Failing Islamic States - 2011

[Edward Campbell]

On another note, there are rulers/rulers relations that have brought stuff like this on simply because of similiar stupidity as shown in the article below.....

A Princely Collection of Rotting Cars
The air conditioning was off, but the tropical sun was not, so the Ferraris and McLaren F1s sat and cooked
As appeared in:
Sports Car Market—March 2011 issue Sheehan Speaks by Michael Sheehan
Article Link

Imagine seeing hundreds of high-end Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens—many with hardly any miles on the odometer—rotting away in tropical heat and humidity.

While much has been written of the Sultan of Brunei’s car collection—and there are no lack of spy photos of the collection on the Internet—the estimated 2,500 cars are actually not the Sultan’s. They were the property of Prince Jefri, the Sultan’s third brother. As the Minister of Finance for Brunei (until 1997) Prince Jefri controlled the revenue from oil and gas through the BIA or Brunei Investment Authority and a network of companies under the name Amadeo.

...

The local officials have no to plans to save or to sell the collection, and the cost to turn it into a tourist attraction would be staggering. Over the last eight years less than a dozen significant cars have left, most as gifts to well-connected expats. Another few hundred pedestrian Mercedes-Benzes have been given to Brunei locals, but the bulk of the collection is still there and will die there, rotting into oblivion.
end

One needn't be Muslim or even Arabic to squander a nation's wealth and mark oneself for a noose when, inevitably, the chickens come home to roost; see this:

Son of African strongman plans $380-million yacht

GEOFFREY YORK

JOHANNESBURG— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Monday, Feb. 28, 2011

The top-secret project, codenamed Zen, would produce a luxury yacht at an astounding cost of $380-million. English-designed and German-built, it would be the second-most expensive private yacht in the world, equipped with a cinema, swimming pool, bar, restaurant and helipad.

But the real shocker is the man who commissioned the plans. According to an investigation by a human-rights group, the yacht was ordered by the President’s son in Equatorial Guinea, a small African nation where 60 per cent of the population struggles to survive on less than a dollar a day.

The 118-metre-long luxury yacht, modelled on the $1.2-billion yacht of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, would cost almost three times more than the country spends annually on health and education combined. It would be merely the latest extravagance of Teodorin Obiang, son of the long-ruling dictator of Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich country where poverty and illness are widespread ...

Meanwhile, Canada sent only $710,000 - barely enough for two yachts - to Equatorial Guinea in 2008/09 according to CIDA.

Equatorial Guinea is a predominantly Christian nation; it is part of La Francophonie.

 

[MarkOttawa]

How comparative economic decline corrupts us--from the estimable Anne Applebaum:

Westerners, be careful the company you keep
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805864.html

Every British newspaper worth its salt has written about Saif Gaddafi lately, but the Sunday Times had by far the best graphic illustration. A photograph of Moammar Gaddafi's second son - clad in a white jacket and tasteful silk tie, with a carefully pressed keffiyeh draped elegantly over his shoulders - occupies the center of a large box.

Photographs of his British friends and business partners cluster in a circle around him: Nat Rothschild, scion of the banking family, who gave a party for Saif when he completed his PhD on "civil society" and "global governance" at the London School of Economics; Sir Howard Davies, director of the LSE and one of Tony Blair's economic envoys to Libya; Lord Peter Mandelson, a former Blair adviser, cabinet minister and European commissioner, who now advises "companies hoping to expand markets overseas"; Prince Andrew, who promotes British trade abroad; and, last but not least, Blair himself.

Saif was popular: He went to parties in St. James's Palace and sailed in yachts off Corfu. He was also rich. Thanks to his contacts, he became the conduit through which British companies invested in Libya - and through which the Libyan Investment Authority invested in British companies. At least that was what he was doing until last week, when he appeared on Libyan television vowing that his father's bloody regime would fight "to the last man, the last woman, the last bullet." Suddenly, the acceptable face of Libyan tyranny became unacceptable: Underneath that Western-educated veneer, it seems there lurks a ranting psychopath.

Saif was not the only dubious character to inhabit the space where money meets politics in London, the city that has become the true capital of global capitalism. Any list of, say, people with whom Prince Andrew has recently dined will reveal dozens of similarly polished thugs: more Libyans, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, and of course, the ubiquitous Saudis.

Money, even foreign money (and particularly that Saudi money) has always been able to buy access to Western statesmen. But in the past decade or so, the proportions have subtly shifted. The democratic West has become relatively poorer, while a clutch of undemocratic "emerging" markets have become richer. To put it more bluntly, Western politicians, ex-politicians and even aristocrats have become much, much poorer than the very, very rich businessmen emerging from the oil-and-gas states of central Asia, eastern Europe and the Middle East. Twenty years ago, no retired British or German statesman would have looked outside his country for employment. Nowadays, Blair advises the governments of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, among others; former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder collects a paycheck from Gazprom, the Russian energy behemoth...

Meanwhile Michele Alliot-Marie has just lost her job as France's foreign minister because she went on holiday in Tunisia during the revolution, hitched a few rides on a private plane belonging to a friend of the Tunisian president and helped her father do a business deal there, too. When she got back, she tactfully suggested that the French help their friends in the Tunisian police put down the riots.

