Putin: it would be "utter nonsense" for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons when it was winning its war with rebels

Putin: it would be "utter nonsense" for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons when it was winning its war with rebels

    Saturday, August 31, 2013   No comments

Putin told journalists that if Obama had evidence Assad's forces had the chemical weapons and launched the attack, Washington should present it to the U.N. weapons inspectors and the Security Council.

"I am convinced that it (the chemical attack) is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict, and who want to win the support of powerful members of the international arena, especially the United States," Putin said.

The Russian president said Obama, as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, should remember the impact any U.S. attack would have on Syrian civilians.

World powers should discuss the Syrian crisis at a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations in St. Petersburg next week, he added. "This (G20 summit) is a good platform to discuss the problem. Why not use it?" Putin said.

read more >>

U.S. intelligence assessment of August 21 suspected chemical-weapons attack near Damascus cites

U.S. intelligence assessment of August 21 suspected chemical-weapons attack near Damascus cites

    Friday, August 30, 2013   No comments

A U.S. intelligence assessment of last week’s suspected chemical-

weapons attack near Damascus cites intercepted communications that allegedly showed Syrian government officials making preparations to use chemical weapons three days before the attack and then launching efforts afterward to cover it up. While it did not present evidence showing complicity by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or his inner circle, it asserts “with high confidence” that government forces were behind the attack.

U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government’s Use of Chemical Weapons

Representative Adam Smith: Simply lashing out with military force under the banner of 'doing something' will not secure our interests in Syria

Representative Adam Smith: Simply lashing out with military force under the banner of 'doing something' will not secure our interests in Syria

    Friday, August 30, 2013   No comments

What seemed inevitable just 48 hours ago – an imminent U.S. missile attack on Syrian targets in response to an alleged chemical attack that reportedly killed hundreds of Syrian citizens – stalled Thursday as the justification for military action faced increasing questioning both here and abroad.

Growing calls by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers for consultations with, if not formal authorisation by, Congress before Obama takes any military action have raised the potential political costs on Capitol Hill if Obama proceeds on his own.

While the administration continues to express certainty that the Syrian government was responsible for the alleged Aug. 21 attack, the Associated Press, quoting U.S. intelligence officials, reported Thursday that such a case fell short of a “slam dunk” – a reference to then-CIA director George Tenet’s mistaken declaration that President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Some officials cited in the story said they could not entirely rule out the possibility that rebels were responsible for the attack on a Damascus suburb – as alleged by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

According to AP, officials could not tie Assad or his inner circle to any directive ordering the use of chemical weapons or even to foreknowledge of the attack, suggesting that the decision may have made by lower-ranking military officers or a rogue commander.

The administration has scheduled a telephone conference call with members of Congress for Thursday evening, but officials said the briefing would not include classified information that could confirm the nature of the attack or who was responsible. A White House spokesman said the administration still hopes to release an unclassified intelligence assessment by the weekend.

Meanwhile, the administration faced other problems overseas, not least of which was the refusal earlier this week of the Arab League to explicitly endorse a military attack and the appeals by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, to await the findings of U.N. inspectors who have been in Syria this week investigating the site of the alleged attack, taking testimony and blood samples from its victims. Ban said Thursday the inspectors would not leave Syria until Saturday.

read more >>

After initially insisting that Syria give United Nations investigators unimpeded access to the site of an alleged nerve gas attack, the administration of President Barack Obama reversed its position on Sunday and tried unsuccessfully to get the U.N. to call off its investigation

After initially insisting that Syria give United Nations investigators unimpeded access to the site of an alleged nerve gas attack, the administration of President Barack Obama reversed its position on Sunday and tried unsuccessfully to get the U.N. to call off its investigation

    Thursday, August 29, 2013   No comments

In Rush to Strike Syria, U.S. Tried to Derail U.N. Probe.

The administration’s reversal, which came within hours of the deal reached between Syria and the U.N., was reported by the Wall Street Journal Monday and effectively confirmed by a State Department spokesperson later that day.

In his press appearance Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry, who intervened with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to call off the investigation, dismissed the U.N. investigation as coming too late to obtain valid evidence on the attack that Syrian opposition sources claimed killed as many 1,300 people.

The sudden reversal and overt hostility toward the U.N. investigation, which coincides with indications that the administration is planning a major military strike against Syria in the coming days, suggests that the administration sees the U.N. as hindering its plans for an attack.

Kerry asserted Monday that he had warned Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem last Thursday that Syria had to give the U.N. team immediate access to the site and stop the shelling there, which he said was “systematically destroying evidence”. He called the Syria-U.N. deal to allow investigators unrestricted access “too late to be credible”.

After the deal was announced on Sunday, however, Kerry pushed Ban in a phone call to call off the investigation completely.

The Wall Street Journal reported the pressure on Ban without mentioning Kerry by name. It said unnamed “U.S. officials” had told the secretary-general that it was “no longer safe for the inspectors to remain in Syria and that their mission was pointless.”

But Ban, who has generally been regarded as a pliable instrument of U.S. policy, refused to withdraw the U.N. team and instead “stood firm on principle”, the Journal reported. He was said to have ordered the U.N. inspectors to “continue their work”.

read more >>

We should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But now?

We should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But now?

    Thursday, August 29, 2013   No comments

Before the stupidest Western war in the history of the modern world begins – I am, of course, referring to the attack on Syria that we all now have to swallow – it might be as well to say that the Cruise missiles which we confidently expect to sweep onto one of mankind’s oldest cities have absolutely nothing to do with Syria.

They are intended to harm Iran. They are intended to strike at the Islamic Republic now that it has a new and vibrant president – as opposed to the crackpot Mahmoud Ahmedinejad – and when it just might be a little more stable.  Iran is Israel’s enemy.  Iran is therefore, naturally, America’s enemy.  So there is nothing pleasant about the regime in Damascus.  Nor do these comments let the regime off the hook when it comes to mass gassing.  But I am old enough to remember that when Iraq – then America’s ally – used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad.  Indeed, that attack would have to wait until 2003, when Saddam no longer had any gas or any of the other weapons we nightmared over.  And I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on America’s enemy whom Saddam was then fighting on our behalf.  And thousands – not hundreds – died in Hallabjah.  But there you go.  Different days, different standards.

read more >>

A Pilgrimage to a Person

A Pilgrimage to a Person

    Thursday, August 29, 2013   No comments

When you are not with close friends,
you are not in the presence.

