The language deficiencies of Western correspondents are staggering. They render the Syrian town of Da'il as "Dael".
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Anne Barnard's love affair with plausible car bombs in Syria
" Some explosions are near plausible military targets, like the army headquarters adjacent to the engineering campus. But with weapons that are indiscriminate, many of the victims — like those killed in government airstrikes and shelling in rebel-held neighborhoods — have been noncombatants."
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Israel's favorite Arab potentate
Le Monde on French role in Africa
GCC set to regulate abuse of maids
"Revenge of the migrants' employer?"
Another flight of executions might stand in the way of this age-old migration across the Arabian sea. In 2011 Saudi Arabia publicly beheaded eight Bangladeshis for their alleged involvement in an armed robbery in which an Egyptian security guard was killed. (Never mind that in 2012, a speedy tribunal in Dhaka sentenced five Bangladeshis to death by hanging for the killing of a Saudi diplomat in Dhaka. Even by the principle of an-eye-for-an-eye, Bangladesh’s executions would be judged to fall short.) If, as is widely expected, the entire leadership of the Jamaat is found guilty in the ongoing war-crimes trials in Dhaka, they could be sent to the gallows this year." (thanks Mohammad)
revolutionary organization in Egypt
The Bin Laden Brigade
A plot to intimidate the pro-Palestinian activists at UCU failed
Ahmad Mu`adh Al-Khatib
death by crucifixion
Israel in Lebanon
a maid in Saudi Arabia
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Saudi human rights activists are circulating this picture of a maid squeezed at the back of a car. (thanks Hani)
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The irony about the King of Jordan
they are both dirty in Syria
“I know that I am going to be killed either by the regime or by the Jabhat. There is no difference, they are both dirty.” (thanks Mirvat)
Israel prepares for a South Syria Army
PS Notice that the Times reduced the number of years of Israeli occupation.
So what is David Petraeus up to these days?
Anthony Lewis and the first amdendment
Saudi-Qatari conflict and Syria
How Western media covered the injurity of Riyad Al-As`ad
When the Syrian armed rebels shell indiscriminately
236 days on hunger strike, yet no crocodile tears from western 'human rights' groupies
The [Conservative/Liberal] racism that fuels the 'war on terror'
women in magazines
General Allen: U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan
within hours, the Turkish alliance with Israel has been reactivated
the other side of the Syrian "revolution"
The enemies are Sunni rebel "terrorists," he says, who target Jamal and his neighbors because they are Shiite Muslims.
"Imagine, these people used to be our neighbors," said the 40-year-old farmer, perplexed by the transformation. "Now they want to kidnap and kill us."
Tensions gripping the villages along the border here between northeastern Lebanon and Syria illustrate the increasingly sectarian nature of the 2-year-old Syrian conflict and the risks it poses for the entire region.
The predominant narrative of the Syrian war is that of a tyrannical government largely run by members of a Shiite sect, the Alawites, brutalizing a people yearning for freedom.
However, in the largely Shiite towns and villages of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, people who have fled Syria tell a different story. They speak of an "ethnic cleansing" campaign carried out by rebels intent on creating an Islamic state run by Syria's Sunni majority.
In the face of rebel attacks, Shiites in dozens of villages just inside Syria have fled here to a part of Lebanon dominated by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the villagers and Hezbollah representatives say. Those who have been displaced credit Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., with providing shelter and security." (thanks Khelil)
Tunisian preacher wants a girl stoned for topless photo
“She is like someone suffering from a serious and contagious illness and she must be secluded and treated,” he added."
"Syria: A photoshopped "revolution""
Muslim Sink in Tennessee: oh, no
justice in the US
King of Jordan
Anthony Lewis: an old fashioned liberal
Ethical Criteria of the Syrian exile opposition
So what do Shi`ite Twelvers think of `Alawites: agaisnt the misconeptions of the Arabic and Western media
Monday, March 25, 2013
When the King of Jordan Lets his hair down
a brilliant classified idea
Iraq: before and after
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Many Arabs have been circulating this picture on the anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
US will educate Syrians
" American promises to help shape a stable democracy in Syria have been met with skepticism by some Iraqi officials. In an interview late in 2012, Sheikh Humam Hamoudi, the chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, recalled a visit in September from A. Elizabeth Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs. “What she said was that they would educate the Syrians on how to be a democracy,” Mr. Hamoudi said, adding with a hint of sarcasm, “just like what happened in Iraq.”"
Lebanese politicians on Facebook
Mossad agent hanged self in suicide-proof cell after passing intel to Hezbollah
This included the names of Lebanese nationals Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, who were arrested in May 2009 on charges of spying for Israel and later sentenced to several years of hard labour.
