Treasury undersecretary Stuart A. Levey told Congress that, “Saudi Arabia remains the world’s leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow“.
Well duh.
Category: Middle East
Same Old, Same Old
Rockets and air strikes in Gaza.
**sigh**
Cheney on Peace Mission? That’s Like a Prostitute On a Chastity Mission
I swear, Bush and His Evil Minions™ exceed my wildest dreams of satire.
No oiffense to the good folks at The Onion, but this exceeds everyone’s capacity for satire.
Gaaahhh!!
Boy, Those Arabs Just Love the Palestinians
Israeli airstrike damages Hamas premier’s office – CNN.com
Well, this weekend in Israel and Gaza has been eventful, complete with an Israeli airstrike on the Hamas premier’s office.
Don’t really have much to add though.
Reports that Hizbullah Had Role is Assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, It’s Chief of Operations
This Report is very brief, and it’s from the Jerusalem Post which is pretty right wing, though they claim that the report came from the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
They are asserting some sort of power struggle.
I have no clue what to make of it.
Turkey Launches Incursion into Kurdistan
Not good, and the insertion of ground troops into Northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK fighters is likely to destabilize the region, and possibly lead to ethnic reprisals against the local Turkomen.
House of Saud Threatened UK With Terrorist Attacks If Bribery Was Investigated
The Guardian is reporting that the House of Saud threatened to help terrorists if the British government continued to investigate the bribes paid to Saudi Prince Bandar.
Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.
Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.
Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.
It should be noted that one of Bandar’s nicknames is “Bandar Bush”, because he is considered a sort of virtual member of the Bush clan by the family.
One of the future goals of any future US administration should be the removal from power of the House of Saud, and the imprisonment of those who held the reigns of power.
Hezbollah Leader Killed in Explosion
Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a Damascus explosion.
Hezbollah, which translates to GOP in Arabic*, has claimed that the Israelis were responsible, though the Olmert government has denied responsibility.
Considering this guy’s rap sheet, the barracks bombing in ’83, plane hijackings, etc., I’m not heartbroken.
*This is not really true. It’s kind of the reverse almost true. There are any number of people in the Republican party who have either directly, or indirectly claimed that it is the “party of God”, which is what Hezbollah means in Arabic.
Military Incursion Into Gaza Likely: Israeli Defense Minister
This is not good, but nothing ever is in the Middle East.
The Israeli defence minister warned today that armed forces were preparing for a broad offensive against Gaza in response to rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns.
Posted Without Comment – Palestinian Edition
CAIRO, Egypt: Egypt’s foreign minister said that no further violations of its borders would be tolerated in the wake of a 12-day breach of its frontier with Gaza and said anyone daring to cross would have their legs broken, the state news agency reported.
…
“Anyone who violates Egypt’s borders will get his leg broken,” Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying. He added that Egypt only allowed the Palestinians to cross the border after Hamas blew up the wall because of fears over the humanitarian situation resulting from Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Sy Hersh on Israel’s Strike on Syria
He has a good summary of the circumstances surrounding the Israeli air strike on Syria on September 6, 2007.
Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers there.
I still don’t think that it was a nuclear program, Syria is 5 years away from having a meaningful nuclear power infrastructure, but my predictive powers suck wet farts from dead pigeons.
The Fruits of Operation Iraqi Freedom: Afghanistan Risks Becoming Failed State
We have no resources there, because we are tied down in Iraq.
Turkish Ultranationalists Arrested
One of the dirty secrets of Turkey has been that there have been paramilitary ultra-nationalist hit squads operating with the tacit approval of the Turkish state security apparatus.
Well, 13 have now been arrested by Turkish authorities. My guess is that the new religious leadership in Istanbul, such as Erdogan, see the ultra-nationalists as a personal threat (they are correct), and so they are cracking down.
Fatah Refuses Egyptian Offer of Talks with Hamas
Notwithstanding the Israeli disengagement there, I think that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recognizes how inconsequential and how screwed up Gaza is, and so he is snubbing the Egyptian offer of mediating talks with Hamas because he does not want the region.
That makes three governmental entities that have said they don’t want anything to do with it now.
Ignoring Israeli-Palestinian issues, Gaza has nothing going for it as a geographical entity.
Let’s see what you have by way of pluses and minuses with Gaza:
Minuses:
- Overpopulated.
- No economy to speak of.
- This is independent of the blockade. There is simply thing there in the way of meaningful economic development.
- Not enough drinkable water, the water in Gaza is increasingly saline, and now well beyond UN health standards, as a result of over subscription of the aquifer, and subsequent infiltration from the Med.
- BTW, this has their only industry, agriculture, living on borrowed time.
- Medieval social structure, even by the standards of Arab society, with clan loyalties trumping everything else.
Pluses:
- Ummmm…..Maybe a decent soccer team?
Egypt begins closing Gaza border, five killed in airstrikes – 3rd Update : Middle East World
Now that the Israelis are saying, fine, “you broke the border, you own it”, to Egypt, it appears that Egypt has started cracking down on the border.
Gaza has no real economy, not enough water, no resources, and a bunch of very pissed off residents, so it’s no surprise that it’s becoming a hot potato.
Bush Does Not Care About the Facts
Yes, Bush has has disavowed the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that said that Iran has terminated it’s nuclear weapons program, and that they respond to international pressure.
The ability to accept reality, and then change one’s plans to accomodate it, is what separates the sane from the insane.
“Filipino Monkey” May Have Created International Incident
Said “monekey” is a prankster who routinely broadcasts stuff like the “Iranian threats” in that region of the world.
The US Navy, and the Bush administration, got Punk’d.
Then again, they are desperate to find a reason to go to war with Iran.
Israel-Gaza Conflict Heating Up
Over the past few days, there have been a series of rocket launches from Gaza, and airstrikes into Gaza, culminating (at least for now) in an Israeli airstrike killing Majed al-Harazin, one of Islamic Jihad’s top leaders.
Another day in the Middle East…***sigh***
IDF Planning Groud Assault on Gaza
This Aviation Week Articls (Paid Subscription Required) mentions a number of issues and complications:
- That any decision on a ground assault would be influenced by the outcome of PA/Israeli negotiations.
- The article implies that a failure in negotiations would lead to a ground action, but I see it as being the other way around. As long as their fingerprints are not on it, the PLO/Fatah would love to see the IDF assaulting Hamas and Islamic Jihad, they are their rivals.
- The high population density makes operations difficult.
- The tunneling operations can reduce the utility of air assets significantly.
- Uncertainty as to the actual size of the opposing force.
- FWIW, I think that Hamas is uncertain of this too. Much of the goodwill that they used to win in parliamentary elections has been exhausted, and so it is unclear how many of their irregular forces will take up arms if directed to do so.
As the joke goes, “Yes, but this is the middle east.”