Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi not captured, gives interview, cheered by crowds, claims to control Tripoli
Comment: I have no idea of what is really going on in Tripoli or the rest of Libya. The only thing which is clear is that NATO and its local puppets are lying through their teeth about the reality of the situation. It might well be that tomorrow I will wake up to hear about the complete triumph of the anti-Gaddafi forces. But if what Saif al-Islam says is true, and the insurgents were in reality lured into the city only to be better trapped and attacked?
Monday, August 22, 2011
They Better Run For Their Lives
by Gilad Atzmon
I have been monitoring the Hebrew press for the last three days and it is increasingly obvious to me and others, that no one out there, including Israeli top analysts, understands where the current escalation is leading.
However, a few things are becoming clear:
1. The so-called ‘Jewish spring’, known also as the Israeli ‘tents protest’, has been easily dismantled. The Israelis seems to be far more enthusiastic about wars than social justice. The naïve thinkers who believed that Israel was heading toward a 'social revolution' will have to eat their words once again.
2. The nature of the clash in the Egyptian border is far from being clear; yet, it is obvious that the IDF was caught unprepared. In reality, Eilat, the Israeli southern tourist resort, is in immanent danger of being cut off from the rest of the country. Israel, so it seems, doesn’t have the military answers to such a scenario.
3. The Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ anti missile system cannot provide the answers to the Palestinian's growing ballistic capability. It manages to intercept some missiles, but most missiles reach their destinations.
4. In spite of a further deterioration in its military power of deterrence, Israel is reluctant to deploy large forces into Gaza. Needles to mention that this is good news.
A few explanations for that reluctance are as follows:
A. Israel doesn’t possess the military means to impose a change in Gaza.
B. Israel is aware of the damage a ground operation may inflict on its public image.
C. Considering the volatile situation in the Middle East and in Egypt, any Israeli operation could easily lead to mass protest that would erase what is left of American interests in the region. Consequently, Israel holds back and swallows the bitter pill.
D. Israel also comes to realise that its security is dependent on Hamas’ strength. Thus, it prefers to negotiate a truce, hoping that the Hamas would become ‘Palestinian Authority number 2’. Israel still fails to grasp that resilience is an inherent reaction to oppression.
Conclusion
The sum of 1-4 may well prove to be devastating for the Israelis. There is no prospect of a future for the Jewish State in the region. Israel’s military might is proving to be dysfunctional, and unable to suitably deal with the conflict and its nature.
All those aeroplanes, tanks and nuclear bombs, increasingly, appear as futile.
In fact, there is not much that Israelis can do for themselves unless they, once and for all, attempt to grasp the true meaning of peace and reconciliation. Otherwise Israelis better run for their lives.
More and more of them are doing that, just as I did many years ago.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on August 17, 2011.
Ladies and dear sisters! Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
I thank you all for your presence on this occasion on the holy Month of Ramadan in which the Women's Branch in the Islamic Resistance Support Association in Lebanon gathers us. I extend my regards to all the presence in the six different places: in Beirut in Sayyeda Khadeja Charity, Baalbeck, Saida, Tyr, Nabatiyeh and Tiri. We ask Allah Al Mighty to make it a blessed year and hundred returns with blessings for all. The Resistance gathers us in this occasion - whether those who believe in it or those who support it. Thus I will go straight into the core of my speech without the need for preludes especially that I want to take few moments from this meeting to comment on what was published today concerning the so called indictment in a way that goes with the occasion and within the time limit though there is much to be said on the text and content of what was published today.
As far as the Resistance is concerned there are several related topics:
First, the magnitude of sacrifices;
Second, the magnitude of achievements;
Third, the magnitude of targeting this Resistance which made many sacrifices and achievements;
Fourth, the magnitude of expectations, hopes and bargains on this Resistance.
As for the first topic, it goes without saying that there hasn't been in history a resistance which hasn't offered sacrifices. When a people decide to restore their occupied land, sovereignty and dignity through efforts and resisting, they have to make sacrifices. The sacrifices of the Resistance in Lebanon were great, huge and very valuable. When I talk about sacrifices, I talk about all the Resistance factions in Lebanon. I do not mean Hezbollah only but rather all the factions and forces which had their share in this Resistance since the very beginning. I also mean the offerings of the Lebanese Army, the Lebanese Security Forces as well as the valuable sacrifices made by the Lebanese people especially women, children and the armless people. When we talk about sacrifices, we mean tens of thousands of martyrs, tens of thousands of wounded, thousands of Lebanese young men and women who were detained in prisons and detention centers, tens of thousands of residential units which were demolished during the years of occupation and war, what have afflicted people's wealth and fields and what have afflicted the national economy. Our aim from talking about sacrifices is always reminding ourselves that the achievements we made were not for free. Rather they were the result of these great sacrifices. That makes us more interested in the achievement, in preserving the victory so as not to lose it because its price was this dear and precious blood. Thus also we know the worth of those who offered sacrifices. Even more, we must appreciate those who offered sacrifices in our Lebanese society and in all societies, and give a special status to the families of martyrs, wounded, freed prisoners and prisoners who are still in detention, the people who remained steadfast and offered support and the people who assumed the repercussions of the Resistance. We must respect these sacrifices and the people who offered them.
So as far as the first topic is concerned and as for the Resistance in Lebanon and in any resistance whether in Palestine, Iraq or any place, we are before great sacrifices which we must respect and appreciate. These sacrifices as well make us assume national and moral responsibilities.
Secondly, we will handle the magnitude of the achievements. Since the beginning, this Resistance with all its factions, efforts, very existence and pillars – I reiterate I mean the Resistance, army and people – could make great achievements and victories on the domestic as well as on the national level: liberating the Lebanese territories unconditionally and the withdrawal of the enemy with humiliation and defeat on May 25, 2000 with the exception of some Lebanese territories namely Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shuba Hills and the Lebanese part of Al Ghajar. However the greater and more important part of the territories was restored to the nation. The prisoners were freed with the exception of some case which must be followed because there is argument between us and the Israelis. We say they are alive; they say they died. There is an argument over their bodies. However, this file remains open. Anyway, at least those who are alive and whose cases are undisputed were freed. Our waters were liberated from the greed of the Israelis in Al Wazani waters. Now if Lebanon is not benefiting from its waters, this is a Lebanese problem which has nothing to do with the struggle with the Israeli enemy. Among the achievements are the victory and the steadfastness which took place during July War and the repercussions on the Israeli entity itself and on the Arab-Israeli conflict in general. Consequently, the regional dimension of the Resistance achievements on Palestine and the Arab cause in general are among the achievements of the Resistance. In this perspective comes the threefold equation for protecting the country, deterring the Israeli enemy from staging aggressions against Lebanon prior and following July War up till now and despite the greed of the Zionists in our land, water and wealth which has extended lately to reach our oil wealth which we are all aware of and which needs to be protected. Not only the oil wealth which is in the economic region which is so called disputed need to be protected but also the oil wealth in the economic region which is said to be undisputed needs that. So should excavating and drilling companies come to work even in the Lebanese economic region in the sea which Israel acknowledges is an economic region for Lebanon, these companies and facilities need protection. How are we to offer them protection? Is it through the International Security Council, or through international resolutions or through our own power? These achievements mounted to make Lebanon - which was always on the margin and outside the equation - forcefully present in the regional equation. It is impossible anymore that any solution and settlement take place in the region at the expense of Lebanon or without taking the interests of Lebanon into consideration as it always used to take place.
The third point is the magnitude of target. Here I would like to say: My sisters! You must know that the Israelis from the very first days along with the Americans and all their accomplices in the project have done all what they are able to do. In the future, they will do all what they can do as well. They have no legal or moral or humanistic or lawful source of deterrence that prevents them from attacking the Resistance whose only sin and crime are that it fought to restore the land, restore the sovereignty and dignity, free the prisoners and preserve the national energy and demand rights. This is the sin of the Resistance and that is why it is always targeted. That's because it's an element of strength, an element of dignity and an element which enables Lebanon and other countries to stand erect and preserve their rights or demand their usurped rights. This took place in Lebanon, in Palestine and everywhere. Under the title of targets comes killing the cadres and leaders of the Resistance. Martyr Sayyed Abbass Mussawi and Martyr Sheikh Ragheb Harb among a great number of our cadres and leaders were assassinated during all the past years. Other targets are arrests, imprisonments, detentions, drying the financing sources, psychological and moral wars - meaning the incessant threats to Lebanon, the infrastructure, the Lebanese people and the Lebanese Army, the Resistance – and military wars. This Resistance in Lebanon led at least three military wars: July 1993, April 1996 and July 2006. The aim of the military war is to crush the Resistance and put an end to it. All these wars were frustrated. All attempts of political isolation on the domestic, national and international levels failed. Even killing the leaders and cadres had counter effects. That made the Resistance more determined and furnished it with a great moral thrust, a sense of being oppressed and a greater belief that this path can't be abandoned after offering this great number of martyrs. We also mention what used to take place since the very first day and is still taking place up till now – namely distorting the image and reputation of the Resistance and misleading the public opinion on the Resistance, its targets, background and authenticity. However what is taking place lately – that's what I want to assert most in my speech – is worse than distorting an image. That's because they failed in their attempt to distort our image. I tell you that they failed as all polls in Lebanon, in the Arab world and in the Islamic world show today that this Resistance still enjoys very great respect in Lebanon and the region. However what is taking place now is worse than the attempt to distort the image which failed and for which millions of dollars were spent. They even acknowledge that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent. What is taking place now is an attempt to strike and smash up the humanistic and social textile in Lebanon and set the atmosphere and background of factional and sectarian wars and sporadic civil wars. The final goal of such deeds is dragging the Resistance into ordeals and internal wars, and thus hitting the Resistance and toppling the authenticity of the Resistance. This is what is taking place now. I will give examples on that because we are all concerned in confronting what I do not want to call distorting the image of the Resistance. I would rather call it attacking the Resistance through striking the humanistic, social, sectarian textile in Lebanon. Are we able to confront that? Yes.
As we could confront all the previous targets and conspiracies, frustrate them and overcome them, we can frustrate this target. I will talk more on this point in a while.
We may confront and frustrate this great event through being aware and responsible as I will clarify in a while.
What do I mean by smashing up the social, political and humanistic textile in Lebanon?
Let's not hide behind our fingers. We all know that Lebanon is the country of sects. It is ruled with a sectarian composition. This is a fact. In as much as the relations between sects and their peoples and leaderships are good, strong, humanistic, moral and kind, the country will be ruled with cooperation, development and enhancement and will overcome all risks and challenges. On the other hand, in as much as the relations between and among sects especially are tense, convulsive and disputed and ruled with the logic of enmity and loath, nothing in this country may move forward properly or be reformed. On the contrary, the leaderships who are responsible of sabotaging relations between sects in Lebanon are putting Lebanon on the path of annihilation, execution and being lost and smashed. This is the status quo in Lebanon. In countries other than Lebanon, things might not be as such. However in Lebanon whether we liked it or not the composition is as such. Everything in Lebanon takes a sectarian dimension instantly. Up till today, if anyone buys a piece of land to build a school on, his act will take a sectarian dimension. A trivial security incident takes a sectarian dimension. They are working now on sabotaging the relations between the Lebanese sects and taking them to the farthest level of grudge and loathe, mistrust and enmity. Consequently, there remains no place for meeting, dialogue, cooperation and understanding to address local problems and to confront regional challenges thus to blow up the country as what took place in the past and put an end to it. So the target is Lebanon as a whole. However the target in particular is the Resistance which is embraced by the majority of the Lebanese.
