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Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display." Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!





Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display."
Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!


The Washington Post
Obama’s dangerous passivity on Egypt and Syria on display 
By Jackson Diehl
August 15, 2013 
There was hope a few months ago that mounting chaos in the Middle East, and a revamping of President Obama’s national security team, would prompt the president to snap out of what looked like a deepening torpor in foreign policy.  
Instead, this president’s extraordinary passivity in the face of crisis may have achieved its apotheosis this week. On Wednesday, as Egyptian security forces gunned down hundreds of civilians in the streets of Cairo, an unperturbed Obama shot another round of golf at Martha’s Vineyard. His deputy press secretary was left to explain to reporters that the administration remained firmly committed to not deciding whether what had happened in Egypt was a coup.
Read the rest of the column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-dangerous-passivity-on-egypt-on-display/2013/08/15/69d085fc-0522-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html

 @JacksonDiehl https://twitter.com/JacksonDiehl

 Jackson Diehl archives at Washington Post: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/jackson-diehl/2011/02/24/ABccMXN_page.html







The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
Egypt erupts as security forces attack Morsi supporters
August 14, 2013

 The Post's powerful mince-no-words editorial includes this passage;
This refusal to take a firm stand against massive violations of human rights is as self-defeating for the United States as it is unconscionable. Continued U.S. support for the Egyptian military is helping to push the country toward a new dictatorship rather than a restored democracy. Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the coup leader, increasingly is styling himself as a national savior in the mode of such former dictators asGamal Abdel Nasser;
Read the rest of the editorial at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/egypt-erupts-as-security-forces-attack-morsi-supporters/2013/08/14/f230a080-04fa-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html



















When one of the most-dependable and prominent Obama supporters in the Washington new media, Eugene Robinson, an actual Pulitzer Prize winner, takes him to task and personally attacks his morality and lack of backbone, that's more than just news within the Beltway. 

 The Washington Post
A lack of spine on Egypt
By Eugene Robinson
August 15, 2013
There may be little the United States can do to end the savage bloodletting in Egypt, but at least our nation can be loyal to its ideals by bearing witness and telling the truth. In this, President Obama has failed.
Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-a-lack-of-spine-on-egypt/2013/08/15/33a7bc80-05df-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html













Christian Science Monitor
Why Mahmoud Badr is pro-Army, anti-Muslim Brotherhood
Interview: Mahmoud Badr, the activist whose online campaign helped to bring down Egypt's president, now supports the army attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood. Why?
By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters
August 17, 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0817/Why-Mahmoud-Badr-is-pro-Army-anti-Muslim-Brotherhood

More at: http://www.csmonitor.com/content/search?SearchText=Egypt



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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

#MUSLIMRAGE - 2010 video is perfect follow-up to my last post on problems associated with Muslim immigration to Sweden, inc. inability or unwillingness to adopt Western norms re free speech, are proven in video thru use of heckler's veto to stop performance, attack caricaturist Lars Vilks in Uppsala


BeTheBalls video: The Muslim attack on noted Swedish caricaturist Lars Vilks in Uppsala, Sweden 2010 - "the Entire Event". Uploaded May 27, 2010. http://youtu.be/lbpyk1uHNWY
Be sure to watch the woman in the second row wearing the multi-colored sweater, holding cell phone. This was captured by the TV operation of newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning in Uppsala.


I knew that I had the links to this video somewhere saved in Draft on my Gmail account, it's just that it wasn't yesterday when I really needed it to buttress my points in my blog post that eventually got around to the subject of Muslim immigrants' assimilation in Sweden, which is not going so well, owing mostly to the fact that many new refugees, mostly male, think they can out-smart the system that demands they make an honest effort to do several things, including adopting the norms of the country they're now living in, not being held hostage to the ones of the country they left behind in the rear-view mirror.
re Fouad Ajami's Washington Post essay: Why is the Muslim world so easily offended?; What Muslim "moderates"?; Målmo as the European canary-in-the-coal-mine doesn't auger well for the success of Muslim "moderates" or assimilation efforts; #MUSLIMRAGE
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/re-fouad-ajamis-washington-post-essay.html

This 2010 video of a rather shocking display of anti-democratic behavior by Muslims attending an event in Uppsala that I heard about a day or two after it first happened, serves as a friendly yet-chilling reminder that unlike authoritarian regimes in Muslim-controlled countries around the world, when you live in a real democracy, like the U.S. or Sweden, it doesn't mean that you have a right to NOT have your personal feelings or religious sensitivities hurt, nor do you have a right to prevent other citizens from exercising their guaranteed rights, like freedom of speech.

