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Dictators supervise 'democratization'

According to BBC and other sources, the Yemeni opposition announced that Saudi Arabia and other GCC Sheikdoms will supervise power transformation in Yemen!!
This takes place at the same time when the fighters of Qatar and funds of UAE, both are Sheikdoms in which the Emirs have absolute powers with no recognition of free election, participating in  NATO's campaign to protect 'democratic opposition' in Libya.
Meanwhile, the Saudi army, along with troops from UAE and Qatar, crushed the protests in  Bahrain, with regional media, like al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, are diverting attention into an assumed 'Iranian intervention' there.
It is really astonishing how those semi-feudal Sheikdoms, supported by the western governments,are trying to bully the region, exercise political hegemony after having secured economic and media dominance.  
It is very unfunny joke to know that the less democratic and most authoritarian regional regime, like the Saudi Kingdom, supervise 'democratic' power transformation in Yemen  !!

The Big threat of 'talking' !!

According to NY Times report on the one-to-one meeting between Robert Gates and the Saudi King, US was concerned about two things: ascendant Iran and Washington’s recent $60 billion arms sale to Riyadh. It seems that the Americans are becoming sectarian as well, for the newspaper reported that "Both the United States and Saudi Arabia say they are concerned that Iran’s Shiite rulers will take advantage of the revolts sweeping the Middle East to foment Shiite movements against Sunni rulers, as the Saudi royal family fears may happen in Bahrain. “We already have evidence that the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation in Bahrain,” Mr. Gates told reporters, repeating assertions he has made before, although he provided no details. “And we also have evidence that they are talking about what they can do to try and create problems elsewhere as well.”
So, the Saudis sending troops to oppress protesters in Bahrain was not the problem, but the real problem is that the Iranians are talking about it!! 
See the report: ministry of defense in AS

Anti and pro - Western Dictatorships

In the Arab media, you have to choose between anti-Western dictatorships or pro-Western dictatorships. This is a false dichotomy. What about being anti-Dictatorship, would n't that be the most consistent attitude?
the delusions of Bashar

A Man to the word !!

'A man to the word', an Arabic sexist phrase which praises the manhood, usually characterized as the ability to fight. Abdul-Bari Atwan, the editor of London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, described Saddam Hussein in his article today as 'a man to the word'. He was making an absurd comparison between Gaddafi's men and Saddam's men. He criticized Gaddafi's men for they deserted their 'leader' just in order to save themselves, and praised Saddam's men for they resisted all temptations and stayed to the last moment on the side of their leader. Beside this selective memory and wishful narrative, he counted what he considered as 'achievements of Saddam',  like reducing illiteracy (the actual rate of illiteracy the moment of Saddam's fall was around 50% of population),  building Iraq (the amount of money spent for purchasing weapons from western countries and Russia under Saddam's regime were at least 20 times more than those allocated to build the country), and fighting Iran for 8 years (Saddam declared the war against Iran after having abjured Algeria's treaty which he signed in 1975 with Shah of Iran, sending his troops to cross the international border. However, two years later Iraq had to defend her own borders against the Iranian advance, and in 1990 Saddam sent a letter to Rafsingani, then the president of Iran, declaring that Iraq is ready to accept Algeria's treaty again and to restore the pre-war border demarcation as 'if nothing had happened'; the latter phrase is not mine but it was written in that letter.
Atwan, a devoted defender of all populist leaders, tried to distort reality by giving credits to Saddam's men (in my words, slaves), acclaiming that they did not desert him because they were faithful to the leader and 'men to the word'. However, he forgot hundreds of party officials, generals and statesmen who became opponents to Saddam, including his closest assistant and husband of his oldest daughter, Hussein Kamel, who were killed mercilessly in his house in Baghdad. What about Nizar al-Khazreji, Wafiq al-Samare'i, Hasan al-Alawi, ..etc.., were not they 'men' of Saddam or their manhood had not been proven. What has Atwan neglected in his usual selective memory, that the persons he mentioned as the faithful men of Saddam (Aziz, al-Sahaf, and al-Hadethi), were not in the main circle of power as much as they were public faces of the regime (in other words,  PR officials), and they did not desert Saddam (which is something unsure in the case of al-Hadethi whose brother was executed by Saddam's regime) because they were afraid of destiny similar to that faced by all Saddam's opponents, including his relatives and close allies (Adnan Khair allah, Adnan al-Hamdani,Hussein Kamel,..etc..).
According to Atwan, manhood is to defend the tyrant regardless of what has he done to his own people, as for this guy (who I hardly  tried to understand)  people do not matter as much as the cause, which in the case of Saddam was to make himself praised all the time by Atwan and his likes, rather than taking care of his own people.
رجال القذافي ورجال صدام

A woman works as a traffic corp in Basra

In Basra (southern Iraq), Aliya is the first woman who works as traffic corp. I greet here, and also greet the one who helped me realize that no real liberation can be reached with half of society oppressed, and denied their human rights and dignities. The road in the Middle East still very long, but with Aliya and her likes, there is a light in the tunnel. Those brave women who take the initiatives will not only challenge the Fanatic, half-educated fundamentalists in the 'Islamic' countries, but also the Paternalistic, arrogant and racist approaches of Western right wing .
أول شرطية مرور في العراق

The Irrelevant Battles of Muqtada al-Sadr

Muqtada al-Sadr has not changed a lot, after having spent a while in Iran studying theology, as his assistants acclaim. He always picks the wrong battle, in the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. Now, he is talibanizing political discourse by his condemnation of Muslims 'who see their Quran burnt in front of their eyes without dropping any tears'. This is the battle of Fundamentalist right wing groups on the Islamic and Christian sides, nothing productive will come out of it.
الصدر يدعو المسلمين الى عدم السكوت

Pro-democracy Jihadists !!

