Sunday, 1 January 2012

Brothers of America

History is repeating itself
After the Islamist's great triumph in Tunis, and Egypt and Morocco, taking into consideration the stories about American meetings, understanding, business with low calorie Islamist (Muslim brothers), it's good to recall an old essay written by Late Sayyid Qutb
 "Americans and their allies in the Middle East wants Islam but not the Islam that resist colonization and not the Islam, resisting tyranny, they want only the Islam, resisting communism! He added: they — Americans- don't Islam to rule, and can't stand the rule of Islam, because when Islam rules the people will learn that planning and preparing to be powerful is obligatory, and communism as the colonization is a disease, both are enemies and both are aggression. The Americans and their allies in the Middle East want an American Islam."

He continued describing the American Islam. "Islam may be consulted in birth control, electing women....but never be counseled with social, economic or financial system, and never consulted in political and national situation and relations with colonization. Democracy in Islam, helping the poor in Islam and justice in Islam might be dealt with in a book or essay, but the ruling, legislation by Islam and victory by Islam cannot be tackled neither by a pen, nor by a speech nor by a referendum."


Today after 59 years we are witnessing Islamists in general, Muslim brothers in particular moving to seize power riding the so-called Arab spring, its nice to remember Qutb's speech pole in these days while we see Muslim brothers moving to seize power from Morocco to Tunisia and Egypt, Libya and others, rush to send messages in all drections and especially to the Americans ... even helping Americans to overthrow a regime here or there ... talking with them about current situation.
الإخوان تعاونوا مع الحكومة وأمن الدولة   
 Brothers interacted with the Americans since the days of the late leader Umar Al-tilmisani, infront of everyone Senator Mitchell used to visit brotherhood's center in Cairo to discuss their relationship with President Sadat and stopping the Communist tide, Etc..

The Americans undoubtedly possessed sufficient expertise and experience to deal with all kinds of Islamic forces, especially Muslim brotherhood because of the long experience and accumulated over decades,
Here, Muhsin Radi, a leader in brotherhood in Egypt explains the the aganda of current is dialogue... "They want to know the position of women and minorities and rotation of power, democracy and the the relationship with Hamas and Iran and the Camp David. Muslim brothers announced their opinions on theses things.
Radi tries to premote Muslim Brothers to the west by saying: The the status of women in Saudi Arabia never been an obstacle in making Saudia a powerful ally of the United States. Tthe appalling situation of the majority in Bahrain did not prevent the United States from making Bahrain a base for its fifth fleet...???!!!

Those who know the brotherhood education can't believe they may enter an unholy alliance with the Americans, rule in accordance with american aganda.

It is also known that Muslim brothers are pragmatic enough to deal with the United States and the West with courtesy. Therfore, the United States undoubtedly welcome Muslim brothers taking power.

The United States supported under developed dictatorial regimes to protect the Zionist entity, and still suporting such regimes. So what prevents the replacement of these so-called secular regimes with Islamist regimes as long as it is ready to bow to American conditions and controls.The game attracts America!!?.

Maybe some think that the Muslim who made mistakes [SINS] and continue to mistakes in their political options that dragged them to scourges in Arabic more than one Arabic country ...But Tactical error is something ... Strategic error is sometning else ...

Whats required from Moslim brothers today is big and very large as the high hopes betting on them for the maintenance and preservation of the region. Political pragmatism may benefit in internal tactics but very deeadfull in strategic matters and issues.

If they want to succeed Brotherhood should returning to their fundamentals and their morals, and weigh their braghmatithm and their today fogy status ... We hope...?!!



Qutb's essay and Sheikh Sbeeb's comment confirms Muslim Brotherhood's old "relations /dialogues" with the Americans. In fact Muslim brothers played a key role in fighting the Arab national movement more than fighting communism, and they are doing that now. In both battles there fought American wars, and served American and Israeli interest
The Muslim Brotherhood against Nasser

Journalist Ian Johnson revealed that Muslim Brothers relations with CIA goes back to early 1950's. that they conspired with Americans to remove Naser ( most likely after Naser refused Eisenhower's pact.



I searched Google for Qutb's essay at Brotherhood's sites. I found this link, and it's not working.



"In 1953, the year before the Brotherhood was outlawed by Nasser, a covert US propaganda program headed by the US Information Agency brought over three dozen Islamic scholars and civic leaders mostly from Muslim countries for what officially was an academic conference at Princeton University.
The real reason behind the meeting was an effort to impress the visitors with America’s spiritual and moral strength, since it was thought that they could influence Muslims’ popular opinion better than their ossified rulers.
The ultimate goal was to promote an anti-Communist agenda in these newly independent countries, many of which had Muslim majorities.
One of the leaders, according to Eisenhower’s appointment book, was “The Honorable Saeed Ramahdan, Delegate of the Muslim Brothers.”* The person in question (in more standard romanization, Said Ramadan), was the son-in-law of the Brotherhood’s founder and at the time widely described as the group’s “foreign minister.” (He was also the father of the controversial Swiss scholar of Islam, Tariq Ramadan.)
Eisenhower officials knew what they were doing. In the battle against communism, they figured that religion was a force that US could make use of—the Soviet Union was atheist, while the United States supported religious freedom. Central Intelligence Agency analyses of Said Ramadan were quite blunt, calling him a “Phalangist” and a “fascist interested in the grouping of individuals for power.” But the White House went ahead and invited him anyway.
President Eisenhower in the Oval Office with Muslim delegates,
1953, after July revolution.
Said Ramadan, the Son in-law of Hassan Al-Bana the founder of
Brotherhood, is second from the right.
في أقصي اليمين سعيد رمضان في ضيافة أيزنهاور داخل البيت الأبيض
 