 You can always choose to not attend events that will be upsetting, but you get the sense in watching the video that the whole thing was almost pre-meditated if not pre-ordained, given the reaction that you can see for yourself.

 Unfortunately, as we have seen for the past week with respect to the protests/riots in Egypt and Libya, and the premeditated murder of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, this concept of tolerance continues to elude both many Muslims who leave the Middle East, as well as ones who stay there and who seem to go out of their way to continuously be outraged.

 That's made worse by many in the American Mainstream Media who ought to know better, but who instead of dealing with them realistically, and call them on what they say and do, instead, coddle them, like ABC News' Christiane Amanpour, wife of a former Clinton State Dept. spokesman, Jamie Rubin, now an executive editor at Bloomberg News.


Breitbart's Big Journalism
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: WEST IS EXTREME, NOT ISLAMISTS
by William Bigelow  
15 Sep 2012 
ABCNews video: Christiane Amanpour, Martha Raddatz, and Brian Ross join guest host Jake Tapper to discuss political issues sweeping across the Middle East. Uploaded September 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/A0wPXV-BL5k
ABCNews video: Muslim Violence, Anti-American Protests, Fallout From Middle East: 'This Week' Roundtable. Uploaded September 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/miqHPq5l3SE
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Friday, September 14, 2012

Mounting public anger & criticism of Obama & Hillary's dithering foreign policy failures in aftermath of Cairo & Benghazi attacks; Facts finally starting to penetrate MSM's pro-Obama narrative and defense shield on this story even while ABC's "World News With Diane Sawyer" lays one egg-after-another


publiusforum video: CNN's Nic Robertson Interviews Brother of Blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in Cairo on September 10, 2011. Uploaded September 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/tPszLCEyu-I
Story at: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/13/Cairo-Riots-Were-Not-Over-Offensive-American-Movie-Freedom-of-Blind-Sheik-The-Goal

 *FYI: CIA Director David Petraeus will be meeting with House Intelligence Committee members this morning*

Though it's the newscast that I always watch and prefer, Thursday night's "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" was one of the worst in quite some time, more noteworthy for what they neglected to say than anything they actually reported -never a good sign.

This case of collective hysterical amnesia at the alphabet network seemed especially curious in light of interesting news reports that emerged over the course of the day that only gathered steam as the day went on, as they made even more preposterous many of the Mainstream Media's claims of the day before and that morning's daily newspapers.
The facts simply wouldn't cooperate and fit their assumptions. 

These were all "facts" that that you reasonably expected to see mentioned at some point in a national newscast when the subject of the riots and murder in Benghazi and Cairo came up
and yet...

 Yes, sometimes even when Diane Sawyer is standing right there in the middle of it, the absence of evidence is evidence itself, and so is the refusal of her news program to mention these inconvenient facts when it goes against the Mainstream Media narrative of that morning.

Here's just a small list of what WASN'T mentioned on Thursday night's "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" http://abcnews.go.com/WN/

1.) Libyan government announced that organized and heavily-armed groups used the so-called film protests as a cover to stage coordinated attacks.
Yes, the rocket-propelled grenades are always a tip-off that civic discourse is not at the top of someone's agenda.

[And why so much reluctance by ABC News and the rest of the Mainstream Media in the U.S. to mention how often variations of "Osama, we are with you" was heard a week at the protests one week  after the DNC mentioned Osama Bin Laden 21 times with respect to their famous hunter Obama practically killing Bin Laden himself. 

 TV and print reporters in other countries who speak Arabic and who are there on the ground are mentioning it, so why aren't U.S. reporters mentioning how often the words "Osama" and "Obama" are mentioned in the same sentence, and not in a positive light?
Speaking of speaking the language of the place you are reporting from, how's Barbara Raddatz's Arabic? 
Perhaps Paul Ryan will ask her at the October 11th Vice-Presidential debate she is moderating. 

No need to do that, I can answer that question for you.
ABC News reporter Barbara Raddatz, like so many other American A-list reporters routinely go to countries where they don't speak the language -like Arabic- and have to be totally dependent on others to explain what in the hell is going on. 
So, why do we need to hear from her then? 
Good question.

