Middle East Update

I know that some of you are interested in the events in the Middle East. We have seen the riots in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya.  However, there are more things happenning in that part of the world than we hear from the media.  Today, I saw the following article which updates us on other countries that are also experiencing riots and protests.  For example, did you know there were riots in Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia or Oman?

A very large portion of our oil comes from this region and if that oil flow were to be disturbed, it would have dramatic effect on each one of us. We all need to pay attention and for that reason I am attaching the article to this posting.

Tell me what you think. Here is the article reproduced in full.

A Middle East on the Edge


Ryan Mauro - FrontPage Magazine, March 2nd, 2011


Almost every single government in the Middle East is on the edge or is in danger of severe destabilization. Protests continue to spread throughout the region and beyond in a domino effect that may be on the scale of the collapse of the communist East Bloc. However, the outcome may not be as positive as it is still very uncertain who will fill the power vacuum.

The revolution in Libya continues despite the horrific violence used by Qaddafi’s forces. Local police and military personnel continue to defect as the opposition advances towards Tripoli. There are frequent unconfirmed reports that the defected personnel and armed demonstrators are planning to travel to Tripoli to intervene. Qaddafi has offered no concessions except for a payment of $450 for every family. Europe is taking the lead in helping the Libyan opposition with France and the U.K. endorsing a no-fly zone over the country and Secretary of State Clinton says the U.S. is reaching out to the opposition. There were protests in Tripoli following Friday prayers last week and it should be expected again this week.

Opposition groups have publicized several dates for rallies in the region. On March 1, the Iranian opposition plans major protests after the arrests of the two top opposition leaders, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The regime was too afraid of a backlash to make this move until now, with the top prosecutor saying they would be put on trial “once public opinion is ready.” The regime may very well have over-played its hand this time, as a letter allegedly written by senior Revolutionary Guards officers in early February has surfaced where they said they would not open fire on protesters and demanded that the regime change its behavior.

On March 8, protests are going to be held in Kuwait by the Popular Action Bloc and Kuwaiti Progressive Group to try to force the resignation of the Prime Minister. A Facebook group is calling for protests throughout Syria on March 11, though there will likely be protests in front of the Libyan embassy before then. The Syrian security forces arrested 14 people and dispersed a gathering of about 200 people at the embassy recently. The regime is also preparing another aid package to appease the population. Anti-Assad graffiti is now appearing in Damascus and the regime is saying that the holiday of Nowruz on March 21 will not be celebrated, something the Kurds are not going to take lightly.

March 11 is also the day that Saudi activists are planning a protest in the Kingdom in favor of free elections, particularly for the Shura Council, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the release of political prisoners, an independent judiciary and significantly, changes to the religious order. Protests are also being planned for March 20 in Saudi Arabia. A letter has been signed by 100 businessmen, activists and academics calling for the creation of a constitutional monarchy and the reformists received clerical support from Sheikh Salman al-Ouda. King Abdullah has reacted to the pressure by announcing a massive $36 billion aid package and promising to spend $400 billion by 2014 on education, health care and infrastructure.

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his supporters are holding protests against Hezbollah on March 14. There were protests over the weekend already in Beirut where at least 500 gathered against the sectarianism of the government. One report said as many as 4,000 assembled and also demanded secular rule. Protests will be held the next day in the Palestinian territories to demand unity between Fatah and Hamas. In Gaza, Hamas just stamped out a demonstration of dozens of Palestinians for the release of political prisoners and freedoms. A Facebook group has been created to organize a protest in Qatar on March 16 to demand the resignation of the Emir, the cutting of ties to Israel and Iran and the dismantling of a major U.S. base there.

The unrest dramatically spread to Oman over the weekend when 2,000 protesters assembled in Sohar. They rioted, setting fire to a police station and supermarket. About 500 of them blocked truck deliveries to the port and the security forces intervened, killing between two and six people. Sultan Qaboos bin Said responded by announcing that $390 would be given to the unemployed every month and 50,000 government jobs would be created. A government delegation is being sent to negotiate with the protesters.

The protests in Bahrain continue to escalate with the largest one yet being held last week with over 100,000 participants. The government has released 308 political prisoners, shook up the government and allowed Shiite opposition leaders to return to the country. This has not stymied the protesters, who have now blockaded parliament.

