Category Archives: Regions

Link Surfing Libya – Why Can’t They All Just Get Along?

22 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Libya, Politics, Psychology, Regions

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▶ Video from the Libyan capital Tripoli believed to be from Saturday – YouTube – 11/15/2013.

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“Tripoli” you know.  “Misrata” and “Zintan”, probably, you don’t.  Yet from such obscure sandpits come the scorpions to sting Libya’s still nascent revolution in the ass.

Instead of cooperating in the development of an open and progressing democracy, the militia, apparently, perhaps unknowingly as they act in their own self-interest, have set the stage for a loose confederation of feudal city states.  We’ll learn soon to what extent, if any, yesterday’s handover to the military of militia positions in Tripoli proves merely cosmetic.

Setting aside the God Mob for a moment, the militia, whatever their motivation, own each the monopoly on arms within their own bailiwicks.  Why should any give up control of an airstrip, oil field, port, or transfer point?

What’s in it for them after having ended the reign of Qaddafi?

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The heavily armed groups, some of them led by Islamic extremists, have defied control by the weak central government, carving out fiefdoms, acting as a law unto themselves and imposing their control.

Militias Pull out of Libya’s Capital, Tripoli – ABC News – 11/21/2013

Esam Mohamed’s AP article posted to ABC goes on to note intentions to introduce law criminalizing “the illegal possession of arms” to get at “unruly militias”.

Yo!  My fellow Americans: how is that gonna work?

It’s not going to be that easy with Libya, i.e., beefing up the Libyan military with NATO vitamins and punching down those unruly militia: the truth is the entire paradigms involving big kahuna and militia-warrior self-concept plus the idea of real sustainable power has to be addressed by way of the poetry installed in the heads of militia chiefs.

538px-Ali_Zeidan_at_US_State_Department_2013

Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

The witnessing world (online, at least) knows how corruption and government have worked out in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, also how the Muslim Botherhood has asserted its botherly values in Egypt, Syria (I am conflating MB with the Al Qaeda affiliates in that theater), and Turkey (if Erdogan had had the free rein he had hoped to possess): how is Libya’s central government to tell a city-state militia how fair the  nascent state’s constitution, laws, and actual real political workings will be to his clan, family, and tribe the day he and his loyal own give up their arms and both the defensive and piratical capabilities implied — or demonstrated — by their ownership?

Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and NATO may have to threaten other than force and offer other than corrupt deals to Libya’s seemingly equally nascent warlords to wrap around this challenge, which is not solely, or even practically, frankly, a military problem.

The fighting would seem to go on (and on and on) in the heart, and that is an intellectual problem, a problem in the language and related cultural conventions of the place.

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Along the Popular Militia Fronts

Barqa Army — related:

The imposition of a political narrative by Libya’s eastern federalist movement, represented by the Cyrenaica Transitional Council (CTC), on the August series of strikes by the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) has complicated Libya’s problem of widespread disruption to the oil and gas sector, which began in late 2012. The PFG, the body officially responsible for oilfield security, succeeded in shutting down all oil export operations in the east of Libya in mid-August.

Oil disruption increases likelihood of de facto eastern Libyan autonomy – 8/28/2013.

That directly above may provide the Left with a good tale about greed and oil.

There’s something of Pakistan’s “Baluchistan Conflict” in the mix involving indigenous interests, much including armed ones, associated with the local outstanding natural resource and more remote nascent state interests in the same.

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Nuri Abusahmain – President, General National Congress: ordered Libya Shield into Tripoli; reference also Wissam Bin Ahmid who leads Libya Shield.

“I don’t know why the Americans don’t come here,” said Wissam Bin Hamid, commander of the Libyan Shield Brigade, a militia that came under sustained attack while helping defend the second compound on Sept. 11. “Maybe they are afraid.”

U.S. pulls all its official government personnel out of Benghazi, Libya – The Washington Post – 10/1/2012.

Wissam’s (we have a way to go with the transliteration of Arab last names) took a hit defending the compound in Benghazi (I think that’s what I’ve read), but at the Arab world’s troubled nexus in which rightful autonomy slams into righteous and justifiable mistrust, Ahmid/Hamid has gotten a uniformly bad rap in the right-side’s anti-Jihad press.

