What former Qatari prime minister, Hamas bin Jasim, revealed about US role in supporting Al-Qa`idah in Syria

This is making the rounds among Arabs.  It really is an incredible confession by a Gulf leader about the cynical manipulation of the Syrian people by Gulf regimes and the US.  He made it very clear that no arms were transferred without the approval of the US, and he admitted that some made its way to Al-Qa`idah.  Typically, no mention of that in Western media because all Western correspondents in Beirut rely for their reportage on locals who all support Gulf regimes and Syrian rebels.

What the US has done to Raqqa: not in any Western media sources

Raqqa has become one of the worst chapters in the bloody Syrian wars. The US has been particularly reckless and cruel in its bombing of the city: more people died there than in either East and West Aleppo or in Mosul.  Syrian opposition academic, Rim Turkkemani, writes a study about US devastation of Raqqa.

Jordanian dictatorship summoned this famous cartoonist (Imad Hajjaj) because of this cartoon

In this cartoon, it shows Jesus saying that he dissociates himself from the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem who is selling church land to the Israeli occupation state.  Naturally, not in the Western press.

18% of Americans say they’ve seen a ghost

34% of Americans reject evolution entirely, say humans existed in present form since beginning of time

Critical thinking in Saudi education

This is a reasonable article but regarding this: "the education system which not only promotes religious intolerance but actively discourages critical thinking.".  What is this assumption about critical thinking? Writers in the West assume that there is much critical thinking in Western education.  I beg to differ and I have been teaching the US since 1988.  In fact, I find conformism is too prevalent in the US.  Also, why do Western (not to mention Arab) media take seriously any PR-generated announcement from Gulf potentates?  Why not wait until there is some implementation before we judge those PR-generated gimmicks.  Whatever happened to Yunbu` and Jubayl: there were the mega cities of the 1970s and 1980s.  Also, this is like when Western media were thrilled that the ruler of Dubai accounted that he created new cabinet positions for tolerance, happiness, and potatoes.  How did that change the political and social life in Dubai?

In 1988, Saudi regime used to use the proceeds of sports tournaments to fund Afghan Jihadi fanatics

This is the Russian leader-buffoon which the entire Western world fell in love with

He was too drunk to watch the Ballet, which upset the queen.

The assassination of war criminal Bashir Gemayyel

My weekly article for Al-Akhbar: "The Justice Court Adopts the Israeli Epoch?"

The fable of the Syrian director who claimed that he survived an assassination attempt in Istanbul: his only witness retracts

And now, the only witness of Syrian director who claimed that survived an assassination attempt in Istanbul retracts.  Above, a picture of the director with the Executive Director of CAIR, who also congratulated the director for surviving the assassination attempt (the picture was taken hours after the assassination claim, which the Turkish police said had no evidence in reality).

Anti-Zionism among American Jews

When I first came to US, some of the leading voices against Zionism were American Jewish intellectuals and personalities like Rabbi Elmer Berger and Alfred Lilienthal (although I don't like the rhetorical and polemical excesses of the latter).  Since then, it has become politically and even socially unacceptable for Americans to advocate against Zionism.

Israel: a disgrace unto the nations

The Barazani corrupt banana republic

American Zionists (through the mainstream media) are responsible for the humiliation of reactionary and opportunist tribal leader, Masoud Barazani.  When people like Thomas Friedman and others were heaping praise on his corrupt and oppressive mini-republic, Barazani thought just like his father that US and Israel would be sufficient to count on for the achievement of secession.  My favorite articles about the corrupt and repressive region is when people point to the establishment by neocons of the American University in Sulamaniyyah as an example of the enlightenment and democracy of the region.

Saudi Mujtahid is in trouble

It is clear that since the rise of Muhammad bin Salman the sources of information for Saudi Mujtahid has dried out.  The reason is that the number of decision maker and relevant royals has been substantially reduced to one prince and his entourage.  Leaks are no more possible as they used to be when various royals and branches of the royal family were present at the decision making table.

US military helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Does the US military ever admit that one of their helicopters went down in Iraq or Afghanistan due to enemy fire, ever?

Liz Sly wants war against Iran, and she wants it now

Liz Sly tells the US in no uncertain terms: sanctions and tough measures are not enough. Anything short of large-scale war won't do the job.  But she has the authority of an expert at the UAE-Saudi-funded Rafiq Hariri Institute at Atlantic Council to support her contention.  How could she be wrong?

This is just incredible: Washington Post protests that women in China are not politically represented

Is this for real? The Washington Post has a long article protesting that women are not politically represented in the upper echelons of government.  The US is in a position to lecture and hector in this area? Check out the ranking of the US in the annual ranking of countries in terms of political representation of women by Inter-parliamentary Union.  

One in four troops sees white nationalism in the ranks

“Nearly one in four troops polled say they have seen examples of white nationalism among their fellow service members, and troops rate it as a larger national security threat than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new Military Times poll.”

Edward Said on Noah Feldman

Some people go to their own pages on Wikipedia and add or change materials for their own benefit and glory.  The epitome of narcissism.  Noah Feldman (who is now mentioned as a Supreme Court candidate) whose knowledge and writings about the Arab world and Islam amount to no more than vapidness and stereotypical generalizations and who once questioned whether Arabs act "rationally", has a page on Wikipedia and it says that Edward Said only wrote against Feldman because he did not think that he was experienced enough.  This is what Edward Said had written about Feldman: "The late Edward Said, writing last year in Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly, observed that the U.S. media described Feldman as “an extraordinarily brilliant expert in Islamic law, [who] had studied Arabic since he was 15, and grew up as an Orthodox Jew. But he has never practiced law in the Arab world, never been to Iraq, and seems to have no real practical background in the problems of post-war Iraq. What an open-faced snub not only to Iraq itself, but also to the legions of Arab and Muslim legal minds who could have done a perfectly acceptable job in the service of Iraq’s future. . . . [T]he contempt is thick enough to cut with a knife.”"

