Sic Semper Tyrannis

Romney and primitive Palestinians

IMO the Israeli government behaved correctly toward Romney.  They were respectful but careful not to prejuduce their relationship with BHO's administration.  Dan Senor, the neocon mouthpice on Romney's stsff, did not succeed in having Romney compromise his freedom of action if he is elected.  Even Bibi held bsck a little,  Barak and Peres acted like the statesmen they are.

Romney, on the other hand managed to imply that the Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories are "wogs" through and through and incapable of self improvement due to their backwardness. 

I accept the fact that some cultures are more of a handicap to the improvement of the material lot of the people than others.  Do not ask.  Nevertheless, the Palestinians are the least likely candidates for that kind of condemnation that i can think of.  Did Senor "feed" Romney this "line" or was it Bolton?

In fact,  the Palestinians both at home and in the diaspora, are among the most educated populations, in the Middle East.  They enthusiastically embraced Western education under both Ottoman and British government, and my experience of them is that they have a highly developed middle class who prosper wherever they go and are valuable citizens.

Their long quarrel with the Jews is a tragedy for all mankind.  Under Israeli occupation they have suffered many indignities and deprivations.  Beyond the question of the personal humiliations of an occupied people subjected to the attentions of the Shin Bet and an occupation army made up largely of teen-aged soldiers showing off for each other, there have been crushing economic penalties inflicted by an exclusivist nationalist colonial stste.

Taxes are collected from the Paeestinians and then withheld from those who paid them.  This seems to be in the hope that this will intimidate the Palestinians into acceptance of "helot" status.  Infrastruction projects are withheld, Emplyoment in Israel is denied.  Houses and neighborhoods are demolished as "mass punishment."  After Oslo there was a period of hope for the Jews and the Palestinians.  This was the time of Barak's premiership.  Palestinian capital from abroad flowed massively into into the WB and Gaza.  The economy flourished, but that golden age was followed by a drive to wreck the Palestinians' possible state.  This drive was successful.

Was Arafat's governmet corrupt?  Yes, so what?  All government's are more or less corrupt.  The people prospered under his rule until Israel wrecked what they had built.

In such a context Romnay imples that the Palesinians are responsible for their poverty.  Either this man is without conscience or he is too ignorant to be president.  pl

Aleppo. Assault or no assault?

"Anti-regime guerillas have battled to stave off an onslaught by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on Sunday as the government claimed it had defeated a rebel assault in Damascus. Despite days of heavy skirmishes in the south-west of Syria's second city, a decisive battle is yet to begin.

The rebels are in control of a crescent-shaped area, from the east to the south and centred on the suburb of Salahedine. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) has set up a network of checkpoints in the neighbourhoods it controls, run by young militia fighters, many of them extremely nervy. It remains encamped in much of the hinterland to the north of the city, which it entered on 20 July, and troops are using anti-regime villages in these areas to move reinforcements into Aleppo." Guardian”  

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Two days old but still interesting, a decision point for the Syrian government is whether or not they should assault and clear the city quickly or "sweat" the opposition forces out over some time in the hope of not destroying the economic value of the city.  The Sunni business community there as well as the Christian minority are all assets that Assad will not want to ruin.

IMO he will decide on a fairly long siege.  pl

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/29/syria-unrest-assad-forces-aleppo

Aleppo and beyond.

"Syria’s army has “purged” Aleppo’s Salaheddine district of armed groups and is pursuing others in several neighborhoods as it tries to regain control of the city, state television said.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, reported heavy shelling in Salaheddine today, suggesting the district or parts of it are still under rebel control. An officer interviewed by the state-run TV channel said“mercenaries” from other countries, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, were helping the rebels in Aleppo.

 

Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been battling rebels who seized several neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city and its commercial hub, since last week. The army pounded the city with heavy artillery and helicopter gunships, opposition groups say"  Bloomberg

 

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IMO, the rebels have miscalculated.  Their force has not "evolved" enough to confront significant conventional forces in an urban environment or anywhere else that the conventional forces can "pin" them in place against terrain or some other obstacle.

 

They will pay heavily for this error.  They will lose a lot of men, and be driven from the city.   Following that defeat IMO the Syrian millitary will move further north and northwest to regain control og the "sanctuaries" on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey.  They will succeed in doing this unless Turkey intervenes directly in the fighting.

 

This would not mean the end of the war.  Following such a defeat the rebels are likely to spend an extended period re-building their force in Turkey and launching a long term campaign of revolutionary warfare based on guerrillas.  They may eventually succeed in bringing down the present government if they take a long view of the need to wear the regime down one "mouse" bite at a time.

 

There is a rumor circulating that there has been an attempt on the life of the Saudi minister of intelligence, Bandar bin Sultan.  Does anyone knw anything of this?  pl

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-30/syria-troops-overrun-rebel-areas-in-aleppo-state-tv-says

 

Israel spies on us. Really?

"The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment
he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters
in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his
superiors about the break-in."  AP

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Hey!  They are a foreign country right?  No?  Oh.  pl

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_ISRAEL_SPYING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-28-09-25-08

Romney accepted dual citizenship?

 

Sheldon Adelson, the IDF wannabe, met the noted Anglophile, Mitt Romney in Israel so that Romney could swear eternal fealty to Zionism at the King David Hotel, a venue well known to many "substantial" Americans. 

Hey!  If that's what he wants, he shoud go for it.   If elected he should wear a yarmulke at his inauguration so that we will know just what we are getting.  An IDF band can lead the inaugural parade and there can be yet another inaugural ball, this one at the Israeli embassy.

A brave new world!  pl

Actually the speech sounded meaningless to me.  pl  

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79071.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/us/politics/romney-faces-perils-and-opportunities-in-israel.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Is American Imperialism a Result of Goldwater Nichols? - Foresman

One of my faults is I am a thinker; that I often question the status quo, the why things are.  One of my favorite web sites to visit is Tom Dispatch.  Many in the military would not read Tom Dispatch as it routinely questions the very underpinnings of how things are done in the United States in particular in the National Security arena.

Several weeks ago, Tom Dispatch published an extended article on the shadow war in Africa.  In part it questioned why the United States military has divided the world into six fiefdoms or Combatant Commands.  This week there is an extended debate between a spokesman; for United States Africa Command and Tom Dispatch.  I commend the original and the letter to editor and the response to the letter to the editor, as they are enlightening.

