Home » Posts tagged 'egypt' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: egypt

One of Egypt’s leading investigative journalists, Hossam Bahgat, was prevented from boarding a flight to Jordan today when officials at Cairo International Airport informed him that his name had been added to a list of citizens barred from traveling abroad.

Bahgat, who was detained and interrogated for three days in November by military intelligence officers, wrote on Facebook that officials at the airport told him that the order confining him to the country had come from Egypt’s public prosecutor, but they could provide no details of any case against him.

With some exasperation, the reporter pointed out that this surprise punishment by the Egyptian judicial system came as he was on his way to Jordan “to participate in the United Nations meeting on justice in the Arab world!”

The travel ban was quickly condemned by Egyptian activists, including Heba Morayef, the associate director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a prominent human rights group that Bahgat founded and led before turning his attention to journalism after the country’s 2011 revolution. Writing on Twitter, Morayef observed that the space for dissent against Egypt’s authoritarian government seemed to be narrowing, given that the restrictions on Bahgat were imposed just weeks after a similar ban was placed on Gamal Eid, a lawyer with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, and days after health officials ordered the closure of El Nadeem, a renowned clinic for the rehabilitation of torture victims.

Heba Morayef ‎@hebamorayef

Hossam Bahgat has just been banned from travel. After Gamal Eid travel ban + Nadim Center closure order. Closing in.

10:46 AM – 23 Feb 2016

The move to shutter the clinic that helps torture victims seems particularly perverse as it comes just as Egypt’s interior ministry is under pressure to explain the apparent torture and murder of an Italian labor researcher, Giulio Regeni, who was last seen being led away by security agents near Tahrir Square on the fifth anniversary of Egypt’s uprising.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

World War 3 Could Start This Month: 350,000 Soldiers In Saudi Arabia Stand Ready To Invade Syria

February 15, 2016

World War 3 Could Start This Month: 350,000 Soldiers In Saudi Arabia Stand Ready To Invade Syria

350,000 soldiers, 20,000 tanks, 2,450 warplanes and 460 military helicopters are massing in northern Saudi Arabia for a military exercise that is being called “Northern Thunder”. According to the official announcement, forces are being contributed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and several other nations. This exercise will reportedly last for 18 days, and during that time the airspace over northern Saudi Arabia will be closed to air traffic. This will be the largest military exercise in the history of the region, and it comes amid rumors that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are preparing for a massive ground invasion of Syria.

If you were going to gather forces for an invasion, this is precisely how you would do it. Governments never come out and publicly admit that forces are moving into position for an invasion ahead of time, so “military exercises” are a common excuse that gets used for this sort of thing.

If these exercises are actually being used as an excuse to mass forces near the northern Saudi border, then we should expect an invasion to begin within the next couple of weeks. If it happens, we should expect to see the Saudi coalition storm through western Iraq and into Syria from the south, and it is likely that Turkey will come in from the north.

The goal would be to take out the Assad regime before Russia, Iran and Hezbollah could react. For the past couple of years, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and their allies have been funding the Sunni insurgency in Syria, and they were counting on those insurgents to be able to take down the Assad regime by themselves.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Egypt budget and current account deficits – can Saudi Arabia bail out Cairo?

December 23, 2015

Egypt budget and current account deficits – can Saudi Arabia bail out Cairo?

Arab News reports:

KSA pledges SR 30bn Egypt aid
17/12/2015
“JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has ordered that Saudi Arabia’s aid and investment package to Egypt should be increased to SR30 billion (US$ 8 bn) in the next five years.

The announcement was made by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail in Cairo on Tuesday, said SPA (Saudi Press Agency)

Prince Mohammed said at the start of the meeting that King Salman ordered the increase in the package — to contribute to Egypt’s oil needs for five years and for an increase in traffic for Saudi ships in the Suez Canal.

According to a report in Bloomberg quoting Egyptian Investment Minister Ashraf Salman on Wednesday, the investment of SR30 billion would be through Saudi Arabia’s public and sovereign funds, with inflows beginning immediately. Egypt is also set to renew a deal to import Saudi oil products for five years on favorable terms, Ismail said.”

http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/851651

This follows pledges of US$ 12.5 bn aid by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman in March 2015, at an economic conference (EEDC) in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Will that be enough to rescue Egypt?