It is sad to leave the people you travel with.
How much more so those who remind you of God.
Hurry back to the ones protecting you.

On every trip, have only one objective,
to meet those who are friends
inside the presence.

If you stay home, keep the same purpose,
to meet the innermost presence
as it lives in people.

Be a pilgrim to the Ka`ba inside a human being,and Mecca will rise into view on its own.

__________
A Rumi's poem, translated by Coleman Barks

YPG Commander: Kurds Are Bulwark Against Islamic Extremism in Syria

YPG Commander: Kurds Are Bulwark Against Islamic Extremism in Syria

    Wednesday, August 28, 2013   No comments

Sipan Hemo, commander of the controversial People’s Defense Units (YPG) in Syria, is adamant: “We are not a military wing of any party,” he says in an interview with Rudaw. Hemo denies that the militia is part of the dominant Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has taken control of Syria’s Kurdish areas and has friendly ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PYD has been accused by some of shady ties with the Damascus regime, and of heavy-handed rule over the Kurdish regions. Hemo, whose fighters have been recently involved in deadly clashes with the radical Islamic Jabhat al-Nusra, says that Turkey has nothing to fear from the YPG units. “We see radical Islam as a threat not only to ourselves, but also to the Turkish people and the world as well,” he insists. Here is his interview:
read interview >>

Doctors without Borders: Evidence Syrian rebels used sarin, nerve gas, in the Damascus suburb attack

Doctors without Borders: Evidence Syrian rebels used sarin, nerve gas, in the Damascus suburb attack

    Wednesday, August 28, 2013   No comments

French charity Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) reported that 355 people died in the attack.  However, evidence from witnesses indicates Syrian rebels used a chemical weapon in last week’s attack, not regime forces, a senior UN official has said.

Carla del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said there were "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof," that rebels had used sarin nerve gas in the Damascus suburb attack.

She added that even so, more investigation was needed, as she had not yet seen evidence that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons. 

The Syrian government also maintains that it is the rebels that are using chemical weapons and not the government.  Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Maqdad, slammed the US, UK and France for helping rebel groups use chemical weapons.

read article >>

Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?

Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?

    Tuesday, August 27, 2013   No comments

If Barack Obama decides to attack the Syrian regime, he has ensured – for the very first time in history – that the United States will be on the same side as al-Qa’ida.
Quite an alliance! Was it not the Three Musketeers who shouted “All for one and one for all” each time they sought combat? This really should be the new battle cry if – or when – the statesmen of the Western world go to war against Bashar al-Assad.

The men who destroyed so many thousands on 9/11 will then be fighting alongside the very nation whose innocents they so cruelly murdered almost exactly 12 years ago. Quite an achievement for Obama, Cameron, Hollande and the rest of the miniature warlords.

This, of course, will not be trumpeted by the Pentagon or the White House – nor, I suppose, by al-Qa’ida – though they are both trying to destroy Bashar. So are the Nusra front, one of al-Qa’ida’s affiliates. But it does raise some interesting possibilities.

Maybe the Americans should ask al-Qa’ida for intelligence help – after all, this is the group with “boots on the ground”, something the Americans have no interest in doing. And maybe al-Qa’ida could offer some target information facilities to the country which usually claims that the supporters of al-Qa’ida, rather than the Syrians, are the most wanted men in the world.

read the full article >>

Military strikes on Syria 'as early as Thursday,' US officials say

Military strikes on Syria 'as early as Thursday,' US officials say

    Tuesday, August 27, 2013   No comments

By Jim Miklaszewski, Catherine Chomiak and Erin McClam, NBC News
The United States could hit Syria with three days of missile strikes, perhaps beginning Thursday, in an attack meant more to send a message to the Syrian regime than to cripple its military, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.
The disclosure added to a growing drumbeat around the world for military action against Syria, believed to have used chemical weapons in recent days against scores of civilians and rebels who have been fighting the government for two years.
In three days of strikes, the Pentagon could assess the effectiveness of the first wave and target what was missed in further rounds, the officials said.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

.

read more >>

The Egyptian military uses religion to keep troops from deserting or disobeying orders

The Egyptian military uses religion to keep troops from deserting or disobeying orders

    Tuesday, August 27, 2013   No comments

The Egyptian military uses religion to keep troops from deserting or disobeying orders:

'A Slow Death': How the War Is Destroying Syria's Economy

'A Slow Death': How the War Is Destroying Syria's Economy

    Tuesday, August 27, 2013   No comments

Food is scarce in Syria, the currency is collapsing and entire industries have come to a standstill. But not even economic suffering brought on by the civil war will likely help end it.

It's a sector that ought to be booming. Businessman Wissam* works in hospital supplies. He sells bandages, needles and disinfectants -- all products for which there is a great need in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil war. But unfortunately, Wissam has little opportunity to sell his wares.

"More than 50 percent of the Syrian healthcare system's infrastructure has been destroyed," says the man in his mid 40s. Of the 75 state-run hospitals, just 30 remain in operation. In the embattled city of Homs, just one of 20 hospitals remains open. The Al-Kindi Hospital in Aleppo, once the largest and most modern medical facility in the country, is now a pile of ash.

Wissam is matter-of-fact about the situation. The destruction of the hospitals is widespread, he says, and those who are injured or sick receive hardly any medical care. The business is "dying a slow death," he adds.

While the world debates what its reaction should be to what was likely a chemical weapons attack in Syria last week, and the United States positions its destroyers off the country's coast, much of the focus has been on the humanitarian crisis caused by two-and-a-half years of war. But the fighting has also crippled Syria's economy, which could potentially be a factor in ending the turmoil.

For this reason, facts and figures about the economic impact of the war are state secrets. There are, however, indications of how precarious the situation may be, and these reflect what Wissam says about the collapse of the health sector.

read more >>

Gulf Islamists irked as monarchs back Egypt's generals

Gulf Islamists irked as monarchs back Egypt's generals

    Monday, August 26, 2013   No comments

A scuffle broke the reflective atmosphere of Friday prayers in Riyadh's al-Ferdous mosque after the imam deplored the recent bloody crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters by the military in nearby Egypt.