US militia, Syrian Democratic Forces, shoot at demonstrators in Raqqa: where is Western coverage and outrage?

Syrian Democratic Forces shoot at unarmed demonstrators in Raqqa and there is no Western coverage or outrage. Where are the fake tears of Western correspondents in Beirut? Where are the fake Zionist lovers of the Syrian people?  Where are those Gulf tyrants who want to liberate Syrians and impose a democratic-secular order similar to the ones in the Gulf?  

Saudi robot

Saudi regime awarded citizenship to a robot.  Hours later, the regime arrested the robot for not pledging allegiance to Muhammad bin Salman.

An Egyptian doctor who saved Jews in Berlin during the Nazi years

There was an Egyptian doctor who saved Jews in Berlin during the Nazi years and Israel wanted to honor him but his family refused Israeli Zionist exploitation.

According to the Atlantic, the US really never had race problems: it was an invention of Soviet propaganda

"Neither is playing on racial tensions inside the United States a new Russian tactic. In fact, it predates even the Cold War. In 1932, for instance, Dmitri Moor, the Soviet Union’s most famous propaganda poster artist, created a poster that cried, “Freedom to the prisoners of Scottsboro!” It was a reference to the Scottsboro Boys, nine black teenagers who were falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama, and then repeatedly—wrongly—convicted by all-white Southern juries. The case became a symbol of the injustices of the Jim Crow South, and the young Soviet state milked it for all the propagandistic value it could." Was the KKK inspired by Lenin?

Ben Hubbard resorts to vulgar Orientalist cliches about Arabs

"with a culture that often discourages risk-taking and innovation". Why do I get the feeling that the only book that Hubbard has read on the Arab world is The Arab Mind by Raphael Patai.

This is from a statement by the House Foreign Relations committee chairperson about Hizbullah: he claims it killed "hundreds of thousands of lives"

"Hezbollah has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, including American lives."  How and where did Hizbullah kill hundreds of thousands of lives?  People forget that it really was not involved in the Lebanese civil war and its only internal battles were against its (then) Shi`ite rival, Amal Militia. 

The Economist on the 1967 war

"The stunning victory in the war of 1967, in which Israel launched a pre-emptive attack to prevent encirclement by advancing Arab armies".  1) there was nothing stunning about the Israeli victory: there was overwhelming advantage on the Israeli side, and the Arab militaries were all weaker and not benefiting form Worsen military assistance and largesse.  2) look how the phrasing justifies Israeli aggression.  The Economist was not like that, even ten years ago.

Western media as PR sheets for Saudi ruler

Basically, from the Guardian to the New York Times, Western media are serving as PR sheets for Muhammad bin Salman.  

When John McCain complains about lack of strategy in US foreign policy, he means one thing and one thing only

He means that there are not enough US wars and projection of forces in the world today: "American power and influence is diminishing there, largely because over the past eight years the United States has withdrawn from the region. The resulting vacuum is being filled by anti-American forces."

Do you know that supporting the blatantly racist Meir Kahane does not discredit famous writers in the US?

"For a time he flirted with Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League".

PS Bob Dylan also "flirted" with Meir Kahane.  Imagine if one is said to have "flirted" with fascism.

Israeli is an apartheid state

"But reality is reality, and a duck is a duck. As the late Yossi Sarid, longtime leader of Israel's Meretz party and former education minister once put it: "What acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck — it is apartheid." "

World's billionaires' wealth rises to $6T

"Billionaires increased their combined global wealth by almost a fifth last year to a record $6tn (£4.5tn) – more than twice the GDP of the UK. There are now 1,542 dollar billionaires across the world, after 145 multi-millionaires saw their wealth tick over into nine-zero fortunes last year, according to the UBS / PwC Billionaires report."

CIA-funded brainwashing experiments

"In the months that followed, Steel became the victim of CIA-funded brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron. She was kept in a chemically induced sleep for weeks and subjected to rounds of electroshocks, experimental drugs and tape-recorded messages played non-stop." (thanks Amir)

By the way, have you read that Russia overtook Saudi Arabia and Tunisia in being the largest exporter of ISIS fighters?

This story was carried by all Western media and by Arab oil and gas media: "Russia overtakes Saudi Arabia and Tunisia as largest exporter of ISIS fighters".   But how was that determined.  You know how that was determined? The Soufan group (run by former FBI expert, Ali Soufan) decided that Russia is now number one. How did the Soufan group decided that? It decided just like that to lower the number of Tunisian and Saudi fighters in the estimate which kicked Russia up in the list. I kid you not.  Does the Soufan group do consulting work for Gulf regimes, I wonder?

BDS supporters in the Gulf holds a conference in Kuwait to oppose normalization with Zionist entity

Alan Dershowitz and his peculiar definition of anti-Semitism

So basically any criticism of Dershowitz (who supports every Israeli war and massacre) is anti-Semitic, and some universities (like UC Berkeley chancellor) agree with that.

Is there any other disgrace that Israel does not do? Israel and paedophiles

"Israel becoming 'safe haven for paedophiles'"

How dare they? New York Times blames Fox News for agitation for the war on Iraq in 2003

The New York Times played a far bigger role in agitation for US invasion of Iraq in 2003 than Fox News. By far.  "Fox News machine, churning out the same brand of soft propaganda that helped lead to the Iraq war".

