June 2012
81 posts
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Shabiha killers flaunting their Shi'ism (again)
One of the more outlandish “findings” of the UN investigation into human rights violations in Syria, the “Oral Update of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic” reads:
40. Accounts collected from those who told the CoI they were among the first to arrive at the scene described the use of sharp objects in the killing of the...
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Israel's Fateful Hour
Nothing beats reading about the inevitability of Israel’s demise in western liberal media. excerpts from a commentary in the Huff Po: “Israel’s fateful hour is approaching. The chances of Israel existing by mid-century are no more than TWENTY PERCENT if its governments continue to pursue the settlement project. Harkabi, former head of Israeli military intelligence and a longtime...
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Geneva talks should not set Syria govt...
MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Multilateral talks on U.N. envoy Kofi Annan’s Syrian mediation plan should seek to secure a ceasefire but not determine in advance the shape of a possible government of national unity, Russia said on Thursday.
“The meeting in Geneva was intended to support Kofi Annan’s plan and it must set the conditions for the end of violence and the start of an...
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Assad Foreign Policy (II): Strategies of... →
My latest article for al-Akhbar English on the Assad regime’s history of resistance. It is a sequel to my earlier piece “Assad Foreign Policy I: A History of Consistence” .
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Massacre not "horrible" enough for Human Rights...
So Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director of its Middle East and North Africa division, “condemns” the rebel massacre of al-Ikhbariya news staff here. However, the HRW representative refrained from calling it “horrible” or any other term that would express his moral outrage, as such terminology is strictly reserved for anti-imperialists and anti-Zionists...
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Erdogan is not a lamb
Is this dude for real? How can anyone read this and not feel nauseous? Earlier he called Syria’s defense of its airspace a “heinous attack” adding “This latest development shows that the Assad regime has become a clear and imminent threat to the security of Turkey…”. Of course, because according to imperialist-Zionist logic, any country which shoots down...
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AFP: World powers still split on Syria talks →
“The sticking point is a clear agreement that there needs to be a political transition,” said a senior US official late Tuesday, stating that a deal could yet be done.
“Once that is agreed there are a lot of different ways of moving forward from there. What it can’t be is just another round of dialogue for dialogue’s sake.”
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Syrian rebels execute al-Ikhbariya staff
Enjoy your revolution. From AP:
(AP) — Gunmen raided the headquarters of a pro-government Syrian TV station early Wednesday, demolishing the building and killing three employees, the state media reported. Officials denounced what they called a rebel “massacre against the freedom of the press.”
SANA added that the attack on Ikhbariya TV occurred in the town of Drousha, about 20...
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An-Nahda's extradition of Baghdadi Mahmoudi →
No, it isn’t surprising that an-Nahda has agreed to extradite former Libyan Prime Minister, Baghdadi Mahmoudi, to Libyan authorities, aka, “rats”. What else does one expect from the new Amerikan Islam? This article may be a few months old but it puts things in context: “A statement made by Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian political party al-Nahda, to Voice of...
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Declassified Pentagon papers reveal why Hafez...
While it is hard to morally justify Hafez al-Assad’s intervention in Lebanon in 1976 on the side of right-wing Christian militias, it is important to understand his reasons for soing so at the time were not to serve Israeli interests.
The explanation is found in this classified Pentagon document Donald Rumsfeld recently released and published in Akhbar Arabic here:
“He is, in sum, a...
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Select excerpts from BBC's Self-Study Report on...
A BBC Trust Report On The Impartiality And Accuracy Of The BBC’s Coverage Of The Events Known As The Arab Spring
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Framing of the...
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BBC admits mainstream media coverage of Libya...
Am reading the BBC’s long self-study report on the Arab Spring, as quoted by the Daily Mail here and will be posting later tonight the most relevant excerpts but couldn’t resist posting this remarkable acknowledgment for now about Libya which MUST be applied to Syria too: “No doubt these reports, along with similar and in some cases more directly partisan ones in other media,...
Egypt's Brotherhood calls for intervention in... →
I have posted this before but just a reminder where the MB stands on Syria:
“The Muslim Brotherhood calls on Arab, Islamic and international governments … and the people of the free world to intervene to stop these massacres, especially after the failure of international forces and international monitoring to stop them,” spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said in a statement.”
