Tag Archives: political

A Note on the Hungarian Jobbik Party’s Relationship With Iran

14 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

According to Hungarian newspapers, the xenophobic, anti-Semitic party Jobbik (“The Righter”), which has three seats in the European Parliament, has launched a campaign to expunge from textbooks the accepted theory according to which Hungarians are a Finno-Ugric people, and replace it with one according to which they are related to the Huns, Avars and Scythians, Indo-Iranian nomads that inhabited large parts of the Eurasian steppe in the first half of the first millennium C.E.

Hungarian nationalists claim Eastern origins | Standplaats Wereld – 9/22/2009

* * *

Magyar Post and Iran Post have released a joint stamp.Iranian-Hungarian stamp The Hungarian issue uses the same designs as the Iranian stamps and is due to be released on December 31, 2010. On the 80 ft Hungarian stamp there are Termeh motifs from Yazd and on the 240 ft stamp Jazygian (jász) embroidery motifs are shown. The background printing of both stamps has the colors of the national flag of the respective country, and the inscriptions are in both Hungarian and Persian.

Iran | Search Results | Hungarian Spectrum – 11/19/2010.

 * * *

Instead of courting American investment, Jobbik’s Zoltan Balczo, the deputy speaker of parliament, recently led a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy to express solidarity with Iran. He accused Israel of manipulating the U.S. government, saying “the tail should not wag the dog.”

This sentiment was more explicitly expressed in an interview by Marton Gyongyosi, Jobbik’s foreign policy chief and co-chair of the Hungarian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee: “It is not that hard to see the control of the Zionist lobby over U.S. lawmakers and the American President.”

An Ostracized Hungarian Party Embraces Iran – 12/15/2011.

* * *

The spokesman for Jobbik questioned if more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were really murdered or deported during the Holocaust, and said that it has become a political business to elevate the numbers. He also told a British newspaper that Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is a “Nazi system” and compared Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Joseph Goebbels. “The Jews don’t have the right to talk about what happened in the Second World War,” he said.

Hungarian Nationalist Party Courts Iran, Denies Holocaust | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com – 2/6/2012.

* * *

Hungary always had a far right movement. During the war it was the ARROW CROSS Party, which was funded by Hitler around the same time he started funding the Mufti of Jerusalem. About 1931-33. By 1944 they were in control of the country, as the pro German dictator, Admiral Horthy was no longer trusted by the Nazis, so the Nazis invaded the country in 1944.

430,000 Jews were sent off between 43 and early 45 to the camps. Mostly Auschwitz, but also to the Russian front as human shields. Today about 200,000 remain.

Hungarian Far Right Funded by Iran, Turkey and Russia – Atlas Shrugs – 2/24/2013.

______

The appearance of anti-Semitic movements in any state should set off alarms, but not necessary for Jews only.  The surfacing of bigots and their rants bodes ill for the defense of values more helpful to the body politic.

Hungarians who are not a part of Jobbick know this.

Hungary condemns Jobbiks’ anti-Semitic and pro-Iran statements: Jobbik party wants Jews to leave – YouTube – 2/8/2012.

Related update (after noticing the link rot in relation to the above video): Hungary Premier Condemns Anti-Semitism, As Far-Right Jobbik Party Blasts Jews – 5/6/2013; Bajnai’s E14-PM and local Jewish leader condemn Jobbik politician’s Holocaust remarks – 2/14/2014; Anti-Semitism in Hungary: Jobbik in Parliament | CEJI – n.d.; Jewish leader condemns Jobbik politician’s Holocaust remarks | Politics.hu – 2/13/2014.  The compilation’s loose.  I see today (2/26/2014) that a ponderous but possibly helpful 44-minute documentary on the subject appears at ANTI-SEMITISM IN HUNGARY – YouTube – 1/8/2014.

______

Reza Shah Pahlavi became obessed and seduced by Htilers’ concept of racial purity. He began researching the fact that both Germans and Persians are Persians are from same the Aryan (Indo-european) race.

Because he became seduced by Hitler’s ideology of racial purity, Reza Shah Pahlavi draws attention to the fact that both Germans and Persians are from the Aryan (Indo-european) race. He renames Persia and calls it Iran (in reference to the Aryan race).

History of Iran and the Nazis | Tavern Keepers – 5/20/2013

______

“The Persian people and their leaders are considered pariahs in the eyes of the West, which serves Israeli interests,” said Marton Gyongyosi, Jobbik’s foreign policy chief, at a pro-Iran demonstration organized by the party in December at the US Embassy in Budapest. “This is why we have solidarity with the peaceful nation of Iran and turn to her with an open heart.”

Iran and Hungarian party form anti-Semitic alliance | The Times of Israel – 3/11/2013.