If we are to interpret this idea without hiding behind our finger as I like to be transparent and clear we say: How do some internal and external sides act today? They act as if the essential Resistance currently belongs to the Shiite sect in Lebanon. As regarding the geographic fact, the Resistance exists on the border and it has direct contact with the Israelis. However, the majority in Lebanon embrace the Resistance apart from its belonging to a definite sect because they view the Resistance as a national cause, national responsibility and a national stance.
What are they doing? They want to focus on the relations between Christians and Sunnites and the extent to which they can sabotage them as well as the relations between the Christians and Druze and the relations among the Christians. They are working on all these levels. However the focus at this stage has to do with sabotaging all what has to do with the relations between Shiites and Sunnites, Shiites and Christians and Shiites and Druze. They are working on this. Well this has nothing to do with distorting the image but rather with sabotaging relations at a broader level. This is what they are working at through politics, the media, fabrications and accusations. I will not give evidences from a year, two, three, four or five ago. They are evidences which rather took place two or three weeks ago. At most they took place two or three months ago. Though they might be trivial evidences, they show the methodology and the mentality through which they act.
However, I would like to begin with giving evidences by what took place today to give it priority. It has to do with the indictment. Indeed at previous times we talked lengthily to the effect that the STL is moving in this perspective. It focused on one supposition. It refused to work on any other suppositions despite the existence of indications and conditional evidences through which Israel might be accused or investigating Israel would be valid. Still they are moving on that track and through the past period of time they accused four honorable Resistance men. Today either the complete text or the greater part of what is called the indictment of these Resistance men was published.
Some time ago, I was holding a discussion with the brethrens. I told them that if they were smart they won't publish the indictment or its content. They would rather defer that to the tribunal in abstentia and remain manipulating before us for two, three, four or five month. Only Allah knows until when. However may Allah make luck at our side and they publish the indictment. That's because when the indictment is published, that'll be something good. People would read and see this indictment and this great operation which they are working on internationally - and allow me to say on the Arab and local level. What is its magnitude? What is it based on? How much objective, practical and factual is it? Anyway, I advice all those interested as well as the people to read the whole text though it consists of 45 pages because the issue is essential and a turning point. Here I assert to you that the group I will talk about today started since the first day and will hold a campaign in the coming few days in which they would praise the objectivity and practicality of what the indictment was based on saying they are firm, strong and decisive evidences and this is what indictment itself does not say. I assert that the overwhelming majority of those who will say that did not in fact read the indictment. They will not bother themselves to read 45 pages. However some will write on their behalf and publish under their names. This is what takes place in Lebanon. Indeed in Lebanon when you see 20 to 30 positions issued at a time that does not mean that everyone of them sat down and wrote; rather it was written and published on their names. You know how such things move in Lebanon. Consider what I will say now a primarily comment on my behalf on what was published today. Here I will say the following:
First, what was published stresses the validity of what we have said during the past months and the past two years to the effect that this investigation is neither transparent nor scientific nor professional. This investigation has been leaked through Der Spiegel and Israeli, Arab and foreign newspapers. The Canadian CBC TV also published this indictment.
Frankly speaking, I call on all the Lebanese and non Lebanese to go back to Der Spiegel and the Canadian CBC TV and what was published in the past and compare it with this text. Let them see the faces of congruency and similarity in many places. Now they tried to hide some phone numbers and other details to say that the indictment is not wholly leaked. However this is it. So everything we used to say on leakage and Bellemare as well as the STL used to deny while saying that no one is getting acquainted with the report and the investigation came to be true. Today their claims have been decisively confirmed. The proof is this published text. See the concordance between the text and Dir Spiegel, Le Figaro, Kuwaiti Asseyassiyeh, Yadiot Ahranot, Canadian CBC and others. This asserts that the investigation was not confidential by any means. Everything was written in newspapers since 2009 and 2010 and even back since 2006.
The whole text does not provide any direct evidence. The only thing the indictment is based on is solely telecommunications data. Even more, in communication, the indictment refers to coincidence. So it is not based on that this phone number is in the net that assassinated. It is with so and so. It rather says that the number coincides in place and time with the number of so and so and with another that belongs to so and so. All what it depends on is communication. That needs much interpretation and time. They are few analyses and conclusions which have no legal value. Thus we find that the text repetitively and frequently uses the term "It is possible to conclude" or "It might be concluded in a possible way" or "Since cadres in Hezbollah in the 80s did such operations, it is possible that they do such an operation". What kind of evidence is this?
Anyway, as far as telecommunication is concerned there are two types of discussion:
The first discussion: Through the past year, through official sides, international conferences, international specialists and technicians and the Israeli collaborators who were arrested in the field of communication, the magnitude of Israeli technical and security control on the telecommunication sector in Lebanon was decisively asserted besides the Israeli and others' capability to manipulate the data, fabricating phone numbers and illusionary calls and even using phone numbers that belong to definite persons without their knowledge. This has been proven technically. This alone is enough to challenge the credibility of the communication evidences which the indictment claims resorting to.
Second: Even if we gave in and abandoned all this issue saying that there is no manipulation or Israeli intervention, no one is changing the data, no one fabricated phone calls and no one constructed place coincidences, what was mentioned is not sufficient to be an evidence. It is not a proof. This is even the viewpoint of senior judges who are specialized in this domain.
In all cases, the text is between our hands. It is based on conclusion and analysis and not on direct evidences. They are rather conditional evidences with challenged credibility.
To you sisters and to all the public opinion who are listening to me I say: Today we are more confident that what is taking place is of a high level of injustice, politicization and accusation. These honorable Resistance men should not even be referred to as accused. This is slander, and they are accused by this slander.
Anyway, I will stop here to carry on in my speech. The indictment which was issued today needs more scrutiny and analysis. This is what the brethrens in Hezbollah will dedicate themselves to during the coming few days. The appropriate comments will be thus issued Inshallah.
Going back to my speech, what does this act mean today? This act took place and names were made public while the ministerial statement was being discussed and confidence was being given to Premier Mikati. So it took place on particular timings just as when this issue was being evoked in the past. It is clear that since 2006 – August 2006 and following the war up till today – there has been a clear effort to sabotage the national relations especially between Sunnites and Shiites. Indeed now we are not talking anymore about martyr Premier Rafiq Hariri. Now we are talking about tens of martyrs, hundreds of wounded and hundreds of harmed and the like. Well as far as the Shiite-Sunnite issue is concerned, lately they tried to broaden the circle of accusation and link operations together until reaching the assassination of the leader of the Resistance Martyr George Hawi. Instead of being an indication to accuse Israel, they added this assassination to the others in which they accuse innocent oppressed at a time we all know that the first one to benefit and the first historic revenge seeker from George Hawi is Israel due to the position of this man and his party in the Resistance.
On the level of the other sects, they work on the same track. I will give small examples as evidences. If we add these evidences, they'll be numerous but I do not want to bother you with saying much.
The first evidence is the blast of Antelias. It is a simple incident. Two young men quarreled over money. It was not even proved that one of them wanted to throw the bomb on the other. Perhaps he was threatening or frightening him - Only Allah knows. The bomb exploded, and both men died. Their corpses were still on the ground. O people! I will tell you about the mentality and the methodology. The corpses were still on the ground; still March 14 media outlets and figures started saying - even before the security apparatus and the judiciary body started investigation and before anyone knew what took place – that it was proved these two men came to plant a bomb in Antelias. What was the topic which was used? They used targeting the security of the Christian regions! As soon as the names of the men were known and it was revealed that they belong to a definite sect – meaning they are Shiites - they immediately started their fabrications. The goal is to plant a bomb to threat and target the security of the Christian region. Can anyone tell me what is the aim of this logic which was not said by one figure or two? Lengthy statements and wordy speeches were made. TV outlets made a scoop of it. Websites wrote on this topic for days. Some even openly claimed that Hezbollah was behind the incident. They said that Hezbollah dispatched these men to plant a bomb to target the security of the Christian regions. Note that in the case of the bombing in Ain Alaq, though they knew the doer and he was arrested and tried, they still insist on accusing a definite sect – namely Shiites. They mean to tell the Christians in Lebanon: The Shiites are targeting the security of your region, the security of your men, women and children and the security of your economy and tourism. They waged a campaign based on Antelias bomb. For three or four days they did not stop. They did not take into consideration that it's summer - the tourism season in Lebanon. People might become afraid of going to that place. In fact, it is March 14 Bloc in the first place who is harming morals and afflicting peace, security and economy in the Christian regions. See the accusing conspiring mind they act with any simple incident. Since the first day, we were sure and we knew through the security forces and through sides in the Lebanese judiciary that the issue is that of a bomb and that it is a personal incident. Still, we said let’s wait the official investigation and the judicial verdict. Still nobody was ready to listen. With March 14 Bloc, there’s nothing called investigation, waiting or a true search for the truth. There is always an anticipated accusation and an anticipated verdict. So it is not only an anticipated accusation but also a ready anticipated verdict. They detect anything to comment on and issue verdicts on. This is one example.
I'll give another example on the Christian level before moving to the Druze level. I move to the conflict in the town of Lassa. I saw faces from March 14 dignitaries who talked on the problem of Lassa as if they were talking about the Resurrection Church in Al Qods. I then praised Allah. What took place in Lassa – a small village in Jbeil? There is a dispute over real estate between the town's residences and the Maronite church. They shed light on this dispute and made a big story about it. They worked on it for a week or two what complicates and does not solve the story. They accused Hezbollah in particular. Then they broadened the scope of accusation and accused the Shiites in Bin Jbeil of occupying the land of the Christians. This is the language which was used.
I swear by Allah Al Mighty that I didn't understand the story before they made their attack. I didn't know that there is a problem in Lassa. I asked the brethrens to explain the problem in Lassa around which all this fuzz was made. Then it came to be that the problem is 70 or 80 years old. So it existed before I and perhaps my father was born. It existed before all those who belong to Hezbollah, Amal Movement or the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council were born. The issue has to do with real estate. It is an old rusty issue. It was addressed legally and judicially. A committee from the residences and the patriarchy was formed to address the issue. All of a sudden and at a political moment, the issue of Lassa was evoked to tell the Christians in Lebanon that you are targeted and see what you can do. What is the whole story? The whole story is Lassa.
