A clerical crook, literally

A man posed as a Shi`ite Sheikh, and as a Sunni Shaykh, and as a Sufi leader all to obtain money from non-suspecting believers.  He is being called the "imposter of the century".  Beware of believing and non-believing crooks.

Municipal elections in Beirut

The results of Lebanese municipal elections can be summed up thus:  that while all sectarian parties and Zu`ama' remain dominant, people are increasingly sick and tired of all of them, one by one.  You know what that means? They all need to engage in more intense sectarian agitation which always save them all.

Civil Society: Lebanese version

So in Tripoli the so-called "civil society" aligned itself with the sponsor of Salafi and Jihadi scoundrels of the city, Ashraf Rifi (a member of the board of Prince Nayif University for Security Studies, which has become a sponsor of all intelligence and torture apparatuses in Arab countries).  Rifi in declaring his victory sent his salutations to...Beirut Madinati.  

British wars on Muslims

From Amir:

"Over the past year there have been reports of SAS forces operating in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Libya – as well as advising allies in Jordan and Saudi Arabia." "One of the reasons British people are targeted abroad is because of our Army’s visible presence in other countries. And now, without our knowledge, British soldiers are being deployed in numerous countries across the Middle East."

 "Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show."

The decline of the Professional Managerial Class: what Beirut Madinati needs to read

"Today, the PMC as a distinct class seems to be endangered. At the top end, exorbitant compensation and bonuses have turned managers into corporate owners. At the bottom, journalists have been laid o , recent PhDs have gone to work as part-time, temporary adjuncts rather than tenure-track professors, and those now iconic recent graduates have taken to the streets. In the middle, lawyers and doctors are more and more likely to work for corporations rather than in private practices. Once independent professionals, they are now employees."

Gene Sharp, do you remember him?

Do you still remember back in 2011 when the New York Times and other Western media declared that Gene Sharp inspired the Arab youth?

A few days ago Mahmoud Abbas inaugurated a new street named after him. The sign of the street this morning.

Flash. The Qatari regime uncovers a most dangerous conspiracy represented by...TWITTER

The headlines of the this Qatari regime mouthpiece, Al-Rayah: "Twitter...A Platform for rumors and for agitation of public opinion: Users own fake accounts and they buy followers with dollars to spew their venom....Psychologically diseased people and seekers of fame seek to spread Fitnah."

Dissolution of parliament in Jordan

Of course, Western media who wish to convince their audience that the potentate of Jordan is a democrat ignore all his repression and his authoritarian schemes. Just yesterday, he dissolved parliament in preparation for a newly packaged Syrian-like parliament.  Just as they ignored how he stole the organization of Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, and appointed an alternative leadership and will be transferring the assets of the real organization to his fake organization. 

ISIS and Israel

There is a strange relationship between Israel and a small sect of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) based next to the Golan Heights. The very presence of a group like ISIS so close to Israel poses many questions.  Firstly why has ISIS not attacked Israel – a country they have sworn to destroy – from said base? Similarly why has the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) not attacked this small and weak group of extremists on their border? The answers to such questions show the truth behind the rhetoric all actors use in this conflict...Israel is focused not on ISIS and Sunni groups, but on the Shia groups in Syria. Israel's airstrikes have hit Assad’s Shia-backed regime and Hezbollah, not ISIS or al-Nusra. Correspondence between the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and political advisor Jacob Sullivan about Israel’s aims in the region tried to rationalise why Israel ignores ISIS." (thanks Helena)

Obama's aggressive pursuit of new nuclear weapons

"But more alarming than this failure to destroy old nuclear weapons has been the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of new, “smaller” ones, for which the threshold of use would be lower, according to former military commanders. At great expense, the president has bolstered all three components of the nation’s “nuclear triad”: the strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles." "Obama’s much-publicised “nuclear security summits” largely ignored the greatest source of nuclear insecurity in the world today: 15,000 nuclear weapons, including 1,800 on hair-trigger alert." "Now the United States is stridently resisting diplomatic moves by two-thirds of the world’s nations to declare nuclear weapons illegal. It boycotted UN talks in Geneva this month aimed at setting the stage for negotiations on a prohibition treaty."

Texas men train to shoot Muslims

"A group of white men in Texas are training to shoot Muslims in case of an “uprising” and are dipping their bullets in pig's blood or bacon grease so victims would “go straight to hell”."

White football players raped black, disabled teammate with a coat hanger

"The victim “was taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included ‘Kool-Aid’ ‘chicken eater’ ‘watermelon’ and [the N-word],” the suit alleges. The civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Idaho also claims that one of the students charged with sexual assault displayed a Confederate flag and demanded the victim recite a racist song titled “Notorious KKK.” All three of the attackers were white, the suit says."  

Discussion of Joseph Masaad's Islam in Liberalism

Read here.

Obama is set to maintain the U.S. arsenal of 1,528 deployed warheads — almost half of which are on 30-minute alert

"Obama’s Hiroshima speech was reminiscent of the one he gave in Prague, only three months into his presidency, when he announced that he would “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” "But that was as far as he would go. Obama is set to maintain the U.S. arsenal of 1,528 deployed warheads — almost half of which are on 30-minute alert — despite a 2013 White House assessment that he could safely reduce the U.S. arsenal by a third. Obama is also pushing for a $1 trillion effort to replace the U.S.’s entire stock of long-range strike bombers, cruise missiles, nuclear submarines, and land-based missiles – which experts have said is sure to cause an arms race."

