"The Forgotten US Government Plan to Round Up Arabs"

"The 40-page memo described a government contingency plan for rounding up thousands of legal alien residents of eight specified nationalities: Libya, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Morocco. Emergency legal measures would be deployed—rescinding the right to bond, claiming the privilege of confidential evidence, excluding the public from deportation hearings, among others. In its final pages, buried in a glaze of bureaucratese, the memo struck its darkest note: A procedure to detain and intern thousands of aliens while they awaited what would presumably become a mass deportation. Van Der Hout read the final pages carefully. The details conjured a vivid image of a massive detainment facility: 100 outdoor acres in the backwoods of Louisiana, replete with specifications for tents and fencing materials, cot measurements and plumbing requirements."

When US bombs kill Syrian civilians, it is not covered (except with the qualifier of "allegedly")

"US airstrikes on a Syrian village have killed at least 73 civilians, a majority of them women and children, activists say".   How come you don't use "allegedly" when the same "activists" report Russian and Syrian regime bombing? 

The US-Gulf regimes war in Yemen

"This US-backed war is not just a case of the Obama administration sitting idly by while its close ally goes on a destructive spree of historic proportions. The government is actively selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weaponry. They’re re-supplying planes engaged in the bombing runs and providing “intelligence” for the targets that Saudi Arabia is hitting. Put simply, the US is quite literally funding a humanitarian catastrophe that, by some measures, is larger than the crisis in Syria." (thanks Amir)

Children of Syria

Translating something I wrote in Arabic: Some people love half of the children of Syria. Others love the other half of the children of Syria.  I am looking for someone who loves all the children of Syria.  

French official Islamophobia and war-mongering

In a way it is good that those recent policies of France: 1) whole-sale endorsement of Netanyahu; 2) close alliance and arming with the Saudi regime; 3) blatant official domestic and foreign policy Islamophobia; 4) full-scale endorsement of Jihadi rebels in Syria; that all took place under the leadership of the French socialist party.  For those who think that there is a meaningful difference in Western systems between left and right.  

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis today protested under the headline "We won't bow down to House of Saud"--will this be covered in Western Press?

Prime Minister of France on the Burkini

«Le burkini n'est pas une nouvelle gamme de maillots de bain, une mode. C'est la traduction d'un projet politique, de contre-société, fondé notamment sur l'asservissement de la femme.»

The Henry Kissinger

"Last week, the first tranche of those declassified documents was released. The documents revealed that White House and U.S. State Department officials were intimately aware of the Argentine military’s bloody nature, and that some were horrified by what they knew. Others, most notably Henry Kissinger, were not. In a 1978 cable, the U.S. Ambassador, Raúl Castro, wrote about a visit by Kissinger to Buenos Aires, where he was a guest of the dictator, Jorge Rafael Videla, while the country hosted the World Cup. “My only concern is that Kissinger’s repeated high praise for Argentina’s action in wiping out terrorism may have gone to some considerable extent to his hosts’ heads,” Castro wrote. The Ambassador went on to write, fretfully, “There is some danger that Argentines may use Kissinger’s laudatory statements as justification for hardening their human rights stance.”.   The latest revelations compound a portrait of Kissinger as the ruthless cheerleader, if not the active co-conspirator, of Latin American military regimes engaged in war crimes. In evidence that emerged from previous declassifications of documents during the Clinton Administration, Kissinger was shown not only to have been aware of what the military was doing but to have actively encouraged it. Two days after the Argentine coup, Kissinger was briefed by his Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, William Rogers, who warned him, “I think also we’ve got to expect a fair amount of repression, probably a good deal of blood, in Argentina before too long. I think they’re going to have to come down very hard not only on the terrorists but on the dissidents of trade unions and their parties.” Kissinger replied, “Whatever chance they have, they will need a little encouragement . . . because I do want to encourage them. I don’t want to give the sense that they’re harassed by the United States.”

Syrian regime kills children. Syrian rebels kill children. US bombing kills children. Russian bombing kills children. Killers all around in Syria.

Anne Barnard ‏@ABarnardNYT  10m10 minutes ago

Meanwhile in govt-held West Aleppo, websites showing Reem, injured recently by rebel mortar. #OmranDaqneesh. Syria

The picture on left is in East Aleppo, while the picture on right is in West Aleppo. Of course, Western media don't see civilian victims in West Aleppo.

Ashraf Marwan

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar:  "Ashraf Marwan: A Banner of an (ongoing) Israeli Epoch in Contemporary Arab History".  

Both sides in Aleppo are engaged in killing civilians: this is from a Syrian opposition human rights organization

Maya Gebeily (@GebeilyM) tweeted at 4:55 AM on Sat, Aug 20, 2016:
#SYRIA: #Aleppo civilians killed since July 31 from SOHR:
165 in rebel fire on w. Aleppo
168 in air strikes, bombardment in e. Aleppo

PS Gebeily is AFP correspondent in Beirut.  