The fight between members of the congregation, recorded on a widely circulated Youtube clip and reported by the daily al-Hayat newspaper, demonstrated how high feelings are running in the devoutly Muslim kingdom.

While they have been careful to express only muted dissent in public, Islamists and some other conservative Gulf Muslims are quietly seething at Saudi Arabia's whole-hearted backing of Egyptian army chief General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

After Sisi's military seized power last month, a group of clerics in the kingdom signed a letter calling on King Abdullah to reverse his position, and since the violence began two weeks ago, many Saudis have spoken out on social media.

"For Riyadh to be in the frontline of a confrontation like what is taking place in Egypt is unprecedented. It is making ripples inside Saudi Arabia," said a Saudi journalist.

Saudi King Abdullah and the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, and to a lesser extent of Kuwait, have long distrusted the Muslim Brotherhood, which they feared would use its power in Egypt to agitate for political change across the Middle East.

When Sisi ousted Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood as president, the three monarchies promptly gave Egypt's secular new government $12 billion in aid. When, with much bloodshed, security forces moved to clear Brotherhood protest camps, they all spoke strongly in support.

Though Islamist anger is unlikely to erupt in a significant public way at the moment, or to change Gulf support for Sisi, analysts say, it is something the region's states are watching.

The al-Saud family has always regarded Islamist groups as the biggest threat to its rule over a country where appeals to religious sentiment can never be lightly dismissed and where Muslim militants have previously targeted the state.

Last decade it fought off an al Qaeda campaign of attacks targeting officials and foreigners that killed hundreds. In the 1990s, the Sahwa, or "awakening", movement inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood demanded political reforms that would have weakened the ruling family.

That history of Islamist opposition to the Saudi authorities was echoed on Sunday in a letter published by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Rubaish, the main ideologue of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attempting to leverage public disquiet over Egypt.

"The Saudi position is generally in favour of Godlessness," he wrote.

Full article >>

Tension between Gulf countries and Turkey may harm economic relations

Tension between Gulf countries and Turkey may harm economic relations

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's critical remarks about some Gulf countries that have offered support for the coup in Egypt may harm Turkey's business ties with the Gulf region, analysts believe.
Criticizing Erdoğan's bitingly disapproving rhetoric of their foreign policy, Hüseyin Bağcı, head of international relations at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara (ODTÜ), underlined that if Turkey maintains its current stance against the Gulf countries, economic relations may face challenges. 

“If Erdoğan insists on his ‘conflict with everyone' discourse, Turkey will head toward political instability, which may frighten Arab investors,” Bağcı said, adding that the main question now is whether or not Turkey will experience political instability.



On Monday, Erdoğan stepped up his criticism of Muslim countries, saying: “The Islamic world is like the brothers of the Prophet Yusuf, who threw him down a well. As in the case of the brothers of the Prophet Yusuf, Allah will shame those in the Islamic world betraying their brothers and sisters in Egypt.” Although Erdoğan did not name specific states supporting the coup in Egypt, he noted that there are rich people in the Islamic world as well as poor and it is those rich people who support dictators.

Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ criticized the Gulf countries, saying that they are supporting the coup to better control Egypt, as “puppet administrations” are easier to control than democratic ones. Bozdağ stated that Egypt is surrounded by numerous monarchic administrations, and added: “Those people [living under those administrations] might say: ‘Look how it went in Egypt; a great success was achieved. Why shouldn't this happen here to us?'” Bozdağ noted that it is clear the monarchies in the Gulf are disturbed by the changes in Egypt.

read more >>

Erdoğan says history will curse Al-Azhar Sheikh for endorsing coup

Erdoğan says history will curse Al-Azhar Sheikh for endorsing coup

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

Turkey's prime minister has slammed Egypt's leading Islamic cleric for endorsing the military coup in Egypt, saying that history will curse scholars like him.
Ahmet al-Tayed, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, backed an army-sponsored roadmap on July 3 which removed former President Mohammed Morsi, suspended the constitution and called for early presidential and parliamentary elections.

The leader of Cairo's ancient seat of Sunni Muslim learning made a brief statement following an announcement by the head of the armed forces that deposed the elected president, endorsing the military coup. 

Speaking at a university named after him in Rize, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said a scholar is the one who doesn't compromise from his honor no matter what the consequences are, in an apparent reference to Al-Azhar Sheikh. He said if a politician like him tells a scholar something that is not true, the scholar should reject this.

Erdoğan said being silent in the face of events in Egypt means taking on a tremendous burden. He complained that scholars and universities failed to voice their opposition to the military coup in Egypt, despite expectations for the opposite. He provided the sheikh of Al-Azhar as an example, as he endorsed the Egypt coup.

read more >>

A senior Turkish diplomat has strictly denied a news report that cited a Syrian rebel operative as saying that 400 tons of arms have been sent into Syria from Turkey

A senior Turkish diplomat has strictly denied a news report that cited a Syrian rebel operative as saying that 400 tons of arms have been sent into Syria from Turkey

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

“As has been the case with similar news reports in the past, this claim is definitely not true,” the diplomat, speaking under condition of anonymity, told the Hürriyet Daily news on Aug. 25, recalling Ankara’s earlier statements that Turkey was not involved in alleged arms deliveries to the Syrian rebels.

Earlier, opposition sources had claimed that 400 tons of arms had been sent into Syria from Turkey to boost insurgent capabilities against Syrian government forces, after a suspected chemical weapons strike on rebellious suburbs of Damascus.



The source said the Gulf-financed shipment, which crossed from the Turkish province of Hatay in the past 24 hours, was one of the single biggest shipments to reach rebel brigades since the uprising turned violent two years ago.

“20 trailers crossed from Turkey and are being distributed to arms depots for several brigades across the north,” Mohammad Salam, a rebel operative who witnessed the crossing from an undisclosed location in Hatay, told Reuters.

read more >>

Tunisia opposition starts week of protests calling for resignation of Islamist-led government

Tunisia opposition starts week of protests calling for resignation of Islamist-led government

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

TUNIS, Tunisia — Thousands of Tunisians have demonstrated in front of the national assembly calling for the resignation of the Islamist-led government.

Saturday night's demonstration kicked off a planned week of protests by a coalition of opposition parties calling for the departure of the government because of what they say is its inability to guarantee security and the economy of the country.