Hedy Epstein, Palestinian rights advocate & Holocaust survivor, dies at 91

"Her “personal wake-up call,” however, were the Israel-backed Sabra and Shatila massacre. Israel invaded south Lebanon in 1982. With the support of the U.S., it subsequently waged a war in alliance with far-right, Phalangist Christian militias. In September 1982, Israeli-backed Phalangist militias slaughtered thousands of civilians in Sabra and Shatila, Beirut refugee camps largely inhabited by Palestinians who were expelled by Zionist militias in the war that established Israel in 1948. Renowned scholar Noam Chomsky called it “a horrifying massacre,” comparing it to the anti-Jewish pogroms that took place in Czarist Russia. Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi noted that documents in the Israel State Archives “pin direct responsibility for much more of what happened in Sabra and Shatila on not only Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government, but reveal American responsibility for what happened.” " (thanks Amir)

The US assassination of a Taliban leader

From a comrade who wishes to remain anonymous: "I found the assassination of the Taliban leader to be a particular troubling though perfectly predictable development. Ostensibly, it was not carried out because the Taliban are a threat to the US, but because he was opposed to the peace process as it exists. Specifically, the Taliban are opposed to continued presence of the US in Afghanistan. So in effect the US is shaping peace negotiations through drone assassinations. Fair enough, and standard super power politics. But this is what drone assassinations are evolving into: an instrument shaping policy rather than the other way round. "

Jonathan Pollard and Sirhan Bisharah Sirhan

Pollard committed treason and sold (let us not forget he was motivated by money and jewelry) US secrets to Israel, which were later used by Israeli to bomb and kill Arabs.  Zionist and Jewish American organizations lobbied on his behalf.   He was pardoned.  Sirhan Bisharah Sirhran was convicted in a farcical trial (in which his court appointed lawyers attacked him and attacked his views on Arab-Israeli issues) and has been a model prisoner and yet refused release in every parol hearing, and only because he is a Palestinian.  He was born to a Maronite family but the Maronite church and all Arab-American organizations would not call for his release after serving one of the longest sentences.  He has become in effect a political prisoner.  I won't enter here into the debate about whether he is guilty or not because of lack of evidence (I mean lack of evidence to substantiate the conspiracy theories about the murder as in Shane O'Sullivan, Who Killed Bobby?  The Unsolved Murder of Robert F Kennedy.  Those who attempted to assassinate Reagan and Ford were released, remember.

Sirhan Bisharah Sirhan

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Sirhan Bisharah Sirhan: The First Palestinian in America".

What is it about US culture? Or is it the religion? Domestic violence in US

It seems that not everyone is opposed to domestic violence in the US. Some don't mind domestic violence if perpetrated by a cute actor.
#johnny_depp

The UN and the civilians in Raqqa

There are far more civilians in Raqqa than in Fallujah (more than five times) and yet: the UN officially expressed concerns over the plight of civilians in Fallujah but didn't say a word about the plight of civilians in Raqqa.  But the UN subscribes to the standards of GCC media: they happen to think that Arab civilians are fair game for US bombs and rockets.

US and and Raqqa

It is very clear: that the US rushed to "liberate" Raqqa (although US never liberates) only because they wanted to beat the Russian forces and the Syrian regime forces after the fall of Palmyra.  They wanted to enjoy the dubious honor of occupying the city first.  

US drone strikes in Pakistan see 631pc increase under Obama

"The US began carrying out drone strikes in 2001, after 9/11, under the administration of then president George W. Bush. Since then, the US has conducted 910 strikes in four countries ─ Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Pakistan is at the top of this list, with 424 drone attacks since 2004.   Over 2,500 people have been killed in US drone strikes, of which at least 350 were civilians."

Beirut Madinati

It figures that all journalists belonging to March 14 (like this Hillary hagiographer and Jumblat and Hariri cheerleader) would be cheering Beirut Madinati.  I wrote about the list at length in Arabic: it was basically an attempt by the Professional Managerial Class of Lebanon to get more power.   It raised generalized slogans that never threatened the corrupt political system.  And members of the list were caught sneaking into a meeting with Walid Jumblat (after claiming that they were opposed to all politicians in Lebanon).  Sa`d Hariri offered them praised later on after they lost.  They claimed to not raise political slogans as if "developments" is not political, and as if fighting corruption is not political.  Most if not all of the corruption of the municipal Beirut council is due to Hariri control lasting for over a decade and yet they avoided saying a word about the Hariri network.  They basically bragged about their professional degree and did not include one person who is not a graduate of a private Western university (from Beirut or form the West).  For the failings of the professional managerial class, read the new book by Thomas Frank, Listen, Liberal: or whatever happened to the Party of the People.

PS Also, what Ghattas said that they had specific solutions is quite untrue. On their website, they miraculously claim that all problems will be solved in...six years, meaning the duration of the term of the municipality.  Also, they link in one passing reference social justice to "economic development." So their ideas of social justice are derived from World Bank and IMF, it seems.  Whenever members appeared on TV, they always cited the authority of World Bank and IMF and WHO for their positions.  Typical Professional Managerial Class lingo.

PPS The Professional Managerial Class never reaches power without betraying the interests of the working class and the traditional middle class.  

Obama

Obama is the most unemotional person I have seen. And his tears always seem fake to me.

Steven Spielberg at Harvard

Steven Spielberg gave the commencement address at Harvard University. Lacking his essential visual and sound effects without which he can't perform, he warned the graduates against the "monsters" of the modern world, and he listed ethnic hatred and "class hatred". Don't worry, Steven Spielberg. The spoiled brats of Harvard won't resent the system of class inequality which produced people like you.

How more far right can Carnegie Endowment for International War can go? An Israeli soldier is appointed as a Peace Fellow

"Award-winning journalist Jeffrey Goldberg will join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a Visiting Distinguished Fellow in September 2016. During his nine-month fellowship, Goldberg will work on his forthcoming book on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East."

On Hitler and Nazi support for Zionism

The public (deliberate among Zionists) misunderstanding of Nazi attitude toward Zionism stems from the wrong assumption that anti-Semitism and pro-Zionism don't mix.  In fact, the rise of Zionism was aided in Western capitals by strong anti-Semitic tendencies (from Balfour among others).  But the record is clear.  In one speech from 1920, Hitler said: "Jews should seek their human rights in their own state in Palestine, where they belong" (p. 28 in F. Nicosia, The Third Reich and the Palestine Question)

Who are the civilians exactly?

All Arab oil and gas media feign great concern for the civilians of Fallujah.  But none of the same media feign any concern over the civilians of Raqqa although the civilian population there is far greater than that of Fallujah.  Or are civilians of Syria and Iraq a fair game for US bombs, according to Qatari and Saudi regime media?  