Fingers crossed Alliot-Marie's departure is the first of many: If Western governments want to have any credibility in the post-revolutionary Arab world, they need to stop hiring people, even as "envoys," who are already in the pay of current or former Arab dictators. Blair should resign immediately from his informal negotiators' role in the Middle East; Prince Andrew should be told to stay home. The Wisners of the world should be sent back into retirement. Finally, for good measure, the legions of former public officials now in the pay of Chinese, Russian or Saudi businessmen should be kept far away from their previous places of employment, just in case. Come the revolution, you can be sure they will turn out to have embarrassing friends, too.

 

Whilst Jean Chretien seems almost to have a second residence in China (along with Maurice Strong) and then there's erstwhile PM Martin:

Inside Gadhafi's high-tech tent
http://www.thestar.com/world/columnist/article/687712

Send in the troops: UN must intervene in Libya, says ex-PM Paul Martin
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/united-nations-must-intervene-libya-says-ex-pm-20110223-081327-714.html

Maudit hypocrite!

Mark
Ottawa

 

[a_majoor]

Canadian connection:

http://www.sify.com/news/gaddafi-stashed-away-2-bn-in-canadian-banks-news-international-ldblEoihbaf.html

Gaddafi stashed away $2 bn in Canadian banks
2011-03-01 11:40:00

Toronto, March 1 (IANS) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has stashed away more than $2 billion in Canadian banks, according to a media report here Monday.

Canada's CTV News network said the Libyan leader siphoned the money into Canadian banks after the thaw in their relations in 2004 when Gaddafi admitted to Libya's role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, paid $2.7 billion in compensation and renounced his programme of mass destruction.

According to the report, Gaddafi stashed away the money after the visit of then Canadian prime minister Paul Martin to Libya.

However, there was no comment by the Canadian government which Sunday night clamped sanctions on Libya and froze Gaddafi's assets in its banks.

But the government maintained Monday that sanctions won't compel Canadian companies to stop operations in the troubled North African country.

Engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, which made headlines in India in 2009 after being named in a Kerala power scam, is one of the major Canadian companies operating in Libya.

Government House leader John Baird said the government had contacted SNC-Lavalin to explain the sanctions.

'They (SNC-Lavalin) can operate there, they can operate commercially. What they can't do is operate financially with either the Libyan government or the Central Bank of Libya,' he said. 'I think as the situation is deteriorating that we're not looking at expanding commercial activity,' said Baird.

He said the Canadian action doesn't 'eliminate commercial activities. What it does do is restrain financial transactions with the Libyan government and with the Libyan Central Bank'.

'We don't want to see commercial operations flowing money into the regime at this time that would be used either to be stolen or, even worse, used to finance the violence against the Libyan people.'

SNC-Lavalin said it has temporarily suspended work on certain projects in Libya, adding that 'we will continue to monitor the situation to determine next steps.'

A company spokesperson said SNC-Lavalin was evacuating its workers in the next 48 hours.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)

 

[Nemo888]

  Sometimes it is necessary to dance with the devil if it helps achieve desired results, and that desired result is  a safe, peaceful, strong Egypt.

And history repeats itself.....we said the exact same thing with Khomeini and Iran...................

and like we did when we overthrew democratically elected Mossdeq and installed the Shah,..... Often our ideals are hijacked by neo-colonialists who see profit in the resources of other countries. I'd rather be self sufficient and not have to make shady deals with murderous dictators. Our immoral actions will eventually bite us in the ass. It is inevitable.

 

[a_majoor]

The uprisings in Iran continue unabated. While this may not be because of the other uprisings, most of the causes of discontent are the same:

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2011/03/02/the-iranian-civil-war/?print=1

The Iranian Civil War
Posted By Michael Ledeen On March 2, 2011 @ 4:04 pm In Uncategorized | 19 Comments

According to the Daily Beast [1], yesterday’s demonstrations against the Iranian regime were smaller than those on February 14th, but in fact they were both larger and more aggressive.  The chants of “Death to the dictator” are now quite specific:  “Death to Khamenei.”  They can be heard at night in every Iranian city, and posters of the supreme leader are now burned in the streets during the fighting — for fighting it is.

Perhaps we will someday see photos from Google Earth, but, lacking that, we have to go on eyewitnesses, with all the subjective limitations of such evidence, some videos [2], and what we know about the regime’s behavior, which is a far more reliable guide.  There were 617 arrests around the country — I believe that is the number provided to Khamenei and Ahmadinejad earlier today — and 270 people were seriously wounded, requiring medical attention (one of the uglier aspects of this regime is its use of ambulances as paddy wagons and mobile punishment centers;  protesters are thrown in and then beaten), and there are two women in coma who will most likely not survive.

The regime armed its “security forces” with all manner of weaponry, from sawed-off mafia-style shotguns to electric batons, tear gas, pepper spray and chains.  Armored personnel carriers were deployed, and helicopters were seen overhead at the peak of the fighting.  So concerned were the tyrants that they brought in outside forces against the Iranian dissidents:  Lebanese Hezbollah fighters (who deployed around Khamenei’s home) and, for the first time that I know of, young boys (15 years old and younger, down to 10-11) from mostly rural religious schools, who had been told they would be fighting infidels, and thus any level of violence was justified by divine command.  In addition, there were earthly rewards:  $50 dollars each.  If you look at #iranelection on Twitter you’ll find links to accounts of these young hoodlums, as well as some personal accounts of their savagery.