Gen. McMaster on the history of the Middle East

What is interesting about this interview is that he speaks of "the interests of the Iraqi people" or the "interests of the Lebanese people" or "the interests of the Syrian people".  It is up to an American general to tell those natives what is in their interest.  2) he needs to read about the history of the Lebanese civil war. He says: "So, we're commemorating yesterday the 34^th anniversary of the mass murder attacks that killed U.S. marines and also killed French paratroopers and it killed soldiers who were there to bring peace, to end a very destructive civil war. But Hezbollah wanted to, as they always try to do, is to perpetuate conflict to allow them to portray themselves as patrons and protectors of an aggrieved community, the Shia community in Lebanon. So that consigned that bombing, that mass murder, consigned the Lebanese people to seven more years of deadly civil war."  Well, 1) the US and French troops were not on a peace mission: they were on a war mission, they war propping up the war criminal regime of Amin Gemayel in a bloody civil war situation.  2) Hizbullah was very marginal (in fact, not involved) in the civil war which went on in the 1980s.  

Ben Hubbard writes yet another tribute to Muhammad bin Salman

He writes about "remarkable social change" undertaken by Muhammad bin Salman.  Notice he never interviews Saudi or non-Saudi critics of the regime.  He is impressed that there was a conference which attracted Western corporate types.  This is reform for them.

Ben Hubbard and his stereotype of covering the Middle East

Look at this statement by Ben Hubbard:  "I am a New York Times correspondent in the Middle East, where I write more about coups and car bombs than about corporate mergers." He is trying to be both funny and interesting and fails at both.  He thinks that he is covering the Middle East of the 1960s.  But when did you cover a coup? When was the last coup you covered? Did you cover any coup in your life, ever (did he even cover that one coup in many years by Sisi in Egypt)?  Secondly: is it nice how he think all the Middle East is basically car bombs and corporate mergers? People are ignorant of the Middle East in the West because you have those kind of correspondents--and this one prides himself that he studied Arabic (although I would like to examine him on his Arabic).

Zionists are the biggest threat to free speech in Western countries

"The secrecy surrounding the contracts raises the suspicion that the work involves not only writing legal opinions but also preparing lawsuits against BDS supporters, as Israel does not want to be revealed as supporting such actions, to avoid the perception that it is interfering in the internal affairs of other countries." "Just like it's difficult for Israel's to sell the occupation, the regime in South Africa had trouble selling Apartheid, '' he says." (thanks Amir)

Yes, there was a moderate Islam in Saudi Arabia: but Muhammad bin Salman got the dates wrong

Moderate Islam existed in Saudi Arabia but not before 1979, but before the rise of Wahhabism in the 18th century.  This is his dilemma: how can he promise to take Islam back to moderation when that requires the return to pre-Wahhabiyyah days.  All these initiatives are t he work of heftily paid PR consulting firms in Europe and US and will amount to nothing.

I read in the Intercept that Damascus is "Bashshar Al-Asad's capital": so it belongs to him and bombing it is justifiable?

“fired several barrages of rockets at targets in the heart of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad’s capital.”

The most informative article by Western correspondents in Beirut

The most informative article I read by any of the Western correspondents in Beirut was the recent article in the New York Times about dog droppings in Beirut. It changed how I look at Middle East studies.

Arab opinions poll conducted by the Washington Institute are worth a nickel

What is most important is that their poll findings for some mysterious reasons don't match the more reliable and comprehensive polls, like Zogby or even the Arab Opinion Index (which is the most comprehensive and reliable poll conducted in the Arab world by Doha Center).  This is what WINEP pollsters (often by local pollsters affiliated with Gulf regimes) do: they go to a place like Saudi Arabia and ask them: Don't you think that Iran is really harming Arab interests? Or: don't you think that the Saudi government is right in being alarmed over Iran? Or they go to Jordan and ask: don't you think that the government is right in cooperating with Israel over fighting terrorism?  I trust WINEP on Arab public opinion as much as I believe that the Shura Council in Saudi Arabia is a lively and representative legislative body.

Israeli ambassador's advise to Myanmar on how to whitewash war-crimes

"In an interview with The Myanmar Times earlier this month, Israeli ambassador Daniel Zonshine said Israel was determined not to let the mass expulsions of the Rohingya interfere with growing bilateral trade." "Zonshine offered Myanmar some advice – undoubtedly based on Israel’s own propaganda tactics – on how to whitewash its bloodsoaked image."

New York Times and US wars

"Left unmentioned in the editorial: from Afghanistan (both the 2001 invasion and Obama’s 2009 surge) to Iraq (the 2003  2003 invasion and Obama re-entering the country in August 2014 to fight ISIS) to Syria (both CIA-backed regime change and bombing ISIS) to Korea to our drone wars in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the New York Times has endorsed and often cheered every of these “forever wars.” " (thanks Amir)

A new Syrian political term: ta`fish

Ta`fish (or literally "furnituring") refers to when Syrian regime troops engage in looting of furniture from captured cities and towns.  

Stupid New York Times removed the headline: "The Harvey Weinstein of Islam"

"Women in the World changed the original heading to avoid a misreading"

Bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut

1) I read that Trump mentioned Hizbullah in this matter.  I asked once Hasan Nasrallah about that and he says that his party does not claim responsibility for the bombing and that the party had not formed by the time of the bombing and that it formed later.
2) Why does US media always refer to this bombing as a terrorist bombing when the target was a military target?  I remember once at a conference at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University,  I asked University of Chicago professor, Robert Pape about why he just referred to this bombing as a terrorist bombing when the target is a military one.  I will never forget his answer. He said: because everyone considers it a terrorist bombing.  I said: should we as academic not try harder?
3) Media never mentions what the US marines were doing in Lebanon and that their mission was the support of the right-wing death squads of the Phalanges who were installed in power by the Israelis.

