Arabia Deserta 
Middle East Focus-Arabia Deserta
Iran Feels the Oil Blockade Heat but Denies it: Back to 1980-88 in the Gulf?……….
"The European Union formally imposed an oil embargo on Iran and agreed to a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran on Monday, but existing contracts will be honored until July 1. “The West must be aware that the Iranian nation… does not need them. You impose embargo on Iran’s oil but do not see that the United States has not bought oil from.......... A top Iranian diplomat has expressed Tehran’s displeasure over an announcement by certain Persian Gulf Arab states to replace Iran’s oil exports, saying Iran will consider such a move as “unfriendly”. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian deputy foreign minister.........."
Yet this next news item seems to contradict Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the sanctions will not hurt........The Iranians must have a sense of having been here before, a sense of déjà vu (all over again). During the utterly senseless and futile 1980-99 war, their petroleum facilities were bombed and they were under an American economic siege. Not only did the Saudis pick up the slack and took their their market share, other Gulf.........The Iranians did not do well in those skirmishes, had some of their speedboats and offshore oil platforms.............<< MORE >>
Yet this next news item seems to contradict Ahmadinejad’s assertion that the sanctions will not hurt........The Iranians must have a sense of having been here before, a sense of déjà vu (all over again). During the utterly senseless and futile 1980-99 war, their petroleum facilities were bombed and they were under an American economic siege. Not only did the Saudis pick up the slack and took their their market share, other Gulf.........The Iranians did not do well in those skirmishes, had some of their speedboats and offshore oil platforms.............<< MORE >>
Disgruntled Bins of a Feather: UAE in the Footsteps of Bahrain?.............
“But it has tolerated little dissent during the regional upheaval, trying and sentencing at least five pro-reform activists and stripping the citizenship of another seven last year on charges that they represent a threat to state security. It also disbanded the elected boards of two of the UAE's most prominent civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said. "Unfortunately, we saw last year that the United Arab Emirates decided to suppress freedom of expression in the country by harassing and trying a number of activists, and by attempting to limit freedom of association in the country,"..........."
They are all the same, really. If they feel threatened by dissent, the Bin Technocrat Bin Zayed al-Nahayan act no different from the slimy Bin Technocrat al-Khalifa potentates of Bahrain. No different from the Bin Technocrat al-Saud princes. They crack down and arrest and gas and imprison and torture and, if they have to, they kill. Why else do you think they are buying all these American JDAM bunker-busters? Did you thing it was to attack China or Iran or North Korea? No, it is to bunker-bust the shopping malls if they are ever taken over by irate ......<< MORE >>
They are all the same, really. If they feel threatened by dissent, the Bin Technocrat Bin Zayed al-Nahayan act no different from the slimy Bin Technocrat al-Khalifa potentates of Bahrain. No different from the Bin Technocrat al-Saud princes. They crack down and arrest and gas and imprison and torture and, if they have to, they kill. Why else do you think they are buying all these American JDAM bunker-busters? Did you thing it was to attack China or Iran or North Korea? No, it is to bunker-bust the shopping malls if they are ever taken over by irate ......<< MORE >>
Romney and Gingrich and GOPP: Kissing Netanyahu’s Ring, Kissing History Goodbye………
GOPP: Grand Old Pandering Party. Romney doesn’t give a fig about Netanyahu, He probably recognizes him for the political hustler and serial liar that he is; he probably admires him, if at all, for these qualities more than his being a statesman (he is not). What Romney meant to say was that Obama disrespects.......Gingrich supposedly studied history, so presumably he knows that he is lying here (as do most of his listeners, possibly even a few of the Republicans in the audience)..........
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Funning about the Princes and the Muftis: Obama for Crown Prince or Jordanian Gauleiter……………
"Echoing events in tiny Bahrain, where the ruling family crushed Shia protests, Saudi security forces have responded to rising unrest in their country’s east, among the kingdom’s own 10% Shia minority, with blunt measures, including live gunfire that killed five protesters in recent months. Instead, the immediate beneficiaries of the Arab spring in Saudi Arabia may be a new generation of comedians and artists. They certainly stole the limelight on 19th January, at the opening of “We Need to Talk”.…........."