* * *

Press TV, Iran’s government-run English-language satellite news network, has taken its usual viciously anti-Semitic conspiracy theories a step further. It now claims not only that Jews are to blame for the Holocaust, but also that because Jews did not learn from their supposed wrongs in Nazi Germany that “American Zionists” are “incubating another Hitler.”

The November 9 article, “American Zionists incubating another Hitler,” was written by a Press TV colum­nist named M.I. Bhat, who also writes for the conspiratorial anti-Semitic website Veterans Today. The Press TV piece was additionally published two days earlier in Veterans Today under the title “Are American Jews incubating another Hitler?”

Rouhani’s Moderate Iran Not So Moderate « Commentary Magazine – 11/14/2013.

Considering the ravages of World War II and, ultimately, its effects on the German People themselves, it’s a wonder that within the constituency of any European power the same bogus political philosophy should take hold, albeit with less reference, if any, to Hitler or “Hitlerism”.

However, it appears that Hungary’s Jobbik Party has been helped along by those who have to some extent mastered a system of patronage:

He dis­turbingly con­cludes his arti­cle by imply­ing another Holo­caust is com­ing, this time to Amer­i­can Jews. Bhat writes, “how neatly this descrip­tion [of how Jew­ish con­trol and manip­u­la­tion resulted in all of Germany’s ills] depicts the cur­rent state of affairs of the United States! …Zion­ists don’t seem to draw any lessons from their past actions and expe­ri­ences.” Bhat asks, “If descrip­tion above [sic] of the post-WWI Ger­many is what led the Ger­mans to rally behind Hitler, should it then sur­prise Zion­ists or the world at large if Amer­ica pops up its own Hitler?”

m.i. bhat » ADL Blogs – 11/13/2013.

______

Iran’s Hezbollah program is a global enterprise; it should surprise no one that the regime would attempt to reproduce its anti-Semitic obsessions in other states.  A portion of Hungary, apparently, has succumbed; in America, Americans are not only not so dumb, I, we, and they are both practical and vigilant, heightening the penalties for hate crimes, watching the news carefully, and tracking the numbers — in the U.S., more of crime than of organizations that sometimes care to brag impacts and numbers they just don’t have and can’t get.

Related Reference

Hitler’s Mufti | Catholic Answers – 20:1 – January 2009:

To assist the practical slaughter of Jews and Christians, al-Husseini built an army of Muslim volunteer units for the Waffen-SS (the combat units of the dread SS) to operate for the Nazi cause in the Balkans. While the appeal for volunteers from among Muslims always struggled to meet the demands for new recruits, al-Husseini was able to organize three divisions of Bosnian Muslims who were then trained as elements of the Waffen-SS.

* * *

Jobbik’s foreign relations expert: Márton Gyöngyösi | Hungarian Spectrum – 2/12/2012.

Roma Community Centre-Toronto | Hungary Continues to Be a Frighteningly Racist Hellscape – 10/8/2013.

# # #

Worth the Second Look – President Obama’s 2013 National Security Speech, May 23, 2013, and His Comment on the Drone Program

03 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

▶ Barack Obama Speech on the U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy – YouTube – 59:42 minute video – Posted 5/25/2013

Alternative source: Digital Report: President Obama Delivers National Security Speech | Video – ABC News –  1:10:00 minute video – 5/23/2013.

Location: Fort McNair, National Defense University (5/23/2013).

For the serious (aided by coffee, perhaps), I’d advise watching the more complete ABC News presentation, but, at a glance, they’re close to parity.  The applause and heckler interruption takes place at about 49 minutes, and while it seems that portion has made the rounds, the complete video tells a much, much greater and more thoughtful story.

After the heckler, at around 56 minutes, Obama notes, “We face down dangers far greater than Al Qaeda.  By staying true to the values of our founding, and by using our constitutional compass, we have overcome slavery and civil war and fascism and communism.”

Obama’s not only right on that score, but one would have to watch with hate in the heart and a fair dose of internally-generated paranoia to demonize him as some kind of remote international socialist Muslim.  All of that just isn’t there in the breadth, depth, and expanse of the national security presentation.

______

The ABC News page supporting the one hour and ten minute clip reports seven tweets and 84 Facebook shares, a pathetically low number for a remarkably candid and comprehensive speech by President Obama on national security, related legal practices, and the drone program that has been in the news recently with the assassination of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

At about 38 minutes, Obama sums up basic concepts in his foreign policy:

  • Target actions against terrorists;
  • Effective partnerships;
  • Diplomatic engagement and assistance.

Notably, while speaking of terrorism generically, Obama goes on to address the American relationship with its Muslim complement.