The National Salvation Front includes right- and left-wing political parties demanding the current Islamist-led government be replaced by a technocratic cabinet to organize new elections.

Protesters chanted "we tried you, you failed, now leave."

Tunisia's main labor union has been mediating between the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party running the government and the opposition.

Report: Syrian soldiers find chemical agents in rebel tunnels

Report: Syrian soldiers find chemical agents in rebel tunnels

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

According to Reuters, Syrian state television reported that some soldiers were overcome by fumes after coming across the chemical agents in the tunnels while patroling Jobar.

The soldiers were taken away by ambulance, and government forces were preparing to bomb the insurgent-held suburb, according to state TV.

Some called the claim a thinly-veiled attempt to strengthen the government's denials of responsibility for the reported nerve gas attack that killed hundreds earlier this week.

Obama and his security team met Saturday to discuss those reports and weigh possible military options.
read more >>

Polls: Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed

Polls: Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed

    Sunday, August 25, 2013   No comments

About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.

More Americans would back intervention if it is established that chemical weapons have been used, but even that support has dipped in recent days - just as Syria's civil war has escalated and the images of hundreds of civilians allegedly killed by chemicals appeared on television screens and the Internet.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken August 19-23, found that 25 percent of Americans would support U.S. intervention if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces used chemicals to attack civilians, while 46 percent would oppose it. That represented a decline in backing for U.S. action since August 13, when Reuters/Ipsos tracking polls found that 30.2 percent of Americans supported intervention in Syria if chemicals had been used, while 41.6 percent did not.

read more >>

POV | The Law in These Parts

POV | The Law in These Parts

    Saturday, August 24, 2013   No comments

Acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz has pulled off a tour-de-force examination of the system of military administration used by Israel since the Six Day War of 1967 - featuring the system's leading creators. In a series of thoughtful and candid interviews, Israeli judges, prosecutors and legal advisers paint a complex picture of the Middle East conflict.

Saudis give Egypt ‘blank cheque’: Saudi Arabia and several conservative Gulf Emirates have pledged to support Egypt’s interim authorities as they continue their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood

Saudis give Egypt ‘blank cheque’: Saudi Arabia and several conservative Gulf Emirates have pledged to support Egypt’s interim authorities as they continue their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood

    Friday, August 23, 2013   No comments

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates – with the notable exception of Qatar – remain unfazed by last week’s bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, events that left around 1,000 people dead and many more wounded.

These conservative monarchies have voiced their support for the country’s army since it deposed the democratically-elected Islamist leader on July 3 and are maintaining their promise of financial support for the interim authorities despite severe international misgivings, especially in the West.

The European Union and the United States are pondering cutting off their financial aid to Egypt. But the Authorities in Cairo have the luxury of a blank cheque from the Saudis who say they are prepared to make up the shortfall of any drop in Western cash.

This promise follows a commitment, made well before the brutal crackdown on pro-Morsi sit-in camps across Egypt, by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to give the interim authorities in Cairo two billion dollars.

Not having to rely on Western support gives the Egyptian authorities far more leeway in continuing its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

“If General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi [head of the Egyptian army] has a sense of impunity in his dealings with the Brotherhood, this is all down to the blank cheque given him by the Saudis and the Gulf Emirates [ with the exception of Qatar]," Karim Sader, a political scientist and consultant on the Gulf states, told FRANCE 24. “It could wholly substitute any aid withdrawn or frozen by the EU.”

Last week, Saudi King Abdullah voiced his personal support for Egypt’s interim authorities in its battle against “terrorism and foreign influences”.

read more >>

When anti-terrorism laws are used to harass journalists (and/or their partners)

When anti-terrorism laws are used to harass journalists (and/or their partners)

    Thursday, August 22, 2013   No comments

David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald who broke the NSA sruvelance story in June, was detained by British intelligence authorities to pressure the Guardian into ceasing its reporting on British and American surveillance activities.  Miranda was interrogated under a law meant to aid the pursuit of terrorists.


The Guardian has been on the front lines of exposing vast surveillance undertaken by the US and the UK -- and has been targeted by the authorities as a result. In an interview, Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger talks about his confrontation with the government and why the scandal isn't making waves in Britain.

read interview >>

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Israel was behind the military coup that ousted Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Israel was behind the military coup that ousted Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi

    Tuesday, August 20, 2013   No comments

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that Israel was behind the military coup that ousted Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in early July, adding that the Turkish government has evidence to prove the Israeli hand in it.
“Israel is behind the coup in Egypt. We have evidence,” Erdoğan told members of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at a meeting in Ankara on Tuesday.

With regards to his evidence, Erdoğan noted a French intellectual, without mentioning his name, who, according to Erdoğan, said at a 2011 meeting in France that the Muslim Brotherhood would never be in power even if elected because “democracy is not the ballot box.” Erdoğan stressed the Jewish identity of the French intellectual.

“If we stay silent in the face of the coup in Egypt, we will not have the right to say something if they set the same trap for us in the future,” said Erdoğan.

The Israeli Consulate in İstanbul released a statement on Tuesday, quoting Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor's comments on Erdoğan's remarks regarding Israel. Palmor reportedly said, “This is one of those statements that is well worth not commenting on.”

The Turkish prime minister also stepped up his criticisms of Muslim countries, saying: “The Islamic world is like the brothers of the Prophet Yusuf, who threw him down the well. As in the case of the brothers of the Prophet Yusuf, Allah will shame those in the Islamic world betraying their brothers and sisters in Egypt.”

read more >>

10 biggest US Defense contracts involving direct military aid to Egypt from 2009 to 2011

10 biggest US Defense contracts involving direct military aid to Egypt from 2009 to 2011

    Tuesday, August 20, 2013   No comments

The irony is thick: Obama calls on Egypt’s interim government to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters, but continues to give it $1.3 billion a year in military aid.


For decades, Egypt has been one of the largest recipients of US foreign military aid, receiving everything from F-16s to teargas grenades.

So who are the companies reaping the benefits?

The list below were the 10 biggest US Defense contracts involving direct military aid to Egypt from 2009 to 2011, according to The Institute for Southern Studies.


