Battles between Syrian rebels

Notice that Western media don't bother to cover the blood letting in East Ghuta between various Syrian rebels.  

Philippine leader in DC

It is rather odd: DC establishment and media are up in arms about the visit by the elected president of Philippine but never raise a stink about visit by Gulf autocrats.

The Palestinian composer, Mohammed Fairouz, puts Israeli poetry to music but...

it did not help him. He still was detained at JFK yesterday.

The foreign policy establishment in DC

Having bombed, now Trump is being declared "normal".

Director of Human Rights Watch officially denies that Israel (in 1948 Palestine borders) is guilty of racism

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

4/29/17, 11:38 PM

Apartheid debate isn't about:
1. Israel at home but occupied territories
2. Peace "process" but endless occupation bit.ly/2pguO3j

Saudi news

A man sentenced to death for atheism. If this was in Iran, it would have been on the front pages f Arab and Western newspapers.

Bret Sphenes and the New York Times

This is not satirical: "With Bret Stephens Hire, New York Times Fills Long-Empty Pro-Israel Void on Columnist Roster". (thanks Basim)

David Ignatius: or what the press releases of Jordanian and gulf intelligence services should read like

"Ignatius columns on Saudi Arabia break down roughly into two groups: straight reporting mixed with spin and concern trolling, and outright press releases documenting the dictatorship’s spectacular reforms. First the latter:"

Huffington Post is Arabic is quickly distinguishing itself as one of the worst news website in Arabic--despite the stiff competition

Here, it claims that Hasan Nasrallah has a private wealth of $250 million.  It cites "some news websites".  You click on the link, and it takes you to the Gulf-funded Mossadist Mujahdi Khalq organization.  The site then cites "Saudi newspapers" (which as you know adheres to the highest standards of journalism), which in turn cites "US intelligence reports".  But not even Israeli and US media make that claim. Welcome to the Huffington Post Arabic.  

The role of DC think tanks in the production of propaganda: the lousy book by Geneive Abdo on "The New Sectarianisms"

The role of think tanks in DC has changed. Their ties have also changed.  Brookings for example hosted academic work in the past and was relatively politically courageous in defying in the mid-1070s the DC consensus about Palestinian rights (mildly of course, or slightly).  William B Quandt produced work on Palestinian nationalism while Jerry Hough produced work on the new generation of Soviet leadership.  Hicham Sharabi produced a book early in the 1970s on Palestinian "guerrillas", based on research Sharabi conducted in Jordan.  The role of think tanks have changed: they have become all tied to Gulf regime funding and subsumed under the umbrella of the Zionist lobby. The 1991 US war on Iraq was the watershed: since then, the new alliance between Gulf regimes and Israel started to form, and Israeli opposition to US arm sales to Gulf regimes ended.  They both collaborated to work against Palestinian interests.  Furthermore, Gulf funding was no more controversial.  This was the time when the Clinton administration under Martin Indyk officially killed off the entire contingent of Arabists at the US government.  Robert Kaplan's book on them was more like an obituary.  For that reason, and out of desperation for funding. think tanks because largely vehicles for Gulf and Israeli propaganda.  Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said (after announcing more than $ 10 million in donations to Brookings) that the think tank will help paint a "rosy picture" of Qatar.  there are similar arrangements with other think tank. Look at the Hariri Center at Atlantic Council: they tweet around the clock on various aspects of Middle East politics (but always from the AIPAC standards) and yet not a word about Palestinian affairs. Not a word.  So Geneieve Abdo (who was a resident fellow at the Hariri Center) published a book a few months ago about The New Sectarianisms: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi`a-Sunni Divide.  I honestly can't think about a worse book in recent years.  It is rather shocking.  This was published by (the New York branch) of Oxford University Press, although the contents of the book are to academic production what tomatoes are to Tabbuleh.  She tries hard in the book to sound original and the results are rather comical. She tells the reader early on that the most consuming political and intellectual issue among Arabs/Muslim is the question: Who is a true believer and who is a non-believer (p. 1). Only someone who has not read one Arabic article or book by Arabs would make this claim.  This is someone who clearly knows what she knows about the region from what she reads in Western media and in MEMRI video clips.  Her book is so brimming with Gulf propaganda that she maintains that the Middle East region was dominated by "Western-style nationalism" (p. 4) until the Iranian revolution erupted.  Yes, Geneive: Saudi and Gulf regimes were in fact Western-style democracies until the Iranian revolution spoiled the fun.  She expresses surprise that Western analysis did not pay attention to religion in the region until recently (I am not kidding, she said that, p. 6).  She also justifies Gulf oppression because she said that they fear democracy simply because they fear She`ite domination (p. 8).  But wait: she then talks about intellectual and academic currents. Here, she says that Western analysis suffers from disregard of the role of religion in Arab politics.  With the plethora of books on Islam since the 1970s, and the heavy dosages of theologcentrism in Western analysis and scholarship, Geneieve wants you to pay more attention to Islam and religious analysis of the region (p. 9).  But Genieve even ventures on issues relating to Islamic history: watch her here: "The history of the Sunni-Shi`a rift is, essentially, a history of the present" (p. 10).  I mean if this does not impress you as philosophical and historiographical, nothing will impress you.  And then she takes case studies of sectarianism: there isn't a world that could not have the stamp of approval from the nearest Saudi embassy and consulate. Look at her section on Lebanon: she mentions Nabil Halabi (a Salafite advocate and the head of what he calls the Lebanon Coordination Committee of the Syrian Revolution, as "a human rights lawyer" (p. 91).  This is like identifying Ayman Dhawahiri as "a medical expert".   Here entire Lebanon section is a compilation of the talking points of the Hariri press office.  On p. 94, she manages to interview a man she identifies as "a founder" of the Lebanese Armed Forces, i.e., the Lebanese Army.  So the Lebanese Army was founded (by the French as Legions of the East) back in 1916.  So let us assume that this founder of the army was 20 at the time, so he is now over a hundred years of age.  If only she named that man for us.  She then interviews the spokesperson of the Alawite Arab Democratic Party, `Ali Fudda. She attributes terrible sectarian anti-Sunni sentiments and expressions to him, which surprised me.  He never speaks in sectarian terms despite his position in a predominantly a Alawite party in Lebanon.  So I asked him when I first read the book months ago about that, and he categorically denied and he even posted on Facebook an official detail in which he said that what Genieve attributed to him was false and untrue.  She even maintains that "many Shia" associates "all Sunnis with Wahhabism". She provides no evidence or example here (p. 97), but that is the nature of her documentation. Either flimsy or no evidence at all.  She identifies that Hariri family chief of security, Wissam Hasan (the man who sponsored Salafi and terrorist groups in Lebanon and Syria and who more than anyone else in Lebanon is responsible for spilling blood in Tripoli and in Syria since 2011) as "a respected Sunni security chief" (p. 98).  She talks about one day of May 7, 2008 as "the Karbala' of Sunnis" (here she cites an MP in the Hariri parliamentary bloc, p 101).  When she talks about Alawites in Lebanon, she cites a man who appears on her pages as a historian when he is really another MP in the Hariri parliamentary bloc (Ahmad Fatfat, p. 108).  She talks about Salafites who are sympathetic to Al-Qa`idah in Lebanon in rather glowing terms (and she does not even mention that they are funded by Gulf regimes).  The worst part of her book is her reference to Sheikh Ahmad Al-Asir (a man who sits in Lebanese jail and has been sympathetic to Al-Qa`idah and ISIS): she claims that Shi`ites manufactured and distributed a toy which produces anti-Sunni invective.  Asir (before his arrest) made that claim in a speech, and all Lebanese media at the time investigated the claim and brought those US-manfactured the toys and showed that they produce English words and have nothing to do with Arabic. Even Asir related conceded that he was "in error" but Genieve repeated the outrageous claim (p. 112).  But like most Western correspondents she assures readers that Hizbullah losing support among She`ites: her source her (and elsewhere) is a pro-Hariri journalist (p. 114).  In the section on Bahrain, she clearly and ceagorially identifies with the repression and autocracy of the ruling dynasty.  She tells you that they crush opposition because they are afraid of Iranian intervention (p. 118).  She adds that Iranian propaganda is rather scary to the democratic regimes of the Gulf.  But she found evidence of Iranian intervention in Bahrain: she found out that a Bahraini cleric had studied in Iran. Imagine. The horrors.   And when there is no evidence, Genieve fabricates evidence: she basically claims that Iranian and Hizbullah media conceded that they were behind the Bahrain opposition protests.  Imagine.  This is what is being produced by Gulf-funded think tanks in DC.  