They are in training for future jihads.

In short, the regime went all-in and could not intimidate the people.  If anything, the fighting was tougher than in the past, and both sides are sure there is more to come.

Demonstrators took to the streets in the major cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Ahwaz, Rashd, Kermanshah and others.  They were not only calling for Khamenei’s death but also for the immediate release of Mousavi and Karroubi, the two Green leaders who, along with their wives,  were  snatched from their homes last Thursday night.  The four have been moved from one “secure location” to another virtually every day.

The next round is scheduled for Tuesday the 8th.

Meanwhile, the regime is doing its best to create the Persian equivalent of the Hermit Kingdom.  They want to isolate the Iranian people from the outside world, and to that end they are striving to block or filter the social media, shut down international email, and jam foreign satellite broadcasts (or at least destroy the many millions of satellite dishes).  They hope, in this way, to become the only source of information and doctrine, and the campaign runs parallel to the intrusion of religious instructors and censors at all levels of public education, the rewriting of the history books to eliminate references to the glories of pre-Muslim Persia, and the vicious purge of the country’s leading film makers and artists.

You know that famous satellite photo of the Korean peninsula [3], the one where the south is all aglitter with lights and the north is virtually all dark?  The mullahs want to turn off all the cultural and informational lights except for a few that they control.

Big Brother would have approved.  Except that it’s too late.  The Iranians are too educated and too informed to go quietly, and the regime’s campaign is doomed.  Indeed, it is one of those efforts that is too impotent to succeed, but just enough to get the people much angrier.

Which is yet another reason why the demonstrations are getting bigger and stronger.

One more time:  if the West supported the opposition we could be rid of this evil regime and change the world.  I know, believe me, that Obama doesn’t want this to happen because he mistakenly believes that we do not have standing to challenge a regime that quite understandably and even properly, in his view of things, hates us.

But one day he’s going to send a message of congratulations to the new leaders of a free Iran, and they’re going to ask him where he’s been, and why they should be happy to hear from him.

What will he say, I wonder?

Article printed from Faster, Please!: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2011/03/02/the-iranian-civil-war/

URLs in this post:

[1] Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-01/mousavi-and-karoubi-arrested-irans-ticking-time-bomb/
[2] videos: http://homylafayette.blogspot.com/2011/03/10-esfand-scrapbook.html
[3] satellite photo of the Korean peninsula: http://www.sibelle.info/koreas.htm

 

[a_majoor]

Slideshow of the Lybian rebels: http://www.businessinsider.com/libya-rebellion-pictures-2011-3

 

[a_majoor]

What happens next?

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/how-must-the-west-guide-the-new-middle-east/?print=1

How Must the West Guide the New Middle East?

Posted By Moshe Dann On March 4, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Two enormous appetites have suddenly arrived at the Middle East’s table: democracy and consumerism. Ravished from years of famine and abuse, the people revolted and opened the doors to the well-stocked pantry and kitchen. Yet despite having overthrown tyrants, they are not now unruled. Two strict overseers are watching: Islamists and the military. Crowded with tribes, Sunnis and Shiites, and colonialist operators who function like combinations of parasites and predators, the well-laden table is still a game of who gets full plates and who survives.

Revolutions taking place in countries that have been ruled by dictators and exploited by foreigners are breathtaking in the possibilities that they offer. But they can, like so many others before, become hideous monsters of abuse and destruction.

Americans and Europeans have dined at this table for years, supplying abundant feasts for tyrants who served their interests. A mild rebuke here and there, but the weapons kept pouring in; good for business was the polite mannered morality that determined the menu.

And now, having watched this partying from the window, the youngsters have come in for their share. A demographic necessity, they want education, decent jobs, freedom to express themselves, gender equality, and all the other things they see on TV. Their weapons are small: communication devices they hold in their hands, videos and computers, promising that dreams come true.

The question: where will this banquet go? Islamists have no interest in giving up power, and less interest in Western culture. Generally lacking wider education, Islamists don’t read (excepting Islamic texts) and are totalistic in thinking. Pluralism, variety, and openness are threats. Using a spiritual façade, their interest is political: control the world through shariah and a caliphate.

Military leaders, experts in giving and taking orders, are aware of the advantages of the technological advances. Secular, they like parades with modern weapons, fancy uniforms, and international connections. They are not medieval sheiks with harems, and their children, if not military types, want university educations, businesses, and fat bank accounts.

The modern Middle East table, because it has been transformed by a young generation of appetites, holds the promise of enlightenment, progress, new relationships, and hopefully peace. Having tasted freedom, they want more; with flat wallets, they want the money that was hidden in foreign bank accounts. They want a piece of the pie, at least.

This new enthusiasm for what the world offers is a hopeful sign. The question is whether it can be translated into institution-building, stable economies, employment, and a higher standard of living. They can be seduced by Al-Jazeera and politicians who speak their language, but a new spice has been added to the main course: a sense of empowerment and responsibility.