What is happening in Venezuela

"The US government has not only cheered, and funded, these anti-democratic actions. By absurdly declaring that Venezuela is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and pressuring investors and bankers to steer clear of the Maduro administration, the White House has prevented Venezuela from obtaining much-needed foreign financing and investment.  An honest account of the crisis must include both of these aspects: the government’s costly errors, and the destabilizing actions of the opposition and US government. To ignore one or the other is to misrepresent reality and perpetuate false all-or-nothing narratives that blame the crisis, in its entirety, on either “socialism” or the “Empire.” Such narratives may comfort those seeking affirmation for preconceived notions, but they will not aid those seeking to know why Venezuela is in crisis and how it might get out of it...First, Venezuela is not a dictatorship. The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), formerly the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), has been repeatedly affirmed at the polls, winning twelve of fifteen major elections between 1998 and 2015. The government has won these elections cleanly, and has immediately conceded on the rare occasions when it has suffered defeat, including last December’s parliamentary elections...Second, while Venezuela has moved away from free-market capitalism, its economy is hardly socialist. The private sector, not the state (and still less the social economy), controls the overwhelming majority of economic activity. Between 1999 and 2011, the private sector’s share of economic activity increased, from 65 percent to 71 percent." (thanks Ben)

"Children of Israel" and Super Pac

"Children of Israel LLC contributed $150,000 in 2015 to Pursuing America’s Greatness, a Super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee’s presidential run; $400,000 in 2016 to Stand for Truth, a Super PAC supporting Ted Cruz; and $334,000 to the Republican National Committee." "Fox is also a prolific, longtime GOP donor under his own name. He most recently gave $100,000 to Team Ryan, a joint fundraising committee set up by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and $25,000 to Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee. In addition to his Children of Israel contributions to their Super PACs, Fox personally gave $2,700 to Huckabee’s presidential campaign and $5,400 to Cruz’s. Fox also gave $5,400 to Marco Rubio’s campaign, as well as — surprisingly — $5,400 to campaign-finance reformer Lawrence Lessig’s abortive presidential run."

it's about preventing criticism of Israel

"The school board confirmed in July it had launched an investigation into Shoufani's comments at the July 2 Al-Quds Day in Toronto. But the board did not confirm in its statement that Shoufani was suspended for what she said — comments that outraged both the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and B'nai Brith Canada, which accused her of publicly supporting violence and terrorism in Israel." "At Queen's Park, Graeme MacQueen, a retired McMaster University religious studies professor, said Shoufani's right to speak out must be respected. "We hear that she's being punished for supporting violence and terrorism," MacQueen told reporters. "This harassment is not about violence and terrorism, it's about preventing criticism of Israel." "

"Disease of the Arab Mind"

"How can Bret Stephens, who is so sensitive to any slight he perceives against his own people, use the phrase “disease of the Arab mind” when writing about hundreds of millions of other people?" (thanks Amir)

Dhawahiri's attacks on Hasan Al-Banna

The recent speech by Ayman Dhawahiri in which he fiercely attacked Hasan Al-Banna and he pointed out his subservience to the monarchy before the revolution was quite interesting.  It may be signaling some new realignments in the world of Islamist Jihadi organizations and trying to discredit the Muslim Brotherhood which is trying to remerge as a "combatant" organization, through various rebel groups in Syria and under different names.  

This is major news from Jordan: the Crown Prince is frying tomatoes

The lousy Syrian regime lives on another planet

Yesterday, in the wake of Syrian bombing of Kurdish areas, Syrian regime propagandists have been talking about "the prestige (or aura) of the Syrian state" and the territorial integrity of Syria: that it is a "red line" for the regime. The armies and militias of the world are all crowded in Syria, and the regime speaks about its "prestige" (or aura).

It is out in the open: Sky News presents Al-Qa`idah terrorists as heroic: no shame in lionizing Al-Qa`idah in Western media these days

Democracy Now is not any different from New York Times or Fox News or WP when it comes to covering Syria

Look at this interview.  They never challenge their guest one time and they never question the premise of their guest that only a US military intervention can save Syria.  Notice also that none of the three people (the two hosts and the guest) ever utter a word about the killing of civilians by Syrian rebels.  What a shame.  There is something wrong in the news coverage when Democracy Now is not different at all from New York Times.   Democracy Now has even interviewed people of the pro-Gulf regime, Lebanese March 14 just to produce the pro-Syrian rebel point of view.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights: one of four Sources of Amnesty International new report on Syria.