Only in America?

White Americans love to hear an non-white immigrant tell them "only in America". No, in every country there are exceptional "successes".  

Daily Telegraph and anti-Semitism

Notice how Zionist publications try to associate pro-Palestinian activism with repugnant anti-Semitic expressions.   Once again: anti-Semites don't belong to pro-Palestinian activism and should be categorically excluded and shunned.

It is fair to say

That the degree of American sympathy with the Syrian people is directly proportional to the degree of one's support for Israeli aggression and occupation. Coincidence?

You know how sincere US sympathy with Syrians is when the most hateful enemy of the Palestinian people feigns sympathy with Syrians

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen)

4/28/17, 11:30 AM

Watch my Q&A frm #Syria hrng: #Assad responsible 4 #ISIS - it can't be defeated while this butcher remains in power: youtu.be/Skf2-C3_ha0

Look how the same statement is marketed differently between two media

From Basim: Saudi: "Syria’s Assad tells interviewer: ‘Yes, you are now sitting with the devil’

Russian:  "Yes, from a Western perspective, you are now sitting with the devil. This is how they market it in the west," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told teleSUR's Rolando Segura in an exclusive interview from Damascus ..."

The Defense Minister of Australia is identified as Defense Minister of France in Ar-Ra'y newspaper of Jordan

Notice the front-pages of Jordanian newspapers.

Director of Saudi lobby introduces Muhammad bin Salman to WINEP

He says that Muhammad bin Salman is LBJ, JFK, Thatcher, Churchill, Netanyahu, Reagan, Jackson, Trump and Peron all combined in one: "This is because Saudis are looking to the 31-year old Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, to ensure equality. Despite the many challenges, he is attempting to undertake LBJ-like social reforms and Thatcher-like economic reforms in a country that is infamously resistant to change".

Palestinians face Israeli-imposed water hardships

"High up on Israel’s list of fabricated and otherwise shamelessly embellished achievements is that of having allegedly “made the desert bloom” promptly after setting up shop on usurped Palestinian land in 1948. Never mind that Palestine wasn’t exactly a desert - or that “blooming” techniques involved mass slaughter as well as plenty of ecological devastation." (thanks Amir)

Is it me? Leonardo DiCaprio and the bear

In the scene between the grizzly bear and Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie The Revenent, which I tried several times to watch but was never able to finish, I must confess that I found myself rooting for the bear against DiCaprio.

Implicating Syrian refugees in a crime in Germany?

From Jörg in Berlin: "There is again a bizarre scandal about Germany's "deep state": "Franco A. is suspected of being a staunch right-wing extremist, full of hate for foreigners and prone to violence. Furthermore, at the end of 2015, he established a secret identity as a Syrian refugee. One of the theories investigators are pursuing is that Franco A. had hoped to implicate refugees in the act of violence he was planning."

Is this guy running for office? He so reminds me of the Clintons

"I have a Christian wife; I have twin sons, one of whom is convinced he's Jewish, and one of whom, after he read the Ramayana, was like, "That's it, I'm Hindu." I have a two-year-old boy that we just assume is a reincarnation of the Buddha in some way. So every Sunday, we get together and share one particular religious story, whether it's of the Buddha or Ganesha or from the Gospel, and then we pick some value to learn from it, and then we, as a family, put that value into practice in our home and in our lives." This so strikes me as charlatanism.  

Bernie Sanders among the 100 senators who signed the letter of Israeli occupation and aggression

This should be remembered by all those who tried to beautify the lousy record of Bernie Sanders--the one who suffers from the same disease of political cowardice which afflicts all members of US Congress especially when it comes to Israel. Notice that the signatories don't shy away form threatening and blackmailing the UN on behalf of Israel.  All UN agencies are judged purely on the basis of their services to Israel. (thanks Eyal)

Obama's speech for Wall Street

Don't be unfair to the man. I heard that he will be reading the Communist Manifesto to the audience.

Macron: what a candidate

Watch this segment of a speech by Macron. What a lousy candidate. How uninspiring.  Hillary Clinton (who has no charisma whatsoever) has more charisma than this man. This guy has less oratorical skills than Cicero of the Syrian opposition.  But as a friend always says: never underestimate the propensity of the French people to prefer the most boring candidate.

Qatari regime misogyny

This blogger on Aljazeera website has an article titled "I won't marry a working woman".  He says that among the many reasons is that he can't "enjoy her cooking and her summaries of what she read in his absence" if she is working outside the home.  

Hearings in US Congress about Syria

Hearings in the US Congress about Syria are rather hilarious. They bring in different viewpoints in this way: one speaks for Israel, another speaks for Qatari regime and another speaks for Saudi regime. This passes as "different perspectives" in the lousy US Congress.

