Budget Priorities

Journalism according to Saudi regime standards:

"The friendliness that dominated the meeting; it was clear that Trump was keen on labeling this meeting as friendly. The lunch that was held in the East Wing of the White House and to be precise, in the family hall is bold evidence on it.

.Trump inviting senior officials to enter the hall after the start of the meeting with Mohammed bin Salman so that they can hear from the Prince what he had already heard, asking the deputy crown prince to repeat what he had said.

.The meeting moved from discussing broad ideas into discussing the details and many files.

.The harmony and compatibility between Salman and Trump was clear and the latter wanted to hear the ideas and aspirations of the Saudi Kingdom in details."

Western human rights organizations

I am so glad that Western human rights organizations were not around during the long decades of the Algerian Revolution. They would have been a great boost for the propaganda of the occupiers.  

Muhammad bin Salman on Trump

Yet another Arab ruler, assures the world that Trump is not anti-Muslim. But the statement of the senior Saudi official on the meeting between Trump and Muhammad bin Salman was interesting in that Bin Salman tried to appease Trump by blaming the media for his bad image. He all but blamed "fake news".

Washington Post motto

The new motto of the Washington Post is so stupid. Democracy-- assuming it is a good thing--can die in daylight as well.

Washington Post

The new motto of the Washington Post is so stupid. Democracy-- assuming it is a good thing--can die in daylight as well.  

A public Service announcement about Ryanair

At all cost, avoid an airline named Ryanair.  It is by far the worst airline on earth. If there are airlines on other planets this would still be the worst.  Ryanair was initially used for the transport of cattle, but then the animals refused to be serviced by Ryanair. The airline is so bad that safety instructions are posted in front of every seat to alert you that crashes are quite frequent on Ryanair: emergency landing instructions are Ryanair's idea of flight entertainment. They also put a life-vest over every passenger's head because in one out of two flights you will need it.  Wait: but they have "Priority Seating" which only means that you get to stand at the gate like everyone else but "Priority Seating" people get to stand against the wall (but not shot, thankfully). Also, they don't believe that airplane seats need to recline.  Oh, and Ryanair doesn't use Heathrow London Airport: they use Luton airport which is far worse than Beirut Airport in 1938 (and is one hour and a half by car from downtown London).

PS Wait. Ryanair has an application for mobile devices and if you check-in using the device they make you leave the check-in counter and go to the kiosk ( they don't believe in office) and buy a boarding pass.  So the mobile check-in is meaningless. 

PPS oh, and how do you know that the lavoratory on the plane is occupied? The stench gives it away.

 

New York Times on the Wikileaks of CIA hacking

Read the coverage of the latest Wikileaks on CIA hacking. Look at this article  The New York Times is going out of its way to basically tell the readers that it is no big deal and that there is nothing new and that the hacking is not as expensive, and that you are not worry about unless the CIA hacks into your phone, etc.  And yet, this New York Times has the audacity of reviewing RT TV to decide if there is propaganda there or not.  In fact, there is another article in the Times today by some professor in North Carolina, in which the media are criticized for making a big deal out of the Wikileaks story and the author accused Wikileaks of "misinformation".  

When the New York Times reviews RT TV

It is very amusing when US mainstream media critically reviews the media of their countries, especially when they are not friends of the US.  In fact, the US media hated Aljazeera (when it was good) and loved Aljazeera when it became a crude propaganda outlet of the Qatari regime only because the policies of the two governments because closer.  Remember when US politicaians would boycott Aljazeera? Now, even McCain appears there, and only because they know that Aljazeera has become indistinguishable form Saudi regime media--known as the model of free media in the world.  So the Times reviewed RT TV because the premise is that US media are not propaganda media and that they alone can judge other media. This is part of the same myth: that there is "fake news" (and the news by enemies of the US) and then there is Truth media;, and they are the media that represent the consensus of the military-intelligence apparatus of the US.  In fact, RT TV and US media are all propaganda media. But if you watch RT TV: there is more news reported than any of the US TV news, and there is less entertainment reported.   From a news perspective, RT is more like CNN (of the 1980s when it was good) and Aljazeera before the Arab uprising--propaganda of the Russian perspective notwithstanding.  The reach of RT is spreading, and even the website of RT now appears among the top website among Arabs.  I mean, just compare RT TV to CNN and Fox.  US news media are now nothing but entertainment (boring entertainment at that) and chit-chat.  

Amal Clooney: seen human righting in this picture

The politically courageous Amal Clooney is seen human righting with a man who likes wars more than any member of US Congress (hell, more than even Hannibal).  