On the Druze level, the story is funnier and you know I like to say things as they are. Few days ago, one of the brethrens in the Social Progressive Party called me saying that there is a definite state in the Mount. There is a state of fear, panic and anxiety among people. People want arms. They want to get armed. Well what is the story? They said that there is a hill near Aley which overlooks the region. It is a strategic hill and Hezbollah is erecting sand barricades there. Then March 14 Bloc websites were activated and some newspapers wrote headlines saying that cannons and rocket platforms were installed with the aim of addressing Mr. Walid Jumblat and the Socialist Progressive Party with a definite message. So they evoked a bad atmosphere. I started laughing when he told me so. I asked him: Where? He said in Aley! Who went to erect the barricades in Aley? Well there is no problem. Aren't we the people who search for the truth? Let a man from Hezbollah and another from the Socialist Progressive Party go there and spot the sand which was said to be barricades and ask who brought them there so that we understand the story. Then it was revealed that the story has to do with the mayor. In fact, he is affiliated to the Socialist Progressive Party or a supporter or a friend of the party. As a municipality along with some people, they placed the rubbles there. That had to do with a definite thing that has to do with the municipality and those people in particular. The issue had no security or military characteristic. It has nothing to do with Hezbollah or Shiites by whatever means. Still they fabricated on it for four or five days, security messages or political messages to the effect of targeting alliances and practicing pressure.
Well who benefits from that? Even if we talked about the peace, security and stability of people, who is benefiting from that? Who is making people feel worried? Isn't it this media and these anticipated verdicts? Even on the economic level, is Aley or Dahiyeh a tourism region? Who is being hurt even on the economic or tourism level? However when that team work, they do not see tourism or economy or people's stability or fears. Well let the people be at peace for a couple of days. But no, that is impossible. They give the true incident magnified untrue dimensions and they also depict the untrue incident as true and try to build endless analyses on it. If I am to give you more evidences that will take much time. However I liked to say that much to say that this methodology and mentality are the very mentality and methodology we saw on February 14, 2005. The body of Martyr Rafiq Hariri was still on the ground to be taken to the hospital when the accusation was made and the verdict was issued: Syria, the joint Lebanese-Syrian security system, the four officials, the security apparatuses… They were unjust to people. They hurled them in jail from the very first hour. They did not wait for the investigation, justice and courts…
I also want to make you laugh a little more. I told the brethrens that it seems we have to make a tour over the houses in Dahiyeh for example to make sure there are safety valves so that no gas bottle explodes again. Now we became responsible even if a gas bottle explodes in Dahiyeh. For four or five days we remained explaining and stressing that it was a gas bottle. They said that so and so was martyred. Then they say the so and so cadre was killed. At times they say the son of the so and so cadre was killed. The Israeli media also adds to their stories. Well is it possible that a leader, a cadre or the son of a cadre in Hezbollah may be martyred and we hide that? Where do we hide our martyrs? Still they insist on their fabrications stubbornly.
Now, I am not joking. There is a team in Lebanon who is linked to a great project which failed in everything. Now you ask me: Is it possible that they do that? They do even more. During July War they provided the Israelis with advices. They made demands on the Israelis and put conditions for the ceasefire which are to the interest of Israel. Allow me along all the jokes we said to say this phrase and relieve myself: The gloomy, dark, miserable, desperate faces which we saw on August 14, 2006 do even more than that.
Well we have this mentality. On the contrary, this is our country. The people are our people. All the sects are our people whether Shiites, Sunnites, Druze or Christians in all regions. We are a people who want to live together. We want to carry on together. We want to solve our problems together. If we did not cooperate, unite, harmonize and agree, how are we to build our country and address our crises? We will confront even this? How? That is possible through being aware and through conformation. I call on the Lebanese not to accept all what is said in the media. I am not saying reject it. I am rather saying confirm and assert, ask and search for the truth. Be aware of the existing target on the national level. Premeditate, do not get excited, and do not issue anticipated verdicts. Through such a way it will be possible to overcome this stage.
I am personally optimistic because in fact, if we can today pass these ordeals that would be due to the presence of truthful faithful national leaderships from among all the various Lebanese sects. They form the guarantee against smashing this national textile and the guarantee against the sabotage of Lebanon and heading with it towards ordeal and partition.
Besides the existence of truthful and aware political, religious, cultural, media and social elites also who partake in the battle of awareness and confronting the conspiracy of sabotage, there is another guarantee – namely the awareness of the Resistance. The Resistance is aware that it is targeted as the Lebanese people are targeted. Because it is primarily targeted, the Resistance is aware in dealing with all these issues. Thus you find that we are not dragged into many political contests. We do not comment on many of the accusations. If we are only to answer back to the lies of these newspapers, magazines and TV outlets, we need some 200 to 300 brothers and sisters to work day and night and still they will not manage to keep pace with them. We do not want to be dragged because we know who is targeted. So through awareness, we may address the issue of being targeted.
We will end up with the hopes and expectation. In a couple of words I say: I assert to you, to all the Lebanese people and to all those who believe and support the Resistance in the Arab and Islamic world that these pressures, conspiracies, distortions and sabotage attempts will not harm the determination, will and belief of the Resistance in Lebanon at all. I assert to you that the Resistance will remain strong and able to protect Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the dignity of Lebanon, the sovereignty of Lebanon, the Lebanese water and oil wealth within the threefold golden equation: the army, the people and the Resistance. I assert to you that this Resistance will remain adherent to Lebanon and all its people, national unity, civil peace, united army, strength and integrity, and all these conspiracies to sabotage Lebanon and cause sedition and civil war in Lebanon will be gone with the wind.
I assert to you that your Resistance which you support and believe in will be greater than sedition and greater than the oppression afflicting it. It will be greater than the accusations. We have a great tolerance power. This is where our power lies. Our strength is that it is not easy to provoke us. Our strength is that we are not easily persuaded. Our strength is that our will is not easily harmed. Our strength is that our morals are linked to Heavens; thus the people of earth can not harm them. Whoever depends on Allah, Allah suffices him.
I finally say that as this Resistance has always been up to your expectations, it will remain as such. We are proud of your support; you are proud of its credibility and victories Inshallah.
I thank all the sisters in the Women's Branch in the Resistance Support Association in all regions on their will and efforts especially in holding this meeting. I thank you for this great attendance. I ask Allah Al Mighty to make all your days and years full of blessings, kindness and happiness. Hundred returns on you, the Resistance and Lebanon. Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
I thank you all for your presence on this occasion on the holy Month of Ramadan in which the Women's Branch in the Islamic Resistance Support Association in Lebanon gathers us. I extend my regards to all the presence in the six different places: in Beirut in Sayyeda Khadeja Charity, Baalbeck, Saida, Tyr, Nabatiyeh and Tiri. We ask Allah Al Mighty to make it a blessed year and hundred returns with blessings for all. The Resistance gathers us in this occasion - whether those who believe in it or those who support it. Thus I will go straight into the core of my speech without the need for preludes especially that I want to take few moments from this meeting to comment on what was published today concerning the so called indictment in a way that goes with the occasion and within the time limit though there is much to be said on the text and content of what was published today.
As far as the Resistance is concerned there are several related topics:
First, the magnitude of sacrifices;
Second, the magnitude of achievements;
Third, the magnitude of targeting this Resistance which made many sacrifices and achievements;
Fourth, the magnitude of expectations, hopes and bargains on this Resistance.
As for the first topic, it goes without saying that there hasn't been in history a resistance which hasn't offered sacrifices. When a people decide to restore their occupied land, sovereignty and dignity through efforts and resisting, they have to make sacrifices. The sacrifices of the Resistance in Lebanon were great, huge and very valuable. When I talk about sacrifices, I talk about all the Resistance factions in Lebanon. I do not mean Hezbollah only but rather all the factions and forces which had their share in this Resistance since the very beginning. I also mean the offerings of the Lebanese Army, the Lebanese Security Forces as well as the valuable sacrifices made by the Lebanese people especially women, children and the armless people. When we talk about sacrifices, we mean tens of thousands of martyrs, tens of thousands of wounded, thousands of Lebanese young men and women who were detained in prisons and detention centers, tens of thousands of residential units which were demolished during the years of occupation and war, what have afflicted people's wealth and fields and what have afflicted the national economy. Our aim from talking about sacrifices is always reminding ourselves that the achievements we made were not for free. Rather they were the result of these great sacrifices. That makes us more interested in the achievement, in preserving the victory so as not to lose it because its price was this dear and precious blood. Thus also we know the worth of those who offered sacrifices. Even more, we must appreciate those who offered sacrifices in our Lebanese society and in all societies, and give a special status to the families of martyrs, wounded, freed prisoners and prisoners who are still in detention, the people who remained steadfast and offered support and the people who assumed the repercussions of the Resistance. We must respect these sacrifices and the people who offered them.
So as far as the first topic is concerned and as for the Resistance in Lebanon and in any resistance whether in Palestine, Iraq or any place, we are before great sacrifices which we must respect and appreciate. These sacrifices as well make us assume national and moral responsibilities.
Secondly, we will handle the magnitude of the achievements. Since the beginning, this Resistance with all its factions, efforts, very existence and pillars – I reiterate I mean the Resistance, army and people – could make great achievements and victories on the domestic as well as on the national level: liberating the Lebanese territories unconditionally and the withdrawal of the enemy with humiliation and defeat on May 25, 2000 with the exception of some Lebanese territories namely Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shuba Hills and the Lebanese part of Al Ghajar. However the greater and more important part of the territories was restored to the nation. The prisoners were freed with the exception of some case which must be followed because there is argument between us and the Israelis. We say they are alive; they say they died. There is an argument over their bodies. However, this file remains open. Anyway, at least those who are alive and whose cases are undisputed were freed. Our waters were liberated from the greed of the Israelis in Al Wazani waters. Now if Lebanon is not benefiting from its waters, this is a Lebanese problem which has nothing to do with the struggle with the Israeli enemy. Among the achievements are the victory and the steadfastness which took place during July War and the repercussions on the Israeli entity itself and on the Arab-Israeli conflict in general. Consequently, the regional dimension of the Resistance achievements on Palestine and the Arab cause in general are among the achievements of the Resistance. In this perspective comes the threefold equation for protecting the country, deterring the Israeli enemy from staging aggressions against Lebanon prior and following July War up till now and despite the greed of the Zionists in our land, water and wealth which has extended lately to reach our oil wealth which we are all aware of and which needs to be protected. Not only the oil wealth which is in the economic region which is so called disputed need to be protected but also the oil wealth in the economic region which is said to be undisputed needs that. So should excavating and drilling companies come to work even in the Lebanese economic region in the sea which Israel acknowledges is an economic region for Lebanon, these companies and facilities need protection. How are we to offer them protection? Is it through the International Security Council, or through international resolutions or through our own power? These achievements mounted to make Lebanon - which was always on the margin and outside the equation - forcefully present in the regional equation. It is impossible anymore that any solution and settlement take place in the region at the expense of Lebanon or without taking the interests of Lebanon into consideration as it always used to take place.