In 1954, Egyptian President Gamal Abddul Nasser’s nationalist policies in Egypt come to be viewed as completely unacceptable by Britain and the US. MI6 and the CIA jointly hatch plans for his assassination. According to Miles Copeland, a CIA operative based in Egypt, the opposition to Nasser is driven by the commercial community—the oil companies and the banks. At the same time, the Muslim Brotherhood’s resentment of Nasser’s secular government also comes to a head. In one incident, Islamist militants attack pro-Nasser students at Cairo University. Following an attempt on his own life by the Brotherhood, Nasser responds immediately by outlawing the group, which he denounces as a tool of Britain. The following years see a long and complex struggle pitting Nasser against the Muslim Brotherhood, the US, and Britain. The CIA funnels support to the Muslim Brotherhood because of “the Brotherhood’s commendable capability to overthrow Nasser.” [Baer, 2003, pp. 99; Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 101-108] The Islamist regime in Saudi Arabia becomes an ally of the United States in the conflict with Nasser. They offer financial backing and sanctuary to Muslim Brotherhood militants during Nasser’s crackdown. Nasser dies of natural causes in 1970. [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 90-91, 126-131, 150]
[Watch this]





After Egyptian President Gamal Abddul Nasser dies in October 1970, he is succeded as president of Egypt by his former Vice President, Anwar Sadat. Sadat is also a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and he promptly reinstates the group as a legal organization and welcomes them back into Egypt [He realised later his mistake]. Sadat also has a very close relationship with the head of Saudi intelligence, Kamal Adham. Through Adham, Sadat also develops close working relationships not only with the Saudis, but with the CIA and Henry Kissinger. Sadat uses the power of the religious right, and the Muslim Brothers in particular to contain the Nasserites and their resistance to the radical changes he introduces. During Sadat’s tenure in the 1970’s Egypt becomes a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, and figures like Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman and Ayman al-Zawahiri gain great power in Egypt during this period. Ironically Sadat himself is assassinated in 1981 by Islamic Jihad, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, in 1981, because of his accomodation with Israel. [Dreyfuss, 2005, pp. 147-162, 165]

Nasser Declaring nationalizing Suez canal


بقلم : الشيخ جمال الدين شبيب*
عالم دين وإعلامي لبناني
في أوائل خمسينيات القرن الماضي كتب الشهيد سيد قطب مؤلفاً من الحجم المتوسط سماه: " إسلام أمريكاني". استشرف سيد ( رحمه الله ) في تلك المرحلة الرؤية الأميركية للإسلام الذي تريده أميركا في منطقة الشرق الأوسط . فرأى أن " الإسلام الذي يريده الأمريكان وحلفاؤهم في الشرق الأوسط ليس هو الإسلام الذي يقاوم الاستعمار وليس هو الإسلام الذي يقاوم الطغيان ، ولكنه فقط الإسلام الذي يقاوم الشيوعية ! وأضاف : إنهم –أي الأمريكان- لا يريدون للإسلام أن يحكم ، ولا يطيقون من الإسلام أن يحكم، لأن الإسلام حين يحكم سينشئ الشعوب نشأة أخرى ، وسيعلم الشعوب أن إعداد القوة فريضة ، وأن الشيوعية كالاستعمار وباء ، فكلاهما عدو ، وكلاهما ، اعتداء !. الأمريكان وحلفاؤهم يريدون للشرق الأوسط إسلاماً أمريكانياً . ويتابع سيّد في عرض رؤيته فيشير إلى أن إنّ الإسلام يجوز أن يستفتى في منع الحمل، ويجوز أن يستفتى في دخول المرأة البرلمان ، ويجوز أن يستفتى في نواقض الوضوء ، ولكنه لا يستفتى أبداً في أوضاعنا الاجتماعية أو الاقتصادية أو نظامنا المالي ، ولا يستفتى أبداً في أوضاعنا السياسية والقومية وفيما يربط بالاستعمار من صلات. ويضيف قطب: "الديمقراطية في الإسلام والبر في الإسلام والعدل في الإسلام من الجائز أن يتناولها كتاب أو مقال ، ولكن الحكم بالإسلام والتشريع بالإسلام والانتصار للإسلام ،،،، لا يجوز أن يمسها قلم ولا حديث ولا استفتاء .
اليوم بعد 59 عاماً من هذا الكلام نشاهد بأم العين صعود الإسلاميين عموماً والأخوان سدة الحكم في غير قطر من أقطار المشرق والمغرب الإسلامي على السواء..منهم من وصل وارتقى ومنهم من يكافح وينافح للوصول معتلياً أمواج ماسمي بثورات الربيع العربي.. 