“As we guard against dangers from abroad, we cannot neglect the daunting challenge of terrorism from within our borders . . . today a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda, and learn how to kill without leaving their home . . . the best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim community, which has consistently rejected  terrorism . . . .  These partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are an integral part of the American family . . . .   In fact, the success of American Muslims and our determination to guard against any encroachments on their civil liberties is the ultimate rebuke to those who say that we are at war with Islam.”

Related Reference

Pakistan on high alert after Taliban leader killed by US drone strike | World news | theguardian.com – 11/2/2013.

Two U.S.-Born Terrorists Killed in CIA-Led Drone Strike | Fox News – 9/30/2011.

Drone Wars Pakistan: Analysis | The National Security Studies Program (New America Foundation) – current.

# # #

FTAC – Islam – A Voice From Islamabad – “The Question of Dhimmis is Over With”

10 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Philology, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

 . . . as we are advancing towards one Global Humanity in which all religions and faith(s), irrespective need to be respected and respected with the greatest of dignity, therefore, the question of Dhimmis is over with. Islam believes in the equality of one global humanity and not to enslave humanity because of their different religious backgrounds, and faith. Islam protects the weak against the strong, who do not know how to absorb Power and to Practice Power in form of good and credible Justice to be done to humanity, irrespective of their backgrounds in religion and faith. Today’s Muslims or the so called Muslims who have taken Law into their own hands, and violate the law of ONE GOD ALL-MIGHTY of how well to treat ONE GOD’s humans on this earth, are perhaps far and very far from the Principles of Islam. Such violent Muslims, may call themselves Muslims a hundred times, makes no difference, because their hypocrisy has grown so much on them, that they cannot think aright. Their minds have been corrupted to the core and their hearts have been blackened by the demons’ spell, so how can such so called Muslims in name, be the Worshipers’ and followers’ of ONE ALL-MIGHTY GOD, Who, Loves HIS Creation, and then Humans being HIS Most Creative Creation. Islam is Peace, Love for humanity and a crave for Universal Justice among’st all humans.

The bold italics are mine.

The writer is Muslim, vigorously so.

The awesome conversation continues.

______

. . . but I will suggest this much: every human has an interior life, some kind of life of the mind, and the images in that mind float around in there with language. Where there’s abundance and any ability to distribute that, fighting involves something in the head, and we can discern what that is when the head talks and out of its mouth come its attitudes and beliefs, some about the universe, and those entertain us, and some about others, and those words are the ones that may comfort or terrify everyone who hears them.

That voice is my narcissistic own.

🙂

We can experience a great many things in our own heads, but we cannot share them without the creation of sign and symbol, and we do that most often with the words we speak (this not discounting the effects of aural, culinary, and visual fine art).

What we have in our heads too may be put there by language, the “cultural tool”, a powerful one with which each generation of sufficient mien and reach must be careful with in service to themselves and others.

When a Muslim gentleman in Pakistan tells me through the awesome conversation — a term of art on this blog — that “the question of Dhimmis is over with” it is a little like hearing Spielberg’s Lincoln say, “Slavery, Mr. ____, it’s done.”

Of course, it is different when a Lincoln says it, but even from out of the sea of more than a billion voices, the one voice confirms his faith in submission to God but not through himself or others submission to himself or others.

# # #

Excerpts from Recent Correspondence on Political Spychology

30 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in Journalism, Political Spychology, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

The journalist asked, in essence, “How can I offer a source confidentiality if the government knows I know the source and has the power to intercept everything we talk about?”

Madame X,

More fuel for the fire: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/30/nsa-built-secret-shadow-social-network-getprism-and-youve-already-joined-it/

Our military-industrial complex in its surreptitious mode has made it very hard to casually produce a criminal domestic conspiracy — or should have by now: who’s to tell?

If it has, that leads the bad guys back to using runners to pass slips of paper or memorized signal to their associates or, alternatively, produce code, and perhaps along the lines you have suggested with the Jihad. ”Sweet nectar” may not be so sweet these days if it has been attached to a mission involving Islamic Jihad.

Unless you’re committing a crime, the only advice and course possible is to proceed as normal, as you CAN offer confidentiality unless knowingly (on your part) recording and passing information to a controller.

If you’re not doing that, why can’t YOU offer confidentiality?

What you cannot offer any longer is the guarantee of confidentiality — as in times of old and associated with all conflicts, “there are spies everywhere”.

Our own ability as independent writers to query the NSA gather-all-communications system — or test it for reflection of interest in ourselves — is probably nonexistent to primitive.

