[Al Ahram] The Salafist Nour Party took a bold step in supporting the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, standing against fellow Islamists the Muslim Brotherhood. Why?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013 00:00 ||
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#3
(a) Their Saudi paymasters told them to.
(b) Brothers tried to hog all the loot.
(c) Brotherhood is too moderate.
(d) They're Arab: backstabbing allies, before they can back stab you, is the national sport.
HT: Aos
"As is made clear by everything from campaign donations to the IRS jihad, the bureaucracy is the Left, and the Left is the bureaucracy. Elections will be held, politicians will come and go, but if you expand the power of the bureaucracy, you expand the power of the Left, of the managers and minions who share Barack Obama's view of the world. Barack Obama isn't the leader of the free world; he's the front man for the permanent bureaucracy, the smiley-face mask hiding the pitiless yawning maw of total politics.
#2
He is a man with a first-class education and a business-class mind, a sort of inverse autodidact whose intellectual pedigree is an order of magnitude more impressive than his intellect.
Fits right in there with the elitist eastern establishment describe in the WaPo article above.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
08/09/2013 9:28 Comments ||
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Take two examples. The then foreign minister of Pakistain was visiting Delhi in November 2008 when the Mumbai terror attack was staged. Now it turns out the Indian and Pak prime ministers were preparing to meet in New York next month when a mysterious incident occurred on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmire on Monday.
Not for the first time Indian soldiers were reported to have been killed in a bizarre attack that, relying only on Indian headlines, throws up a familiar, overdone narrative.
It is not unusual for terror attacks to come at a moment when mutual bonhomie looks nigh in South Asia. Is Pakistain's deep state the only beneficiary of these disruptions?
Or is there someone rejoicing in the Indian establishment too when militarism, buoyed by terrorism, is accorded the front row in our daily lives regardless of the prohibitive costs?
It is of course a given that Pakistain's army has a stake in keeping several quarries off balance. These may include the Americans and the Indians, but they do not exclude the civilian rulers at home.
The deep state, as the army and its intelligence apparatus is often called in Pakistain, is self-confessedly anti-Indian. That is the nature of the beast.
Therefore, it is plausible that the men from whichever Islamist bad turban outfit are said to have attacked the Indian patrol this week, were not hindered by the security establishment.
One likely trigger for the LoC incident could be that the country's civilian commanders are more ready to give India a greater role in Afghanistan than the generals may be willing to grant.
In an interview to Voice of America, Pakistain's foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz uncharacteristically stressed and also welcomed India's role in Afghanistan's future reconstruction.
Is that what was shot down, or was sought to be derailed, on the LoC? Or, as some news reports suggest, the killing of five Indian soldiers may be linked to a recent incident in which a clutch of Pakistain-based bully boyz were ambushed by Indian forces as they tried to sneak into Indian Kashmire.
In the big picture too the Pak security establishment gains from any windfall of tensions with India, but increasingly this has less to do with its traditional interests in reheating the Kashmire issue. Its current drive is tethered to the elusive "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, if Afghans will permit such a concept.
Who are the Indians that benefit from, say, a Mumbai-like attack or from the latest LoC incident? I think at the current count, perverse though it may sound, there are more political beneficiaries in India from any incident involving Pakistain than Pakistain can ever have.
As of now, to the best of my knowledge, there is hardly a political group in Pakistain -- from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... 's party to the PPP, from Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... 's group to the MQM -- to benefit from whipping up anti-India sentiments. In India, on the other hand, even the leftist parties are often seen following right-wing jingoists in the nationalist pursuit.
Take Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh with his unflinching support of Indian Moslems. He rarely spares an opportunity to berate Pakistain. As a former defence minister he may have other constituencies to look after too.
The fact that harmless-looking Rahul Gandhi can readily recall, apropos of little electoral gain, how his grandmother, the late Indira Gandhi, broke Pakistain into two, reflects his eagerness to keep pace with the holy cow called the national interest.
The other day he was applauding the paramilitary forces for keeping democracy alive in India, insisting it was they that crushed the Sikh militancy in Punjab.
The communist-led Left Front on its part has been so badly trounced in recent village-level elections by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerji, the lady who has pulled the Moslem vote from under the Left's feet, that the Marxists seem to have surrendered their traditional tempered tone on Pakistain. Count it as an erroneous attempt to compensate for the electoral losses.
The irony is that the best chance that peace ever had with Pakistain came from the Hindutva banner of India's Bharatiya Janata Party.
True to form though, it was Hindutva's recklessness that was equally eager to start a dangerous war with Pakistain in May 2002. Atal Behari Vajpayee sought peace but he also nearly led us to a nuclear exchange.
The wide spectrum of political support that India thus offers to unbridled jingoism is matched by its largely opaque intelligence set-up. This aspect of India's own 'deep state' is just getting to be somewhat discussed in the newspapers. Still, very few Indians see their external or internal spy agencies, much less the military, as a source of concern.
