by Oui
Sun Aug 12th, 2018 at 09:22:33 AM EST
Pleasantly surprised by a four parts documentary on the history of the Middle East on Dutch television. Instead of the usual political propaganda, some excellent Arabists to narrate the story of Abdul Nasser from the Suez Crisis of 1956 - the War with Israel in 1967 up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979).
During the secular leadership of Nasser in Egypt during the 1950s, his effort to create equality for the masses through a Arab socialism with land reform got him much praise. Nasser gave people hope of independence from foreign influence. President Dwight Eisenhower played an important role during the Suez Crisis to make clear to the British and French that the era of their empires ended after World War II.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Aug 11th, 2018 at 11:00:32 AM EST
Well, my instinct and analysis wasn't far besides the truth ...
○ War On BDS, Progressive Left Under Attack
○ Gaza Politics: Controlling a Sustained Depravity
Article published on August 8th:
The Israel lobby is leading a witch hunt against Corbyn. It has to stop | Middle East Eye | by Richard Silverstein
Britain seems to be going through a period of ritual flagellation. The Labour Party is tearing itself apart in order to assuage charges of anti-Semitism that seem to rain down on it from all sides.
In order to understand the true motivation
behind Labour's anti-Semitism charges, it's
important to focus less on the actual charges
and more on the organisations making them
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Aug 10th, 2018 at 07:01:05 PM EST
The historical event of a savage bombing inside Iran's new leadership after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Pahlavi monarchy was ousted, kept in power for decades by foreign states: USA, UK and Israel (Mossad trained the Savak secret police). The occupation of the U.S. Embassy and hostage taking uncovered top secrets detrimental to both the CIA and Mossad. How the Reagan administration managed to make a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran to keep the hostages imprisoned until after the presidential election of 1980 is one of the secrets of the "deep state" - Pentagon and IC (27 units).
In addition to the deal with Iran, delivering spare-parts needed to keep the Western purchased fighter planes in the air, the CIA used the proceeds to fund the right-wing extremists in Central America: El Salvador and Nicaragua. The military goods were delivered to Iran through emissaries of Israel.
Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter, the President's former national security adviser, testified that he had approved diversion of the profits to the contras without ever telling President Reagan or anyone else.
○ 'The Buck Stops Here' | The New York Times - July 1987 |
A list of America's dirty wars with special forces training in Fort Bragg in the techniques of torture and effective guerrilla warfare.
○ Ten of the Most Lethal CIA Interventions in Latin America | TeleSur |
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Aug 9th, 2018 at 08:13:14 PM EST
"What is there that embodies the democratic, the German, the humane ideal?"
Klemperer asked himself in his diary. For his own life, of course, he already
knew the answer: it lay in the tireless curiosity, the questioning, the generous
standards of debate of his heroes Voltaire and Montesquieu and of the other
thinkers of the Enlightenment.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Aug 3rd, 2018 at 06:59:48 PM EST
I'm truly stunned a quality paper The Guardian claims to be, to have published major article about Osama Bin Laden that is so poorly researched. The holes in the story you can easily drive a truck through them. It irritates me enormously.
I will return to write about the shortcomings, please don't refrain from making your very own comments about the last three decades of Wahhabist inspired and funded terror across the globe. Saudi Arabia under crown prince Salman looking for easy scape goats? The terror spreads and the Yemen expedition sows further discord and division. Saudi Arabia now in close alliance with the UAE, Kuwait, Israel, United Kingdom and the United States.
US mercenaries have made a home in Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest part of the Emirates. Abu Dhabi joined the neoconservatives of the Republican party to defeat Hillary in 2016. Under the radar, or just a narrative the media doesn't write about because US and UK intelligence are pointing fingers at Putin and Russia.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Aug 3rd, 2018 at 09:16:06 AM EST
Could there be a link?
Geoffrey Pyatt goes back to service at the US embassy in Baghdad during the Iraq War and occupation. Quite a guy.
Ukraine: 2012 - 'Maidan Revolt' or coup d'etat of February 2014 - NATO expansion - 2015
Greece: 2016 - expulsion of two Soviet ehh Russian agents - gas contracts Cyprus and Aegean Sea
○ Geoffrey Pyatt named new US ambassador to Greece | Greek Reporter - May 2016 |
On Obama's watch, nomination of "diplomat" Pyatt who maintains close relations with Victoria Nuland. Nuland who had served under VP Dick Cheney during the Bush years.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Jul 31st, 2018 at 08:07:38 PM EST
The British Conservatives in a coalition with the American Republican party and the Israel lobby have set their agenda and won the political propaganda battle in a pull to the right. First Brexit and a few months later the upset victory of Donald Trump.
○ International Coalition to Defeat Democrats and Hillary in 2016
Israel was the primary recipient of the praise of the new man in the White House. Bibi Netanyahu got his revenge on the Obama administration and the Iran nuclear deal. The US Embassy moved to Jerusalem, by executive order a major accomplishment of Barack Obama was sent to the scrap hep of history. Just recently the arrogance of the right-wing political block in Israel set a new frontier: the Nation Law incorporated in the Basic Law of the Jewish State of Israel, its constitution.
