MentalGator

FP Passport - blogging on global news, politics, economics, and ideas (7 unread)

• George Galloway flatters Assad's media advisor

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 1:28 am by David Kenner

  

  As my boss Blake Hounshell noted this morning, Syrian activists are having a field day trawling through the hacked e-mails of officials in President Bashar al-Assad's regime. One particularly interesting note was sent by former British parliamentarian George Galloway to Assad advisor Bouthaina Shaaban.

  Galloway was writing to request the Syrian government's help in organizing a convoy to the Gaza Strip. The plan was for vehicles to travel over land from London and the Gulf to the Syrian city Latakia, at which point they would board the Mavi Marmara - which had been the scene of a deadly raid by Israel Defense Forces solders only months earlier, as it tried to breach the Gaza blockade -- and travel to the Egyptian port city of al-Arish. From there, they would enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. While the convoy did complete its mission, the Mavi Marmara does not appear to have ultimately taken part.

  In securing Assad's help, Galloway recited the Baath Party's own rhetoric back to Shaaban. "Syria is as I have often said is the last castle of Arab dignity," he writes.

  Von: b.shaaban@mopa.gov.sy

  Reply-to: b.shaaban@mopa.gov.sy

  An: buthainak1@hotmail.co.uk

  Betreff: Fwd: IMPORTANT - private and confidential

  Datum: Sat, 14 Aug 2010 06:03:38 +0300 (14.08.2010 05:03:38)

  Your Excellency Dr Bouthaina Sha'aban

  Special Advisor to President Bashar al Asad

  President of the Syrian Arab Republic

  Your Excellency, dear Dr Sha'aban

   

  I hope this letter finds you well. Please be assured of my warmest fraternal greetings always. I am writing on behalf of Viva Palestina whose world-wide family of solidarity organisiations and registered charities will soon be setting out for beseiged Gaza again with our fifth convoy of aid. You will recall the outstanding assistance afforded us in Syria on previous occasions over the last period. I am writing once again to ask for Syria's co-operation although I do not doubt it for one moment. Syria is as I have often said is the last castle of Arab dignity. My only regret is to have to ask for your help again.

  This convoy sets out simulataneously on September 18th 2010 from London, from Casablanca and from the Gulf. The London and Gulf columns of vehicles would like to converge on Latakia and sail from there to Al Arish. The Casablanca column hopes to join us in Al Arish and we hope all three columns - hundreds of vehicles strong - will enter Gaza through Rafah without hinderance.

  The aid on board the vehicles will be 50% medical equipment and 50% educational, construction and other aid. The organisers of the convoy are Viva Palestina UK, Viva Palestina USA, Viva Palestina Arabia, Viva Palestina Malaysia, Viva Palestina Ireland, the Turkish NGO IHH,the International Committee to break the Seige on Gaza, Kia Ora - the Viva Palestina sister organisation in New Zealand, Viva Palestina Australia, Viva Palestina South Africa, Viva Palestina Spain, Viva Palestina Italia, and Viva Palestina France.

  It is intended that the vehicles and passengers should sail to Al Arish on board the Mavi Marmara, which as you know is owned by IHH. If His Excellency the President Bashar al Asad and his government can accept this proposal in principle perhaps you could nominate partner organisation(s) and individuals with whom my colleagues could liaise about the practical details? The liaison from our side would be Mr Kevin Ovenden and Mr Zaher Birawi of Viva Palestina UK (as we believe 2 is enough).

  In any case please convey my respect and my admiration to His Excellency the President.

   

  With all good wishes

  George Galloway

• Qaddafi's spymaster takes a walk

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 9:53 pm by Blake Hounshell

  A correspondent in Doha, Qatar, sends in these pictures of Libyan ex-foreign minister and spy chief Musa Kusa taking a stroll near his "villa" in the outskirts of town. During the war, following his dramatic defection from Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime, Kusa first fled to London before setting up shop at the five-star Four Seasons Doha, where he was often seen enjoying Italian cuisine and smoking in the lobby, I'm told:

  

  Funny story: a retired CIA case officer, whose name I won't share, was coincidentally placed into a room next to Kusa's, a fact my source discovered when the ex-diplomat at one point was banished from the lobby by either the hotel or his Qatari hosts, and had to resort to pacing the hall outside his room. At one point, Kusa knocked on the former CIA guy's door and asked for a cigarette; on another occasion he tried to enter the wrong room by mistake. Eventually, the Qataris (and the hotel management) got sick of him and he moved out.