The west wants to play it like a one-hour television drama: get in; get rid of the President-for-Life and some related assortment of knuckleheads; establish a democratic constitution; get out; chocolates, flowers, and champagne all around.  Go team!  However, with absolute authoritarianism the region’s bad habit in practice and in thought — and perhaps too in language — and the possession of a theocratic political ideology to match it, evolving forward proves an extraordinary challenge to those to whom it has been posed.

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“Zintan Brigade” — established by Osama al-Juwali and based in Ziintan.

Zintan’s tribal alliance against Misratah raises civil conflict risks in Libya – 7/8/2013

In an effort to oust Qaddafi, independent militias of varying strength have been formed inside Libya and are threatening regional security inside the country. Of these the Zintan militia is one of the foremost examples of a brigade with strong organizational skills, effective tactics and entrenched authority in their base city of Zintan. On December 10th, the Zintan brigade was involved in a firefight with the convoy of the ex-commander-in-chief of the National Army, Major General Khalifa Haftar. The Zintan Brigade acted without orders from the National Army, which they accused of not notifying them of the convoy’s approach to the Tripoli airport. It is becoming a major challenge for the Libyan Transitional Council to integrate these militiamen in the new security structure of Libya. The Zintan Brigade and other militias will continue to be key actors in Libya affecting the domestic security situation until they become fully integrated into the new Libyan National Army.

www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Zintan_Brigade_Grey.pdf – 1/19/2012.

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To some extent, the struggle is between Islamists and more secular-minded Libyans. If the Misratans are indeed pushed back to their home town, it will be a setback for the Islamists. At the heart of the retreating forces is the Libyan Shield, hitherto the most powerful of the militias, both in Misrata and in the country at large. It is allied to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party,

Libya and its militias: Make or break | The Economist – 11/18/2013.

* * *

Libya’s deputy intelligence chief has been freed a day after being abducted at the airport in Tripoli, military sources have told the BBC.

Mustafa Nuh had reportedly been held by gunmen from the western town of Zintan.

BBC News – Libya spy chief Mustafa Nuh freed ‘by Zintan militia’ – 11/18/2013.

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Rival Militias Quit Tripoli, Hand Bases to Libyan Army – 11/21/2013.

* * *

Armed militias are the real power in the land. They range from former revolutionaries to criminals to al-Qaeda affiliates. Some have taken over key Libyan oilfields. Others are providing muscle to those who want to set up a breakaway autonomous entity in the east of the country . . .  The trouble is that the militias do not respond to polite requests.

BBC News – Libyans yearn for order to replace gun – 11/18/2013.

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Libyan military sweeps into Tripoli to drive militias back to Misrata | News | DW.DE | 18.11.2013

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BBC News – Armed militias still on the streets in Libya – 11/18/2013.

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U.S. Military Considers a Mission to Train Libyan Security Forces – NYTimes.com – 11/17/2013.

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Libyan militias clash after death of their leader | The Raw Story – 11/7/2013.

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BBC News – Why gunmen have turned off Libya’s oil taps – 9/11/2013.

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Oil disruption increases likelihood of de facto eastern Libyan autonomy – 8/28/2013.

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Who’s Really In Control of Libya’s Guns? | Transitions (Foreign Policy) – 8/16/2013.

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“We want to save the mankind and humanity.”

▶ Bizarre Qaddafi Rant on Taliban, U.S. Civil War, Humanity – YouTube – Posted 9/23/2009.

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Qaddafi’s bipolar semblance in public may be typical of the disorder’s associated delusional grandiose and messianic ideation.

The west has gotten around the problem posed by extraordinary revenue accruing to individuals and dynasties by invoking — albeit from time to time — the concept that is “noblesse oblige”: the expectation that the nobility must prove itself noble or face the wrath of the people, such wrath proving overwhelming across the four or five centuries preceding the 21st.

With the Qaddafi’s of the world too, the west has developed a so far applicable and useful conceptual inventory in psychology: we look at persons and various aspects and channels in their behavior and can perceive “bipolar disorder” or “narcissistic personality disorder” and in political psychology the manifestations of the “malignant narcissist”.

In the still medieval politics of Islam, power knows systematic corruption — bribery, intimidation, murder, patronage — and the tools known to all self-asserting “Men of Honor and Respect”, which is the humanity, essentially, associated with mafia dons.

For countermeasure within those societies as well as outside of them, the abstract invisible “hinge of fate” remains the cold hardened spiritual steel that all humanity knows to call “integrity” or equivalent: specifically the essential and irreducible identity and best qualities of the person as made by God and set out in relation to others.