Bret Stephens has started to lie and fabricate as soon as he assumed his job at the New York Times

He said: "The Arab world expelled about 900,000 Jews after 1948."  This is a flat out lie.  He basically counted all Arab Jews who left voluntarily (mostly) and those (a minority) who were expelled from Arab countries.  He uses the typical Zionist tactics in dealing with the issue of Arab Jews.  Take the Jews of Syria: when Syrian Jews lived in Syria, Zionist propagandists/hoodlums screamed and yelled around the world and said that Syrian Jews are held against their will and that they should be allowed to leave Syria, and that their living in Syria is a humanitarian situation, although they lived in Syria liked other Syrians and their repression was not different than the repression of Hafidh Al-Asad regime against all Syrians.  So the US government pressured the Asad government in the 1980s, and he then allowed Syrian Jews to leave. As soon as the Syrian Jews were allowed to leave, Zionist propagandists/hoodlums started to scream and yell: look, Syrian Jews have been expelled from Syria. Those should be conflated with the Palestinians who were expelled by Israeli occupation state from their homeland.  Also, the numbers used by the fabricator Stephens are out of whack: those who were actually expelled (or more accurately encouraged to leave or terrorized into leaving by Mossad covert operations including bombing campaigns) were Iraqi Jews (around 100,000 as other left on their own) and some 30,000 from Egypt after Lavon Affair and the tripartite invasion of Egypt.  But even in those two cases were terrible expulsion (or encouragement of flight or terrorization by Mossad terrorists) of Jews occurred: Israeli government participated directly or through covert operations to have them expelled.  In Iraq, there was Operation Babylon which scared and encouraged and terrorized Iraqi Jews to lead to their explosion, and in Egypt Lavon Affair clearly jeopardized the plight of Egyptian Jews.  Israel in general jeopardized the status of all Arab Jews by insisting that it represented all Jews of the world including Arab Jews, and it directly pressured Western government to pressure Arab governments to "release" Arab Jews.  Of course, Arab Jews should be allowed to return (unless they joined the Israeli terrorist state) and they are entitled to their property or to compensation for confiscated property (unless they were part of the Israeli terrorist state and its military-intelligence apparatus).  To support the rights of Arab Jews (who belong to Arab countries) is unrelated to one's support of the full return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland of Palestine within the borders of 1948 Palestine.

PS Of course, the cases were Iraqi Jews were stripped of their citizenship it happened with direct pressures and secret deals between the Zionist British government and its clients in the Iraqi government. But all cases of stripping of citizenship or of confiscation of property were right in the presence of Mossad agents who were encouraging such measures for the demographic benefit of the Israeli occupation state. See the book by Abbas Shiblaq on Iraqi Jews and this article by Lebanese historian Mahmoud Haddad.

PPS Don't forget the most anti-Semitic voice in Iraq during those times was none other than Nuri As-Sa`id, the tool of British colonialism.  

Palestinian prisoners

Israeli occupation forces arrested since 1967 and until April of 2016 around 1 million Palestinian (men, women and children).  There has been more than 95000 arrests since 2000.  There are now some 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 68 female prisoners and more than 400 children, and 750 administrative detention, and 500 serving life sentences.  Israel arrested 6830 Palestinians since 2015, including 2179 children and 225 female prisoners.  And since the beginning of the is year, Israel has arrested around 2000 Palestinians.  

Bret Stephens defending his racism

Just there are anti-Semites who say: but there are Jews who said that: "It just struck me as a very tendentious reading of the column. I am by not any means indicting a whole race. The word mind itself — do you know that you don’t have a mind? It is a figure of speech, right? So I was using it as a figure of speech — which, by the way, I can find Arab authors talking about “the pathologies of the Arab mind.”"  He then goes on to decide to rank anti-Semitic countries. What ranking is that? how is that decided?

A media tour offended Nicholas Blanford: Israeli massacres and war crimes never offended him

"The unprecedented spectacle appeared to be a deliberate and calculated breach of a UN Security Council resolution that bans non-state forces from bearing arms in southern Lebanon, and it illustrated the unmatched sway Hezbollah wields, and the impunity it enjoys throughout the country."   Maybe he should talk to people of South Lebanon once in a while.  Instead of taking marching orders from the Hariri family in Beirut and Riyadh.  (thanks Basim)

The Left and Free Speech

I am opposed to leftist participation in muzzling freedom of speech on college campuses. Remember that the game can turn around.  Leftists and progressives are far more likely to suffer from repression than rightist.  I have always been of the view that rightist and racist speakers should be allowed to speak--and should be ignored by progressives.  Of couse, they can be protested but not muzzled. 

Gulf regime media sleaze

Gulf regime media sleaze regarding their coverage of Ivanka Trump is most disgusting.  

William B Quandt on my review of James Stoker's Spheres of Influence: on US role in arming the Phalanges

On US role in arming the right-wing militias of Lebanon: "As`ad AbuKhalil treats Stocker’s book as a “welcome addition” to the literature on Lebanon, but believes the author is too cautious in some of his conclusions. The main point that he insists on is that the U.S. role was more intentionally destabilizing in Lebanon than Stocker is willing to acknowledge. In his view, the lack of archival evidence for a U.S. role in arming some of the right-wing Christian militias does not mean that such arms transfers did not happen. AbuKhalil is correct that such transfers, if they took place, would have been handled by the CIA, and those archives have not been made available. My sense is that a modest supply of arms did go to some of the Christian militias in the early 1970s, although the dominant view in the State Department was to be very wary of getting close to the more militant of the militia leaders. It will probably remain an unanswerable question for some time as to the magnitude and significance of U.S. aid to former Lebanese President Camille Chamoun and the Phalangists. By the time I was in a position to know the details of such transactions in the Carter Administration, such aid had come to an end."

Obama

He said today: "“I am the first to acknowledge that I did not set the world on fire".  Oh, no, you did. But not in the way you think.

BDS is winning, admits top Israeli saboteur

"The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is winning, a top anti-BDS strategist has conceded." "An entire government department – the Ministry of Strategic Affairs led by Gilad Erdan – is now devoted to combating BDS." (thanks Amir)

AUB honors Sadiq Al-Azm

This is classic. AUB fired Sadiq Al-Azm when he was a popular professor and wrote two books on Kant.  The only reason he was fired was political: he spoke against the American administration and Charles Malik (as he told me the story) was agitating against him and the Americans running the school hated him.  And now after his death, and only after Al-Azm became an anti-leftist, AUB decides to honor him. Such hypocrisy.  