The story is similar in Yemen. On February 25, over 100,000 protested across the country, including 30,000 in Sanaa. The opposition says it will not relent in its demand for the resignation of President Saleh and will not accept a unity government with his party. Eight members of parliament have quit his party and 59 are said to soon follow. A very powerful tribal chief, Hussein al-Ahmar, has joined the opposition and is calling on Saleh to step down. The President still has significant tribal support, though, as the northern tribes have confirmed their support for him and 11 tribal chiefs declared their endorsement for him on Sunday.

Protests of a much smaller size continue in Jordan. On February 25, protests were held in Amman. The government said there were 6,000 but the opposition said it was over 10,000.The Muslim Brotherhood played a major role but the rally was supported by 19 other parties and organizations. King Abdullah is slowly losing the support of tribes, with one staging a small protest and 36 tribal officials signing a letter calling for limits on his power.
Iraq saw nationwide protests on February 25 despite Prime Minister al-Maliki’s pleas not to join them, claiming they had been organized by Al-Qaeda and Baathists without giving any evidence. Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and Iranian ally Moqtada al-Sadr also said Iraqis shouldn’t take part, but they did anyway. Al-Maliki gave another concession and gave a 100-day deadline to all of his ministers to clear out corruption and carry out reforms or be dismissed.

The revolution in Libya seemed to provoke some protests in the Arab countries of Africa. Algeria had its first protest since the state of emergency ended. The Algerian press said about 500 turned out in Algiers but the opposition says it was above 5,000. Whatever the true number was, the protests have still declined from what they once were. Tens of thousands protested throughout Morocco as well in favor of limiting the power of King Mohammed VI even though the main Islamist organization was not involved. A protest against voter fraud was prevented in Sudan when over 100 security personnel surrounded the headquarters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

The Middle Eastern uprisings have spread well beyond the region, as reported here last week. Protests were again attempted in China over the weekend and the Cuban government is putting greater pressure on a group of mothers of political prisoners. A group of over 80 students ended their hunger strike in Venezuela after the government agreed to release seven political prisoners and negotiate further with them. There have been brief clashes in North Korea and South Korea is trying to spread the word to Kim Jong-Il’s population about the revolutions in the Middle East. In Vietnam, a democratic opposition leader was just arrested after calling for an uprising to overthrow the communist government.

A decisive point in history may be unfolding at this moment. As these governments teeter, forces for genuine democracy will battle the Islamists to write the next chapter. A new Middle East is being created but no one knows yet what it will look like or what it will mean for the West.

Obama's Islam Strategy

The article that follows should blow you away. For all of you who think that Obama is a blundering fool when it comes to foreign affairs, Dr. Mordechai Nisan puts a completely different spin. We, and I am one, who believed the "blundering" argument, may have been played like a Steinway piano.

Is it Obama's plan to make the world's main religion, Islam? Is he really a believer? Are the riots in the Middle East and north Africa a result of Obama's plan?

Read this article and you tell me.



Obama'a painfully obvious agenda
Godfather of Islamic Revolution?

By Dr. Mordechai Nisan,
Israel national News.com

Barack Hussein Obama may be the godfather of the Islamic revolution. The tempo and turmoil of regional events fit his agenda, and may be a result of his policies.

Radical transforming political developments in the Middle East and North Africa have given rise to criticism over the failure of President Obama's foreign policy. Pro-American regimes, as in Tunisia and Egypt, have virtually been toppled by mass protest in the name of ending corruption and nepotism, and demanding liberty and democracy, economic justice and social welfare for lower impoverished classes.

Other regional leaders, like King Abdullah in Jordan, are targeted by popular opposition, and in Lebanon the Western-oriented Hariri government has been brought down. The U.S.-supported Palestinian Abu Mazen regime has come on hard times, with the Qatari Al-Jazeera campaign undermining its political legitimacy. Iran-supported Hamas is the beneficiary of this development.

This political collapse in the Middle East is seen as a colossal defeat for Obama and American interests. Washington's allies have fallen, or are tottering, and hopes for moderation and stability seem to be shattered.

Obama's True Agenda

Since entering the White House, Obama has been transparent in promoting his views and policies. In the domestic arena, he favors construction of a large mosque near Ground Zero though a majority of Americans oppose this controversial step; he favored a civilian trial for 9/11 terror planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad despite popular views to the contrary; and he refused to describe the Fort Hood killing spree of thirteen soldiers by Muslim major Nidal Malik Hasan as a crime inspired by Islam.