The third point is the magnitude of target. Here I would like to say: My sisters! You must know that the Israelis from the very first days along with the Americans and all their accomplices in the project have done all what they are able to do. In the future, they will do all what they can do as well. They have no legal or moral or humanistic or lawful source of deterrence that prevents them from attacking the Resistance whose only sin and crime are that it fought to restore the land, restore the sovereignty and dignity, free the prisoners and preserve the national energy and demand rights. This is the sin of the Resistance and that is why it is always targeted. That's because it's an element of strength, an element of dignity and an element which enables Lebanon and other countries to stand erect and preserve their rights or demand their usurped rights. This took place in Lebanon, in Palestine and everywhere. Under the title of targets comes killing the cadres and leaders of the Resistance. Martyr Sayyed Abbass Mussawi and Martyr Sheikh Ragheb Harb among a great number of our cadres and leaders were assassinated during all the past years. Other targets are arrests, imprisonments, detentions, drying the financing sources, psychological and moral wars - meaning the incessant threats to Lebanon, the infrastructure, the Lebanese people and the Lebanese Army, the Resistance – and military wars. This Resistance in Lebanon led at least three military wars: July 1993, April 1996 and July 2006. The aim of the military war is to crush the Resistance and put an end to it. All these wars were frustrated. All attempts of political isolation on the domestic, national and international levels failed. Even killing the leaders and cadres had counter effects. That made the Resistance more determined and furnished it with a great moral thrust, a sense of being oppressed and a greater belief that this path can't be abandoned after offering this great number of martyrs. We also mention what used to take place since the very first day and is still taking place up till now – namely distorting the image and reputation of the Resistance and misleading the public opinion on the Resistance, its targets, background and authenticity. However what is taking place lately – that's what I want to assert most in my speech – is worse than distorting an image. That's because they failed in their attempt to distort our image. I tell you that they failed as all polls in Lebanon, in the Arab world and in the Islamic world show today that this Resistance still enjoys very great respect in Lebanon and the region. However what is taking place now is worse than the attempt to distort the image which failed and for which millions of dollars were spent. They even acknowledge that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent. What is taking place now is an attempt to strike and smash up the humanistic and social textile in Lebanon and set the atmosphere and background of factional and sectarian wars and sporadic civil wars. The final goal of such deeds is dragging the Resistance into ordeals and internal wars, and thus hitting the Resistance and toppling the authenticity of the Resistance. This is what is taking place now. I will give examples on that because we are all concerned in confronting what I do not want to call distorting the image of the Resistance. I would rather call it attacking the Resistance through striking the humanistic, social, sectarian textile in Lebanon. Are we able to confront that? Yes.
As we could confront all the previous targets and conspiracies, frustrate them and overcome them, we can frustrate this target. I will talk more on this point in a while.
We may confront and frustrate this great event through being aware and responsible as I will clarify in a while.
What do I mean by smashing up the social, political and humanistic textile in Lebanon?
Let's not hide behind our fingers. We all know that Lebanon is the country of sects. It is ruled with a sectarian composition. This is a fact. In as much as the relations between sects and their peoples and leaderships are good, strong, humanistic, moral and kind, the country will be ruled with cooperation, development and enhancement and will overcome all risks and challenges. On the other hand, in as much as the relations between and among sects especially are tense, convulsive and disputed and ruled with the logic of enmity and loath, nothing in this country may move forward properly or be reformed. On the contrary, the leaderships who are responsible of sabotaging relations between sects in Lebanon are putting Lebanon on the path of annihilation, execution and being lost and smashed. This is the status quo in Lebanon. In countries other than Lebanon, things might not be as such. However in Lebanon whether we liked it or not the composition is as such. Everything in Lebanon takes a sectarian dimension instantly. Up till today, if anyone buys a piece of land to build a school on, his act will take a sectarian dimension. A trivial security incident takes a sectarian dimension. They are working now on sabotaging the relations between the Lebanese sects and taking them to the farthest level of grudge and loathe, mistrust and enmity. Consequently, there remains no place for meeting, dialogue, cooperation and understanding to address local problems and to confront regional challenges thus to blow up the country as what took place in the past and put an end to it. So the target is Lebanon as a whole. However the target in particular is the Resistance which is embraced by the majority of the Lebanese.
If we are to interpret this idea without hiding behind our finger as I like to be transparent and clear we say: How do some internal and external sides act today? They act as if the essential Resistance currently belongs to the Shiite sect in Lebanon. As regarding the geographic fact, the Resistance exists on the border and it has direct contact with the Israelis. However, the majority in Lebanon embrace the Resistance apart from its belonging to a definite sect because they view the Resistance as a national cause, national responsibility and a national stance.
What are they doing? They want to focus on the relations between Christians and Sunnites and the extent to which they can sabotage them as well as the relations between the Christians and Druze and the relations among the Christians. They are working on all these levels. However the focus at this stage has to do with sabotaging all what has to do with the relations between Shiites and Sunnites, Shiites and Christians and Shiites and Druze. They are working on this. Well this has nothing to do with distorting the image but rather with sabotaging relations at a broader level. This is what they are working at through politics, the media, fabrications and accusations. I will not give evidences from a year, two, three, four or five ago. They are evidences which rather took place two or three weeks ago. At most they took place two or three months ago. Though they might be trivial evidences, they show the methodology and the mentality through which they act.
However, I would like to begin with giving evidences by what took place today to give it priority. It has to do with the indictment. Indeed at previous times we talked lengthily to the effect that the STL is moving in this perspective. It focused on one supposition. It refused to work on any other suppositions despite the existence of indications and conditional evidences through which Israel might be accused or investigating Israel would be valid. Still they are moving on that track and through the past period of time they accused four honorable Resistance men. Today either the complete text or the greater part of what is called the indictment of these Resistance men was published.
Some time ago, I was holding a discussion with the brethrens. I told them that if they were smart they won't publish the indictment or its content. They would rather defer that to the tribunal in abstentia and remain manipulating before us for two, three, four or five month. Only Allah knows until when. However may Allah make luck at our side and they publish the indictment. That's because when the indictment is published, that'll be something good. People would read and see this indictment and this great operation which they are working on internationally - and allow me to say on the Arab and local level. What is its magnitude? What is it based on? How much objective, practical and factual is it? Anyway, I advice all those interested as well as the people to read the whole text though it consists of 45 pages because the issue is essential and a turning point. Here I assert to you that the group I will talk about today started since the first day and will hold a campaign in the coming few days in which they would praise the objectivity and practicality of what the indictment was based on saying they are firm, strong and decisive evidences and this is what indictment itself does not say. I assert that the overwhelming majority of those who will say that did not in fact read the indictment. They will not bother themselves to read 45 pages. However some will write on their behalf and publish under their names. This is what takes place in Lebanon. Indeed in Lebanon when you see 20 to 30 positions issued at a time that does not mean that everyone of them sat down and wrote; rather it was written and published on their names. You know how such things move in Lebanon. Consider what I will say now a primarily comment on my behalf on what was published today. Here I will say the following:
First, what was published stresses the validity of what we have said during the past months and the past two years to the effect that this investigation is neither transparent nor scientific nor professional. This investigation has been leaked through Der Spiegel and Israeli, Arab and foreign newspapers. The Canadian CBC TV also published this indictment.
Frankly speaking, I call on all the Lebanese and non Lebanese to go back to Der Spiegel and the Canadian CBC TV and what was published in the past and compare it with this text. Let them see the faces of congruency and similarity in many places. Now they tried to hide some phone numbers and other details to say that the indictment is not wholly leaked. However this is it. So everything we used to say on leakage and Bellemare as well as the STL used to deny while saying that no one is getting acquainted with the report and the investigation came to be true. Today their claims have been decisively confirmed. The proof is this published text. See the concordance between the text and Dir Spiegel, Le Figaro, Kuwaiti Asseyassiyeh, Yadiot Ahranot, Canadian CBC and others. This asserts that the investigation was not confidential by any means. Everything was written in newspapers since 2009 and 2010 and even back since 2006.
The whole text does not provide any direct evidence. The only thing the indictment is based on is solely telecommunications data. Even more, in communication, the indictment refers to coincidence. So it is not based on that this phone number is in the net that assassinated. It is with so and so. It rather says that the number coincides in place and time with the number of so and so and with another that belongs to so and so. All what it depends on is communication. That needs much interpretation and time. They are few analyses and conclusions which have no legal value. Thus we find that the text repetitively and frequently uses the term "It is possible to conclude" or "It might be concluded in a possible way" or "Since cadres in Hezbollah in the 80s did such operations, it is possible that they do such an operation". What kind of evidence is this?
Anyway, as far as telecommunication is concerned there are two types of discussion:
The first discussion: Through the past year, through official sides, international conferences, international specialists and technicians and the Israeli collaborators who were arrested in the field of communication, the magnitude of Israeli technical and security control on the telecommunication sector in Lebanon was decisively asserted besides the Israeli and others' capability to manipulate the data, fabricating phone numbers and illusionary calls and even using phone numbers that belong to definite persons without their knowledge. This has been proven technically. This alone is enough to challenge the credibility of the communication evidences which the indictment claims resorting to.
Second: Even if we gave in and abandoned all this issue saying that there is no manipulation or Israeli intervention, no one is changing the data, no one fabricated phone calls and no one constructed place coincidences, what was mentioned is not sufficient to be an evidence. It is not a proof. This is even the viewpoint of senior judges who are specialized in this domain.
In all cases, the text is between our hands. It is based on conclusion and analysis and not on direct evidences. They are rather conditional evidences with challenged credibility.
To you sisters and to all the public opinion who are listening to me I say: Today we are more confident that what is taking place is of a high level of injustice, politicization and accusation. These honorable Resistance men should not even be referred to as accused. This is slander, and they are accused by this slander.
Anyway, I will stop here to carry on in my speech. The indictment which was issued today needs more scrutiny and analysis. This is what the brethrens in Hezbollah will dedicate themselves to during the coming few days. The appropriate comments will be thus issued Inshallah.
Going back to my speech, what does this act mean today? This act took place and names were made public while the ministerial statement was being discussed and confidence was being given to Premier Mikati. So it took place on particular timings just as when this issue was being evoked in the past. It is clear that since 2006 – August 2006 and following the war up till today – there has been a clear effort to sabotage the national relations especially between Sunnites and Shiites. Indeed now we are not talking anymore about martyr Premier Rafiq Hariri. Now we are talking about tens of martyrs, hundreds of wounded and hundreds of harmed and the like. Well as far as the Shiite-Sunnite issue is concerned, lately they tried to broaden the circle of accusation and link operations together until reaching the assassination of the leader of the Resistance Martyr George Hawi. Instead of being an indication to accuse Israel, they added this assassination to the others in which they accuse innocent oppressed at a time we all know that the first one to benefit and the first historic revenge seeker from George Hawi is Israel due to the position of this man and his party in the Resistance.
On the level of the other sects, they work on the same track. I will give small examples as evidences. If we add these evidences, they'll be numerous but I do not want to bother you with saying much.
