30 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in LB Politics, MB Politics, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, Politics, Press
Ana Maria Luca from NOW Lebanon wrote an interesting article ‘The Sunni Streets’, following up on the clashes that took place last week in Tarik Al-Jadideh in Beirut. She interviewed me about the events and quoted me in her piece.
21 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, Caricature of the day, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics
Tags
Al Khalifa family, Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit, Bernie Ecclestone, F1, Formula One, Grand Prix, Peter Brooks
Bernie Ecclestone does not see what the fuss is about with the formula One Grand Prix tomorrow in Bahrain, insisting that the unrest in the country “has nothing to do with them“.
Of course, it’s related to the regime crackdown on the uprising, and the widespread human right violations attached to it. A massive protest took place yesterday against the F1 event.
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Caricature of the day, MB Politics, MicroBlogs
Tags
Al-Hayat, Arab League, Benjamin Netanyahu, Democracy in the Middle East, Israel, Middle East, syria
It’s been a while that I have not posted selected caricatures from the press, so I decided to post two today!
The first is from the London-based daily Al-Hayat, commenting on Netanyahu’s statement of Israel being “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
02 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, USA, World
Is this some idiot, or is this really how CIA recruit bloggers? may be, they have nothing to lose; just ask the question, plain and simple.
I am still trying to comprehend this email I received last month asking me some favours. Someone is apparently looking for the confession (and other information) of William Buckley, the ex-CIA Station in Beirut in 1985, who was kidnapped and then killed in the sad kidnappings wave at the time in Lebanon.
Continue reading »
27 Tuesday Dec 2011
Posted in Arab Spring, MB Politics
Tags
Posted by Nabeel Rajab, the president of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, this photo gives you an idea of how journalists (or someone with a camera!) are treated in Bahrain, in the forgotten revolution.
Isn’t this person being ‘terrorised’?
17 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Arab Spring, MB Politics, Politics, USA
Tags
arab spring, Egypt, Human rights, Humanity, SCAF, Tantawi, YouTube
Today, the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forced (SCAF) of Egypt was helping Israel in its continuous never ending war against the Palestinians, with all the moral support they can give; just like any other Arab regime repressing its people.
Discuss.
Reminder: I believe 2011 was the best year yet for the American arms and crowd control weapons trades.
08 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Arab Spring, Caricature of the day, MB Politics, Politics, Syria
Tags
ABC, annahar, arab spring, Barbara Walters, Bashar Al-Assad, Libya, syria, Tv, YouTube
I wanted to post the same interview of the Syrian President Bashar Assad as a ‘caricature of the day’! But then I came across Annahar’s Armand Homsi’s caricature which I thought is convenient enough.
The interview was done by Barbara Walters of ABC, and aired last night on the American channel. You can watch its “highlights” below, but basically it seems Bashar Assad has defected from the Syrian presidency.
Continue reading »
05 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
Tags
Credit when credit is due; this time the credit goes to former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who said - commenting on the U.S. stopping its funding to UNESCO-:
“This U.S. decision is totally unacceptable [...] It is also a clear message sent by America to the people of the region and the world and the Palestinian people that it stands against peoples’ right to freedom and independence, and that it is still unable to play the role of an honest broker”
02 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Arab World, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Other Arab issues, USA, World
Tags
Foreign Policy, Israel, Palestine, UNESCO, United States, YouTube
So in UNESCO now, Palestine is IN, United States is OUT. That’s the situation after the U.S. stopped the funding for the organisation, as a protest reaction to the vote on the admittance of Palestine as a new member. It’s not only unconvincing, but could be one of the most shameful decisions Uncle Sam has ever made.
You can check how countries voted on the decision here, but you MUST watch the below video when a brave journalist interrogated the State Department Spokeswoman; I really felt-ish for Victoria Nuland at some point. This decision shows how the American pro-Israel policies are based on a weak alibi.
Continue reading »
03 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in Arab World, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Other Arab issues, Politics
In the wake of today’s attack on a mosque by suspected Jewish extremists in northern Israel, the above picture can probably give you a good explanation to the background of similar attacks, and to the spread of this mental corruption, the “Price Tag” policy.