See the table at the bottom of the page for full details of the contracts.

read more >>

PORTRAIT OF A CAIRO LIBERAL AS A MILITARY BACKER

PORTRAIT OF A CAIRO LIBERAL AS A MILITARY BACKER

    Tuesday, August 20, 2013   No comments

In Cairo Friday morning, before the midday call to prayer and an afternoon of protest marches that resolved in violence, chaos, and the overnight siege of a mosque, I jumped into a taxi and slipped across the Nile into the quiet, semi-suburban neighborhood of Dokki. I was there to meet with Mohammed Aboul-Ghar, a seventy-three-year-old academic and politician who has been a leading figure in Egypt’s liberal establishment, and now represents one of the most confounding elements of the country’s current crisis: the wholesale alignment of old-guard liberals with the military.

Aboul-Ghar’s reputation in pro-democracy politics is well earned. In 2004, during the era of Hosni Mubarak, Aboul-Ghar co-founded the March 9th organization, a group of professors who bravely fought against the interference of state-security services into the operations of Egypt’s universities. In the run up to the 2011 revolution, he was an organizer and spokesman for the National Association for Change, an anti-authoritarian organization led by Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize Winner and Egypt’s most prominent liberal politician. And after Mubarak finally fell, he helped create what many viewed as the most substantial political party for liberals, the Social Democratic Party. That fall, as a temporary military regime ruled Egypt, I had met with Aboul-Ghar, who happily assured me that the military would soon be leaving the management of the country to civilians. “My feeling is that the military wants to have a safe retreat,” he said then. “A safe retreat and all their previous privileges.”

read more >>

The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq

The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq

    Monday, August 19, 2013   No comments

The CIA has publicly admitted for the first time that it was behind the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, in documents that also show how the British government tried to block the release of information about its own involvement in his overthrow.

On the 60th anniversary of an event often invoked by Iranians as evidence of western meddling, the US national security archive at George Washington University published a series of declassified CIA documents.

"[T]he military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," reads a previously excised section of an internal CIA history titled The Battle for Iran.

The documents, published on the archive's website under freedom of information laws, describe in detail how the US – with British help – engineered the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain's MI6.

Britain, and in particular Sir Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary, regarded Mosaddeq as a serious threat to its strategic and economic interests after the Iranian leader nationalised the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, latterly known as BP. But the UK needed US support. The Eisenhower administration in Washington was easily persuaded.

British documents show how senior officials in the 1970s tried to stop Washington from releasing documents that would be "very embarrassing" to the UK.

read more >>   

read also: US President Barack Obama made a major gesture of conciliation to Iran on Thursday when he admitted US involvement in the 1953 coup which overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh... read more >>

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Egypt’s interim rulers of committing state terrorism and compared army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Egypt’s interim rulers of committing state terrorism and compared army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad

    Sunday, August 18, 2013   No comments

“The Al-Fath Mosque is under siege. People’s place of worship is innocent. They have burned, destroyed our mosques in Syria and in Egypt. Either Bashar or Sisi, there is no difference between them. There is no salvation with oppression,” Erdoğan said during a defiant speech in the northwestern province of Bursa Aug. 17 where he attended the launching ceremony of an urban renovation project.

Erdoğan also slammed Egyptian officials for describing supporters of toppled President Mohamed Morsi as “terrorists.”

“People are saying ‘we ask for our vote to be honored.’ But there are those calling them terrorists. But I am saying that state terrorism is currently underway in Egypt,” Erdoğan said.
 

“There are currently two paths in Egypt: Those who follow the Pharaoh, and those who follow Moses,” he added.    

Erdoğan condemned the attacks against worship places, including churches, but said that supporters of Muslim Brotherhood where mostly protecting those places from being vandalized.

He also argued that Turkey could be next for "those who were stirring unrest" in Egypt.

The tension between the countries peaked as Turkey recalled its ambassador in Cairo, sparking a reciprocal move by Egypt. Egypt’s Ankara envoy, Abdurrahman Selahaddin, had urged Turkey not to side solely with the Muslim Brotherhood and respect “all Egyptians.”

However, Erdoğan refused to step back from his defiant rhetoric vis-à-vis the July 3 military takeover, accusing those who have financially helped the “coup regime” of being accomplices to its actions. He also assured that Ankara was pursuing diplomatic efforts to increase pressure on the interim government that took power following the military coup.

“We had wanted the United Nations Security Council to speak with a fair and determined voice. The Organization of the Islamic Conference and the European Union have no face left to look at in the mirror,” he said.

Erdoğan said Turkey and Qatar had been the only supporters of the Morsi government, while also thanking the Netherlands and Denmark for their position during the current Egyptian turmoil.

Erdoğan saluted several times the crowd with the 'Rabaa' sign made by raising four fingers, which has become the symbol of the killings in Egypt and at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square where the supporters of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi have gathered for weeks.

read more >>

Propaganda Trap: Egyptian Elite Succumb to the Hate Virus

Propaganda Trap: Egyptian Elite Succumb to the Hate Virus

    Saturday, August 17, 2013   No comments

Just weeks ago, they decried police violence and the heavy-handed state apparatus. Now, after over 600 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were killed on Wednesday, the Egyptian elite is silent. Those who dare to voice empathy are given a hostile reception.

Egyptian Amir Salim has the classic profile of a revolutionary. As a politically engaged young lawyer, he specialized in human rights cases, a focus which earned him nine trips to jail under Hosni Mubarak. When the revolt against the aging despot gained traction in 2011, Salim quickly became one of its spokesmen. After Mubarak's fall, he founded an organization which promulgated the creation of a civilian state free from military meddling. In a book published in 2012, he dissected the structures of Mubarak's police state.

Now, the same police that Salim attacked so vehemently in his book, has responded to demonstrations in Cairo with shocking brutality. At least 623 people, the vast majority of them civilians, were killed in street battles earlier this week.
And what is Salim doing? Sitting in a popular café in the Cairo city center, he says things like this: "The Muslim Brothers are a sickness and the police have to eradicate them." And: "The police and the army were only defending themselves." He adds that "the problem will only have been solved when the last Muslim Brother who causes problems is locked away in prison." When asked about the obvious human rights violations perpetrated on the dead and wounded, he said: "And what about the rights of those who live near the protest camps? What about their right to be able to enjoy their apartment?"