The first evidence is the blast of Antelias. It is a simple incident. Two young men quarreled over money. It was not even proved that one of them wanted to throw the bomb on the other. Perhaps he was threatening or frightening him - Only Allah knows. The bomb exploded, and both men died. Their corpses were still on the ground. O people! I will tell you about the mentality and the methodology. The corpses were still on the ground; still March 14 media outlets and figures started saying - even before the security apparatus and the judiciary body started investigation and before anyone knew what took place – that it was proved these two men came to plant a bomb in Antelias. What was the topic which was used? They used targeting the security of the Christian regions! As soon as the names of the men were known and it was revealed that they belong to a definite sect – meaning they are Shiites - they immediately started their fabrications. The goal is to plant a bomb to threat and target the security of the Christian region. Can anyone tell me what is the aim of this logic which was not said by one figure or two? Lengthy statements and wordy speeches were made. TV outlets made a scoop of it. Websites wrote on this topic for days. Some even openly claimed that Hezbollah was behind the incident. They said that Hezbollah dispatched these men to plant a bomb to target the security of the Christian regions. Note that in the case of the bombing in Ain Alaq, though they knew the doer and he was arrested and tried, they still insist on accusing a definite sect – namely Shiites. They mean to tell the Christians in Lebanon: The Shiites are targeting the security of your region, the security of your men, women and children and the security of your economy and tourism. They waged a campaign based on Antelias bomb. For three or four days they did not stop. They did not take into consideration that it's summer - the tourism season in Lebanon. People might become afraid of going to that place. In fact, it is March 14 Bloc in the first place who is harming morals and afflicting peace, security and economy in the Christian regions. See the accusing conspiring mind they act with any simple incident. Since the first day, we were sure and we knew through the security forces and through sides in the Lebanese judiciary that the issue is that of a bomb and that it is a personal incident. Still, we said let’s wait the official investigation and the judicial verdict. Still nobody was ready to listen. With March 14 Bloc, there’s nothing called investigation, waiting or a true search for the truth. There is always an anticipated accusation and an anticipated verdict. So it is not only an anticipated accusation but also a ready anticipated verdict. They detect anything to comment on and issue verdicts on. This is one example.
I'll give another example on the Christian level before moving to the Druze level. I move to the conflict in the town of Lassa. I saw faces from March 14 dignitaries who talked on the problem of Lassa as if they were talking about the Resurrection Church in Al Qods. I then praised Allah. What took place in Lassa – a small village in Jbeil? There is a dispute over real estate between the town's residences and the Maronite church. They shed light on this dispute and made a big story about it. They worked on it for a week or two what complicates and does not solve the story. They accused Hezbollah in particular. Then they broadened the scope of accusation and accused the Shiites in Bin Jbeil of occupying the land of the Christians. This is the language which was used.
I swear by Allah Al Mighty that I didn't understand the story before they made their attack. I didn't know that there is a problem in Lassa. I asked the brethrens to explain the problem in Lassa around which all this fuzz was made. Then it came to be that the problem is 70 or 80 years old. So it existed before I and perhaps my father was born. It existed before all those who belong to Hezbollah, Amal Movement or the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council were born. The issue has to do with real estate. It is an old rusty issue. It was addressed legally and judicially. A committee from the residences and the patriarchy was formed to address the issue. All of a sudden and at a political moment, the issue of Lassa was evoked to tell the Christians in Lebanon that you are targeted and see what you can do. What is the whole story? The whole story is Lassa.
On the Druze level, the story is funnier and you know I like to say things as they are. Few days ago, one of the brethrens in the Social Progressive Party called me saying that there is a definite state in the Mount. There is a state of fear, panic and anxiety among people. People want arms. They want to get armed. Well what is the story? They said that there is a hill near Aley which overlooks the region. It is a strategic hill and Hezbollah is erecting sand barricades there. Then March 14 Bloc websites were activated and some newspapers wrote headlines saying that cannons and rocket platforms were installed with the aim of addressing Mr. Walid Jumblat and the Socialist Progressive Party with a definite message. So they evoked a bad atmosphere. I started laughing when he told me so. I asked him: Where? He said in Aley! Who went to erect the barricades in Aley? Well there is no problem. Aren't we the people who search for the truth? Let a man from Hezbollah and another from the Socialist Progressive Party go there and spot the sand which was said to be barricades and ask who brought them there so that we understand the story. Then it was revealed that the story has to do with the mayor. In fact, he is affiliated to the Socialist Progressive Party or a supporter or a friend of the party. As a municipality along with some people, they placed the rubbles there. That had to do with a definite thing that has to do with the municipality and those people in particular. The issue had no security or military characteristic. It has nothing to do with Hezbollah or Shiites by whatever means. Still they fabricated on it for four or five days, security messages or political messages to the effect of targeting alliances and practicing pressure.
Well who benefits from that? Even if we talked about the peace, security and stability of people, who is benefiting from that? Who is making people feel worried? Isn't it this media and these anticipated verdicts? Even on the economic level, is Aley or Dahiyeh a tourism region? Who is being hurt even on the economic or tourism level? However when that team work, they do not see tourism or economy or people's stability or fears. Well let the people be at peace for a couple of days. But no, that is impossible. They give the true incident magnified untrue dimensions and they also depict the untrue incident as true and try to build endless analyses on it. If I am to give you more evidences that will take much time. However I liked to say that much to say that this methodology and mentality are the very mentality and methodology we saw on February 14, 2005. The body of Martyr Rafiq Hariri was still on the ground to be taken to the hospital when the accusation was made and the verdict was issued: Syria, the joint Lebanese-Syrian security system, the four officials, the security apparatuses… They were unjust to people. They hurled them in jail from the very first hour. They did not wait for the investigation, justice and courts…
I also want to make you laugh a little more. I told the brethrens that it seems we have to make a tour over the houses in Dahiyeh for example to make sure there are safety valves so that no gas bottle explodes again. Now we became responsible even if a gas bottle explodes in Dahiyeh. For four or five days we remained explaining and stressing that it was a gas bottle. They said that so and so was martyred. Then they say the so and so cadre was killed. At times they say the son of the so and so cadre was killed. The Israeli media also adds to their stories. Well is it possible that a leader, a cadre or the son of a cadre in Hezbollah may be martyred and we hide that? Where do we hide our martyrs? Still they insist on their fabrications stubbornly.
Now, I am not joking. There is a team in Lebanon who is linked to a great project which failed in everything. Now you ask me: Is it possible that they do that? They do even more. During July War they provided the Israelis with advices. They made demands on the Israelis and put conditions for the ceasefire which are to the interest of Israel. Allow me along all the jokes we said to say this phrase and relieve myself: The gloomy, dark, miserable, desperate faces which we saw on August 14, 2006 do even more than that.
Well we have this mentality. On the contrary, this is our country. The people are our people. All the sects are our people whether Shiites, Sunnites, Druze or Christians in all regions. We are a people who want to live together. We want to carry on together. We want to solve our problems together. If we did not cooperate, unite, harmonize and agree, how are we to build our country and address our crises? We will confront even this? How? That is possible through being aware and through conformation. I call on the Lebanese not to accept all what is said in the media. I am not saying reject it. I am rather saying confirm and assert, ask and search for the truth. Be aware of the existing target on the national level. Premeditate, do not get excited, and do not issue anticipated verdicts. Through such a way it will be possible to overcome this stage.
I am personally optimistic because in fact, if we can today pass these ordeals that would be due to the presence of truthful faithful national leaderships from among all the various Lebanese sects. They form the guarantee against smashing this national textile and the guarantee against the sabotage of Lebanon and heading with it towards ordeal and partition.
Besides the existence of truthful and aware political, religious, cultural, media and social elites also who partake in the battle of awareness and confronting the conspiracy of sabotage, there is another guarantee – namely the awareness of the Resistance. The Resistance is aware that it is targeted as the Lebanese people are targeted. Because it is primarily targeted, the Resistance is aware in dealing with all these issues. Thus you find that we are not dragged into many political contests. We do not comment on many of the accusations. If we are only to answer back to the lies of these newspapers, magazines and TV outlets, we need some 200 to 300 brothers and sisters to work day and night and still they will not manage to keep pace with them. We do not want to be dragged because we know who is targeted. So through awareness, we may address the issue of being targeted.
We will end up with the hopes and expectation. In a couple of words I say: I assert to you, to all the Lebanese people and to all those who believe and support the Resistance in the Arab and Islamic world that these pressures, conspiracies, distortions and sabotage attempts will not harm the determination, will and belief of the Resistance in Lebanon at all. I assert to you that the Resistance will remain strong and able to protect Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the dignity of Lebanon, the sovereignty of Lebanon, the Lebanese water and oil wealth within the threefold golden equation: the army, the people and the Resistance. I assert to you that this Resistance will remain adherent to Lebanon and all its people, national unity, civil peace, united army, strength and integrity, and all these conspiracies to sabotage Lebanon and cause sedition and civil war in Lebanon will be gone with the wind.
I assert to you that your Resistance which you support and believe in will be greater than sedition and greater than the oppression afflicting it. It will be greater than the accusations. We have a great tolerance power. This is where our power lies. Our strength is that it is not easy to provoke us. Our strength is that we are not easily persuaded. Our strength is that our will is not easily harmed. Our strength is that our morals are linked to Heavens; thus the people of earth can not harm them. Whoever depends on Allah, Allah suffices him.
I finally say that as this Resistance has always been up to your expectations, it will remain as such. We are proud of your support; you are proud of its credibility and victories Inshallah.
I thank all the sisters in the Women's Branch in the Resistance Support Association in all regions on their will and efforts especially in holding this meeting. I thank you for this great attendance. I ask Allah Al Mighty to make all your days and years full of blessings, kindness and happiness. Hundred returns on you, the Resistance and Lebanon. Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The TSA circus: ridiculous, wasteful, degrading and dangerous
I recently had to drive to my local airport to pick up my son who was returning from a trip to Argentina and this provided me with the interesting "opportunity" to try out for myself the "enhanced pat-down" TSA experience. I want to share this experience with you.
Luckily, on that day my wife had come with me, so I could leave with her the two "prohibited items" I always carry with me (my RSK-mk1 knife and a kubotan-keyholder). I knew I was "clean" and I was therefore quite delighted when I was routed to the line hurded to towards the "porno-scanners". Once I got to the machine, I declared, politely, that I declined to be scanned and that I would opt for the "enhanced pat-down". The TSA agent politely replied "sure" turned around and yelled "male assistance please!". Then, the circus began.
I was told to stand at one specific stop and not to move. During about 4-5 minutes, nobody was paying attention to me and I began wondering how I could be forgotten standing there smack in the middle of the TSA searching area. Eventually, a huge dude, (6'4-6'5 for about no less than 300-320 lbs) showed up, looking extremely annoyed.
Have you ever met the kind of irritating character who deliberately whispers in order to make you tense? They mumble under their breath just to make you strain with the effort of hearing what they are saying. I told him "excuse me, I cannot hear you". He then looked even more pissed, like he had been personally offended by both my presence and my request that he speak up.
Uncle Sam has clearly made some effort at giving his TSA thugs a superficial veneer of civilization. My own TSA agent, let's call him Bubba, was saying so many "sir this, sir that, please sir" and, his favorite, "do you understand this sir?" that it was sometimes hard to understand him. The numerous "sirs" did not prevent the guy from looking really offended, disgusted and extremely annoyed. Judging by the pace of his speech, he was also rather dumb (I know, that criteria is subjective, but that was my feeling anyway). Sure enough, he promptly proceeded to show me how stupid he really was.