Bedeviling that valued concept may be the consequences for remote tribes, their elders, and chiefs and sons and daughters of misplaced trust plus the realpolitik and real money that accompanies a host of feudal practices: start with “tribute” along “protected routes” and end somewhere around the preference for the telling of a loyal lie — or an advantageous one — over the clarity of a disadvantageous, inconvenient, or uncomfortable truth.

All in all, “resetting” Libya isn’t the government’s challenge: it’s the militia’s challenge and it has to do with resetting themselves without degrading or endangering their parochial interests or their image before those closest to them.

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FTAC – If Information is Power, How Much Greater Must Be Power Over Information

21 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Philology, Politics, Psychology

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Some settlers may not be perfect 🙂 I don’t know for the paucity of mainstream media or otherwise vetted journalists combing the territory and less weighed down with agenda channeled by a special interest press. The “Pallywood” and issues related involve a stepped concept: the belief that 1) information is power, and if that is so, then 2) power over information must be really powerful. That organizations would arm Palestinians with cameras for their defense but also do so in an environment in which baiting, false flag, and provocation seem a part of the atmosphere may well produce viscerally compelling images without necessarily telling a whole story. Accompanying the idea that “power over information must be really powerful” (let’s ask Putin what he thinks about that — and also what he learned on the way to becoming a colonel) may be the conceit that one is above it and others merely susceptible tools, especially if the information environment is pervasive enough and there’s a little something in the target’s heart (in my world: learned but forgotten messages gleaned during early childhood language uptake) that wants confirmation still of the rule embedded and unconsciously in suspension.

Much of the Islamic Small Wars as well as the ghosts of the Soviet Union persist in informational dark space. Neither Fatah nor Hamas have produced around them anything close to “open democracy”. http://www.cpj.org/tags/fatah-voice For all the bloodshed along the several axis coinciding in these so far small wars — autocratic, criminal (narcotics, arms running, kidnapping, extortion, other trade), and religious — much would abate with growing strength in integrity and perhaps greater insight into the cognitive mechanics of “malignant narcissism”.

The interpretation of the world in language – how one knows how to talk about the experience of life in a place — may be also reflective of language programming in the head.  That programming is powerful, sufficient, certainly, to see in some fashion – or confirm with enthusiasm someone else’s observation — ghosts and witches in one century and to find the experience of either inaccessible in the next.

Autocrat, dictator, or totalitarian monster would wish his constituents (and everyone else) to see things his way.

Perhaps the little monster consign themselves to writing poetry while the larger ones erupt with whole political programs.

In any case, I suspect both grandiose and hateful desires and illusions follow sensibly from the time-hidden tracks of childhood’s social grammar.

What might keep a really bad train boiling down the line?

Absence of resistance linked to concepts not articulated within or otherwise remote from thought suspended generally in the cognitive texture of the culture of interest: one cannot call a man crazy who appears (given the tools at hand) merely inspired and passionate even if he turns out a copy of Charles Manson.  Indeed, there’s a certain malignancy that knows its targets cannot defend themselves from what they cannot — or for love, will not — perceive in the reality that has approached them to engulf, use, and eventually destroy them.

Related

Palestinians Shoot Back With Video Cameras – Video – TIME.com, n.d.

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At a Glance – Hezbollah Gets Around

21 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Religion

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Hezbollah plots in Europe over the past year exposed a return to violent operations being conducted by the Iranian-supported Lebanese Shiite group. Plots in Bulgaria and Cyprus led to a rigorous debate among European Union member states over whether or not to ban the organization’s military wing. But this only marks Hezbollah’s return to violent operations in Europe. Hezbollah has long used Europe as a staging ground for operations to be carried out elsewhere, as a logistical hub, and as a place where the group and its supporters could raise funds through a variety of criminal enterprises. The focus of this article is the wide variety of criminal activities Hezbollah engages in, revealing a global network that conducts extensive criminal operations throughout Europe.

Hezbollah’s Organized Criminal Enterprises in Europe – The Washington Institute for Near East Policy – August 2013.

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Thirty years ago last month, Hezbollah blew up the barracks of the U.S Marines and French paratroopers stationed at the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 Frenchmen. It wasn’t Hezbollah’s first terrorist operation, but this attack, the most memorable in Lebanon’s vicious and chaotic 15-year-long civil war, marked the Party of God’s entry onto the world stage.