The new Saudi ambassador to US, Khalid bin Salman

I like the account of his studies in Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (the mouthpiece of Salman and his sons).  It said that he was attending Georgetown for an MA in "security studies" (and degrees in security studies and terrorism studies are--in my opinion--as academically sound as degrees in fried potato studies) and then "he suspended his studies...due to different work tasks".  I kid you not. Let me translate the Saudi Wahhabi language: he failed his classes.

Feud

The (short) TV series, “Feud: Bette and Joan,” is TV at its best. It was quite entertaining. Of course, the entire premise is quite sexist: feuds between women are always highlighted and exaggerated and they make for good TV, but feuds between men--which are far more destructive--are ignored. Jessica Lange's performance was splendid.

Macron

The bad part is that the rightist Macron will now be portrayed as left.  

When Ken Roth attempts humor: it is painful really

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

4/21/17, 6:22 PM Trump gave O'Reilly a pass but social media-empowered public felt differently. Guess whom advertisers listened to?

No, who? I give up. Please tell me. Wow. This is so witty and original.  No one beat you to it.  I have to say that since you assumed the throne in 1993 at HRW, your humor has not improved one bit.

What is happening in Saudi Arabia? Another look at the changes yesterday

From an informed Saudi student:  It reads (my translation) from Arabic: "I have quick notes..through which I wish to transmit our views as citizens (subjects) of Salman and his sons:
These comprehensive decisions cover more than one sector and section of the state after the insinuation by Muhammad bin Salman on more than one occasion to the importance of the views of people and citizens as to what is happening regarding decisions including Vision 2030.  And those statements appeared in the official and non official news and appeared more than once in his public meetings on occasions.  it is clear that he is not like other princes in his policies and wants (or wants it to appear as if) he takes public preferences and satisfaction into consideration.
The decisions included restoring the salary increases for civil and military employees which were canceled months ago.  And this text of the royal decree at the behest of Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.  This does not conceal his desperate efforts to attain popularity and reputation among people in the wake of widespread currents of dissatisfaction and opposition in private gatherings against the new austerity policies. And this makes Muhammad bin Salman a hero who listened to the people and responded to their needs.
Changes included the military forces and the commander of the ground troops was replaced by one of the sons of Faysal. And the spokesperson of the Aggression on Yemen, Ahmad Al-`Asiri, was made deputy intelligence chief.  And there was a weird phrase cited in the order to release double salaries for actual soldiers in the front lines in resisting the Yemeni attacks on the South (although we all know that those who do the actual work in the ground troops against the army and popular committees are the mercenaries from South Yemen).
As one looks closely at the new princes appointed one notices two things: 1) they are form the young generation to which Muhammad belongs. 2) he appointed his brothers and nephews in important posts like his brother as ambassador in DC (the same pilot who bombed Syria), and another brother as an official in the sector of energy and his nephew is now deputy (or superintendent) of the Eastern Province (and it is an important province which deals with "deals" and internal home affairs inside the royal family as important as defense and oil for its economic importance).  These appointments are important and significant.
The school year was shorted so that the final exams are given before Ramadan, and thus we now have the longest summer vacation in the history of the kingdom.  And this pleases me as a student of course.
Of course, we are looking at these analysis and decisions in terms of the potential conflict between son of Salman and son of Nayif over seizure of the crown."

UAE media promote a new Islam: the Mike Tyson Islam

Read here

Please know this about Saudi politics

This is the rule: when a prince is replaced by his brother or cousin it is always according to criteria of merit and specialization. 

Kenneth Roth thinks that ISIS is unfairly portrayed in the Western press: he wants better press for ISIS

Kenneth Roth‏Verified account @KenRoth

Syrian paradox: Assad's mass slaughter of civilians grips West less than a few theatrically staged ISIS attacks.

Oh, this is so sweet: the president of AUB dares to comment on foreign policy

Dr. Fadlo Khuri (@DrFadloKhuri)

4/22/17, 8:41 PM

Bracing piece on the West's failure to address the Syrian disaster by @ABarnardNYT Opinion | Syria Changed the World nyti.ms/2pJOkUa

Do you think that he would dare post an article in which it calls for the US to invade and attack Israel? If only he sheds tears for Palestinians assuming you believe his tears about Syrian victims.

When a Western correspondent in Beirut feigns humanitarian concern for Arab victims: the case of Anne Barnard

Look at this distasteful article by Ms. Barnard.  Notice that she invoked the clearly racist terminology of "Muslims-versus-Muslims".  This racist terminology was borrowed from Apartheid South Africa when the regime talked about "blacks-killing-blacks", as if Muslims are killing other Muslims for being Muslims or as if when "Muslims-are-killing-Muslims" the Western governments are not involved. There is no case of civil war or conflict in the Middle East in which Western governments are not directly involved in arming or abetting or inciting or funding one side against another, and in perpetuating the conflict. Name one conflict in the last fifty years in which US/Israel were not directly involved.  Just one.  But it is rather classic that Ms. Barnard basically is lamenting that the US did not invade and occupy Syria.  Because she can't be complaining about US not intervening in Syria; US intervened in Syria and bombed and funded and armed rebel groups but it was not to the tune that Ms. Barnard and other Western correspondents in Beirut wanted.  Notice that their only concern about Trump's bombing (as much as they cheered it) was that it was not more massive bombing. Those are the correspondents who are not happy unless the US invades and attacks massively.  Of course, the motives of Ms. Barnard and others can't be humanitarian: can you imagine her daring to call for US to intervene militarily to attack Saudi Arabia? Ms. Barnard covered the last Israeli war on Gaza, and she never wrote an article in which she lamented the lack of Western intervention against Israel.  Also, notice that her article did not mention Palestinians once. Not once.   Western correspondents are only allow to cry and emote over cases when the one side is approved by Western governments.  So the tears have to be authorized before hand.  Also, look at this delicious quotation by a White Man: "“We’ve thrown values by the wayside, but also not been able to act in our own interests, because we let things go too long,” said Joost Hiltermann, a Dutch citizen who is the Middle East director for the International Crisis Group." What are "our values" here exactly? Are those the values of conquest and war and destruction and occupation?  What values? And I like how Westerners act as if US reluctance to invade and attack Syria is the only glaring exception to US promotion of democracy and human rights throughout. They make it sound as if the US is promoting democracy and human rights in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman and that Syria is the only exception to US democracy rule and that US needs to invade and occupy Syria in order for the Middle Eat regional order of democracy to complete.  I mean, if you are someone form another planet, the scenario seems benevolent enough.  Finally, has there been a regime change in which the US has been able to replace a lousy regime by a regime more lousy than the past one?  Ever? The US in fact achieves miracles by arranging for a worse regime to always replace a brutal and lousy regime. It never fails.  But Ms. Barnard was saying that Western governments upheld humanitarian values since WWII and for that reason she wants US to invade and occupy Syria to uphold those values.

