Archive for April 6, 2012
Arab summits
My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: ”Another Arab Summit (on the shelf)”.
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Timbuktu
Look at this item about the takeover of Timbuktu. The New York Times piece does not tell readers that Ansar Adeen is only one (smaller) faction among the rebels who took over the city. Even the lousy French Foreign Minister made distinction…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Top brass of Syrian military
Look at them. Look at them. Don’t they strike you as generals who would do well against a civilian population but would do really terribly against the Israeli enemy?
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Racism against Gulf people
By the way, what is repugnant is that Syrian regime media, and Hizbullah media as well, are filled with racist terms (or with terms that are intended to be racist) against Gulf people. Every references has a pejorative term against all people in …
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
What would Thomas Friedman say?
You know. I was going to post this: ”Israel’s Military Intelligence chief said Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces has foiled more than 10 terror plots in Sinai over the last two months.” And I was going to add: send this to Thoma…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
China versus the US
This is from a most interesting report on the Chinese military. But what is interesting is that China still downplays its military strength. So when a Chinese source says: ”General Yao says the gap between American and Chinese forces …
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Who says that Saudi Arabia is not making progress
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
possibly?
“An illustrated account of the 1949 coup—possibly CIA-assisted—that plunged the country into decades of political turmoil.” (thanks John)
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Günter Grass wrote a poem against Israel but the poem did not warrant coverage in the Times: only criticisms of the poem warrant coverage
Look at this headline. The poem is not news: only criticisms of the poem is news. ”Günter Grass’s Poem About Israel Provokes Intense Criticism”. This was in the Arts section of the paper. If he wrote a poem against Iran, it w…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
piggy bank
“”For the last 15 years, Hezbollah has regarded North America as a piggy bank,” Kohlmann said.Reliable figures for Hezbollah’s fund-raising, which is done covertly, are not available.” The only case that I know of is the cigarette smuggling in No…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
The Middle East is now reduced to Israel
It is amazing how this little tiny usurping entity is taken to represent the entire region.
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Anne Barnard discusses Hizbullah
This was coming. Anne Barnard discusses Hizbullah–the object of obsession by Zionists at the Times and elsewhere. She discovered powder, as we say in Arabic: yes, Hizbullah maintained its alliance with Syria despite regime crimes just as M…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Syrian opposition "figure"
What do I do with a name of a Syrian-American who is now identified as an “opposition figure” who for years (by his own admission to me) tried to get a job with the Syrian foreign ministry? How do I stomach that?
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Muslim Brotherhood:
“the relationship between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood has improved after decades of mutual distrust.” (thanks Basim)
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Syrian regime and Saudi Arabia
Syrian regime is still reluctant to criticize Saudi Arabia. The Syrian regime is very cowardly in that respect and I think that they still think that a deal can be reached under the table: anything to stay in power, for the Asad-Makhluf dynasty. …
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Alkhawaja may die in Bahrain to the disregard of Western media
Angry Arab chief Bahrain correspondent wrote this: ”Zainab Alkhawaja has been arrested after clinging onto the gate of the prison complex screaming for her father. She will be charged with assaulting an employee and will be detained until Saturda…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Saudi Opposition
For the first time since the Syrian uprising, Syrian regime media which is so nervous about criticizing Saudi Arabia, finally put a Saudi opposition figure on. It was Fu’ad Ibrahim of the UK. Ibrahim answered questions and he clearly did no…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Covering Syria
So I turned on the news on the news station of King Fahd’s brother-in-law,Al-Arabiyya: which in comparison to Aljazeera is now considered less vulgar and less crude and less sensational, as sensational, crude, and vulgar it is. So they spoke to o…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Arab uprisings
I have decided. This summer I will write a book on Arab uprisings: not so much a blow-by-blow account of what actually happened–that is readily available elsewhere. But more on the methodology of studying the uprisings within the context o…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad
Western intelligence reports "reveal"
Don’t you like the documentation methods of Israeli propaganda sheets? ”Iran and Hezbollah have significantly stepped up support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, Western intelligence reports have revealed.” Do Western intelligen…
Posted on April 6, 2012 by As'ad