The Congress party, led by then head of the opposition Manmohan Singh, had asked some searching questions of the Hindutva rulers when parliament was mysteriously attacked in December 2001. But the party chose to remain silent when the war drums came on.
Today the Congress' defence minister is on the mat for suggesting that the men who attacked the Indian soldiers on the LoC may have been Islamist bully boyz in army fatigues.
The BJP wants his head for not directly naming the Pakistain Army. The truth is that, with the nod of the intelligence set-up, the BJP is trying to nip any peace talks with Pakistain before the coming elections.
The prime ministers of India and Pakistain plan to meet in New York to discuss many issues.
Do they have the courage to take on their respective deep states though? At least then we can know the real truth about terrorism and its strange beneficiaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Ynet] Temporary closure of southernmost city's airport most likely linked to smuggling of shoulder-launched missiles into Sinai
The temporary closure of Eilat's airport on Thursday apparently stemmed from a terror threat emanating from Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
It is safe to assume that the warning related to the possibility that forces of Evil belonging to one of the Islamist groups operating in Sinai will fire shoulder-launched missiles at airplanes. Some of these forces of Evil are directly linked to al-Qaeda , but most belong to Bedouin Salafist groups whose members are Egyptian citizens who live in Sinai.
These groups have received large amounts of weapons from Iran and Libya over the past two years, mainly with the purpose of transferring the arms to Gazoo through the Philadelphi Route's underground tunnels. Some of the weapons remained in Sinai, hidden, and are used by Islamist groups, mainly Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes (Supporters of Jerusalem), to carry out terror attacks against the Egyptian authorities and military, as well as against Israel.
Among the weapons smuggled from Libya into Sinai are old Russian-made SA7 "Strela" anti-aircraft missiles. Most likely, the Islamists in Sinai also received more advanced models of the missiles -- SA18 and SA16. One of these more advanced missiles was fired two years ago at an Israeli helicopter during the terror attack in the Ein Netafim area -- carried out by a Salafist group based in Sinai.
Planes en route to Eilat's airport arrive from the south and are in the range of shoulder-launched missiles, if they are fired from Sinai. The mountainous terrain would make it very difficult to detect anyone trying to fire missiles at Eilat-bound aircraft.
It is very possible that Israeli intelligence agencies obtained information regarding a plan to open fire on Eilat-bound civilian aircraft and therefore ordered the temporary closure of the southernmost city's airport. It is safe to assume that such an attack, if it was in fact in the works, would not be directly linked to the warning that led to the closure of American embassies in the Middle East.
The jihadist and Salafist Bedouins in Sinai are currently engaged in a violent confrontation with Egyptian security forces trying to rein in the terrorists. The Egyptian forces have caused heavy casualties among these groups, which are looking to further deteriorate the relations between Cairo and Jerusalem, this in addition to their continued attempts to kill Israelis and disrupt daily life and the economy in Israel. In this case, they are trying to hurt tourism in Eilat. In light of this, Israel plans to have all Eilat-bound planes land at the airport in Ovda, located dozens of kilometers to the north. Plans for the long term include closing the airport in Eilat and building a new one north of the city, in the Arava. The order to shut down the airport in Eilat was most likely based on credible intelligence.
[THEWEEK] There are two reasons why the government would tolerate this type of leak. One: The threat was so severe that the only way to prevent it was to expose the plot completely, showing al Qaeda that the U.S. had penetrated so deeply into their organization that the big boss's double-top-secret conference call was recorded. It's the counter-terrorism equivalent of face up poker. There's an element of brinksmanship in this approach.
Two: The U.S. intelligence community might want al Qaeda to shift its communication methods because the new method al Qaeda ends up with might be more intercept-friendly in the future, or the U.S. believes that certain al Qaeda members it keeps under constant surveillance will help them quickly figure out the new method.
Note that several early articles referred to the (Yemeni) interception of a courier, which might -- might -- mean that the U.S. got its hands on a copy of the tape and does NOT have al Qaeda pinned to the wall. IF the U.S knew where the conference call took place, they ostensibly have a very good bead on Ayman al-Zawahiri's head, too.
Or, the leaks could be completely unauthorized.
If another big, bad leak investigation is soon, ah, leaked, then we'll know. Until then, let's just say that something doesn't look quite right.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/09/2013 00:00 ||
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More interesting is the discreet silence among all the media analysts about the obvious question: how long until the Sulzberger family follows the Graham family (who followed the Bancroft family in selling the Wall Street Journal) in selling the New York Times while it's still worth something?
If the Grahams would have sold the Post in 2002 they would have received about $2 billion. The accumulated interest today would be another billion. Compare to the $250 million they received last week.
Does anyone really think the Graham family wanted to sell the Post? Of course not. It was the cornerstone of their social status and clout.
$3 billion buys a lot of social status and clout. Ask Warren Buffett.
