Aleppous

Bin Laden , Aljazeera and America

2011-05-09T10:53:00.001+02:00

The assassination of Bin Laden is still mysterious. A lot of questions need serious answers. It is still unbelievable that the Pakistani intelligence had not known where he was living. If we analyze the stories of the assassination and how they had traced him, we will fall in a doubt about what we are told. It is clear form the story elements that he was traced from a long period of time and they had a clear image about him and how he was living and what he was doing.

The rumors which is widely spread that he was made by Americans and killed by them will find a place in our consciousness. His life as well as his death was mysterious. We had only followed him in the last ten years by video tapes and voice records which were broadcasted by Aljazeera. If we really want s answers, we should deeply analyze his relation with Aljazeera.

Aljazeera was his favorite destination to broadcast his speeches to his supporters. US had claimed that he was instructing his supporters by coded phrases and sentences. Aljazeera had denied these claims and used to say that it was handling his speeches from a professional point of view.

Mustafa Hamido

A room for guests

2011-05-08T10:29:00.001+02:00

A room for guests

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In the Arabic culture, every home should have a room dedicated for guests. It is a sign for a warm welcoming for those you are gusting. This room should be the cleanest and the most well furnished room in any home. It is a culture inherited from grandfathers.
I don’t have a full idea about this heritage which I found it deeply profounded in the Arabic Culture. Some argue that it was dedicated for the guests who were coming to visit from long distances. This justification of this heritage can be accepted, especially, if we know the difficulties of travelling between cities and villages in the past.

In the Arabic culture, each home should have a room dedicated for guests

It can also be justified as a Bedouin heritage .The culture of Bedouins refuses to ask any traveler who is intending your tent in the bareness desert your need unless you spend 3 days in his tent eating and drinking .Generally, Arabs are Bedouins in their origins. They all came from the borderless desert of the Arab Peninsula.
Our capitals in the Arab world are like these rooms. It is almost the cleanest, the well serviced and the place where you can enjoy the life. The other cities are, in most cases, ignored and lacked the minimum requirements for the good life. The consequence of this ignorance can be noticed clearly.

The other cities are, in most cases, ignored and lacked the minimum requirements for the good life.

The big cities in the Arab world and especially the capitals are surrounded by “belts of poverty” .Most of the inhabitants of these belts came from the ignorant cities and towns. The lack of services in their cities and subsequently the lack of job opportunities pushed them to leave to the big cities to get a job and a good future. Sad stories are told about these belts. The poverty and the crimes are high their. The hygiene is missed and the healthy life is a luxury.

The revolutions which are taking place in the Arab world are in part of them a reaction of the ignorance. It is clearly seen in Syria . The all revolutionaries are coming from the country side which has been marginalized for more than 10 years . All the services and the big job opportunities were centralized in the big cities. Look at the two major cities in Syria and you will reach to a sad conclusion. The both two major cities -Aleppo and Damascus - are away from the revolution. They are resisting the calls to participate. They have got all the facilities and advantages which push them to think twice before going in an adventure. We can see some tiny demonstrations in these two cities; however, they are all come from the "belts of Poverty" which are surrounding them.

Mustafa Hamido

The Mature Libya

2011-03-20T15:35:00.000+02:00

The Mature Libya

The delay in forming no-fly zone in Libya will lead to a disaster. They are demolishing all the western claims that they are promoting their values in democracy and freedoms. What they are doing in delaying the no-fly zone is giving a chance to the pro-government troops to re-occupy the eastern Libya.
If we take a look on the current situation in Libya, we will get a shaken conclusion: Pro-government troops are killing people to re-occupy the eastern Libya. we can accuse the west in blinding itself to see who will win and who will secure its interests in Libya.