  In any case, as you can see, Kusa's new digs are not quite so luxurious:

  

  

• Small potatoes rule the day in Lebanon

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 9:30 pm by David Kenner

  

  Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati answered questions on Twitter on Sunday afternoon, one day after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria - a step that seems virtually guaranteed to plunge Lebanon's eastern neighbor into further violence. So what did the premier want to talk about? Spoiled spuds.

  "I realize that some of you are being kept busy with a story on expired potato chips which clearly changes the usual focus of the discussion," Mikati wrote. "Let me reassure you that instructions have been given to investigate expired potato chips story, perform related Lab tests&take measures."

  Mikati was referring to a dastardly plot to alter the expiration date of 35 tons of potato chips at a warehouse owned by his brother-in-law. Whatever the facts of the case, it is something less than the great struggles against dictatorship seizing the rest of the Middle East. It also says volumes about the issue Mikati doesn't want to talk about: The slow-motion collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

  Mikati's line is that Lebanon will "disassociate" itself from events in Syria, remaining neutral in order to avoid the blowback from the incipient civil war. But all the major political actors in Beirut are doing precisely the opposite -- even those within Mikati's own government. Lebanese Ambassador to the U.N. Nawaf Salam, for example, was talking with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice on the floor of the Security Council just before the key vote on Syria. Salam reports to Lebanon's Foreign Ministry, which is run by a representative of the Amal party, a close ally of Hezbollah. It's difficult to see how inserting himself into the proceedings serves the purpose of "disassociating" Lebanon from events to the east.

  The examples are piling up. As Hezbollah stages raids on towns in search of Syrian dissidents, arms smugglers carry weapons across the border to Syrian militiamen. Hassan Nasrallah promises to stand by Assad to the end, and Sunni leader Saad Hariri says that "change is imminent" in Damascus.

  Violence is also piling up. Eight Lebanese have reportedly been killed in Syrian incursions across the border since the uprising began, and the Lebanese Army is now using helicopters in the north to search for "terrorist groups" at the request of the Syrian regime. And twice in the past three months, Lebanese parliamentarians have gotten into fistfights on live television.

  There is little point in criticizing Lebanon's prime minister, who is picking from a series of bad options, of being disingenuous. But from the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser to the civil war, Lebanon has a sad history of being destabilized by regional forces beyond its control. If Syria is poised to become 1980s Lebanon on steroids, as my colleague Marc Lynch writes, Beirut will get pulled down into the tragedy sooner or later.

• Was the Racist Chinese Super Bowl Ad Racist in China?

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 8:12 pm by Isaac Stone Fish

  A GOP senatorial candidate in Michigan, Pete Hoekstra, ran a Super Bowl advertisement featuring an Asian woman speaking broken English and thanking Hoekstra's opponent, Debbie Stabenow, for her free-spending ways. The ad hit a nerve in America, angering many for its portrayal of an Asian-American woman speaking broken English. The Michigan chapter of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group said it was "deeply disappointed" by the ad, and political commentators criticized it across the board. The 'blame China' ad is becoming a fixture in American political campaigns;  see for example the 'xiexie Mr. Gibbs', or the 'Chinese professor.'

  While the woman in the Super Bowl ad wears a hat more often associated with Vietnam, the ad's website, www.debbiespenditnow.com, makes it clear that it is targeting China: Chinese coins, fans, an airplane, and the phrase "The Great Wall of Debt"  decorate the site.

  This ad, however, received almost no attention in China. There is scant chatter of it on Sina Weibo or Tencent Weibo, the two most popular Twitter-like microblogging services. The NFL, lacking the popularity that Yao Ming brought to the NBA, is rarely watched in China anyway, and the ads this year that drew any attention were mostly car commercials.

  Only a handful of Twitter users wrote about it in simplified Mandarin (the way Chinese is written in Mainland China, unlike the traditional characters which the Debbiespenditnow website inexplicably employs). One who did so is a software engineer working in the Netherlands who tweets under the name lihlii.  "I don't think it's racist," he said in a phone interview. "It's about America losing jobs."