This presents a unique opportunity for America and Europe to serve their message on a silver platter: democracy works for people. We are ready to help build that new society. Islamists will try to trip up the servers and undermine programs that threaten their views. But they can’t compete with what the West can offer, if done carefully and correctly.

Western foreign policies, guided by maintaining political and economic hegemony, have ignored the social and moral content of their assistance and funds. As long as there is no connection between the money and what it does, the West will contribute to future disasters. Economic interests that exploit natural resources should promote nation-building, not private portfolios; that should direct Western foreign policy. There needs to be synergy that is sympathetic to social needs and problems.

Recent uprisings have opened the table to many new guests. It would be a terrible waste to make people scramble for crumbs, when they could eat with dignity and self-respect.

No more snacks and finger food; they want a place at the table: a constitution, an independent judiciary, and separation of religion and state — for starters.

That is the challenge to Western strategists. It can create a New World; it has done so before and it can do it again.

Getting rid of dictators is not only physically liberating, but changes consciousness. The West should know how to advance governments “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That is the true flag of nationalism.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/how-must-the-west-guide-the-new-middle-east/

 

[Edward Campbell]

I'm afraid I do not see the same "menu' as Moshe Dann (this Mishe Dann, I presume, described (in pajamasmedia.com) as "a former assistant professor of history, is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem"). I don't see any foundations for education, decent jobs, gender equality, an independent judiciary, enlightenment or even "progress." I guess the most likely outcomes, in several different countries, are US sanctioned military dictatorships that will keep a temporary lid on bubbling social frustrations. Then, my guess (again) is a series of uprisings and civil wars that will, eventually, spell catastrophe for the entire Middle East, including Israel - which is almost certain to get singed or, more likely, scorched and even burned to death (holocaust anyone?) in the process, just because they are nearby, in the ummah.

 

[CougarKing]

Protests in Saudi Arabia as well?

link

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would ban all protests and marches after minority Shi'ites staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province.

Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state television.

The ban follows a series of protets by Saudi Shi'ites in the kingdom's east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial.

Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority mostly live in the east, which holds much of the oil wealth of the world's top crude exporter and is near Bahrain, scene of protests by majority Shi'ites against their Sunni rulers.

Saudi Shi'ites they complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens.

The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies these charges.

Last week, King Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled $37 billion in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to insulate the kingdom from protests spreading in several Arab countries.

Plus I see there hasn't been a post about the unrest in Yemen at this thread for awhile:

link

Yemeni troops killed four demonstrators and wounded seven others on Friday when they fired on an anti-regime rally in the north, officials and Shiite rebels said, as protests raged across the country.
The shooting, which came a day after the opposition and clerics offered embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh a smooth exit from power, took place in the village of Semla, 170 kilometres (105 miles) from the capital Sanaa.

"Two protesters were killed and nine others were wounded when soldiers opened fire from a military position on the demonstration calling for Saleh's departure," a leader of the Zaidi rebels said on condition of anonymity.

The death toll later rose to four when two protesters died of their wounds, according to a government official in the northern province of Amran, who declined to be named.

The shooting was also reported on the rebels' news website almenpar.net, which said the government troops "killed and wounded dozens" when they shot at them from a military post.

Protesters had taken to the streets of the nearby town of Harf Sufyan to criticise corruption and call for a regime change after 30 years of rule by Saleh, said the website.

The Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis, on February 22 joined anti-Saleh protests which erupted across the poverty striken country in January and gained momentum last month.

(...)

 

[a_majoor]

Without comment:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030304239.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

From Baghdad to Benghazi

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, March 4, 2011

Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the United States has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism.

A strange moral inversion, considering that Hussein's evil was an order of magnitude beyond Gaddafi's. Gaddafi is a capricious killer; Hussein was systematic. Gaddafi was too unstable and crazy to begin to match the Baathist apparatus: a comprehensive national system of terror, torture and mass murder, gassing entire villages to create what author Kanan Makiya called a "Republic of Fear."

Moreover, that systemized brutality made Hussein immovable in a way that Gaddafi is not. Barely armed Libyans have already seized half the country on their own. Yet in Iraq, there was no chance of putting an end to the regime without the terrible swift sword (it took all of three weeks) of the United States.

No matter the hypocritical double standard. Now that revolutions are sweeping the Middle East and everyone is a convert to George W. Bush's freedom agenda, it's not just Iraq that has slid into the memory hole. Also forgotten is the once proudly proclaimed "realism" of Years One and Two of President Obama's foreign policy - the "smart power" antidote to Bush's alleged misty-eyed idealism.

It began on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first Asia trip, when she publicly played down human rights concerns in China. The administration also cut aid for democracy promotion in Egypt by 50 percent. And cut civil society funds - money for precisely the organizations we now need to help Egyptian democracy - by 70 percent.

This new realism reached its apogee with Obama's reticence and tardiness in saying anything in support of the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran. On the contrary, Obama made clear that nuclear negotiations with the discredited and murderous regime (talks that a child could see would go nowhere) took precedence over the democratic revolutionaries in the street - to the point where demonstrators in Tehran chanted, "Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them."

Now that revolution has spread from Tunisia to Oman, however, the administration is rushing to keep up with the new dispensation, repeating the fundamental tenet of the Bush Doctrine that Arabs are no exception to the universal thirst for dignity and freedom.