جميل أن نستعيد كلام قطب في هذه الأيام ونحن نرى الإخوان يتقدمون للإمساك بالسلطة من المغرب لتونس ومصر وليبيا وغيرها.ويسارعون إلى إرسال رسائل التطمين في كل اتجاه وخصوصاً للأمريكان .. بل يتحالفون معهم لإسقاط نظام هنا أو هناك .. بل يخوضون معهم اليوم حواراً حول مفردات المرحلة الحالية..

وهذه الحوارات لم تتوقف حتى في أحلك الظروف.. الأخوان كانوا يتحاورون مع الأمريكان منذ أيام المرشد الراحل عمر التلمساني وأمام الجميع كان السناتور جوج ميتشل يزور المركز العام للإخوان في القاهرة..وكان الحوار يومها يتناول مفردات تلك المرحلة العلاقة مع الرئيس السادات مكافحة المد الشيوعي ...إلخ..
والغرب الأمريكي بلا شك يمتلك الخبرة والتجربة الكافية للتعامل مع القوى الأسلامية بأنواعها لتحقيق مصالحه في المنطقة اليوم . وأول هذه القوى الأخوان المسلمين . وخبرته بهم طويلة ومتراكمة عبر عشرات السنين.
"هم يريدون معرفة موقفنا من المرأة ووضع الاقليات وتداول السلطة والديمقراطية والموقف بالنسبة للعلاقة مع حماس وايران واتفاقية كامب ديفيد وكل هذه الامور أعلن الاخوان رأيهم فيها. ثم يحاول راضي تسويق الوضع الإخواني لدى الغرب فيقول : إن وضع المرأة في السعودية لم يكن حائلاً أبداً لأن تكون هذه الدولة حليفاً قوياً للولايات المتحدة. ولم يمنع الوضع المزري للأكثرية في البحرين الولايات المتحدة من جعل أرض هذه الدولة مقراً لأسطولها الخامس فما بالك بأهتمامها بوضع الأقليات ... ؟؟؟!!!

وبالطبع أنا لست من دعاة (سوء الظن من حسن الفطن ) فمن يعرف التربية الإخوانية لا يمكن أن يصدق ما يروج له البعض من أن الإخوان انخرطوا في حلف غير مقدس مع الإدارة الأمريكية على أن يخلي لهم الأمريكان طريق الحكم.. مقابل التزامهم وضبط إيقاعهم في المنطقة وفق الأجندة الأمريكية....!

وإذا كانت البراغماتية الأمريكية تعتمد سياسة قائمة على تحقيق المصلحة الأمريكية المرتبطة عضوياً بمصلحة الكيان الصهيوني .. أولاً وثانياً وثالثاً ..وآخراً. لذا فأننا لابد وأن نستنتج أن موقف الأخوان من الكيان الصهيوني وحماس وإيران هو ما يهم الولايات المتحدة في الأساس.

ومعروف أن الأخوان أيضاً لديهم من البراغماتية ما يكفي للتعامل مع الولايات المتحدة والغرب بكياسة زائدة ووصول الإخوان إلى الحكم في أكثر من قطر عربي يلاقي بلا شك ترحيباً من الولايات المتحدة.

فالولايات المتحدة كانت تتحالف مع الأنظمة الدكتاتورية الضامنة لأمن الكيان الصهيوني على تخلفها وسوء إدارتها ..بل إن ما تبقى من هذه الأنظمة لا يزال حليفاً لها حتى اليوم. فما الذي يمنع استبدال هذه الأنظمة التي كانت تدعي العلمانية بأنظمة تدعي الأسلامية ما دامت مستعدة للخضوع للشروط والضوابط الأمريكية...وهي لعبة تستهوي أمريكا !!؟.
ربما يعتقد البعض أن الإخوان كانوا ولا زالوا يخطؤون في خياراتهم السياسية وهذا ما جرّّ ويجر عليهم الويلات في أكثر من قطر عربي..لكن الخطأ التكتيكي شيء .. والخطأ الاستراتيجي شيء آخر..

المطلوب اليوم من الإخوان كبير جداً وكثير بحجم كبر وكثرة الآمال المعقودة عليهم لصيانة المنطقة والحفاظ عليها..والبراغماتية السياسية ربما تنفع في التكتيكات الداخلية لكنها جد قاتلة في الأمور والقضايا الاستراتيجية. إذا أراد الإخوان النجاح عليهم ابتداءً الرجوع إلى أصولهم وأدبياتهم..ووزن براغماتيتهم وضبابيتهم اليوم بوضوح وصفاء أصولهم.. وهذا ما نرجوه ..؟!!
إن موقع المنار غير مسؤول عن النص ومضمونه، وهو لا يعبر إلا عن وجهة نظر كاتبه

ماذا يريد الامريكان من الاخوان؟ يقلم صابر حسنين علام


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Muslim Brotherhood: peace with Israel isn't binding


http://rt.com/files/news/israel-egypt-military-threat-841/burn-cairo-demolish-israeli.jpgGilad Atzmon: According the Israeli Ynet, Rashad al-Bayoumi, a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood says that the Egyptian Party won't recognize Israel under any circumstances, and might put up peace treaty with 'Zionist entity' up to referendum. 'Israel is enemy entity'. According to Ynet, al-Bayoumi expressed those views in the Arabic Al-Hayat newspaper.