WINEP on the Syrian rebels

"we met with a Syrian sheikh who runs the Jamiyat al-Shura al-Khairiyah on the Jordanian side of the border, which is supposedly a humanitarian organization. He gave us an extremely long, eloquent, and detailed presentation about the good work he is doing and said that we are all equal and we all believe in the compassionate and merciful prophets. He then asked us to support his good work for the Syrian people. Then after that meeting, he took aside a Palestinian Muslim member of our delegation, and said, "You know, when you talk to these Europeans, you have to be like a fox. You have to say all these nice things, but you know that we don't really mean any of it."

I was struck by the pervasiveness of this uncertainty and duplicity. Personally, I support the Syrian opposition, but I think we need to be very clear about the pitfalls when we try to pick and choose. So that is my first conclusion: Don't jump to conclusions. Even about whom you think you are dealing with."  WINEP

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This WINEP document makes it very clear that the US and the European powers are playing a dunce's game in Syria.  They are seeking to replace a dictatorial but multi-sectarian modernist regime with one that at the very least would be unknown in nature.  At worst we might see Syria transformed into yet another religion ridden theocracy.  pl

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/trip-report-meeting-the-syrian-opposition-in-antakya-and-istanbul

Romney promises to support Israeli attack on Iran

"He will also make a speech on Sunday on foreign policy and US-Israeli
relations. It is expected to focus on the Iranian nuclear issue and the common
interests of Israel and the US.

In comments echoing Netanyahu's position that a nuclear Iran is the biggest
threat to the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Romney will say: "We have seen
the horrors of history. We will not stand by. We will not watch them play out
again."

Preventing the Iranian regime developing a nuclear weapons
capability "must be our highest national security priority," Romney will say
according to excerpts of the speech released in advance. "The "security of Israel
is in the vital national security interests of the United States."  The Guardian

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I am curious to know what authority a President Romney would have for taking the US to war against Iran if Israel chooses to act unilaterally.  I know of no treaty or ratified agreement between Israel and the US that would authorize it.  I know of no UN resolution that would legitimate such action.  Does the recently signed law on US military supply and finance of the IDF require it?  What? 

Of course there is always the possibility that neither candidate would honor any promise made to Israel.  pl

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/29/mitt-romney-backs-israel-strike-iran

New/old Gun

For those of you interested in such matters I wandered about the National Gun Show today.  It was at the Dulles Expositions Center.  It was terribly crowded with a multitude of folk of various description.  I bought the world's greatest knife sharpener from a man who had sharpened my pocket knife gratis.  Basilisk had predicted that I would buy a gun.  I was doing my best to resist this thought when I spied the lovely old thing pictured above.  It is a Savage Arms "over and under" combination with a .22 magnum barrel over and a 20 gauge shotgun barrel under.  It has little engraved sketches on the sides of the receiver.  On one side is a fox and on the other a ruffed grouse.  I suppose that is why this gun is typically called a "silver fox."

I owned one of these a long time ago.  I bought it in Panama at the Canal Zone Rod and Gun Club.  That must have been in 1965.  I owned it until the late 70's when I took it with me to visit my dear friend Colonel Bob Sawyer and his wife Ellie at their retirement retreat near Bow Lake, New Hampshire.  I had brought it with the idea that a country gent should have a gun like this.  We were standing in a meadow shooting at empty tin cans with the Savage when for some reason he told me that the day was the anniversary of a day in early 1944 when a kampfgruppe of the 17th Panzer division overran and destroyed his company of infantry of the 26th (Yankee) Division.  This was just short of the Rhine.  The platoon he commanded lost half its men, including many he had served with in the National Guard in Massachusetts. 

As we walked back to the house. I handed him the gun and said "this is yours, don't argue about it." 

I saw this gun today and it became impossible to leave this old friend behind in that noisy, impersoanl place.

Basilisk and Harper waited patiently while I filled out the forms.  pl  

Military Leadership by Richard Sale

I recently spent a week studying a war that was tragic in every way – it destroyed thousands of young, idealistic Americans, it murdered hundreds of thousands of America’s enemies, and it destroyed, damaged, and uprooted many of the enemy’s institutions. Yet in spite of so many years of effort and sacrifice, so many bombings and body counts, and so many deployments of young American men, the war did not reach its declared goal of bringing more freedom to the peoples of the world. In fact, America lost the war. Nor did the victory of our enemies result in the social, economic, geographic, and ideological catastrophes that many thought such a victory would produce.  U.S. military leaders got it wrong. It is hard not to draw the conclusion that in spite of the gallantry, bravery, self-sacrifice that U.S. troops manifested throughout the conflict, the world after the war was basically the same.  The whole conflict was a fiasco and misjudgment.

As I sat and took notes and took notes, it seemed to me that the loss of the war could just possibly provide an occasion for self-questioning as well as thinking about military leaders and the nature of war itself.

What sort of war has a just claim on human loyalty?  On American loyalty? That has to be the basic and inescapable question.

Text mutilation

I have asked Typepad why this is happening when I paste text in the compose window.  pl

A Walk on the Noir side--Basilisk

 

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/07/the-gimlet-gaze-basilisk.html

Cherchez la femme, as they say.

 

 

Decision at Aleppo?

"Ms. Nuland also indicated that the United States was not reconsidering its stance against military intervention, saying, “We do not think pouring more fuel onto the fire is going to save lives.” And she drew a sharp distinction between Aleppo and the Libyan city of Benghazi, where fears of a slaughter by government troops led to a NATO bombing campaign that proved decisive in toppling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi last year.       

“The kind of groundswell call for external support that we’ve seen elsewhere is not there,” Ms. Nuland said."  NY Times

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In other words, YOYO, (you are on your own).  The US will stand by and make ineffective statements like those of the spokeswoman of the Girl's Club and that is about all the USG will do.

IMO the Syrian command knows that time does not favor it and therefore seeks decisive battles in large cities where they hope to pin the rebels against the built up areas where they can be surrounded and will make good targets.  There are only so many people willing to die for revolution in Syria.

IMO, the Syrian government has decided to roll the iron dice to seek a clear victory in Aleppo as they seem to have done in Damascus.  pl

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/world/middleeast/syrian-helicopters-fire-on-aleppo-as-defection-reported.html?_r=1&hp

Anglo-Saxon?

Yes;  Magna Carta, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, our law's roots, our literature's roots.  Pull your heads out of your asses.

 
Mister Darcy was Anglo-Saxon  (Norman), sort of.  pl

CIA looking for cover on Syria

"One of the products of CIA collection efforts is a problematic opinion about
the rebels. Firstly, says the spy agency, the number of rebels is smaller than
what is perceived in the West. Secondly, the rebel leadership was massively
infiltrated by radical Muslim Brotherhood elements. Some of the rebels have a
radical agenda, both politically and religiously, which is incommensurate with
what someone in the White House thinks. 

