Empire: Iraq to Mali: The changing calculus of war (24 Feb 2013)

‘It has been 10 years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, which marked a turning point in the West’s so-called war on terror. The pretext of the Iraq war was security and freedom, but the bombastic and openly pronounced objective was no less than remaking the greater Middle East region. For the US, Iraq became a quagmire and a humiliation – a strategic and moral failure that the country has spent the last four years trying to forget. But how much has America’s calculus of war really changed? And as Africa becomes the new frontline in the ‘war on terror’, have the Europeans learnt from America’s mistakes? Empire explores the merits, objectives, costs and morality of these wars with our guests: John Nagl, a retired Lieutenant Colonel who co-authored the US army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual; Jean Marie Guehenno, the director of the Center of International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, and former United Nations under secretary general for Peacekeeping Operations; Barbara Bodine, a professor at Princeton University and a former US Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen who also served with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq; and Christopher Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief, and author of several books, including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning and Empire of Illusion’ .

Egypt Constitution Vote

‘As the first round of voting on Egypt’s new draft constitution came to a close, the Muslim Brotherhood claims a majority vote of approval (16 Dec 2012)’.

Egypt Update: Morsi and the Constitution???

‘Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi has announced the referendum on the new constitution will be held on December the 15th. That’s as the country is gripped by unrelenting protests, with thousands coming out both for and against Morsi. Middle East expert, Doctor Omar Ashour, says Morsi is not doing enough to pacify his opponents (2 Dec 2012)’.

Egypt Today: Morsi’s Political Course Unsustainable???

‘Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s push for a new constitutional declaration will prove to be unsustainable, an analyst tells Press TV. On Thursday, Morsi issued a new constitutional declaration to expand his powers. The decree opens the way for retrials of officials involved in the clampdown on popular protests that toppled long-standing dictator Hosni Mubarak in early 2011. It also bars courts from challenging Morsi’s decisions. To further discuss the issue, Press TV’s News Analysis has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire, from Detroit, Wafik Moustafa, UK Chairman of Conservative Arab Network, from London, and Nii Akuetteh, an African Policy analyst, from Washington (24 November 2012)’.

President Mohammad Morsi Assumes Full Power in Egypt: A New Pharaoh in the making???

Early last month, the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil stated that in “the [first] 100 days of his presidency Mohammed Mursi has managed to surprise Egyptians on many occasions. The very fact that he was elected at all was surprising to many. Mr Mursi was propelled to power by the Muslim Brotherhood when their original candidate, business tycoon Khairat al-Shater, was disqualified from the presidential race. This won Mr Mursi titles like “The Accidental President” and “The Spare Wheel”. From the outset there were many doubts about whether he would be able to take charge of a country marred by a collapsing economy and a volatile security situation . . . The country had, for the 18 months before President Mursi was sworn in, been ruled by Egypt’s formidable military. They had a tight grip on power and made sure they continued to do so even after a president was elected. They announced a constitutional declaration just days before the election results. It gave the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) legislative and executive powers including the ability to veto any article in the drafting of the country’s constitution. But last August, Mr Mursi took the nation – and the world – by surprise when he cancelled Scaf’s constitutional declaration and transferred full executive and legislative authority from the military council to himself. He also forced the Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi and his second-in-command Sami Enan into retirement. He appointed Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the former head of military intelligence, and the youngest member of Scaf as defence minister. Mr Mursi then continued his reshuffling of Egypt’s top brass when it was announced that 70 other generals in the Egyptian armed forces were to be retired. This was the president’s first real assertion of power and many argue his biggest achievement to date”.[1]

Another month has now gone by, and now Mursi has performed his most unexpected and shocking manoeuvre, as reported by Reuters: Egypt’s President “has issued a decree that puts his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, of being the new Mubarak and hijacking the revolution [on Thursday, 22 November 2012] . . . [this] decision to assume sweeping powers caused fury amongst his opponents and prompted violent clashes in central Cairo and other cities on Friday [, 23 November 2012]. Police fired tear gas near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, where thousands demanded Mursi quit and accused him of launching a “coup”. There were violent protests in Alexandria, Port Said and Suez. Opponents accused Mursi, who has issued a decree that puts his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, of being the new Mubarak and hijacking the revolution”.[2]

The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen opines that the “Muslim Brotherhood, of which President Mursi is a leader, is a cautious organisation. The demonstrations might persuade it to dilute its controversial measures. If that doesn’t happen, then the split in Egypt between political Islamists and the rest will grow deeper and more bitter. President Mursi argues that he has taken exceptional powers to deal with Egypt’s enormous problems. But the scenes on the streets of Cairo, and Egypt’s other major cities, show that the medicine could be making the disease worse. The country has had no political or economic stability since President Mubarak fell in February last year. Creating both should be at the top of the agenda for Mr Mursi. Egypt is close to getting a big loan from the International Monetary Fund – but the accusations that he is turning himself into a new Mubarak will worry Western donors”.[3]  Being the objective BBC journalist that he is, Bowen ends his analysis on this even-handed note: “Mr Mursi was praised as a pragmatist by the Americans after he negotiated the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. But Egyptians who didn’t vote for him – almost half the people who turned out in June’s election – believe he has taken the new, sweeping powers to ram through an Islamist agenda”.[4]

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[1] Shaimaa Khalil, “Egypt: President Mursi’s 100 days in power” BBC News (09 October 2012). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19882135.