The photo is for armed Jewish settlers in the West Bank hosting some foreigner comrades, who are part of the Jewish Defence League aiming to defend the settlements against ‘Palestinian violence’. They, in fact, ignore the fact that their presence where they are in the first place is considered an occupation and aggression by the Palestinians, United Nations and the international law.
Continue reading »
24 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MB Social, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
Tags
“A Crime File”
Date of sentence: 23rd Sept 2011
Verdict: guilty
Culprits: 10 Muslim students (Irvine 11).
Jury: Orange County jury, California
Crime: Practising the American First Amendment of the Bill of Rights
Method of crime: protest in a form of heckling
Location of crime: University of California, UCI
Date of crime: 8th February 2010
Subject of protest: Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren
Aim of protest: highlight the Israeli occupation to Palestine & its crimes
Evidence: below video…
Academic performance of UCI: note towards the end of protest @5:20, how apparently an orthodox bearded ‘teacher’, happened to have a Jewish cap on, was telling them ‘you are failing your exams’.
Question1: what would the verdict be if the students were of a different religion?
Question2: what would the verdict be if the Ambassador was not an Israeli person?
Question3: has the ‘teacher’ been disciplined?
“propagating murder is not an expression of free speech”
02 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, Wikileaks, World
Who said that CIA didn’t know where Imad Mughniyeh was, or what was his job, or didn’t have any hints!?
This is from Wikileaks 95BEIRUT2749 cable released 3 days ago, in its para 8:
for what it is worth, papers also report trends which suggest business as usual for Hizballah. The often inaccurate daily ‘Nida Al-Watan’ reported the re-election of Imad Mughniyah as the central security chief, with four assitants named Mustafa Badr Ad-Dine…
Have you noticed who was mentioned too? Yep, the suspect in Rafiq Hariri’s murder as per the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (as of 2011), Mustafa BadrEddine. What a coincidence!
Ironically, the partisan newspaper Nida Al-Watan was right in this reporting. The cable is written in a tone suspecting this report, with no further comment on Mughniyeh who was one of the most wanted men by the CIA at the time. For me, it seemed business as usual to the cable author.
It’s not clear why the US didn’t make big fuss out of it in Lebanon or with its government (in public), may be because they knew they can’t reach him in diplomatic means as they had to go via Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. And simply they may have waited for 9 years before they got him in their democratic way.
Photo from GlobalVoicesOnline
24 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs
Jumblatt and others:
…were critical of Saad Hariri’s long absence, blaming him for March 14′s lack of progress on developing unified positions, especially on whether to proceed with the presidential election.
I know, this is not news, especially with the current absence of Hariri from Lebanon for the past 7 months or so. But this quotation dates back to April 2008 (para 19).
Don’t we have a trend here, irrespective of the situation?
PS: read the full text under the link if you can, it refreshes some memories about Jumblatt & co. then.
22 Monday Aug 2011
Posted in MB Politics, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, Politics
This is how it usually works : there is an STL (Special Tribunal for Lebanon) development, then Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah speaks, then March8 alliance repeats what he said, then March14 alliance refutes what was said. The ‘Zajjal’ party can last for a while.
But this time, Nasrallah accused March14 of targeting the Shia in his last speech last week, so the response came from Tarik Jedideh area in Beirut!
Lebanese daily The Daily Star was generous enough to offer a full article on a local committee called ‘The Federation of Associations and Local Influential Figures’, which I never heard off and I don’t know what they do in life, responding to Nasrallah’s speech.
I thought this was a light-weight source to be portrayed in an article, with a completely ridiculous title by The Daily Star: ‘Beirut’s largest Sunni neighbourhood criticizes Nasrallah‘.
Oh well, it seems this is where Lebanese politics is heading (or we are there now), Dahyieh against Tarik Jedideh!
Just on the same day, Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani urged rival political leaders to tone down the hate speech, Anyone listening? (I think he should check on his Mufti El Jouzou first though).
18 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics
Last week, Lebanese Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza submitted a report to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) stating they failed to detain the suspects.