For the umpteenth time, Yasin Hajj Saleh is not a leftist and he denounces leftism and leftists regularly IN ARABIC

I don't know why recently Western media (including The Intercept) have been referring to Yassin Has Saleh as "a leftist"--as in this reference in the Times: " said the Syrian dissident Yassin al-Haj Saleh, a secular leftist".  The man never ever talks about himself being a leftist and he denounces leftists and leftism regularly in Arabic.  In Arabic he always identifies as a liberal (in the Arab sense of being an Arab liberal, which usually means identification with the goals of Gulf regimes in the region).  Also, Mr. Saleh writes in Al-Hayat (the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid Bin Sultan).  The paper does not allow leftists to publish, only "Arab liberals", where they can have full freedoms to denounce leftists and leftism.  I think that Western media want to accord him more legitimacy and they know that the word "liberal" is tainted in the Arab context and thus prefer to label him as a leftist.  He is a former leftist, just as many of the writers in the Arab oil and gas media are former leftists.  Big difference.

What happened in Saudi Arabia to trigger the series of Royal decrees and appointments

It is not easy for Saudis to communicate with the outside world but some still do using What'sup and Signal for their high levels of encryption--I am told.  Young Saudis have become experts in such matters of communication and follow the tweets of Snowden very closely.  Anyway, this is the what I gathered from my Saudi contacts:  there was a lot of government anxiety and nervousness in the three days prior to the announcements yesterday.  Saudi police was everywhere in Riyadh and helicopters were hovering over the city in anticipation of protests or demonstrations.  They were afraid that public anger over the dire economic situation would spill over into the streets, and that women would launch protests.  The MBC News program by Dawud Shiryan a week ago indicated the levels of public dissatisfaction.  There have been many layoffs in companies and even Saudi newspapers (mouthpieces of Princes really) like Al-Hayat, suffered financial problems which is why the offices are being moved from London to Beirut.  The firing of the Minister of Information was due to two matters: 1) young Saudis posted a video of him on Youtube in which they said he seemed drunk; 2) it was punishment because a Jordanian critic of Saudi regime was hosted on a Saudi regime channel (Al-Ikhbariyyah).  The Minister of who will be investigated was fingered by young Saudis on Twitter. In Saudi regime, criticisms of non-royal ministers have become allowed (but not in foreign affairs).

Saudi regime media are really excited about Trump

It says on the wheel: ("The Nuclear Agreement with Iran").

The fragility of American democracy

This recent US election has exposed more than ever the fragility of American democracy.  This is a good thing but I doubt it will diminish the political self-righteousness of US foreign policy.

Trump Doctrine Crystallizes

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Trump Doctrine Crystallizes: Bombs and Missiles First"

There is a civil war in Saudi media

There is a half-declared civil war in Saudi regime media: on the one side are those who are (falsely) called "liberal", and they are mostly right-wing Lebanese and some Saudis who wish to decrease the role of Islam in politics in favor of tighter rule by Saudi royals and who favor a close US-Saudi alliance, and on the other side are the more powerful (and popular) Islamist pro-Turkey (and pro-Ikhwan) camp which voices strong criticisms of Saudi regime media in London.  Look at this hashtag campaign by Islamist Saudis against Al-Hayat (mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan) due to criticisms against Erdogan in the paper.   The campaign is titled "Al-Hayat Launches a crusading campaign against Turkey".  This is not a subtle reference to Christians who work in regime paper (I notice that Gulf regime media have added "Christians" as of late to its list of hated groups, which focuses most on Shi`ites and Alawites.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/الحياة_تشن_حملة_صليبية_على_تركيا?src=hash

Mélenchon

I can never expect to see a US presidential candidate (on the left, center or right) making "reflect" or "think" as a campaign slogan. It would never fly in this country.  

Who is more qualified to praise Trump's militarism and aggression than an Obama official?

"“That missile strike certainly had to get Putin’s attention, and it did show we were determined to enforce international norms on chemical weapons,” said Antony J. Blinken, who was deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration. “Equally important was the effort to tie Russia to the use of chemical weapons.”"

2 out of 6 winners of the Man Booker International Prize are Israelis

You honestly believe that of all the world literature, two out of six winners are Israelis based on merit and talent alone? You believe that? Of course, you can factor in the fact that Israeli "literature" (and even gasps and yawns) is instantly translated into English (far more than literature from Latin America and Africa and Asia) but this love and bias for Israel is way out of whack.  You are telling me that 2 out of 6 deserve to be Israelis?

lack of preparedness on foreign policy for US presidents

"The only modern president who rivaled Donald Trump in his lack of preparation for global leadership was Harry Truman. "  You mean not counting Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford?

Why I read the New York Times

People ask me why I read the New York Times religiously.  I say: for the same reasons that people in Saudi Arabia read Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat or people in Syria read Tishrin. You need to know what the regime is plotting against you.

Their culture versus "our culture": Economist magazine

"But he is by nature a bully in a culture that admires displays of strength." As opposed to the West, where there is no admiration for displays of strength? In the week when Trump witnessed his popularity rise purely for bombing other countries?

Silly attack on communism in the New Yorker

"he found peasant women sitting there, with “bundles and baskets and big handkerchiefs around their heads,” seated on “benches rubbed dull with waiting.” Long after the Revolution and all its world-changing promises had settled into a grim stasis, waiting was still a Russian specialty." I don't get it. So people don't wait in capitalistic countries?

Is this article by David Ignatius a paid Saudi advertisement?

"But the larger goal, he said, is “spreading happiness” in what has sometimes been a somber country." Or this: "Unlike so many Saudi princes, he wasn’t educated in the West, which may have preserved the raw combative energy that is part of his appeal for young Saudis.".   If someone were to write such propaganda about North Korea, he would have been accused of treason.

David Ignatius is such a propagandist for Arab royals that he cites unpublished Arab regime polls

"Change seems increasingly desired in this young, restless country. A recent Saudi poll found that 85 percent of the public, if forced to choose, would support the government rather than religious authorities on policy matters, said Abdullah al-Hokail, the head of the government’s public opinion center." Are you sure, David, it is not 99%?

AJ + and sexual harassment

I see that AJ + released a short video about Bill O'Reilly and Fox News. It would be nice if AJ + (which has deteriorated over time and has become a crude propaganda tool of the Qatari regime) would release a report about sexual harassment and discrimination in Aljazeera offices.  