 But ABC News doesn't care that she doesn't actually understand what is being said all around here while she is supposed to be reporting. 
To them, the most important thing is that she's there -is showing the ABC flag.
That's NOT the most-important thing to me -facts are. 
(She was in washington on Thursday night)] 


2.) Why nothing at all about this f-ed up situation with Larry Schwartz at the U.S. embassy in Cairo? Guess they were too busy trying to find another Republican in DC to criticize Romney.
Anonymously, of course.

Foreign Policy magazine
The Cable blog
Inside the public relations disaster at the Cairo embassy
Posted By Josh Rogin
September 12, 2012 - 8:48 p.m.
One staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was responsible for the statement and tweets Tuesday that have become grist for the presidential campaign, and that staffer ignored explicit State Department instructions not to issue the statement, one U.S. official close to the issue told The Cable.
Two additional administration officials confirmed the details of this account when contacted late Wednesday by The Cable.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/12/inside_the_public_relations_disaster_at_the_cairo_embassy

 3.) All Thursday morning and afternoon, credible reports emerged that despite what President Obama said about the Libyan security forces helping transport Ambassador Christopher Stevens to another building per their protocol, credible stories that members of the Libyan security forces had in fact signaled to the armed organized groups that were there to storm the consulate that the move was taking place.
The groups already knew that Stevens would be moved, they just weren't sure where.
Once they knew, it was easy to fire their rockets right at him.

 It was literally like he was herded into the scene of his death.
This was not mentioned at all on ABC's newscast 

 Uh-oh! Mira!
Here's something finally penetrating the MSM's invisible force field
Notice that this is being given a 6:45 am time stamp, even though I heard this yesterday before 1 p.m.

 CBS News

September 14, 2012 5:23 AM
Official: Libyan insiders may have aided assault
Updated 6:45 a.m. ET
(CBA/AP) BENGHAZI, Libya — Heavily armed militants used a protest of an anti-Islam film as a cover and may have had help from inside Libyan security in their deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate, a senior Libyan official said Thursday.
As Libya announced the first four arrests, the clearest picture yet emerged of a two-pronged assault, with militants screaming "God is great!" as they scaled the consulate's outer walls and descended on the compound's main building.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57512847/official-libyan-insiders-may-have-aided-assault/



 4.) Surprise! Reports throughout the day emerged that U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson wouldn't allow U.S. Marines guarding the embassy compound to carry live ammunition.
http://nation.time.com/2012/09/13/whats-worse-no-marines-or-possibly-unarmed-marines/

With all their resources and personnel, how is ABC News unable to either confirm or deny this story by 6:30 p.m. Eastern? 
Or mention that she was in Washington at the time?
Really, how can that be?

If it turns out to be true, like you, I can hardly wait to hear the future interviews with the Marines and their leaders back in Washington on the fact that the very people most-responsible for the safety of U.S. personnel were reduced to playing the role of Barney Fife, who, lovable as he was, famously, wasn't allowed to have a loaded gun while he was on-duty in Mayberry.
And as if I even have to mention it, Ambassador Ann Patterson's name was never spoken on-air Thursday. Again.
Hmm-m...

Honestly, what is it about female U.S. Ambassadors posted to the creepy patriarchal Middle East, and their own feelings of protocol and or inadequacy, that actually cause them to threaten U.S.lives thru their queer policy pronouncements?

If true, unfortunately, Anne Patterson's bad decision-making will remind many of us that after the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, the last year of the Clinton Administration, the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, imposed all sorts of rules on the U.S. officials sent to investigate the bombing that took place on her watch.
She seemed to be the very stereotype of a spiteful feminist who wanted to keep men at a distance even though they were the ones who had any power on the block she lived on.
Instead of letting common sense prevail, she said that allowing so many FBI and CIA agents -read assertive men- would send the 'wrong signals' about who really ran U.S. foreign policy.

She forgot that it wasn't her. 
She was the worker bee who works for us, not the other way around.

In case you forgot or never knew the exact details, Bodine was the stick-up-her-ass PC U.S. Ambassador to Yemen who tried to thwart the Cole investigation and famously took steps to revoke the visa of FBI Special Agent John O'Neill, the FBI's leading expert on al Qaeda and on-scene commander in Yemen after he arrived from New York with his team of counter-terrorism agents.
Yes, really.