Those who were outraged about the bombing of Aleppo: how come they are not outraged about leveling of Raqqa by US bombs?

Gulf regimes discovered this method: they hire former US officials to puke their propaganda for them

Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng)

10/21/17, 2:00 AM

VIDEO: #SaudiArabia made extraordinary strides combating terror financing @FranTownsend says. pic.twitter.com/UQapQcjmCS

I wish Western correspondents in Beirut care more--or as much--about Israeli mines all over South Lebanon than about dog poops

Western correspondents doing their important journalism work in Beirut.  Israeli officials are threatening Lebanon AND ITS civilians and infra structure with total destruction, but there was not ONE story about that in any US newspaper.

Susan Jacoby on Golda Meir: even her cheating on her husband was seen as virtuous

Look how this sentence is phrased: "Golda’s marriage fell apart in Israel in the 1920s, and although she had many lovers, she and her husband never divorced legally."  So if a man cheats on his wife but never divorces her legally it is praiseworthy? Anything for Zionism in the US.  

How dare right-wing anti-communist invoke the memory of the Kronstadt Rebellion?

Kronstadt Rebellion played a big role in my intellectual formation and in my disillusionment with Leninism and travel to anarchism.  Yet, I hate when right-wingers like Josef Joffe in the Times--of all places--mentions it as if the sailors were rightwing anti-communists like him: "Where the system was heading, shattering all “hopes and dreams for freedom under the revolution,” became cruelly obvious as early as 1921, when sailors revolted at the Kronstadt naval base."

sexual harassment and assault in the US military

"The Army is grappling with a resurgence of cases in which troops responsible for preventing sexual assault have been accused of rape and related crimes, undercutting the Pentagon’s claims that it is making progress against sexual violence in the ranks."

Susan Jacoby on Golda Meir, the notorious anti-feminist and war criminal

Notice that: 1) there are no references to her war criminal career and the bombing of unarmed refugees in camps in Lebanon and in Palestine.  2) notice how her anti-feminism is glossed over.  

Robert Mugabe as goodwill ambassador

Notice the outrage about his appointment in Western media.  If this was the Saudi king, there would not have bene such an outrage although the Saudi regime is far more oppressive than Zimbabwe.  

According to the New York times Africans complain about Chinese NOT US colonialism

"In Southeast Asia and Africa, there are complaints about a new era of Chinese colonialism."

Jimmy Carter: on the confederacy

Read this interview with Carter.  He remains a southern white conservative.  Read his views about confederate statues.  He also still misses Anwar Sadat.

Lenin in the New York Times: Josef Joffe on Lenin

The US has not been cured of the anti-communist disease.  It would be fair to say that the intellectual and media class has not been cured of the rabid anti-communist disease.  You can't read any fair assessment about communism in US papers, still to this very day.  Look at this ignorant and fanatic review of a book on Lenin by Josef Joffe.  There is no sense of reason in it at all.  Historian E.H.Carr pointed out something important about Lenin: that he was in fact a moderate, all the Western media and academic account to the contrary notwithstanding.  Notice that the people who were killed in Russia due to the European AND US military invasion and intervention of Russia are also blamed on Lenin and counted as victims of communism: this is like counting the victims of US war on Iraq as victims of Ba`thism.  But you can't read anything reasonable about communism and its leaders in US media.  I could not believe the bad quality of this article.  

Israeli Lt-Col & Intel officer who selectively translates and mistranslates Arabic for propaganda wars

"Halevi’s writings and statements suggest that he sees himself as a soldier in the information wars — particularly when it comes to allegations against Israel, which he challenges by using “continuous, intensive and thorough” research, according to a profile on the Economic Club of Canada’s website. This work includes counting “Gaza fatalities in his free time,” according to a 2009 NPR article that described his “macabre hobby.” During the first Gaza war, NPR wrote, Halevi suspected Palestinians of exaggerating their civilian fatalities and spent six months scrutinizing 1,400 deaths listed by a human rights group — checking each name against a terrorist database he personally compiled and “whatever he finds on the internet.” Halevi has also written extensively about Islam and Muslim Canadians on CIJ News, where his Arabic translations have drawn praise from the “anti-Islamist” blog Point de Bascule." (thanks Amir)

Kim Ghattas: yet again expresses nostalgia for colonial times

What she does not tell you is that:
1) It was the communists who gave the Afghans the freedom to choose and that US and Western conspiracies in and around Afghanistan who imposed the horrific Islamist order.
2) that most of the places were freedom to choose existed it existed despite what the US supported: the US was supporting an Islamist order in the Cold War.  Secular movements were all opposed to US and Western wars and policies.
3) The freedom to choose ended or diminished because the US was aligned with the fanatical regimes of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the Cold War, that is why.

Odes to Colonialism is now her shtick.  

This is your favorite "democracy" in the Middle East

""Israel Arrests Palestinian Because Facebook Translated 'Good Morning' to 'Attack Them'"

How ME New York Times correspondents lack even basic elementary knowledge of Islam or Arabic: Thomas Erdbrink

Look at this: "But this is not just any company. Khatam-al Anbiya, whose name means “seal of the prophet,”".  This is basic, damn it.  It is "seal"--as in the last in a chain--of all prophets (plural, not singular).  He could not even know that.  How do they hire those people? On what criteria? Just Zionism?