  Broadly speaking, there is a whole different idea of political correctness in China. Asking how much someone makes a month within the first minute of meeting them doesn't raise eyebrows in China, and neither, generally speaking, do blanket racial statements, like commenting on the perceived cleverness of the Jews.  On the other hand, questioning Hu Jintao's ability to govern makes for awkward cocktail party chatter.

  Those who did object to the ad generally did so in an American context. Michael Anti, a popular blogger who has lived in the U.S. as a Nieman Fellow, wrote on Twitter:

  "I think the problem with the ad is that it's racist, not anti-Chinese. As a Chinese I should be amused by this ad, because it seems more like Southeast Asia. But Chinese in America are easily enraged by that sort of prejudicial defamation of the image of a Chinese woman. Also, her English is not the Chinglish of a Mainland Chinese."

  So what Super Bowl ads are controversial in China? Last year Groupon ran one featuring actor Timothy Hutton saying: "The people of Tibet are in trouble, their very culture in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry." This ruffled feathers for contravening  state policy and conventional wisdom that Han Chinese are helping Tibet (and for its inaccuracy: fish curry is probably eaten more in Vermont than Tibet). Groupon employees at the time said that the advertisement complicated the company's expansion plans into China, and they eventually pulled the advertisement.

• Why does Ruth Bader Ginsburg like the South African constitution so much?

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 8:07 pm by Joshua Keating

  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is taking some heat from conservative blogs for this recent interview with Egypt's Al-Hayat TV, (skip to 9:30) in which she suggests that the U.S. constitution might not be the best model for post-revolutionary Egypt. Here's a summary from ABC:

  Asked by the English-speaking interviewer whether she thought Egypt should use the Constitutions of other countries as a model, Ginsburg said Egyptians should be “aided by all Constitution-writing that has gone on since the end of World War II.”

  “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a Constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the Constitution of South Africa,” says Ginsburg, whom President Clinton nominated to the court in 1993. “That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. … It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the U.S. Constitution.”

  Ginsburg, who spent her career before taking the bench advocating for gender equality, praised the U.S. Constitution and the founders, saying, “we were just tremendously fortunate in the U.S. that the men that met in Philadelphia were very wise.” But “it’s true that they were lacking one thing, that is there were no women as part of the Constitutional Convention, but there were women around who sparked the idea.”

  Ginsburg said “we are still forming the more perfect union” and noted that “when the Constitution was new in the 1780s, we still had slavery in the U.S.”

  But, she added, ”The genius of the Constitution, I think, is that it has this notion of who composes ‘We the people’. It has expanded and expanded over the years so now it includes people who were left out in the beginning. Native Americans were left out, certainly people held in human bondage, women, and people that were new comers to our shores. “

  The backlash is pretty predictable, (Hot Air's Allahpundit quips that "I’m actually sort of charmed that a left-wing jurist thinks it matters much what’s written in a nation’s constitution.") and falls into a larger debate on the court's about whether it's appropriate for American jurists to look to other countries' laws for precedent. Ginsburg's job security is pretty solid, so the fallout of this incident is likely to be pretty minimal, though I could see it as a future applause line on the campaign trail. But Ginsburg's comments also raise the question of what exactly is so great about South Africa's constitution. 

  What makes the post-apartheid document, which came into effect in 1997, so unique, is its inclusion of positive rights. In addition to freedom from discrimination -- including on the basis of sexual orientation, disability or religion -- and freedom of speech, under chapter two of the constitution, South Africans have the right to "make decisions concerning reproduction," "form a political party," or "form and join a trade union."

  Even more notable, the constitutions requires the state to enact policies that minimize inequality:

  The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.

  It also stipulates that citizens have the right to housing and adequate healthcare. 

  Needless to say, the South African state is often in violation of many of these goals, but the argument for the constitution is that it gives citizens legal recourse to demand government action on  economic matters. It's also the case that a constitution that essentially includes an explicit guarantee of abortion rights, mandates government-provided healthcare, and encourages income redistribution, is something of a Tea Party dystopia. 