Iraq, of course, required a sustained U.S. military engagement to push back totalitarian forces trying to extinguish the new Iraq. But is this not what we are being asked to do with a no-fly zone over Libya? In conditions of active civil war, taking command of Libyan airspace requires a sustained military engagement.

Now, it can be argued that the price in blood and treasure that America paid to establish Iraq's democracy was too high. But whatever side you take on that question, what's unmistakable is that to the Middle Easterner, Iraq today is the only functioning Arab democracy, with multiparty elections and the freest press. Its democracy is fragile and imperfect - last week, security forces cracked down on demonstrators demanding better services - but were Egypt to be as politically developed in, say, a year as is Iraq today, we would think it a great success.

For Libyans, the effect of the Iraq war is even more concrete. However much bloodshed they face, they have been spared the threat of genocide. Gaddafi was so terrified by what we did to Saddam & Sons that he plea-bargained away his weapons of mass destruction. For a rebel in Benghazi, that is no small matter.

Yet we have been told incessantly how Iraq poisoned the Arab mind against America. Really? Where is the rampant anti-Americanism in any of these revolutions? In fact, notes Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, the United States has been "conspicuously absent from the sloganeering."

It's Yemen's president and the delusional Gaddafi who are railing against American conspiracies to rule and enslave. The demonstrators in the streets of Egypt, Iran and Libya have been straining their eyes for America to help. They are not chanting the antiwar slogans - remember "No blood for oil"? - of the American left. Why would they? America is leaving Iraq having taken no oil, having established no permanent bases, having left behind not a puppet regime but a functioning democracy. This, after Iraq's purple-fingered exercises in free elections seen on television everywhere set an example for the entire region.

Facebook and Twitter have surely mediated this pan-Arab (and Iranian) reach for dignity and freedom. But the Bush Doctrine set the premise.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

 

[old medic]

Salacious and classified security files turning up on Facebook
Documents purport to lay out State Security's involvement in a church bombing, back officers' reputation for torture
By Hannah Allam and Mohannad Sabry, Vancouver Sun March 8, 2011
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Salacious+classified+security+files+turning+Facebook/4400416/story.html

Less than a month after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's caretaker government faces a new crisis: what to do about thousands of documents that protesters seized from State Security Agency offices over the weekend.

The military-led interim authority has demanded that the classified files kept by Mubarak's dreaded internal spy agency be returned.

Instead, they're being scattered throughout Egypt, with files turning up on Facebook and Twitter hourly, forcing the government to respond to them and raising fears among some activists that their value has been reduced for any future prosecutions for torture and kidnapping.

Some of what the documents contain is salacious and sinister.

One file includes a sex tape purportedly involving a Kuwaiti princess and a prominent Egyptian businessman. Another paints Egypt's highest-ranking cleric as a womanizer.

Israa Abdel Fattah, 32, a labour organizer and blogger, shared her file with McClatchy and marvelled at the thoroughness of the surveillance.

The file included detailed transcripts of emails sent from her Gmail account and phone conversations with her ex-husband. The feeling of violation was indescribable, she said.

"I knew they were watching me, but I never imagined they knew all this information about me," she said. "My friends tried to take me out to dinner that night. They tried to make me laugh, but I couldn't. I told them I should be alone, so I took my papers and went home."

Perhaps the most controversial document to surface was one that purports to lay out State Security's involvement in a church bombing on New Year's Day in Alexandria.

The bombing killed 21 people and wounded 80, the worst violence against Egypt's Coptic Christian minority in more than a decade.

The legitimacy of the document hasn't been determined, but its distribution touched off protests Sunday in Cairo by hundreds of Coptic Christians.

Copts, especially those in Alexandria, had suspected state involvement in the bombing, noting that a stepped-up security force that was supposed to have protected the church had vanished before the bomb exploded. According to the document, one of eight said to discuss attacks on churches, State Security used a jailed Islamist to help organize the plot, including details on the church's entrances and exits.

The document was dated Dec. 2, 2010, and was addressed to the interior minister. It referred to the church bombing as "Mission No. 77."

There are also several files that back State Security officers' reputation for torture. In one letter stamped "top secret" in 2008 and made available on Facebook, a senior official wrote that detainees suffered "injuries" while in State Security custody. He complained that questioning had to be delayed until the wounds had healed.

Questions abound. Why, for example, would such a serious plot as the church bombing be outlined in a document that was found so quickly? Why were some documents shredded and others not?

Almost all the documents bear the State Security letterhead and the signatures of senior officers. Military officers who were on the scene when the protesters barged into the State Security headquarters in Cairo and other cities tried to recover the documents, wrangling some of them from the crowds.

A message Sunday on the Facebook page of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is now running the country, ordered anyone in possession of the files to stop publishing them and to hand them over immediately to the nearest army post. The council cited national security concerns.

Activists and human rights advocates worried that the disappearance of the files would hurt the chances that a new civilian government would prosecute officials for State Security's abuses.

"This is the one chance to hold (State Security officers) to account, but because there wasn't a procedure in place to access the documents, it's problematic," said Heba Morayef, a researcher in the Cairo office of Human Rights Watch. "Some are in the hands of activist groups that are fairly responsible, but in other cases, they're all over the place."