North versus South Korea

The military budget of South Korea is four times the size of the military budget of North Korea--not to count US troops in South Korea.

South Korean propaganda apparatus

There is no apparatus which is more responsible for the manufacturing of lies and rumors than the South Korean intelligence apparatus.

Someone should run a regression on this: Virtual media and protests in Arab cities

I think a reverse correlation can be established: if you chart the rise of the social media and the occurrences of demonstrations in Arab cities in the last decade you will find a reverse correlation.  

Mélenchon: what Bernie Sanders is...not

When Israeli intelligence propaganda becomes a trusted objective source on Syrian and Iranian matters

Aron Lund‏ @aronlund  17h17 hours ago

Replying to @aronlund

"Israeli military intelligence estimates that Assad has 'between one and three tons' of chemical weapons."

New Yorker on Dubai

Of course, the article is shallow and impressionable and silly. What you expect in Western media about the Arab world.  But Sultan Qassimi protested that the article did not talk about museums in Dubai. You can have Vegas with museums though.  In fact, Vegas has many museums: don't forget the Wayne Newton Museum.  But you can't deny the deep impact that Vegas left on the minds of oil sheikhs--aesthetically speaking.  

The prime minister of Lebanon yesterday got rid of the two extra training wheels. The country could not be prouder

Syrian rebels are always victims--even when they bomb and kill

Western and Arab (gulf and oil) propaganda have managed to always make Syrian rebels as victims and to conflate them with Syrian civilians. So the rebels are victims even when rebels car bombed civilians in buses in Rashidin, Western media and Arab gas and oil media managed to make the rebels as victims by promoting crazy scenarios of the bombing and by peddling one picture of a Syrian "activist-journalist"--whatever that means in journalism schools--crying as to show the rebels and supporters as victims even when they (the rebels) are the perpetrators of bombing. So they can't lose sympathetic media coverage no matter what they do or bomb.

Ken Roth at Human Rights Watch: preparing for a successor

I am told that while Ken Roth has been at the helm of Human Rights Watch since 1993, securing what he calls "pro-Israel" funding, he realized that he can't mock rulers who don't allow for succession to their rule while he remains in control of an ostensible human rights organization.  I have it on good authority that he has prepared his son, Muhammad bin Ken, to take over the organization after him.  Long live peaceful transition to new blood.  

"Funny: Western media thinks The National is no longer state-owned"

From Basim: "International Media Investments, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Manchester City, bought The National in November from state-owned Abu Dhabi Media."

Kim in Tyre

In the Tyre area of Lebanon, someone posted this poster of Kim. The title says: "Vanquisher of the Enemies: Abu `Ali Kim".

Of all the human rights problems out there, Kenneth Roth is campaigning for the right-wing candidate in the French election

He has not been bothered by the various support for Israel and Saudi Arabia by French presidents but is bothered by the one socialist candidate who has not even reached power?

Do you know that Kenneth Roth has been leading HRW since 1993? He has ruled longer than Putin and Erdogan

What kind of credibility does Human Rights Watch have when it has been ruled since 1993 iron-fistedly by one man, and one man alone.  All other Western human rights organizations allow for transfer of power in the leadership and the infusion of female leadership except this organization: what kind of message does this send when one man has ruled that organizations for several decades now?

And US propagandists like you are busy promoting Macron

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

4/18/17, 5:46 AM Russia's propagandists are busy promoting Marine Le Pen and Francois Fillon--anyone but Emmanuel Macron. bit.ly/2pLfaKY pic.twitter.com/gN6tgvkuN9

Buffonish King of Jordan posts (on his official site) his training for the liberation of Palestine

Human Rights Watch (the propaganda arm of the US-Israeli wars) does not label US war crimes as war crimes

Here is how Human Rights Watch operates: when it comes to foes of the US (like Russia or Syrian regime), they categorize their actions as war crimes based on youtube and tweets of Syrian rebels.  But when it comes to war crimes by US or Israel, they urge caution and then they say that an investigation is needed.  After they conduct their own investigation, they rule thus: the US (or Saudi regime or Israel), MAY HAVE committed war crimes.  Look at this lousy language of a US war crime: "Serious violations of the laws of war can amount to war crimes. These include deliberately targeting civilians or civilian objects (including mosques), knowingly launching indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks resulting in death or injury to civilians, or being criminally reckless in so doing. The US authorities’ failure to understand the most fundamental aspects of the target and pattern of life around the target raises the question whether officers were criminally reckless in authorizing the attack."

National Defense College in the UAE: Sheikh Mo as a strategic visionary

"NON-TRADITIONAL STRATEGISTS (NDC 4008), 2 CREDITS

The purpose of this course is to introduce participants to past and present non-traditional strategic leaders, largely from the Islamic world and Asia, to understand how these leaders applied or misapplied the elements of strategy to achieve their objectives. We look at range of leaders, starting with possibly the most famous strategist in the business world, and of Arab decent, Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs. We also look at the strategic approaches of H.H. Vice-President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Saladin, Khalid Ibn Waleed, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Gandhi, Mao and South Korean leader Lee Kuan Yew. This elective course gives the participants an opportunity to apply models of strategy used throughout the academic year to non-traditional strategists in areas of military, economic and political aims. It also provides participants an opportunity to compare and contrast the strategic approaches of different leaders."  Notice that Lee Kuan Yew, the former Primer minister of Singapore became South Korean.  (thanks Noureddine)

I don't like Erdogan one bit but...

I remember that when Turkey was under the rule of Military generals and its alliance with Israel was closer, I never heard any complaints from Western governments and media about lack of democracy in Turkey.  

When Hamid Karzai calls you a traitor, what do you do?

I like how in US media they refer protests against US killing of Afghan civilians as troublemaking and corruption.

To Western correspondents in Beirut

Please spare us your fake sentimentalism and emotionalism.  I didn't like your callous attitude toward Palestinian suffering over the decades but I like your fake tears over Syrian suffering even less.  

Ben Hubbard had no clue who killed the civilians in the buses yesterday

"Dozens of people were killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday when a car bomb struck a group of buses carrying residents and fighters who had been evacuated from two besieged towns the day before."  How were they killed? And who killed them? A hurricane?  He then seems to provide justification for the siege and murder of the civilians of the two villages: "two Shiite villages in Idlib Province that are loyal to President Bashar al-Assad".  Imagine if he were to refer to residents in Rif Idlib as "an area loyal to Al-Qa`idah".  

The bombing of the two buses yesterday

Notice that Western media talk about it as if it was some natural disaster where culprits are mysterious.