Let’s have a look at Egypt’s budget. In the previous post we found that Egypt’s oil production peaked in 1993. Declining and now stagnating oil production against an ever-growing oil demand of a ballooning population meant that Egypt is a net-oil importer since 2010. How did that impact on the budget? We use IMF data available from this website: http://www.imf.org/external/country/egy/index.htm

In the last years Egypt experienced turbulent times:

Feb 2011 Arab Spring, Mubarak resigns, New head of State Field Marshal Tantawi

June 2012 Morsi comes to power after winning presidential elections with 51.7% of votes

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Egypt update: net oil importer and chokepoints

December 7, 2015

Egypt update: net oil importer and chokepoints

Oil production and consumption

Fig 1: Oil production vs consumption

After a post-peak decline production has stabilized but consumption has increased relentlessly at a long-term 1.7% pa, slightly below population growth of around 2% pa. Egypt is now a net oil importer. On these trends, the gap between consumption and production is likely to get larger. This increases imports and the need for fuel subsidies. Let’s zoom into the monthly oil production (crude and NGL separately)

Fig 2: Production of crude oil and natural gas plant liquids

Crude oil production declined again since 2009 at 2.5% pa, offset by an increase in NGLs of 4.7% pa

Fig 3: Net crude exports and refinery utilisation

The crude oil exported up to 2005 (at low oil prices!) is now missing. EIA data are presently only available up to 2012. The EIA writes:

According to data from OPEC’s Annual Statistical Bulletin, Egypt’s refined petroleum output averaged 445,000 b/d in 2013, suggesting that refinery utilization was about 63%. Egypt’s refining output declined by 28% from 2009 to 2013. Facts Global Energy attributes this decline to Egypt’s policy that permits foreign oil producers to export more crude oil as repayment of EGPC’s financial debt. As a result, Egypt’s crude oil exports [56% EU, 28% India, 13% China] have not declined over the past few years, despite declining production. In turn, there is a lower volume of domestic crude oil available for the domestic refineries, and Egypt must make up for the difference by importing petroleum products and/or crude oil. Egypt imported about 145,000 b/d of petroleum products in 2014, according to Global Trade Information Services. Egypt also exported about 60,000 b/d of petroleum products that same year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

CIA, Saudis To Give “Select” Syrian Militants Weapons Capable Of Downing Commercial Airliners

November 5, 2015

CIA, Saudis To Give “Select” Syrian Militants Weapons Capable Of Downing Commercial Airliners

Wednesday brought a veritable smorgasbord of “new” information about the Russian passenger jet which fell out of the sky above the Sinai Peninsula last weekend.

First there was an audio recording from ISIS’ Egyptian affiliate reiterating that they did indeed “down” the plane. Next, the ISIS home office in Raqqa (or Langley or Hollywood) released a video of five guys sitting in the front yard congratulating their Egyptian “brothers” on the accomplishment.

Then the UK grounded air traffic from Sharm el-Sheikh noting that the plane “may well” have had an “explosive device” on board.

Finally, US media lit up with reports that according to American “intelligence” sources, ISIS was probably responsible for the crash.

Over the course of the investigation, one question that’s continually come up is whether militants could have shot the plane down. Generally speaking, the contention that ISIS (or at least IS Sinai) has the technology and/or the expertise to shoot down a passenger jet flying at 31,000 feet has been discredited by “experts” and infrared satellite imagery.

But that’s nothing the CIA can’t fix.

With the Pentagon now set to deploy US ground troops to Syria (and indeed they may already be there, operating near Latakia no less), Washington is reportedly bolstering the supply lines to “moderate” anti-regime forces at the urging of (guess who) the Saudis and Erdogan.

Incredibly, some of the weapons being passed out may be shoulder-fire man-portable air-defense systems, or Manpads, capable of hitting civilian aircraft.