Protesters defended taking the documents, saying the interim authority had not secured them and that they were in danger of being lost or destroyed if they hadn't taken them. As if to endorse that claim, the Egyptian attorneygeneral on Monday ordered the arrests of 47 State Security officers for their involvement in destroying documents.

There was no effort Monday by protesters to stop publication. They formed a WikiLeaks-style online clearing house for the documents, and posted them on Facebook and elsewhere.

Abdel Fattah was shocked at what friends handed her as she waited outside the doors of State Security's Cairo complex Saturday.

She was arrested in 2008 after she urged a general strike to call attention to the plight of Egyptian workers. Her activism, her professional work and her private life were all documented, with notations of where backup copies of the files existed.

On Monday she made an appointment with a lawyer to discuss building a case against the officers named in her dossier.

 

[MarkOttawa]

What "democracy" is up against, from David Ignatius with some great power advice:

Building a culture of tolerance in the Mideast
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031106173.html

After weeks of exhilarating scenes from Tahrir Square, Egypt offered a reality check last week that shows how hard the transition to democracy will be in the Arab world: The essential ingredient will be a culture of tolerance - and a spirit of unity that overcomes political, religious and other differences.

The ugly old politics of division surfaced in Egypt in three dramatic confrontations: Participants in a women's march reportedly were groped by male bystanders; Coptic Christians clashed with Muslims following the burning of a church, leaving 13 dead; and protesters ransacked the files of the hated security police, looking for dirt on the old regime and perhaps on their neighbors.

What a democratic culture does is take these real and inescapable tensions and find a constructive outlet for them. The Arabic chant "Salmiya" - peaceful - was one of the unifying themes of Tahrir Square, and it's needed now just as much as it was in the campaign to topple Hosni Mubarak. The Tahrir movement was made up of disparate groups - socialists and capitalists, men and women, Muslims and Christians - but they found a common language. I hope they don't get amnesia.

The danger is that the nascent democracy will turn into anarchic discord, followed by renewed repression - a process all too common in post-revolutionary history. The idealism of the French Revolution gave way to the bloodletting of the Committee of Public Safety, which in turn brought the crackdown known as Thermidor. The young democrats of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya will avoid this tragic cycle only if they embrace tolerance.

Let's take the example of the security institutions of a new Egypt. The police became the enemy for the Tahrir Square protesters, and there's still a lot of pent-up rage at Mubarak's repressive state. But Egyptians want law and order, too, and they will need a modern, efficient police force that doesn't harass or torture people. They will need an effective intelligence service, too, for that matter.

How to help the Arabs build modern security services? After the fall of communism, the United States assisted the nations of Eastern Europe in establishing such organizations, with appropriate rules and oversight. America is not the right country to help reconstruct the new Egyptian security service (we were too involved in the evils of the old one), but how about a mission from Poland, or the Czech Republic, or other nations that created police and intelligence agencies on a democratic model?..

And on the subject of press freedom, it is disheartening to see regimes such as Jordan, which claim to want reform, encourage the suspension of the weekly column in the Jordan Times by Randa Habib, the widely respected Amman bureau chief of Agence France-Presse. Bravo to the 200 brave Jordanian journalists who demonstrated last week for press freedom. If King Abdullah II wants to be seen as a genuine reformer, he needs to embrace this cause rather than fight it...

Obama has been criticized for not being more interventionist in his response to the uprisings in Egypt and Libya. Mostly, I think that criticism is bunk; Obama has been right to keep this a narrative written by Arabs, without American meddling. But on the subject of creating new and tolerant democracies, Obama should find his voice. Isn't it time for a new Cairo speech that aligns America with this process of change [emphasis added--how much real use is jawboning?]?

As for that criticism...
http://forums.milnet.ca/forums/threads/99510/post-1025668.html#msg1025668

Mark
Ottawa

 

[The Bread Guy]

..... the Saudis will soon be lending a hand:

Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island's royal family since demonstrations began a month ago.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.

Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital's central roundabout, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university.

Amid the revolt Bahrain also faces a potential sectarian conflict between the ruling minority of Sunnis Muslims and a majority of Shia Muslims, around 70% of the kingdom's 525,000 residents.

The crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, said in a televised statement that Bahrain had "witnessed tragic events" during a month of unprecedented political unrest.

Warning that "the right to security and safety is above all else", he added: "Any legitimate claims must not be made at the expanse of security and stability." ....

 

[a_majoor]

It's on:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576199733669908402.html

Saudis Send Force to Bolster Bahrain

By ANGUS MCDOWALL, ALEX DELMAR-MORGAN And ADAM ENTOUS
[0314bahrain] Reuters

Anti-government protesters block the roads from riot police at the junction of Bahrain Financial Harbour in Manama March 14.

MANAMA, Bahrain—Saudi military forces in tanks and armored personnel carriers crossed the 16-mile causeway into the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain to defend the Sunni monarchy against a Shiite revolt, raising the specter of sectarian clashes and heightened conflict with Iran.

The deployment, against U.S. wishes, compounded Washington's struggle for sway in the Arab world on a day when Col. Moammar Gadhafi's military threatened to encircle rebel forces in eastern Libya, and the international community continued to debate taking military action to stop him.