"Is rising to power conditional on recognizing Israel?" al-Bayoumi wondered. "That's out of the question, no matter what the situation is. On no condition will we recognize Israel. It is an enemy entity, an exploiting, criminal occupier."

According to al-Bayoumi, no member of the Muslim Brotherhood will ever meet with Israelis. "I won't allow myself to sit down with a criminal," he said. "We won't cooperate with Israel in any situation."
I guess that the meaning of it is pretty simple- the Jewish State is a fading concept, it belongs to History. 
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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PA Intelligence kidnaps senior Hamas figure in Qalqiliya

PA Intelligence kidnaps senior Hamas figure in Qalqiliya
 
[ 01/01/2012 - 12:05 PM ]
QALQILIYA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian authority intelligence apparatus kidnapped on Saturday evening senior Hamas official and noted reformer Riyadh Walweel, 57, from his home in Qalqiliya city, north of the occupied West Bank.
 
Local sources told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that PA intelligence agents kidnapped Walweel after he refused to receive and sign on a summons for interrogation issued against him by the intelligence service in Qalqiliya.
Walweel is a noted religious figure and reformer in the city and has been locked in Israeli and PA jails many times before.
His current detention has raised the ire of Palestinians in the city and many of them questioned the viability of the national reconciliation while such suppression is still ongoing in the West Bank.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

The Attack on the USS Liberty

DateSaturday, December 31, 2011 at 12:13AM AuthorGilad Atzmon

Our best friends in the Middle East...
'The best plan accident..'


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Will 2012 Bring Tribal War to Libya?

"To date nothing has been achieved by the new government and people are growing very angry."

by FRANKLIN LAMB

Al-manar

The weather in Tripoli this New Year’s weekend is unseasonably bone chilling with heavy rains flooding the streets reminding this observer more of dreary London this time of year than the southern Maghreb coast of the Mediterranean. My modest family run neighborhood hotel off Omar Muktar Street is clean and cheap, but my room has no heat except what eventually builds up under a stack of velour Turkish blankets.

Tripoli
Much valued by me and the only other registered guest, a Libyan engineer from Sirte whose home was torched by rebels in early October, is the hotel proprietor who reopened in early November following closure since last March. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge and opinion on “the current situation” here. But the hotel owner and his two English speaking sons are not the only ones who are increasingly speaking out about realities in the “new Libya” nearly two months after NATO declared another victory and stopped systematically and seemingly indiscriminately reducing to rubble this essentially defenseless and militarily speaking, Third World country, with the First Worlds most advanced arsenal.

My good luck this trip was to find my best friend from the months I was in Libya last summer. “Ahmad,” who like most contacts disappeared without a trace on August 22nd following the fall of Tripoli to NATO forces. As so many of us have learned, those we knew this summer either fled fast, were jailed, or were killed. “Ahmad”resurfaced in September via email to explain that he was in hiding. He went deep down in South Libya in a small Sahara town the name of which he told me has never even made it on a map, much less google earth. Then, a few weeks later Ahmad disappeared again when he ventured out to see his family near Tripoli. He was betrayed by friends for militia cash, was arrested, tortured and jailed without charges simply because his family was known to be Gadhafi supporters. The last week of Ahmad’s incarceration, which ended only because one of the guards recognized him as a former classmate, he and the other more than 100, including Sheik Khaled Fantouch, all held in a large room in a makeshift Misrata militia prison, were given nothing at all to eat and shared bottles of water to stay alive.

Life has become more complicated in Libya for about everyone it seems including foreign visitors. One example: Back in the summer, before August 21st, if one found himself on a side street somewhere face to face with some heavily armed and scowling types it was a good idea to whisper, “Allah, Muammar, Libya, al bas (‘that all we need!”)and chances were quite good that you would be warmly received.

Now it’s much more complicated. More than 55 rebel militia, totaling more than 30,000 armed fighters control parts of Tripoli, some of them loosely under the protection and direction of the TNC, Tripoli Military Commander Belhaj. Belhaj, formerly with Al Qaeda spent seven years in prison here when the US & UK sent him to the Gadhafi regimes as part of its rendition program.

His party, now being formed into the Muslim Brotherhood will likely win next June’s election. His in the third largest militia in Tripoli. The largest is run by Salh Gait, from Tripoli, and according to his deputy has 5000 fighters and adding more.

These days in Libya it is a good idea to memorize the name of the largest of the local militia and the name of its leader so when approached by the heavily armed unfriendly types one can rub two index fingers together and say the leader’s name while adding “mlieh, mlieh”i.e. “good, good.” One wants to avoid saying the wrong militia and leader name because there is today an uneasy calm among militias in Tripoli after a few weeks of largely unreported skirmishes.

