Time to apologize for the west’s shameful support of dictatorship in Egypt

While Egyptians want democracy, the military wants political figureheads and the right to intervene in politics to protect its interests aka “national security” – the same demands used for decades by the rightwing Turkish military to block democracy. Egypt’s generals insist there be no investigations of human rights abuses. Washington is trying to sustain the Egypt-Israel alliance that all Egyptians detest. The military, its US backers, Israel, and some misinformed western media warn the Muslim Brotherhood will turn Egypt into another Iran. This is nonsense. The Brotherhood is conservatives, timid and focused on social issues. In Egypt’s political context, it is a moderate party. Egyptians want jobs, housing, food, education and a rescue for the deeply ailing economy, not worldwide jihad.

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EGYPTIANS WANT RECOVERY OF THEIR COUNTRY’S DEEPLY AILING ECONOMY AND NOT A WORLDWIDE JIHAD

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by Eric Margolis

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Tahrir Square, epicenter of the earthquake that ousted Egypt’s western-backed dictator, Husni Mubarak, is quite – for the moment.

There are banner-wavers, speakers, and youngsters milling about. But the by now world-famous square has a forlorn, leftover look, with more street people than revolutionaries. Violence crackles like static electricity.

The Dead Drone sketch

A secret U.S. surveillance drone that went missing last week in western Afghanistan appears to have crashed in Iran, in what may be the first case of such aircraft ending up in the hands of America’s adversary. Iran’s news agencies asserted that the nation’s defense forces brought down the drone, which the Iranian reports said was an RQ-170 stealth aircraft. The drone called ‘Beast’ is designed to penetrate enemy air defenses that could see and possibly shoot down less-sophisticated Predator and Reaper drones. It was a stealthy RQ-170 drone that played a critical role in surveilling the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was allegedly hiding in the months before the raid in which he was reported as killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in May this year.

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(HATS OFF, OF COURSE, TO MONTY PYTHON) 

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by Pepe Escobar 

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A group of journalists attend a United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) press conference in a nondescript room in Langley, Virginia. Journalist 1 [approaching the podium]: Excuse me, I wish to register a complaint.

[CIA spokesman/spook does not respond.]

Dateline: Tahrir Square

The victory at the Tahrir Square lifted the bar for the Muslim world up high in the heaven. So far the image of the Muslim world has long been tarnished with violence, intolerance and extremism. With that backdrop what a contrast has it been that hundreds of thousands of long oppressed poverty stricken Egyptians coming together and with the slogan “selmiyya, selmiyya” — “We are peaceful” toppled one of the long lasted powerful tyrants in the Muslim world. The revolution that took place here on this street might very well work as a catalyst of mindset change of the fastest growing vast young generation of the Muslim world. If the 70% of the Muslim world [35 years or younger] are convinced that there is an infinitely better way than violence and bloodshed to bring about a change then extremism is already invalidated and defeated: that is the recipe for long lasting peace, justice and progress in the Muslim world.

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EXPLOSIVE ANGER, PENT UP FRUSTRATION AND YEARNING FOR REVENGE- -THE RAW MATERIAL FOR ALL REVOLUTIONS

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by Eric Margolis

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Standing at Tahrir Square, ground zero of Egypt’s revolution, is exciting and intimidating. The explosive anger, pent-up frustrations, and yearning for revenge of tens of thousands of demonstrators and onlookers breaks like waves across this vast, unsightly plaza.

This is the raw material of all revolutions.  The whiff of near-toxic riot gas supplied by the US to Egypt’s security forces still lingers in places.

Off on side streets, wait large numbers of special black-uniformed security forces, ready to have another go at the thousands of young demonstrators thronging the world’s most currently famous square.

So far, at least 45 demonstrators have been killed and thousands injured by rubber-coated bullets, riot gas, clubbing or being crushed by security vehicles.  Tens of thousands more have been arrested by the police who are not known for their gentleness.

But even stronger than the fear hanging  over Tahrir Square is the pulsating thrill of raw revolution,  and the hope it might somehow rid Egypt of decades of oppression and misrule.

Syrian Time Bomb

The US is quietly shoring up Egypt’s large armed forces. The Saudis just slipped $4 billion to Egypt’s military.  The Saudis, with Washington’s blessings, have reportedly promised Egypt tens of billions – may be even $60 billion – more to keep democrats, nationalists, Nasserites and the stodgy Muslim Brotherhood out of power.   Side by side the situation in neighboring Syria is aggravating. The conflict arose in Syria a year ago when insurgent groups slipped in from neighboring Lebanon.  They were armed, supplied and trained by the CIA, Britain’s MI6, and Israel’s Mossad.  Their finances came from the US Congress, which voted in the 1980’s to fund overthrowing Syria’s Assad regime because of its antagonism to Israel and support for Palestine.

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BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE TO GET RID OF MICE

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by Eric Margolis

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Istanbul- November 28, 2011: It’s dark and foggy here today along the mighty Bosphorus that separates Europe and Asia. Just as murky and dangerous as exploding next-door Syria.