Reporting on Egypt at the Guardian: fabrications, literally

"In an investigation that included approximately 50 interviews, our fact-checker found articles that contained likely or confirmed fabrication, including stories about two events that organizers said he didn’t attend. Dozens of sources could not be found – either they had no online presence or they were anonymous and could not be substantiated – and several people quoted in Mayton’s articles either denied speaking with him or giving the quotes attributed to them. "  But don't worry: he found a new home.

Banned U.S.-made cluster bomb "minefields" killing children in Yemen

"Since March 2015, well over 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen, approximately half of whom are civilians. The U.N. has said the Western-backed coalition is responsible for two-thirds of civilian casualties. It has bombed hospitals, schools, residential neighborhoods, weddings, a refugee camp and more." "This is the first confirmed use of U.K.-made cluster munitions since Britain adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008. A Brazilian-manufactured Avibras ASTROS cluster munition rocket was also found in Yemen, as was a U.S.-manufactured CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon. In August 2013, the U.S. Department of Defense reached a $641 million contract with Saudi Arabia for the manufacture of 1,300 CBU-105 weapons. It is also in the stockpile of the United Arab Emirates."

Diaa Hadid won't be reporting on this: Israeli forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian woman at a checkpoint

"Israeli forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian woman at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem on Monday." "The woman was identified as 19-year-old Sawsan Ali Dawud Mansour." "Twenty-six Palestinian children are among those slain. The majority of Palestinians were killed during what Israel alleges were attacks, though in many cases, eyewitness testimony and video footage shows Palestinians were shot dead when they posed no immediate threat in what may amount to extrajudicial executions."  Or this is how Diaa Hadid would report on the crime if asked by the Times: a woman named "Um Mahmud" who is afraid to give her full name tells the Times that killing of Palestinian civilians is good for the Palestinian people.

An Arab fighting in the US army in WWI

Misha'il Nu`aymah's literary masterpiece, Sab`un (and when you think that Najib Mahfouz was the one Arab who won the Nobel Prize for normalization with Israel) has not been translated into English. It is too massive. But the second volume contains a great insightful remarks about an Arab serving in the American Army in WWI.  He said that part of the experience made him to briefly state: "my mind and heart are gradually pushing me toward radical leftism".  (volume 2, p. 133).

Don't you like the fruits of collaboration between US media and think tanks with GCC based media and think tanks? Look at this

Basically, they are saying that Saudi-US war crimes in Yemen have been really great for training purposes: "The 15-month long conflict has provided some vital lessons and experience to the Gulf militaries. The scale of the war in Yemen, as well as the human toll it has taken on both sides, has provided many units operating on the Kingdom’s southern border and within Yemen with significant experience in combatting guerrilla-type warfare. And although the price paid in casualties has been high, particularly for Border Guard units, Saudi Airborne units and artillery battalions of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) have proved to be very effective. By regional standards, Saudi Arabia has one of the best-equipped forces and is also the second largest operator of Apache helicopters in the world, which if utilized properly provides for effective close air support, with the additional value of eliminating the inaccuracies of high altitude air strikes."

“What?! What do you mean pictures with cats?

On a televised broadcast, Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan Al-Fazwan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, was told about “a new trend of taking pictures with cats has been spreading among people who want to be like Westerners.” He replied: “What?! What do you mean pictures with cats? Taking pictures is prohibited. The cats don’t matter here.” The sheikh continued: “Taking pictures is prohibited if not for a necessity. Not with cats, not with dogs, not with wolves, not with anything.” (thanks Basim)

PS Like me in this picture.

Turkish-Israeli-Azeri alliance

"Behind closed doors, the Turkish-Israeli-Azeri bloc seems to be working fine on almost all fronts."

Is this guy for real?

" “Big nations should not bully smaller ones, disputes should be resolved peacefully,” he told an audience in Hanoi, referring to the disputed maritime region."

Women sold in US-UK-allied Saudia Arabia & Bahrain

"Indian women are being sold “like products” for just £4000 in Saudia Arabia and £2000 in Bahrain, according to India’s welfare minister." (thanks Amir)

Human Rights Watch is about to declare the digging of tunnels to be a war crime--if dug by the Palestinian people under siege

"Sari Bashi, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch and expert on international law regarding warfare, said that building tunnels in residential neighborhoods was not explicitly prohibited. But she said militant groups had “an obligation to take all feasible measures to protect civilians, including not taking the armed conflict to civilian areas, to the extent possible.”" What is this malarkey.  Not explicitly prohibited? What does the digging of tunnels have to do with war crimes in the first place.  Human Rights Watch strains to find excuses and justifications for Israeli war crimes, and to declare all manners of Palestinian resistance, defiance, and even survival to be a war crime.  

According to Diaa Hadid: the token Arab reporter for the Zionist New York Times, Palestinians fear other Palestinians only

It is not only that Diaa Hadid was obviously hired to basically report exclusively on damaging stories about the Palestinian people and stories which put the Israeli occupation in favorable light, and which basically justify the murder of Palestinian people, but she also is a lousy reporter. She tells you that the Palestinian people are afraid of tunnels (and not of Israeli jets and tanks and bombs and siege) and her evidence is this:
"Umm Nidal — Arabic for mother of Nidal, her eldest son — for fear of reprisal by Hamas...A neighbor who is 29 and goes by the name Abu Mohammad".   So what Ms. Hadid would like you to know is that the Palestinian people are very happy with the tight siege and that they are don't want any smuggled goods into the strip and that they basically have no fear of Israeli bombs and rockets over their heads.

In celebration of the Jordan's independence day, this professor of media studies at Yarmouk University decided to pass all his students

This Arab cartoon about America

Man says: I am dying to know what America wants from the Arabs.  Woman says: hahaha. Be ashamed, man.  The boy is standing right here.  