Among so many other things that seem contrary to U.S. interests, Bodine famously intervened and prevented his re-entry into Yemen after he'd flown back to New York for Thanksgiving 2000. 
O'Neill, of course, died ten months later in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers

See PBS's Frontline "The Man Who Knew" 

PBS FRONTLINE: The Man Who Knew - Parts 5 of 8
http://youtu.be/s7T5gAD1SSI


Here is what PBS says on their Frontline website about that situation in October of 2000.
I usually would not put so much of that here, but it's important that you see what part of her decision-making rings familiar today, considering Patterson's orders.
Arriving in Yemen, O'Neill finds challenging field conditions. His agents confront 102-degree heat and a cramped, unsecured hotel for their quarters. O'Neill soon finds himself clashing with Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, who is concerned about the number of FBI agents and military personnel flooding into the country after the bombing. O'Neill argues that the FBI needs resources to thoroughly investigate the attack. Bodine has different priorities, including maintaining good relations with Yemen. "I had to act as a cultural interpreter. They have endured first British colonialism, and then the Soviets. These people have only had foreigners telling them what to do. Now O'Neill and his men were coming in, doing essentially the same thing," Bodine later told Britain's The Sunday Times.
As relations between the two sour, the number of topics they disagree on multiplies. O'Neill wants a heavily-armed security presence; Bodine wants the agents to be unarmed. O'Neill wants to have direct access to Yemeni officials; Bodine feels she should supervise encounters. As O'Neill starts to seek support from Barry Mawn and other FBI officials back in the U.S., the cables sent by Bodine to the State Department become increasingly critical of O'Neill. It reaches the point where Louis Freeh and Janet Reno become personally involved in the dispute.
Meanwhile...
CNN IGNORES REAL GOAL OF CAIRO RIOTS: FREEDOM OF BLIND SHEIK
by WARNER TODD HUSTON  
14 Sep 2012, 2:47 AM PDT

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Saturday, June 2, 2012

V for Verdict: Ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally gets his due -LIFE- for his role in deaths of unarmed Egyptian protesters last year at Tahrir Square, but, curiously, skates on the corruption charges, leading to chants of outrage in courtroom from indignant Egyptians




Telegraph TV video:Ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally gets his due -LIFE- for his role in deaths of unarmed Egyptian protesters last year at  Tahrir Square, but, curiously, skates on the corruption charges, leading to chants of outrage in courtroom from indignant Egyptians. June 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/VTZbDc0ma9o



CAIRO — An Egyptian judge on Saturday sentenced former President Hosni Mubarak to life in prison for the killing of unarmed demonstrators during protests that ended his rule. It was the first verdict of an Arab ruler brought before the law by a popular revolt and for many Egyptians it may be the greatest achievement so far of the uprising that ended his rule.

Read the rest of the article at:


New York Times

Egyptian Court Sentences Mubarak to Life in Prison
By David D. Kirkpatrick
Published: June 2, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/middleeast/egypt-hosni-mubarak-life-sentence-prison.html


Meanwhile, somewhere in Broward County, someone -perhaps you- is likely to be heard saying the following while walking the aisles of Home Depot after first hearing this news on their car radio about the no-go on the corruption charges that seemed like a slam dunk:
"I didn't know that Mike Satz had a cousin in Egypt who was also a prosecutor."


Meanwhile, in other news around the Broward County courthouse... 
http://jaablog.jaablaw.com/2012/05/31/thursday-notes.aspx


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http://www.youtube.com/user/telegraphtv/
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The King and I: Google honors British archaeologist Howard Carter, co-discoverer with Lord Carnavon of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt, on his 138th birthday with a doodle; Highclere Castle Eyptian exhibition




tagSeoBlog video: Howard Carter Google Doodle. May 8, 2012.
http://youtu.be/_iNJ3OyjRxM


A Highclere connection? Yes.
 Lord Carnavon, Howard Carter's employer, lived at Highclere Castle, where the ITV period drama Downton Abbey has been filmed in part the past three years, and is the home of the two hosts of this next video, the Eighth Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, who, to honor the Fifth Earl's efforts, have developed an Egyptian exhibition in their home's basement  that the public can visit.
Which, regardless of which side of the Atlantic you're on, surely beats having a man cave!



HeritageKey video: Discovering King Tut - Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter
http://youtu.be/HaVeMWQzKuE



View Larger Map



Basingstoke Gazette
Highclere Castle - the real Downton Abbey - opens up for exclusive charitable day
2:34pm Tuesday 8th May 2012

http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/leisure/general/9693674.Highclere_Castle___the_real_Downton_Abbey___opens_up_for_exclusive_charitable_day/

http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/egyptian-exhibition.html


http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/downton-abbey.html


http://www.youtube.com/user/heritagekeymedia


http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/index.html
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

What's old is new again: NY Times film critic A.O. Scott on the Arab Spring of 2011 and David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia'

NY Times video: Critics' Picks with A.O. Scott: Lawrence of Arabia (1962 Best Film) by David Lean.