This is how the human rights poseur commented on the Syrian rebel bombing of busses of refugees

Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth)

4/15/17, 1:59 PM

Even before bombing, evacuation from four Syrian towns was bittersweet. Lifting the sieges would've been better. bit.ly/2oC0jof

Centcome means business

"“We mean business,” the CENTCOM spokesman said. “President Trump said prior that once he gets in he’s going to kick the S-H-I-T out of the enemy. That was his promise and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”"

The bombing yesterday in Syria

Western supporters of Syrian rebels claim that they can't condemn bombing by rebels because there aren't claims of responsibility for their bombings.  But the lack of claim of responsibility does not stop them from condemning bombing by the other side.  Find another excuse, please.

John McCain and Muslims

It is really established: John McCain hates all Muslims in the world except: 1) Muslim terrorists and 2) Gulf royals.  

Charles Murray's "provocative" talk

This is the case in the mainstream media: they refer to racism and sexism which they approve of as "controversial "or "provocative".  Look at this unscientific survey: they don't even tell us how many women and minorities were included in the survey.  And why would the surveyed professors be a barometer of sensitivity? 

Another "curveball"?

I have one question: why didn't he speak earlier?  "Bashar al-Assad still has 'hundreds of tons' of chemicals stockpiled, former Syrian weapons research chief claims".

Western journalists and correspondents won't be tweeting tears on this: 1 million Palestinians detained by Israel since 1948

"Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to a joint statement released Saturday by the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). “The question of Palestinian prisoners is central for the Palestinian cause,” the statement affirmed, two days before Palestinians mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on April 17. The groups said that Israeli forces detained hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the first and second intifadas, which they referred to as one of the “most difficult historical stages” of Palestine. During the First Intifada, which lasted from Dec. 1987 until the Madrid Conference in 1991 aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, scores of Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces as a result of the largely nonviolent uprising which relied on various campaigns of civil disobedience. In 2000, the Second Intifada broke out — known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada — after then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in an act of provocation, causing heavy clashes to break out between Palestinians and Israeli forces, which developed into a full-scale uprising. According to the joint statement, by the time the uprising ended in 2005, Israeli authorities detained some 100,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 minors and 1,500 women, and 70 Palestinian lawmakers and former ministers."

Passion play in Lebanon:

Western reporters won't cover with revulsion the way they cover `Ashura'.

It does not make a different who is president in the US--at least when it comes to war and conquest

"All U.S. presidents assume the right to bomb, attack, invade and interfere everywhere, including places like the South China Sea. Obama called it “projecting U.S. power.” Hillary would’ve bombed Syria long before Trump did." (thanks Amir)

Bret Stephens

I don't understand the commotion.  I mean, is he any worse than Friedman or Kristoff really?

This, of course, is not a big story in Western media: religious repression in the "holy land"

"Right-wing Israeli groups tour Al-Aqsa on Passover amid crackdown on Palestinians"

Vice goes to Syria (from afar)

Even the Intercept? how the reliance on Syrian rebel propaganda is explained

This article says: "the outside world has been forced to rely to an unusual degree on information gleaned from the Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts of opposition activists for any evidence of what was happening in Syria. But that was largely the result of an intentional strategy by Assad’s government, which made it almost impossible for foreign correspondents to report freely from inside the country, and then contested the reliability of social media evidence from opposition activists it sought to tarnish as Islamic extremists."  OK.  1) there is no mention to the kidnapping, harassment and murder of reporters by Syrian rebels.  2) there is no mention that "the outside world" (he means Western media and Gulf regime media) relies on social media ON PURPOSE and not by accident because the accounts of Syrian rebels is political convenient. 3) reporters can't report freely in government areas OR IN REBEL areas. 4) please desist from this silly notion of "opposition activists" as journalist. This is like talking about "regime activists" as journalists.  Where do I go now for skeptical and deconstructive journalism on Syria?

You know it is a scam when Israeli war criminals feign sympathy for Syrians

"“Our obligation as Jews and Israelis is to offer aid to the victims of the gas attack. There are many children and the elderly…. We must not stand idly by.”"

a banned book in Jordan about Black September (the massacres and not the organization)

The Jordanian regime banned the book by Ziad Muna on the political and military experiences of Palestinian struggler, Nazih Abu Nidal. I recommend that book for its first-hand account of Black September.

If this is how liberals in the US speak, imagine the conservatives (not that different really)

Celebration of war and bombing on CNN

Here.

Ken Roth of HRW

At least Roth is not feigning sympathy for Syrian civilians today.

A Centcom spokesperson gives scientific explanation for why the MOAB was used

"“When you have a very large beehive, a little flyswatter may not work, so finally you take out the big stuff. We just found a huge beehive and we have to use something more than the fly swatter.”"

Vomiting bigotry: when a Florida state official lectures on Islam

Read this.

When Syrian victims are not mourned in the West

It has become predictable.  Syrian civilian victims are not even mentioned when they are killed at the hands of Syrian rebels.  When Syrian rebels celebrate the killing of civilians Western media refuse to even blame Syrian rebels and create a situation to pretend the circumstances of their death are "murky".   I knew when I saw the news that Western media would not be making a case and that Zionist journalists and pundits in DC (and the Arabs in the employ of Gulf regimes) won't even notice the civilian victims.  In Syria, one side mourns some civilians and another side mourns other civilians.  Both sides commit war crimes and both sides lie and for that I refuse the notion that one side (the Syrian rebels according to Western and Gulf regime media) possess moral superiority.  The Syrian rebel propaganda scam is nothing like I have seen since the Western media promotion of the terrorist Afghan Mujhadin when Dan Rather snuck in Afghan garb and promoted the terrorist mujahadin.  What happened in the so-called exchange of population (presented by Gulf regime funded DC think tanks as "demographic changes") is very clear: when Syrian rebels were cornered in one spot they offered to release the civilian hostages in Fu`a and Kafrayyah in exchange for their own release. They wanted to push for the flight.  The civilian people in Fu`a and Kafrayyah have been besieged, shelled, starved and humiliated purely for their sectarian affliction and their plight never made it in the Western media. I don't think that their story will make it into the account of the war which will be told by a Syrian toddler who was just commissioned to write an academic study of the war by Simon and Schuster.  I only wish that haters of Arabs in the West (i.e. Zionist reporters, columnists, and pundits) would not pretend that they care for the Syrian people when their propaganda interests dictate that pretension.

PS Why not mourn civilians in Syria regardless if they are killed by the regime or by the rebels or by their allies?