Israel is...top ranked in child poverty rate: I am sure US Zionists will brag about this honor nevertheless

See what the US soldier said in preparation of the "liberation" of Raqqa

Report here.  If you ask me, neither the US forces, nor the Russian forces will "liberate" any Arab cities. And neither the Iranian forces nor the forces of Arab regimes will "liberate" Arab cities.

Sean Penn in Lebanon

I have just learned that Sean Penn made an unannounced visit to Lebanon and visited the resistance museum in Mlita. 

Trump

It appears that Trump is emerging as a compromise candidate for Taliban leadership.  

When CNN reporter does not know the difference between Arabs and Kurds

From a Western correspondent in the region:
"i like how she mentions arab fighters and shows female kurds

that...woman says “arab fighters” like 4 times. like she is stressing what the US military told her to stress...i think all the fighters she showed training were kurds and she interviewed one arab

arab fighters my ass, its just a front for the PKK with a few token arabs who accept kurdish hegemony"

Some argue? Who argue?

"Some argue that Lebanon’s sectarian system of governance is a potential model for other countries composed of multiple sects and ethnicities." (thanks Basim)

Anniversary of Liberation: when Israeli army withdrew humiliatingly from South Lebanon

Today is an important national day in Lebanon. When the Israeli occupation army was humiliatingly kicked out of South Lebanon, and without a humiliating peace treaty imposed on Lebanon.  It is the day when Arabs looked at Israeli differently.  This strategic loss for Israel amounts to more than losing its nuclear arsenal, and it can't be compensated or regained.  

When Iraqi official, `Adil `Abdul-Mahdi, was a raving Marxist-Leninist anti-Imperialist

In 1978, `Adil `Abdul-Mahdi, translated (and published) this book about dependency theory titled "World Capitalist Economy: The Monopoly Phase and Neo-Imperialism".  Now, he is a sectarian Shi`ite. I have written before that i know of no one who has undergone more ideological transformations than this guy, ever: from Fath, to Maoism, to Marxism-Leninism, to Da`wa Party, etc.  

Why MEMRI can't be trusted: they deliberately mistranslated a word from this man's mouth in order to make him say "slave" about Obama which he never did

This is typical. I have always told you that MEMRI can't be trusted not only because it is part of the propaganda outlets of the Israeli occupation enemy but it also can't be trusted in selections of clips and news articles (going soft on Gulf regimes media these days, eh?), but the translation is either ignorant (the Lebanese who works there don't have a good command of Arabic, clearly) and sometimes purposefully distorted.  This loudmouth Algerian journalist is talking about Obama and talks about the history of repression of blacks at the hands of white and then say that the whites "have exploited you" or "subjuctated you" to conquer the Arab world.  So MEMRI's translation made him say: that "they have enslaved you", which he never said, clearly MEMRI wanting to put racist words to the man's references to Obama.   The Arabic word Sakkara does not mean enslave.

James Zogby writes in his own praise

"Because he meant so much to me, I will never forget a compliment Clovis once paid to my work. At a luncheon of local Arab American community leaders he had convened at Washington's Irongate Restaurant, he noted that "there are Arab American groups that pride themselves on being principled, but they are irrelevant. And there are others who work so hard to be relevant, that they end up with no principles, at all. But Jim has managed to create a group that is both relevant and principled.""  No, Jim. You are a great example of someone who is neither principled nor relevant.  

Oh, please: calm down. Bernie Sanders did not appoint Ghassan Kanafani to the Platform Committee of the Democratic Party

What the appointment of James Zogby will do is to ensure that the interests of the UAE ruling dynasty will be well-protected in the Platform.  Jim may insist that the platform includes a statement to the effect that: And the Democratic Party hails the UAE polygamous ruling families for the moderate repression that they have imposed on their people and for the not-so-secret relationship that they have maintained over the years with the enemy state of Israel.  Give me a break.

Elections in Arab countries

Religious kooks united against personal freedoms and women

"Muslim countries join forces with America's religious right"

I am against judging appearances but does this guy looks like a prime minister or a gang leader?

Hizbullah versus the AbuKhalil family in South Lebanon

Look. Hizbullah has a lousy sectarian alliance in elections (especially municipal elections) with the corrupt Amal Movement. Hizbullah can't continue to claim that it is insulated from corruption and that it is not tainted by the corruption of Amal Movement.  The results of the municipal elections in Biqa` and South Lebanon yesterday prove that people of the south, I am talking about Shi`ites specially, can distinguish between their support for Hizbullah in its war against Israel (and even its military intervention in Syria which unfortunately has the support of most Shi`ites) while opposing the political performance of Hizbullah in the cabinet and the political process.  While Hizb Ministers and MPs don't have the reputation of corruption as most other MPs, they are still part of the government which people complain about. Hizbullah does not object to the worst decisions reached by the government and Hizbullah stood by when the great leftist minister, Sharbil Nahhas, was ousted from the cabinet due to his diligence against corruption.  And Hizbullah covers up the corruption of Amal Movement and even covered the Hariri corruption in return for his support for resistance against Israel (verbal support).  People in Lebanon have had it and they are fed up with the entire political class, and Hizbullah is having a hard time convincing people that it does not belong to the political class when it has been in the cabinet for a decade now.  In Qulaylah, the village east of Tyre where most of the AbuKhalils reside, Hizb and Amal typically formed a joint list and the AbuKhalil family refused to join forces and they formed (under some secularist members) an independent list which won yesterday against the list of Amal-Hizbollah. Amal was furious at the result and they sent armed goons to threaten the head of the winning list.  Don't get me wrong: I am not in favor of the AbuKhalil's in elections all the time: they often represent the upper class mentality of remnants of feudal families and they have marginalized those who used to be referred to as "peasant" families, and to their credit, Hizbullah have in fact elevated the status of "peasant families" in South Lebanon. But the notion that people because of support for resistance against Israeli occupation and aggression should support the lousy lists of Amal-Hizbullah in municipal election is silly at best.