Aqaba!!!

I have seen this film, one of the ten-best films ever made, conservatively, about sixty times, including a couple of times at an old-fashioned giant screen at the Uptown Theater in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C., one of the great remaining theaters in the country, and located not far from The National Zoo.
Going to see a new film on that big screen and then walking around the zoo was a frequent pastime of yours truly and my pals on weekends.

To my mind, you simply can not consider yourself a well-educated and sophisticated person without having seen this film a few times and come to understand the brilliance of Lean's depiction of the simple and complex stories running parallel to one another throughout it, along with the myriad complexities and conundrums that puzzle us to this day.
There's always something new you see in it with every showing, and a lesson or allusion you can draw in comparing some aspect of it to something else.

I consider myself a bit of a David Lean buff since I have seen just about every film he's been associated with. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000180/


Original Trailer - Lawrence of Arabia (1962)


Path to Aqaba

Maurice Jarre's genius with this score never fails to impress, no matter how many hundreds of times you've heard it. (I've seen it so many times that I know which scene goes with which part of the score.) Three years later, Jarre wins the Oscar again for Dr. Zhivago, the second of his three Oscars.


Maurice Jarre conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992 performing his Oscar-winning score.

The next showing of Lawrence of Arabia on Turner Classic Movies, DirecTV Channel 256, is Tuesday July 12th at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Ben Stein: "Arab Spring" is a fraud; David Rothkopf: Obamamandias: the great shrinking superpower in the Middle East



CBS News Sunday Morning video- Ben Stein: "Arab Spring" is a fraud. May 15, 2011.
"Arab Spring" is a fraud. Says street movements in Middle East mean U.S. is losing valuable allies - and Iran is reaping a "gigantic regional coup"
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Did you happen to catch Ben Stein's spot=on comments on Sunday's CBS News 'Sunday Morning' TV program?
It's long been a personal favorite of mine from the day it started due to its smart, lengthy essays on subjects and people that often received little public notice, but who were doing some very interesting things.
If you didn't catch it, the video above will correct that situation toute-de-suite.

Stein is largely right that President Obama's bewildering and feckless Mid-East policy seems to constantly profit Iran at the West's expense, and Israel in particular, as he channels Prof. Obama and lectures everyone, issuing threats to Libya and Syria to change their methods or consider leaving, threats that are completely ignored but which would've been mocked by the U.S. Mainstream Media if Bush 43 had made them.

The very same condescending crowd in the news media, academe and the foreign policy desk of Comedy Central who said that Bush & Co.'s contention that democracy would work in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, were crazy, but who now play the role of Obama sycophants and valets for his bewildering policies that never seem to quite result in anything positive or tangible for the people.
Or did you forget how quiet Obama was when there were genuine street protests for reform, democratic institutions and fair elections in Iran two years ago, and everyone, esp. The American Left, wanted to know why it took Obama so long to recognize what was happening and say something of substance?
I haven't.

Not that I was ever a fan of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, per se, but he's undeniably a very, very smart and savvy guy who knows how to handle himself.
(I mean he wasn't a federal judge for nothing.)
Well, he's bailing out as Obama's Mid-East policy czar, trouble-shooter and general explainer of things that make no sense coming out of C Street, the U.S. State Dept.
Who's his replacement?

Don't expect to get that answer soon or even any educated guesses anytime soon in the Herald or Sun-Sentinel.

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Foreign Policy magazine blog
Obamamandias: the great shrinking superpower in the Middle East
Posted by David Rothkopf Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - 4:06 PM


Foreign Policy magazine blog
Another major policy speech on the Middle East? Yawn
Posted by Stephen M. Walt Thursday, May 19, 2011 - 10:44 AM


Foreign Policy magazine
Discord in the Rebel Capital
Benghazi may seem like an island in the storm, but beneath the surface lies confusion and disharmony.
By Portia Walker
May 18, 2011




New York Times video: New York Times Op-Ed columnist Roger Cohen's hopes for President Obama's Middle East peace efforts.
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Monday, February 21, 2011

Libya may change in 24-36 hours; WSJ's Alan Murray, social media expert Clay Shirky on effect of Facebook, Twitter, et al in revolts in Egypt, Africa



Facebook and Twitter Are Changing the Middle East 2/18/2011 9:42:59 AM
In an interview with WSJ's Alan Murray, social media expert Clay Shirky discusses the effect of Facebook, Twitter and other social media in the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and what it could mean for the Middle East at large.

http://online.wsj.com/video/shirky-facebook-and-twitter-speed-up-revolutions/E0BAA515-5056-4F4A-AC5E-C684BADE46CA.html

When Clay Shirky speaks, very smart people with resources and connections listen -and so should you!
He believes that Libya is the next domino to fall... ker-plunk!