Moreover, as the rebels are still not shying away from using cellular
phones, CIA agents have been able to report that some of the massacres in Syria
in the past year were carried out by elements that were not activated by the
Assad regime.  

And so, while the White House is trying to cultivate a group of states
that would endorse the new Syria, CIA officials warn: Not only will there be no
new, modern Syria, there is a chance it will be a very old Syria, similar to the
current Egyptian model or to the Iraqi model, where nobody knows who controls
what. The states who offer financial and military support to the rebels have no
idea who they’re supporting. "  YNET

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As you can see from this YNET article the CIA is spilling is guts to the Israelis and their friends in the hope that when the "Girl Scouts'" run WH policy towards the ME and Syria in this case falls on its ass and produces yet another Islamist state, they, the CIA will not "carry the bag" in the eyes of the general public.  Good luck on that boys and girls!

As in Egypt the 'revolution" has been under jihadi Islamist control from soon after its beginning last year.  The Saudis are pleased, happy with the belief that they will be able to control the new government in Syria with their money.  Good luck on that as well!  pl 

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4260723,00.html

 

The "Woofers" start to push back.

I am going out to the country to shoot today so this will be briefer than usual.  The sun is shining and the temperature shoulld be in the high 80s.

Yesterday I watched Dan Senor the neocon spokesman for the CPA in Iraq refer to that experience as a credential.  Lightning Joe Scarborough asked him how that experience had "turned out" for him.

In the evening, Chris Matthews opined on "Hardbrain" that Romney's speech to the VFW yesterday was "jingoistic" and a statement of his clear intention to wage war on earth and in the heavens above.

I guess they don't understand that they can be replaced.  pl

Open Thread - 24 July

pl 

US Marine occupation battalions

 

"Defense analyst Loren Thompson said the battalions make sense given the nature of today's global threats, which include powerful drug cartels and other criminal gangs that often mix with religious and political extremists, who use the profits to buy their weaponry.

"This is a smart idea because the biggest single problem the Marines have in dealing with low-intensity types of threats is that they basically are trained to kill people," he said. "It's good for the Marines to have skills that allow them to contain threats without creating casualties."

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University, said Marines have already been doing this kind of work for years but now that it has been made more formal by the creation of the battalions, it could raise a host of questions, especially on the use of force. The law of war allows for fighters to use deadly force as a first resort, while police officers use it as a last resort."  Stars and Stripes

--------------------------------------

"A day late and a dollar short..."  The US will not be occupying any more countries for quite a while.  pl

 

http://ap.stripes.com/dynamic/stories/U/US_MARINES_LAW_ENFORCEMENT_BATTALION?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-22-10-01-29

In the UK, only the rich may have guns.

Having bought a few "trinkets" from Purdey and Company in Mayfair, I find the UK's gun laws interesting.  At the lnk below you can see the wares at Purdey's.  A low-end 12 "bore" as they call it will set you back more than $6,000.  A more usual side by side in a rosewood case, sized to you, nicely engraved and joy of joys with your "arms" on a brass plate will set you back more than $20,000.

The pictures in the catalogs linked are fun.  I like the one of the dog in his canopied, velvet curtained bed.  Good for the British.  Their laws keep firearms out of the hands of the riff-raff.

I'll be at the National Gun Show at Dulles this weekend along woth a few thousand other riff-raff.  pl

http://www.purdey.com/

Iraq "celebrates" Ramadan

"BAGHDAD - A string of bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 50 people on Monday and wounded 144 more, police and hospital sources said, in one of the bloodiest days in the past weeks.

Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday.

In Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad, six blasts, including a car bomb, exploded near a housing complex on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 29, sources said. When police arrived at the scene, another blast killed 10 police officers.

Two car bombs struck near a government building in Sadr City, a poor Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad, and in the northern mainly Shi'ite area of Hussainiya, killing in total 16 people and wounding 73, police said.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, four car bombs killed four people and wounded 15 others. Explosions and gun attacks on security checkpoints in different parts of the restive eastern province of Diyala killed six people, including four soldiers and policemen, and wounded 30, police sources said."  Jpost

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Does this require comment?  I think not.   Nevertheless, what will follow our withdrawal from Afghanistan will be worse than this.  This disaster is the result of juvenile arrogance that sought to re-design a complex and ancient set of cultures.  pl

 

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=278553

Will Israel invade Syria?

"... over the weekend, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a television interview,
"I've ordered the Israeli military to prepare for a situation where we would
have to weigh the possibility of carrying out an attack" against Syrian weapons
arsenals.

On Sunday, Barak said Israel will not allow Syria's chemical weapons
to fall into the hands of radical Islamist groups such as Hezbollah. "Israel
will not be able to accept the transfer of smart weapons" to the Iranian-backed
radical Shiite movement in Lebanon, he told reporters at an army base near Tel
Aviv.

Asked about an earlier remark, in which he said the Israeli army had
been ordered to prepare for a scenario of an operation on Syrian soil to secure
the weapons, he said: "It wouldn't be right to say here when we will act, if we
will act, how we will act." Israel would defend itself "with responsibility", he
added."  Ha'aretz

----------------------------------------------------

If the Israelis are fearful of the ultimate possessors of Syrian stocks of chemical shells and bombs, let them "go for it."  Many of the storage sites are deep in Syria and heavily defended.  Israel has not taken a "pasting" since 2006, this would be a good opportunity to see how well they would do.  pl

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-fears-syria-s-chemical-weapons-could-be-seized-by-hezbollah-or-al-qaida-1.452722

Holmes is just a "nut job"

"In 2010, he graduated with top honors from University of California Riverside with a bachelors of science in neuroscience, and then moved to Aurora to pursue his education at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Holmes was an honors student and Ph.D. candidate at the school's graduate program in neuroscience until he voluntarily withdrew from the program in June.

He was one of six recipients of a Neuroscience Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health, which funds pre-thesis Ph.D. students in the neuroscience program at the nschutz Medical Campus.

According to the university, the focus of the program is on "training outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology."

He reportedly failed a preliminary exam before pulling out of the program, according to ABC News' Denver affiliate KMGH-TV. It is unclear if the exam was related to his decision to leave the program."  ABC News

-----------------------------------------------

The slaughter in Aurora was so clearly a mental health issue that I discounted that as an immediate response and concentrated on the politics of this tragedy.  I see that this was a tactical error.  Many of you are a lot more sensitive to death and destruction than I.  The political tirade is in full "bloom" with various gun control advocates calling for; smaller magazines, no semi-automatics rifles, shotguns or handguns, etc.  As I have written, to the outrage of some, none of that will happen in any meaningful way.  There is already federal firearms legislation that bans machine guns, sawed off shotguns, silencers, etc.  Individuals can easily obtain federal licenses to own such things.  Many do so.  The Democrats are terrified of the votes of gun owners.  The Republicans exploit the issue successfully.  There will not be new law on "hardware."  Bloomberg can afford to be a "tiger" on this issue.  He is mayor of New York City, a citadel of enthusiasm for an unarmed citizenry.  BHO is in a very different position.  If he wants to be a one term president, let him speak on the issue.  The damage to his chances "at the margins" would be impressive.