I will believe that Saudi comedy (an oxymoron?) has arrived if they start some joke with “Prince Nayef and the Mufti walked into this bar and…………” or...... had thought joking was frowned upon over there: sort of like women driving, laughing in public, smiling in public, dressing different, thinking different from everyone else, tank-tops, mentioning the words ‘freedom’ or ‘protest’ or ‘Shi’a’......yet the Mufti of Saudi Arabia is often smiling in his photos. Shaikh Al Al Shaikh almost smiles as often as Ahmadinejad......Obama's chances...... << MORE >>
I will believe that Saudi comedy (an oxymoron?) has arrived if they start some joke with “Prince Nayef and the Mufti walked into this bar and…………” or...... had thought joking was frowned upon over there: sort of like women driving, laughing in public, smiling in public, dressing different, thinking different from everyone else, tank-tops, mentioning the words ‘freedom’ or ‘protest’ or ‘Shi’a’......yet the Mufti of Saudi Arabia is often smiling in his photos. Shaikh Al Al Shaikh almost smiles as often as Ahmadinejad......Obama's chances...... << MORE >>
Short Western Memories: Khomeini, the Chemical West, and the Bomb………………
"He even said he wanted a bomb because "the US and the Soviet Union had nuclear bombs" and no one objected. Europeans rushed to supply the dictator's wish. Siemens – not Russia – built the Bushehr nuclear facility. And when Ayatollah Khomeini, Scourge of the West, Apostle of Shia Revolution, etc, took over Iran in 1979, he ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was "the work of the Devil". Only when Saddam invaded Iran – with our Western encouragement – and started using poison gas against the Iranians (chemical components arriving from the West, of course) was Khomeini persuaded to reopen it……………"
Even within the short span of the past year we have heard and read several different conflicting assessments of the Iranian nuclear program. A summary of all the conflicting and non-conflicting claims and reports and sllegations and visions about the Iranian nuclear program.....From Washington to Georgia and Dubai and Riyadh....<< MORE >>
Even within the short span of the past year we have heard and read several different conflicting assessments of the Iranian nuclear program. A summary of all the conflicting and non-conflicting claims and reports and sllegations and visions about the Iranian nuclear program.....From Washington to Georgia and Dubai and Riyadh....<< MORE >>
Gulf of Taliban: Lawlessness and Misogyny in the UAE and Other Wild Places …………
“The case of a woman who is facing deportation for reporting an attempted rape while being intoxicated in the United Arab Emirates highlights the ongoing struggle for women to have justice when faced with sexual violence in the ultra-wealthy Gulf country. According to reports, when the 26-year-old Kyrgyz woman arrived at a local police station following a taxi driver attempting to rape her, police officers told her she would face charges of drinking alcohol. Instead of acquiescing to the officers threats, she............."
here are many other such cases in the UAE. Rape is reported routinely in the local newspapers. As are the “strange” Taliban-style sentences that focus on the female victims as guilty. The treatment of victims as suspects is a purely local thing, but it is also common in other ‘nominally’ Muslim countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Remember the Qatif girl...........<< MORE >>
here are many other such cases in the UAE. Rape is reported routinely in the local newspapers. As are the “strange” Taliban-style sentences that focus on the female victims as guilty. The treatment of victims as suspects is a purely local thing, but it is also common in other ‘nominally’ Muslim countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Remember the Qatif girl...........<< MORE >>
David Cameron as Gulf Mercenary, Potentates Impotent with Greed, and Judy Collins……….
"And the Gulf Arabs, our "moderate" friends, shiver in their golden mosques as we in the West outline their fate in the event of an Iranian Shia revolution. No wonder Cameron goes on selling weapons to these preposterous people whose armies, in many cases, could scarcely operate soup kitchens, let alone the billions of dollars of sophisticated kit we flog them under the fearful shadow of Tehran. Bring on the sanctions. Send in the clowns…........"