Liz Sly claims that Ahrar Ash-Sham never used car bombs and suicide bombers

Liz Sly writes: "The official, Labib Al-Nahhas, denied that Ahrar al-Sham carried out Monday’s attacks. “This is not our modus operandi: we do not target civilians,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter." I asked people on the ground on the matter and they confirmed that of course Ahrar Ash-Sham used car bombs and suicide bombers, and of course killed scores of innocent civilians. But notice how Sly cites the statement by the government but then refutes it and then cites the statement by Ahrar and does not bother to refute it.  

US calls on Russia to stop interfering in Syria: just as US does not interfere

"Votel, who has headed U.S. Central Command for just seven weeks, became the highest-ranking U.S. military officer known to have entered Syria since the U.S. began its campaign to counter the Islamic State group in 2014. The circumstance was exceptional because the U.S. has no combat units in Syria, no diplomatic relations with Syria and for much of the past two years has enveloped much of its Syria military mission in secrecy."

Banned British-made bombs dropped on civilian area in Yemen

"A British-manufactured cluster bomb has been found in a Yemeni village, all but confirming the banned weapons are being used by Saudi-led coalition forces in the Yemeni civil war. The BL-755 cluster bomb is designed to be dropped by UK-manufactured Tornado jets used by the Saudi Arabian Air Force, though the highly controversial weapons were banned in conflict decades ago." (thanks Amir)

More Western media justify car bombs by Syrian rebels

"Bomb blasts killed scores of people in the Syrian coastal cities of Jableh and Tartous on Monday, and wounded many others in the government-controlled territory that hosts Russian military bases monitors and state media said." (thanks Basim)

Academic standards in the UK: professor Angelina Jolie

After LSE hired Angelina Jolie (and we aren't sure if she graduated high school) as a professor at a Center run by William Hague.  Not to be outdone, Oxford has offered a chair in Media Studies to Kim Kardashian.  If an American university were to hire a celebrity to teach a course, UK media and academe would be mocking US universities mercilessly.  

Liz Sly and Washington Post thrice in one story justify the murder of Syrian civilians

First the headline: "Wave of bombings kills scores in area of Syria loyal to Assad".
Second the story: "A wave of coordinated bombings in Syria claimed by the Islamic State killed at least 78 people Monday in the usually calm coastal area where Russian troops are based, Syrian state media reported." 
Third, the story: "The coastal area is populated mostly by members of Assad’s minority Alawite community who have remained loyal to him throughout the war".  Liz Sly personally interviewed the residents and found out that every single one of them, children included, are "loyal to Asad".  Can you imagine if a random bombing in Israel is reported as: "bombings kill scores in area loyal to Netanyahu"?  She would be fired on the spot.

Did An-Nahdah of Tunisia call for separation of religion and state?

Muhammad `Imarah makes a distinction that they merely called for specialization.  I agree with his distinction especially that Ghannushi is a king of deception.  

Islam in Liberalism debated

And comrade Joseph responds.

When moderate Syrian rebels join the ranks of the Jaysh Al-Mujahidin: 10 brigades and battalions of Free Syrian Army join Jaysh Al-Mujahidin

Forgot to add that those Islamist Mujahidin are funded and armed by the US.

The master does not stand up for his follower

If only Americans knew: allies of Al-Qa`idah visits Washington, DC

"A senior figure from a Syrian rebel group with links to al Qaida was allowed into the United States for a brief visit, raising questions about how much the Obama administration will compromise in the search for partners in the conflict."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article78962527.html#storylink=cpy""

The war is starting: a Saudi columnist in Al-Hayat declares: "Yes, America is the great Satan"

This columnist in the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid bin Sultan, Al-Hayat, lists America's crimes in the century, and threatens that if US goes after Saudi Arabia the world will go after the US.  And he actually calls US "the Great Satan".  Beware.  With "moderate allies" like those, you don't need enemies.

Mahmoud Abbas ordered a street to be named after him: and Palestinians are taking turns celebrating the name

When Western media educate readers about Islam

"Pope Francis (left) is to receive the spiritual leader of the world's Sunni Muslims, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (right), at the Vatican." I bet you that if you poll Muslims at random, less than 1% would know who Ahmad Tayyib is.  (thanks Basim)

The Statistical methodology of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Of course, it should have happened a long time ago: that this Syrian Observatory should have been discredited a long time ago, and not only for regime funding from Gulf, and not only because of the political ties, but also for something basic: the lack of reliable or accurate methodology when he produces exact numbers.  But for me, it happened last week: this Observatory issued a special statement to say that Nasrallah was lying when he said that Syrian rebels killed Mustafa Badr-Ad-Din and that it was not true.  But since when the Observatory responds to statements by political leaders? Or this one was too tempting politically. But look at this in its latest count: "Abdel Rahman also said that "several thousand people" have died while being held by rebel groups and jihadist factions like the Islamic State group.".  Several thousand people? Is that an exact number?

Syrian businessmen

Remember how early on in the Syrian war Syrian rebels would claim, and Western media would report with a straight face, that they were being funded by "Syrian businessmen"?

Netanyahu is subjected here to tough questioning from an American "progressive"

Middle East Eye

I have received a note from a reporter at Middle East Eye in which he denies that the site is funded by the Qatari regime.  

Clovis Maksud

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "Clovis Maksud and the Contradictions of Arab Nationalism".

Bakery owner says customer canceled cake order after finding out she was Muslim

"An Iraq war veteran in Michigan canceled his order for a cake when he discovered the bakery’s owners were Muslim, one of the owners told Fox 17 West Michigan.

Zeinab Mohamed, who co-owns the Sweetcakez bakery in Grand Rapids with her husband, Javon Borst, said the wife of the buyer sent a message to them that read: "Hey actually were going to order our cake somewhere else my husband just found out your Muslim. And I'm not against it but he is because he was in Iraq fighting for our country against your people. He even changed his new doctor because the new one he was referred to was Muslim and he just said somethings and said he doesnt feel comfortable having you make our cake. I'm so sorry." Mohamed said she could hardly believe her eyes." (thanks Michele)

Rewriting of history: now the Times claims that Obama helped push Mubarak from power

The US clung to Mubarak until he could no longer serve.  "Even as the aging Mr. Mubarak fell from power — pushed partly by Mr. Obama in phone calls during the Tahrir Square protests".