The calls for Gaddafi’s to step down are a hypocrisy .you can’t explain that away from the hypocrisy. We can go in a debate with them and prove that. They want to re-form the Iraqi’s model. They want to let Gaddafi to re-occupy the eastern Libya and put sanctions on him to reach to a point where they can get the fruit mature.
The mature Libya means that they can control the oil and Gas sources and secure its reserves for the future without paying a high price.They are not in a situation that they can defend the values they are promoting. It is a matter of interests and the cost of securing their interests . The west is not sure that dealing with the interim council in Benghazi will secure its interest. They don’t want to go in a doubtful negotiation with them. Dealing with the interim council may not reach to the understanding they want.
unconditional support for the interim council will not benefit them . They want a clear gurantee that their interests willbe secured as Gaddafi is doing .
Their problem with Gaddafi ,that he has lost his legitimacy in ruling Libya. They know very well that he became weak and can’t go froward in ruling Libya. Here , the comparison between him and Saddam Hussein is logical .Theyhad let him rule 13 years before they invade Iraq and overthrow him . We may see the same scenario: letting Gaddafi rule as a weak leader and wait to the point where they see it is suitable for them to pick Libya matured .

Tomoko : It is a nightmare

2011-03-13T09:32:00.000+02:00

Tomoko : It is a nightmare

TOMOKO, who lives in Japan, describesthe tsunami hit Japan yesterday as a nightmare . The scenes which are broadcasted from there shows the serious damage the tsunami caused . The main danger now is that related to the nuclear plants in the damaged areas .

JAPAN , currently , has 54 nuclear plants which are generating around 49 GW , making it the third largest nuclear power generator in the world after USA and France . Japan is going to generate about 49 % of its electric needs from nuclear plants by 2017 and 50% by 2030.
The danger of the increase nuclear leaks from some of these reactors is the main threat which is facing the Japanese government .
Reports say that the level of the radioactive leaks is 1000 times higher than the normal level in the affected areas .
The nuclear threat is one of a lot threats Japan is facing . The authorities have said that around 1000 people have been killed and a lot still missed . According to Tomoko , she still can’t reach to some of here friends . They still away from the the hearing and she is trying to reach them.

Mustafa Hamido

Libya : The tyrant is resisting

2011-02-21T15:21:00.001+02:00

Libya : The tyrant is resisting

It seems to be the end of Ghadafi rule. The massacres have been done in Libya in the last two days tell, clearly, that Ghadafi is losing the control. What he is doing is the last try for him to restore his power and rule.

The clashes which started on 16th of February in the eastern part of Libya has spread to reach the capital, Tripoli. This is, surely, a sign that the clashes and later the revolution is not an isolated case and it is a nation revolution.

The Libyans officials try at the beginning to say that what is happening is no more than economical and social protests against the poverty and marginalization. They argue that the marginalization of the eastern Libya has pushed thousands to protest.

The younger son of Ghadafi, Saif Al-Islam, has said, subsequently, that the government has dedicated 200 $ billion to be invested in the Eastern Libya.

The general scene which the entire world is monitoring is different. It is a revolution against the regime.

The spreading of the clashes to Tripoli clarify that .The revolutionists expects that they will overthrow the regime within two days. I know that it is an optimistic conclusion. The Libyan regime will resist and try to survive by all means.

Essential changes instead of regime change

2011-02-21T15:21:00.000+02:00

Essential changes instead of regime change

Promoting for the failure of the lotus revolution in Egypt is spread in the Arabic Media. They are talking about “essential changes” instead of “regime change” .Abdul Bari Attouan , the chief editor of Alquds Al-Arabi” , endorse that there are a lot of attempts to abort the revolution . He, as an anti –Mubarak writer, has supported the revolution and expected that it will change the face of the region.

Pragmatic Muslims Brotherhoods

2011-02-21T15:20:00.001+02:00

Pragmatic Muslims Brotherhoods

Muslims Brotherhood has accepted to go in a constructive dialogue with the Egyptian government. Although the criticisms of its current behavior and its acceptance of dialogue with the regime, it argues that it will not go forward in the dialogue without actual results. The pragmatic Islamic group, which was established in the late 1920’s, tries to get the official acceptance as an important political figure in Egypt.

scene in Egypt is changing and such acceptance can be a real fact without going in such dialogue
In a case such Egypt is living in, this acceptance is not very important . The scene in Egypt is changing and such acceptance can be a real fact without going in such dialogue. The Egyptian regime is trying to win the ground by shredding the groups on the ground. The Muslims Brotherhoods knows that very well.