  Ginsburg is not alone in her admiration of the South African model. Cass Sunstein, the legal scholar who current runs the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has called it ''the most admirable constitution in the history of the world.'" Though given Sunstein's own reputation among Tea Partiers, I'm guessing we won't hear him speaking up on Ginsburg's behalf during an election year. 

• Syrians troll through hacked emails of Bashar's presidential aides

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 5:40 pm by Blake Hounshell

  Move over, WikiLeaks: There's a new sheriff in town.

  The shadowy hacker collective Anonymous struck again late Sunday evening, exposing the email accounts of top aides to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and posting the passwords online for all to see (most of them were -- literally -- "12345").

  Expatriate Syrians pounced, gleefully delving through this treasure trove and pulling out newsworthy gems (some even joked about sending replies from the accounts, for example, "Curse your soul, Hafez"). There were few smoking guns, but one email, from U.N.-based press aide Sheherazad Jaafari to Damascus-based press aide Luna Chebel, was particularly interesting. It advises the presidential office on how to best handle Assad's Dec. 7 interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. If this is the quality of staff work Bashar al-Assad is getting... well, it explains a lot:

  Hello dear,

  Please let me know if you need anything else.
  Barbara will be here on the 2nd and the interview will be on the 4th because she is leaving on the 6th so that would give you some time to do the editing.

  Thank you.

  After doing a major research on the American Media's coverage on the Syrian issue and the American Society's perspective of what is happening on the Syrian ground, I have concluded some important points that might be helpful for the preparation of the upcoming interview with Barbara Walters.

  I based my research on online articles written about the Syrian issue, my personal contacts with the American journalists, my father and Syrian expatriates in the States.

  The Major points and dimensions that has been mentioned a lot in the American media are:

  The Violence:
  * The idea of violence has been one of the major subjects brought up in every article. They use the phrases "the Syrian government is killing its own people", "Tanks have been used in many cities", "airplanes have been used to suppress the peaceful demonstrations" and "Security forces are criminals and bloody".

  Bloodshed:
  · Bloodshed is another subject brought up in the American media. There is no mention of how many "soldiers and security forces have been killed". They think that bloodshed is done by the government to attack the "innocent civilians" and "peaceful demonstrators". Mentioning "armed groups" in the interview is extremely important and we can use "American and British articles" to prove that there are "armed gangs".

  Reform:
  · The American audience doesn't really care about reforms. They won't understand it and they are not interested to do so. Thus, a brief mention of the reforms done in the past couple of months is more than enough.
  · It is very important to mention the huge economical and political transformation that Syria has gone through in the last 11 years. Somehow, there needs to be a clarification that reform started since H.E took the office.

  Mistakes:
  · It is hugely important and worth mentioning that "mistakes" have been done in the beginning of the crises because we did not have a well-organized "police force". American Psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are "mistakes" done and now we are "fixing it". Its worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been suppressed by police men, police dogs and beatings.

  Torture Policy:
  "Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people" unlike the USA, where there are courses and schools that specializes in teaching police men and officers how to torture criminals and "outlaws". For instace, "the electric chair and killing through injecting an overdose amount of medicine"...etc.
  *We can use Abu Ghraib in Iraq as an example.

  The Comments:
  · The comments that follow any article in the American Media are a very important tool to use in the interview. The Americans now believe that their government has failed two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are asking their government to stop interfering in other countries businesses and sovereignty and to start taking care of the American internal issues.

  Obama popularity's decline and incline through the past 3 years:
  · It is worth mentioning that when Obama asked H.E to step down he himself have had a 70% decrease of his popularity in the States.
  · It would be worth mentioning how your personality has been attacked and praised in the last decade according to the media. At one point H.E was viewed as a hero and in other times H.E was the "bad guy". Americans love these kinds of things and get convinced by it.

  Facebook and You tube:
  This is very important to the American mindset. The fact that Facebook and youtube are open now-especially during the crises- is important.

  The International media:
  · We should mention that in the first month the international media was allowed in Syria. Both al Jazeera and al Arabia's offices were open but when they started to manipulate what is happening and "make up facts", the Syrian government became more cautious about who will enter the country.

  10) Civil war in Syria and the neighboring countries:
  We can use Noland and Hillary's statements encouraging armed groups to not give up their weapons as a "clear" way of asking for a civil war in Syria.