The Secret History of Hezbollah | The Weekly Standard – 11/21/2013

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Europe Has a Serious Hezbollah Problem – The Tower – The Tower – May 2013

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Iran, Hezbollah mine Latin America for revenue, recruits, analysts say – CNN.com – 6/4/2013.

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Hezbollah leader makes rare public appearance – 11/13/2013.

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Sometimes, as in Panama, there are only intimations or incomplete reports.  One sources suggests everybody knows Hezbollah has been laundering money through banks in Panama City — and there the piece stops.

Back up to the bombing of a Panamanian airliner in the 1990s and that too concludes shrouded in mystery.

On the more logical positive side, arms caches and interrupted shipments tell stories too, although, as with the findings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, not much happens beyond some validation of knowing what was once merely suspected — or knowing with a higher level of probability.

In the wild, however contemptible and heinous the crime, whatever its depth in inhumanity, nothing need happen to perpetrator who may be remote, who may disappear, who may enjoy social sanctuary among good friends, or the sanctuary of altered identities and reduced public appearances, or who may sufficiently corrupt or threaten officials and others — whatever works — and get away with operations shuttered by arrests or surreptitious and ongoing.

As most, possibly all, unfunded mini-projects around here, the following affords but a glance at what the web has on Hezbollah in relation to whatever country comes to mind.

Bulgaria

Bulgaria says clear signs Hezbollah behind Burgas bombing | Reuters – 7/18/2013.

France

Why French Military Refused to Put Hezbollah on EU Terrorism List? – 6/22/2013.

France agrees to list Hezbollah as terrorist group – Washington Times 3/29/2013.

Germany

Report: German Gov’t Report Finds Local Mosques Raised Money for Hezbollah | TheBlaze.com – 6/24/2013.

German report: Berlin a hub of Hezbollah activity | JPost | Israel News – 6/9/2013.

German Government Favors Putting Hezbollah on EU Terrorist List – SPIEGEL ONLINE – 3/29/2013.

Lebanon

Lebanon blasts expose Iran and Qaeda face-off over Syria – FRANCE 24 – 11/20/2013.

Nigeria and West African Region

Court reserves judgment in Hezbollah, Thisday bomber’s trials — The Punch – Nigeria’s Most Widely Read Newspaper – 10/22/2013.

Lebanese Men Accused of ‘Terrorism’ in Nigeria Trial Concludes – 10/21/2013.

Nowhere is the new reality of the West African organized crime-terrorism nexus more evident than in what recently transpired in a Nigerian courtroom. There, three Lebanese men, Mustapha Fawaz, Abdallah Thahini, and Talal Ahmad Roda sat uncomfortably in the dock as masked members of the Department of State Services, the country’s primary domestic intelligence service, testified against them. The three were accused of plotting terrorist attacks against American and Israeli targets in the northern city of Kano, as well as lesser charges of money laundering and illegal importation of goods. Nigerian police found a significant cache of weapons stashed at one of the accused men’s businesses in the capital Abuja and another cache at a private home in Kano. Although the men, all of whom have long standing commercial interests in Nigeria, pleaded innocent to the charges, they confessed to their affiliation with Hezbollah.

How Hezbollah is Winning in West Africa | World Policy Institute – 9/30/2013.

Insight: U.S. and allies target Hezbollah financing, ties in Africa | Reuters – 9/20/2013.

Nigeria widens charges against Lebanese ‘Hezbollah agents’ | GlobalPost – 7/29/2013.

Treasury designates Hezbollah operatives in West Africa – The Long War Journal – 6/11/2013.

BBC News – Nigeria: Hezbollah armoury discovered in Kano city – 5/30/2013.

North Korea

Meanwhile, reports in 2009 and 2010 from French, Japanese, South Korean, and Israeli sources described North Korean programs to provide arms and training to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, two groups on the U.S. list of international terrorist organizations. Large quantities of North Korean arms bound for Iran, intercepted in 2009, contained weapons that Iran supplies heavily to Hezbollah and Hamas. Moreover, a large body of reports describe a long-standing, collaborative relationship between North Korea and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL30613.pdf – 6/29/2010.

Panama – Intimations Only

Kenneth Rijock’s Financial Crime Blog: PANAMA IGNORES TERRORIST FINANCING OPERATIONS ON ITS SOIL – 8/30/2013.