Bubba first told me to show him where my carry-on luggage was. I pointed him to the conveyor belt taking luggage out from the TSA X-ray machines. He looked at me in dumb stupor and said "which ones, sir?" I made two steps towards my luggage when he emphatically said "do not get close, sir, show me from here, sir!". Clearly he was afraid that I might pull out some dangerous weapon which the TSA X-ray machine might have missed.
He carefully took my carry-on and placed it in a separate spot. Then, he proceeded with the "enhanced" pat-down.
What surprised me first, was that the entire procedure is done right there, on the spot, in the middle of all the passengers trying to get through security. When I asked whether the pat-down would be made here, Bubba gave me a stern look and said "we can go to a private place, if you want". Will you be surprised if I tell you I declined?
The first obvious "enhancement" (as compared to a normal pat-down) is the never stopping voice of the TSA agent droning on about what he will do next: "now I will touch your knee, sir, do you understand?", "now I will touch your scalp, sir, do you understand?". etc. I found the "sirs" ok, but the numerous "do you understand?", which were delivered with a almost threatening voice, somehow made me feel guilty, or stupid, or both. I wondered what would happen to me if I did not "understand"...
I guess being told to stand with both of my hands wide apart, like for a crucifixion, did not add to my feeling of comfort.
Being in Florida, I was wearing shorts and when Bubba decided to check them out, I was left standing, arms still wide apart, with the back of my shorts hanging down at about midpoint over my buttocks ("ghetto style"). Apparently Buddy did not notice, or care, that his thorough examination of my shorts had left them hanging down and dangerously close from falling off altogether. I carefully asked Bubba if I could pull them back on. He very reluctantly agreed.
Bubba then proceeded to slowly and carefully check my shirt. The weird thing is that he was patting me down my ribs and back through the shirt and that clearly was not easy for him. I ask him whether he wanted me to remove my short. He gave it some thought, and then replied "would that make you comfortable, sir?". I decided to drop the topic.
Finally, we arrived a the inevitable key moment of this new "enhanced" pat-down: Bubba would pat my genitals!
Well, it was a rather disappointing thing. First, the TSA does not refer to genitals by name. They are call "sensitive areas". Fair enough. My buttock, by the way, are also considered "sensitive" (?). I have to admit that Bubba barely touched my "sensitive" parts, and that the touching was peppered with even bigger amounts of "sirs" and, of course, "do you understands". Let me state this for the record here - the "sensitive areas" pat-down was really no big deal. Useless, for sure, symbolic, perhaps, but it was not some cavity-search or some pornographic massage. It was short (1-2 seconds max) and down with the back of Bubba's gloved hands. No big deal, really.
Finally, Bubba rubbed my hands with some scotch tape, mumbling something undetermined under his breath about "hands". I guess he was looking for traces of explosives. Then he came back with a totally disgusted look and said "you may go", and turned away.
The fact that the "porno" part was anti-climactic (wink) really does not mean that this entire procedure is benign or acceptable. In fact, is a gross violation of a person's dignity, but not because of any inappropriate fondling. The real effect of that kind of search is a multi-level assault on your mind:
a) you are treated like a potential criminal, as if you had given clear indications of hostile intent.
b) you are treated like a slave or a robot, being told exactly how to move, where to stand, what to do.
c) you are treated like a moron who cannot understand even the most basic instructions.
d) you are asked to passively accept even the most obviously idiotic order or procedure (like not touching your own carry-on luggage even though it just passed through the X-ray machine)
That is what all this TSA non-sense is really all about: compliance, submission, surrender. It's a mind-f**k.
This is also why the folks the TSA hires a huge numbers of dumb and poorly paid TSA agents - because anybody with just an ounce of critical thinking will immediately see how stupid this entire circus is. One such cretin even told me in Washington, DC that she has seen "many children terrorists" (in her nightmares, no doubt). The paranoia of these folks is clearly at near-hysterical levels.
One less than amusing thing is that the TSA also presents the perfect target. Rest assured that sooner or later some wannabe terrorist dimwit a la Richard Reid will realize that he can kill much more people at a TSA checkpoint than Anders Breivik recently killed in Norway, and with much less preparation, skills or effort. After all, anybody can bring a backpack and a duffel-bag full of explosives along with a strap-on explosive belt and get right in the middle of a long lines travelers and TSA agents before blowing himself/herself up. Just visualize of what, say, 50kg of C4 would do inside a major airport's crowded TSA checkpoint!
Not only would such an attack kill *a lot* of people, but it would create even further panic. Have you ever seen footage of Israeli soldiers pointing their assault-rifles as some Palestinian whom they order to disrobe at a distance because they fear that he/she might be wearing an explosive belt? Well, that is the logical and inevitable next step of a situation in which checkpoints are being blown-up.
So no only is this entire TSA circus ridiculous, wasteful and deeply degrading, it is also extremely dangerous as it provides the *perfect* target. The scary thing is that nobody seems to care any more.
The Saker
Islam and Europe: An equal and opposite reaction
So goes one of the fundamental laws of physics. In the face of recent “actions” in the West -- economic crisis and rampant Islamophobia, there is an inexorable “reaction”, as the eternal values of Islam continue to manifest themselves, notes Eric Walberg
Ramadan exemplifies the powerful spiritual calling of Islam. Dry fasting is more a test of the spirit, the will, proof of devotion, than just some health gimmick. And it is precisely this cultivation of mass “mind over matter” that frustrates Western secularists, so used to indulging every consumer fetish on a whim. Why are Muslims so stubborn in nurturing ancient beliefs and rituals when they fly in the face of modern capitalist society? Secular critics dismiss Islam as a harmful, even dangerous anachronism. Why disrupt one’s busy day five times to pray, slow down the whole economic order for an entire month every year, ban alcohol and interest -- the bedrock of Western society?
Yet the now rich and self-satisfied secular West, after centuries of conquest and imposition of its colonial and now neocolonial order, has found itself at a nightmarish deadend. Wars, riots, drug addiction, corruption, famine, ecological Armageddon ... There is little to cheer for and no coherent explanation for the impasse and the way forward. So the demand that the Muslim world follow in Western footsteps rings hollow.
For non-believers, there are social laws that can help to understand Islam’s continued relevance. One is Mayer Rothschild’s dictum: “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes its laws.” The other is Carl Clausewitz’s “War is the continuation of policy by other means.” Together, they point to the underlying economic and political problems which have led to the current crisis. In a nutshell, the dominance of banks (as opposed to governments representing the popular will) in controlling economic affairs has created a world where politics serves their particular needs (interest and profit), and the politics which promotes the interests of banks is -- just look around -- war and speculation (read: pillage and theft).
This is the “logic” underlying modern Western society, especially in the past three decades, with the alternative to capitalism, the Soviet Union, now dismantled, discredited, and more or less absorbed into the Western economic order. This triumph over the “enemy” left the field open to the Rothschild-Clausewitz mechanism. Electoral democracy is vaunted, but is a threadbare facade, for while the popular will consistently rejects war and banker hegemony, no political party is able to get elected to represent this popular will.
Believers need no explanation for the why and how of Islam and the devilish deadend the West now faces. Islam advocates a social order where there are no one-sided usurers using their monopoly on money to control economics and politics, a social order where peace (Islam) is the highest attainment of society, the goal of all “policy”, to which all should submit. If presented with the choice between the current chaos and the true Islamic alternative, there is little doubt that the Islamic alternative would be the overwhelming choice of the common people, both in Europe and America, despite the fact that Muslims represent only 2-8 per cent of the population in the West.
***
Of course, this social order is the ideal. The history of Islam witnessed periods of benign and far-from-benign rule. It began with military victories and the spreading of the Caliphate from Atlantic to Pacific. The majority of conquered peoples decided to adopt this powerful religion, converting from polytheism, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism, though, contrary to Western prejudice, not “by the sword”. Throughout the various Islamic political orders, Christians, Jews and others continued to profess their faiths, enjoying a peaceful coexistence with Muslims. There was no period of imperial conquest and genocide equivalent to the Western imperial order from the fifteenth century to today.
The westward march of Islam was stopped in Spain and on the fringes of Byzantium by Emperor Charlemagne in the ninth century. The Iberian peninsula -- Al-Andalus -- was the pearl of Islamic civilisation from 711 to 1492, as a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, and later the Caliphate of Cordoba and the Emirate of Granada.
Islamophobes portray Europe today as in danger of a new Muslim conquest, politicians and mass media egging on the likes of Norway’s Anders Breivik, who calls for the ethnic cleansing of all Muslims from Europe, much like Christian conquerors expelled Muslims and Jews following the reconquest of Spain in the fifteenth century. But consider for a moment the legacy of Moorish Spain. This period saw Muslims, Jews and Christians living in harmony, creating a prosperous, peaceful society, a highpoint in Spain’s history. Under the Caliphate of Cordoba, Al-Andalus became a beacon of learning, and the city of Cordoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres in both the Mediterranean basin and the Islamic world.
As part of the Alliance of Civilisations, Spain is now rediscovering this Golden Age before the Christian re-conquest of Spain, which saw the torture, murder, forced conversion and expulsion of Muslims and Jews, and the genocide of American natives following the “discovery” of the American continent by Christopher Columbus. While Al-Andalus lasted eight centuries, the post-Islamic period of Spain has lasted only six centuries, and suffers poorly in comparison to the Islamic Golden Age that preceded it.
This was acknowledged by Spain’s current leader, Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, when he co-sponsored the Alliance of Civilisations along with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2005, as a way to “bridge the divide” between the West and Islam, through projects in youth, education, media, and migration. Forums have been held in Madrid (2008), Istanbul (2009) and Rio de Janiero (2010).
Given the current tyranny of money that characterised Western civilisation, it is not surprising that the Zapatero/ Erdogan attempt at bringing peace and understanding among the founding faiths of Spain and the Middle East is greeted with sneers and resentment by Israel and its supporters in the West. Israel-firsters such as Soeren Kern twist the positive moves to bring East and West together as a cover for “Muslim countries in the Persian Gulf and North Africa funnelling large sums of money to radical Islamic groups in towns and cities across Spain”.
But there is a more enduring dialectic at work in Europe. Despite the Israel lobby’s energetic efforts to blacken Islam, the wave of revulsion against Israeli apartheid continues to grow throughout Europe, but especially in Spain. Ilan Pappe describes how all Israeli ambassadors to Europe are more than glad to end their terms, complaining about their inability to speak in campuses and whining about the overall hostile atmosphere in Europe these days. The Israeli ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, just finished his term in Madrid, and in an op-ed in Haaretz’s Hebrew edition he summarised what he termed as a very dismal stay, charging that he was the victim of local and ancient anti-Semitism, comparing the situation to the Inquisition of five centuries ago.
In “Why the Spanish hate us”, Schutz states that the people of Spain are anti-Israeli because subconsciously they are anti-Semitic and still approve of the Inquisition. He ignores the fact that the Muslims were the main victims of the Inquisition, that Jews fought and suffered side by side with their Muslim allies as the Christian invaders flood into Spain. Claiming that Spaniards who criticise Israel are racist and motivated by 500-year-old Christian bigotry rather than by Israeli’s criminal policies is just a feeble attempt at hasbara (public diplomacy) by desperate Israeli diplomats who have long ago lost the moral battle in Europe.