[2] “Egypt President Mohamed Morsi Seizes New Powers, Called ‘Pharaoh’” Reuters (23 November 2012). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/egypt-mohamed-morsi_n_2176978.html?utm_hp_ref=world.

[3] Jeremy Bowen, “Analysis” BBC News (23 November 2012). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20458148.

[4] Jeremy Bowen, “Analysis”.

Gaza November 2012: Ceasefires and Elections

Ceasefire: Egypt Manages the Crisis; More US Arms for Israel

The George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut (, USA) ‘Vijay Prashad: Egypt brokers Gaza crisis working with US; Palestinians won’t give up their struggle; There will be no accountability for Israel’s illegal war (21 Nov 2012)’.

Last Thursday, 14 November, Vijay Prashad wrote that “on 14 November, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. As elections in Israel are on the horizon, the Israeli Defense Force conducted an extra-judicial assassination of Hamas’ Ahmad Jabari, who only hours beforehand had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel (according to Nir Hasson at Haaretz). Jabari’s assassination was followed by a barrage by Israeli aircraft and warships. A few rockets were fired from Gaza, but these have had a negligible impact”.[1]

Prashad goes on that the “war on Gaza is not between two armed forces, even matched, each flying the flag of a country; it is a war between a major military power and a people that it has occupied, whose means of warfare used to be the suicide bomber and has now devolved to the erratic rockets (propelled by sugar and potassium nitrate, a fertilizer, and made deadly by TNT and urea nitrate, another fertilizer). Most of the rockets fired over the past two days have been intercepted by Israel’s sophisticated Iron Dome system. No such luck for the Palestinians, who have faced US-designed F16 jetfighters and Apache helicopters and have no defensive systems”.[2]

Now that the Egypt-brokered ceasefire is in place, it appears hard to determine who the real winners are . . . and the fact that this whole thing was started as part of Bibi’s pre-election drive to galavanise Israeli voters is really quite a disgusting proposition. But, it seems not just Israeli election politics will apparently benefit from this 8-day bombardment in the end . . .

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[1] Vijay Prasad, “The Agonies of Susan Rice: Gaza and the Negroponte Doctrine” Jadalyiya (14 November 2012). http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8419/the-agonies-of-susan-rice_gaza-and-the-negroponte-.

[2] Vijay Prasad, “The Agonies of Susan Rice: Gaza and the Negroponte Doctrine”.

Operation Cast Lead Redux or Bibi’s Election Gambit 2012-13

On Thursday, 15 November, RT reported that ‘Israel’s military operation started on Wednesday [, 14 November] with a strike killing Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari. Since then, reports say, the IDF has struck around 200 targets in Gaza. Furthermore, Israel is threatening to go as far as initiating a ground operation, sparking fears of a repetition of the Cast Lead scenario. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF), which has engaged in a Twitter showdown since the very beginning of the strikes, said it targets only “terror sites”. However, this has been questioned by witnesses on social media who point out that only four people of the 13 so far killed by Israeli airstrikes were Hamas militants, while the rest were civilians, including women and children’.[1]

With Palestinian rockets now targeting Tel Aviv, the firefight between Israeli forces and Hamas appears to be spreading beyond the Gaza Strip where it began some days ago. It is a deadly circumstance for both the Palestinians and Israel notes Fellow Natan Sachs, and there are fears that it could escalate into a ground war (16 November 2012).

Why did Israel attack the Gaza strip???  The above-quoted RT report correctly points out that ‘attack’s timing is under question with a looming Israeli election’.[2]  As reported by AFP and AP, even the Turkish PM remaked upon this coincidence: the “Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of aggressively attacking . . . the Gaza Strip. According to Erdogan, Israel’s strikes were motivated by the Knesset elections scheduled to take place in about two months. Erdogan said he would speak by phone with US President Barack Obama later on Friday [, 16 November] and that Ankara was also seeking talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the prospect of a full Israeli ground invasion”.[3]  Here is Tariq Ali weighing in on the issue on RT.

And here is Abby Martin explaining the back-story to the present conflict.

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[1] “Decision bombing? Israel’s ‘election attack’ triggers Gaza war spiral” RT (15 Nov 2012). http://rt.com/news/israel-gaza-strike-election-758/.