I suppose when he quoted Judy Collins “send in the clowns” he was referring to David Cameron. Cameron and his ministers have gone completely mercenary, just the way the Gulf potentates like their associates. They have thrown all pretenses at democracy and freedom to the wind as they fly to the dens of repression.........<< MORE >>
I suppose when he quoted Judy Collins “send in the clowns” he was referring to David Cameron. Cameron and his ministers have gone completely mercenary, just the way the Gulf potentates like their associates. They have thrown all pretenses at democracy and freedom to the wind as they fly to the dens of repression.........<< MORE >>
Arabian Peninsula: the Condemned Sorcerer and the Free Prince……….
“A Saudi court sentenced an African man to 15 years in jail and 1,500 lashes with the whip for embezzling money from many people through sorcery. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested the unidentified man, in his 50s, following complaints by many of his victims in various cities in the Gulf Kingdom. "They seized him red handed after setting a trap........."
This African man is lucky: only a few weeks ago they beheaded a fellow magician in public somewhere in the Kingdom without Magic. Normally they sentence sorcerers, witches, and magicians to have their heads chopped off..........The key word is “embezzlement”: that is what must have saved him. In country ruled by a kleptocracy, where the potentates get away with billions, embezzling a few........<< MORE >>
This African man is lucky: only a few weeks ago they beheaded a fellow magician in public somewhere in the Kingdom without Magic. Normally they sentence sorcerers, witches, and magicians to have their heads chopped off..........The key word is “embezzlement”: that is what must have saved him. In country ruled by a kleptocracy, where the potentates get away with billions, embezzling a few........<< MORE >>
Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust: Demagoguery and Spreading the Bull……….
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing the lessons of the Nazi Holocaust and the danger a nuclear-armed Iran, said on Tuesday that Israel must not shy from acting alone to thwart any threat to its existence. Addressing parliament ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, Netanyahu praised a European Union decision on Monday to place sanctions on Iranian oil exports. "But on.........."
Ahmadinejad specializes in near denials of the Holocaust. He taunts the West, especially the Europeans who were the planners and executioners and enablers of the Holocaust, with his nonsense. He knows exactly what happened so many decades ago in Europe, what was committed by the parents and grandparents of these Europeans, from Berlin to Krakow to Warsaw to Paris and other places. Not just by Germans: local police.......<< MORE >>
Ahmadinejad specializes in near denials of the Holocaust. He taunts the West, especially the Europeans who were the planners and executioners and enablers of the Holocaust, with his nonsense. He knows exactly what happened so many decades ago in Europe, what was committed by the parents and grandparents of these Europeans, from Berlin to Krakow to Warsaw to Paris and other places. Not just by Germans: local police.......<< MORE >>
Love and Marriage and Repression in Abu Dhabi and the GCC…….
“The UAE nationals have been advised not to marry foreign women due to social, legal and financial complications which arise following such marriages, said a renowned lawyer. Speaking at the Noor Dubai Radio, CEO of Bin Haider Advocates & Legal Consultants in the UAE, said a large number of cases are pending before the courts due to such marriages. He pointed out that the young men marry foreign women not to make family but to get rich. But if the husband's income gets depleted, the foreign wives create problems which lead to court cases……...."
The potentates on the Gulf love to meddle in such private matters as marriage. The Bahrain royals are an exception for being less intrusive: they are too busy gassing, beating, and shooting their people (or throwing them in prison or handing them to imported Jordanian or Iraqi Ba'athist torturers). The Saudi princes don't allow their 'normal' citizens to marry....... The potentates of the UAE have been tightening the 'screws', no pun intended........<< MORE >>
The potentates on the Gulf love to meddle in such private matters as marriage. The Bahrain royals are an exception for being less intrusive: they are too busy gassing, beating, and shooting their people (or throwing them in prison or handing them to imported Jordanian or Iraqi Ba'athist torturers). The Saudi princes don't allow their 'normal' citizens to marry....... The potentates of the UAE have been tightening the 'screws', no pun intended........<< MORE >>
(4) Ron Paul in the Middle East………..