The circumstance may encourage us to give those who claim the FBI has been following them and such a second glance. Those we usually consign to the ranks of the American Paranoid Movements (of which there are many) and the plainly mentally ill, but with a lurking and invasive government, we might be inclined to taking a second look at some claims or tempted to test the system with breadcrumbs.

Not too many years ago, we had this same conversation and joked about slipping “C4″ and other triggers into correspondence, and I think we found that at least the Google robots were sensitive enough to return invitations to academic programs in national security.

🙂

It’s not just about Google’s impersonal robotic text scanning anymore, is it?

We have a known real enemy in the collection of Islamic Jihad groups and their backers in Islam, and those have cast a wide network across the earth to filter in like-minded thinkers and evildoers.

We have to ask whether developing SIGINT security system in their totality affords sufficient strength and wherewithal to hunt and distill adversary signal.

So far, not so good: Al Shabaab’s attack last week in Nairobi, Boko Haram’s latest in northern Nigeria, the swing of Syrian rebel FSA toward ISIL would seem to suggest our national foreign intelligence community failure or, alternatively, too parochial a collection of intelligence communities across the nations. Whatever the spooks – a most apt term, that one — may think they’re doing, they’re not getting in the way of the orchestration of these attacks or adverse shifts in political position.

A global threat wants for a globally integrated response.

I may post this response to you on my blog with attribution removed.

We are just at the start of “spychology” as security outsider enthusiasts.

_____

On that first paragraph, two notes ago: ” . . . but of nodal personality attracts similar traffic in a similar way.” It should have read ” . . . but of a nodal personality attracting similar traffic in a similar way.” Basically, the “person of interest” may become noted by other people having a conversation with him.

You have seen the spiderweb graphics illustrating relationships between organizations or persons. With a security mission, a node enlarged by the traffic it receives from lesser nodes 🙂 might attract interest.

For state intelligence communities tracking Islamic terrorism, everyone knows a “hit” or an “action” may be yet compelled by a nod or a few words scribbled on the back of a grocery slip. Where mafia methods work, they work.

This is really a good time for fiction writers who can either promote the technology, as is done with CIS and the old 24 series, or it can go the other way with events taking place out of the control of authorities (remember Jeff Bridges in Arlington Road?).

______

The cuckoo and the two peacocks who have made their names synonymous with American military and domestic intelligence leaks and then the machinery revealed have probably already inspired their share of scribbling intended to entertain, some of which will become movies or television episodes if not series.  The theme is “what you don’t know and can’t know conveniently,” and that terrain today includes what governments know about you and everyone with whom you associate via one form of telephony or another (two tin cans and a length of string excepted).

It is of course presumptuous, also narcissistic, and possibly paranoid to think government cares so much about Y-O-U.

Or M-E.

Then too, it seems it has never been more possible that, indeed, government does care, and whichever government it may be, today it may have some powers it could not have dreamed of having, say, 25 years ago.

Related

‘Homeland’ and ‘24’ Creator Howard Gordon on Terror, Tyranny and TV as Art – Tablet Magazine – 9/30/2013

Arlington Road Trailer – YouTube – Posted 5/23/2010

Arlington Road (1999) – IMDb

# # #

Islamic Terrorism at Westgate Mall – Atrocity, Barbarism, Savagery – A Complete Collapse of Boundaries and Limits

28 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers’: Horrific claims of torture emerge as soldiers reveal gory Kenyan mall massacre details

Headline – Kenya mall attack torture claims emerge from soldiers: ‘Eyes gouged out, bodies on hooks, fingers removed’ | Mail Online 9/26/2013.

Psychopathic people and behaviour are found within all cultures and religions. But one tops them all — by many lengths.

Lead – Nicolai Sennels: Psychology: Why Islam creates monsters – Jihad Watch, 9/27/2013.

In Western news-making and opinion-forming circles, there’s a palpable reluctance to talk about the most noteworthy thing about modern Islamist violence: its barbarism, its graphic lack of moral restraint.

Lead – I’m sorry, but we have to talk about the barbarism of modern Islamist terrorism – Telegraph Blogs, 9/28/2013.

______

Many years ago and with reference to Al Shabaab, I have mentioned the unbridled aspect of a force of nature that may cloak itself in some kind of program but that in reality has no program apart from its own hypnotic inclination to indulge itself in mayhem, murder, and sadism beyond all limits.

Has Islam helped them along?

Probably — certainly no other major religion today supports the breadth, frequency, intensity, and undeniable and inexhaustible sadism associated with atrocious acts of violence committed most often against unprepared innocents with the war cry, “Allahu Akbar!”

With twisted political force, double-binds, intimidation and darkly teased loyalty one may warp the child whose greatest possession would seem to become his hate and his liability, equally consuming, his inability to contain it.