Turkey’s formerly very successful  “no problems” foreign policy crafted by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogolu buried old arguments with Syria, Iran, and Lebanon and opened billions of new trade for Turkey’s bustling exporters.  Turkey’s red hot economy grew 7% last year- almost as fast as China.

But that was before Libya, Syria and Egypt erupted.  Turkey’s highly popular prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was forced to take sides . Turkey called for Egypt’s terminally ill pharaoh, Hosni Mubarak, to leave office, but still kept its support with Egypt’s all-powerful army.  This was ironic since Erdogan had just waged a decade-long battle to push Turkey’s bullying army out of politics.

Looking back on the road to folly

The grubby Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz, a leading neocon architect of the war, glibly predicted invading Iraq would cost a mere $40 billion and will be paid for by plundering its oil. But Wolfie’s jolly little war has so far cost $1 trillion.  In spite of the draw-down of US troops in Iraq, funding the remaining US garrison and the American-installed Baghdad regime remains enormously costly.  Much of the cost is hidden in CIA’s $54.1 billion “black” budget. The Bush and now Obama administrations have concealed the war’s cost from Americans by refusing to pay for it through a war tax.  Instead, the total cost of  this war was put on the surging national debt, leaving future generations to pay for Bush’s folly. As we look back on this epic folly and again hear calls for war against Iran, we hear the famed words of King Pyrrhus of Epirus, “one more such victory and we are lost.”

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ATTACKING IRAN: AFTER IRAQ, ONE MORE SUCH VICTORY AND WE ARE LOST

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by Eric Margolis

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In October, 2002, I wrote an analysis of the impending Iraq War for “American Conservative” entitled “The Road to Folly.”

I observed, “A war that fails to achieve clear political objectives is merely an exercise in violence and futility.”   Having covered 14 conflicts as a war correspondent and the Mideast, I’ve seen a lot of violence and futility.

The White House launched a thunderous, utterly shameless propaganda campaign about phony threats to America and the world from President Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

On cue, US forces invaded Iraq in March, 2003.

In America, the “bodyguard of lies” that Churchill said accompanies every war swelled into an army of liars. The Bush administration’s neocons played a leading role in engineering the Iraq conflict. Media acted as megaphones for the war party.

Old Lies New Bottles

The map shows the possible Israeli attack on Iran. It further traces the likely routes for the aerial attacks, the range of the Jericho III missiles, and the main Israeli objectives on Iranian territory, such as water and uranium factories.

According to a report filed by an Israel daily, the US wants Tehran to curtail its nuclear program until spring 2012, otherwise it will give Israel the green light to strike on Iran. The spring is set as a deadline due to the exit of American forces from the region, And in the absence of US forces, Israel can attack without American consent. The newspaper also quotes a website claiming that Israel now has tens of billions of dollars worth of high-tech arms capable of “blinding and stunning” Iran at their disposal. So should a military action commence, Israel will not be content with just air raids and bombardment, but also will derail the internet and all kinds of digital and mobile communication in the country. Another leading daily The Jerusalem Post  writes on a possible Israeli attack on Iran, but warns it may well backfire on Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. 

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MEIR DAGAN, FORMER MOSSAD CHIEF: STRIKING IRAN, A STUPID IDEA

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by Eric Margolis

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The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) long awaited, much ballyhooed report on Iran’s nuclear activities has been thunderously greeted here as conclusive evidence that Iran is working on nuclear weapons.

Both Tehran and a 2007 US combined intelligence assessment deny such claims.

There’s little new in this report, and a lot of déjà vu. We read the old story floating around since 2002 about a mysterious laptop stolen from Iran and passed to US intelligence.  It allegedly contains scientific material about explosive compression methods to trigger a nuclear explosion, and designs to shrink nuclear warheads to fit in missile nosecones.

1914 Deja vu in the South China Sea

United States, the inheritor of erstwhile British Empire, is struggling to finance its vast sphere of influence but her biggest foreign policy challenge in this endeavor is to keep peace with China while gradually lessening its domination of the Asian Pacific coast. However, the bankrupt US cannot hope to compete long term with cash-rich China to be top dog in south Asia. Clever diplomacy, not more Marines, is the answer.  The over-extended American Raj has got to face strategic reality or it must accept the risks going the way of the Soviet Empire. Image above: Chancellor Bismarck inspired Germany’s foreign policy throughout the 1850s and early 1860s, and through several diplomatic overtures became known for his influence over foreign leaders. Photo: Tavin/Everett/Rex Features

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SOUTH CHINA SEA: GOING THE—WAY—OF—THE—SOVIET—EMPIRE

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by Eric Margolis

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I’ve a lovely little painting in my study of Germany’s first emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm 1.

 It was painted soon after the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War and the creation of a united Germany with Wilhelm as its monarch – thanks to the great German statesman, Prince Bismarck.

 United Germany’s fast-rising economic and military power was seen by the British Empire, which then ruled a quarter of the globe, as a dire threat.