Largely unreported for the following reason. The transitional government daily touts the new freedom of the press here and they claim that there are 43 new newspapers or magazines. That on the surface sounds pretty good and there are more or fewer each week as local and foreign funders fail to deliver on funding promises or others start publishing a newspaper or magazine.

What is remarkable about the “new free Libya, new free media” is that it is 100 percent pro “new government”. I am advised that it’s only partly out of fear of consequences for failing to toe the line that accounts for this apparent universal support for the TNC. Another reason according to a western ambassador who have returned to his post here is that the new media sprang from the myriad militia and they simply have a psychological issue with criticizing any of the obvious problems which seem to be swelling by the day. Ahmad agrees. “They were so involved with NATO and its rebels that they do not want to admit that they were wrong in many ways so they ignore what is really happening in front of their eyes”.
This observer witnessed one example yesterday at “Green Square”. “Almost everyone still calls it Green Square rather than its TNC re-name of Martyrs Square” the hotel proprietor explained,“because it’s been Green Square for decades and what’s wrong with that name?

If you tell someone to meet you at ‘Martyrs Square’ its sounds silly to most of us. What if the new Egyptian government renames Tahrir Square? Will people in Egypt accept it?”
What surprised me yesterday is that there were two well attended anti-government demonstrations being held at opposite ends of this large space. One was led by two women I knew during the summer who were and openly say they remain, Gadhafi regime supporters. One ran a women’s lawyers’ group last summer and the other a women’s group. The one demonstration was demanding that the husbands and children of Libyan wives and mothers be granted Libyan citizenship. The same struggle that continues decade after decade in Lebanon.
Photos of 12/29/11 women’s demonstration at Green Square
(Martyr’s Sq) in Tripoli in favor of the right of Libyan women
to give their husbands and children Libyan citizenship
(photos: fplamb)

Born in Libya, Only know Libya, Loyal to Libya, belong to Libya
(photos: fplamb)
The other demonstration, led by the lady lawyer who I last saw giving a speech at a conference at the Corinthia Hotel a few days before Tripoli fell, was organized by a group demanding accountability for those who have disappeared and are being held in scores of secret militia prisons around the country. According to her committee’s research, in addition to the 7000 plus pro Gadhafi loyalists acknowledged as imprisoned by the TTC,, 80% identified by name, the Committee for Justice for the Disappeared, claim that there are more than 35,000 Libyans being held secretly by militia that are outside the control and sometimes even the knowledge of the essentially powerless TNC. Ahmad agrees with this figure from what he learned in prison and explained that he would take me to a school near my hotel before classes open on January 7th and if we walk by at night without traffic noise we can hear the shouting of guards and screams of prisoners being held.

It does appear that at least for now, demonstrations are being allowed although they were plenty of observers watching and which ones are from the TNC and militia security forces is anyone’s guess.
Ahmad just arrived to pick me up and informed me that neither demonstration was reported in this morning’s papers thanks to the new Libyan feel good media who don’t criticize the new government.
The lady who heads the woman’s group has several issues her group plans to raise. One is the fact than Libyan women have been disappearing from public places and not heard from again. One of her suspicions is that some are ending up in the homes of former Gadhafi relatives and supporters of the regime. She estimates that just in Tripoli more than 90 such homes, all of them in desired areas, often on the sea, were ransacked by various rebels gangs, stripped of possessions, some appearing now in various street souks for sale. Following the trashing of some of the properties, many militia members got a better idea. Why return to say, Benghazi, Misrata, or wherever they came from when they can just live here in Tripoli and in relative luxury? Militiamen are now doing this by the hundreds, “Mara” the women advocate claims. “They are well-armed, living off a little militia pay, but mainly from various crimes, these groups are repairing some of the damage they caused and have moved in long term even charging rent to some new arrivals. Mara added,“If they see an empty house, especially if it’s a really nice one, they assume, often correctly, that it belonged to a Gadhafi relative, official or supporter and they think it’s theirs for the grabbing. And they are grabbing. They dare anyone or even another militia or the non-existent new government to try to remove them. They have no intention of returning to where they came from and less on given up their arms. Actually they are stockpiling more weapons and explosives both as security and to increase their political bargaining power. It appears that Libya is up for grabs for so many, local and foreign operations.”

The same lady said the population of Tripoli has risen by one million and the locals want the “outsiders” to return to their towns and leave Tripoli’s real residents to take care of their city. The outsiders are said to add to traffic problems and a decline in security so people stay inside at night.

Some of the home invaders have moved in their families from other parts of Libya and some are accused of holding kidnapped female foreign domestic workers and are suspected by the women advocacy groups, kidnapping women off the streets and enslaving them within their sanctuaries.
What outrages many here is that the new “government” will not even acknowledge that these problems exist. Just as the new government has no desire for the International Criminal Court to investigate any crimes from either side because they don’t want investigators snooping around asking questions.