______

Hitler exhibited many psychiatric symptoms, including extreme paranoia and defenses that ”could fill a psychiatry textbook,” he most likely was not truly mentally ill. Hitler’s paranoid delusions, Dr. Redlich writes, ”could be viewed as a symptom of mental disorder, but most of the personality functioned more than adequately.” Hitler, he added, ”knew what he was doing and he chose to do it with pride and enthusiasm.”

Insane or Just Evil? A Psychiatrist Takes a New Look at Hitler – New York Times, 11/17/1998.

Readers of this blog know that I’ve an expanding toolkit built around “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy“, and it seems to be working just fine with such as Adolph Hitler, Al Shabaab, and Charles Manson.

______

With every “Islamist” attack, Islam draws greater scrutiny, and even though as a class Muslims may not identify with terrorism or terrorists, especially with themselves comprising the vast majority of victims of this brand of criminal behavior, the same may taint them.  This, of course, is part of “shimmer“.  The more murder that takes place beneath the banner of Islam, the more conflict generated in its name, the more breathtaking — or numbing — the violence indulged, the more difficult it becomes to claim cultures associated with it equal, noble, or virtuous, their children and their doings becoming the most important gauge of their acumen and success.

Manson relocated the Family to a ranch near the Simi Valley owned by a friend of one his followers. Life there was dominated by rules meant to render Family members — particularly the women — enslaved and dependent. Suddenly, no female was to ever carry money. At the two daily meals, men were served first and “the women got what was left.”

‘Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson’ draws portrait of psychopath as a young man – NY Daily News, 8/28/2013

Has the treatment of women in, say, Saudi Arabia, been so much different?

Notably for Americans, Manson occupies his one legendary true-crime space.

The assorted criminals and nut sacks associated with similarly outrageous crimes have no central connection to him apart from their recognition as comparatively isolated psychopaths.

What Al Shabaab does — and Al Qaeda and Taliban and . . . . well, you get the point: it’s a little different, more tied together across time and space and shared gruesome fantasia.

The reason one may note how Charlie Manson treated women and ask whether similar arrangements have not been as true of Saudi Arabia is that with the unnatural horror unleashed in Al Shabaab’s mindless zombie attack in Nairobi, the Manson and the Tate-LaBianca murder comes naturally to mind.  It’s not only a convenient analog — again, one an isolated American lunatic crime (knives more than guns, if any, in that one too): the other as lunatic but predictable given the many nations hosting each a part of the Islamic Small Wars and how often similar mayhem occurs — but a key also to what the two entities may have had in common in part: a narcissism similar in its contemptuous and malignant aspects.

and why is that?

To shake the head and not understand seems only that much more dumb given what happened in Kenya at whose hands and with the authority, at least in their own heads, of what book beneath what banner associated with whom and what.

Whatever it is, it is not primarily “the west’s” fight.

Additional Reference

Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet: Fritz Redlich: 9780195057829: Amazon.com: Books (1998).

The Making of a Serial Killer | Psychology Today, 12/7/2012.

Official Tate-LaBianca Murders Blog, 9/25/2013

# # #

Navalny!

22 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Russia

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

When one has a book at hand like Ben Judah’s Fragile Empire, one may have with it a fledgling empire of new and noble nouns, many of which may be researched or accessed online.  So it is with Alexei Navalny, among others, who since 2009 “has gained prominence in Russia and in the Russian and international media as a critic of corruption and of Russian President Vladimir Putin” (Wikipedia: “Alexei Navalny”).

In 2008: “Who?”

In 2013: “Navalny!”

Navalny may be Putin’s simplest political litmus test, as one may know where Navalny stands, and why, while the Russian president remains the author of his own script and of the approved manipulated official Russian historic national narrative, and he may yet pivot off the Assad-to-Mugabe course in the art of dictatorship and prove Russia other than an enormous medieval fief for exploiting all the way to ruin.

______

“Today, a provincial court in the Russian city of Kirov sentenced Aleksey Navalny, the only real leader to emerge among the opposition since the fall of the Soviet Union, to five years in a prison camp, and slapped him with a hefty fine for an embezzlement scheme so convoluted it could only be fiction: He was accused, as he liked to put it, of “stealing a forest.”

Aleksei Navalny Trial: Blogger Gets Five Years in Jail | New Republic 7/18/2013

Additional Reference

Court Rejects Navalny Election Appeal | News | The Moscow Times 9/20/2013: “Navalny’s team argued that the results were illegitimate because of violations including unequal access to media outlets for different candidates, irregularities in home voting, and the buying of votes with gifts paid for with city money.”