Bismarck managed to cleverly divide or distract Germany’s foes.  But the new young Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed the domineering Bismarck and soon plunged his nation into confrontation with Imperial Britain over naval power, colonies, and trade.  Britain determined to crush rival Germany.  The fuse of World War I was lit.

‘Muammar Gaddafi’ – A Great Nationalist, Hero or A Tyrant? [3 of 3]

We shouldn’t forget that whenever America destabilizes a nation it does so by sowing discord amongst people on ethnic lines. The common ignorant masses are made to raise the issue of language and identity. They are shown economic incentives and conversion to Christianity. May I present an example of American conspiracy in Sudan by these Christians? This oil rich country has for years been caught in a debilitating and destructive civil war that has pitted a Muslim government centered in the north against the southern Christians. We have been observing the reality of the conspirators’ intervention by American Christians. The great south African leader Nelson Mandela once said, “When Christian missionaries came into Africa we had land and they had Bible, now they have land and we have Bible.” So from this quote, we can gauge the design of Christian Missions how do they grab other peoples’ land and rob them of, of their cultural identities. Over the last decade, USAID has spent $1.2 billion, most of it to support the SPLA, the Christian rebel group in Southern Sudan.

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GADDAFI’S DOWNFALL

AND LESSONS FOR NEPAL, MUSLIM AND OTHER NON CHRISTIAN NATIONS OF THE WORLD

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by Dirgha Raj Prasai (Nepal)

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In the context of Nepal as a free, sovereign and a pious Hindu state, the western countries have been involving themselves in this region to destabilize China in the name of Free-Tibet and Nepal in the name of Christianity against Hinduism and Buddhisim. For Western countries, certainly, there is some reluctance to go too deep into the affairs of organized Christianity—both at home and overseas. The western countries especially American’s CIA and EU have managed to define a global order largely in its own terms, with decisive help from its Christian missionaries. It was the support of the Maoists that made secularism possible and declare Nepal as such republic. And west now  plans to turn Nepal into a Christian state by instilling fear of Maoist army. However the nationalist side in the Maoist party has understood this plot. They will not support the foreigner’s agendas.  

 The Christian Missionaries knew that the Nepalese Hindu monarch is the symbol of Hindu faith all over the world like the British monarchy as the symbol of Christian faith all over the world. So, they conspired to abolish the only Hindu Royal institution in the world.

‘Gaddafi’ – A Great Nationalist, Hero or A Tyrant? [2 of 3]

In 1969, Gaddafi created Revolutionary Committees to keep tight control over internal dissent. Ten to twenty percent of Libyans worked as informants for these committees. Surveillance took place in the government, in factories, and in the education sector. People who formed a political party were executed, and talking about politics with foreigners was punishable by up to 3 years in jail. Arbitrary arrests were common and Libyans were hesitant to speak with foreigners. The government conducted executions and mutilations of political opponents in public and broadcast recordings of the proceedings on state television. Dissent was illegal under Law 75 of 1973, which denied freedom of expression. In 2010, Libya’s press was ranked as 160th out of 178 nations in the Press Freedom.

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GADDAFI, THE DICTATOR

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by Dirgha Raj Prasai (Nepal)

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In 1969, Gaddafi created Revolutionary Committees to keep tight control over internal dissent. Ten to twenty percent of Libyans worked as informants for these committees. Surveillance took place in the government, in factories, and in the education sector. People who formed a political party were executed, and talking about politics with foreigners was punishable by up to 3 years in jail. Arbitrary arrests were common and Libyans were hesitant to speak with foreigners.

 The government conducted executions and mutilations of political opponents in public and broadcast recordings of the proceedings on state television. Dissent was illegal under Law 75 of 1973, which denied freedom of expression. In 2010, Libya’s press was ranked as 160th out of 178 nations in the Press Freedom.

‘Muammar Gaddafi’ – A Great Nationalist, Hero or A Tyrant? [1 of 3 ]

Gaddafi was right or wrong, can be judged by the forces of aggression i.e. America, NATO and UN themselves had they had conscience? In Gaddffi’s Libya, there had been no electricity bills to be paid by Libyans; supply of electricity has been free for all its citizens. No interest on loans, banks in Libya being state-owned gave loans to all Libyans at 0% interest by law. Provision of home to every Libyan is considered a human right – Gaddafi vowed once that his parents would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home. Gaddafi’s father died in the meanwhile, his wife and his mother are still living in a tent. Then all newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment to help start up the family. Education and medical treatments are free too in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. Today the figure is 83%. 

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A MAN OF MASSES

OR ACCORDING TO IMPERIALISTS’ JARGON A DICTATOR!

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by Dirgha Raj Prasai (Nepal)

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Late     Muammar Gaddafi was a great nationalist and a Hero. During his 42 years long regime he never surrendered to the foreign forces, which is why in the eyes of these forces, the imperialists of today, he was a dictator.

 The late Libyan leader could have been orthodox in his views as a religious-Muslim. May be, he indulged in luxuries, agreed he was by temperament a furious persona, BUT HIS was the person who provided every need to his people, his fellow Libyans.