***
The Kerns and Schutzes are supported by Spain’s real latterday Inquisition, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), which published a report in July, warning of tens of millions of dollars coming to Spain from Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to support Muslims, and calling for close monitoring of these funds. The CNI’s report hinted that the money would be used to promote Islamic courts, remove girls from schools, and encourage forced marriages. The Spanish government’s knee-jerk response was to call for all donations from the Gulf Arab states to be channelled through a government-controlled “Islamic Commission of Spain”.
The CNI pointed to the Kuwaiti government’s funding of the construction of mosques in Catalonia, from which Islamic preachers are supposedly “spreading a religious interpretation that opposes the integration of Muslims into Spanish society and promotes the separation and hate towards non-Muslim groups.” Qatari donations are made through the Islamic League for Dialogue and Coexistence in Spain, a group the CNI says is “linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria”.
While the CNI talks only of the need to monitor funds, such as Kern argue that this is all part of a conspiracy by Muslim countries to take back Spain. He points to “the UAE, together with Libya [sic] and Morocco”, which paid for the construction of the Great Mosque of Granada. Says Abdel Haqq Salaberria, a spokesman for the mosque: “It will act as a focal point for the Islamic revival in Europe. It is a symbol of a return to Islam among the Spanish people and among indigenous Europeans.” Worse yet for Islamophobes, Muslims in Cordoba are demanding that the Spanish government allow them to worship in the main cathedral, which was originally the Great Mosque of Al-Andalus and is now a World Heritage Site.
Pointing to Saudi financing of the construction of Islamic Cultural Centres and mosques in Madrid and elsewhere, Kern conjures up the Saudi Wahhabi bugaboo, arguing that most Muslim immigrants in Spain are poor, and their low standard of living and low level of education make them susceptible to Saudi propaganda, ignoring the fact that Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the US, that Wahhabism is the quietist brand of Islam, and the only real way to improve the security situation is to raise the standard of living and level of education of the poor.
Despite such cries of “Wolf!”, attempts to reintegrate Islam into the fabric of Spanish culture are proceeding. Morocco recently co-sponsored a seminar in Barcelona titled “Muslims and European Values” explaining that the construction of big mosques would be “a useful formula” to fight Islamic fundamentalism in Spain. According to Noureddine Ziani, a Barcelona-based Moroccan imam: “It is easier to disseminate fundamentalist ideas in small mosques set up in garages, than in large mosques that are open to everyone.” Using this logic, Spain should welcome more Libyan funding of Great Mosques, rather than participate in NATO’s efforts to destroy the Libyan state and create real grounds for terrorism.
Ziani also said that Islamic values are compatible with European values and that the so-called Western “Judeo-Christian” civilisation is really an “Islamo-Christian” one. The cultural construct “Judeo-Christian heritage” entered the English language only in the 1940s as a reaction to Nazism, and is used by the imperial elite in its “clash of civilizations” targeting Islam. A concept useful to a largely Christian empire where Jewish elites play a powerful role, but one which is rejected by serious scholars, both Christian and Jewish. Talmudic scholar Jacob Neusner calls it a “secular myth favoured by people who are not really believers themselves”. Not only Ziani but American scholars such as Richard Bulliet argue for the use of “Islamo-Christian” to characterise Western civilisation.
Spain suffered several terrorist bombings in the wake of 9/11, notably the 2004 11-M bombings in Madrid, but no evidence was ever presented to suggest Al-Qaeda or Muslims were the perpetrators. Many observers point to Basque and other independence movements as the culprits, or even the Spanish police themselves as part of a false-flag operation. The reality of Spain today is not the existence of any external threat from Islam, but on the contrary, domestic unrest due to the economic crisis and political paralysis.
This gloomy situation prompted concerned young people to boycott Spain’s elections in May and -- ironically -- emulate their largely Muslim Arab Spring heroes by constructing tent cities in protest at the lack of meaningful democracy. Just as Egyptian revolutionaries borrowed techniques from their Western counterparts to throw off their taskmasters, so Spaniards are emulating them in turn -- a true Alliance of Civilisations. European, US and Canadian youth are also impressed by the endurance, the resolution of Palestinians in the face of Israel and its supporters, a 21st-century Judeo-Christian Inquisition persecuting Muslims, not only in Palestine, but in so-called Eurabia and North America.
The Islamophobes turn the truth on its head, attacking the Alliance of Civilisations as a “one-way bridge” undermining European society. But the West’s relations with the Muslim world show just the opposite -- the West has invaded and continues to try to shape the Muslim world to meet capitalism’s requirements. That Muslims stubbornly hold to their beliefs and traditions is an important contribution to the search for a way forward for a crisis-ridden world.
Britain’s riots prove that Muslims are a boon to European society, being inherently peaceful and law-abiding. Muslims from the East London Mosque and the Islamic Forum Europe played an important role in helping to fight the looting and preserve public safety. Three Muslims died in Birmingham defending shops from looters, though in the media they were merely called Asians. “When accused of terrorism we are Muslims, when killed by looters, we become Asian,” a Muslim student told Al-Jazeerah bitterly.
Rather than the “clash of civilisations” advocated by Islamophobes, those who seek social and economic justice can find inspiration in the eternal truths of Islam, looking to Europe’s own Islamo-Christian heritage -- past and present -- to discover an alliance of civilisations that rejects war, theft, moral degeneration and racism. This is the lesson that Ramadan offers to the West today.
***
Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/ Walberg's Postmodern Imperialism is available at http://claritypress.com/Walberg.html
Monday, August 15, 2011
For all you fellow techies and geeks out there
I wanted to write a long article for a while already, but I just don't have the time. So I will pass on a few things I want to share with you, in no particular order, bullet-style presentation.
Ubuntu is undergoing a serious crisis from which it is unlikely to recover. Without going into many details, let's just say that Mark Shuttleworth has openly stated that the Unity, the default desktop manager for Ubuntu, is inspired by - I am not kidding you! - "smartphones, Windows and Mac OSX". The result from that kind of "inspiration" is the worst piece of over-designed bloatware I have ever come across: Unity. To say that the latter is horrible is an understatement.
Even more depressing is Shuttleworth's openly stated belief that Canonical's "desktop experts" are the best qualified to know what we, the community, want/need on our computers. He also wants contributors to Ubuntu to hand over their copyrights to Ubuntu, he attempted to pressure Banshee not to contribute directly to GNOME, and he is pushing various proprietary solutions like the Ubuntu One store. Basically, Mark Shuttleworth is gradually turning into a wannabe Steve Jobs and Ubuntu is going down the "corporate Linux for the masses" road. I don't want to go into all the details here, but let's just say that many people, including myself, are running away from Ubuntu. The question is, where can we go?
After doing some research, I have identified the following excellent options:
1) Linux Mint. This distribution is either Debian based or Ubuntu based (depending on its variant) and it has a rather immodest (unofficial) motto: "Ubuntu done right". However, it also happens to be true. Linux Mint is an extremely stable and user-friendly GNU/Linux distribution, but it is not dumbed down, it avoids the pitfall which I call "Linux for idiots" - which is exactly what Ubuntu is doing now. I cannot write a full review of Linux Mint here, but I will say that its "main" edition is absolutely beautiful, very elegant, stable and well configured. Linux Mint also has an extremely interesting update system which provides another layer of testing before software is updated. Most importantly, Linux Mint is 100% community run and one of its main developers has already stated in a forum in reply to a question about the adoption or not of Unity that:
No, not Unity. We’re going for Gnome 3 using a traditional desktop layout (no Gnome Shell). Of course you’ll be able to add Unity or Gnome Shell yourself, but by default the desktop will look similar to the one we’re using at the moment.
This is wonderful news indeed. It means that "Ubuntu done right" will continue in Linux Mint even if Ubuntu itself will from now become "Ubuntu done totally wrong".
2) Xubuntu. Many people now that Xubuntu is a variant of Ubuntu which uses the XFCE desktop, which is true, but it is more than that. Xubuntu is a 100% community run Ubuntu variant which does not depend on the whims of Mr. Shuttleworth or Canonical. Furthermore, a great deal of effort has been put by the developers of Xubuntu to make it into a full-fledged, well integrated, distro, not just Ubuntu with XFCE instead of GNOME or Unity (which, technically, is a GNOME plugin). I would say that Xubuntu is a tad more oriented to the non-newbie than Mint, and, in my experience, its also somehow more buggy. Still, it is extremely fast, very elegant, and XFCE is really turning into a powerful desktop, comparable to GNOME.
3) Debian. Debian is the "Mother of all distros". No distro comes even close to being in the same league as Debian. Here are a few numbers just to illustrate this point:
- 1000+ volunteer developers
- 30'000+ applications (5 DVDs or 30 CDs)
- security and stability matched only by BSD
- runs on 9+2 (BSD) different architectures
- translated into 65 languages
- The cost of developing all the packages included in Debian 5.0 Lenny (323 million lines of code), using the COCOMO model, has been estimated to be about US$ 8 billion
- Unique bug-tracking system
But this is not the full story yet. Debian is also a Social Contract, Free Software Guidelines, a even Debian Constitution. Debian really is the "Universal Operating System", the GNU/Linux distribution "par excellence". It does, however, have one feature which is an issue for many users: its "stable" branch tends to have software versions which are somewhat older than other distros. This is due to the extremely high quality control Debian imposes on its "stable" release. The other particularity of Debian is that while you do not need a Ph.D in computer sciences to run it, it is designed by folks who love computers for folks who love computers. If you want to know as little as possible about how computer work and if all you need is a machine to run office software and browse the net, then Debian is probably not the best choice for you. But if you love computers, then Debian is really a dream come true.
There is also a "bleeding edge" version of Debian called "Debian testing". I personally love it, but it is really for hardcore techies who actually enjoy "hunting" and "squashing" "bugs" and who want to contribute to the development of Debian. "Testing" is my personal favorite, but you need to be ready to do a lot of reading to enjoy using it.
One more thing about Debian. There is a huge list of Debian-derivatives, beginning by Ubuntu itself and, therefore, all Ubuntu derivatives. Some of these Debian derivatives are excellent distros in their own right, like for example Crunchbang or the excellent Debian-based live-CDs like Knoppix and Damn Small Linux.
So the disaster of Ubuntu is not the end of the world, far from it. The current exodus of users from Ubuntu (not to mention all the distros currently moving away from Ubuntu repos to Debian repos!) is actually a good thing for the free software community because it re-centers our community around corporate-free GNU/Linux distributions, and that is most definitely a good thing.
One more item I wanted to share with you the very interesting interview with Dan and Fab recently did with Christian Heilmann, Mozilla's "Principal Evangelist" which you can download here (in mp3 and ogg formats). Browsers are extraordinarily important applications and Mozilla's FireFox is arguably the flagship of all free and open source browsers, so listening to a Mozilla representative is always very interesting.
Okay, that's it for now.