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US takes careful first steps with new Egypt – AFP →
“Despite Morsi’s Islamist background, the confirmation of his election brought relief to President Barack Obama’s administration which feared that the military would not accept his victory and provoke new chaos in Egypt.
Morsi put Washington further at ease shortly after his victory announcement Sunday when he pledged to be a leader for all Egypt — where around 10 percent...
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Lessons to be learned from Ha'aretz article on... →
A lesson to those who refuse to acknowledge that the people can also side with politically un-trendy regimes, particularly in Syria where the regime’s followers are a very vocal and clear majority: “So many journalists and commentators have become so enamored with Facebook, Twitter and Tahrir Square that we couldn’t see that an entire population group in Egypt, almost half of the...
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BBC analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood on Israel... →
“Like all other Islamists and even many secular nationalists for that matter, the Muslim Brotherhood has been vehemently opposed to Egypt’s peace with Israel, only reluctantly growing to accept it out of sheer pragmatic self-interest.
Without that, it would have been near impossible for the ruling military generals to have allowed them anywhere near the seat of government.
It is also...
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Egyptian presidency denies Mursi gave interview on... →
Egyptian presidency denies Mursi gave interview on stronger ties with Iran and reviewing Camp David here: “The Egyptian presidency has denied that President-elect Mohamed Majdalawi Mursi gave an interview to Iran’s Fars agency on Monday, in which he had been reported to say that he was looking to expand ties with Tehran to create a strategic “balance” in the region….Fars also...
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Arguably the funniest tweet by a Syrian... →
On a scale of 1 to Amal Saad Ghorayeb, where does Sharmine Narwani sit on the issue of #Syria in your opinion?
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How discursive imperialism works
One of imperialism’s most widely used tactics today is to ridicule, infantilize, and dismiss charges of imperialism as being so reductionist, oversimplistic, doctrinaire, passé, or conspiratorial, that we shy away from using such terms in our political discourse. For what could be more intellectually imperializing than to relegate what are esssentially social scientific concepts like...
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Another incisive comment by a reader of Sharmine... →
A very incisive and well-articulates response by a reader of Sharmine Narwani’s excellent critique of Blumenthal’s theatrics here. Below is the reader’s comment:
John Anngeister says:
June 23, 2012 at 4:52 am
I think Blumenthal’s post shows that no amount of intellect can preserve today’s liberal conscience from being defrauded by the control of information in the permanent war...
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A brilliant critique of the Third Way by a reader
I am reproducing below a letter to me which is a really brilliant critique of the Third Way. The author has permitted me to post her letter using her initials B.H.A. Too bad this wasn’t published as an article:
“Dear Dr.Saad Ghorayeb, This is just to thank you for your courage in denouncing Third Wayer’s. I lost my sleep and nerves these last fifteen months because of the...
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Taking It Out on Palestinians...Israeli Style | Al... →
Inshallah Palestinians will soon return to a liberated homeland and will no longer have to put up with Arabs’ disgusting racism any more.
“That was the case after the army launched its campaign against them in the Saida region after the exile of General Michel Aoun – those in charge at the time thought that would appease the dejected Christians. It was also the case in the insane...
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Forget Hizbullah, Third Wayers are the new...
So let me get this straight: Hizbullah is clearly delusional when it argues that the Assad regime is “indispensable” for the Palestinian cause and for resistance generally. More than this, Hizbullah deemed it a worthwhile sacrifice to lose popular support in the Arab world for its defense of this regime, not because it is actually helping it resist Israel but because the movement is...
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Max Blumenthal's latest interview: I can't find... →
The “great anti-Zionist” speaks: “The Assad regime was running an institution of torture in prisons. Possibly 100,000 people are in prison right now. And this makes Israel look like, you know, a champion of human rights.” I mean how much more Zionist-enabling can one get?
And then this garbage: “Well, I had noticed—I started really paying attention to the coverage...
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Third-Wayers and the Turkish plane
Ok so how does a Third Wayer process the shooting down of the Turkish (i.e. symbol of NATO) warplane? However they view this, there must be some complex mental acrobatics at play. I mean I know they staunchly oppose military intervention and would doubtless want this plane shot down by someone. But how do they rationalize the fact that it was shot down by the Syrian Army, in other words the...