Today, the president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Antonio Cassese, said that this move does not end Lebanon’s continuing obligation to assist the Tribunal. He called on Lebanese authorities to intensify their efforts to arrest the four suspects wanted in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He then asked the Lebanese Prosecutor General to submit a monthly progress report to the Tribunal.
Continue reading »
16 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics
After the mysterious previous two explosions because of ‘gas canister‘ in Beirut Southern suburb, and ‘personal reasons‘ in Antelias, we got another one today in Shiyyah, this time because of ‘technical malfunction‘ in the exploded vehicle.
I know that faults in cars get them to break down, and stop working, not necessarily explode! Anyway, I don’t know whether it has any political relevance or not, but I ‘liked’ that:
Hizbullah and Amal members threw a security dragnet at the blast scene shortly after the explosion
12 Friday Aug 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
What is the likelihood of 81 members of a House of Representative of a certain country, spending time in the same foreign country around the same period?
If the House is America’s, and the foreign country is Israel, then this is a likely event, especially if the trip is funded by a pro-Israel lobby.
07 Sunday Aug 2011
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, Syria
Tags
Lebanese Baath MP Assem Qansso reiterated this morning on the Lebanese channel MTV, the Syrian regime stance on the pro-democracy uprising in Syria: they are being controlled by Al-Qaeda leader Al Zawahiri [for now]…
The accused people of the ‘conspiracy‘ on Syria since the start of the uprising has reached a long list, resulting the accusation – making the rounds – to be the silliest ever:
20 Wednesday Jul 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, The rest of the world, World
Tags
Foreign Policy, Iran, lebanon, Michel Sleiman, Propaganda, Satire
This is what the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said yesterday, to an Iranian delegate according to Iran’s news agency (IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency):
…that capitalism has been defeated and the need for global change is vital.
If you want to understand what this is about, you can check the statement here. Personally, I didn’t understand it or in other words I didn’t buy it!
Continue reading »
13 Wednesday Jul 2011
Posted in MB Politics, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, Politics, Syria, TV
Tags
arab spring, CNN, Propaganda, Sky News, syria, Tv, YouTube
In a previous post (Is the Western media promoting Syrian propaganda?), I may have told you that the Syrian regime sourced the crowd (different from crowdsourcing!) talking to the Western media, which I accused of colluding with the regime to pass its message across.
Now, I have a proof on that!
The authorities are always exposing themselves with the low quality video editing, and with the mistakes of their bad actors.
What’s chance of bumping into the same guy in two interviews in two separate locations? It happened in Syria, and with two separate media companies: CNN and Sky News!
Continue reading »
09 Saturday Jul 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, Syria
Tags
This is a comedy sketch depicting the state of the Syrian state TV! Not really different from any other Arab country state TV though especially during the ‘Arab Spring’…
The video is by the Syrian band ‘Freedom WoBas’. It made me laugh, so enjoy…
If you are a non-Arabic speaker, I’m sure you will understand it!
Continue reading »
04 Monday Jul 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, Syria
Tags
Apparently in Syria, you can ‘shoot’ the act of being shot.
Shocking…
01 Friday Jul 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics
If you thought Lebanese ex-Defence Minister Elias Murr was sneaky in his Wikileaks mention of the Lebanese Army commander then Michel Sleiman (saying he was weak person), then you have to listen to him yesterday attacking the current Lebanese President in the most blunt and direct way.
Murr accused Sleiman of failing to fulfill his duty as far as the investigations in Murr’s assassination attempt in 2005. Continue reading »
21 Tuesday Jun 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
This is the most ‘fun’ catch I came across this month: Nabih Berri started his ‘career’ with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Yes, believe it or not. Berri collaborated with the CIA, but failed to keep up with them.
This was mentioned by the former intelligence officer Michael Pilgrim on the History Commons who said:
Continue reading »
12 Sunday Jun 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics
Tags
So the Lebanese Mufti Mohamed Rashid Qabbani is calling for an ‘uprising’? It seems the Arab Spring is filtering through the Lebanese system, but we all know that such calls will go nowhere in Lebanon (at least without political exploitation).
Continue reading »