I think it is funny to call the Libyan rebels 'pro-democracy fighters' as has Al-Jazeera done in the last weeks. It is immature to label them as such, particularly when there are reports indicating a role played by Islamist Jihadists among the rebel forces. Fighting a dictator is not enough to describe someone as democratic, especially in a situation more similar to civil war than to popular revolution. Notice that after the liberating of Banghazi from Gadhaffi's forces, many slogans written on the street's walls described Gadhaffi as 'Kafir' (infidel) , rather than a dictator. Those who wrote these slogans probably were not looking for a democratic alternative, at least not more than a 'non-Kafir' one.
I guess  that al-Qa'eda and its alikes are, or will be, strong enough to provide NATO forces with another mission in Libya, after the ousting or paralyzing of Gadhaffi. Maybe the next mission is to defend the 'democratic' opposition from Al-Qa'eda's fighters, a mission that might last as long as the oil flows in the pipelines.
 Al-Qa'eda fighers in Libya
Libyan rebel commander admit Al-Qa'eda links

Less than mediocre Journalist

Tariq al-Hameed is the editor -in-chief of Asharq alawsat, London-based Saudi newspaper owned by one Saudi Emir (Salman bin abdul-Aziz),  which is very often quoted by western and Israeli media as representative of Arab public sphere. He wrote an article today , giving very 'precious' advices for the Syrian president regarding the protests in his country. According to him, the only way to deal with this political earthquake in the region is "to take real reformist measures', obviously he was pointing out the measures announced in the Saudi 'King's speech' , which had been praised by Al-Hameed as a model of wisdom and far-sightedness. Every article written by this less than mediocre journalist can be used as an example of contradiction, inconsistency and 'commitment' to serve the master. I also noticed that the article's title in Arabic is not always the same in English, and the Arabic version is much less 'courteous' than the English one. Today's article was titled in Arabic: Syria: the prayer by ID card !, while the title in the English version was ' Syria : the opportunity to reform'.
سوريا والصلاة بالهوية
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=24710

Slogans of Syrian protesters

I liked the slogans of Syrian protesters, some of them were addressing Buthaina Sha'ban , media advisor of the Syrian president. One slogan aimed to emphasize the political motive behind protesting which is to gain freedoms and human rights. It says:
Hey, Buthina Sha'ban       the Syrian people are not starving
يابثينة ياشعبان       الشعب السوري مش جوعان

Al-Qardhawi : Unusual respect in the Saudi media

It is interesting how the Saudi media cover with unusual respect the statements of Yussif al-Qardhawi, the Egyptian cleric who was previously a member in the Muslim brotherhood. Al-Qardhawi did not support the Bahranian protests acclaiming that they are of sectarian character,  but he supported the Syrian protests using sectarian justifications. However, we might need to consider the possibility that al-Qardhawi serves as a bridge between Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and the Saudi regime. The Saudi media were very critical of Muslim brotherhood before and during the Egyptian popular protesting, but they might use the 'Sunni solidarity' card in trying to win them over.
القرضاوي يعلق على الوضع السوري
القرضاوي : الاسد اسير لدى الطائفة العلوية

The divided national 'unity' government

The weak and Fragmented Iraqi government is divided (what a surprise) about the attitude towards Bahrain. Now the deputy Foreign minister implicitly criticized his Prime Minister.
 http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/1/19520/news-details-.html

Journalist of the Kings and Emirs

Jihad al-Khazin,
A Palestinian-Lebanese-British journalist of London-based Al-Hayat, which is another Saudi channel of manipulation, used to present himself as the spokesperson of corrupt Arab regimes, trying hardly to defend his 'friends' and 'brothers' and their unique wisdom and commitment to their people's interests. His favorite club is the world economic forum of Davos in which he meets the wealthy Emirs and Business class for chatting.
He praised Mubarak and his son and dedicated many of his articles to defend the 'democratic right' of Jamal Mubarek to run for presidential election. Now,  having lost one of his 'big brothers', he is defending the Gulf's Shaikhs and Emirs through playing their favorite game: everything in the Middle East is Iranian conspiracy!!
In a recent article he gave Hasan Nasr allah, leader of Hizbullah, a 'devoted' advise about how important for the latter's interests to avoid criticizing Bahranian government and its oppression of Shi'a protesters. لو كنت مستشارا للسيد

Saudi Reformist Mentality!!

Saudi Government, the strong ally of the 'Democratic' Western governments, which has been praised just today by the spokesperson of French foreign ministry for its reformist tendencies, emphasized today that Women will not be allowed to participate in the next municipal election. Although this election has no real consequences in terms of changing political status quo, it will be presented by Western governments and Arab Saudi-Funded media as a great performance of the 'Reformist mentality of King Abdullah', using the terms of the French Spokesperson !!
Still half of society are not permitted to express their opinions in an election that has no political value.
Relevant links :
http://www.radiosawa.com/article_pop.aspx?id=8055110
http://www.aldayer.net/news.php?action=show&id=2790