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Hafez Al-Assad in 1976 | Al Akhbar English →
One of the principal arguments Third Wayers make in order to undermine the resistance credentials of the Assad regime, is to invoke Syrian’s military intervention in 1976 on the side of Israel and the Phalange. Yes, this is a historical fact and part of the darker side of Hafez Al-Assad’s foreign policy history, but by 1982 Syria was confronting the Israeli invasion in Lebanon and it...
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Some insightful readers' comments from Akhbar...
I have copy-pasted below some very insightful comments written by readers of Akhbar English. Some are responses to Max Blumenthal’s emotional rant and others are responses to other comments. I think it’s a shame such good analyses get buried in comments’ sections, hence I have reproduced them here. And note that not all of them are die-hard pro-Assad camp, but they have chosen to...
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If Assad sold out the Resistance today the...
Let’s get one thing straight, if today Bashar al-Assad were to relinquish Palestine, the resistance and his alliance with Iran, there would be no more Syrian “revolution”. This is not analysis but fact which is based on the well-documented history of US demands and pressures on the regime to go Arab “moderate” or else….
All that would be left would be...
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C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian... →
And the sad part is that the supporters of the Syrian “revolution” and Third-Wayers will still refuse to see how their position serves Empire after reading reports like these. In fact, for many of them, especially those in the first category, Empire is no longer the principal enemy if at all.
“By helping to vet rebel groups, American intelligence operatives in Turkey hope to...
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Academic imperialism par excellence →
Academic imperialism par excellence: Marc Lynch, a prominent Political Science and International Relations Professor at George Washington University and writer for Foreign Policy, describes my use of Constructivist theory in my Syria piece as “worst use of Constructivism in the history of IR theory”. Well guess what White Man: you don’t own IR theories let alone the IR...
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Al-Akhbar's very dignified and fair response to...
Editor’s Note: Al-Akhbar would like to thank Max Blumenthal for his contributions to Al-Akhbar English. His point of view on many topics of contention, in the US and the region, enriched an ongoing debate that needs the energy and creativity of people like Max in order to find solutions that bring diverging points of view closer together to pave the way out of what may seem like an...
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My response to Max Blumenthal and his ilk
Am not going to bother dissect Max Blumenthal’s silly rant. I didn’t even read it all. But let me just say this: The gloves are off. Blumenthal and his supporters can be reductive and call me a “dictator enabler”, but at least I am not a Zionst-imperialist enabler. And yes all of you who support Max’s incoherent nonsense are exactly that: enablers of American-Zionist...
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More responses to Blumenthal's resignation
Here’s what Pulse Media has to say. “Islamophobia”. Very silly really.
Blumenthal vs al-Akhbar’s Pro-Asad Propaganda
June 20, 2012
The great anti-Zionist Max Blumenthal explains why he has resigned from al-Akhbar, previously a Lebanese leftist newspaper, now a propaganda rag for the sectarian gangster regime in Syria. He examines the disgusting rubbish al-Akhbar has recently...
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Max Blumenthal resigns from Akhbar because of my...
The right to resist is universal: A farewell to Al Akhbar and Assad’s apologists
“Syrian weapons are being used – most unfortunately – against our camp, while the rulers of Damascus continue to repeat that they are here in Lebanon in order to defend our camp. This is a murderous lie, a lie which pains us more than anyone else… But we wish to inform you that we will fight in defense of this camp...
Assad Foreign Policy (I): A History of Consistence... →
My second article in the Third Way on Syria series. Please note that this piece is a part 1 of 2 on Assad’s foreign policy and is therefore not a complete article in itself, so reserve your criticisms until next Tuesday when part 2 will be published. The last article (maybe divided into two parts too depending on length) in the Third Way series will be about some of the political priorities...
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Russia's denial of military drill story: was it...
So Russia appears to have denied reports which appeared in Fars News today, about a joint military exercise with China, Iran and Syria. Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service, reported today:
“Russia has denied reports in media that it allegedly planned joint military exercises with China and Iran on Syrian territory.
‘This is absurd’, Mr....