The elevated status of Islam in America was already announced at Obama's inaugural address when he referred to America as a nation of "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus." The Jews had been surpassed by Muslims in the politico-religious hierarchy, while later Obama speaking in the name of America stated that "We are no longer a Christian nation." A clear instance of Islamic prioritization occurred when NASA's new mandate was ordered by Obama to be outreach to Muslim countries, and to make them feel good about their contribution to science.

In world politics, Obama promised that America will never go to war against Islam. His first presidential visits to Cairo and Ankara illustrated his exceptional friendship for Muslim countries; he avoided visiting Jerusalem. His sanctions campaign against Iran was sluggish and his support for the reformist protest following the June 2009 elections muted. The ayatollahs could relax with Obama in the White House.

Meanwhile, Obama has now sent an ambassador to Damascus to restore relations with that rogue state that has been allowing Iran and Hizbullah to freely engage in weapons smuggling across Syria's border into Lebanon. Recently on Obama's watch, the Iranian republic's surrogate terrorist subsidiary brought down the elected pro-Western government in Beirut.

And now we have reports that Washington was even involved earlier in supporting anti-Mubarak forces in Egypt, and when the massive street protests erupted in late January, Obama's administration advised him to act with restraint and initiate reforms. This is a historical playback to Carter helping deliver Iran under the shah into the hands of ayatollah Khomeini.

Obama's Islamic Paradigm Policy

There are different explanations of Obama's policies and goals in the region. Some say he is poorly advised or that he is politically naive. Perhaps he lacks judgment on strategic and political affairs in this rough Middle Eastern arena of precarious relations and duplicitous promises.

But a paradigm which fits Obama's record suggests that the tempo and turmoil of regional events fit his agenda, and may be a result of his policies. As a son of a Muslim father, Obama is on course to promote Islamization at home and abroad. In the Middle East, where popular religious forces threaten authoritarian regimes, Obama has placed America on the side of Islam. His is a historical role in furthering the expansion of radical Sharia Islam from his Oval Office in Washington. Hamas, while defined as a terrorist organization, received U.S. aid for the Gaza Strip under its rule.

Obama's agenda is succeeding brilliantly with the very list of events considered his failures in foreign policy in fact, highlighting his successes. Islamic takeovers in Lebanon and perhaps Egypt, maybe in Tunisia and Yemen, then Jordan, fulfill his vision in full glow. Thus, Egypt as a base of American strategy in the Middle East may be replaced by Egypt as a foundation for the spread of radical Islam in the world. When Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia in April 2009, he was not showing respect for the monarchy but deference to the Guardian of the Holy Cities of Islam. Maybe over a few generations Washington will be added, along with Rome, to the list of Islamic sacred sites.

It is Obama's radical liberalism and political leftism that bamboozle an appreciation of his Islamic agenda. After all, his support or sympathy for homosexuality and gay marriage, certainly abortion, is incongruent with Islamic law and custom. Yet President Obama stands simultaneously for Islamand liberalism, and the radical rupturing of traditional America can dialectically advance the process over the long-run for the victory of Islam. A morally fractured and spiritually distraught America will lead more of its young people, as is already happening, to embrace Islam. So too, Obama's call for liberty and democracy in the Arab world, as in Egypt, can enable the revolution by Islam.

Obama's Islam Strategy

For those of us who have thought that Obama was a blundering fool when it came to foreign policy and that he was the second coming of Jimmy Carter when we think of our dealings with other nations, the following article by Dr. Mordechai Nisan puts an entirely different spin on the entire issue.

Could it be the Middle East and north African riots are the result of his strategy? Is this what Obama really wants? Could Obama's goal to be the leader of an Islamic world?

We know his father was Muslim. We also know that he has not been a regular attendee of any religious services, in fact, I cannot ever remember him attending any, but I could be wrong. He did bow down to the King of Saudi Arabia, what did that mean?

Read this article, I would like to know what you think.



Obama'a painfully obvious agenda
Godfather of Islamic Revolution?

By Dr. Mordechai Nisan,
Israel national News.com

Barack Hussein Obama may be the godfather of the Islamic revolution. The tempo and turmoil of regional events fit his agenda, and may be a result of his policies.