The report said Israeli security authorities had told Zygier after his arrest that they wanted to make an example of him and demanded a prison sentence of at least 10 years."
US-Israel badly surprised by the cost of "war against Hezbollah"
USAFRICOM & USAID in Africa
four new Israeli warships
Given how much NATO loves Muslims, why is there no intervention in Burma?
The new propaganda is liberal
General McChrystal on suicide bombing
Israel bombs a position for Syrian rebels
Why Israel and Turkey should be friends
From Zainab Al-Khawaja in jail
irony about Syria
Of course, Karl Marx was right
The heightened conflict has dominated American politics. The partisan battle over how to fix the nation’s budget deficit has been, to a great degree, a class struggle. Whenever President Barack Obama talks of raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to close the budget gap, conservatives scream he is launching a “class war” against the affluent. Yet the Republicans are engaged in some class struggle of their own. The GOP’s plan for fiscal health effectively hoists the burden of adjustment onto the middle and poorer economic classes through cuts to social services. Obama based a big part of his re-election campaign on characterizing the Republicans as insensitive to the working classes. GOP nominee Mitt Romney, the President charged, had only a “one-point plan” for the U.S. economy — “to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.”
Amid the rhetoric, though, there are signs that this new American classism has shifted the debate over the nation’s economic policy. Trickle-down economics, which insists that the success of the 1% will benefit the 99%, has come under heavy scrutiny. David Madland, a director at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank, believes that the 2012 presidential campaign has brought about a renewed focus on rebuilding the middle class, and a search for a different economic agenda to achieve that goal. “The whole way of thinking about the economy is being turned on its head,” he says. “I sense a fundamental shift taking place.” (thanks Jinan)
The `Alawite conference in Cairo
The resignation of Mu`adh Al-Khatib: how the New York Times is unreliable in reporting on Syria
Jordanian royal lies
Lies about Syria in the Western media
Saudi-Zionist alliance: Bernard Lewis interviewed in the mouthpiece of Prince Salman
*Through your long confrontations with the Middle East, professionally and culturally, who is your favorite contemporary writer in the Arab world?
-Rifa`ah Al-Tahtawi*
* من خلال مواجهاتك الطويلة مع الشرق الأوسط مهنيا وثقافيا، من هو كاتبك المعاصر المفضل في العالم العربي؟
- رفاعة الطهطاوي
PS * Tahtawi died in 1873.
Media of Saudi princes
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This is the media of Saudi princes: The mouthpiece of Prince Salman reports on its front page that the Saudi King went on a car ride. Kid you not.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
rumors about Syria
Hitto rejected as an American: ha ha ha
Killing an Iraq story in the Washington Post
Here's my rejected piece. I see that the Post is now defending killing the article because it didn't offer sufficient "broader analytical points or insights." I'll let you consider if that's true and why they might have rejected it. "
war crimes by both sides in Syria
Blueprint of the new Syria
The offensive was spearheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra (which the U.S considers a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda), the Salafist Ahrar al-Sham brigade and Jabhat al-Wahda al-Tahrir al-Islamiya (a grouping of some two dozen battalions)–all non-FSA groups who prefer the term Mujahedin (holy warriors) to revolutionaries, the label many FSA use to describe themselves.
A special unit of Ahrar al-Sham called Liwa Omana al Raqqa (or the Brigade of Security for Raqqa) was tasked with securing government installations after they fell, protecting public and private property and maintaining services to the city. The unit was specifically formed with this aim, according to its commander, Abu Tayf, a history graduate who used to work in real estate. “We had sleeper cells inside the city for a long time. When we entered the city, they rose and implemented the plan,” he says. “The project was devised a long time ago.”
There are also spray-painted messages around the city warning against theft. “A thief’s hand will be cut. Signed Jabhat al-Nusra” is plastered in many places, including outside the Real Estate Bank, which like the other banks in the city, is guarded by Nusra.
Several commanders of various Islamist units said they prevented some FSA units from entering the city, either during or after the battle, because they feared they might be more interested in looting than fighting. In at least one instance, an FSA unit was turned away by force, after an exchange of gunfire. “We did not forbid the free army, we forbade people who we suspected wanted to cause trouble in the city,” says Dr. Samer, “emir” of Jabhat al-Wahda al-Tahrir al-Islamiya who formerly went by the nom de guerre Abu Hakam. “I’m talking about certain individuals or battalions, but we don’t forbid people from Jihad.”