Welcome to Egypt under General Abd al-Fattah al-Sissi. The country is so polarized that people are no longer able to feel any empathy whatsoever for others. It is a country in which the smartest and most critically thinking intellectuals are now spewing little more than propaganda, with people on both sides of the deep political divide displaying a penchant for simplification, vilification and agitation. Those who ask critical questions run the risk of being physically attacked, an experience that many foreign journalists have encountered in recent days

read more >>

On the streets of Cairo it's not just a fledgling democracy that lies in ruin. US policy too is in tatters - in the eyes of many - or at least America's reputation and credibility

On the streets of Cairo it's not just a fledgling democracy that lies in ruin. US policy too is in tatters - in the eyes of many - or at least America's reputation and credibility

    Saturday, August 17, 2013   No comments

Since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the US has struggled to strike a balance between support for the tenuous progress towards democracy and protection of its national security interests.

The White House has tried hard to work with whoever is in power in Egypt but has ended up with no friends and little influence in Cairo.

Washington's recent diplomatic efforts in Egypt have failed one after the other. Up until his removal from power, the US tried to counsel Mr Morsi to accept a compromise with the army and the protesters.

The US also appealed to the military not to remove Mr Morsi. After the coup, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns travelled to Cairo twice to help mediate between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. But even getting an audience in Cairo these days is a hard task for US officials.

The US refrained from calling Mr Morsi's removal a coup for fear of upsetting the country's generals and the millions who demanded Mr Morsi's departure.

read more >>

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said that radical Sunni Islamists were likely behind a car bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the Lebanese group's stronghold in southern Beirut

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said that radical Sunni Islamists were likely behind a car bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the Lebanese group's stronghold in southern Beirut

    Saturday, August 17, 2013   No comments

The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah on Friday blamed Sunni extremists for a string of attacks targeting the group’s strongholds over the past few months, including a car bombing that killed 22 people and wounded more than 300 a day earlier.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said all preliminary investigations showed Takfiri groups - a term for Sunni radicals - were likely behind the bombing in a predominantly Shiite southern suburb of Beirut, as well as other recent attacks.

He also pledged to double the number of Hezbollah fighters in neighboring Syria, who have travelled there to support the regime of President Bashar Assad.

“If you think that by killing our women and children ... and destroying our neighborhoods, villages and cities we will retreat or back away from our position, you are wrong,” he said in a speech to supporters marking the end of the 2006 monthlong war with Israel.

“If the battle with these terrorist Takfiris requires for me personally and all of Hezbollah to go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he said, drawing thunderous applause from thousands of supporters gathered in a village in south Lebanon bordering Israel. The crowd watched him speak on a large screen via satellite link.

read more >>

Murdering the Wretched of the Earth

Murdering the Wretched of the Earth

    Saturday, August 17, 2013   No comments

Radical Islam is the last refuge of the Muslim poor. The mandated five prayers a day give the only real structure to the lives of impoverished believers. The careful rituals of washing before prayers in the mosque, the strict moral code, along with the understanding that life has an ultimate purpose and meaning, keep hundreds of millions of destitute Muslims from despair. The fundamentalist ideology that rises from oppression is rigid and unforgiving. It radically splits the world into black and white, good and evil, apostates and believers. It is bigoted and cruel to women, Jews, Christians and secularists, along with gays and lesbians. But at the same time it offers to those on the very bottom of society a final refuge and hope. The massacres of hundreds of believers in the streets of Cairo signal not only an assault against a religious ideology, not only a return to the brutal police state of Hosni Mubarak, but the start of a holy war that will turn Egypt and other poor regions of the globe into a caldron of blood and suffering.

read more >>

Commander Haji Ahmad told Firat News that his fighters killed two members of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) in the last two days of clashes in the region of Sad Shahab where the Kurdish villages are located

Commander Haji Ahmad told Firat News that his fighters killed two members of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) in the last two days of clashes in the region of Sad Shahab where the Kurdish villages are located

    Friday, August 16, 2013   No comments

The general commander of Jabhat al-Akrad said 117 Kurdish villages in the Aleppo / Bab / Azzaz triangle are under attack by al-Qaeda-linked groups and several brigades of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The attacks came as a result of  a meeting attended by more 70 commanders of the FSA in Turkey last July.

Commander Haji Ahmad told Firat News that his fighters killed two members of the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) in the last two days of clashes in the region of Sad Shahab where the Kurdish villages are located.

The names of two members of the MIT will be announced in the coming days, said the al-Akrad commander, noting that the presence of these people is proof of Turkey's role in the attacks on Kurds.

Many villages in the region of Sad Shahab, including the villages of "Kafar Zikhir", "Narabiya", "Kubbessini", "Kul Suruch", "Jabal Assi" and "Tall Maden" were surrounded 14 August by armed groups affiliated to al-Qaeda. Groups hiding behind the cover of Islam to commit horrendous crimes.

About 500 people were kidnapped in the villages of Kafar Zikhir and Narabiya, Kurdish sources said. Nearly 1,500 families were forced to flee their homes.

Jabhat al-Akrad (the Kurdish Front), consists of members of all ethnic groups in Syria and are allied of the People's Defense Forces (YPG).  This organisation has forty battalions, especially in the areas of Bab Azzaz and Aleppo. It is part of the military council of the "real" Free Syrian Army (FLA).
read more >>

A leading member of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has accused Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu of being engaged in efforts to aid armed groups in Syria that have been clashing with Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD)

A leading member of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has accused Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu of being engaged in efforts to aid armed groups in Syria that have been clashing with Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD)

    Friday, August 16, 2013   No comments

A leading member of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has accused Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu of being engaged in efforts to aid armed groups in Syria that have been clashing with Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the PKK, the Taraf daily claimed on Friday.
“I'm well informed that Mr. Davutoğlu has been giving special attention to these forces for more than a year,” said Murat Karayılan, a member of the executive council of the Kurdistan Communities' Union (KCK), an umbrella group for the PKK, according to Taraf.

Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority, led by the PYD, gave signals about a month ago that in the absence of a central government in war-torn Syria it was planning to establish an autonomous administration to cater to the needs of locals in the northern part of the country. Now, some of the Islamist groups fighting the Syrian regime, such as the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, have turned their weapons against the Kurds. Fighting between the PYD and the Islamist groups has continued since then.