But don’t worry, those will only be given to “select rebels.” Here’s more from WSJ:

The U.S. and its regional allies agreed to increase shipments of weapons and other supplies to help moderate Syrian rebels hold their ground and challenge the intervention of Russia and Iran on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. officials and their counterparts in the region said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

ISIS Releases Video Of Alleged Russian Airplane Mid-Air Exposion After It Claims Responsibility For Disaster

October 31, 2015

ISIS Releases Video Of Alleged Russian Airplane Mid-Air Exposion After It Claims Responsibility For Disaster

That didn’t take long: following the worst Russian airplane disaster in history, the question everyone was asking is who is responsible. Moments ago we got the answer.

According to Reuters, a militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

Egyptian security sources earlier on Saturday said early investigations suggested the plane crashed due to a technical fault.

The claim of responsibility was also carried by the Aamaq website which acts as a semi official news agency for Islamic State.

“The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders. They were all killed, thanks be to God,” the statement circulated on Twitter said.

To corroborate their claim, ISIS has allegedly released this shocking video showing what appears to be a mid-air bomb explosion.

Viewer discretion advised.

Whether or not the video is real or staged is currently unknown.

This is the same ISIS which a recently leaked CIA report revealed as being created by the CIA as a “tool” to overthrow Syria’s Assad.

In other words, a proxy organization of US “shadow government destabilizing operations”, trained in U.S. ally Turkey, and openly funded by both U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, just took down a Russian plane.

The question now is did ISIS use a US-made surface-to-air missile to start what may be a very unpleasant war.

Also, does Russia get a carte blanche to begin attacks on ISIS in Egypt now, the same Egypt which recently “purchased” the two Mistral ships made by France, which were meant to be bought by Russia in a deal that was scrapped in the last minute due to NATO intervention?

One thing is clear: if the Russian population had any qualms about continuing the campaign in Syria, they were just eliminated in perpetuity.

We now await the Russian response, against both ISIS and its direct and indirect sponsors.

Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt ‘Knocking on Putin’s Door,’ Not Obama’s

October 18, 2015

Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt ‘Knocking on Putin’s Door,’ Not Obama’s

Some of the US’s major allies appear more and more convinced that Barack Obama is losing his political influence on the Syrian conflict and the fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State terror group, according an analysis in the US media.

Key US partners are increasingly fixing their eyes on Moscow rather than Washington, writes Dan de Luce, a columnist for Foreign Policy.

In this image made from video provided by Hadi Al-Abdallah, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, smoke rises after airstrikes in Kafr Nabel of the Idlib province, western Syria, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.

US War in Syria, Iraq Part of Bigger Plan Aimed Against Iran and Beyond

According to de Luce, the recent visit of Saudi Arabia’s defense minister Mohammed bin Salman to the Russian city of Sochi showcases on the one hand to what extent the “power dynamics” in the Middle East has changed, and on the other — that, in US allies’ eyes, President Putin is close to taking Barack Obama’s place of “regional kingmaker.” The author pointed out that high-profile representatives of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are now “knocking on Putin’s door instead of that of the Oval Office.”The visit of the Saudi minister, de Luce noted, suggests Riyadh is looking into the opportunity of an agreement under which Syrian president Bashar al-Assad would stay in power for a longer period of time in exchange for the creation of Russian-Saudi joint forces in the fight against IS.

“If the Saudi visit was coordinated with the US, that would be one thing, but if it wasn’t, it was the Saudis again saying to us, ‘You’re irrelevant,’” FP quoted former US ambassador to Syria Ryan Crocker as saying.

Russian military air group at Khmeimim airbase in Syria

Battle Against ISIL: Russia Exposes US Lies in Syria

The US’ key allies, alarmed by the recent Iran nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 powers, seem to be arriving at the conclusion that Obama is losing his significance and influence in terms of the Syrian war and fight with IS.Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151018/1028689293/Saudi-Arabia-Israel-Egypt-Knocking-Putins-Door.html#ixzz3oy4O1EN8

The Middle East Meltdown and Global Risk

October 4, 2015

The Middle East Meltdown and Global Risk

Among today’s geopolitical risks, none is greater than the long arc of instability stretching from the Maghreb to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. With the Arab Spring an increasingly distant memory, the instability along this arc is deepening. Indeed, of the three initial Arab Spring countries, Libya has become a failed state, Egypt has returned to authoritarian rule, and Tunisia is being economically and politically destabilized by terrorist attacks.