WWI Committee on Public Information on PBS

I recommend that you watch the PBS series on WWI.  Of course, it contains the usual amount of US patriotic propaganda but the footage is incredible.  It also has an useful section on the notorious Committee on Public Information.  CPI proceeded the propaganda of Goebbels and it is really the first major government propaganda apparatus in modern (or pre-modern) times. It basically taught world governments how to sell a war and how to stifle dissent to war.  The series does the typical American historical schtick: that Woodrow Wilson was motivated by "ideas" and that the thrust of US role in the war was in the realm of ideas...as if ideas are divorced from material interests.  By the way, the best treatment of the experiences of Arab-Americans who fought in the WWI is still Mikha'il Nu`yaymah in his Sab`un.  His experience (although he advanced fast as a polyglot with a law degree) embittered him toward the US and he wrote his most scathing condemnation of US war celebration.  

a jail sentence for a poet in Saudi Arabia: this would have been all over if it is not about your ally

A jail sentence for a Saudi poet because his poem was considered critical of security forces.

A trial and accusations of treason because of a Facebook comment: Saudi kingdom of horrors

Read about this trial: if this was not in Saudi Arabia, it would have been famous around the world.

Finally, there is a solution for insomniacs at Harvard University

All those insomniacs at Harvard University have finally found a solution. You can now attend the classes of Samantha Power.

Simon and Schuster signed this Syrian baby to write an account of Russian role in Syria and the virtues of the moderate Jihadis (favored by US media)

Arab Public opinion and the Israel-American threat

Source. (thanks Chathan)

Zionism is always racism: The president of the Zionist Organization of America says that difference races have different skills

"Mort Klein, president of a major Jewish pro-Israel group, berated a Forward reporter who called to ask about a joke Klein had made about black people being good dancers in a national magazine story.“What are you, stupid? What are you, stupid?” Klein said. “Each different peoples have different talents that everyone knows. And everyone knows that blacks are, on average, are better dancers than other people.” Klein told the Forward that it is “simply a fact” that “blacks are much better dancers.” He added that “most people know” that Asians “are smarter on average than other people in America.” Klein is the president of the Zionist Organization Of America, a leading right-wing pro-Israel group. He was the first Jewish leader to formally meet with the Trump administration after the inauguration. In a story published Sunday, Politico Magazine quoted Klein complimenting the dancing of members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement by comparing them to African Americans. “They were dancing up a storm, these guys,” Klein said of a group of Chabad rabbis he saw dancing at a wedding, according to Politico. “I thought they were black. Instead they’re just black-hat,” he said, employing a term commonly used to describe observant Jews."

Over 80% of editorials supported U.S. bombing of Syria

"Of the top 100 US newspapers, 47 ran editorials on President Donald Trump’s Syria airstrikes last week: 39 in favor, seven ambiguous and only one opposed to the military attack. In other words, 83 percent of editorials on the Syria attack supported Trump’s bombing, 15 percent took an ambivalent position and 2 percent said the attack shouldn’t have happened." (thanks Amir)

All Kidding aside

Is there anyone who feels for the pain of the Syrian people more than Charles Lister...and the Director of AIPAC?

It is all over for Syria's despot: his uncle predicted his downfall (back in 2012)

"The uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad believes it is unlikely that he can hold onto power much longer. "The problems are now general to all parts of Syria - there are no places that have escaped violence - so I don't think he can stay in power," Mr Assad told the BBC [April 3, 2012]." (thanks Basim)

War is popular in the US

Democrats: 37% support Trump's Syria strikes 38% supported Obama doing it GOP: 86% supported Trump doing it 22% supported Obama doing

This is hilarious: Saudi regime journalists citing Wikileaks

As you remember, the Saudi regime denied the veracity of Wikileaks when it came to Gulf regimes but now they suddenly rely on Wikileaks if it is about Iran.  

The US unclassified Intelligence report on Syrian chemical weapons attacks

Of all the propaganda unclassified US intelligence reports, this is by far the worst one.  It even concludes with a political speech/manifesto the likes of which I have not seen before in such reports.  Some interesting nuggets:
Page 1: "according to observers at the scene".  "we have confidence in our assessment".  "a significant body of credible open source reporting" (read Saudi and Qatari regime media).  "a significant body of pro-opposition social media reports".  p. 2: "opposition could not have fabricated all the videos and other reporting".  

What is the difference between this picture and picture you circulate and mock about North Korean leader?

The entourage is the same (with different clothing) and both leaders got their post because they are the song of their father.  But this picture won't be circulated and won't be mocked because this guy is pro-US.

Nakbah and Holocaust terminology

Anyone who uses the word Holocaust for anything other than the Holocaust is insulting the victims of the Holocaust. Similarly, anyone using the word Nakbah for anything other than Nakbah is insulting the victims of Nakbah.  

Six years after NATO war destabilized Libya

"West African migrants are being bought and sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya, survivors have told a UN agency helping them return home." "But since the overthrow of autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi, the vast, sparsely populated country has slid into violent chaos and migrants with little cash and usually no papers are particularly vulnerable."

Destabilizing as a US policy

"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Monday that one of the Trump administration’s top goals in the Middle East was to “destabilize” Syria." (thanks Amir)

Saudi Embassy in DC admits publicly: Yes, we monitor the social media accounts of all Saudi students in the US

Can you imagine if this announcement was made by an embassy of a country not aligned with the US? In an interview with Al-Hayat (the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan, and the paper which is chosen by the international committee for investigative journalism (whatever the official name is, which is the one which won a prize for the Panama Papers (a price for receiving a US government leak, I guess), as the representative of the Arab investigative journalism--I kid you not): the Cultural attache of the Saudi Embassy in DC admits that they monitor the social media accounts of Saudi students "to prevent extremist ideas" from influencing them. I kid you not.

PS Notice that the cultural attach is in charge of spying on students in Saudi embassy. Censorship and spying is considered a cultural act in the Saudi Wahhabi state.

Muqtada As-Sadr: the new Western hero

The cleric who used to be dismissed as "firebrand" is now the new hero of Western media. Notice that stories about his recent statement talks about him calling for Asad to step down, but they don't mention that he denounced US wars and intervention and calls for the and to US and Russian intervention in Syria.  

A Summary of US foreign policy goals from the director of the official Saudi lobby, Saprac

Salman Al-Ansari‏Verified account @Salansar1

رادار السياسة الأمريكية الجديدة لعام 2017 و 2018: تحرير #سوريا و #العراق من النفوذ الإيراني؛ بالسياسة أولا ثم بالعمل الإستخباراتي ثم بالقوة.

He should post this in English, it says : Radar of the new US policies for 2017 and 2018:

Liberation of Syria and Iraq from Iranian influence;

"politically at first and then through covert operations and then by force.