Cheers,
The Saker
Thursday, August 11, 2011
What is really happening in Europe?
Londres flambe, Londres flambe,
Quelle affaire, quelle affaire,
Au feu ! Au feu !
Pas d'eau, rien à faire.
French children's song
First, there were the riots in France. Then the riots spread to other countries, Spain, Greece, and now the Britain. As I sit and watch the various news reports I am amazed to see to what degree they are all missing the point and misreading the nature of what is going on.
 |
| London's burning! |
As some of you might now, when I was still living in Europe I was a military analyst doing strategic intelligence analysis for a European country. Among other things, I had access to a lot of the brainstorming about potential social unrest which might happen not only in my country, but also in the rest of Europe (we were primarily interested in that because of potential refugee movements). I can tell you that all of what is going on today has long been foreseen by the security services. The problem, the dilemma, really, is that there is nothing which they could really do about it. Let me explain.
There are several, distinct, factors which are acting together in a positive feedback loop help to create this "perfect storm" of social unrest. And even though the media did correctly identify many of them, it failed to understand their nature. Let's take them one by one.
Immigration:
Yes, absolutely, beyond any shade of a doubt, immigration plays a role in these riots. But its not a simple, straightforward "there are too many immigrants" kind of thing. First, there are many different types of immigrations, not just one immigration. It is one thing to have a large percentage of Italian or Portuguese immigrants in your neighborhood, and a totally different one when the immigrant are Albanians or Pakistani. I will not go into a long discussion of why Albanian immigrants are so different from, say, Moroccans or Senegalese immigrants, suffice to say here that anybody who has had any experience in the security forces will tell you, off the record, of course, that the worst immigrants to deal with are first generation Albanians (2nd generation are just fine) and second generation Algerians (1st generation are just fine). Weird, but true, and largely off-topic for this article.
Second, it is important to stress here that even in the worst types of immigrants, its only a rather small minority, say 10%, which causes all the troubles. The vast majority only want a peaceful and decent life. The problem here is simple: how do you deal with the former without alienating the latter (nevermind grievously violating the civil and human right!)
Third, some immigrants have kept close ties to their country of origin and in some cases that can make them ideal agents for all sorts of illegal activities (funding through narcotics trade is a big favorite here). In the past, Kurdish immigrants used to be deeply infiltrated by the PKK, more recently we saw the Albanian immigrants providing a powerful lobby and source of support for the KLA.
The main problem with immigrants is that there is no government branch which can adequately deal with them. Think about it. Security services cannot simply single out or target a group solely based upon its ethnicity or religion. Not only would that be wrong, it would also be illegal, and eventually counter-productive. Keep in mind that many, if not most, immigrants are have a legal status, and often even citizenship. They are entitled to being protected by the security services, not harassed or otherwise singled out. Besides, most security services are too small, and they are really trained to deal with gangsters, terrorists and spies, not 10-20% of any one country's population. The police is no better. First, let's be frank here, they are rarely the smartest folks around, and they have to deal mostly with much more mundane issues such as common crime or traffic. In these times of economic crisis, the cops are also pretty much maxed out - they don't have the resources to allocate to such a big and complex phenomenon as immigration-linked problems. The military? Sure, its big, but it simply does not have the mandate to deal with internal threats, in particular not threat coming from its own legal residents and citizens.
So while the cops and even the military can make all sorts of shows of force, they are really useless. And they know that. Let me just give you one example.
Say that in our country Albanian immigrants control 90% of the hard drugs market. They have no problems shooting cops or any competitors. They make huge money and the put at risk entire neighborhoods. What do you do about it?
You can't just arrest all Albanians. You need to find the bad ones. How? Well, monitor them, infiltrate them, at arrest all the bad guys in one big operation. Sounds good, no? Except. Except that what judge is going to allow you to tap somebody's phone just because he is an Albanian and owns a bar? And where are you going to find enough language specialists capable of translating and transcribing Albanian? And how do you propose to infiltrate Albanian gangs when their social structure is quasi tribal and everybody knows everybody?
As for the European xenophobes daydreaming about some "Christian West" and about how they would "expel all these foreigners", they are simply out of touch with reality. Their theories are utter nonsense. These folks make good speeches about how they would solve the problem if they were in power, without even realizing that the state simply does not have a tool which could be used to implement their empty promises. Finally, the xenophobes will not be voted into power simply most Europeans are educated enough to realize that immigration is simply a function of disparity and that if the West exploits and and terrorizes the rest of the planet, immigrants will always try to flee to a safer, better place.
The economic crisis:
Of course it plays are role here. Somebody with a psychologically and financially rewarding job is highly unlikely to spend his free time going on a rampage or looting. I am not saying that poverty is the cause of these riots, there are few really poor and destitute people in Europe and they don't riot at all. It's the pointlessness of being unemployed or having a disgusting job which makes people angry enough to go out and fight the visible instruments of the "order": the cops. So these riots are not hunger riots, they are hate riots, and that is very different.
The so-called "victory" of the West in the Cold War has resulted in a wave of unrestrained turbo-capitalism run amok and we now see the inevitable conclusion of the previously exported exploitation (in the form of imperialism - thanks Lenin, you were right here!) coming back home and doing what Marx had long predicted: a nasty class war.
As an aside, allow me this little digression here. I was one in the hall of a UN conference where the representatives of the West were congratulating each other on "winning the Cold War". And then, the Representative of Pakistan took the floor and with his unique Paki accent said: "has anybody here ever considered that the West did not win the Cold War, but that the internal contradictions of Communism did catch up with the Communist system before the internal contradictions of Capitalism will catch up with Capitalist nations?". His statement was greeted in total silence, and then rapidly forgotten, of course. But he was right, this is exactly what we are seeing today. Class warfare not so much between the haves and have-nots, as between the rulers and their alienated subjects.
Political factors:
Let's put it bluntly. Europe is a US colony. Just as in the Middle-East or Latin America, the US Empire relies on a class of collaborators which is rewards with wealth and power for its subservience to the US Empire. Everybody knows that Europeans did not want to go to war in Iraq of Afghanistan. Everybody knows that Europeans did not want to start a war in Libya. Heck, most Europeans did not even want the kind of EU which the elites did impose upon them. The vast majority of Europeans are opposed to the IMF/WB "austerity measures" and the vast majority of Europeans know that the international bankers have screwed one European country after another. Everybody also knows that there is no real "Left" in Europe (Tony Blair or Cohn-Bendit are not more leftists than a tiger is a vegetarian) and that the only non-co-opted political parties don' stand a chance in any real election. And here is where the immigration factor also comes into place.
Most immigrants know all to well what role the West has played into turning their countries of origin into such a hell-hole that they had to emigrate to the very same West not because they love or admire it, but in spite of the fact that they hate it.
Another digression, if I may. I often hear Americans saying that "if our society is so bad why do people from all over the world emigrate to the USA". Guys, let me break you the bad news: these immigrants *hate* you and *hate* your society. And this is why they are so willing to rob you, whether at gunpoint or otherwise: they are robbing the robber. I personally live in Florida and I am fluent in Spanish and I can assure you that most Hispanics *despise* the Anglos and will say so quite openly to any Spanish speaker. I have heard that many times. First, I approach some Hispanic and ask him - in English - for something and he basically tells me to get lost. I switch into Spanish. The guy immediately makes a 180 and not only helps me, but goes out of his way to accommodate me. Once I was even told that "we need to help each other against these assholes" (meaning the Anglos). Its exactly the same in Europe, I have seen that many times there too. And, please, don't simply get offended at that - if you are European or Anglo-American - but understand this is only a case of karma, of chicken coming to roost, of "he who sows the winds, reaps the tempest" as the French expression goes.
So the combination of thoroughly alienated European youths with angry and resentful immigrants makes for an explosive mix. I would even say that many European youths who oppose the imperialist and capitalist systems identify themselves far more with the brown-skinned immigrants and their hatred of the "system" than with their parents, teachers or politicians.
Of course, not all immigrants hate their host-country. But enough do. That is the point.
Secularism/atheism/agnosticism:
Now a lot of you will get really mad at mine. Fine. I will tell you what I know and what I think, and you can shoot or dismiss the messenger. I don't care, really.
The sentence "If God does not exist, everything is permitted" (often attributed to Dostoevsky) might anger secularists/atheists/agnostics (further called "SAAs") but, guys, its indisputable. The very concepts of "right" and "wrong" have absolutely no basis in logic, even if most SAAs don't realize it, or choose not to act on it. But that is more of a philosophical point and, thus, off-topic again. More relevant to my topic is this: religious communities are never involved in the type of riots and civil disturbances we see in Europe. I lived right next to a mosque and I can tell you that when most "proper and law abiding citizens" were informed that a large mosque would be built in our neighborhood they were horrified. They thought that this would result in an influx of rapists, muggers or even terrorists. Within one year of the opening of the mosque the "proper and law abiding citizens" realized that the kind of immigrants who show up for prayers at the mosque were far more "proper and law abiding" then the locals! This is also why a vice-cop once told me in Toulon "we never have any problems with first-generation Algerian emigrants, they are all Muslims and have a traditional education; it's the second generation Algerians (who often become SAAs) which are the cause of all our problems".
And no, I am not dismissing religious riots in India or Egypt, and no, I am not saying that Muslims or Christians are "better" than SAAs. In fact I will even admit that a 'negative' religion like the atheistic Communism or the pagan National-Socialism can yield an ethos, if not quite a real morality. But Europe is a post-Christian society in which the very concepts or right and wrong have been ridiculed beyond any hope of redemption and in which the majority of the ignorant, alienated and angered youth believes in absolutely nothing.
Consider this: there is an entire generation (several, I would argue) that has been raised in a society in which lies and hypocrisy are the norm, in which violence, in particular, but not only, against dark-skinned people is an integral part of the social order, in which the rich get richer, the poor poorer and in which democracy is an empty word meaning little more than submission to authority. How could anybody seriously expect that kind of generation not to explode, sooner or later?
Not only do most European youth believe that Christianity, Islam and all other religions are a lie, they also believe that Socialism, Communism, Democracy or free-market Capitalism and globalization are also lies. And, frankly, they are right: the kinds if Christianity, Islam, Communism, Democracy, free-market Capitalism or globalization which they have been exposed to are, really, all lies.
And this is why to simply call them "thugs" and "criminals" not false, but also not quite correct. Yes, their actions are criminal, and their excuses about "racism" and "poverty" are just that - excuses, cop-outs. But on a deeper level, what these riots show are the signs of the agony of a system built on one and only "value": greed. Because this is what capitalism, the putative victor of the Cold War, truly is. It is an ideology whose fundamental dogma is that the ideal society is the product of the sums of everybody's greeds. As a direct by-product of this is the truism that "growth is always and by definition, good" (the mere fact that infinite grow in a finite environment is exactly the reason why tumors kill their hosts is simply not considered).
So this is what, I believe, these riots are really about: a comprehensive failure of the Capitalist system. An economic failure of course, but also a political and moral failure. Capitalism is a fundamentally anti-human system which cannot be sustained without killing its host. The riots in Europe are only one - amongst many other - symptom of the fact.
The Saker
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