From the same article and in the interest of fairness on this page:

“The ruling by Moscow City Court was not unexpected. In the past two weeks, Sobyanin and his powerful Kremlin supporters, among them President Vladimir Putin, have on several occasions praised the election as being one of the most transparent and fair in Russian history, and several observer groups said they did not witness any large-scale voting fraud.”

The “second row seat to history” has yet to prove helpful to me as regards primary journalism — it’s true: there’s nothing like being there, wherever that may be — much less investigative journalism, at least not until I start getting overtures for Skype sessions.  As it stands, only local Russian constituents and media have the potential to report “clearly, accurately, and completely” as regards these affairs and to “peel back the onion” — a familiar phrase among accountants and bureaucrats — on what’s bothering them.

Navalny Supporters Claim Beaten by Police | News | The Moscow Times 9/22/2013

The blog of Navalny in English – Judgement 9/21/2013

Court appeal date announced for opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who faces 5 years in prison | Fox News 9/20/2013

Moscow court upholds election results, confirming defeat for Alexei Navalny – The Washington Post 9/20/2013

Putin foe manages strong showing in Moscow vote – Yahoo News 9/8/2013

Putin foe manages strong showing in Moscow vote – Yahoo News Photo Gallery.  9/8/2013.

The Navalny Case and the Final Battle between Good and Neutrality? | In Moscow’s Shadows 4/13/2013: “He has brought the issue of the corruption elite into the center of Russian politics, and has done more than anyone else to connect that with the United Russia bloc, that bastion of the cynical, the careerist and the corrupt.”

*

From The New Republic piece cited closer to the top of this post:

Navalny showed Russians how not to be afraid. The volume of fear—for one’s physical safety, for one’s livelihood, for one’s family—that fills the average Russian mind even today is staggering. It is, in part, a product of Russia’s unfathomably bloody and ruthless history; and in part because today’s system plays on that fear by intimating that quiet ignorance is one’s safest bet, and making an example of those who don’t comply.

*

Fragile Empire – Judah, Ben – Yale University Press June 2013

Russia Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption 2013 by The Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Wall Street Journal.

German Investors Discouraged by Corruption in Russia – SPIEGEL ONLINE 4/3/2013

Russia under Vladimir Putin: Neither’s ahead | The Economist 6/2/2012

# # #

Islamic Small Wars – A Few Days Toll in Death

22 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Islamic Small Wars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

▶ Westgate survivor: Ben recounts his narrow escape at Westgate mall – YouTube 9/22/2013

______

From the following compilation alone, I tallied reports to 246 dead (rebels included) by way of Islamist violence in recent days.  I’m sure if I have miscounted, the figure is on the low side.  

Let’s round up: should “250 dead” in recent days prove high, somehow, we may wait half a day or a day, seldom more than two, and reality will catch up with it and overtake it.

______

AL SHABAAB HITS KENYA, HOLDS HOSTAGES

From a report on the heavily armed assault on the very dangerous civilians shopping (like the one in the above video) at Westgate Mall, Nairobi, Kenya:

Gunmen stormed the mall about noon local time armed with grenades and assault rifles. They asked cornered victims if they were Muslim or non-Muslim, witnesses told the Associated Press. Non-Muslims were held, while Muslims were allowed to go free.

The al-Shabab group said the attacks were in response to a Kenyan military push into Somalia in 2011.

Americans injured in deadly Kenyan mall attack – POLITICO.com 9/21/2013.

*

Earlier reports —

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — Fifty-nine dead. At least 175 injured. About 30 hostages still inside, as well as perhaps a dozen gunmen.

Those are the grim numbers, a day after attackers stormed an upscale Nairobi mall, spraying bullets and holding shoppers captive.

Kenya mall attack: About 30 hostages still inside, sources say – CNN.com 9/22/2013

Related: Al-Shabaab Attack Fulfills Threat in Kenyan Support for Somalia – Bloomberg 9/22/2013

Americans injured in deadly Kenyan mall attack – POLITICO.com 9/21/2013

Hostages Trapped Inside Nairobi Shopping Mall : The Two-Way : NPR 9/21/2013

______

Afghanistan “Insider Attack”

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan wearing a security forces uniform turned his weapon against foreign troops Saturday, killing three in eastern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan officials said, in another apparent attack by a member of the Afghan forces against their international allies.

NATO: 3 troops killed in Afghan insider attack – Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com 9/21/2013

***

In Peshawar, Pakistan Today

A TWIN suicide bombing has killed more than 70 people at a church service in northwest Pakistan, the attack believed to be the deadliest on Christians in the country.

The bombers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has borne the brunt of a bloody Islamist insurgency in recent years.

More than 70 killed at Pakistan church | The Australian 9/22/2013

The death toll figure has risen to 78 in many reports:

(Reuters) – A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year-old church in Pakistan after Sunday Mass, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim South Asian country.