Marking The Anniversary Of Hezbollah’s Bombing In Panama » ADL Blogs – 7/19/2013; 47 Killed in Crash of Panama Airliner – Los Angeles Times – 6/8/1992; Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Few Clues, No Certainty 10 Years After Panama Airline Bombing Killed 12 Jews | Jewish Telegraphic Agency – 7/13/2004;

Russia

Russian defense minister says Hezbollah uses ‘terrorist methods’ Israel News | Haaretz – 7/13/2013.

Suriname

Prosecutors said Bouterse agreed to accept a multimillion-dollar payoff in exchange for allowing large numbers of Hezbollah fighters to use Suriname as a base for attacking American targets.

The indictment describes a sophisticated international sting in which Bouterse was recorded meeting in Greece and Panama with people posing as Hezbollah agents and Mexican drug traffickers. In reality, they were actually confidential sources and undercover agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the indictment said.

Suriname leader’s son ‘cuts a deal’ with Hezbollah – Israel News, Ynetnews – 11/9/2013: ”

Hezbollah investing millions in terror basis in Suriname | Ya Libnan | World News Live from Lebanon – 11/9/2013.

Sweden

Hezbollah’s Swedish Roots | World Affairs Journal – 7/24/2012.

Swedish-Lebanese man accused of Hezbollah ties jailed by Thai court for bomb materials | JPost | Israel News – 9/18/2013.

Syria

Syria Crisis: Hezbollah Wiretaps Reveal Assad Ordered Sarin Attacks after ‘Losing his Nerve’ [VIDEO] – IBTimes UK

Hezbollah’s other wing must be clipped | The Australian – 8/22/2013

Canada pushed EU to add Hezbollah to list of banned terrorist organizations, official says | National Post – 7/24/2013.

EU putting Hezbollah military wing on terror list – CNN.com – 7/22/2013.

Venezuela

Iran laundering billions through Venezuela | Washington Free Beacon – 3/22/2013

Beyond the rhetoric lies a strategic alliance that has seen Caracas, along with Damascus and Havana, vote against United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, and increasing Iranian investment in the Venezuelan economy, now worth more than $5 billion.

Is Venezuela harboring Hezbollah? – Salon.com – 1/8/2013.

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▶ Nasrallah: Israel ‘Pushing for War’ – YouTube – Posted 11/14/2013.

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Posted four-and-one-half years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX-65G6X014

▶ Iran tightens media shroud – YouTube – Posted June 24, 2009.

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Observed: The IDF (Emergency Response Team) In . . . .

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Israel

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The first baby born at the Israeli Defense Forces field hospital in the Philippines was delivered safely on Friday. The mother named the boy Israel.

The IDF sent a 148 person delegation to the Philippines on Wednesday in order to provide search, rescue and medical services in response to super-typhoon Haiyan.

First baby born in IDF field hospital in Philippines, named Israel | JPost | Israel News – 11/15/2013.

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The Talmud describes Jews as rachmanim b’nei rachmanim: a compassionate people who are sensitive to human suffering. They are unable to sit by and ignore the terrible drama of human misery. Instead, they get up and do something about it.

As the world learned the news about Haiti one Tuesday in January, the Israeli Defense Forces were already planning their response. By Friday they had already pitched camp in Haiti.

Qanta Ahmed, MD: Lessons From the IDF in Haiti: Opportunities in Global Health Diplomacy for the Muslim World – 3/7/2010.

Related Reference

Disaster response team boosts Israel’s image abroad – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 11/13/2013.

A year after Haiti. An interview with Shahaf Shtrikman – n.d.

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Scholastic Deletes Israel from New Textbook — Retracts . . . .

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, North America, Politics, United States of America

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Scholastic Deletes Israel from New Textbook — Retracts . . . .

Scholastic Magazine — http://magazines.scholastic.com/ — left or removed the entire State of Israel on a an American publication gone to press.

Biggest children’s book publisher erases Israel from map | The Times of Israel – 11/13/2013.

I wonder how that happened.

To the publisher’s credit, the run was retrieved and corrected.

Both following and defying what I’ll call “Black Swan Theory”, one really does wish to know how Scholastic’s graphic artists and proofreaders missed this egregious error.