The `Alawite opposition meeting in Cairo
Lebanese genius: Ilyas Rahbani
Funding the Jordanian royal family
Chemical attack in Khan Al-`Asal
Jihadi mercenaries
King PlayStation of Jordan
Burma pogroms
Please don't think that Obama fooled Arabs by a silly speech in Cairo five years ago
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How cute: now Israel also wants to liberate Syria
Turkey violated its own promises about Gaza blockade
Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists
US sacrifices for the Iraqi people
untapped wealth in Afghanistan
Suspension rates in Canada's largest city
On the bomb that killed Shaykh Al-Buti in Syria
Buddhist monks versus Muslim clerics
Zionists lobby for the King of Jordan
Veiled woman can love and can kiss, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20190522001305im_/http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/576763_172573339562892_1511587930_n.jpg)
From Tunisia. (thanks Ahmad)
Glenn on covering Syria
There are all sorts of vital issues I don't write about much or even at all, and that's usually true for several reasons. In general, those include: time constraints, a lack of expertise, ambivalence, the fact that others are saying everything I would want to, a belief I couldn't make an impact, the opportunity costs of focusing on that topic versus other topics, etc.
As for Syria, US involvement there has been relatively minimal. But it's a very complicated case and passions and emotions are very high, so it's the kind of issue I avoid unless and until I'm able to give it the attention it deserves and feel a reason to do so. I've often cited As'ad AbuKhalil as a great source on all matters Middle East and - without adopting all or even most of what he has said - he covers Syria almost every day and does it very well."
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Comic relief: about Morocco's potentate
Flash: Freedom House is worried about repression in the UAE only becausae it tarnishes the image of the pro-US polygamous rulers
"Anti-Muslim pogroms spread in Burma"
"Over the last few decades, the authorities in Burma have trained the population to hate Muslims. Many leaders use derogatory terms for Muslims in public, like "kalar". Recently, things have become even worse with the conflict in Rakhine state and the increasing influence of a powerful monk in Mandalay, Wirathu [Editor’s Note: Wirathu is known for his anti-Islam views. According to several Muslim Burmese activists, he recently visited Meikhtila, where he reportedly criticised the fact that many businesses were owned by Muslims]. We don’t have anyone to turn to for help. Not even Aung San Suu Kyi [Burma’s opposition leader, who after years of house arrest, now has a seat in parliament] will help us, because in Burma, speaking out for Muslims means losing votes." (thanks Carlos)
Israeli ads
The Zionist who championed the fanatics who now bar him for being Jewish
Why House of Saud fears the internet
Turkish-Israeli relations
"Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan underlined the importance of strong cooperation and friendship between the Turkish and Jewish nations in a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, his office said. "Erdogan told (Israeli premier) Benjamin Netanyahu that he valued centuries-long strong friendship and cooperation between the Turkish and Jewish nations," the statement from Erdogan's office said."
Global mercenaries in Syria
militant Buddhist monks: not all Buddhist monks are peaceful and quiet
"Burmese monks have often been involved in sectarian violence, with anti-Muslim protests in Mandalay led by the saffron-robed religious leaders last year. Meikhtila is no different."
So what did Australian Defense Forces confirm really?
Intellectual intimidation
Hizbullah's role in Syria
Anne Barnard: reporting on Lebanon from Lebanon, this time
Al-Qaradawi rules that clerics who support the regime should be killed
This same Al-Qaradawi is now shedding crocodile tears about Al-Buti. (thanks Ahmad)
The Palestnian who stood up to Obama in Jerusalem
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This picture celebrating the Palestinian student, Rabi` `Id, who interrupted Obama's Zionist rhetoric in Jerusalem to speak about Palestinian rights is widely circulating on Facebook by Arabs and supporters of Palestine. Rabi` requested my friendship on Facebook yesterday, and I of course accepted and we communicated some yesterday. I asked him a few questions about the experience and here are some of his answers (I cite with his permissions): He said that he was not arrested but that they (Israeli security) at first handcuffed him (after they forced him out of the hall) and told him that he was under arrest. But after some journalists went out and started taking pictures, the chief of security said that he does not want to cause noise especially before the cameras and ordered that he be forced out and released. He is a political science student at Haifa University and works as a journalist in Arabs 48 website and in the Fasl Al-Maqal publication. He is active in the Hizb At-Tajammu` Al-Watani ad-Dimuqrati. He said that he listened to the first 15 to 20 minutes of the speech before speaking out. I asked him what provoked him most. He said: Obama's adoption to the Israeli historical narrative and his justification to the Zionist hegemony in Palestine: that he talks about democracy and justice and then supports a racist Jewish state. How does he feel as a black man about the segregated Jews-only buses, he wondered. He told me that he views Obama as a white colonialist man.He said that he has been receiving an avalanche of letters of support and congratulations, in the hundreds, and from all around Arab world and the world at large, and from Palestinians around the world. He said a small number of Israelis sent support, and some are not Zionist and some are leftist and some he did not know. HE said that one person clapped for him in the hall and yelled: Free Palestine. I encouraged him to respond to media interview requests.