Women in GCC countries: UAE to deport woman for checking her husband's phone

"When one woman in the UAE decided to snoop on her husband's mobile phone, little did she expect that it would result in a judge ordering her out of the country."

Can you imagine if this was in reverse? Israeli politician calls for beheading of Arabs

"The man reportedly offered the role of Israeli Defence Minister has called for "disloyal" Arabic citizens of Israel to be beheaded."

This is the story of a mainstream Zionist

"Lieberman has a long history of proposing fascistic policies. In 2003, he asserted that thousands of Palestinian prisoners should be drowned in the Dead Sea, adding that he would happily provide the buses to take them there." "In the 51-day assault, for which human rights organizations accused the Israel Defense Forces of war crimes, almost 150,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed, more than a quarter of Gaza’s population was displaced and 100,000 Palestinians were left homeless. When Israel carried out another brutal bombing campaign in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip in 2002, Lieberman, then infrastructure minister, insisted that the Israeli military should obliterate Palestinian civilian areas."

U.S. anti-Muslim groups fund Europe's Israel lobby

"US funders of the lobby in Europe include billionare casino magnate and key Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, leading Islamophobic demagogue Daniel Pipes and Nina Rosenwald – heir to the Sears Roebuck fortune, dubbed by journalist Max Blumenthal “the sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate.” "

The NATO art of destroying Libya

"The United States, along with many of its international partners, wants to be able to supply "necessary lethal arms" to Libya's UN-backed interim Government of National Accord to fight ISIS and other terrorist organizations." "The same day, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook admitted that our military doesn't have a "great picture" of what is happening in Libya." "The West's provision of arms into Libya has been devastating to the country for years," Andrew Feinstein, the executive director of Corruption Watch, told the Washington-based Forum on the Arms Trade on Tuesday."

Crimes committed by U.S. military in Okinawa continue

"Japanese officials protested to the United States on Friday after the police arrested a man identified as a former American Marine in connection with the killing of a woman on the island of Okinawa." "Crimes committed by Americans have long been a source of friction on Okinawa, a small southern island that hosts about half of the roughly 50,000 United States military personnel stationed in Japan. The most notorious incident, the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American servicemen in 1995, set off mass protests against the United States military presence." (thanks Amir)

The Clinton campaign is disturbed about the use of the term "even-handedness" about US policies in the Middle East

"Clinton aides have said that on a slew of issues, Sanders is not far from the party. But the issue of U.S. policy toward Israel — which a Sanders adviser said “absolutely, legitimately will be a point of

conversation” — has made some of Clinton’s backers nervous.

(...)

Speaking last month during a contentious debate with Clinton, Sanders— who declared himself “100 percent pro-Israel” — said that Israel’s 2014 military assault on the Gaza Strip was “disproportionate” to the threat posed by Hamas rockets launched from the Palestinian territory

into Israel.

(...)

“On one hand there is not an enormous amount of difference between them. They are both pro-Israel, they are both pro-peace,” said one longtime Clinton supporter. “But in the context of the campaign terms like ‘even-handed’ can come to mean that the United States is signaling a shift” — and Clinton would oppose that."

what is a normal country?

""Well, I didn't have that sense. I thought some of the things the White House was saying, in terms of believing that lifting the sanctions could over time lead the regime and Iran to change its stripes and become a normal country, if you will, I always thought that was a stretch," he said." (thanks Basim)

On the empty Palestinian museum

I am not surprised that the Washington Post and New York Times both relished mocked the opening of an empty Palestinian museum.  The directors should be ashamed for this insanity.  And since when do occupy people worry about opening a mecum--under occupation, mind you--before liberating the land?  A Palestinian friend (a businessman) wrote to me about this matter and I cite anonymously: "I saw that and it is a farce.  Look at the board for this museum and they are all the kids of the super wealthy Palestinians: not  by chance I say plus the company that built the museum is connected to the famous CCC construction Co.!  The next question what will such a museum accomplish given that 80% if not more of the Palestinians cannot get there not to mention the supposedly target audience: the rest of the world  thirdly why build a museum and bring all these exhibits under the occupiers mercy whereby they will either be confiscated, stolen or flat out destroyed by a rocket.  fourthly so what if the building wins an award for sustainability ( design not by a Palestinian..... some european... why we have no Palestinian Architects capable of designing a MUSEUM).....Now the spoiled rich kids can sit in their cafe in London and brag to each other of this monumental accomplishment of their contribution to the liberation of Palestine with the new secret weapon " Empty Museum".......

Yes I am cynical and I know these guys very well... This has nothing to do with the Palestinians nor the liberation thereof, but rather with self gratification and show off among the rich..The true story is that the Chairman of the board and the board had hired some european curator to come up with exhibits 3 years ago and paid him handsomely but the guy did nothing but collect the salary.... How is this board effective.....opening an empty museum is a joke..... in itself.....I have a lot ore to say but I will hold back some"."

Palestine and Syria

I am not in favor of mixing or comparing human tragedies.  Its situation has its uniqueness.  Just as I never favored invoking Nazi analogies regarding the Palestinian question (although there are clear German and Italian nationalist tendencies in the thought and practices of revisionist Zionist and writings of Vladimir Jabotinsky who favored the definition of nationhood through "its racial recipe"), I don't understand the need to compare the Syrian tragedy to Nakbah.  Unless the purpose is to minimize or even absolve the Zionists of their crimes.

For some reason, this royal Jordanian buffoon is taken seriosully in the West

The heroism of US marines in Vietnam: As covered by Morley Safer

"In August 1965, Mr. Safer covered an attack on the hamlet of Cam Ne about 10 miles west of the port city of Da Nang. Intelligence had identified Cam Ne as a Vietcong sanctuary, though it had been abandoned by the enemy before the Americans moved in. Mr. Safer’s account depicted Marines, facing no resistance, firing rockets and machine guns into the hamlet; burning its thatched huts with flamethrowers, grenades and cigarette lighters as old men and women begged them to stop; then destroying rice stores as the villagers were led away sobbing.  “This is what the war in Vietnam is all about,” he reported. “The Vietcong were long gone. The action wounded three women, killed one baby, wounded one Marine and netted four old men as prisoners. Today’s operation is the frustration of Vietnam in miniature. To a Vietnamese peasant whose home means a lifetime of backbreaking labor, it will take more than presidential promises to convince him that we are on his side.”"