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An Old Swofford Post on Hamas and an Ancient Treaty Involving Muhammad

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Politics

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It was under a tree, that the men aligned with Muhammad took a pledge to fight to the death for the rite of their religion. This pledge is known as Bayt-e-Ridwan. “Allah was well-pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree.” Al-Fatah 18 (translation by Malik) In light of a fast-developing and potentially bloody struggle a treaty was hammered out between the men of Qureysh and the followers of Muhammad. The recounting of the development of this document, whether Qur’an or Sunnah, provide a practical corpus juris for Islamic crafting of treaty which seeks entrance and egress, and possible concessions regarding land borders.

Now stupidity bores me. But intellectual dishonesty evokes quite a different response. In examining both context and the spirit of the law of just one aspect of this treaty it is glaringly apparent that Hamas has violated the principles set forth in seeking such a truce.

tammy swofford: The Challenge for Khalid Meshaal – 4/28/2008

Tammy dredged up the article from the deeps of her blog on my sharing with her this piece from a July 2013 post by Palestinian Media Watch:

PA minister: PA agreements are modeled
after Muhammad’s Hudaybiyyah
Peace Treaty

Muhammad signed a 10-year truce
at Hudaybiyyah with the tribes of Mecca,
but two years later he attacked and conquered them

PA Minister of Religious Affairs Al-Habbash,
in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas,
compared PA agreements with Israel
to Muhammad’s pact that led not to peace
but to defeat of the peace partners:
“This is the example and this is the model”

I suspect failures of creativity in language and in living have the sorriest correlations with reversions to violence and barbarism.

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Putin on Stage – Bright Lights: Big Emerging Online Global Civilization

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Political Spychology, Politics, Psychology, Russia

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Since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency he never really left, Russia’s descent into neo-Soviet authoritarianism has become daily more brazen. Dissidents are once again being put on show trials that call up the ghosts of Joseph Brodsky, Andrei Sinyavsky, and Yuli Daniel. Laws are being jammed through the Duma with the express purpose of making Western-minded Russians fear that they will be arrested for spying for foreign powers.

Rights in Russia: Navalny and the Opposition | World Affairs Journal – November/December 2013.

* * *

The state media regulator Roskomnadzor filed a motion with the court in early October to have the agency’s license revoked, accusing the agency of publishing videos with foul language, according to reports in the local and international press.

Moscow court revokes news agency’s license – Committee to Protect Journalists – 10/31/2013.

Russia as patient has taken a turn for the worse.

While Putin’s machinery poses its challenges to foul language (and gay pride, judging by the latest), it would seem to welcome every opportunity to further abuse basic human rights and democratic values.  By way of doing what it has been doing — and doing it better — it has inspired its opposition locally, online, and worldwide.

The MediEval Empire is back!

And it is fast returning Russians to the status of loyal — more and more frequently, barely tolerated — subjects.

Ah, the glory.

The funny thing is, predictably, with Al Qaeda operating in Syria, Putin remains an heroic standard bearer for decency and freedom despite what the Putin-armed Assad regime has done to Syrians (don’t look — at least put it off twenty more seconds) and what Putin’s editing of laws may be doing (are) to Russia’s vast and under-served constituency.

Still, the disappointment . . . .

Peering out from behind the bars of the closed and censored USSR, during the Perestroika period, we young journalists felt an incredible urge for freedom. While we were all ready to make sacrifices for that prize, none of us could not imagine in our worst nightmares that in a free Russia journalists could be killed for their work. Media professionals could be censored in USSR, fired, jailed or even exiled – but not killed. We also believed – and our Western counterparts with whom we were shared this belief – that the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War would herald in a new era of free expression and independent talented journalism would inevitably flourish across Europe and Central Asia. East and West, we would create a bright liberated information space stretching undimmed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We failed utterly to anticipate and foresee how corrupt authorities and criminal gangs would develop new forms of censorship and pressure to bring our dream so violently to heel.

Nadezhda Azhgikhina: Combating Impunity in the Digital Age – Human Rights in Russia – 11/11/2013.

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I shouldn’t, really, but I feel compelled to put these next two items side by side:

Russia’s Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize – Washington Times – 10/2/2013:

The Russian advocacy group International Academy of Spiritual Unity and Cooperation of Peoples of the World nominated Mr. Putin, characterizing his forged agreement with Syrian President Bashar Assad — to turn over admitted chemical weapons cache to international authorities — a world-class and prize-worthy piece of diplomacy, United Press International reported.