IMO the emphasis should be on ways to keep crazy people from buying guns legally.  This would not be easy.  The Va. Tech shooter had a mental health record, but present day privacy sensitivities prevented this record from reaching the police.  Holmes, thus far, does not seem to have a psychiatric record.

How can you keep an adult with no psychiatric problems, criminal record  or restraining orders concerning firearms from buying a gun?

Ban guns? That i not going to happen in the USA so get creative..  pl

 

http://abcnews.go.com/US/colorado-movie-shooting-james-holmes/story?id=16829552

New Athenaeum Post

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2012/07/ashokan-farewell-jay-ungar-molly-mason-family-band.html

Gun owners in the USA

Number of guns and gun owners in USA.

"Most estimates range between 39% and 50%  of US households having at least one gun(that's about 43-55 million households).  The estimates for the number of privately owned guns range from 190 million to 300 million. Removed those  that skew the stats for their own purposes the best estimates are about 45% or  52 million of American households owning 260 million guns)"


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_gun_owners_are_there_in_the_United_States_of_America#ixzz21DQSKcrG

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The NRA has several million members,  The real strength is in the actual number of gun owners,  There will no federal gun control laws past those now in effect.  pl

Habakkuk on the Libor Scandal

 

In the wake of the eruption into full public view of the scandal over the fixing of LIBOR, as 'Harper' noted in a post some days ago, the Financial Times called for a return to the full separation of retail and investment banking, such as prevailed in the U.S. under the Glass-Steagall Act between 1933 and 1999. 

A report in the same paper has now suggested that traders at the British bank Barclays, which has been the principal focus of the coverage of the scandal so far, may have been the ringleaders in a coordinated effort to manipulate EURIBOR – the European equivalent of LIBOR. 

Banks involved in this collusive fraud, it is suggested, included Crédit Agricole, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale.  And this, together with the fixing of LIBOR – which it seems likely, came to involve a wide range of banks worldwide, including major American and Japanese institutions – appears to have been routinely practised by Barclays, prior to the onset of the financial crisis.

As the two benchmarks, calculated for a variety of currencies on the basis of an average of submissions from banks about how much it costs them to borrow from other banks, are the basis of which trillions of dollars worth of financial contracts are valued, the potential ramifications of the various investigations now underway into their fixing are immense.  And it is doubtless unsurprising that a recent report in the New York Times, under the title 'U.S. is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing' explained that the LIBOR case, 'presents a potential opportunity for prosecutors.'  It continued:

Given the scope of the problems and the number of institutions involved, the rate-rigging investigation could provide a signature moment to hold big banks accountable for their activities during the financial crisis.

It may seem curmudgeonly, cowardly, or both, to regard this prospect with anything less than unqualified enthusiasm.  However, an exclusive focus on the delinquencies of selected scapegoats during the financial crisis may divert attention from questions more directly relevant to understanding how the crisis came about and how what now seems an almost inevitable recurrence might perhaps be prevented.

Involved here, moreover, are not simply the actions of élites, but the way many of their members have become accustomed to think. And some of the issues raised by the LIBOR and EURIBOR scandals about how élites think about economics may overlap with questions about how they think about foreign affairs which have been discussed on SST over the years. 

A recurrent theme of Colonel Lang's posts has been the way that ideological blinkers, among them those involved in 'rational choice' theorising popular in areas of the 'social sciences', make impossible any kind of adequate understanding of alien societies. A question which needs to be confronted is whether such blinkers also make it impossible to understand our own.

Scenarios flowing from a Syrian outcome

The civil war in Syria has a number of possible outcomes:

- The present Baath Alawi/Sunni secular goverment survives.  If that happens there will be widespread ethno-religious cleansing seeking to eliminate the chance of a renewal of a Saudi backed sectarian insurgency.  IMO, no outside power would intervene to prevent this cleansing.

- The civil war persists indefinitely.  Iran and Russia continue to support the Syrian gov.  Syria is torn to pieces, possible irreperably.  Western powers and Saudis continue to support rebels.  Lebanon my or may not be drawn into this continuing situation.  The Lebanese do not relish such a possibility.

- Syrian government falls.  A Sunni salafi government is installed with Saudi support and initial American support which turns to eventual embarassed silence as installation of a sharia law state occurs.  This new state becomes a haven for jihadi terrorists.  Massive repression of non-Sunnis occurs.  The Syrian salafi government seeks to "absorb" Lebanon.

Israel is seriously threatened by either of the outcmes in which the present government does not survive.

Chemical weapons are not a serious factor in any of these scenarios.   pl

Thoughts on the Late Unpleasantness at the University of Virginia by Foresman

In recent week the Commonwealth of Virginia has been transfixed by the very public, very raucous, and very un-Virginia like events surrounding the firing and then rehiring of the President of the University of Virginia.

Among the criticism leveled at the Rector and Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia was a belief that the board, overwhelming composed of corporate types and influenced by the thinking of the Darden School, viewed the University as a business and not an educational institution.

Umar Suleiman - dead at 76.

"Suleiman was born in Qena in southern Egypt and graduated from the country's  military academy as an infantry officer in 1955. He rose through the ranks and  was appointed deputy head of military intelligence in 1987. He became military  intelligence chief in 1991 during the Gulf War, when Egyptians fought alongside  other Arab forces in the U.S.-led coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's military  out of Kuwait.

Suleiman also indirectly saved Mubarak's life when he advised the former  president to take an armored Mercedes with him on a state visit to Ethiopia in  1995. Mubarak survived an Islamist ambush of his convoy.

But in post-2011 Egypt, Suleiman was seen as tainted by his connections to a  president who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for failing to  stop the killing of protesters during the uprising. Many other key regime  figures are now imprisoned pending trials over a catalogue of corruption  charges, or have fled the country and sought exile in Arab countries, Europe or  the United States."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/19/egypt-former-vice-president-omar-suleiman-dies-in-us/#ixzz214XYJBXL

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/48146/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-exspy-chief-Omar-Suleiman-dies,-military-fu.aspx

------------------------------------------------

There will be no comments.  pl

Is BHO a neocon?