US media worship of the US military

The Washington Post and other media have no problem in referring to lies by Trump.  But when it came to lies uttered by Gen. Kelly, the Post among others only dared to say that he was "not accurate".

Fadlo (AUB president) blocked me

I never once communicated with him and never directed a message to him but he blocked me on Twitter.  Having said that, there is a really long list of people (politicians and singers for some reason) who block me on Twitter without me communicating with them: former president Michel Sulayman, Ashraf Rifi, Joumana Haddad, Salem Zahran, Faris S`ayd, Majda Al-Roumi, UN ambassador in Lebanon (Ms. Sigrid Kaag), NYT correspondent in Jerusalem, Diaa Hadid, Syrian opposition figure Bassam Ja`aaah, among others.  But the block by Fadlo was the worst: it hurts really.  I am inconsolable.  

This is by far the most Islamophobic disgusting thing the New York Times ever published: if a Muslim is accused of rape, what does this have to do with Islam?

Look at this disgusting headline: "Could this be the Harvey Weinstein of Islam?" What does this have to do about Islam.  Now we know that if an individual Muslim commits a terrorist act, his act is blamed on Islam, the religion. But now it got to the point that if an individual Muslim commits a crime of any kind, it will also be blamed on Islam, the religion?  David Duke and other Nazi anti-Semites used the Harvey Weinstein scandal to spew their anti-Semitic trash. But the New York Times is doing the same.  if someone were to relate the Harvey Weinstein scandal to Judaism it would be seen--and rightly so--as anti-Semitism and the Times would be outraged. But the Times with its long history of bigotry and racism against Arabs and Muslims, found no problem in publishing this headline?  I don't know the person in question and the crime of rape should be investigated but why relate it to 1) Harvey Weinstein? and 2) to Islam?  This is a new low for the Times.  So if an individual Muslim were to steal, the New York Times will publish a headline about "Theft in Islam"?

Realism and Democracy: the case of Elliott Abrams

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Realism and Democracy in US foreign policy: The Case of Elliott Abrams (1)".

U.S. actively supported massacres

" “Standing by,” however, is not what the United States did during the Indonesian genocide of 1965–66; rather, it actively supported the massacres, which were applauded at the time by the New York Times."

Neo-Nazi leader praised apartheid Israel as a model for white supremacists

"White nationalist leader Richard Spencer gave Israel as an example of an “ethno-state” he aspires to create in the United States during a controversial speech at the University of Florida on Thursday." (thanks Amir)

How the claim by Syrian director, Muhammad Bayazid, that he survived an assassination attempt fell apart

A long expose by a pro-Syrian opposition paper debunks his claim.

A special German informer tried to convince refugees and Islamists to commit assassinations in Germany

From Joerg in Berlin: Yesterday there were interesting revelations about last years jihadist attack on a christmas market in Berlin. A radio station and a newspaper said, that before a special agent or informer tried to convince refugees and islamists to commit assassinations in Germany, also by using trucks as a weapon:

Eine wichtige Bezugsperson des Terroristen Anis Amri in der militanten Islamistenszene war ein V-Mann des Landeskriminalamts Nordrhein-Westfalen. Recherchen des rbb und der "Berliner Morgenpost" belegen nun, dass die sogenannte Vertrauensperson VP-01 frühzeitig Islamisten zu Anschlägen in Deutschland angestachelt haben soll. Laut eines Zeugens war dabei auch von einem Anschlag mit einem Lkw die Rede.

Do you notice that when US bombing devastates a Syrian city it does not cause outrage among Western correspondents?

But when Russian and Syrian regime bombing cause devastation, Western correspondents are up in arms. Why not be outraged about all? (this is Raqqa by the way).

Hizbullah's weapons and the UN secretary-general

Now we know that the UN secretary-general is a mere tool of the US appointed Jeffrey Feltman.  But the statement by the secretary-general about Hizbullah's arms was funny: he said that is is an aberration to democracy (or words to that effect as I read it in Arabic).  Basically, he implies that democracy in the Arab world (from the Gulf to Morocco) is blooming and that the only imperfection of Arab democracy is Hizbullah's weapons.  

China wants to combat "erroneous news": but this is like US war on fake news. Not any different

So the Chinese government wants to fight "erroneous news".  US media will now cry: repression and censorship. But how is that different from this Western government war on "fake news".  it is the same thing with different names.

Ignorance and falsehoods by New York Times correspondents in the Middle East in one sentence

"In 2014, he wrote a provision incorporating Shiite volunteer fighters into the Iraqi armed forces, the so-called Iraqi Hezbollah, a reference to the Iranian-backed Shiite militia in Lebanon."  1) they conflate Iraqi Hizbullah with the Hashd forces.  2) they confuse Lebanese Hizbullah with Iraqi Hizbullah.  How can anyone rely on New York Times correspondents to learn about the world?  Really.

This is amazing: Washington Post cheers John McCain for insulting a fellow journalist

Read here.

Samantha Power attributes Trump's policies to Karl Marx: imagine the ignorance

How ignorant and intellectually lazy.  All that she knows about Marxism is what the writer in Bloomberg tells her (and Laleh tells me that the writer is an Obama administration appointee on regulation).  Make no mistake about it: the rise of the nutty right in the US is directly due to the lousy US liberal movement.

Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower)

10/19/17, 5:01 AM

Really important & enlightening @CassSunstein piece on Trump’s Marxist ways of sowing division among us bloomberg.com/view/articles/…

 

How Western correspondents in the ME are clueless: missing the biggest story

The speaker of the Kuwaiti parliament (and the Kuwaiti parliament along with the Tunisian and Lebanese parliaments, is one of the few semi-real parliaments in the Arab world) because a hero yesterday for the way he handled the Israeli delegation in the Inter-parliamntary Union conference in Moscow.  His video went viral and his name became the most popular hashtag.  It is the biggest story on Arab social media but you won't see a reference to it in Western media because it is too embarrassing to Israel. This is another example which proves that there are issues which still galvanize Arabs and they revolve around hostility to Zionist occupation of Palestine.

Which has been the biggest blow to ISIS? Certainly not Raqqa

US media coverage of the battle against ISIS has been typically ill-informed and propagandistic.  It has basically hailed the insignificant Syrian Democratic Forces militia as the hero in the fight against ISIS.  SDF basically came late to the game and the US media accorded them the credit for a fight against ISIS in three countries in which they were not even remotely involved.  Even the battle in Raqqa: was not that significant.  Al-Quds Al-Arabic (the Qatari regime mouthpiece which is fanatically pro-Syrian rebels) published an article today in which they argue the same point: that Raqqa was not really the strategic blow to ISIS but Al-Mayadin was.  But US media totally and strictly ignore all the strategic and decisive battles against ISIS which were undertaken by foes of the US and Israel.  Such is the conventional narrative.  

Oriana Fallaci

This I will tell you about Oriana Fallaci, who is still beloved in the US media.  This is actually a tribute to her in the New York Times.  She was not a journalist: she was a liar and a fabricator.  She is worse than even Barbara Walters.  I know this about her: In 1970, she published an interview with George Habash in Life Magazine: you know what she did? She fabricated a statement by Habash.  This is enough for me to know what kind of a lousy human being she was.  She claimed that Habash said that he supports international operations because he wanted to kill Jews.  If you know anything about Habash, and if you only read Habash in translation, you would know that he would never ever utter words like that.  If Habash never spoke in this anti-Semitic language, he used only for the benefit of this lousy human being?

Terrorism charges are only reserved for Muslims

“ “That fact that the term is being preserved only to describe ‘racially profiled’ violence reveals how deeply embedded racism and Islamophobia has become in our language and disturbingly, even in our legal system,” notes University of Toronto professor Megan M. Boler.”

Learn about parliamentary democracy from Saudi Arabia

Members of the regime-appointed powerless Shura Council calls for public shaming of anyone who criticize the regime.  Kid you not.  

The speaker of the Kuwaiti parliament (the only elected parliament in GCC) expels the Israeli delegation from Inter-paliramentary Union meeting in Moscow

Israeli minister threatens civilian targets in Lebanon and there is no Western media outrage

'Next Time, We Won't Spare Lebanon': Christian Media Hears Doomsday Warning From Senior Israeli Minister: 'Its infrastructure, international airport and government facilities – it’s all game,' Naftali Bennett tells first-of-its-kind Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem".

Can you imagine the uproar if those threats were made by Arabs against Israel?

This Western correspondent is pleading: she wants US occupation to stay forever

Liz Sly‏Verified account @LizSly  16h16 hours ago

Syrian Kurds just retook Raqqa, aided by the US. But Kirkuk raises the question: will the US be sticking around?

US forces and propaganda in Raqqa

Hizbullah expelled ISIS fighters from the Lebanese border and allowed them to evacuate with their families in buses.  The US and its militias in Raqqa reached a similar deal with once difference: US forces would not allow photographers to take pictures of the buses, while Hizbullah did, and its enemies used the pictures against them.

Neo-Nazis find friends in Israel

"Just as in Germany, there are clear indications of ties between Austria’s neo-Nazi far right and Israel’s right wing."

Civilian vs weapons nuclear program

"Over 30 countries have civilian nuclear programs; only a handful—including, of course, the US and Israel—have nuclear weapons programs. One is used to power cities, one is used to level them." (thanks Amir)

US allowed buses of ISIS fighters to leave Raqqa: where are the pictures?

Where there were no pictures of the buses which the US arranged for ISIS fighters in Raqqa?

Fighting ISIS in Dayr Az-Zur

There has been ferocious fighting against ISIS in Dayr Az-Zur by Hizbullah and the Syrian regime forces and other allies and all Western media purposefully ignore this chapter in the history of fighting against ISIS because this does not fit into their bogus and fake narrative of the war on ISIS.  

The US ISIS envoy in Raqqa

What a theatre. The US ISIS envoy visited Raqqa today accompanied with a Saudi minister to basically lay the claim that it was the US (and Saudi Arabia?) who really kicked out the ISIS caliphate.  Those are the least effective elements of the international collection of forces which fought ISIS.

Are Western media for real? Are they serious about their account for the demise of ISIS?

If you read Western media you really get the impression that ISIS was defeated solely by US bombing and by the efforts of Syrian Democratic Forces militia.  Those two parties were probably the least effective and least important in the regional fight against ISIS.  But this is propaganda and not journalism.

"Remembering the massacre of Algerians in Paris"

Shame on US Zionists for being indulgent with rabid anti-Semites and holocaust denials if they support Israel

'Scaramucci is clearly an anti-Semite. Those who engage in the game of number of Holocaust victims are anti-Semites in my book.  But American Zionists have a long record of indulgence toward anti-Semites if they are supporters of Israel, or if they at least don't criticize Israel.  Israel is the worst ally in the war against anti-Semitism.