Bashshar and international relations

There is one person in the whole world who analyzes international relations through the prism of "the brics states".  It is Bashshar Al-Asad.

Qatari regime and Saudi regime are battling it out in Ghutah to the benefit of the Syrian regime

This has gotten little attention in the Western media.  Faylaq Al-Rahman (the militia loyal to Muslim Brotherhood, and consequently to the Qatari regime) and Jaysh Al-Islam have killed hundreds of people days of heavy fighting.  Their internecine fighting have helped the Syrian regime effort to push through Ghutah.  Ikhwan's guide, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, called on them to end the fighting.

Sisi going. Sisi coming.

Watch here.

US and moderate Syrian rebels

"Many former FSA units have defected to Al Qaeda or ISIS. The United States has been adamant in continuing to support the remnants of the FSA, even though many have either renounced democracy or pledged vengeance on Syria’s Shiites and other minorities, or insisted they will impose a fundamentalist vision of Islamic law on the entire population."

CIA admits role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela

"A former CIA spy has revealed his key role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela, which led to the future South African president’s trial and imprisonment for almost 28 years."

It is now official: US State Department says that comingling with terrorists is not illegal per se

Watch (find me the minute) as I could not find a clip of the short version.

"Am I the only one seeing a terrifying resemblance to the notorious Nazi slogan?"

"While marching on the parade grounds of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, soldiers formed various popular Israeli symbols and idioms, but one of them was the sentence "one people, one state." Critics were outraged by the choice of phrasing. "Am I the only one seeing a terrifying resemblance to the notorious Nazi slogan?" one Twitter user asked, referring to words made famous by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler: "One people, one empire, one Führer." "

The US Army wants a bigger budget: exaggerate the enemy

" “This is the ‘Chicken-Little, sky-is-falling’ set in the Army,” the senior Pentagon officer said. “These guys want us to believe the Russians are 10 feet tall. There’s a simpler explanation: The Army is looking for a purpose, and a bigger chunk of the budget. And the best way to get that is to paint the Russians as being able to land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. What a crock.” "The United States spends seven times the amount of money on defense as Russia ($598 billion vs. $84 billion), has nearly twice the number of active duty personnel (1.4 million vs. 766,000), just under six times as many helicopters (approximately 6,000 vs. 1,200), three times the number of fighters (2,300 vs. 751) and four times the total number of aircraft. We have 10 aircraft carriers, the Russians have one."

Abba Eban said that 'one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all

"Chomsky has discussed the long-standing efforts to associate anti-semitism with anti-Zionism for political ends. In 1973, leading Israeli diplomat Abba Eban said that 'one of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all'. Critics of Israel were to be branded 'anti-semites', while Jewish critics like Chomsky were guilty of 'self-hatred'."

This CNN reporter knows what Lebanese people want--after spending a few days in Lebanon

"In the past, the Lebanese people wanted the United States to stay out of their internal affairs. But during my meetings in Beirut, senior officials were imploring for more proactive U.S. engagement."   He should have added: having seen the splendid democracy the US and NATO has established in Libya, most Lebanese are jealous and want one just like that one.  (thanks Basim)  

Zionism: is the last refugee of tottering Arab tyrants

Notice the colors of the hall in which Sisi delivered his I-prostrate-to-Israel speech.

Exclusive. Qatari regime Middle East Eye reports that a Mexican cartel ordered Iran to order Hizbullah to attack Saudi regime NOW

And this explosive report has the most credible source often found in such stories in Western media: "According to well informed sources in Lebanon".  How well placed are those sources? They are so well-placed that the first name of their last name is Hariri.

For the history book: a Lebanese actress who said that she is "too cute" to be for gender equality

She is a leading Lebanese actress and recently she said that men should engage in pre-marital sex but not women. She said that she would encourage her son but not her daughter to "experiment" with sex. She also said that "I am too cute to be for equality between men and women." She was mocked and ridiculed and here she responds to her critics.

The tyrant Sisi is falling and he cant get up: Israel won't be able to help him

This lousy speech promising a "warm peace" with Israel is a desperate act by a falling tyrant. Netanyahu could not save Mubarak, and he won't save you either, o tyrant.

Non-Muslim (Jewish and Christian) repression in Middle East does not get covered in West: How the church cancelled an anti-homophobia conference

The church in Lebanon intervened to cancel an event that was supposed to bring awareness about the dangers of Homophobia.  This OTV report refers to "spiritual" party but does not dare say it was the church.

So what happens when a Muslim Arab woman leaves her religion and becomes a Christian? Actually nothing

I am sick and tired of reading in the Western media long boring articles about the imaginary plight of apostate Muslims--those who leave their religion. The articles draw on archaic texts of Islamic jurisprudence to claim that no Muslim is safe after leaving her/his religion.  Well, here is a recent story.  A Muslim Shi`ite woman (Rima Faqih, who won Ms. USA a few years ago) changed her religion and became a Maronite Christian. What happened to her? Well, she had a "royal wedding" and none other than the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon officiated at her wedding, and the Lebanese Foreign Minister was a guest at the wedding.  More than that, all the Lebanese right-wing sectarian Christian media of Lebanon are bragging about this conversion as if it is some validation of the Christian dogma.  Now imagine for a second if the table are turned: imagine if Rima was in fact converting from Christianity to Islam: I bet you that all those sectarian Lebanese media AND Western media would be publishing articles about how Islam is being imposed on non-suspecting Christians.

May 17 agreement

Today is a glorious memory: when Lebanese people brought down the humiliating May 17 agreement which the Israeli occupation army had forced on Lebanon.  Lebanon will no more be "the second Arab country" to sign a peace treaty with Israel. 