Close sources to them try to justify their situation. They say that it is just a trial to know how the government is thinking.
Close sources to them try to justify their situation. They say that it is just a trial to know how the government is thinking. “Knowing the government thinking will ease our next step” A figure in Muslims brotherhood told Aljazeera yesterday. He added “we will continue our support for the protests and will participate in it as we were doing “ What this figure is not noticing, that such a statements will weaken the protests and will lead to essential differences between the groups on the ground.

Why they are not believing Mubarak?

2011-02-21T15:20:00.000+02:00

Why they are not believing Mubarak?
What has characterized the Mubarak’s era , which is almost over, is the lies he was distributing right and left. He inherited Anwar Assadat which he follow the policy of openness toward the western economic style after decades of socialism and central planning .The openness has left millions of Egyptians without an ability to survive. The prices had jumped and the daily essential products which the government were subsidized lost from the markets.

Mubarak came to the presidency as a hope for the people who were paining from the openness policy and the corruption
This led to mass demonstrations in 1977 .Mubarak came to the presidency as a hope for the people who were paining from the openness policy and the corruption .He has started distributing promises and giving hope for his people.After 3 decades of his presidency, the people have discovered that he was lying .

This is the Mubarak’s problem , The lying.This lying has led to mistrusting him. The people are rejecting what he has promised from leaving the presidency in next September. They are worried that he will use the rest months in restructuring the government to save his interests and to make sure that he will not be judged.The negotiation which are taking place between the opposition and the government are focusing mainly on the issue of his leaving the presidency.People who are demonstrating daily in Tahrir square are demanding him to leave.

This is the Mubarak’s problem , The lying.This lying has led to mistrusting him. The people are rejecting what he has promised from leaving the presidency in next September.
He , till now, seems dump and is not interacting positively with his people demands.After 30 years of lies , his promises are unacceptable for those young who have occupied the square since 25th of October.

World Wide protests against Mubarak

2011-02-21T15:19:00.001+02:00

World Wide protests against Mubarak

Egypt :Wonderful People for Wonderful Nation

2011-02-21T15:19:00.000+02:00

Egypt :Wonderful People for Wonderful Nation

2011-02-06T13:22:00.001+02:00

Egypt :Wonderful People for Wonderful Nation

Revolutions or changes : A battle for the Hearts and the Minds of people

2011-02-06T13:22:00.000+02:00

Revolutions or changes : A battle for the Hearts and the Minds of people

Seven days has passed since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution and the ruler of Egypt still stuck to his throne. The quick changes he has done, during the last two days, were by no means positive. It is too late to do such changes which were before 25th of January acceptable by Egyptians. While we are watching the crowds in Tahrir Square asking Hosni to leave, Hosni’s colleagues in the Middle East are monitoring what the fate of Hosni will be.
The widest spread joke, nowadays in the Middle East, that the next Arabs summit will be for the introducing of the new Arab leaders to the world .

All the thrones are threatened across the Middle East by people’s revolutions. Bashar Assad of Syria said in a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal yesterday that he would apply minor reforms during 2011. Leaks form Syria say that the tension in the top of regime is at its maximum.

The widest spread joke, nowadays in the Middle East, that the next Arabs summit will be for the introducing of the new Arab leaders to the world .
A call for massive demonstrations on 5th of February across Syria has shocked the Syrian Security agents. Meetings at the top levels are hold daily in Syria to discuss how they are going to deal with this unexpected movement.
In Yemen, the revolution has started. Daily demonstrations against Saleh’s regime are hold. Saleh announced that he would not extend his rule for another term and would not be inherited by his son Ahmed. Saleh complained from Aljazeera Coverage of the protests in Yemen.
The Media are playing a historical role in the events of the Middle East . Aljazeera is at the center of this media. It has biased to the demonstrators and broadcasted their cheering against Hosni Mubarak. It has hosted tens of anti-Mubarak activists during the last week’s protests. Egyptian Authorities shut down its offices in Cairo on Sunday. It is currently depending on free lancers and New Media Tools (Bloggers , Twitters , Facebook , Youtube) in its coverage.