"Syrian state television claimed that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. A Syrian security official was reported saying that the bomber was a bodyguard to inner regime figures,
which allowed him access to a meeting of the “crisis cell” of top security
officials in charge of trying to crush the uprising against Assad rule. The Free Syrian
Army, the main armed opposition force, said that a bomb was planted in the
room and that the attack was not carried out by a suicide bomber."  CS Monitor

----------------------------------------

So far there appears to be no reliable indication of the nature of the attack.  Do i accept the US government's statement about the bombing?  No.  The US government is a party to the conflict, having decided with its NATO and Saudi friends to bring down the government in Damascus.  They have no idea what the following government might be but, no matter.  The roots of this American support lie in a group of women in the government and academia who share a starry-eyed belief I nthe universal efficacy of "democray" and elections.  They believe that if elections are reasonably fair, all will be well. Nnonsense, but, no matter. 

If this were a Republican administration the policy now followed by the US in greater middle East would be called neoconism.  Because they are Democrats we call it "neo-Wilsonian."  pl

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0718/Syrian-rebels-confidence-grows-after-bombing-hits-Assad-s-inner-circle

What is Romney hiding?

""In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of
the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the
failure of the president to reignite our economy," Romney told the conservative
National Review Online."  Reuters

------------------------------------

This implies that there is something to be found in the returns, something "wonderful"  (2010 reference). 

My guess is that whatever it is frightens the Romney campaign, not because it is illegal but rather because it is a killer politically.

Posibilities:

-  There were years in which he paid no federal income tax on a net basis.

-  His tithing to the LDS church is enormous.

-  His tax shelters overseas are reflective of a totally ideological devotion to unregulated capitalism.

-  A tax strategy that makes Romney look like one of the "sharks" in "Shark Tank."

Or - whatever.  pl  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/us-usa-campaign-idUSBRE86G10D20120718

Suicide Bomber in Damascus

Someone blew himself up in Damascus today.  In the process he killed a number of people including the minister of defense, his deputy (Assaf Shawqat) and a number of others.  First reports (often wrong) indicate that this was a vehicle bombing.

Now, I ask you, who blows himself up in a vehicular bombing?   The answer is simple.  Religious fanatics do this kind of thing.  They can easily persuade themselves that it is a good thing to do.  They believe that the great Unknowable will reward their devotion and that this is all that matters.

Are we really happy that Sunni jihadis are disassembling a government that does not represent Sunni fanatics in the likelihood that it will be replaced by one that will?  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/world/middleeast/suicide-attack-reported-in-damascus-as-more-generals-flee.html?pagewanted=all

The US Embassy is Mursi's BFF.

 "... the kind of relationship they are currently building with the Muslim
Brotherhood as the rulers of Egypt and a possible influential force across many
countries in North Africa and above all in Gaza.

"Of course, this relationship did not start today; I mean over the past few
years the Americans have had more than just simple or superficial talks with the
Muslim Brotherhood," said an Egyptian diplomat who served in the US capital a
few years ago."  Ahram

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/47897/Egypt/Politics-/Road-towards-USBrotherhood-friendship-trodden-long.aspx

 

"US officials met with a number of prominent Egyptian activists, bloggers and
journalists at the US embassy in Cairo on Monday.  

'Under discussion was the controversial recent visit of Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and the broader relationship between Egypt and the United
States.

The meeting was attended by the US Department of State's Regional Deputy
Spokesperson for the Middle East, Daniel Ernst, his assistant, Ana Escrogima,
and David Linfield, the assistant press attaché at the embassy.

Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 Youth Movement, activist Esraa
Abdel-Fatah, TV host Bassem Sabry, Ramy Yaacoub of the Free Egyptians Party,
journalist Abdel-Moneim Mahmoud from Al Jazeera Mubashir Misr, and a number of
prominent Twitter activists were among the Egyptians in attendance.

Escrogima denied the US is playing a mediating role between the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brotherhood, as had been claimed in
the Egyptian media.

She added that the purpose of Clinton's visit had been to listen to all
interested parties and groups, as well as the government and civil society
organisations that are playing a role in Egypt's democratic transition.

Furthermore, she said the US had made no secret deals with anybody, despite
claims in the Egyptian media that the US had backed the Muslim Brotherhood's
Mohamed Morsi in the presidential election."  Ahram

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/47941/Egypt/Politics-/No-secret-deal-with-Brotherhood,-US-officials-tell.aspx

-------------------------------------------------------

We lie.  The US, under Saudi influence, is backing Sunni islamist revolutio across the region.  This is truly folly.  The Islamists like Mursi and the Saudis themselves, know that US officialdom can be "easily moved" as Natanyahu said.  All that is needed is to tell us Americans what we want to hear.

We want to hear "progress?'  Fine, say the Islamists.  We are populists and will create a just society based on one person, one vote and social justice. 

Americans are a joke - until they become enraged. I reember all the Arabs who hautily told me in 2002 that the US  would never invade Iraq.  Why?  They said that no one had hired us to do so.  pl

 

 

A Ramble on Egypt

By Richard T. Sale, author of Traitors.

Islam is on the march in the Middle East.  For the past few years, in every
Mideast election, the Islamic parties have won: in the Gaza Strip in 2006, in Iraq
and Tunisia in 2010. In 2011, they won again in Turkey and Morocco, and in
Egypt the Islamist parties confirmed an overwhelming victory in the first
parliamentary elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt represents the new reality. In February 2011, its youth, liberals, and leftists at last gave voice to theirlong-suppressed outrage over the economic and social injustice of Mubarak’s regime. Within a few weeks, a senior U.S. official passed the word to Egypt’s military that Mubarak had to step down. “It is time for him to go,” the U.S.
official said, and Mubarak did, ending a thirty-year rule.

This was a hardly a revolution, however. It was a revolt, with a dictator being removed, but leaving in place the old military structure that continued to run the country. To the leftists, the youth, and the liberals, who had fully expected that their democratic idealism would own the future of the country, the recent Islamic victory left them stunned and dismayed. Like many in the U.S. media, they were the prisoner of
words like, “democracy,” “liberty,” “the future,” and “the needs of the
individual,” phrases that have been used by so many countries in so many parts
of the world and in so many different ways, that they have become weak,
hackneyed, and dangerously vague. 

Be grateful for Libya

In Egypt the brave boys and girls of the State Department lead the fight for consolidation of  political Islamist rule.  In Afghanistan the kleptocrats, Afghan and American, are finishing up the construction of their fortunes in Dubai and the Cayman Islands.  In Pakistan the mobs are harangued against the United States and new, even greater nastiness against the US is planned.  In Tunisia the Islamists sidle steadly toward power.  The Washington Post demands active military support for Islamist rebels in Syria.  Their paper has a story today that features video of Islamist rebels smashing a truck full of Scotch while chanting "God is Great!"  In Lebanon Sunni preachers are much more active in demanding punishment of the Shia.  Are they not encouraged by US support of people like Mursi?