How the Israel lobby is using Owen Jones | Electronic Intifada |
Last week the Jewish Labour Movement announced that Guardian columnist Owen Jones will be the big name speaker at an event the group is holding on 2 April.
Jones will lecture on "left anti-Semitism, the Middle East and the Labour Party."
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Tue Jul 31st, 2018 at 08:43:36 AM EST
Report: Mystery Flight MH370 Will Remain Just That
During the doldrums of a long hot summer, the final report has just been released. Any thought about the disappearance, the investigaton or the failures of Malaysian authorities?
Malaysia's Flight MH370 was manipulated off course to its end | Straits Times |
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing since 2014, was probably deliberately steered off course and flown to the southern Indian Ocean, according to the Malaysian government's safety report into the disaster.
It is difficult to attribute the aircraft's changes in course to any specific system failure, according to the report released on Monday (July 30).
"It is more likely that such manoeuvres are due to the systems being manipulated," it said.
...
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jul 26th, 2018 at 06:15:22 AM EST
Just like North Korea's Kim, agreement on intent ... nothing to show for it beyond a momentary truce in the war of words and initial slap of tariffs on steel- and aluminum products. "Illegal" retaliation by the EU suspended? China the big loser today.
Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker agree on tariffs U-turn | DW |
US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker met at the White House on Wednesday, where they announced that the US and the European Union would work to reduce trade tensions that have arisen over the past few months out of Trump's confrontational trade policy.
The meeting comes after weeks of acrimony between the US and EU -- which account for 50 percent of global trade -- as both sides slapped tariffs on one another.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Jul 23rd, 2018 at 08:35:08 PM EST
As US democrats have jumped the shark after Hillary's defeat over US Intelligence, FBI failure in HRC e-mails, investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, claims president Trump is a Russian agent ...
○ Arrest of "spy" Maria Butina: Did a Russian Crime Boss Fund Trump Through the NRA?
Oops ... Russian "crime boss" was at the time head of the Russian Central Bank. A meeting was set up with former head of Israel's Central Bank, now working for the U.S FED:
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sun Jul 22nd, 2018 at 07:12:53 AM EST
Israel had supported the Al Nusra Front jihadists along the Golan Heights to the border with Jordan. The earliest route of fighters trained by US and UK Special Forces inside Jordan. The PR instrument used by the West to sustain the sectarian/civil war where the White Helmets who had worked closely with this rebel group.
Israel evacuates 800 of Syria's White Helmets and their families to Jordan | Times of Israel |
Israel transported several hundred Syrian civil defense workers and their families from southwest Syria to Jordan overnight Saturday, saying it had engaged in "a humanitarian effort" at the request of the United States and European countries.
The Israel Defense Forces said it engaged in the "out of the ordinary" gesture due to the "immediate risk" to the lives of the civilians, as Russian-backed regime forces closed in on the area. It stressed that it was not intervening in the ongoing fighting in Syria.
According to Jordan's official Petra state news outlet, the evacuees included 800 White Helmets personnel and their families.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Fri Jul 20th, 2018 at 07:00:43 PM EST
Already in the past tense this message of Thursday ...
Continued below the fold ...
by Oui
Thu Jul 19th, 2018 at 02:48:49 PM EST
Interesting ... funding the Blue Wave!!
Billionaire Ex-GOP Megadonor Seth Klarman Bets Big On Democratic 'Blue Wave' | The Forward - today |
Hedge fund guru Seth Klarman used to be a major Republican donor. Now he's putting substantial money towards helping the Democrats' "blue wave."
Klarman, who is Jewish, has donated more than $250,000 to around 80 Democratic candidates so far this year, the Forward can reveal.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jul 18th, 2018 at 05:04:11 PM EST
Of course the Dutch Liberal Conservative Party (VVD) of Mark Rutte has no roots in the Dutch Golden Age of tremendous wealth gathered from overseas colonialism. Like hunters traveling the treacherous seas, confronting pirates, competition from Portugal, Spain and Britain. The spoils was for the taking, the strange, wild folks over there had little culture, at least we didn't understand their customs and roots where these people originated. Often the subculture people were taken as slaves and traded on the best markets for high returns.
[My bad – the British and the French made more profit in the slave trade because they cared better during transport – see article: Dutch Slavery: Our Dark Past.]
Why did we trade black people as slaves instead of poor white people? That was purely a racist matter. We could barely see them as equal human beings and slavery was legitimated by the Bible. The Bible has always been a good tool to legitimize every morally objectionable activity, even though it presents itself as a moral guide.
In the 20th century Western Europe developed after two devastating Great Wars that destroyed mankind, social fabric and caused untold misery for tens of millions and a multiple of deaths and suffering for a decade or more.