  11) The opposition:
  * a brief mention of the opposition "figures". Syria doesn't have an opposition leader with a "ready" agenda; they are all from the previous generation. The opposition was asked to meet by the Syrian government but most of them refused to attend.

  Key Points:
  The government's crackdown, the bloody regime, civil war, security forces and violence, Tanks, you tube torture clips, Pres. Assad IGNORES the bloodshed and the "help" of other countries and the Arab League", Army defectors, Robert Fords return to the US for "Security reasons", Syria is an authoritarian government.

  The Broadcasting hours and channels:
  · The interview will be broadcast across ABC News platforms - including World News, Good Morning America, This Week, ABC Radio, a full edition of Nightline, and full-length treatment across the digital space (for ABC News this now includes Yahoo as well - which means you can reach as many as 100 million people. ABC News and Yahoo recently joined forces - which is another reason why so many people now bring their interviews to us).
  

  The exact dates/times for all these broadcasts depends on when the interview is done.

  This is all ABC News - every platform. The entire interview would run on ABC News Digital; "Nightline" will devote an entire broadcast; "World News" at least one night, maybe two; "Good Morning America" a segment; "This Week" a segment. And so on.

  Thanks to Fadi Mqayed for the pointer.

• Morning Brief: Syrian violence escalates as U.N. action collapses

  Posted: February 6, 2012, 3:31 pm by Uri Friedman

  Syrian violence escalates as U.N. action collapses

  Top story: There are fresh reports today of a heavy Syrian assault on the flashpoint city of Homs (pictured above during a protest on Friday), two days after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Bashar al-Assad's crackdown and pressuring the Syrian president to step down. As activists report hundreds of deaths in Homs over the weekend, the state-run news agency is blaming "terrorists" for bombing a gas pipeline near the flashpoint city.

  Russia and China, meanwhile, are defending their vetoes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has argued that supporting the U.N. resolution would have meant taking sides in a civil war, while a commentary in China's People's Daily noted that "simplistically supporting one side and suppressing the other" would "be sowing fresh seeds of disaster."

  Lavrov will hold talks with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday and call for the swift "implementation of democratic reforms whose time has come."

  Palestinian unity deal: In a news conference in Doha on Monday, the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah announced that they've formed an interim unity government led initially by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of elections. Israel and the West have said they will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless the group recognizes Israel and renounces violence.

  Europe

  • The Greek government has agreed to a new round of steep spending cuts and will resume crisis talks on Monday in an effort to secure bailout funds. 

  • Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc has resigned in the face of protests against IMF-supported austerity measures.  

  • Finland has elected its first conservative head of state since 1956.

  Middle East

  • In an interview on Sunday, President Obama said he did not believe Israel had made a decision on whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and emphasized his support for a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

  • Egypt is putting 19 Americans -- including the son of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood -- and several other foreigners on trial as part of a broader crackdown on nonprofit groups, in a move that has raised tensions with the United States.

  • In the latest development in Iraq's political crisis, a lawmaker in the country's Sunni-backed coalition says the Shiite-led government may take away his immunity from prosecution.

  Americas

  • Mexico's ruling National Action Party has chosen Josefina Vazquez Mota to run for president in July, making her the country's first female presidential candidate from a major party. 

  • Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was extradited to Panama in December, has been moved from prison to a hospital after suffering a possible stroke.

  • Shoe-hurling protesters greeted outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday when he emerged from a hotel in New York City, where he is receiving medical treatment.

  Asia

  • A 6.8-magnitude earthquake in the Philippines has killed at least 12 people.

  • Three Tibetan herders have reportedly set themselves on fire in the latest sign of unrest among Tibetans in Sichuan Province.

  • The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is reporting that CIA drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan are also killing rescuers and mourners.

  Africa

  • South Africa's ruling African National Congress has postponed final sentencing for the suspended Youth League leader Julius Malema. 

  • An inquiry into the mysterious death of Zimbabwean military leader Solomon Mujuru is winding down with many questions still unanswered.

  • Tuareg rebels who fought for Muammar al-Qaddafi are using weapons from the former Libyan leader's arsenal to reinvigorate their insurgency in Mali.

  
  

  AFP/Getty Images