The Media are playing a historical role in the events of the Middle East
Rumors are spread across the Middle East that a lot of countries are going to shut down Aljazeera offices. In an interview with Assafir, the Lebanese newspaper, Ghassan Bin Jedo , director of Aljazeera office in Beirut, said that that action would not affect on Aljazeera coverage . He added that they had covered Tunis revolution without a single correspondent there.

My agenda : following Egypt

2011-01-30T07:35:00.000+02:00

My agenda : following Egypt

I can’t describe what I am watching on TVs . I am living in a historical moments . I will tell my grandsons and granddaughters about what I am watching and how I interact with this dramatic event .
I am sure that the Middle East will be different within couple of years . It is a fast and dramatic change I can compare it to 1952′s military coup. That coup which had been converted to a revolution had changed the face of the region .
I will tell all my belongs about this fact . I will tell them that we were waiting these changes and try to expect the another .
I will tell them that we had abandoned all the football matches we were following and focused on Egypt’s streets .

Syrians monitor Egypt : the change which will generate change

2011-01-30T07:34:00.000+02:00

Syrians monitor Egypt : the change which will generate change

Syrians are monitoring what is happening in Egypt and comparing it to their situation . Ameen Salem , a 56 Syrian , says ” it is difficult to judge on what we are seeing . It still early to know the undercover ” . As most Syrians who have lived under autocratic regimes for more than 50 years , he doesn’t want to face another disappointing situation . He says ” it is difficult to say it is revolution , Middle East is a strange place and very difficult to expect what will happen tomorrow ”
One of the biggest problems for the people in the Middle East is their afraid from a lawless situation and the lack of security . The iraq’s style remains in their mind . Ameen says ” I still remember what happened in Iraq . It was a disaster for them and even for us .
The above conservative opinion is different from what you can hear in other places . In one of cafes , I met people who were full of enthusiasm and discussing the Egyption case openly . Ahmed , a 25 Syrian jobless, says ” if a real change occurs in Egypt , a real change will occur here . Syria and Egypt are twin. They have the same problems and the same corruption style ”
It was not easy to discuss such matter before months. The Middle East is changing and people know that they are living in a transitional era .
The main problem for the people during the second half of the 20th century was the martial ruling of the country .
It was an uncertain era of the people . They lacked the hope in the future . They really want to change , however, they are afraid from the armies to seize the power and control the Nations.

Waiting the Syrian-Saudi initiative

2010-12-20T15:20:00.001+02:00

Waiting the Syrian-Saudi initiative

Lebanese politicians are waiting the Syria-Saudi initiative . The waited initiative seems to be ready by the end of this month. According to the Lebanese newspapers , the general outlines are ready and wait the curing of the Saudi king who is under treatment in USA to be declared .
The worries are from the sectarian clashes in Lebanon .Accusing Hezbollah in the assassination of the former Sunni prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri by the international court will increase the possibility of sectarian clashes in Lebanon . Hezbollah , the resistance movement , denies any involvement of any of its members in the assassination .

It gives a lot of proves that Israel had monitored the prime minister and his transportation routs he was using for years . The proves have been ignored by the court during the last months . The scene in Lebanon is turbid . There is a clear fact there : it is a struggle for the Hezbollah's arms . Hezbollah used to say that this court comes in a series of American attempts to disarm it . It is at the end the Israel security and supremacy . This is the reason of all saddness Lebanon has lived in in the last five years . It started in 2004 when US and France issued the decision 1559 . This decision called to disarm Hezbollah . It was a tool to expel Syria from lebanon and disarm its strongest ally , Hezbollah . The initiative is waited will try to deactivate the international court and try to neutralize it from the internal Lebanese policy .

The US has used lebanon in the last five years as a gambling card in front of Syria and Iran . It was trying to reach to a deal which saves its interest in Iraq by trying to press on Syria in Lebanon. After it discovered that the resistance in Iraq is paining it , It answered to the repeated Israeli asks to help it in disarm Hezbollah . It is the Israeli daily nightmare.It was a chance for US to pain Syria which was suspected in backing the Iraqi's resistance.