Libyans inside the country and those seeking safety in nearby countries, are increasingly turning to the ten largest Libyan tribes to put an end to this situation and many other problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UbKcNpGaDE
Bodies dupmed in sewage
One situation that is said to be ready to explode in violence is from areas like Bani Wallid and Serte where NATO and its local forces killed many civilians that no human right group even knows about. One local militia commander explained to me and my two colleagues some of what he learned while helping run a secret prison: “Whatever intra-tribal or geographical divisions existed a year ago, they are 500 times worse today. The Tribes are arming and have given the new government several deadlines for committing to rebuild destroyed homes and businesses, helping homeless families, and getting the guns off the streets and sending the armed gangs back to where they came from. To date nothing has been achieved by the new government and people are growing very angry.”


Other current problems causing strife here are the rising prices on everything except electricity which no one has paid in the whole country according to my sources since last February. But the electricity cuts are similar to during the NATO bombing. Lack of money is a problem with citizens not being allowed to withdraw more than 750 dinars each month. Money is still relatively scarce and if one accepts that 7 billion was taken out of Libyan banks by former Libyan officials and businessmen early last spring, more than 8 billion was withdrawn by citizens in a panic last summer before a limit of 500 dinars per month was imposed by the Gadhafi government.

This observer has been advised both in neighboring countries and inside Libya by Tribal officials that war in coming maybe as soon as March 1. “Our history, our culture, our dignity, is at stake. It is the responsibility of the Tribes to cleanse the country of these outlaws just as we did against the Italian colonizers.”
During a meeting in a nearby country one Gadhafi loyalist explained:

“We know which tribes worked with NATO and sold out their birthrights. Some did the same thing with the Italians and over the years with foreign oil companies.  
We will fight to restore a path for the Libyan people knowing that mistakes were made by the Gadhafi regime but also that his support today ranges from 90% in Wafala Tribe areas like Bani Walid to close to 60% in Tripoli.  
He is not coming back but many of his good policies will return ehshallah.”









fplamb@gmail.comHe is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon.
He contribute to Uprooted Palestinians Blog

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Obama Inks New Sanctions on Iran

Local Editor
US President Barak Obama has signed fresh economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution.

The bill, signed on Saturday, requires foreign financial firms to make a choice between doing business with Iran's Central Bank and oil sector or with the US financial sector.

The legislation will not go into effect for six months in a bid to provide oil markets with time to adjust.

It also includes a "waiver," allowing the president to suspend sanctions in case he decides that the anti-Iran attempt will adversely impact national security interests of the US.
The inclusion of the “waiver” in the bill reflects major concerns among American lawmakers that the bullying approach of the US against the Islamic Republic will backfire across the globe.

Meanwhile, energy experts say the sanctions could lead to a major hike in crude oil prices and disrupt the interests of the US and its allies that depend on oil imports from Iran.

The United States has already barred its own banks from dealing with the Iranian Central Bank. Thus, the new US sanctions are intended to dissuade other foreign banks from doing transactions with Iran's Central Bank by threatening to cut off their access to US financial institutions.

Facing major economic troubles, the United States is reportedly the world's largest debtor nation.
The sovereign debts of the US government to foreign states and institutions reached USD 15 trillion at the end of 2011. With the steady accumulation of interest on the huge debt, there is serious skepticism about the US ability to pay it off.

A number of economic experts believe that US government will soon face bankruptcy and American citizens will have to endure more severe financial crisis in the years ahead.

US sanctions, as well as unilateral embargoes imposed on Iran's energy and financial sectors by Britain and Canada came after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report on Iranian nuclear program early November, accusing Tehran of seeking to weaponize its nuclear technology.

Despite the widely publicized claims by the US, Israel and some of their European allies that Iran's nuclear program may include a military diversion, Iran steadfastly insists on its civilian nature, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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2011 Ends on a Sour Note… Is Hamas Really a Mean-Minded Christmas Scrooge*?




The Palestinian Orthodox community celebrates in Gaza
Palestinian Greek Orthodox worshipers attend Christmas services
at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 7, 2011.
Christmas falls on Jan. 7 for Orthodox Christians in Eastern Orthodox churches
that use the Julian calendar instead of the 16th-century Gregorian calendar adopted
by Catholics and Protestants and commonly used in secular life around the world.
 (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
31. Dec, 2011 


The original construction of the Orthodox Church was built in the 6thCentury, in what is now Gaza’s Old City.
Phoebe Greenwood, writing from Gaza City in The Guardian on 23 December

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/23/gaza-christians-hamas-cancelled-christmas, reported:
“There hasn’t been a Christmas tree in Gaza City’s main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday.”

The headline said Hamas had “cancelled Christmas”. Could this possibly be true?
 Fr Manuel Mussallam PM Ismail Haniyeh
When I visited Gaza in late 2007 Fr Manuel Mussallam, the feisty old priest in charge of the Catholic community, took me and others to meet Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and some of his colleagues. Relations between Christian and Muslim – or at least between the Catholic community and the Hamas government – seemed strong enough and friendly enough for Christmas celebrations to be left undisturbed.