To develop the Western economy, immigrants were welcomed by business people, they were so kind and smart to set up coordinated hiring offices in North African nations and Turkey. That was the phase after the EEC of six countries expanded to Europe's Mediterranean coast of Spain, Italy and Greece. These migrant workers left the northern states to find employment in their home countries of their birth. They never felt welcome as they were often employed in the menial jobs as cleaner, factory worker in production of textiles (Twente) or leather shoes (Waalwijk NB) or in the factories of Electronic giant Philips Industries in Eindhoven and across many cities in The Netherlands.
There have been many phases of migrants and immigrants from the overseas colonial nations who have become independent after 1945: Indonesia with Molluccans, Papua Guinea, Suriname and the Caribbean Islands, some are still part of Holland.
More below he fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jul 18th, 2018 at 06:05:02 AM EST
Comey Won't Vote for the Party of his Former Boss
Haha ... checks and balances ... with a loaded SCOTUS ... partisanship and a deadlocked legislature - political appointments across the states in the judiciary ... it's the American Way ... "Citizens United" ruling cemented US politics is for "We Corporate America"... forget the pursuit of happiness for the 99%. The United States of America a mix bag of oligarchy. Still pointing the finger - and guns - at other nations across the globe.
○ Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit | NY times - Jan. 21, 2010 |
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Mon Jul 16th, 2018 at 02:41:49 PM EST
Pundits have gone into a frenzy for days, weeks ...
Democrats called for the summit to be canceled ...
Putin should first send the 12 GRU hackers to stand trial in the US based on a Grand Jury decision ...
Putin stole the election to benefit Trump ...
More to follow as press conference is about to start ...
Front paged by Frank Schnittger with minor edit
by Oui
Sun Jul 15th, 2018 at 05:54:02 PM EST
Started as a comment to a post by Cat:
What crucial attribute divides populist and democratic political ideologies?
Searching for some literature I came across Frank Furedi, an article of his published in Nov. 2016 ...
○ Populism: a defence
I find his writing interesting, however I miss the populist in power who set out to destroy the democratic institutions. What we see as goal in the UK with Brexit: no jurisdiction of the ECJ. The Conservatives want to establish new rules for levels of pollution and all goods such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the financials in the City of course. In Turkey with Erdogan and creating an all powerful executive, setting the legislature and judiciary aside. Somewhat similar to Poland and Romania. The expansion of the EU is the cause of much turmoil and dissatisfaction by the earlier EU nations: migration, competition from laborers with low wages and minimum rights. This feeds into the narrative of populism in politics: the easy way out and not taking responsibility nor showing leadership. As a result the voters are in free fall, setting aside the established parties and creating a much larger swing vote making the outcome of an election unpredictable.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Jul 14th, 2018 at 07:05:25 PM EST
Forming a coalition made in hell ...
Saudi 9/11 attack - Ariel Sharon - Bibi Natanyahu - Islamophobia - Funding by American Jews - NGOs such as Clarion Fund - political vehicles Dutch politicians Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsh Ali - right-wing support - white nationalists - Steve Bannon - Robert Mercer - Cambridge Analytica - Mark Zuckerberg - Intelligence Community giving cover - Black Cube - Erik Prince - a US President named Donald Trump!!
Possessing all of the evil elements that brought him into the world's most powerful office! No surprise to his unsophisticated message anti-Muslim - anti-women's rights - love for authoritarian regimes - a corporate guy selling pure capitalism - anti-socialist. let's such say anti-social period. Trump can't help it - a personal tragedy: Triad.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Sat Jul 14th, 2018 at 10:03:21 AM EST
I have blogged about the sectarian strife in Syria from its start in 2011 and the quick turn for the worse when the rebellion sparked outside parties to participate with weapons, logistic support and jihadist fighters. A harsh and ugly civil war ensued for a strategic nation to Western powers, Israel, Iraq and Iran.
The attempt to get Obama more deeply involved in August 2013 failed. In September 2015 Russia as ally to the Assad regime stepped in and this was a turning point in the civil war. The hordes of Sunni forces emboldened by ISIL coming in along the Euphrates from Iraq were about to overthrow the Assad regime. A slaughters of the Alawite and Orthodox Christian minority was feared as outcome.
More below the fold ...
by Oui
Wed Jul 11th, 2018 at 07:04:36 AM EST
Seehofer: 'Lovely, 69 on my birthday'
Seehofer is part of a ultra-conservative movement exploiting the issues of immigration for strengthening his own voter power base. Using Xenophobia and Islamophobia - how ugly politics has become.
Minister of Interior Seehofer jokes as Afghan migrants deported | BBC News |
The EU has vowed to step up deportations of failed asylum seekers - part of a complex and controversial drive against illegal migration.
A report from the German news agency DPA (in German) says Afghan officials were angry that Germany had sent such a large group, as an upper limit of 50 per flight had been agreed. Of the 69 migrants, 51 were deported from Bavaria, Mr Seehofer's home state.
More below the fold ...