Artist Mutilates Self as Putin Paralyzes Russia – Bloomberg – 11/12/2013:

On Nov. 10, Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky undressed on Moscow’s Red Square, right in front of Lenin’s tomb, sat down and nailed his scrotum to the pavement.

Reactions to the radical act, which Pavlensky meant to be a “metaphor of the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of modern Russian society,” ranged from disbelief to mockery. A police source told state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the action constituted normal behavior “for a mentally ill person.”

Make of that what you will — ouch! — and otherwise enjoy the references.

Netflix has it, so I’m off to watch the Khodorkovsky documentary.

Additional General Reference

Institute of Modern Russia

Institute of Modern Russia (Facebook)

Khodorkovsky (2011) – IMDb

Lenin, Stalin and Their Victims: Archive Footage | Video | RIA Novosti – video (3:03) – 10/30/2013 – “Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression”.

Michael Weiss | World Affairs Journal

One day in the life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky – FT.com – 10/24/2013.

Pavel Khodorkovsky

Pavel Khodorkovsky: Charlie Rose (11/07): Video – Bloomberg

Names You Need To Know: Pavel Khodorkovsky – Forbes – 5/9/2011

Pyotr Ofitserov: The Man Who Stood Beside Navalny To The Bitter End – VOA – 7/13/2013.

Russia: Drop Charges for Aiding Dying Patient | Human Rights Watch – 11/11/2013.

Russia: Drop Suits Against Independent Groups | Human Rights Watch – 11/6/2013.

Russia: TV Crew Reporting on Sochi Olympics Harassed | Human Rights Watch – 11/5/2013: “From October 31 to November 2, 2013, Russian traffic police stopped Øystein Bogen, a reporter for TV2, and cameraman Aage Aunes six times while the men were reporting on stories in the Republic of Adygea, which borders Sochi to the north along the Black Sea coast. Officials took the journalists into police custody three times. At every stop and in detention, officials questioned the journalists aggressively about their work plans in Sochi and other areas, their sources, and in some cases about their personal lives, educational backgrounds, and religious beliefs. In several instances they denied the journalists contact with the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow. One official threatened to jail Bogen.”

Russian Union of Journalists – Main Page; Russian Union of Journalists : The Other Russia: “News from the Coalition for Democracy in Russia.”  Note: Items listed in several categories — I have not checked all — seem to trail off in early 2013.

The Bell | The Interpreter

The Interpreter

The stage illusion laid bare | openDemocracy – by Peter Pomerantsev – 7/8/2013.  Review of Ben Judah’s Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Pastukhov | openDemocracy

Vladimir Putin: his place in history | openDemocracy – by Vladimir Pastukhov – 2/9/2012

Vladimir Putin

No shame in protesting against pro-Putin conductor, Valery Gergiev » Spectator Blogs – 11/12/2013.

Putin’s All-Purpose Weapon – NYTimes.com – by Masha Gessen – 9/30/2013.

Vladimir Putin, Through Western Eyes (Photos) | News | The Moscow Times – 9/27/2013.

Wikipedia Reference Section — Putin’s Accusers and Accused (You Figure Out Which is Which)

Alexander Bastrykin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexei Navalny – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boris Berezovsky (businessman) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dmitry Medvedev – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Snowden – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NSA leaker Snowden gets Russian Web technology job – latimes.com – 10/31/2013.

Guardian faces fresh criticism over Edward Snowden revelations | Media | theguardian.com – 11/10/2013.

Investigative Committee of Russia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sergey Sobyanin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mikhail Khodorkovsky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Klebnikov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pussy Riot – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Related Late Breaking News

Jailed Anti-Kremlin Punk Rocker Launches New Appeal | Russia | RIA Novosti – 11/7/2013: “Tolokonnikova’s husband, Pyotr Verzilov, said he had been informed the Pussy Riot band member was being relocated to a prison colony in the territory of Krasnoyarsk, located 3400 kilometers (2100 miles) east of Moscow, but authorities have yet to confirm that information.”

Pussy riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova now missing for more than three weeks – with her disappearance sparking fears some of the Greenpeace 30 could also be ‘lost’ – Europe – World – The Independent – 11/12/2013.

Pussy Riot leader lost in Russia’s prison system, husband says – latimes.com – 11/10/2013.