Karayılan, who is also the head of the PKK's armed wing, the People's Defense Forces (HPG), said that the policy he attributed to Davutoğlu only makes sense if Kurds are seen as the enemy. He added that the attacks on Kurds in northern Syria are part of a plan to stop Kurds from getting stronger and obtaining power. The HPG, Karayılan said, has been reorganized to respond to the new situation. Reports say the HPG is now in a position to cooperate militarily with Peshmerga forces under Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, and to Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraq's Kurdish president. Karayılan said the PKK is preparing to establish a professional army.

read more >>

A protester attacked Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and was immediately stopped by security forces at a ceremony he attended today to commemorate Alevi - Bektaşi figure Hacı Bektaş Veli in Nevşehir

A protester attacked Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and was immediately stopped by security forces at a ceremony he attended today to commemorate Alevi - Bektaşi figure Hacı Bektaş Veli in Nevşehir

    Friday, August 16, 2013   No comments

The protester, who hit Bozdağ in the chest, was identified as Hüseyin Satı, a local journalist. Satı was detained by police after his attempted move failed.

“How dare you to come here,” Satı shouted before trying to punch Bozdağ.

...

Before the incident, Bozdağ delivered a speech about Alevi culture and Hacı Bektaş Veli, but was continually protested by many of the attendees, some of whom carried Turkish flags and posters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The crowd also chanted “everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance,” one of the main slogans from the Gezi Park protests, which began May 31.

A three-day festival to honor Hacı Bektaş Veli is hosted in the town that bears his name, Hacıbektaş, every year in mid-August.

“The Hacı Bektaş Veli commemoration activities help us understand him better and aid our walk on his enlightened way, which started centuries ago,” Bozdağ said amid boos.

Bozdağ also said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was working to meet the demands of Alevis, which were set to be announced soon.
 read more >>

The reaction to this week's massacre in Cairo will be key to the reputations of the United States and Europe in Arab states and the Muslim world in general for years to come. Its credibility and influence are at stake

The reaction to this week's massacre in Cairo will be key to the reputations of the United States and Europe in Arab states and the Muslim world in general for years to come. Its credibility and influence are at stake

    Thursday, August 15, 2013   No comments

When historical turning points present themselves, there's no avoiding the need for decisive action. Now that the Egyptian armed forces -- with the backing and the approval of a subservient civil government -- has brutally clamped down on protests by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Western world is at a crossroads. It is irrelevant if the number of casualties is 500 or over 1,000, depending on which source is to be believed. The reaction to this week's massacre in Cairo will be key to the reputations of the United States and Europe in Arab states and the Muslim world in general for years to come. Its credibility and influence are at stake.

As is often the case, the issue is not how much outrage and sympathy is triggered by shocking images of seriously injured men, helpless elderly women and crying children. The issue is how to balance realpolitik with human rights.
Do we want to issue stern diplomatic warnings and return to dialogue with a strongman at the top of the Egyptian government with blood on his hands but the clout to bring a modicum of stability to the country and the region, and a foreign policy stance that dovetails with ours?

Or do we want to issue stern diplomatic warnings against pushing the Muslim Brotherhood underground, thereby turning them into martyrs, and instead call for them to be supported in their rights -- even though the fundamentalist ideology of these bearded men is so alien to us and undoubtedly at least partly responsible for the current political turmoil?

                                                                                                                                            Photos >>

read more >>

army claims the supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi were armed and it has broadcast footage in a bid to prove it

army claims the supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi were armed and it has broadcast footage in a bid to prove it

    Thursday, August 15, 2013   No comments

The death toll continues to rise in Egypt, a day after the presidency declared a month-long state of emergency in most of the country. Egypt’s new leaders justify this exceptional measure on the grounds that armed Muslim Brotherhood supporters allegedly fired at the security forces. Videos doing the rounds on the internet are supposed proof of such allegations.

Many online videos and photos bear witness to the fierce violence on the streets of Cairo and across the country. Dozens appear to show the security forces shooting live ammunition. But the army claims the supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi were armed and it has broadcast footage in a bid to prove it. But besides the army’s images, only one bit of footage appears to add weight to this claim.

The video was filmed by journalists from Youm7, a newspaper highly critical of the Muslim Brothers. They filmed on the roof of the publication’s offices on Battal Ahmed Abdel-Aziz Road, not far from Arab League Road in Cairo’s Mohandissen neighbourhood.

In the first video in the series, two civilians armed with AK-47s (kalashnikovs) are clearly visible. One of them is wearing a bullet-proof vest. Both men fire, but it is not clear what their target is.

read more >>

industry sources: Iraq’s Kurdistan region is exporting crude oil by truck to an Iranian port for shipping to Asia

industry sources: Iraq’s Kurdistan region is exporting crude oil by truck to an Iranian port for shipping to Asia

    Wednesday, August 07, 2013   No comments

In a dispute largely over revenue sharing, Kurdistan’s crude exports through a pipeline controlled by the Iraqi central government dried up last year. However, it is transporting about 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensates by road from the landlocked region through Turkey. 

Now the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has approved a second route for crude through Iran used previously only for petroleum products, the sources said. For the past two months, crude has been trucked from Kurdish fields over the border to Iran’s Bandar Imam Khomeini (BIK) terminal, 900 km (560 miles) to the south on the Gulf. Amounts are unclear but could be as much as 30,000 bpd, they said.

One industry source in Kurdistan said the regional government in Arbil was anxious not to put out either of the region’s powerful neighbors, Turkey and Iran, in transporting the crude. “It’s a political compromise,” said the source, who declined to be identified. “They cannot ignore the Iranians and go all the way ... with the Turks. They have to balance.”

read more >>

Obama cancels meeting with Putin over Snowden asylum tensions

Obama cancels meeting with Putin over Snowden asylum tensions

    Wednesday, August 07, 2013   No comments

Relations between the United States and Russia deteriorated further on Wednesday when Barack Obama abandoned a presidential summit with Vladimir Putin that was due to be held next month, amid fury in Washington over Moscow's decision to grant asylum to the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The White House confirmed that it had decided to snub the Russian leader by pulling out of the planned bilateral meeting in Moscow, but is expected to take part in the broader G20 meeting of international leaders in St Petersburg.