The very idea of a ban actually makes me smile because Scotland, a Christian country of course, saw Christmas as a papist festival and for centuries discouraged it. When I lived there it wasn’t even a public holiday.

But back to the Strip… Is Hamas being beastly to Gaza’s Christians? Has Phoebe Greenwood got her story straight? I wrote to her at The Guardian, pointing out that revelations of this kind in the popular British press undo the hard work activists put in to help the Palestinian cause. Could she please throw more light onto it? I’ve had no reply.

I’m in England and unable to contact Hamas. Phoebe Greenwood is on the spot. Shouldn’t someone from Mr Haniyeh’s office be given a chance to comment?

As for Fr Manuel, he has finally retired and left Gaza. The school he ran there, part-funded by the Vatican, had 1200 pupils. About 1000 were Muslim and some of these the children of Hamas leaders.
The relationship between Muslim and Christian in the Holy Land, and the potential for friction, is frequently poked and prodded simply to make mischief.

Those with a rightful cause versus those who took it away

Archbishop Theodosius Hanna (Greek Orthodox Church), on a visit to Ireland a year ago, told politicians: “The problem in Palestine has nothing to do with religion – it is not a religious issue. It is not a conflict of Christians, Muslims and Jewish people. It is a conflict between those who are the holders of a rightful cause and those who took away that right by military might.

“Palestinian people as a whole, including Christians and Muslims, have said repeatedly that what they want is peace. We want two states that live together in peace. However, the reality on the ground is that we are extremely far away from that goal because Israel does not want peace.”

Fr Manuel, who accompanied the Archbishop, told his listeners what happened when the Christian school in Gaza was targeted.

“Five Hamas ministers visited the school after it was attacked and promised they would repair the damage… A Hamas minister, a Muslim, picked up the Holy Bible thrown on the ground, kissed it and put it back on the altar. He said Muslims were forbidden to do such things to the Bible. Hamas paid more than $122,000 to repair all the damage caused.

“Afterwards I met the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh. When he embraced me he said this, and we believed it. He said: “Go to your family, but be assured that Hamas will employ weapons against Muslims to protect Christians in Gaza.” This is the reality. Christians in Palestine are not suffering persecution, because we are not considered to be a religious community, but rather the people of Palestine. We have the same rights and the same obligations.”

It is hardly surprising that Israeli oppression aided and endorsed by western Christendom, and the grinding poverty this evil alliance creates in the occupied territories, drives some Muslims into the arms of Islamic extremism. Hamas insists that extremist acts are incidents not policy.

Fr Manuel went on to tell the Irish what things were really like under military occupation. “We have spoken to Israel for more than18 years and the result has been zero. We have signed agreements here and there at various times and then when there is a change in the government of Israel we have to start again from the beginning. We ask for our life and to be given back our Jerusalem, to be given our state and for enough water to drink. We want to be given more opportunity to reach Jerusalem. I have not seen Jerusalem since 1990.”

He described the nightmarish system of entry and exit permits, which Israel invariably refused. “We want to see an end to this occupation, and please do not ask us to protect those who are occupying our territory.”

A week ago, on Christmas Day, the Voice of Palestine website ran this news item:
DAMASCUS – Hamas Movement have offered its best wishes to all Palestinian Christians in occupied Palestine, and other countries on the occasion of Prophet Jesus’ birth and wished them a happy holiday.

“On the occasion of rejoicing the birth of Prophet Jesus peace of God be upon him, the Islamic Movement of Hamas extends its sincere wishes to all our fellow Christians in their homeland Palestine, the cradle of prophecies and the land of divine messages, as well as to the Palestinian Christians in the Arab and Islamic countries and the whole world,” Hamas said in a press release on Saturday.

Hamas wished this occasion to be an opportunity for uniting the Palestinian people and pooling the efforts of the world’s free people to support the Palestinian cause and protect the Islamic and Christian holy sites.

In the past Hamas has shown great respect for the Christian tradition of Christmas and, I hear, Hamas officials in Bethlehem used to dress up as Santa Claus to distribute gifts to Christian children. So the question remains: has Hamas really become such a Scrooge* as to torpedo Christmas with a tree ban?
If so, it’s a sure-fire way to lose friends and alienate people.

* for more about the mean-mindedness of that notorious character Ebenezer Scrooge, and his hatred of Christmas, see ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. Scrooge eventually sees the light and redeems himself.

Stuart Littlewood
31 December 2011
Stuart Littlewood’s book Radio Free Palestine can now be read on the internet by visiting www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk
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Abu Ghraib…Only Now Have They Begun to Mourn

Roqayah Chamseddine

The war in Iraq has ended so why do you continue in grieving an invasion that has officially been closed? There is no open case, we have stamped “mission accomplished” over the Iraq war file.

The American troops have left Iraq, is that not what you’ve asked for? Now let us alone. The Iraq war is over, why can’t we simply just forget it?

As cold as the aforementioned statements sound, they are real; now that the Obama Administration has seemingly ended the 8 year, 8 month and 25 day occupation of Iraq there are too many asking for us to bury the rotting corpse that is Iraq. Hide it away, mask its odor – do what we please, just so long as they can omit from their minds the name: Iraq.