Lousy Western media coverage of Middle East: why you need to know Arabic (the strange case of Liz Sly)

I have reported many times that Liz Sly qualifies as one of the worst reporters covering the Middle East today, and there is still competition. Just yesterday, she posted that Syrian regime media did not report about the anniversary of the Ba`thist coup. (Image shown).  In reality, the anniversary was marked in all Syrian regime media but how would she know? She only reads English.  In fact, she often reports what Syrian rebel media report without checking for verification.  I have attached an image of the front page of the Syrian regime mouthpiece below, where the anniversary is marked on the front page.  But then again: imagine if you send me to China, and I tweet observations about the Chinese regime media without any knowledge of Chinese.    

The political courage of Amal Clooney

This woman is amazing.  At a time when no one is speaking out against ISIS, and at a time when ISIS is not criticized by anyone in the world, Amal Clooney came to US and met with US ambassador (who is known as a courage crusader against all progressive ideas) and denounced ISIS.  Wow.  It is true that when UN asked Clooney to help investigate Israeli war crimes in Gaza, she declined and said that she was too busy, but she is not too busy to denounce ISIS. Good for you, Amal Clooney. You deserve the Bill Clinton and Tony Blair award for political courage. 

To Marrakech

Will be back in a week. 

Airport search

I have never been more thoroughly physically searched as I was today leaving San Francisco Airport. He warned me: I will be searching your genitals, would you like to go to a private area? I said: of course, not. Keep it public.

The powerful TV

Our Samsung TV came with its own government-issued security clearance.  

Our breakfast eating TV

When I saw our Samsung TV having bacon for breakfast, I knew that it was more than a TV.

The fishy Samsung TV

It was rather fishy when our Samsung TV bought its own subscription of the New York Times.

That damn Samsung TV

I knew that something was terribly wrong when our Samsung TV would insist on going to the grocery store with us.

When your TV is too smart

I knew something was wrong when: whenever I criticize the US government at home, the Samsung (too smart) TV would throw a shoe at me.

My smart Samsung TV

Now I know why my smart Samsung TV always talks back to me.

So I was having this argument with my Samsung smart TV

...and I said.  

An editor at the Washington Post wants a resumption of the Cold War

Ruth Marcus (@RuthMarcus)

3/7/17, 7:09 PM So excited to be watching The Americans, throwback to a simpler time when everyone considered Russia the enemy. Even the president.

Blaming Assange

"Oren Falkowitz, a former N.S.A. official and the chief executive of the cyberdefense firm Area 1 Security, said that WikiLeaks, run by Julian Assange, had again succeeded in disrupting the status quo, as it did during last year’s presidential election with the release of emails from the Democratic National Committee. “If you understand the Assange playbook,” Mr. Falkowitz said, “a lot of it is just to create chaos.”"

Assassinations by using cars & trucks

"As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations."

French citizens are complicit in war crimes in Palestine

"According to i24 News, an Israeli news channel, in 2014, the Israeli army had 3,384 foreign volunteers, of whom 70 percent were men. One quarter were from the United States and the rest were from different countries, including France. However, according to the French-Israeli blog Coolamnews, France is now the most represented country among the volunteers: in 2015, 43 percent came from France while 38 percent came from the United States."

According to Herzl, Zionism is a colonial idea

"Herzl approached Britain because, he said, it was "the first to recognize the need for colonial expansion." According to him, "the idea of Zionism, which is a colonial idea, should be easily and quickly understood in England." " (thanks Amir)

Quigley, J. B. 2005. The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Page 7.

Human Rights Watch and Israel are back being friends

"To his surprise, Omar Shakir was even met at Ben-Gurion Airport by a Foreign Ministry representative, who rushed him through customs and border control. He was not questioned nor detained at the airport. " (thanks Yasmine)

The only democracy in the Middle East? You mean the only farce in the Middle East?

In one week, the Israeli occupation parliament, voted to: 1) ban Muslim calls to prayer through loudspeakers; 2) banned organizations from entering Israel if they support boycott.  3) ruled that citizenship can be revoked of Arabs who disobey the state.  The only democracy? 

Have you read about the foiled assassination attempt of the Saudi King in Malaysia?

What is it with those foiled assassination plots against Saudi officials? Whatever happened to the Iranian assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador in DC, when Iranian Revolutionary Guards hired a Texas salesman to hire drug lords in Mexico to detonate Orange Chicken at a Chinese restaurant frequented by Saudi ambassador in DC? Well, today, according to Saudi regime and Qatari regime media, Huthis AND ISIS were behind this plot against the King.  I am sure that International Communism was involved too.