Obama and Chris Rock

"Q: Right. I remember I was at Oprah’s house when she threw that first big fundraiser for Obama in 2007. And me, Obama and Chris Rock were huddled in a corner. And Chris Rock told us his famous story about the fight between heavyweight champ Larry Holmes and the great-white-hope boxer Gerry Cooney. Holmes was whipping his behind. And then, after Holmes knocked him out, the judges’ scorecards revealed that two of them had Cooney ahead in the fight! Rock said that his daddy told him that you can’t beat white folk — as in outpoint them in a fight — so you have to knock them out! As much as Obama loves to quote Rock, that particular message never gets cited. I was right there. Heard it with my own ears. Instead, Obama would quote Chris Rock saying that black folk always want credit for things they should be doing anyway, like paying child support; but he never quotes Rock’s relentless assault on white supremacy. Ain’t no balance, and thus he misrepresents the truth. I think that’s what you’re getting at.

A: It’s true, it’s true."

He was responding to Iranian foreign minister: can you imagine a DC think tank "fellow" ever using such language about a GCC minister?

Karim Sadjadpour‏Verified account @ksadjadpour

Karim Sadjadpour Retweeted Javad Zarif

Textbook example of a dictatorship using an external threat to try and legitimize its repressive apparatus. Trump has been a gift to them

Karim Sadjadpour adde

Roots of American global domination

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Roots of American Global Domination: "Manifest Destiny".

US-made militias around Raqqa reached a deal with ISIS to evaluate their fighters in buses: look how Liz Sly strains to justify

Liz Sly (@LizSly)

10/15/17, 4:27 PM

Syrian ISIS fighters in Raqqa surrendered today under a deal not like the Hezbollah one. Only foreigners remain washingtonpost.com/world/islamic-…

A Zionist in Hollywood blames female victims

Here you go.

Can you imagine the justifiable outrage if a Muslim government were to create a database for all US Muslim students?

"Israel to Create Database of All U.S. Jewish College Students for Outreach Efforts".  

Who gives a potato what Khrushchev's granddaughter and grandnephew think about ANYTHING?

"Khrushchev’s Granddaughter Just Compared Trump To Stalin".

Trum's speech on Iran: what on earth was he talking about here?

"Iranian proxies provided training to operatives who were later involved in al-Qaeda's bombing of the American embassies in Kenya, Tanzania"

Israeli occupation army apprehends most wanted Palestinian terrorists

He is right. Enough of the Muslim and atheist domination in the US

"Pres. Trump on religious liberty: "We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values."

A Saudi regime newspaper brags: that Saudi Arabia was the first country to welcome Trump's Iran strategy, only seconds after it was announced

Algerians are furious because the UK ambassador to Algeria visited a mosque dressed in shorts

Personally, it does not bother me BUT: can you imagine the uproar if a Muslim ambassador in DC or in London were to visit a church dressed like this? Can you imagine the reaction of international media?

Turkish media raise more questions about the claim of assassination attempt on the life of Syrian director in Istanbul

Turkish media are really fed up with the claim of the assassination attempt by Syrian director, Muhammad Bayazid.  Even pro-Syrian opposition media and social media are now mocking the claim.  But Bayazid came with a response: he said that it is in the interest of the Syrian regime to get rid of him given his films. 

The lousy journalism of Ben Hubbard: he defames Syrian football players: would he say that about Saudi football players?

"The team, which is closely related to Mr. Assad, is still in the running to qualify for the 2018 World Cup."  What does this mean? How are the football players close to Mr. Assad?  Does he train the team and supervise their training? Or is he accusing the team members of dropping barrel bombs?    This is the trend in US journalism: you can get away saying the most absurd and ridiculous thing about a country if the regime of that country is not an ally of the US.  

All in one map

The case of Syrian opposition director who said he survived an assassination attempt in Istanbul: new developments

So The Guardian (which now reads as bad and as reactionary and as uncritical as the New York Times on the Middle East) among another media peddled a story that a Syrian opposition director, Muhammad Bayazid, was stabbed in the chest and that he survived an assassination attempt and that he was by his account at the ICU unit in a hospital.  The Guardian, among others, made it clear that it was the Syrian regime which tried to kill him.  But the next day, director of the GCC-sponsored CAIR posted a picture of himself with the director the day after the stab in the chest and said that he survived an assassination attempt (he even added that the "the stab which does not kill you makes you stronger).  But the Turkish police today spoke: it said that there is basically no evidence of the assassination and that the director never reported the assassination attempt to the police and that for that reason there is not even an investigation.  Just like the case of Orouba Barakat (which the Western media first said that she and her daughter were killed (stabbed and strangled) by Syrian regime thugs only to be contradicted by the Turkish police which found the murderer who was a relative who killed them over money), you really can't believe Western media on Syria because they are Pavlovian in regurgitating whatever is posted by Syrian rebels on their social media accounts--fabrications and lies and all.

PS Huffington Post Arabic posted a story on the doubts about the story and implied some money motives.

Why does Israel have to pay for PR in the US (and it does) when papers like the Times provides free propaganda services?

"How Israel Caught Russian Hackers Scouring the World for U.S. Secrets".  And Times learned that from whom? Objective observers of the situation?  And look at the Times how proud: "But the role of Israeli intelligence in uncovering that breach and the Russian hackers’ use of Kaspersky software in the broader search for American secrets have not previously been disclosed."

Antun Saadah and Hasan Nasrallah: On the Jewish question

The recent speech by Hasan Narallah in which he clearly distinguished between his party's hostility to Zionism, and drawing a distinction between hostility to Zionism but not to Judaism generated discussions and debates.  Safiyyah Saadeh, a Lebanese academic and daughter of Antun Saadeh, the founder of the SNNP, wrote this article in which he argues that Antun's writings were misinterpreted and that he did not intend to express hostility to Jews qua Jews.  