(As Post columnist Ruth Marcus put it without the slightest trace of self-awareness: "Their identity is so inextricably bound up with that of the newspaper, and the newspaper with that of the Graham family, it is -- or at least it was until Monday afternoon -- unimaginable to consider the two as separate entities." Also this: "My e-mail has been buzzing, my phone ringing, with family, friends, government officials, asking the same question: Are you okay? They don't mean economically. They mean emotionally. The answer: Not really." Yes, Ruth, because it's all about you. Also: sympathetic e-mails from "government officials"? Yeah, we're not cozy with our sources here at the Post, are we Ruth? That's some real adversarial journalism for ya.)
#1
Well, the libs may not have their favorite newspapers in the near future, but they have their dream president, and another dream (Shrillary) waiting in the wings.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/09/2013 6:32 Comments ||
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#2
...yes, taking the rest of the country down the same road they've taken the NYTs and WaPo.
#4
Kind of surprised they didn't find some angel investers to get them through an election cycle or two so they can continue to carry water for the team.
#5
for all our sakes I hope the Grahams at least write a letter to the editor once in a while but the way things are going I may only be able to follow the Grahams on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.
#6
rj, they probably were expecting an angel in the form of a Obama bailout (like some other party broadsheets). Unfortunately, that little thing about losing the House most likely interfered with the grand plan.
From TFA:
So Monday she sold the paper -- gave it and a handful of other properties away, really -- to Jeff Bezos for $250 million cash money. Not to Amazon, which Bezos founded in his garage and turned into a marketing and publishing powerhouse, but to Bezos himself, personally. I guess the One Percent really is the personification of all evil and inequality in this country -- until it comes time for one of them to bail out a liberal institution.
Anyway, talk about instantly disposable fishwrap. The liberal fantasy world, media division, that the Times and the Post both inhabit and limn: "media-politico-Hollywood love fest," check; socialite, check; power dinner, check; airy Craftsman home, check; single mother of three, check; lawyer, check; Harvard and Stanford degrees, check; cameo appearances by Vernon Jordan and Lally Weymouth, check; obligatory reference to the Hamptons, check -- has come crashing down. With the fire sale of the Boston Globe and some other media properties by the Times, the euthanizing of Newsweek, and now the sudden heave-ho given to the flagship enterprise of the Washington Post Co., the old order indeed passeth. The new order being: Do you want fries with that?
#1
"With the fire sale of the Boston Globe and some other media properties by the Times, the euthanizing of Newsweek, and now the sudden heave-ho given to the flagship enterprise of the Washington Post Co., the old order indeed passeth".
From TFA:
The reaction of Post staffers to the stunning news that the Graham dynasty has gone the way of the Habsburgs and Romanovs, not to mention the Shah family of Nepal,
Goodness. Somebody is taking themselves a good deal too seriously.
is a good example of how American "journalists" destroyed their own business. Ruth Marcus, with exquisite lack of self-awareness, pens a paean to her own grief at the fall of the monarchy: How great were the Grahams? Why, Ruth's book group selected Mrs Graham's autobiography to read, and Ruth summoned up the courage to ask Mrs Graham if she'd kindly consider the possibility of deigning to grace them with her presence while they discussed how marvelous her book was, and Mrs Graham's assistant called back to say that that week didn't work, but she could do the following week! Amazing!
Through good times and bad, and it has mattered most in the bad times, the Graham family has understood itself as having been entrusted with the care of a special institution.
That's the problem right there. A newspaper is not an "institution," and its proprietors are not curators. It exists in the present tense, reborn every dawn. A good example of the ossification that occurs when you think of yourself as Ruth Marcus does is her opening paragraph.
#2
How long will the aristocracy last before the peasants rise?
We've been doing that right here at Rantburg since 9/12/2001, AlanC. The bloggers, agglomerators like Drudge Report, and professionals like The Blaze and PJ Media are the new media outlets who are replacing the traditional outlets like The Washington Post, et al.
#3
Sorry TW. I've been a 'burger for almost that long, not to mention a 'punditeer and an EU Ref dude.
We the peasants are muttering but I haven't seen much rising. The treatment of Palin et al by the aristocracy, whether Rino, Demo or bureaucrat, has not yet been effected.
I just hope I live long enough, I'm keeping my pitchfork sharp, just in case.
#8
"You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?"
Well, duh.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/09/2013 13:33 Comments ||
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#9
You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?
By any means necessary, the end justifies the means. Never forget this. We have to stop playing by the rules they make for us. We need to be ruthless and determined.
Posted by: Eohippus Scourge of the Platypi2917 ||
08/09/2013 14:18 Comments ||
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#10
You mean there is no limit beyond which they won't go?
The problem with this bon mot when applied to these vermin is that the implication that they object to the means.
These vile things (can't think of a real animal low enough) revel in the most gruesome, ghastly and perverted means of achieving their ends.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nawaz Sharif