Sergei Magnitsky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georgy Satarov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rights in Russia (organization)

Rights in Russia (Facebook)

Nadezhda Azhgikhina: Combating Impunity in the Digital Age – Human Rights in Russia – 11/11/2013.

United Russia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Viktor Bout – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; incidentally, recently back in the news: Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout’s U.S. conviction upheld | Reuters – 9/27/2013; Arms Dealer Viktor Bout ‘in New Appeal’ to U.S. Supreme Court | News | The Moscow Times – 11/8/2013.

Vladislav Surkov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yury Luzhkov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia Reference Section – A Glance at Dissidents of the Soviet Era

Andrei Sakharov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andrei Sinyavsky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Brodsky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mihail Chemiakin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “With his colleagues from the museum he organized an exhibition in 1964, after which the director of the museum was fired and all the participants forced to resign. In 1967 he co-authored with philosopher Vladimir Ivanov a treatise called “Metaphysical Synthesism”, which laid out his artistic principles, and created the “St. Petersburg Group” of artists . In 1971 he was exiled from the Soviet Union for failing to conform to Socialist Realism norms.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mstislav Rostropovich – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Rostropovich fought for art without borders, freedom of speech, and democratic values, resulting in harassment from the Soviet regime. An early example was in 1948, when he was a student at the Moscow Conservatory. In response to the 10 February 1948 decree on so-called ‘formalist’ composers, his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich was dismissed from his professorships in Leningrad and Moscow; the then 21-year-old Rostropovich quit the conservatory, dropping out in protest.”

Natan Sharansky – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pyotr Grigorenko – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolf Nureyev – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soviet dissidents – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (section contributing source)

Vasily Aksyonov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yelena Bonner – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yuli Daniel – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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All of that above: barely a morning’s drag-and-drop with a hint or two of actual writing in it . . . .  I like it although it could change that old book title and jazz and music  line “That was then, this is now” to “That was then: THIS is still THEN.”

_____

Perhaps we could have both for a while — then, now, and then.

And now.

▶ The Monkees – That Was Then, This Is Now (Version 1) – YouTube

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Hamas – Tamarod – 11/11 – (You’re Going to Need a Cup of Coffee)

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Politics

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Almodallal, a 23-year-old who speaks fluent British-accented English, has assumed a post normally held by tough-talking men who voice Hamas’ bitter opposition to Israel. She will be responsible for the Gaza government’s communications with the international media.

Isra Almodallal Appointed First Spokeswoman For Hamas – 11/10/2013

Not only is the above yesterday’s news, it’s more exciting than today’s, so far, reported out of Gaza.

Fatah said it did not organize a march because Hamas denied permission.

Hamas Displays Gaza Grip, as Protest Call Fails – ABC News – 11/11/2013.

Darn!

It looks like the main base of Palestinian Tamarod just got off on a technicality.

I kid a little bit, discretion having been perhaps the better part of valor on this day’s promised demonstration by Fatahnikki in Gaza.

As with much else associated with the middle east conflict, today’s news, however clear and accurate, may not be complete, the government marching ever a few steps ahead of its subjugated and subdued constituents:

“The campaign started with summons that were sent to the majority of the arrested persons to refer to the ISS head office each in his area and/or arrest them from their houses. … [It] targeted a number of Fatah leaders, including current and former province secretaries, area secretaries and other members. The arrested persons were questioned about giving money to families of Fatah members who were wounded or killed during the events of June 2007,” the PCHR stated in a media release issued on Aug. 13.

Hamas Accused of Targeting Fatah Activists in Gaza – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 8/23/2013.

Although Gaza’s Interior Ministry is trying to downplay the importance of this movement, the security authorities on the ground seem to have a different opinion. They summoned and detained a large number of journalists, activists and politicians to question them about Tamarod.

Tamarod Calls for Protest Against Hamas in Gaza – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 9/3/2013.

Whatever the origin of today’s report, so far, preventive detention would seem a policing technique that work for Hamas.

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▶ Martin Luther King, Jr. on Moral Courage – YouTube

” . . . just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90 . . . you died when you refused to stand up for right, you died when you refused to stand up for truth, you died when you refused to stand up for justice . . . .”

If in Gaza, one says, “You first” or “Just as soon as they let me go,” the world may take note and God will just have to understand with a weary acknowledgment the soul deadening character of the Hamafia-created atmosphere and its gruesome legacy and portent.

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