Radical transforming political developments in the Middle East and North Africa have given rise to criticism over the failure of President Obama's foreign policy. Pro-American regimes, as in Tunisia and Egypt, have virtually been toppled by mass protest in the name of ending corruption and nepotism, and demanding liberty and democracy, economic justice and social welfare for lower impoverished classes.

Other regional leaders, like King Abdullah in Jordan, are targeted by popular opposition, and in Lebanon the Western-oriented Hariri government has been brought down. The U.S.-supported Palestinian Abu Mazen regime has come on hard times, with the Qatari Al-Jazeera campaign undermining its political legitimacy. Iran-supported Hamas is the beneficiary of this development.

This political collapse in the Middle East is seen as a colossal defeat for Obama and American interests. Washington's allies have fallen, or are tottering, and hopes for moderation and stability seem to be shattered.

Obama's True Agenda

Since entering the White House, Obama has been transparent in promoting his views and policies. In the domestic arena, he favors construction of a large mosque near Ground Zero though a majority of Americans oppose this controversial step; he favored a civilian trial for 9/11 terror planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad despite popular views to the contrary; and he refused to describe the Fort Hood killing spree of thirteen soldiers by Muslim major Nidal Malik Hasan as a crime inspired by Islam.

The elevated status of Islam in America was already announced at Obama's inaugural address when he referred to America as a nation of "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus." The Jews had been surpassed by Muslims in the politico-religious hierarchy, while later Obama speaking in the name of America stated that "We are no longer a Christian nation." A clear instance of Islamic prioritization occurred when NASA's new mandate was ordered by Obama to be outreach to Muslim countries, and to make them feel good about their contribution to science.

In world politics, Obama promised that America will never go to war against Islam. His first presidential visits to Cairo and Ankara illustrated his exceptional friendship for Muslim countries; he avoided visiting Jerusalem. His sanctions campaign against Iran was sluggish and his support for the reformist protest following the June 2009 elections muted. The ayatollahs could relax with Obama in the White House.

Meanwhile, Obama has now sent an ambassador to Damascus to restore relations with that rogue state that has been allowing Iran and Hizbullah to freely engage in weapons smuggling across Syria's border into Lebanon. Recently on Obama's watch, the Iranian republic's surrogate terrorist subsidiary brought down the elected pro-Western government in Beirut.

And now we have reports that Washington was even involved earlier in supporting anti-Mubarak forces in Egypt, and when the massive street protests erupted in late January, Obama's administration advised him to act with restraint and initiate reforms. This is a historical playback to Carter helping deliver Iran under the shah into the hands of ayatollah Khomeini.

Obama's Islamic Paradigm Policy

There are different explanations of Obama's policies and goals in the region. Some say he is poorly advised or that he is politically naive. Perhaps he lacks judgment on strategic and political affairs in this rough Middle Eastern arena of precarious relations and duplicitous promises.

But a paradigm which fits Obama's record suggests that the tempo and turmoil of regional events fit his agenda, and may be a result of his policies. As a son of a Muslim father, Obama is on course to promote Islamization at home and abroad. In the Middle East, where popular religious forces threaten authoritarian regimes, Obama has placed America on the side of Islam. His is a historical role in furthering the expansion of radical Sharia Islam from his Oval Office in Washington. Hamas, while defined as a terrorist organization, received U.S. aid for the Gaza Strip under its rule.

Obama's agenda is succeeding brilliantly with the very list of events considered his failures in foreign policy in fact, highlighting his successes. Islamic takeovers in Lebanon and perhaps Egypt, maybe in Tunisia and Yemen, then Jordan, fulfill his vision in full glow. Thus, Egypt as a base of American strategy in the Middle East may be replaced by Egypt as a foundation for the spread of radical Islam in the world. When Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia in April 2009, he was not showing respect for the monarchy but deference to the Guardian of the Holy Cities of Islam. Maybe over a few generations Washington will be added, along with Rome, to the list of Islamic sacred sites.

It is Obama's radical liberalism and political leftism that bamboozle an appreciation of his Islamic agenda. After all, his support or sympathy for homosexuality and gay marriage, certainly abortion, is incongruent with Islamic law and custom. Yet President Obama stands simultaneously for Islamand liberalism, and the radical rupturing of traditional America can dialectically advance the process over the long-run for the victory of Islam. A morally fractured and spiritually distraught America will lead more of its young people, as is already happening, to embrace Islam. So too, Obama's call for liberty and democracy in the Arab world, as in Egypt, can enable the revolution by Islam.