's biggest industrial tycoon has told the Daily Telegraph of how the ownership of his conglomerate of huge companies is to be given to a panel of leading opposition figures, and the profits used to help to build a democratic society in Syria.   "I am supporting a complete program [to oust the regime]. I am putting my fortune behind this, totally, until the end," said Mr Tlass. "But this is nothing. If I give all my money it is not worth one gram of the blood spilt by the Syrian people." The Tlass family has long been a stalwart of the Syrian regime. Mr Firas' father Mustafa Tlass and Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez, worked together to bring the Assad family to power. His brother is the defected Brigadier General Manaf Tlass who was a close childhood friend of the Syrian president."  Don't you like it when a Tlas talks about "his fortune", as if it was obtained NOT through the regime itself.   (thanks Sultan)

The editors who vouched for Janet Cooke must have approved this story

This is one of the worst example of journalism these days.  A story about Hizbullah based on two sources: one is:  "a Lebanese government official allied with a political bloc opposed to Hezbollah".  This of course is Hariri tool, Ashraf Rifi (director-general of the Internal Security Forces and a board member of Prince Nayif University for Security Sciences and Torture).  Can you imagine the Post writing a story about Israel based on sources in Iran??  Oh, they have a second source for the story: a citizen (with no official capacity whatsoever) with a known right-wing agenda opposed to Hizbullah.  Now, I am not saying that Hizbullah is not involved in Syria.  I am saying that the evidence in the story is a joke.  Would the Post write a story on the Syrian opposition citing only sources in the Syrian regime?

NY Police and Israel

""The ILP has perhaps not surprisingly been most active in Israel. Orthodox Jewish detective Mordecai Dzikansky was sent to work with the Israeli police in Jerusalem in March 2003. Dzikansky, a former Israeli Defense Forces volunteer, was fluent in Hebrew and described his role as working with Israel to face “…the same enemy: It’s radical Islam. I think the whole western world is facing this evil demon…” Since that time, the NYPD has upgraded its presence, recently opening an official liaison office in Kfar Saba, a town close to Tel Aviv. The office is manned by Charlie Ben-Naim, an Israeli citizen by birth and a dual national. He is also an NYPD detective.""

The Ethiopian maids of Hizbullah

"Yes, but HZ agents are believed to have their own people in Addis Ababa.   It is not difficult to bribe security officers there. Keep in mind that the Lebanese have lots of commercial contacts with Ethiopians. I understand that HZ depends on a few Ethiopian maids who work in Lebanon to connect them with security personnel in Lebanon. HZ uses informants and agents from Ethipoia who masquerade as live-in maids."  As if Ethiopian maids in Lebanon need more reasons for abuse. Now they are accused of "terrorist" connections with Hizbullah?

Barry Obama and the betrayal of Pakistan

I was thinking about that the other day.  If you have read David Maraniss's book on Barry Obama you learn about the extent to which Obama's social life in college (both in California and in New York City) revolved around his Pakistani friend who treated him with kindness, generosity, and hospitality.  He was so close to his Pakistani friend and traveled there but never talks about that for fear of Republican attacks.  Yet, his policies toward Pakistan have been the most callous, ruthless, and violent.  Someone should write an article about Barry and Pakistan.

How dare you hate Israel

""It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics," Obama said. "For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who resort to violence.""  Wait.  So if you hate Israel you are a Bin Ladenite?   And what if you hate KFC?   (thanks Krim)

Ohhhh, she is embarrassed

J sent me this:  "The human rights darling of the West is embarrassed over Rohingya Muslim atrocities in Burma:

"Even Suu Kyi is suffering some personal embarrassment from the Rohingya situation as she has chosen to stay silent on the human rights abuses perpetrated against this Muslim ethnic group in order (as some have speculated) to shore up her political chances in the 2015 election (Asia News, August 16).""

Freedom of the press in France

"The Tribunal de Grande Instance has banned France's Closer magazine from any further publication of topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge and ordered it to hand over all the pictures.  In its ruling, the court said: "These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred meters from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly intrusive."

The court described the pictures as a "brutal display" of the Duke and Duchess's private lives and required them to be handed over within the next 24 hours    (thanks Ali) ."

The fate of Israeli propaganda

I have been arguing for years that Israeli propaganda is now as dumb as Ba`thist propaganda.  Israeli' propaganda of the 1950s and 1960s was rather smart and effective.  People on FB and Twitter have been mocking the dumb speech and illustration by Netanyahu.  Even the pro-Israeli Daily Show mocked it last night.  I mean, with all the advisers and American consultants there was no one to tell him how foolish he looks with his cheap prop and stupid illustration.  But I do enjoy watching the demise of Israel, step by step, speech by speech.  

Marzouki is now reduced to begging the West

Ahmet of Tunisia sent me this:  "Asad, look at the ceiling of the man's thought:" We are in a race against poverty. At this crucial moment, the West must not abandon us. It must continue to aid Tunisia in strengthening democracy and the rule of law, securing our borders to stop arms from reaching extremists, and creating economic opportunities that give our citizens hope."

the true president of Tunisia is this man; he has no official status in the state, but he can set redlines and deadlines."

Netanyahu's propaganda at UN

" Netanyahu: Militant Islamists want to end the modern world. "  So they don't want to end the ancient world?

Netanyahu: imagine

"Netanyahu: Nothing could imperil the world more than a nuclear-armed Iran. To understand the impact, imagine a nuclear-armed al-Qaida." I imagine a nuclear-armed Al-Qa`idah and see Israel already.

laws againast offending religions in the Middle East

Of course, there has been Western reports about lousy calls by Shi`ite Islamists (like Hizbullah) and Sunni Islamists (all of them) and by Arab governments to criminalize any offenses to religion.  But I noticed that Western media did not report that Christians in the Middle East have been vocal in that effort as well, and even before this recent controversy.  The Maronite Church in Lebanon has the commitment to free speech that churches in New England had back in the 17th century.  The Catholic Center for Information in Lebanon is a book burning center and under the auspices of the current Patriarch (before he became patriarch) called for the excommunication of anyone who dares to criticize Patriarch Sfayr. 

making gains in Syria

The New York Times has a front page article today in which the author claims that the Free Syrian Army gangs are making gains.  The entire article is based on unsubstantiated claims of the Free Syrian Army gangs themselves:  "“We are facing aircraft and shooting down aircraft with captured weapons,” said Jamal Marouf, a commander credited by the fighters with downing the first MIG-21 here. “With these weapons we are preventing aircraft from landing or taking off.”"

student of Bernard Lewis shares his wisdom

"Second, a more muscular American policy could keep the conflict from spreading."  Wait. Let me understand.  So if the US were to bomb Syria, the conflict of Syria would not spread and Lebanon would go quiet.  If I only know how those Zionist reach those conclusions.  But his mentor Bernard Lewis advised the Bush administration that all Arabs and Muslims would become subservient to the Bush agenda once Iraq is invaded.  Like teacher like student.

How to read Zionist language

"Our closest friends in the region — including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and Israel"... Let me summarize the sentence:  Israel.

shooting in Qatif

Do you notice that news of shooting in `Awwamiyyah in Saudi Arabia gets ignored in the Western press?

the cute racism of Chruchill

""His words from May 1943 should be embroidered into a tapestry to hang near the mirrors of every Indian household, to remind us of his perfidy, “I hate Indians,” he said, “They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”...

...As Field Marshall Wavell put it, Churchill “hates India and everything to do with it.”"" (thanks Nu`man)