The violence and instability of North Africa is now spreading into Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Sahel – one of the world’s poorest and most environmentally damaged regions – now gripped by jihadism, which is also seeping into the Horn of Africa to its east. And, as in Libya, civil wars are raging in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, all of which increasingly look like failed states.

The region’s turmoil (which the United States and its allies, in their pursuit of regime change in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere, helped to fuel) is also undermining previously secure states. The influx of refugees from Syria and Iraq is destabilizing Jordan, Lebanon, and now even Turkey, which is becoming increasingly authoritarian under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Meanwhile, with the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians unresolved, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon represent a chronic threat of violent clashes with Israel.

In this fluid regional environment, a great proxy struggle for regional dominance between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran is playing out violently in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and Lebanon. And while the recent nuclear deal with Iran may reduce the proliferation risk, the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran will provide its leaders with more financial resources to support their Shia proxies. Further east, Afghanistan (where the resurgent Taliban could return to power) and Pakistan (where domestic Islamists pose a continued security threat) risk becoming semi-failed states.

Read more at https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/middle-east-meltdown-global-risk-by-nouriel-roubini-2015-10#uwWCfTGqdixqPq41.99

How The War Party Betrayed America’s Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy Tradition

October 3, 2015

How The War Party Betrayed America’s Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy Tradition

So Vladimir Putin in his U.N. address summarized his indictment of a U.S. foreign policy that has produced a series of disasters in the Middle East that we did not need the Russian leader to describe for us.

Fourteen years after we invaded Afghanistan, Afghan troops are once again fighting Taliban forces for control of Kunduz. Only 10,000 U.S. troops still in that ravaged country prevent the Taliban’s triumphal return to power.

A dozen years after George W. Bush invaded Iraq, ISIS occupies its second city, Mosul, controls its largest province, Anbar, and holds Anbar’s capital, Ramadi, as Baghdad turns away from us — to Tehran.

The cost to Iraqis of their “liberation”? A hundred thousand dead, half a million widows and fatherless children, millions gone from the country and, still, unending war.

How has Libya fared since we “liberated” that land? A failed state, it is torn apart by a civil war between an Islamist “Libya Dawn” in Tripoli and a Tobruk regime backed by Egypt’s dictator.

Then there is Yemen. Since March, when Houthi rebels chased a Saudi sock puppet from power, Riyadh, backed by U.S. ordinance and intel, has been bombing that poorest of nations in the Arab world.

Five thousand are dead and 25,000 wounded since March. And as the 25 million Yemeni depend on imports for food, which have been largely cut off, what is happening is described by one U.N. official as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

“Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years,” said the international head of the Red Cross on his return.

On Monday, the wedding party of a Houthi fighter was struck by air-launched missiles with 130 guests dead. Did we help to produce that?

What does Putin see as the ideological root of these disasters?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Media Is Our Last Line of Defence’: Mohamed Fahmy

September 26, 2015

‘Media Is Our Last Line of Defence’: Mohamed Fahmy

Newly pardoned journalist Mohamed Fahmy has ”many thank yous” for fellow Canadians who stood by him through his 411-day imprisonment and two-year legal battle in Egypt.

But though he’s grateful for the efforts of Canada’s ambassador and foreign minister on his behalf, the former Al Jazeera bureau chief said the federal government needs to more aggressively advocate for citizens jailed abroad.

”There are things that could be done to improve how the government in Canada dealt with my situation,” he said in a phone interview from Cairo on Friday, adding how, on return, he hopes to start a constructive debate on what Canada can learn from his case.

The Conservative government welcomed Fahmy’s pardon this week by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, along with that of fellow Al Jazeera staffer Baher Mohamed. The two had been sentenced to seven years in prison — convicted of offences including fabricating news and undermining national security in a trial that was widely denounced by human rights groups. In late August, their sentences were reduced to three years following an appeal. A third Al Jazeera staffer, Peter Greste, was earlier deported to Australia.