Israel: a democracy for the occupiers

"Today’s Israel—which occupies the lands of 4.5 million Palestinians, who cannot vote in Israeli elections, do not have freedom of movement and are restricted in dozens of ways—receives a score of “full democracy,” or 10 out of 10.  Since the nation of Palestine is not included in Polity IV’s list of countries, one can only assume it must fall under the purview of Israel, which renders the score even more risible. How can a country with 35 percent of its population disenfranchised be a “full democracy”? The same way, presumably, that the antebellum United States—with 3.5 million slaves—can be 90 percent democratic."

Fate of dissidents in countries allied with US and EU: Bahrain

"I asked why she had not been immediately arrested at a protest the week before, when she stood defiantly in front of the riot police firing tear gas at other pro-democracy protesters — an image of defiance that went viral and embarrassed the Persian Gulf monarchy, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet." "Two weeks later, whatever protection Khawaja’s social-media fame might have earned her seemed to evaporate, as she was dragged away and punched on camera by police officers breaking up a small sit-in at a traffic circle outside a mall in the the capital, Manama." "It is also striking that the international attention to Khawaja’s case, intermittent and only occasionally effective as it has been, stands in contrast to the fate of thousands of other dissidents with lower profiles on social media who are currently in detention in countries that are also allied to the U.S., like Egypt or Pakistan." (thanks Amir)

Joseph Massad discusses his "Islam in Liberalism"

"Liberalism from the standpoint of its victims".

This is the caliber of Arab allies of the occupation state of Israel

It is not easy to decide who is more the clown, Mubarak or Sadat?

You don't read about this in mainstream US media: infighting between Syrian rebels

According to Qatari regime mouthpiece, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, some 300 Syrians were killed in 20 days in fighting between various rebel groups--none of which have secular names, of course. 

I have not seen such a revolutionary meeting of the minds since the last GCC summit

From Left: Revolutionary George Sabra. Revolutionary Walid Jumblat. Revolutionary Burhan Ghalyun.  Revolutionary Michel Kilu. And the revolutionary spirit of Muhammad bin Salman hover over them. 

Your best friends, the tyrants of the Gulf

"Friend of 'the Firm': How the King of Bahrain's close relationship with three generations of British royals has spanned decades and endured strain of Arab Spring"

What the American University of Beirut never brags about

There were Palestinian who were killed by Zionist before the establishment of the occupation state of Israel, who the university would never brag about.  The university is happy to brag about crooks, tyrants, charlatans, and embezzlers among its graduates.  It almost gave an honorary degree to Zalmay Khalilzad a few years ago before the "natives" in the administration protested. It almost appointed the fanatic Zionist Tom Lantos as its president before the civil war.  These two graduates of AUB were killed in 1930.  You would not find their names in the brochures of the American University. 

Their names from top: Fu'ad Hasan Hijazi and Muhammad Khalil Jamjum.  Palestinian chanted at the time their names:  From Acre Prison, there emerged a funeral.  [For] Muhammad Jamjum and Fu'ad Hijazi (it rhymes in Arabic, of course). 
من سجن عكّا طلعت جنازة, محمد جمجوم وفؤاد حجازي

In 2013, Saudi regime and GCC sponsored a conference in Cairo

And the convened clerics called for Jihad in Syria. This is how the story of fanatic militant Jihadism took off--contrary to the narrative of Anne Barnard and Liz Sly, who claim that civilian feminists and secularists and democrats turned Salafi Jihadist because of the repression of the regime.  The regime is repressive indeed but Jihadis are Jihadis with or without repression. There are Jihadis in Lebanon and Tunisia, two of the most democratizing Arab countries.  And the story of the conference was carried and prominently displayed by Al-Arabiyyah from 2013.  This is how recruitment of Jihadi terrorists from around the work took off.

Tel Aviv: or over the ruins of the prosperous city of Jaffa

"Mr Rotbard chips away at the façade of his birthplace. He describes how Tel Aviv supplanted Jaffa’s Arab-owned orange groves, and goes on to explain how, in the violent birth of Israel in 1947-48, Jewish paramilitary fighters overpowered and subsequently largely levelled the city from which it had sprung. His tale of Tel Aviv’s growth from a Jaffa suburb founded in 1909 to a metropolis whose population grew 20-fold in the 1920s is gripping.

Its inhabitants, he writes, were for the most part adolescent Jewish men who were no less ideological than today’s settlers. Even their methods were often the same. Their fortified outposts interrupted Arab contiguity. Their first bypass, Allenby Street, today a spine through the city, ran around Jaffa’s perimeter. It gave Tel Aviv access to the sea, but also reduced Jaffa to an enclave that was in effect cut off from its Palestinian hinterland.

In November 1947 the UN published its plan for dividing Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Jaffa was made a Palestinian island within Jewish boundaries. In the fighting that followed, paramilitaries commanded by Menachem Begin, a Tel Avivan who later became Israel’s prime minister, rolled barrel bombs down the alleyways into Jaffa’s cafés and fired mortars into residential districts. By the time Israel declared independence on May 14th 1948, prompting Arab armies to move in, Jews had chased Jaffa’s Arabs out of the city, leaving less than a 20th of the population behind. Many were forced to escape by sea. For the first time in 5,000 years, Mr Rotbard goes on, Jaffa “ceased to exist as an urban and cultural entity”. Much of the Arab medina was bulldozed and grassed over. Some monuments, including mosques and Crusader-era buildings, were preserved, but walking through Jaffa today you would never know that it had once been Palestine’s Arab economic and cultural centre.

Municipal officials treated Jaffa as a repository for institutions like the police headquarters, jails and rubbish dumps, as well as unpopular people such as migrant workers. Later, whole districts were paved and turned into car parks. “Cities like Hiroshima, Dresden and Berlin all suffered exorbitant damage during World War II but each emerged from the dust-clouds of conflict intact, even vibrant urban entities,” the author writes, whereas Jaffa, he claims, was eradicated like Troy."

Correction. Israeli occupiers crossed over the dead bodies of Palestinians,literally, on this day in 1948.

 

I am told that those are British soldiers during their withdrawal.