Pull-quote from the Shirky interview: "Governments are NOT afraid of informed individuals, they're afraid of informed synchronous groups."

Hmm-m... that's Joy Cooper's biggest fear at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

http://www.shirky.com/

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/

New York Times video: Tunisia, After the Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeTY4zl02-4


Libya teetering on the brink of great change...
I've been listening intently this morning to the 6 a.m. BBC World Service World Today broadcast and have heard a fascinating interview with a Libyan-born expert in the U.S. who actually knows Colonel Qadafi and his son, Sayf.

Following a BBC correspondent's report from Tripoli, scene of so much violence this weekend, and even now, the scene of sustained gunfire, the expert in the U.S. being interviewed was quite negative about the speech Qadhafi's son made today on Libyan TV, and what he characterized as the very strange behavior he exhibited.

He said that Libyan people would not respond well to the behavior or words, esp, his wild gesticulations during the speech as well as the very threatening manner, which made it seem like it had not been rehearsed.
Almost like the first time he saw it was when he was reading it.
Hmm-m...

See it for yourself.

BBC video of excerpts of Sayf al-Islam Qadafi speech:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12520550

The situation is moving very, very rapidly...
How will Libya transition into next phase of development?

Another expert said that it's his sense of things that with the eastern part of the country basically opting out of central control, Qadafi will be out of Libya within the next 24-36 hours because the army and police are starting to realize that they have no future if he is around.

He no longer is able to control things and "the genie is out and can't be put back into the lamp."

BBC's Middle east Protests web page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12480844

BBC-TV video segments on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12513941

Listen LIVE to BBC Radio's World Service here:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/audioconsole/?stream=live

Facts on Libya at the CIA Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ly.html

The Channel 4 News Snowmail that I received by email on Sunday afternoon, written by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, said as follows on Libya:

LIBYA

The Libya uprising is showing its differences and difficulties. While Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain have been playing out on television cameras, amateur video, mobile phones and Twitter the Libyan protests are much harder to follow. International journalists have not managed to get in the way they did with the others. Access to the internet is restricted, and websites such as YouTube which can upload video, and social networks seem to be disrupted. However the phones still work so we have been gathering testimony the old fashioned pre-internet way. Amid reports of hundreds of people now killed in the protests in and around Benghazi there is clearly huge determination by the demonstrators. We spoke to one man there who told us "A lot of people are dying in the streets. There are a lot of cars with troops from outside Libya, I think they are Nigerian, from African countries. They have guns and they shoot anyone they find on the streets...From the eastern part of Libya, the protesters have received some heavy artillery, they haven’t used it yet – they're telling us they are going to now. Nobody knows the number (of dead) because there are many hospitals – they go to four or five different hospitals. Most of them are being shot by snipers, from far away in the head or the chest by Africans. Most of them don’t speak good Arabic, they speak French." Obviously there is no way for us to check these claims on the snipers but they give you a good idea of what the talk is going around the protesters at least. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the background and the man had to break off to shout at friends to get inside.

And it is clear Tripoli is far from calm too. We spoke to a woman there who told us "I live in the east side of Tripoli but I cannot go out. My husband went out this morning, he said the streets were empty, people were scared. So I said, ok let my son go to the store but my son – he didn’t come back and I hear from people – I call them and they say why did you send him? People have gone to the court – I hope he didn’t go there because he’s young and very nervous. For two days I kept him in the house but I hope he didn’t go there. Oh my goodness, there’s something happening now – they are shooting I’m sorry I have to go.". So we are gathering what we can, and will have the latest. We will also be discussing what the West can and should do about Libya. The US ambassador Louis Susman was pretty unsubtle in a diplomatic way this morning with Andrew Marr - it was clear he thinks Britain has been wrong to deal with Gadaffi in a way that makes him seem like a legitimate leader.

Here are the two news segments they aired last night on Libya.


Channel4 News February 20, 2011 Libya unrest
http://bcove.me/4tbtcgj2


Channel4 News February 20, 2011 Libya discussion
http://bcove.me/idmo6ot5
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