[2] “Decision bombing? Israel’s ‘election attack’ triggers Gaza war spiral”.

[3] “Erdogan: Israel striking in Gaza because of elections” AFP/AP (November 2012). http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4306825,00.html.

A Married Jesus and the Meaning of Christian Life: Coptic Claims

In the esteemed Harvard Gazette B. D. Colen writes: “Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10^th International Congress of Coptic Studies” on Tuesday, 18 September 2012.[1]  Colen elaborates that Karen “King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the existence of the ancient text at the congress’ meeting, held every four years and hosted this year by the Vatican’s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. The four words that appear on the fragment translate to “Jesus said to them, my wife.” The words, written in Coptic, a language of Egyptian Christians, are on a papyrus fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches”.[2]

Professor King elucidates that “Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim. This new gospel doesn’t prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry, but it was over a century after Jesus’ death before they began appealing to Jesus’ marital status to support their positions”.[3]  Christianity, as the conceptual edifice built by the overtly misogynistic Saint Paul, has always had ambivalent feelings about issues relating to love and marriage, celibacy, the role of women and the meaning of life. Does man live solely to enter the next life in the heavenly kingdom or should he consider his sojourn on this mortal coil as equally valid and meaningful???  Celibacy, as a life style, clearly favours the former view. And there have been examples of excesses in early Christian history. The case of Origen of Alexandria springs to mind. It seems that the saintly figure had been inspired by Matthew 19:12 to castrate himself: “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it”.[4]  The King James translation seems to make it quite plain that celibacy could be considered a safe way to enter the heavenly kingdom. In the end, however, the pragmatic view that life on this mortal coil also deserves human sacrifice and hardship, as possibly symbolised in the institution of marriage necessarily leading to human reproduction, prevailed. As a result, the continuation of the human race was guaranteed and the figure of God in heaven remained unassailable. This then left Jesus as the ultimate example to be followed by those Christians deemed extremely pious and other-worldly, such as monks and nuns.

Now the whole debate in connection with the meaning of Christian life, as condensed in the issue of marriage or celibacy, has been reduced to squibbles about Jesus’ marital status . . . In conclusion, Professor King states that the “discovery of this new gospel offers an occasion to rethink what we thought we knew by asking what role claims about Jesus’ marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy, and family. Christian tradition preserved only those voices that claimed Jesus never married. The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife now shows that some Christians thought otherwise”.[5]

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[1] B. D. Colen, “Suggestion of a married Jesus” Harvard Gazette (18 September 2012).  http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/09/suggestion-of-a-married-jesus/.

[2] B. D. Colen, “Suggestion of a married Jesus”.

[3] B. D. Colen, “Suggestion of a married Jesus”.

[4] “Matthew 19:12” Biblos. http://bible.cc/matthew/19-12.htm.

[5] B. D. Colen, “Suggestion of a married Jesus”.

Another Muhammad Controversy: Who benefits and why????

The fortuitous Arabic translation of the Innocence of Muslims’ trailer appears to be at the root of the now worldwide protests and outrage: “The movie was produced several months ago, screening to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood and elicited no reaction. This trash movie would have been relegated to the garbage bin of history if it weren’t dubbed into Egyptian Arabic. The dubbed version went viral on Egyptian and Libyan Facebook pages and networks, resulting in the protests” and other outrages witnessed over the past week.[1]  Now we know that this Sam Bacile, the man behind the movie, appears to be the 55-year-old Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a man of dubious origins and intent.[2]  But, the movie and the trailer were executed in English for the purpose of . . . catching terrorists???  Who could and would have translated the short yet atrocious trailer into Arabic???  Who would benefit from such a thing, sure to lead to outrage and manipulated masses committing acts of violence and sheer stupidity????  For quite some time now the Arab Awakening has been riding high, dispelling normally quite prevalent ideas that Muslims are unable to embrace such concepts like unfettered democracy and free elections. And these elections have led to governments not necessarily in favour of certain Western interests and preoccupations. Particularly, in Egypt . . . and therefore the answer could only lead to one other country, a place currently led (or misled) by a man called Bibi, one could argue.

Of course, this is nothing but conjecture on my part but Israel would appear to be the only party to substantially benefit from a deterioration in Arab-Western relations. And, there is MEMRI: ‘The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region’s media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian, Urdu-Pashtu, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East. Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI’s headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in London, Rome, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Shanghai and Tokyo. MEMRI research is translated to English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew’.[3]  Am I being a mere conspiracy theorist, speculating that a “mysterious” yet decidedly anti-Islamic and pro-Israeli organisation might be up to no good???