”Canada has consistently called at the highest level for Mr. Fahmy’s release and return to Canada,” said Lynne Yelich, Canada’s foreign affairs and consular Minister of State in a Sept. 23 statement. ”The Government of Canada will continue to provide Mr. Fahmy with consular assistance and will assist in facilitating his departure from Egypt.”

With a University of British Columbia journalism school job waiting for him, Fahmy said he is looking forward to starting ”a whole new life” in Vancouver. He’s also launched the Fahmy Foundation for a Free Press to advocate for journalists and bloggers jailed or persecuted overseas.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Western Democracy Is An Endangered Species On Its Way To Extinction

August 26, 2015

Western Democracy Is An Endangered Species On Its Way To Extinction

The British Labour Party no longer represents the working class. Under UK prime minister Tony Blair, the Labour Party became a vassal of the One Percent. The result has been a rebellion in the ranks and the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, a principled Labourite intent on representing the people, a no-no in Western “democracies.”

Corbyn is too real for the Labour Party Blairites, who hope to be rewarded with similar nest eggs as Blair for representing the capitalist One Percent. So what is the corrupted Labour Party doing to prevent Corbyn’s election?

The answer is that it is denying the vote to Corbyn supporters. You can read the story here:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/britains-labour-party-purge-is-underway-preventing-supporters-from-voting-for-jeremy-corbyn/5471194

The illegal Egyptian military dictatorship that overthrew on Washington’s orders the first democratically elected government in Egyptian history has issued an edict prohibiting journalists from contradicting the military dictatorship. In brief, the dictatorship installed by Washington has outlawed facts.

Washington rejected the government that the Egyptian people elected, because it appeared that the democratically elected government would have a foreign policy that was at least partially independent of Washington’s. Remember, according to the neocons who, together with Israel, control US foreign policy, countries with independent foreign policies, such as Iran, Russia, and China, are America’s “greatest threats.”

The Egyptian military thugs, following Washington’s orders, have more or less eliminated all of the leadership of the political party that was democratically elected. The party was called the Muslim Brotherhood. In the presstitute Western media, the political party was described more or less as al Qaeda, and how are the ignorant, brainwashed, and propagandized Americans to know any difference? Certainly neither “their” government nor the presstitute media will ever tell them.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Egypt Is On The Edge Of Full Blown Civil War

July 4, 2015

Egypt Is On The Edge Of Full Blown Civil War

Via GEFIRA,

In the last few days there were dozens of separate attacks in Egypt from the Sinai up to Cairo. Probably more than 60 people died while the Egyptian army used F16 attack plains to protect itself against it disgruntled population. It is clear that the Egyptian rulers will not be able to contain the current situation, today could be marked as the start of Egypt’s civil war.

Democratic elected governments were violently overthrown, in Algeria, Egypt and Palestinian territories.In Algeria the FIS had won the first held elections with a convincing majority in 1990 and 1992. It has been removed from power in 1992 by a coup d’etat that was highly approved by the West. Probably 150.000 people died in the civil war that followed these events up.

HAMAS winning the 2006 elections in the Palestinian territories resulted in a war among Palestinians and ended up with a split of Gaza and the West Bank

In 2011 Morsi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood won the first free elections in Egypt.

In 2013 the first elected president of Egypt was removed by the army. There are clear signs that anti-democratic forces were deliberately destabilizing Egypt before the coup d’etat in 2013. In the running up of the July 3th coup by General Sisi an artificial oil shortages was created that contributed to the mass protest against the elected president of Egypt.

The new army coup was financially supported by the Saudi rulers while the West was mute, the only vocalized opposition came from Turkey’s ruler MrErdo?an.

Washington was silent about Egypt’s coup and even resumed the delivery of military hardware to the Egyptian rulers, at the same moment Morsi received the dead penalty during a mock process. The situation in Egypt will be much worse than the situation that we saw in Algeria in 1992.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Western Collusion With Egypt’s Reign of Terror

June 26, 2015

Western Collusion With Egypt’s Reign of Terror

Germany’s detention without charge of a journalist critical of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is part of a pattern of Western collusion in Egypt’s war on democracy

Why was Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Mansour, detained by German authorities under an Egyptian arrest warrant for three days, before being released without charge?