So Amnesty International admitted that the four sources of its new report on Syria are opposition organization.  This is the source of funding of Syrian Network for Human Rights (we are talking full transparency here): "SNHR funds its work and activities through unconditional grants and donations from individuals and institutions... And also through carrying out human rights projects, studies, and researches that focus fundamentally on documenting human rights violations and advocating victims. SNHR is committed to a policy of scal transparency with donors through providing them with nancial reports and sup- porting documents."  And just yesterday, this Syrian Network released a report indicating that it counted the victims of ISIS and the victims of Russian bombing and found that ISIS is less guilty than Russia.  I kid you not.  

Anne Barnard on the forgotten victims of Western Aleppo

Anne Barnard ‏@ABarnardNYT  3h3 hours ago

Anne Barnard Retweeted Anne Barnard

Aleppo rebels don't have planes like Russian-Syrian govt 1s that hit #OmranDaqneesh. But their mortars kill kids too

Anne Barnard added,

Anne Barnard @ABarnardNYT

Lungs outside his body, a tennis ball and 10SYP (5cents) in his pockets--Dr in govt-held Aleppo describes 9 yr old dying in her arms. Syria

58 retweets44 likes

Look how Western media justify Syrian rebel of civilians in Western Aleppo

"For their part, rebels hit government-held areas of Aleppo in what Syrian media said was an escalation of mortar attacks on the western districts." New of Syrian rebels indiscriminate shelling is always written...in passing.

When New York Times tries to be fair: it selected three writers to speak on behalf of the Arab people

Of the three: 1) One is a Hebrew writer in an Israeli newspaper who funds Israeli racism against Arabs to be hilarious and entertaining; 2) another is a recipient of two honorary doctorates from Israeli universities in appreciation of his pro-Israeli and anti-Arab views; 3) and an Egyptian writer in the NYRB.  

Economist uses the method of documentation favored by the National Inquirer

I notice that when it comes to Israel and its interests, Western media are willing to disregard their own standards in order to favor Israel in a story: "A poll on the Twitter feed of a Sudanese artist living in Qatar claimed 77% of participants supported Arabs playing Israel."  A poll on Twitter?

Hadi of Yemen

"Critics of Hadi—including members of the Southern Hirak movement and others not aligned with the Houthis or Saleh—have been consistently critical of his claims to legitimacy by pointing out that he was elected by referendum in a one-man context. Even more, they emphasize, his two-year term expired in early 2014."

Anne Barnard of the New York Times

This is not about politics for me; it is about journalism.  Just like I detest Donald Trump but I hate US media bias in favor of Hillary because it violates the basic principles of journalism, the Western media coverage of Syria is similar; they are not even trying to be accurate.  Look at this passage by Anne Barnard: "Syrian government aircraft hit the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Daraya with incendiary bombs for the third straight day on Wednesday, according to local council members, who said the weapons were packed with substances akin to napalm." According to Local council members? Are you kidding me here?

civilians in Western Aleppo

From Alfred: "I was born in Aleppo. It is true that the "indiscriminate" bombing of east Aleppo reported in the New York Times has been worst than West Aleppo. But, there is no comparison to the Israeli-Gaza war where the ratio of Palestinians civilians killed to Israelis civilians killed was more than 300 to 1. Would the New York Times reporter dare to say that civilians in Israel were "relatively safe" and civilians in Gaza were killed "indiscriminately"? "

Bombardment of Western Aleppo

Do you notice that you will never read a headline about rebel indiscriminate bombardment of Western Aleppo?

US arms sales

"I mean, Saudi Arabia has been killing civilians, using cluster bombs, fighting one of the most egregious wars in Yemen that we’ve seen in a long, long time. So it’s far from stability. But what it is, is a steady source of income for companies like Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. And they’re part of the push for making these things happen, usually hand in glove with the government."

"And you don’t see a lot of discussion of the consequences and the connection to the arms that are coming from the United States. Unless you read around in many different sources, you don’t get the full picture of what a devastating trade this is, and responsibility of our government and our corporations for keeping it running."

NYT reveals think-tank it's cited for years to be corrupt arms booster

"As the Times also notes, CSIS is funded largely by Western and Gulf monarchy governments, arms dealers and oil companies, such as Raytheon, Boeing, Shell, the United Arab Emirates, US Department of Defense, UK Home Office, General Dynamics, Exxon Mobil, Northrop Grumman, Chevron and others."

Obama doctrine: arm Saudi regime and Israel

"From 2010 to 2015, the Obama administration did more than $100 billion in arms deals with the extremism-supporting theocratic Saudi absolute monarchy."

U.S.-backed Saudi coalition bombs 4th hospital, killing 11 people

"At the time of the attack, there were 23 patients in surgery, 25 patients in the maternity ward, 13 new-borns and 12 paediatrics in Abs hospital, MSF said." "Since March 2015, a coalition of countries led primarily by Saudi Arabia — with weapons, intelligence, and support from the U.S. and U.K. — has been brutally bombing Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East." (thanks Amir)

Iran killing Sunnis?