If Ron Paul ever makes it to the White House, he’ll probably be assassinated quickly (unless he gets an infarct first, not that I wish him any ill, he is the most decent GOP candidate). There are just too many private interests and little public empires that he endangers. The list of enemies starts with the defense industry, the neocon foreign policy establishment.........an isolationist in the old Republican tradition. His idea of drastically cutting the bases in Europe and Asia is a sensible one............<< MORE >>
(3) Mitt Romney and the Middle East……….
itt Romney hasn’t expressed any solid core position on foreign policy regarding the Middle East. Nothing that diverts much from the usual republican positions. That can be good or it can be bad. He has many former GOP ‘experts’ on his advisory staff but only one of them is from an Arab (non-Muslim) background. He has expressed the usual mandatory love and admiration and adoration for Benjamin Netanyahu. But that is now........<< MORE >>
Funny RSF Watermelon Press Freedom Report: Saudi Arabia Richer and Freer than Egypt?..............
This new report for 2011-12 by Reporters without Borders has some odd results......... Saudi Arabia is rated higher than Egypt for press freedom. Can anyone fucking believe that (other than the Saudi princes)? In Egypt, even with SCAF military council, the media can criticize the politicians and the rulers more freely than most Arab states. In Saudi Arabia, any negative reference to the king and princes can get one fired and land them in prison. Then Jordan and the UAE are rated higher than Iraq.........<< MORE >>
(2) Rick Santorum & the Middle East: “Mein Kampf gegen die Muslime und Araber”………
“Santorum believes "it is the duty of each and every American citizen who abhors terrorism and supports freedom to stand up and say, 'I support Israel.'" He has attacked Obama for putting "Israel's very existence in more peril" and says Palestine's statehood bid at the United Nations is a sign that the Palestinians......."
Congressmen don’t get much in-depth foreign policy experience unless that sit on certain.........Oh well, Santorum’s got the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and his own wild fascist ideas. I’d offer him a copy of the Quran as well, in English, except he might charge me with harassment or of being some kind of Islamo-terrorist Jihadist Salafi motha. He hasn’t yet published “Mein Kampf gegen die Muslime und Araber”, I doubt.........<< MORE >>
Congressmen don’t get much in-depth foreign policy experience unless that sit on certain.........Oh well, Santorum’s got the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and his own wild fascist ideas. I’d offer him a copy of the Quran as well, in English, except he might charge me with harassment or of being some kind of Islamo-terrorist Jihadist Salafi motha. He hasn’t yet published “Mein Kampf gegen die Muslime und Araber”, I doubt.........<< MORE >>
(1) Newt Gingrich and the Middle East: Calculated Muslim-Baiting…….
"Adelson and his Israeli-born wife, Miriam, have spent time and money lobbying for a bill to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich has promised that his first executive order as president would be the embassy move. Adelson is an ardent Zionist. Since 2007 the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $100 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel, Adelson is such a hard-line Zionist that he even stopped supporting AIPAC when it appeared to support a 2007 peace initiative championed by Olmert, President Bush, and Secretary........."
Gingrich has promised to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. That is a standard promise for most presidential candidates in the United States, and reneging on the promise afterwards is also standard procedure.......He does not seem to believe that the Palestinians deserve their own state-let on the West Bank (and Gaza?). This may seem like a strongly pro-Israeli policy, but it is not necessarily so in the long-term.......I have not posted anything recently about my earlier suggestion that Newt Gingrich take a hike, literally, on the Iraq-Iran border. That was m.......<< MORE >>
Gingrich has promised to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. That is a standard promise for most presidential candidates in the United States, and reneging on the promise afterwards is also standard procedure.......He does not seem to believe that the Palestinians deserve their own state-let on the West Bank (and Gaza?). This may seem like a strongly pro-Israeli policy, but it is not necessarily so in the long-term.......I have not posted anything recently about my earlier suggestion that Newt Gingrich take a hike, literally, on the Iraq-Iran border. That was m.......<< MORE >>