Suicide bombers kill 78 Christians outside Pakistani church | Reuters 9/22/2013

***

Reports from the Philippines

Five rebels and a 71-year-old woman were killed Saturday as fighting dragged on in a southern Philippine city between government troops and Muslim insurgents holding out with about 20 civilian hostages, officials said.

6 More Die as Fighting Drags on in Philippine City – ABC News 9/20/2013

Related: Philippine leaders says Muslim armed challenge over soon | GlobalPost 9/22/2013

***

Near Azaz, Syria

Hundreds of fighters under the command of the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) have reportedly switched allegiance to al-Qaeda-aligned groups, in a move described as a huge blow to moderate rebel forces.

Activists and military sources have told Al Jazeera that the 11th Division – one of the biggest FSA brigades – has switched allegiance to the al-Nusra Front in Raqqah province, a border province with Turkey.

FSA brigade ‘joins al-Qaeda group’ in Syria – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

***

A Pool of Blood in Iraq

Two suicide bombers, one in an explosives-laden car and the other on foot, struck a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in a Shia neighbourhood in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks around Iraq that killed at least 96 people on Saturday.

Iraq violence: suicide bombers kill at least 72 at Baghdad funeral | World news | theguardian.com 9/21/2013

*

Iraqi officials say two separate bombings, including a suicide car bomb attack, have killed two security force members and wounded 37 people in the country’s north.

Bombings in Northern Iraq Kill 2, Wound 37 – ABC News 9/22/2013

***

Yemen

(CNN) — Militants killed 18 soldiers and eight police officers in south Yemen Friday morning, security officials said.

The attacks targeted installations in Shabwa province on Friday morning, the officials said. They said the attackers used car bombs and heavy artillery.

Yemen: Militants attack military, police installations, kill 26 – CNN.com 9/20/2013

***

Abuja, Nigeria

The shoot out took place near the main residential compound for lawmakers in Abuja on Friday and was the first clash involving Islamist militants in the capital this year.

Boko Haram fighting Nigerian troops in Abuja – Telegraph 9/20/2013

Related: BBC News – Nigeria’s ‘Boko Haram’: Abuja sees security forces targeted 9/20/2013

Additional Reference

BBC News – General killed as Egyptian forces raid pro-Morsi town September 19, 2013.

Kurds push jihadists from Syria village: NGO – Region – World – Ahram Online September 18, 2013

Has Syria Got a Prayer? Attacks on Christian Churches Near Damascus | National Review Online Interview with Raymond Ibrahim, September 7, 2013.

Syrian troops storm central village, killing 15 | Boston Herald September 22, 2013.

Syrian Christians may get pulled into war September 21, 2013.

Syria – Where’s the War? Right Where We Left It.

17 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Mahmoud al-Aboud, commander of the eastern front for the Free Syrian Army, told The Daily Beast on Sunday in a Skype interview that the fighting began Saturday with a car bomb. Killed in the attack, said Aboud, was the brother of Saddam al-Gamal, a local commander of Allahu Akbar Brigades, a group aligned with the FSA in al-Bukamal. After the bombing, Gamal’s men launched a counterattack with small arms fire that killed four fighters in the opposing rebel group.

Al Qaeda Clash With Free Syrian Army a New Stage of Opposition Split – The Daily Beast 9/17/2013 (Eli Lake)

Lake goes on to note, “The FSA, which has received some nonlethal aid from the United States as well as weapons from such American allies as Saudi Arabia, has never collaborated with al Qaeda–linked forces in Syria against the Assad regime, Abboud said.”

So there!

Kudos to Eli Lake for the quote-by-Skype, would that there were more breaking coverage of the fighting in Syria by equally vetted professional journalists, the kind who get around some, miraculously.  Instead, what’s going on in there has to filter or sift, if anything, through military intelligence services, and then with those what does the public get that isn’t shaped to suit one national interest or another?

______

He left Israel about three weeks ago, probably via Jordan, and reached Syrian rebels, with whom he began fighting, the family said. Muid left with two other companions, who have not been heard from either, the family said.

Report: Israeli Arab Killed in Syria Fighting – Middle East – News – Israel National News 9/17/2013

If Somalia’s Al Shabaab may serve for reference, volunteers to the fight may be treated as cannon fodder.

So goes the politics of small bands and newcomers to them.

______

State-approved reporting, informally so, more or less:

“Across northern Syria, there has been an upsurge in crimes and abuses committed by extremist anti-government armed groups along with an influx of rebel foreign fighters,” Pinheiro said. His team was still investigating accounts of killings of captured government soldiers in Khan Al-Asal, he added.