The popular Egyptian-British presenter, who hosts Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language show “Without Frontiers,” told a press conference this Tuesday that the German government had still failed to explain why he had been arrested and detained in the first place.

According to initial reports, German authorities had detained Mansour on the basis of an “international arrest warrant” and extradition request from Egypt. Of course, there is no such thing as an international arrest warrant.

Political decision

Those vague claims were followed by a more official explanation, put forward by a German government spokesperson, that the Egyptian arrest warrant came through via Interpol’s “red notice” system. In October 2014, Mansour was convicted in absentia – without trial – for the trumped up charge of torturing a lawyer in Tahrir Square in 2011.

But Interpol has confirmed that there was no such notice for Mansour, and had refused to issue the Cairo warrant.

Germany has not signed an extradition treaty with Egypt, and so is under no obligation to consider such a request. So why did Germany decide to accede to the request?

According to the German publication, Zeit Online, before making its decision to arrest and detain Mansour, the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation took the step of asking Germany’s Ministry of Justice and Federal Foreign Office to assess the case against Mansour. Only after those reviews was Mansour detained at Berlin’s Tagel Airport. There can be no doubt, then, that this was a political decision.

– See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/western-collusion-egypt-s-reign-terror-1040634338#sthash.NOqnDCOK.dpuf

Impending Iran Deal Could Crush Current Rally

March 28, 2015

Impending Iran Deal Could Crush Current Rally

The headline for the week was Saudi Arabia’s attack on rebels in Yemen, which threatens to ignite tensions between regional rivalries in the Middle East. The proximate cause was the advance by Houthi rebels on Aden where the Yemeni President is located. Saudi Arabia spent several weeks secretly reaching out to its regional allies to build support for an attack on the Houthis, signing up support from Turkey, Egypt, and an array of Gulf States. The advanced knowledge of the United States government appears to be a matter of dispute, with some top level Pentagon officials saying they were only given one hour’s notice before the attack. Nevertheless, the U.S. is providing logistical support – refueling and satellite imagery.

This attack comes at an awful time which may not be a coincidence. The negotiations between the P5+1 nations and Iran are coming down to the wire. The outlines of a deal are visible, but the sides are hoping to use the next few days to seal the deal. Saudi Arabia’s attack on Houthi rebels is not just about Yemeni stability. It is a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on one side, and Iran on the other. The U.S. finds itself confronting Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen at the same time that it is attacking ISIS in Iraq alongside Iran. How this affects nuclear negotiations is anybody’s guess.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys

March 27, 2015

In Yemen, It’s The Bad Guys Vs. The Bad Guys

Saudi Arabia and Egypt stand poised to conduct a massive ground invasion of Yemen, and the western media will be full of tales about how “Operation Decisive Storm” is liberating that country from the evil Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And without a doubt, the Houthis are bad guys and so are their Iranian benefactors. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the war in Yemen is a battle of good vs. evil. The truth is that the conflict in Yemen is actually a proxy war between two sets of bad guys that both ultimately plan for Islam to take over the entire planet. On one side, the Iranians are very honest about the fact that they view us as an enemy, and they plan to impose their version of radical Shia Islam worldwide as soon as they can. On the other side, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but they don’t hide the fact that they believe that their version of Sunni Islam will eventually rule the world. And their version of Sunni Islam includes constant beheadings, the destruction of all churches and the death penalty for anyone caught smuggling a Bible into Saudi territory. At the end of the day, there is very little difference between the Saudis and ISIS. In fact, ISIS gets a lot of funding from Saudi sources, and there is more support for ISIS on Twitter from Saudi Arabia than from anywhere else. Saudi Arabia is a horribly repressive regime where women are treated like dirt, where the secret police conduct a never ending reign of terror and where even a minor deviation from sharia law can mean the loss of a limb. But because our politicians and the mainstream media constantly tell us that they are “our friends”, we cheer them on.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tag Archives: egypt

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

Oil production and consumption

Political decision

Post navigation

Latest Posts