Obama also referred to slaves as 'immigrants'

"And perhaps, like some of you, these new arrivals might have had some moments of doubt, wondering if they had made a mistake in leaving everything and everyone they ever knew behind.  So life in America was not always easy.  It wasn’t always easy for new immigrants.  Certainly it wasn’t easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily, and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves.  There was discrimination and hardship and poverty.  But, like you, they no doubt found inspiration in all those who had come before them.  And they were able to muster faith that, here in America, they might build a better life and give their children something more."

Just imagine

Imagine if it was Russian intelligence which is responsible for all those hacking and spying which US intelligence is doing around the world. Can you not imagine the sanctimonious US rhetoric if it were the Russians who were behind it? 

On the proverb "the dogs bark and the caravan rolls on"

From Hamid Algar: "The proverb, "the dogs bark and the caravan rolls on" is found in concise rhyming fashion in Turkish: it ürür, kervan yürür." Not that I am claiming a Turkish origin for it; despite years of encouragement from here and there, I don't have a Turkocentric view of things."

Israel arrested 15,000 Palestinian women since 1967

A report revealed that Israeli occupation state arrested 15,000 Palestinian women since 1967.

Happy International women's day

Happy International Women's day

The Triangle of Arab politics

After the Gulf war of 1991, a disastrous triangle of tyrannical Arab regimes formed: Egyptian, Syrian, and Saudi regime formed an alliance which controlled Arab politics for many years. Today, there is a new triangle: Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.  

In Lebanon, they named the street in which the lousy collaborationist PA embassy is located after Bassel Al-A`raj

How you can't rely on Western media coverage of the Middle East

You know how deficient and unreliable Western media coverage of the Middle East is when you see a gap between what Arabs are talking about on social media and what Western media are talking about the Middle East.  I think the problem is that Western media now take their clues from Gulf media (especially the English language ones) and they also listen to what Arab correspondents of Gulf regime media are saying on social media.  Just like Arabs at DC think tanks simply produce Gulf regime propaganda, Gulf media are in a different world from where Arabs are. Yesterday, Arab social media exploded in anger and sadness about the Israeli terrorist murder of Bassel Al-A`raj.  There was none of that noise and expressions in Western and Arab Gulf media coverage of the region.  I saw a small item on the front page of Al-Quds Al-Arabi (Qatari regime).  It is for this reason in particular that ALL Western media AND government were taken aback when the Arab uprisings erupted.  

Against the blacklisting of Palestinian supporters by anyone

Against the blacklisting of Rania (Abdul-) Khaleq.

Muslim teen found hanging from tree: FBI investigates possible lynching

"The country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization has called for an FBI investigation into the death of a black Muslim teen who was found hanging from a tree near his home in Lake Stevens, Washington, in January. Ben Keita, who was 18, was reported missing in November, having left home without his car, wallet or phone. His body was found more than a month later." "Hate crimes against Muslims have increased significantly in the past two years. In 2015, the last year for which data is available, the FBI recorded a 67 percent rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims." (thanks Amir)

Bassel Al-`Araj: he was murdered today by Israeli terrorists (with accomplices in the PA)

This is his testimony to the supporters of Palestinian cause worldwide.

A well-known Saudi regime writer argues: Trump victim of McCarthyist campaign

This writer in Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (a mouthpiece of Saudi King and his sons) argues that Trump is merely a victim of US liberal McCarthyism.

This video should teach American and Arab reporters how to interview a Saudi prince

I have never seen an American reporter interview a Saudi prince in this manner.  

I used to think that the late Hanna Batatu is the most through when it comes to documentation, until I read this guy

Kenneth Roth‏Verified account @KenRoth  24m24 minutes ago

What's the evidence the Washington Post found for Trump's claim that Obama tapped his phones? None. Four Pinocchios. http://bit.ly/2lPmP9a 

John Waterbury's book reviews in Foreign Affairs

I was stunned really to read the negative book review of Shadow Wars by Christopher Davidson in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.  I was surprised because Waterbury frustratingly never writes negative reviews like that, even for the most lousy books (politically and academically).  Yet, he reserved a particularly nasty review of Shadow Wars.  He even claimed that there is no original materials in the books when there is plenty:  (Clinton's emails on p.284, 290,297, 298, 299, 301, 305, 308. E.g DIA docs released to courts: 305, 420, 421, etc.) In fact, Waterbury was alerted to this by the publisher and the on-line version of the review was amended. But why did this book bother Waterbury so much? Or does the question reside in his book Egypt of Nasser and Sadat: the Political Economy of Two regimes?

Governor of New York

"Citing ‘Wave of Anti-Semitism,’ Pays Impromptu Visit to Israel".  This is like saying: Citing Islamophobia, I paid an impromptu visit to Saudi Arabia or Iran. How insane is this?