Look at this story and the headline which was carried by news organizations and professors on Twitter.  Iran didn't identify their sect so when US or France kills Jihadis in Syria or Iraq should the headline be: US kills Sunnis? Just trying to find a unified method of coverage here.

Israeli uncovers a complicated Hizbullah plot in West Bank and Gaza

The Israeli government says that the plot was so complicated that it entailed the transfer of a whopping $900 from Hizbullah to an operative there. I am not making this up.

This is an honor that Beirut deserves: best food destination worldwide

"No. 1 Beirut, Lebanon

Lebanon’s capital city, Beirut, is having a bit of a cultural renaissance—and it’s not just new museums like the striking Aïshti Foundation that have attracted international attention. There’s arguably no better way to sense the friendliness and enthusiasm of Beiruties than by enjoying fresh a meal at Tawlet, a fantastic Lebanese restaurant in the hip Mar Mikhael neighborhood (order goat tartare and the unusual mountain specialty, h’risset ‘akkub: a lamb porridge with wild thistle).  Even breakfast here is exciting: order Al Soussi’s fatteh, a traditional dish of toasted pita, chickpeas, yogurt, and pine nuts. "

Children of Syria

Can you please not use the children of Syria--those of them who are alive and those who are dead--as fodder in your ugly propaganda campaigns? Thanks.

For those who enjoy contamination with Listeria

60% of all Hummus sales in the US market are for Sabra Hummus, which has a history of contamination with Listeria. Help keep people safe and healthy by promoting other brands.

PS Whole Food Hummus is outstanding.  

The New York Times (which declared Howard Stern a feminist) is besides itself: they found a lost interview with Ben Gurion

This is a silly article with no news value whatsoever about a lost interview with Ben-Gurion. But the funny part is when they tried to insert one little section about the inconvenient truth about his propensity for war crimes, racism, massacres, and ethnic cleansing.  Here how the Times phrased it: "He had made tough choices along the way, like refusing to allow the return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war over Israel’s creation, and placing Israel’s Arab citizens under military rule."  This is like saying: and Hitler made tough choices along the way during WWII.

Some Trotskyist left and the Syrian war

Is it not hilarious how some Arab (and non-Arab) Trotskyists fault US imperialism not for its war and aggression but for not providing more support for Syrian rebels and for not going to war in Syria directly.  This must be the funniest story of the left in recent years.

Now how did Amnesty International collect its information? What are the sources? Here are the answers.

So basically, the four sources from which Amnesty International collected its data on prison victims in Syria are ALL opposition sources. But read the technical report about how AI "cleaned" the data to reconcile different versions and change dates of birth and such.  Of course, Syrian regime is capable of the worst crimes (as are the rebels) but all media coverage and Western human rights reports about Syria are not reliable and reflect the political interests of one side.

Amnesty International Report on torture in Syrian prisons: it says that rebels committed war crimes but it is no big deal

"Non-state armed groups have also carried out abuses against persons in their custody, including torture and other ill-treatment and summary killings. Amnesty International has documented such abuses by IS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other non-state armed groups and found that some of them amount to war crimes.24 The UN Commission of Inquiry has also found that, in the context of detention, IS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other non-state armed groups have committed war crimes such as torture and murder, while IS has also carried out crimes against humanity.25

Nevertheless, Amnesty International’s assessment is that the vast majority of detention-related violations since 2011 have been carried out by the Syrian authorities."  First, notice that designation of "other armed groups", which means that other than ISIS and Nusrah, there are other groups that Western governments and media refer to as "moderate" and for that reasons we are not going to name them to protect the image of the "revolution".  Also notice that "Nevertheless" as an opening of the last sentence is intended as a qualification for the war crimes by rebels.  Western media and Western human rights organizations are like US media and US presidential elections: they are so biased for Hillary that they are not even trying to be fair or even-handed in coverage.  

The poor in Rio watch the Olympic games

Since Western media now parrot Gulf regimes media: you should know this about Yemen and its dead children

Saudi regime media regularly now features articles that children in Yemen are fighting with Houthis and thus their murder is justified.

Not in the Western press: the case of the cartoon on Facebook which offended God and the potentate of Jordan

The AG of Amman issued this Orwellian statement about the case of the Jordanian writer accused of posting a cartoon on Facebook which offended God (who is very touchy and over-sensitive in the Arab world) and the Potentate of Jordan: "The AG of Amman, Judge Abdullah Abu Al-Ghanam forbade any publishing about the defendant, writer Nahid Hattar.  And the judge stressed that the DA's offie will prosecute anyone who violates the ban against publishing by publishing any information whether on social media or electronic sites or any other method."