Don't you like continuity in US foreign policy?

Moroccan Tyrannical regime invites former Israeli war minister for a conference: here is how he was met by MPs

Long time Saudi regime propagandist gets an offer to write regularly for the Washington Post

Jamal Khashoggi announced that he received an offer to write regularly for the Washington Post.  He spent a career working as a propagandist for various Saudi princes.  Do you think that a man who devoted a career for serving the propaganda of Bashshar Al-Asad or Iranian regime or Putin would get an offer writing regularly for a US newspaper?

Saudi democracy is too vibrant

A member of the powerless and appointed Saudi Shura council calls for punishing those members who leak "secrets" to the press.  Kid you not.  (thanks Mariam)

This is how the reactionary New York Times summarizes the career of Che Guevara

"After having overseen the firing squads that followed the Communist victory he helped secure in Cuba, and after a stint running the country’s central bank, Guevara suddenly vanished in 1965, sent by Fidel Castro to organize revolutions abroad."  The paper even managed to blame him for the economic crisis in Venezuela today.  Absent from the article are references to CIA-formed militias and death squads which were facing communist guerrillas around the world.  Also, the Cuban revolution was the least bloody revolution, in relative terms.  The regime rarely resorted to executions.  I favorably compare that regime to any of US-supported/armed autoacracies in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Zaire, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Morocco, etc.

US versus Russian propaganda on social media and in elections

Is it with a straight face that US newspapers are feigning outrage over allegations of Russian propaganda infiltration of social media? Are the assumptions there that US government would never resort to such methods? And which is more extensive? US or Russian propaganda around the world? US or Russian interferences in elections worldwide?

WP questions the legitimacy of the vote in Catalonia because of the voter turnout. What is the voter turnout in US congressional elections?

"Just 42 percent voted."  In some US Congressional elections, voter turnout is even lower than this.

Syrian civilian casualties of US bombing

Notice that Western media don't even mention Syrian civilian casualties of US bombing in the week when scores were killed by US bombs.  Only Syrian civilian casualties of Russian and Syrian regime bombings are mentioned.

bigotry against Syrians in Lebanon continues--from all sides

"Lebanese actress Anne-Marie Salameh has revealed this week that she was “attacked and almost raped.” Speaking to a local entertainment news site, Salemeh said a man - reported to be a Syrian – scaled her building from the stairwell and entered her apartment while she was sleeping in her bedroom." (thanks Basim)

George Clooney makes a distinction between "high-level" and "low-level" sexual harassment

"This is harassment on a very high level."  He should consult with his lawyer wife if the law makes such a distinction.

Harvey Weistein's first public comments on the scandal

"Oscar-Winning Producer Harvey Weinstein at Algemeiner Gala: ‘I Am Israeli in My Heart and Mind’"

New York Times on the wit of Malala

"Part of the problem? “Some say over pack and some say pack less,” she saidin a follow-up post." haha. Hilarious. How witty.

Suzanne Mubarak's aide wants to lead UNESCO

"Today, who would be better than an Arab Muslim woman, with the necessary qualifications, to speak up against all sorts of radicalism? And this is without taking into account that my country, Egypt, has been at peace in the Middle East for 40 years and can speak with the Israelis and Palestinians,”" (thanks S.)

FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists

They are 29 in total: by my count, all are Muslims except two: one is a white animal rights activist, and the other is a black woman.

The promise of communism among Muslims: revisionism

On this article in the Times:  What revisionism: 1) during the Cold War, Western writers protested the rise of communism and socialism among Muslims; now, they want to complain about why communism failed to prevail among Muslims. 2) absent from this account the role of Western powers in sabotaging and combatting all manifestations of socialism and communism among Muslims. As if the reasons for the lack of success were entirely religiously doctrinal.

The case of Ouroba Barakat: not a single Western newspaper corrected its early stories that they were assassinated by Syrian regime

""I am the one who killed Orouba and Hala Barakat, I admit it. They are both my relatives. Orouba is my father's cousin," Ahmed Baraka told Turkey’s magistrate's court.

"When I was in Syria, my father and my older brother were killed in the war. I decided to escape in order to get rid of the pressure that was exerted on me to join the forces of the Syrian regime," he explained.

"Orouba told me that I could come see her if I'm ever in Turkey. So I came to Turkey illegally and started working with Orouba."

But Ahmed Barakat, who says he regrets the killings, said he was invited to Orouba's house that night to receive his salary after quitting. 

"I went to see her that night (the night of the crime) in her house. In the morning, I asked for my money. She said she gave the money to someone else and she had no money left. I got angry and started yelling at her face. She slapped me so I pushed her," he told the court."  Every singe Western media sources insisted hours after the murder that they were politically assassinated by the regime, although they were killed with knives and strangling.  This story is symptomatic of the unreliability of Western media reporting (from the right to the left) about Syria and its conflict.

American polarization

From the Saudi regime newspaper Um Al-Qura in 1964: about communism and Karl Marx

It reads: A statement from the Minister of Interior (I think Prince Fahd was Minister of Interior then) about those who adhere to the communist principles: "What honors this nation is that God made its constitution Islam and blessed it with holy sites to which the heart of Muslims are directed...And if some deviants want to spew their prisons denouncing the heavenly message which was brought by our prophet Muhammad...to the advocacy of a destructive doctrine formed by a Jewish evil doer, the state will see to it that one of its most important obligations is to strike on the hands of those destroyers, out of belief in its religion and in defense of he entity of this Muslim nation against the chaos and blood spilling which are the end of all those who believe in communism."