Gulf Cooperation Council states, by contrast, moved quickly in response to a request from Bahrain's ruling al-Khalifa family to dispatch the first deployment of Arab troops across national borders since a revolt in Tunisia in December sparked unrest across the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia said 1,000 of its soldiers took part and the United Arab Emirates said 500 of its police officers had arrived at Bahrain's request.

A Saudi official said the soldiers were sent to protect Bahrain's oil and power facilities and other key installations. The ultimate size of the force, and where in Bahrain it will be deployed, hasn't been revealed.

The deployment followed a dramatic escalation in protests that broke out one month ago. On Sunday, police firing tear gas and rubber bullets effectively lost control of large areas of Manama's financial district.

Protesters consolidated their control of the area Monday. Most of Manama's financial district was effectively closed because of the demonstrators' occupation and roadblocks.

A highway running through the Bahraini capital's business hub remained closed and demonstrators extended their blockade by laying bricks, fallen lampposts and trash cans across the highway. There was no sign of any police presence in the area late Monday.

The U.S. views stability in Bahrain, home base for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, as critical to checking Iran's influence in the Persian Gulf.

But the U.S. fears that Saudi intervention will prompt Iran to step up its role in Bahrain by spurring the Shiite revolt through public statements and covert support, officials and diplomats said.

Iran criticized the move Monday. "The peaceful demonstrations in Bahrain is an internal affair and trying to create fear and tension by using foreign army forces to crack down on these protests will only make things worse," a foreign ministry official said, Fars News Agency reported.

The U.S. tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade its Saudi allies to keep their forces out of the fray.

Tensions between President Barack Obama and the Saudi king flared in February over Mr. Obama's push for the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, rather than the graceful exit supported by the Saudis.

Officials and diplomats said the Saudis now appeared to be charting a largely independent course in response to unrest in Bahrain.
Regional Upheaval

A look at the economic and political status of selected countries facing unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.

On Monday, Washington warned against taking any action to suppress the protesters. "We urge our GCC partners to show restraint and respect the rights of the people of Bahrain, and to act in a way that supports dialogue instead of undermining it," said White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

The Gulf Cooperation Council comprises Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.A.E., Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

Mr. Vietor also put the onus on protesters to avoid provoking the military.

Bahrain's main opposition party, which has so far refused to enter into talks with the government, said prospects of dialogue were now dead. "Are you going to start dialogue with a gun to your head?" said Abdul Khalil, a senior member of the moderate al Wefaq party, which is calling for, among other things, a fully elected parliament.

Bahrain's Shiite opposition has been split between moderates wanting constitutional changes and hard-liners dedicated to unseating the monarchy. The arrival of foreign forces gave these groups something they could agree on, with some calling it "a flagrant occupation of the country" that puts the country in "in grave danger of a war being launched by an outside armed military."

The deployment hardened the attitudes of protesters gathered at the Pearl roundabout in the Bahraini capital of Manama, where thousands have staged a weekslong sit-in.

"People are preparing themselves and we are ready to fight back if any attacks come," said Sayed Ahmed, a 24-year-old engineer who is part of a hard-line youth group. "We will fight to the last breath."

Mr. Ahmed said his group's primary objective was to maintain control of the roundabout and the financial center.

U.S. officials said the foreign forces were keeping their distance from those areas in an effort to avoid confrontation.

With the growing unrest, the threat of sectarian violence has also been growing, with reports of clashes between Sunni and Shiite citizens.

The deployment of Gulf troops could exacerbate sectarian tensions. "Although this has been defined as a joint GCC force, they will be seen on the ground as Saudi troops who are there to bolster the Sunni monarchy," said Gala Riani of IHS Global Insight Middle East, a political risk consultancy.

The fears of sectarian violence are particularly acute for Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of protesters last week clashed with police in the Eastern Province, home to Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority.

"Saudi forces would be prepared to intervene if they judged that the al Khalifa's rule was at stake," said Neil Partrick, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics.

"King Abdullah and the rest of the Saudi leadership probably judge there would be a greater risk to stability in Saudi Shia areas and of Iranian exploitation of it in the kingdom and elsewhere in the Gulf if they weren't prepared to make it very clear that they are prepared to act decisively," he said.

Saudi Arabia has long warned against what it sees as Iranian expansionism in the Mideast, while Tehran has hinted at territorial claims to Bahrain.

Opposition groups in Bahrain deny any connection to Iran, and U.S. officials dismissed Bahraini allegations that Iran played a central role orchestrating the protests.

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, analysts have seen a growing confrontation between Saudi Arabia and majority-Shiite Iran, the Persian Gulf's two major powers, as the two aligned with opposing sides in conflicts in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

—Summer Said
contributed to this article.

 

[old medic]

Hated state security agency closed
17 March 2011
http://www.france24.com/en/20110315-egypt-dissolves-reviled-state-security-agency-mubarak

REUTERS - Egypt on Tuesday dissolved an internal security and spying agency whose reputation for brutality helped ignite the uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power last month.
The Interior Ministry replaced state security with a new National Security Force, which would serve "the nation without interfering in the lives of citizens or their right to exercise their political rights", the state news agency reported.

The new security agency would be tasked with guarding internal security and fighting terrorism in line with the constitution and the principles of human rights.