I was 13 that March in 2003 when it was announced that the United States et al. were indeed invading Iraq. I remember my mother’s words, haunting me now as I look upon a world map dotted in bloody U.S. interventions and sponsored massacres; “They’ve ruined Iraq. That’s it, they’ve ruined Iraq.”

A year later, in 2004, I excitedly got my hands on a DVD copy of Fahrenheit 9/11, the documentary by the filmmaker and political commentator Michael Moore covering the War on Terror. As I was the eldest and most politically astute of my 4 younger sisters I was allowed to sit alongside my parents and watch.

I recall one scene from the film, vaguely now; U.S. soldiers standing above a corpse, mocking a dead man and making perverse sexual remarks as he lay motionless. I walked out of the living room and into my bedroom and cried. I couldn’t stand watching this grotesque humiliation happen before my eyes. I did not want to see. To this very day I have not finished the film.

It angers me, listening to so many mourn the financial losses the United States Gov’t has forced upon the citizens of this empire. The cost of the war. That is seemingly all we hear of. The day the war “ended” I forced myself into watching, briefly, a few mainstream media outlets; the cost to Americans was all that mattered – their troops, their money – them. A selfish media for a selfish people.

But, we must put this into context, the Liberals say. How else will Americans care for Iraq if we do not put this into perspective.
This rationale is one I deplore. I find it disgusting.

That even suffering, even the loss of life of some 1 million people we must make marketable to an American audience, we must make it easier for them to swallow so as not to make them feel too guilty, so as to help them towards another path wherein they can feel something, anything, for Iraq.

They wish for us to forget that it was American troops and their lackeys who raped, tortured and pillaged Iraq; who raped, tortured and devoured its people.

In Abu Ghraib prison, notorious for heart-wrenching torture and abuse of prisoners taken captive by US soldiers, there were photographs found, and among the photos were images of sexual assaults on prisoners.

There are also accusations to US troops of child abuse.

The Obama administration refused to release the said photo’s as “the most direct consequence of releasing them would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger” according to US President Barack Obama.

And they want us to forget, because it is seemingly all over for Americans. Their war is finished. But for Iraqi’s, the suffering is endless and the consequences of the occupation have only just begun to surface; only now have they begun to mourn.

“The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them,” said Khazim, whose father was killed when a mortar shell struck his home in Sadr City.

“Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans. The Americans did not leave a free people and country behind them. In fact, they left a ruined country and a divided nation.”
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Bahraini detainees on hunger strike to protest torture



A leading Bahraini activist has disputed claims by the country's interior ministry that the hunger strikes in the country's jails are subsiding.

On Sunday 14 leading political prisoners began refusing food after reporting systematic abuses in Bahrain’s jails, including beatings, torture and the use of tear gas.
Since then the number of confirmed strikers had risen to nearly 200, with detainees demanding fair access to legal proceedings and respect for human rights.
A Bahraini official on Wednesday claimed that the jail protest was beginning to fade as the numbers on strike were decreasing.
Major General Ibrahim al-Ghaith, an official in the interior ministry, told AFP: "Today, the number of prisoners on hunger strike has dropped to around 100. Yesterday there were 180."
Ghaith denied claims of abuse inside prisons and said the accusation that tear gas was used against prisoners was a "false allegation."
But Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, rebuked Ghaith and estimated that more than 250 prisoners were now refusing food.
“There are hundreds of them, it is not correct that the number is falling. We have a history of the interior ministry misleading people and giving out false information,” he told Al-Akhbar.
“Nobody in Bahrain believes anything coming out of this ministry.”
Many of those detained have been held since protests in the country were crushed in mid-March 2011.
A government-established commission of inquiry found evidence of systematic abuses of power by the security forces, including the use of torture.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa vowed to stamp out abuse of detainees, but opposition figure Mattar Ebrahim told Al-Akhbar last week that authorities have new tactics that allow them to torture protesters without accountability.
"The new policy is trying to minimize torture inside prisons, but the alternative is that they torture in other places, such as construction sites," Ebrahim, a member of the opposition Al-Wefaq party, said.
Ebrahim was commenting on the death of 18-year-old Mohamed Ibrahim Yaaqoub, who allegedly died last Wednesday from torture at the hands of Bahraini security forces.
Yaaqoub was reportedly tortured in a yard opposite a police station in the town of Sitra.
Elsewhere in the country there has been increased tension in recent weeks, with activists continuing to demand democratic reform.
Rajab has called on Bahrainis to protest in Manama on Wednesday evening, with thousands expected to attend.
“It is tense, more tense than a few weeks ago. There are more people on the streets, we are seeing more protests,” he said.
“Tomorrow night I have called for a protest calling for the release of the political prisoners, last time over 10,000 people attended.”
Pro-democracy protests in Bahrain erupted last year following similar uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
But Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states sent troops into the tiny island state in March 2011 to crush the uprising.
Protests have again surfaced, testing Gulf monarchies that have led efforts to thwart the popular Arab Spring from bringing democracy to the region.
(Al-Akhbar, AFP)
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