The game is over now . US has failed in controlling Iraq as it haas dreamt before and needs a way to save its interst in Iraq and the entire Middle East.The succession of this initiative is expected for that reason . There is no other choice for US . The failure of it will lead to disturbances in all the Middle East .

Syria after 10 years of Bashar’s presidency

2010-12-20T15:20:00.000+02:00

Syria after 10 years of Bashar’s presidency

I am trying to understand the internal policy of the Syrian government . I used to ask myself a question : what about the judicial System ? Is it an active tool to trust ?
As a syrian , I don't trust in this system . I consider myself nude in front of the powers in Syria which are owning everything and there is no limit for their disastrous ambitions .
It is a sad story for all who believe in law and it's power. The economical liberalization in Syria has been turned to be the biggest stealing story in the it's history .
The accountability is missed in the country counts 20 millions . After the ascending of Bashar Al-Assad the presidency in the mid 2000 , many Syrians accept him as a president to apply a wide range of reforms .
The reforms have been turned to be a series of ineffective laws and decisions . After more than 10 years of his presidency , a lot is needed from him . Nothing clear whether he will succeed in this mission or he will spend his non ended presidency in issuing laws and dealing with his people as an unaccountable president .

Beating Internacional : Mazembi wonders the World

2010-12-20T15:19:00.000+02:00

Beating Internacional : Mazembi wonders the World

The Video taken by Mustafa Hamido is for the Mazembi Bus after their beating Internacional of Brazil in the game held in Abu Dhabi yesterday. It was ashock for all who was expecting that it will be a classical Final between the European champion and the south American champion. Mazembi , the African champion , beats the south American champion and becomes the first African club reaching the final of the Club World Cup .

الكريسماس في أبوظبي

2010-12-13T14:10:00.000+02:00

الكريسماس في أبوظبي

بدأت المطاعم و المقاهي و المولات الكبيرة في أبوظبي التزين لاستقبال أعياد الكريسماس كعادتها السنوية. فرغم الأجواء الحارة التي تضرب أبوظبي هذه الأيام على عكس السنوات الماضية الا أن الزينة المبهجة التي انتشرت تبعث في النفوس بعضا من البرودة و الفرح.

It is snowing in Syria

2010-12-13T14:05:00.000+02:00

It is snowing in Syria

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Waiting the readiness for the next war

2010-12-06T08:01:00.003+02:00

Waiting the readiness for the next war

The peace process in the Middle East is almost dead. What we should follow now is the consequence of its death. The death of any peace process in any part of the world means that we are going to a period where the tensions are arising and a probability of military clashes .There is now two main hot spots in the Middle East, The Gaza strip and the Southern Lebanon. Those two fronts are candidate for serious clashes between Israel and the resistance movements which are based in these two spots. A lot of indicators are saying that Israel is serious in attacking those two regions. The main reason for the expected attacks is the trial of Israel to restore its military image after the difficulties it faced in 2006 and 2008 in both Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

Israel army failed in both 2006 and 2008 in defeating Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ military forces. The failure in those two fronts has left bitterness for the Israeli’s officials.

The military establishment is trying to recover its power by a serious of military trainings in the fronts of these spots.

Israel main problem is its population in the north and those who are be siding Gaza Strip. The Beginning of any war either with Hamas in Gaza strip or Hezbollah in south Lebanon will leave hundreds of thousands under the threats of the rockets, the main and the unsolved threat for Israel.

Such rockets are the strategic threat for the Israeli army. Although tens of trial on new technologies dedicated to prevent these rockets from hitting the heart of Israel, Israel is naked in front of these cheap and terrifying tools.

Trying the soft tools is a choice for Israel. Using the international court of Hariri’s assassination in its open confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon is a way to limit its power. Israel thinks that the accusation of Hezbollah in the assassination will weaken its presence in Lebanon.

Leaks by Israel’s officials regarding the court and the expected Hezbollah’s accusation draw the picture of what Israel hopes from the international court.