About ten years ago, the Guardian’s Brian Whitaker penned a piece about MEMRI. He related how he was regularly receiving e-mails sent by MEMRI, and added that “several things make me uneasy whenever I’m asked to look at a story circulated by Memri. First of all, it’s a rather mysterious organisation. Its website does not give the names of any people to contact, not even an office address. The reason for this secrecy, according to a former employee, is that “they don’t want suicide bombers walking through the door on Monday morning” (Washington Times, June 20). This strikes me as a somewhat over-the-top precaution for an institute that simply wants to break down east-west language barriers. The second thing that makes me uneasy is that the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone in this unease. Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Times: “Memri’s intent is to find the worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as widely as possible.” Memri might, of course, argue that it is seeking to encourage moderation by highlighting the blatant examples of intolerance and extremism. But if so, one would expect it – for the sake of non-partisanship – to publicise extremist articles in the Hebrew media too”.[4]  MEMRI’s partisan and activist agenda is plain to see, one of the sections on their website, for example, bears the telling name ‘Jihad & Terrorism Threat Monitor’. And, as pointed out by Whitaker, the organisation makes no bones about their stress on “the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel”.[5]  In other words, MEMRI is a Zionist and anti-Muslim propaganda machine, hiding behind a cloak of fair & balanced news reporting, however selective their translations may be. As remarked by Whitaker: “To anyone who reads Arabic newspapers regularly, it should be obvious that the items highlighted by Memri are those that suit its agenda and are not representative of the newspapers’ content as a whole”.[6]

As a good and conscientious journalist, Whitaker dug a bit deeper and found that the “co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon. Mr – or rather, Colonel – Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin”.[7]  Now would it be too far a stretch to imagine such a propaganda machine to operate in the reverse, and translate a “relevant” English-language broadcast into Arabic???  To quote Cenk Uygur, “I am not saying anything, but I am just saying, you know”.

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[1] Garibaldi, “’Sam Bacile’ Produces Hate Movie about Prophet Muhammad Provoking Protests and Violence” Loonwatch (12 September 2012). http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/09/israeli-american-sam-bacile-produces-hate-movie-about-prophet-muhammad-provoking-protests-and-violence/.

[2] “Another Muhammad Controversy: Who is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula?” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (16 September 2010). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/another-muhammad-controversy-who-is-nakoula-basseley-nakoula/.

[3] MEMRI. http://www.memri.org/.

[4] Brian Whitaker, “Selective Memri” The Guardian (12 August 2002). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/aug/12/worlddispatch.brianwhitaker.

[5] Brian Whitaker, “Selective Memri”.

[6] Brian Whitaker, “Selective Memri”.

[7] Brian Whitaker, “Selective Memri”.

Another Muhammad Controversy: The Innocence of Muslims

A look at the conflicting reports about who’s behind the 14-minute anti-Prophet Muhammad trailer that’s sparked violent protests in the Middle East (13 Sep 2012).

Meanwhile, the rage goes on and on and on . . . so, here is the trailer causing all these diverse Muslims in the Middle East and beyond to shout and protest.

The atrocious clip has led to a lot of mayhem, as recounted by Anne Sewell in the Digital Journal: ‘Protests and outrage are now spreading to Lebanon and Iran, and continue in Yemen and Egypt, over the film “Innocence of Muslims”, released on YouTube, which insults the Prophet Mohammed’.[i]  Going into detail, as follows: ‘Lebanon: On Thursday [,13 September), in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, several hundred people have rallied, and are burning both American and Israeli flags, in outrage over the American-made film mocking Islam's prophet Mohammed. In Sidon, on Lebanon's Mediterranean coast men and women carried banners containing slogans like "freedom does not mean insults to religion” and “who are you, you lowlifes, to insult what is good for people.” Meanwhile the Pope visited Lebanon, amidst all the protests. Yemen: In Yemen on Thursday, at least 4 protesters have reportedly been killed, after hundreds of demonstrators stormed the U.S. embassy. According to witnesses, plumes of smoke were seen rising outside the embassy, while protesters chanted "Death to America". Local media reported that two cars exploded after two bombs were thrown into the embassy compound. Heavy gunfire has also been heard in the area. Libya: As at 08:53 GMT on Friday [, 14 September), a 48-hour no-fly zone has been imposed in Benghazi, Libya, following the attacks on the city’s U.S. consulate that killed the American ambassador and three embassy staffers. All flights to and from the city have been suspended. Egypt: In Egypt this morning, Cairo police are erecting a wall of concrete blocks around the U.S. embassy in an attempt to prevent protesters from entering the compound, as outrage continues in the city’.[2]

Crowds are gathering in the Egyptian capital for a third day of protests against an anti-Muslim movie filmed by a US director (14 Sept 2012).

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[1] Anne Sewell, “’Innocence of Muslims’ protests spread further in Middle East” Digital Journal (14 Sep 2012). http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/332793#ixzz26RbrAQhg.

[2] Anne Sewell, “’Innocence of Muslims’ protests spread further in Middle East”.