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Iran, Russia, China, Syria to Stage Biggest Joint...
Let the war games begin. Hopefully this will serve as a deterrent to a real war launched by NATO et al against Syria and/or an Israeli or US strike on Iran. Original story appeared in the semi-official Iranian news agency, Fars News here, but has since been reproduced by mainstream Israeli media such as the Jerusalem Post here, Haaretz here and Ynet News here. It has also appeared in Arab and...
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Syria Is No Longer in Syrian Hands | Al Akhbar... →
I don’t agree with certain parts of my colleague’s, Nicholas Nassif, assessment in his article for al-Akhbar, but it still contains important information and some useful insights:
Syria is no longer in Syrian hands. Neither of the rival sides, which are incapable of prevailing by force, can any longer take a step back or – more importantly – forward without inflicting a high cost on...
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US Training Syrian Opposition In Cyber Warfare,... →
Article from Lebanon’s As-Safir translated by AL-Monitor: Haifa Zaaiter reviews Western reports on the US training Syrian dissidents as “cyberwarriors.” Opposition fighters are being trained to document and circulate footage of confrontations and US-funded programs are providing software to the fighters to help them encrypt their communications and bypass government firewalls.
For full...
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Parenti's thoughts on "the conspiracy"
A brilliant excerpt by Michael Parenti on the concept of conspiracy, quoted in June Terpstra’s blog here:
Many people have been programmed by propagandists to react negatively when they hear the word “conspiracy.” They treat anyone who investigates actual conspiracies as an oddball and call them “conspiracy buff” in an attempt to dismiss what is being said and what...
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On being labeled a "conspiracy theorist"
Was just commenting on a Facebook thread about how frustrating it was to feel hesitant about referring to the Northwoods’ document (a declassified report which was drafted by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962, proposing to commit false flag operations on US soil—terrorism and such—which would then be blamed on the Castro government) in relation to the Houla massacre, as...
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More evidence that the Houla massacre was most... →
This Der Spiegel report is a few months old but so timely now considering the accusations surrounding the Houla massacre. The report is all the more relevant since an alternative narrative (and even reports in mainstream media) has emerged which claims that the rebels massacred families who were Sunni converts to Shi’ism and the relatives of a Syrian Sunni MP—all of whom they would logically...
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Old Debate on Engaging Iran
An old 2009 debate I had with former US Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk on al-Jazeera’s Riz Khan show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hGw8C2KFrM&feature=relmfu
See part 2 of the debate here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5iTLSJtAFE&feature=relmfu
I believe the content of the debate “Obama’s engagement in Iran” is still relevant to today’s talks between Iran and the 6 powers (see AP...
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AP: Iran-6 power nuke meeting begins
Iran- 6 Power Nuke Meeting begins
GEORGE JAHN and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) - Iran and six world powers sought elusive common ground Monday in talks meant to reduce tensions over Tehran’s nuclear activities that both sides see as crucial to their interests but which are stalled by reluctance to commit to each other’s demands.
Diplomats from several nations meeting with Iran in...
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Whose cause is Palestine?
“Some have raised the question recently, if we should still fight for Palestine if the Palestinians themselves (i.e. Hamas) turn to non violent resistance. It got me thinking about how these Arab uprisings have introduced a new liberal democratic political discourse which has effectively removed Palestine from the forefront of Arabs’ concerns given that they are too engrossed in their own domestic...
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Part 2 of F.A.Z's report on the Houla Massacre:...
Blogger, Moon of Alabama, translates and comments on part 2 of the original Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report which blamed armed rebels rather than the regime for the Houla...
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'Shades Of Grey'- Rethinking The Houla Massacre →
I can’t even select important excerpts. You have to read this excellent and exhaustive survey of articles in western mainstream media which admit, whether directly or indirectly, that nobody really knows who committed the Houla massacre.
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BBC World News editor acknowledges media... →
A MUST READ, BBC World News Editor admits following about Syria: “In the aftermath of the massacre at Houla last month, initial reports said some of the 49 children and 34 women killed had their throats cut. In Damascus, Western officials told me the subsequent investigation revealed none of those found dead had been killed in such a brutal manner. Moreover, while Syrian forces had shelled...