Although the doubts about its job, there is no one in the Middle East has the ability of stop it. According to Hezbollah’s officials, it is an Israeli’s tools. The tool is used now to weaken the Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon. The Israeli view of Hezbollah is a mixture of fear and respect. It is the first efficient enemy for them since 1982 when they expelled PLO from Lebanon.

Harry Potter-The Dealthly Hallows: A self experience

2010-11-21T07:53:00.000+02:00

Harry Potter-The Dealthly Hallows: A self experience

Well , it is a new harry potter with a new adventure and the way to the end of his adventures. It was my first experience with his adventures . I didn't read his novels and didn't watch his films before the Dark Hallow . It seems that the action has spread all over the film. The special effects have put some of its magical sense on the fil.

I can't talk a lot about this film , simply because I don't have the needed tools to rate it. You have to follow up the previous episodes to have a full idea about what s going on on the screen . Without the watching or reading the previous episodes , you can't get the interesting moments you wish from attending such movie in the theatre.

I was close to classify it as a horror movie . The sounds effects and the the graphic has used have pushed me for a while to consider it as a horror movie. This is the final chapter of the Harry potter adventure. After six volumes of the novel and the successful movies , the final chapter which we are following has been split into two parts . The second part will be in the theatres By 2011 . It is always a conflict between the good and the evil nd that is the conclusion.

Re-secularize the nation

2010-10-24T15:00:00.002+02:00

It is not clear who was behind the last decisions issued by Syrian government which has banned the religious symbols in the public. According to anonymous sources ,these decisions are to re-secularize the society after more than five years of the freedom of the islamists in spreading and effecting on public either by their charities or by mosques they are operating .
By the increasing of the political pressure on Syria starting from 2003 , Syria has given a freedom for the Islamists to work . It was one of its tool in its battle against the western threat coming from the American troops in Iraq .
The charities has spread all over Syria and the calls for Jihad in Iraq were clear even in the universities .
It was the golden era for the new islamists in Syria . They were a mixture of Sofis ,wahabis and independent islamists . their influences were clear in all Syrian major cities and even in the conservative country of Aleppo and Damascus .
The government has blinded itself and gave them a lot of facilities to work . They used them to warn the world that any threat for the stability of Syrian regime will lead to the ascending of the extremists the rule of Syria .
Now and after the disappearing of the pressure on syria , Syrian government is using its pragmatic policy to limit the power of the islamists .

Will the government succeed ??

It is very difficult to answer this question . Banning the islamism as an idea is very difficult .It is not a single source idea .It is a
Mixture of influences by a lot of scholars .They are using the new tech in spreading . Banning meetings in mosques will not effect a lot on the idea .
It is not as what happened in the early 1980's . The tools of the islamists have been changed .The government has succeded in the early 1980's in stopping the Islamists from spreading and fulfil their agenda. It used the military forces to stop them but and after more than 3 decades of the bloody clashes, the Idea still as it and the spreading is more effective than it was in that era.

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A new step to the hill: Syrian Economy as worse as it shouldn't be

2010-10-13T15:25:00.001+02:00

According to Syrian officials , Syria is going to spend about 85 $ billions in the coming 5 years to develop its infrastructure and the agriculture sector which has been almost destroyed In the recent years because of draught which hit mainly the eastern provinces in the recent 5 years .
Adding more taxes or lending money will be the main source of this money.
The international bank will be one of the lenders according to Syrian officials . After the decades of social ruling and centralized planning ,Syria is asking for the help of this international organization to finance its mega projects .
The main problem in all this issue is the matter of the accumulation of governmental debt and the consequences of this debt on the future of Syrian economy .

Debt itself is not a problem but when it accompanies with lack of transparency and corruption , there will be doubts in who will really get the benefits from all this interesting issue .
Few has the keys of the Syrian Economy nowadays . They are the key masters of the economy and are playing in a protected field . Most of value-full projects are contracted to them.
They have formed a new class in Syria as that had been formed in Russia and all ex-social camp countries after the collapse of USSR .It is something typical about what happened there in the early 1990's.