State less-approved reportage, same UN study involved:

An incendiary bomb dropped from a government warplane on a school in the Aleppo countryside on August 26 killed at least eight students, and 50 more suffered horrific burns over up to 80 percent of their bodies, he said, citing survivor accounts.

Rebels, foreign fighters step up crimes in Syria: U.N. | Reuters 9/16/2013.

______

Currently, China is Syria’s third largest importer and Russia’s largest at 15.5 percent of Russia’s total imports. As Russia continues to increase arms sales to a desperate Bashar al-Assad government, It has become increasingly clear that what’s good for Bashar al-Assad’s government is also good for Russia and, by extension, China too.

China’s Syria Strategy | Daniel Pena 9/16/2013 (Huffington Post, The Blog)

Verily, The Money has a life all its own.

And these guys at the Too Real Monopoly Table are not playing for Park Place.

As a matter of fact — move over, Mr. Bill — Leonid Bershidsky writing for Bloomberg has just announced “Vladimir Putin, the Richest Man on Earth” (not really, or not necessarily — Bershidsky reviews the sources of the claim).

What’s China’s position on Syria?  Sometimes, the drag-and-drop URL headers just fall into place: China says military strike against Syria would hurt global economy – latimes.com 9/5/2013

One cannot help but feel that for either China and Russia, the suffering beneath the brutal Assad dictatorship, the appearance of chemical WMD in the battlespace, which in the news may be traveling slowly but certainly from loosely “alleged” use by the Syrian military toward toward more firm confirmation (e.g., “Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that the facts of the report underscore that only the Assad regime could have carried out the sarin attack” – UN report confirms chemical weapons use in Syria – World News 9/17/2013), the bereavement associated with more than 100,000 dead, the trials of millions of displaced and refugee souls, and the destruction of entire cities simply don’t matter, at least not compared to The Money.

Perhaps if people mattered to dictators as other than resources for their own glorification and validation — sources of “narcissistic supply” — the same would not be dictators at all but resemble something closer to decent human beings.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for that epiphany to come to the major powers enjoying the good fight — from the perch of their own privilege — associated with Assad’s Syria.

______

Moreover, we know the Assad regime was responsible. In the days leading up to Aug. 21st, we know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area they where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighborhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.

Text of President Obama’s speech on Syria – Las Vegas Sun News 9/17/2013

______

Now let’s do China.

Frankly, anyone who spends much time in China knows about the oligarchic nature of the Chinese elite, but the extent and distribution of the Wen family wealth is eye-opening.

Wen Jiabao’s Riches and Political Reform in China | China Power | The Diplomat Elizabeth C. Economy, 10/30/2012.

As eye opening as an espresso double-shot, I’d say.

Gold may be God for some, for the concept of any ethical or moral view of social reality is a thing suspended in the cultural invention of language.  Why not Pharaoh?  Why not virgin sacrifice?  Why not the Sun King?  Or death cults?  With the right poetry, anything may be rendered beautiful, desirable, sublime.

Now the Chinese wanted to set their own boundaries. They refused to discuss allegations they had looked the other way when Sudan’s army forced southerners from their homes in the oil regions, Odwar recalled. And when the delegation brought up new pollution laws, they told them not to set their sights so high. “I thought that was very offensive,” Odwar said.

Special Report: South Sudan’s Chinese oil puzzle | Reuters 11/14/2012

The farmers have moved away. Most of the small brick houses in Xinguang Sancun, huddling close to one another, are going to rack and ruin. In just 10 years the population has dropped from 2,000 to 300 people.

Rare-earth mining in China comes at a heavy cost for local villages | Environment | Guardian Weekly 8/7/2012

I wouldn’t dig up the dirt, pun not intended, just to produce a negative attitude toward China on this blog, but that these stories are available from recent years tells about the attitudes taken by authorities toward other humans and the earth.

During the course of the genocide in Sudan, China seems to have made its trade arrangements with Omar al-Bashir and otherwise kept its mouth shut.  Again, relevant article URL headers just seem to fall into place: Oil interests tie China to Sudan leader Bashir, even as he faces genocide charges – Washington Post:

Oil has for years been the bedrock of China’s warm relations with Bashir, who was first indicted by the ICC in 2008, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to murder, rape, torture, ethnic cleansing and other actions in Darfur.

What may be at stake for China in relation to Syria is that this dismal retreat from concern for the humanity of others and the cause that is their own hideous glorification continues without challenge or question.

Additional Reference

BBC News – China’s stake in the Syria stand-off 2/24/2012

Islamists dominate Syrian insurgency – Threat Matrix 9/16/2013

Syria’s al-Nusra Front – ruthless, organised and taking control | World news | The Guardian 7/10/2013