We released 1.3 billion dollars to the Egyptian military to keep them in line while Mursi sharpens his knife. 

Would Romnay do better in managing US interests in the greater Middle East?  No!  He would simply surrender to AEI/AIPAC and the Likud.

In Libya a secular leader seems to have won election.

God is Great!  pl

Iraq is "coming of age"

"In the run-up to the war in Iraq, neoconservative hawks in and out of the Bush administration promised that the U.S. invasion would quickly transform that country into a strong ally, a model Arab democracy and a major oil producer that would lower world prices, even while paying for its own reconstruction.

"A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region," President George W. Bush told a crowd at the American Enterprise Institute in 2003, a few weeks before he launched the attack.

Ten bloody and grueling years later, Iraq is finally emerging from its ruins and establishing itself as a geopolitical player in the Middle East -- but not the way the neocons envisioned."  Froomkin

-----------------------------------

My correspondent writes that the final "denouement" will come when Iraq declares that Israel has no right to exist.  pl

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/iraq-iran-ties_n_1664728.html

De Borchgrave on Pakistan

"A U.S. grovel is what Pakistan said would reopen Afghan supply routes. But  while the United States conceded bombing coordinates were misread by U.S.  fighter bombers and gunships, the Pakistani military supplied erroneous  information on the location of Taliban forces.

Finally, the United States uttered a word short of the apology demanded --  "sorry" -- and the Pakistanis, in a phony burst of wounded pride salved, allowed  truck convoys to inch forward as they were inspected for prohibited lethal  weaponry and to collect a toll of $300-$500 depending on the size of the  vehicle.

Some of the three out of four Pakistanis who say the United States is the enemy of Islam and consider reconciliation tantamount to treason, moved forward slowly in what they called "a long march" -- actually two days -- by truck, bus, car and bicycle -- from Lahore to the front of Parliament House in Islamabad." 

-------------------------------------------------

De Borchgrave is a clear thinker.  Age and experience DO count in learning to think.  He must be nearly 90 now.  His grandfather Charles Townshend commanded a Sikh Pioneer battalion at the siege of the British Indian Army garrison at Chitral in the Himalayas in the 1890s and later as a lmajor general of the Indian Army surrendered to the Turks at Kut in the first world war.  They have been around the "track" a few times in the sub-continent in his family.

When he tells you something about Pakistan, you should listen carefully.  pl

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/de-Borchgrave/2012/07/13/Commentary-Afghanistan-as-an-ally/UPI-90331342177017/#ixzz20bNbloXf 

 

The University of Utah military suicide study.

This study has not yet been released to the public.  I don't subscribe to "Time" so I can't give you a link to that.  The study is leaking everywhere and I will later give a fuller opinion.

I watched the "Morning Joe" idiocy linked to.  Yes, you are right.  I sacrifice myself so that you do not have to watch this 1%er Manhattan spectacle.  This show should really be on local TV in NY City.  It is something like the two women from the Bronx on SNL who have a skit of such a show.

None of the civilians present had the slightest comprehension of the nature of military life.  There wasa lot of whining and phony weepiness about not knowing any soldiers and, of course, alienation.  Hammerhead Joe at least had the sense to admit that he knew nothing.  Colonel Jack Jacobs was on the program.  He tried to explain, but they all "mooed" at him restively.

As Jacobs said at the end in the "What have we learned today" moment, the salient feature of this report seems to be that 52% of the successful suicides in the last few years are by people who have never deployed overseas. 

Ground combat veterans who "off" themselves are sympathetic figures.  I have know only one VN vet who did this and it was many years later.  His hand shook at the end and he made a mess of it.  An M 1911A1 can only make up for so much for a bad aiming point.  Why combat vets who do this are so driven is a mystery to me but I respect the personal decision.

That leaves the 52%.  In the study interviews. the unsuccessful seemed to say that they couldn't handle the stress of military life.  Well, I was an enlisted man and I was an officer in a much less considerate time in the peacetime Army as well as in combat.  It was not all that difficult.  There was a lot of physical stuff, running up and down, doing PT and walking long distances carrying a lot of weight.   People were and are required to live by rules not their own (at least at first).  They are required to work when they are told, clean their quarters, dress as they are told and not talk back.

I suspect that this is the kind of stress that kills a lot of the 52%.  I see a lot of young people who have not been "grown" to handle such a life.  They are the kinds of kids who will sit on their a---s while their mother cleans their room and who will not carry the groceries for her unless they are bribed.  Of course, she deserves this treatment for letting them behave this way.

I will read more of the study when it is available.  pl 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#48160353

The "Indians" were not the first "Americans."

"Humans were present in North America at least one thousand years before Clovis and these earlier peoples probably had no technological or genetic similarity to the iconic Clovis Culture," adds the prof's colleague Thomas Stafford. "The Clovis First debate has ended. The theory is now dead and buried."  The Register

------------------------------------

Sigh, first there was Kennewick Man, then Clovis Man, Mound builders, etc., and now this.  If we believe this, then European settlers were just another wave of the several groups of colonizers who successively occupied the Americas, pushing aside previous comers as they went.

Maybe Custer didn't "die for our sins."  Maybe he was just a jerk.

Hey, Maureen, there's our great great..... grandpa chatting with Samoset.  pl

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0712/Native-Americans-arrived-in-at-least-three-waves-finds-DNA-study

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/13/clovis_not_first_says_paisley_caves_excrement/

Edmund Burke in 1775

"... the great contests for freedom in this country were from the earliest times chiefly upon the question of Taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient commonwealths turned primarily on the right of election of magistrates; or on the balance among the several orders of the state. The question of money was not with them so immediate. But in England it was otherwise. On this point of Taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, have been exercised; the greatest spirits have acted and suffered. They took infinite pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that in all monarchies the people must in effect themselves, mediately or immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, or no shadow of liberty can subsist."  Edmund Burke

-------------------------------

"The Hard Hearted Empath" send me this.  The document is a gem and has much relevance to our present situation.  pl

Download Burke - On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies

Romney, the NAACP and a lack of sophisticaton

"This is further confirmation of an essential truth both campaigns have embraced
about fact checking: The upside from a strong distortion is better than the
downside from the hall monitors. If you're not getting four Pinocchios or a
pants-on-fire, you're not doing it right. Let them boo--as long as the message
gets through."  Slate

--------------------------------------

The NAACP (and the black population) remain as vulnerable to manipulation by the white majority as they always have been.