The dissolution of state security was one of the main demands of the activists who rose up against Mubarak, forcing him to step down on Feb. 11 and hand power to the military. "The choosing and appointment of the officers of the new force will take place in the coming few days," the agency said.

As with the Stasi in East Germany, state security had sweeping powers, intervening in everything from university elections to public sector appointments.

Pressure for action grew after protesters stormed state security's offices across Egypt earlier this month, finding piles of shredded files, evidence of torture and documents showing the full extent of the agency's internal espionage.

Its head has been arrested and is facing investigation for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising against Mubarak. Another 47 of its personnel have been detained on suspicion of destroying documents.

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement that had been banned by Mubarak, described the dissolution of state security as "a step in the right direction".

Activists have said the survival of state security posed a danger to the sweeping changes they hope will turn Egypt from an autocratic, oppressive state into a democracy.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Meanwhile, "Our role in Bahrain"--BruceR (a Canadian Army reserve officer whose has served as a mentor in Afghanistan, notes an inconvenient fact at his blog, Flit:
http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2011_03_18.html

...at around 2:30 in the video you see the distinctive boat hulls of LAVs, most with the 90mm main gun armament that is unique to the Saudi variant. Made in Canada? Yes, most likely...

General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (prior to 2003 the Canadian subsidiary of the defense division of General Motors) has been involved in equipping the Saudi military with LAVs for years, and continues to be...This is not, however, an issue that any party courting the Ontario auto union vote is likely ever to bring up to the public, so this shouldn't be an issue, at least until one of the Saudi drivers runs over a news crew or something.

Bruce has a certain cutting turn of phrase. 

Mark
Ottawa

 

[a_majoor]

If this is true, then a vast shift is underway and Libya is either a side show or the beginning of a vast operation spanning the entire Levant:

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/03/20/syria-too/

Syria, too

There have been serious demonstrations against the Assad regime all over the country for weeks now, with near-zero coverage.  Yet, from the standpoint of American interests, this is way more important than Libya, since Syria is a vital cog in the Iranian-led war against us.

The best way to follow this is via the updates from the admirable Reform Party of Syria.  Here’s a link, you can sign up for  email alerts, which are coming fast and furious.  The latest flash is an unconfirmed report of tens of thousands of anti-Assad citizens marching in Aleppo.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Meanwhile, "Our role in Bahrain"--BruceR (a Canadian Army reserve officer whose has served as a mentor in Afghanistan, notes an inconvenient fact at his blog, Flit:
http://www.snappingturtle.net/flit/archives/2011_03_18.html

Guess who else is bringing this it up?

The federal government is being urged to prevent further shipments to Saudi Arabia of military vehicles made in Canada, and to institute an embargo on the export of all military goods to the region during the current political turmoil .... In the 1990s and early 2000s Canada sold more than 1200 LAVs, built by General Motors Diesel Division (now General Dynamics Land Systems Canada) of London, Ontario, to the Saudi Arabian National Guard.  "Arms built in Canada should not be used to prevent democracy in Bahrain or anywhere else," said Steven Staples, President of the Rideau Institute. "As more people in the Middle East and North Africa demand more accountability from their governments, Canadians should be very concerned about Canada exporting arms to that region."  The Government of Canada's export control policies are intended to "closely control" military exports to countries "involved in or under threat of hostilities" and countries "whose governments have a persistent record of serious violations of the human rights of their citizens."

 

[The Bread Guy]

If this is true, then a vast shift is underway and Libya is either a side show or the beginning of a vast operation spanning the entire Levant:

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/03/20/syria-too/

Hmmm, OP Odyssey Dawn.... The start of a long journey?  An omen?

 

[a_majoor]

More on Syria. Lots of links embedded in the article:

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/03/21/syria-the-revolt-continues/

Syria: The Revolt Continues (UPDATED)

This is probably the most important ongoing revolt in the Middle East right now.  If Assad were to fall, it would reverberate all over the region, and greatly weaken the Iranian regime.  Typically, it is getting far less coverage than the other “crises,” but we’ll follow it here.  Latest updates:

Dara’a. According to eyewitnesses, the whole city (Population: ~100,000) is up in arms. Tens of thousands are on the street demanding freedom and liberty. Many are aware that the French Foreign Ministry, the US State Department, and the world is watching what they’re doing. This video shows Syrian security men stopping ambulances from reaching the injured. The whole town is surrounded by tanks aimed at the city.

Jassem. Unconfirmed reports that demonstrations have started in Jassem, a small town close to the Golan Heights Northwest of Dara’a.

Qamoshli. This video shows demonstrations in Qamoshli March 20, 2011.

Damascus. Download this video to see security men beating worshippers outside the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus. The video was taken using a secret pinhole camera.

Madaya. This video was taken yesterday of a small demonstration in the town of Madaya on the outskirts of Damascus and not too far from the Lebanese borders. Madaya is located south of al-Zabadani, which is a suspected stronghold of Hezbollah and the Military Security of Assad.

Syria. Rumors are circulating that young Syrian army recruits have express unity with the people of Syria against the regime in the form of not firing any live ammunition against their own people.

(UPDATE: “More Syria: Tanks Move In To Dara’a.”)