Moscow reacted coolly to the decision, which had been widely expected after Putin infuriated the Obama administration by granting temporary sanctuary to Snowden, who fled to Moscow after the Chinese government allowed him to leave Hong Kong, rather than heed US calls for his arrest.

In a statement, the White House said that it had concluded there was "not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda" to hold a US-Russia summit. It cited a lack of progress on arms control, trade, missile defence and human rights, and added: "Russia's disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship. Our co-operation on these issues remains a priority for the United States."

read more >>

'No coups, yes to elections!': Massive pro-govt rally held in Tunis

'No coups, yes to elections!': Massive pro-govt rally held in Tunis

    Sunday, August 04, 2013   No comments

Thousands of Tunisians flooded the capital in support of their Islamist-led government amid calls for its ouster. Members of the secular opposition have alleged the ruling Ennahda party orchestrated the murder of a prominent leftist politician.

Over 150,000 people flocked to Tunis’ central Kasbah Square, brandishing Tunisian flags and shouting pro-government slogans.

The throng chanted “No to coups, yes to elections!” referencing the untimely ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 by the army.
read more >>

Hassan Rouhani has taken the oath of office as president of Iran before parliament in Tehran, promising to lead a government of hope and moderation

Hassan Rouhani has taken the oath of office as president of Iran before parliament in Tehran, promising to lead a government of hope and moderation

    Sunday, August 04, 2013   No comments

In his first speech he promised to lead a government of righteousness, honesty and trustworthiness. He said Iranians had rejected extremism in the June presidential election. The Iranian people had smiled at the world by electing him, he said. "The people voted for moderation ... the people want to live better, to have dignity, and enjoy a stable life. They want to recapture their deserving position among nations," he said.

The new president called for better relations with the world and the demise of international sanctions. "The only path to interact with Iran is through negotiations on equal grounds, reciprocal trust-building, mutual respect and reducing hostilities," he added.

The Scottish-educated cleric was elected in June on pledges to improve Iran’s economy and world standing, and enters office as the country experiences its worst political and economic isolation in two decades. The economy is hampered by accelerating inflation and a weakened currency resulting from sanctions spearheaded by the U.S. in an effort to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s highest authority, praised Rohani’s past service and backed his approach to foreign policy. In his first press conference after being elected, Rohani said he would seek to make the nuclear program more transparent and improve relations with Western nations.
“I approve of the prudent approach,” Mr Khamenei said on Saturday. “We need to take action wisely and prudently.”

read more >>

PYD leader: Turkey continues to support al-Nusra Front against Kurds

PYD leader: Turkey continues to support al-Nusra Front against Kurds

    Sunday, August 04, 2013   No comments

Turkey continues to provide support for al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting Kurds in Syria's north despite statements by Turkish officials that such groups are a threat to Turkey's security as well, the leader of the most powerful Syrian Kurdish group has said.
Saleh Muslim, who heads the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said in remarks published on Sunday that witnesses on both sides of the border have confirmed that there was a transfer of weapons and ammunition from Turkey to Syria through the Karkamış border gate in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on the night of Aug. 2. He said the weapons were then transported to Arab villages near the Kurdish-populated town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab in Arabic) apparently in preparation for attacks on Kobani.

“Kobani is next. It is impossible to understand how Turkey lets this happen. If the al-Nusra Front is the enemy, then this should be prevented,” Muslim told Taraf daily in an interview. The al-Nusra Front is one of the al-Qaeda-linked groups involved in clashes with the Syrian Kurds in Kurdish-populated towns near the Turkish border. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), another al-Qaeda affiliate, is also fighting the Kurds.

read more >>

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (pictured right) won the first round of Mali’s presidential election with 39.24% of the vote while Soumaila Cisse (left) earned 19.44%, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The victor will be decided in an August 11 run-off

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (pictured right) won the first round of Mali’s presidential election with 39.24% of the vote while Soumaila Cisse (left) earned 19.44%, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The victor will be decided in an August 11 run-off

    Friday, August 02, 2013   No comments

Former prime minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita came in first in Mali’s presidential election but he will face ex-finance minister Soumaila Cisse in a run-off after he failed to secure an outright majority, the government said on Friday.

Keita secured 39.24 percent of the vote in the July 28 poll, well ahead of Cisse with 19.44 percent, Moussa Sinko Coulibaly, Mali’s minister of territorial administration said. The run-off will be held on August 11.
Cisse is expected to form an alliance with two of the other principal candidates, Dramane Dembele and Modibo Sidibe.

While Sunday’s voting was peaceful and has been praised by observer missions, the three men came together on Monday to complain about the process.

Cisse has called for the resignation of the minister of territorial administration, who announced Tuesday’s partial results, accusing him of preparing public opinion for an eventual illegitimate win by Keita.

read more >>

 

Bashar al-Assad Is On Instagram

Bashar al-Assad Is On Instagram

    Friday, August 02, 2013   No comments

If you're looking for new follows to spice up your Instagram feed, why not check out the official account of Syria's one and only dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Yes, the Syrian president has opened up an official Instagram account to show off all the great things going on in his country that are not part of the brutal two-year civil war tearing apart the rest of it.

The photos aren't the candids, selfies, and food shots of a typical Instagram account, but are mostly staged photos of Assad and his wife doing presidential and First Lady things, like visiting people in hospitals,hugging children, waving to adoring crowds, and unveiling things. It isn't even propaganda so much as it is a really boring family slideshow.

read more >>

 

Dianne Feinstein Initiates Pro-Iran Diplomacy Letter in Senate

Dianne Feinstein Initiates Pro-Iran Diplomacy Letter in Senate

    Friday, August 02, 2013   No comments

Dear President Obama:

We urge you to seize the opportunity presented by the upcoming inauguration of Iran’s new president, Dr. Hassan Rouhani, by reinvigorating diplomatic efforts to secure a verifiable agreement that ensures that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.

Since 2010 Congress has worked with your Administration to increase U.S. and international sanctions against Iran. The impact on Iran’s economy has been significant: the value of the Iranian rial has plummeted against the U.S. dollar since 2011, unofficial estimates of inflation range as high as 70 percent, exports of oil have been halved, Iranian oil production has declined 35 percent to 2.6 million barrels per day, the Iranian economy declined by as much as 8 percent between March 2012 and March 2013 and is set to decline further in the next year, and unemployment estimates range as high as 20 percent.

read more >>