What a "set-up!"  Much of the white population remains convinced that what BHO and the Democrats did in the ACA was to; divest most whites of their existing health care and force them into insurance pools that they do not want, cut the Medicare Advantage programs that whites love, cut the growth of Medicare by at least $500 billion, establish "taxes" for those who do not choose to have health insurance but who could afford it, subsidize "pool" membership for people who can pay part of health insurance but not all (read mostly minorities in white minds) and then axpand Medicaid for those who can't pay at all (more of the same in white minds).  Most white people believe that they will end up paying for all this.   One must remember that most low income people in the US pay no income tax at all.   This attitude does not apply in the minds of the "Morning Joe" crowd in New York City, LA, etc.  They are filled with righteous satisfaction for the poor and righteous indignation against the white middle class in flownover America.

To summarize, much of the white population sees the ACA as a massive involuntary transfer of wealth from them to the people to whom BHO promised "Hope."  This why the polls are so heavily against the ACA in the middle class.

Contrary to media hype and hope, the election will still be won or lost in the white population.  And increasingly the Asian descended population is likely to vote in a conservative direction.  Latinos?  Who can say what the children of those who now rail against control of illegal immigration will be like?

So, Romney and  company went into the lions' den and blew the dog whistle over BHO's re-election and against ACA.  The crowd stupidly gave them what was desired.  This was  video and massive TV coverage of the premier black organization booing.

The NAACP should recognize that blacks are an ever shrinking segment of the US population.  Latinos are not going to join the NAACP and are not dependable long term allies for the NAACP.

The NAACP needs to "grow up."  pl

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57470896-503544/why-romney-welcomes-the-naacp-boos/addoriginallink?tag=contentMain%3bcontentBody

Horst Faas early VN pictures

Someone suggested a cross-post for these.  pl

http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/6a00d8341c72e153ef00d834527e4b69e2/post/6a00d8341c72e153ef016767430b90970b/edit

US Policy in the Greater Middle East

US policy in the ME is becoming so bizarre that a serious discussion is warranted.  Try to avoid dwelling on US/Israel relations excessively.  pl

HARPER: ANOTHER GLASS STEAGALL MOMENT

Two recent developments have put real momentum behind a return to the full separation of commercial and investment banking that existed from 1933-1999 under the Glass Steagall Act; and the prospects of such a long-overdue divorce are moving forward both in the United States and the United Kingdom. 

On July 4, the Financial Times published a lead editorial under the headline "Restoring Trust After Diamond," explicitly calling for the total separation of what in Britain are called retail and merchant banks.  "The clash between retail and investment banking," the editors wrote, "has always been evident.  What is now clear, however, is that the hard-charging, revenue-seeking investment banking culture predominates when they are pushed together.  The more herbivorous retail banking ethos--with its emphasis on patient stewardship--is marginalized.  this seems to lead ineluctably to the proliferation of socially questionable trading activities and abuses such as the Libor scandal... While the FT supported those conclusions [of the Vickers Commission calling for partial separation of the banks--ed.] we are now ready to go further.  For all the diversification benefits, the cultural tensions between investment and retail banking can only be resolved by totally separating the two, on formal Glass-Steagall style line."

The Financial Times embrace of Glass Steagall came in the immediate aftermath of revalations that the British Banking Association, in league with 18 major banks and, perhaps, some officials of the Bank of England, had been rigging the London Interbank Overnight Rate (Libor) to facilitate insider trading on the derivatives market and other serious financial crimes.  Three top officials of Barclays Bank were forced to resign, investigations are now underway in the UK, the United States and Switzerland, and the prospects of bankers being jailed over this scandal is looking more and more likely.  The Libor rate determines more than $350 trillion in mortgage, credit card and other interest rates worldwide.

The second development that produced a flurry of calls for a return to Glass Steagall was the recent Brussels summit meeting of European heads of state, at which German Chancellor Merkel, French President Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Monti, Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy and others took the equivalent of a blood oath to preserve the euro single-currency system at all costs.  Some more experienced bankers in London took this as a signal that continental Europe will be going through months, if not years, of financial turmoil and potential hyperinflation, that will likely spill over into the business of the City of London.  For one thing, British banks have forged extremely close ties to some of the largest and most fragile Spanish banks, as their gateway into South America.

The Financial Times editorial was both preceeded and followed by a number of other strong statements for Glass Steagall coming from very senior voices in the City of London.  Lord Paul Myners, a former Treasury official under Gordon Brown, a former publisher of the Guardian and Observer, and an affiliate of Lord Jacob Rothschild, gave an interview to Britain's Channel 4 TV, echoing the Financial Times.  Paul Hambro, now a Russian gold trader, but a member of one of Britain's oldest merchant banking families, added his name to the chorus promoting the complete separation.

Expect these calls to resonate in the United States, where a bill is already in the House of Representatives, HR 1489, to restore Glass Steagall separation.  The bill was introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Oh.) and now has 70 co-sponsors, including half a dozen Republicans, including several Tea Party Republicans.  Thomas Hoenig, the former President of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, and now the Vice Chairman of the FDIC, gave a recent interview to Bloomberg Radio, in which he made a powerful argument for Glass Steagall.  Hoenig is widely respected among Main Street Republicans in the Congress.

The point is obvious:  The European debt crisis is far from over, and the cries for new bailouts, coming from Spain and (soon) Italy will overwhelm the capacity of the European Central Bank and the not-yet ratified European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to meet the bailout demands.  Spain is being forced to pay nearly 7 percent yields on ten year sovereign debt, Italy is not far behind, and Greece is still in a state of economic and political disintegration.  The prospects for a European turn-around are grim, and the recent JPMorgan Chase losses on the derivatives market of European debt ($9 billion and rising) makes the obvious point that Wall Street is up to its eyeballs in the crisis across the Atlantic. 

Glass Steagall will not solve all the problems, but it is a long-overdue first step towards at least protecting commercial banking from the wild leveraged gambling activities of the investment bankers and hedge fund managers, who were reckless because they believed that they would be bailed out by American and European taxpayers, no matter what they did.   Harper

Middle Class is a million a year in NY City?

I understand that Senators Menendez of New Jersey and Schumer of New York, Democrats both, are saying that in the New york City metropolitan area, the upper end of the income "bracket" for Middle Class families should be a million dollars a year rather than the $250,000 proposed by BHO.

And today on "Morning Joe,"  Dan Senor, the neocon mouthpiece, solemnly agreed that this was the case.  "After all," he said,. (paraphrasing) "a fireman and a schoolteacher" (sniff) "make that much in the tri-state area."

So, someone who lives in "flyover America" who lives on much less than $250,000/year is just not to be taken seriously as, what?  A political adult? 

This, of course, reduces to rhetorical penury everyone who serves the US Government.  soldiers, generals, IRS agents, postmen, Border Patrol agents, etc.

So, people really think that we are one people?  pl

Re-publishing "The Butcher's Cleaver"

I have an agent who wants me to re-publish "The Butcher's Cleaver."  I own the copyright.  Can anyone suggest a house?  pl

"Egypt’s Top Court Affirms Ruling to Disband Parliament" NY Times

"...the Supreme Constitutional Court, after discussing Mr. Morsi's order, refused to reconsider its decision, saying it was final and binding, news agencies reported, and paving the way for a possible showdown between the new president and the judiciary.       

Earlier in the day, Mr. Morsi attended a military graduation ceremony and was shown on television sitting next to Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the military council. The two men chatted with one another, and Mr. Morsi smiled as he watched a karate demonstration by the cadets."  NY Times

---------------------------------

Mursi (the MB leadership) intends to abolish the present court system after they obtain the Islamic constitution that they want, so the opinion of the Supreme Constitutional Court means nothing to them.

Here we have a photo of Bill Burns, the most senior person in the State Department who really knows the Middle East.  He is performing the "kowtow" for Mursi.  Pictures are more valuable than words.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/world/middleeast/egypt-tension-after-order-to-reconvene-parliament.html?pagewanted=all

"Islamic Scholar See Tensions in Egypt on the Rise"

"An Islamic scholar has warned Egyptians will soon witness a series of confrontations between President Mohammed Morsi and the Military Council after the new leader ordered the dissolved Islamist-led parliament to reconvene.

Tawfik Hamid, senior fellow and chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, said Morsi’s decree will sharply increase tension in Egypt.

Morsi’s order sharply contravenes the military's dismissal of the assembly based on last month’s Supreme Court ruling.

“It’s the beginning of a serious confrontation and the situation is very volatile now because the military will not allow this to happen,” said Hamid."  VOA

---------------------------------------------

Yes.  The Egyptian military will either respond to the re-installation of a parliament of dubious legality, installed without the sanction of a constitution or they will be brought to heel by the Islamists.

The ongoing love affair betweem Islamist forces and the US State Department naifs now faces a crisis.  They may not realize it yet but they will.  pl

http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic_scholar_see_tensions_in_egypt_on_the_rise/1365242.html

Ignatius on the "Arab Spring"

"Most officials think that relations with the Arabs are gradually going to get
worse, perhaps for decades, before democracy really takes root and the Arab
public, perhaps, will be ready to accept the Jewish state. The challenge for
Israel is how to avoid inflaming Arab public opinion, a newly important factor,
while protecting the country. "  Ignatius

-------------------------------------

Ignatius' Israeli friends are right to be fearful of revolutions that seem to unleash Islamist forces that have as their "raison d'etre" the elimination of Israel as an insult to Islam and the 'Umma.  The game has not been played out in Libya but Libya is a special case in terms of smallness of population and percentage of people educated abroad.

Al-Ahram has a story on-line that government receipts will be much smaller this year than they were under Mubarak "the terrible."  Let's see, how does that relate to all the billions that the Mubaraks stole from Egypt?  Hmmm!  That's the way to cover the government deficit!  They could torture the Mubaraks to find the people's money.

The Israelis prefer Bashar Assad?  How can that be?  Perhaps HC can fly by Tel Aviv to explain why they are wrong. 

Now Mursi has reinstated the Islamist parliament.  There must be great satisfaction in Foggy Bottom about how well things are going in Cairo. pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-israels-arab-spring-problem/2012/07/05/gJQAV5JrRW_story.html

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/47075/Business/Economy/Egyptian-state-revenues-are-overestimated,-a-blast.aspx

 

Mursi and the blind sheik.

"Egypt's president-elect has vowed to win the release of an Egyptian cleric jailed by the U.S. for planning the first attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Omar Abdel-Rahman, "the blind sheikh," is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for his role in the 1993 bombing that killed six people in lower Manhattan. The attack on the World Trade Center launched by al Qaeda eight years later on Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people.

""I see banners for Omar Abdel Rahman's family, and for prisoners arrested according to martial rulings and detainees from the beginning of the revolution," said Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi to a buoyant crowd of Islamist supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday. "It is my duty to make every effort, and I will beginning tomorrow, to secure their release, among them Omar Abdel Rahman."

Rahman, 74, a veteran of Egypt's Islamist movement, was jailed in Egypt for allegedly helping to inspire the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. He entered the U.S. in 1990. One of his followers was convicted of gun possession, though acquitted of murder, after the assassination of Jewish leader Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990."  Yahoo News

-----------------------------------------

Soooo, AIPAC/Israel pesters the US for release of Pollard the convicted spy and now Mursi and the new Egypt fostered by the US is going to pester us for the release of this lunatic mullah.

BTW, there is no "O" sound in Arabic.  His name is Mursi.  The Cairenes may say it otherwise but that is incorrect.  His name is spelled in Arabic "mursii."

pl

 

http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-president-vows-win-release-world-trade-center-183711438--abc-news-topstories.html

Tlas defection sets the stage...

"Unlike most of Syria's Alawite leaders, the son of former Defence Minister
Mustafa Tlas is a Sunni Muslim.

Syria's majority Sunni community has been at the forefront of the revolt
against the president and has borne the brunt of the state's crackdown, which
the UN estimates has left at least 10,000 people dead.

For decades, the Tlas family has given support to the Assad family, helping
to ensure Bashar al-Assad's succession to the presidency 12 years ago."  BBC

--------------------------------------------

The father, Mustafa Tlas, was Minister of Defense for a very long time.  If memory serves, he lived next door to the US Embassy in Damascus and was a good neighbor.  He was a connaisseur of fine Kurdish antique carpets.  I visited his carpets once.  He also liked good Scotch (his, not mine).

Contrary to ignorant expectation many of the Baathi elite in Syria are Sunni Muslims.  This fellow has been a favored creature of the regime.  He differed with the rest of the inner circle around Bashar in that he thought that an unwillingness to compromise with the secular left would lead to an onslaught of Jihadi Islamists.  Maliki over in Iraq says his situation is now better because AQ in Iraq have left to fight in Syria for a Sunni Islamist state there.  In that endeavor the AQ types have the active encouragement of the BHO Administration.

No matter.  If the Government of Syria is swept away, there will be a need for a Sunni leader...  pl 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18734782