There is no gurantee where this huge amount of money will be spent.With the dissolving of the middle class in syria , the things are goinge worse than expected. Walking in the streets of Damascus or Aleppo(The second largest city) will give us an idea about what is happening. A slice of the society is living in a luxury life and the rest are trying to survive.

A new step to the hill: Syrian Economy as worse as it shouldn't be

2010-10-13T15:25:00.000+02:00

Molly : You are perfect

2010-09-22T14:48:00.001+03:00

Molly : You are perfect

Just a fantastic girl or let me say Lady. She sat beside me in the concert which I decided lately to attend it in Vienna. The sadness was covering her face starring at the musicians trying to understand the music and understand her life.

I leant to her and said that It was fantastic music. She agreed and started to talk with me without barriers.

It was one of my best moments in my life. We left the concert after less than one hour from our first talk and started walking in Vienna’s streets.

We lost and laughed and tried to be happy as much as we could.

This was Molly, the wonderful American lady which attracted me in her way of talking, liberality, understanding of the world, criticisms of her natives who are not valuing the real values.

I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to hold her between my hands to say loudly that you are perfect Molly.

She is really perfect. Open minding is not only in the sexual relations and such these things. Open minding is always in the way of thinking, the understanding of the world and trying to be a real pure person.

She is one of those which are a real open minded persons who are trying to discover the world freeing themselves fro the stereotypes which are occupy our minds and put it under its mandatory .

Syria : A serious need for reform

2010-05-13T08:56:00.000+03:00

Syria : A serious need for reform

Syria is away from the siege it found itself in it during the last decade and especially after the invasion of Iraq. we can say that it is a victory for a brilliant syrian foreign policy and its effective tools . The pressures on syria are in its lowest grade maybe from 2003 and there is no real external threat for Syria except that traditional one which Syria has adapted to it during more than 50 years : Israel .
We all know that Israel is a real threat on syria .
It is clear and undoubtable and every one who knows a little about history knows that it is not only occupying Golan heights of syria , but also threatening the heart of Syria as the crusaders were doing during the middle ages.
we should now focus on our internal issues without ignoring the external . In Syria , there is a real and serious need for reform .
Reform is a must for syria and without it ,we will face a dark future and angradual increase in poverty in a country where 40 % of its population could be classified as poor. The dissolve of the middle class is something clear for witnesses. Increasing of slums at the edge of the big cities and the clear increasing in prostitution and begging in syrian big cities are indexes for the country economic situation.
Some statistics suggest that more than 5.3 millions of syrians are living below the poverty line . This number is forming about 25 % of total population which counts almost 21 millions . the numbers which are published by syrian government are tricky and based on its own view of poverty and the daily life needs.
The offical numbers of the Syrian centeral statistics office which is a government institiuation suggest that the number is far lower than 5.3 millions . It suggests that only around 11 % of syrians are living below the poverty line.
Without a real internal reform and fight against corruption , all the victories in the foreign policy will be abolished and will be as a desert mirage.
The classification of Syria as a resistant country is meaningless if this resistance has not been accompanied by a real reform and by real decrease in poverty and a fair distribution of the wealth. This wealth is monopolized by a minority (not exceed 10 % of the population). The transformation of the Syrian economy from the social economy to the market economy has lead to what we are seeing daily in Syria .

Mustafa Hamido

Obama as America going to be a player between players

2010-02-24T17:42:00.000+02:00

Obama as America going to be a player between players

It seems that Middle East will not calm down soon. After the election of Obama as a president of USA, a lot were optimistic that he is going to change The American Policy and transfer its military face to another peaceful one.
I was one of those who have believed that he is not more than a marketing face for the American Policy after the old face has expired.
The same climate still exists in the Middle East. Nothing has been changed since Bush Left the White House. We didn’t notice any change. The same Policy with different words is being applied.
The Financial Crisis in USA may be affect on its empire dream . With a yearly decline in its economy and its effects on all economical sectors in USA, It has found itself obligated to calm down. It is not a president policy, It is just a way to recover. I doubt That America could recover itself and restore its position in the world as it was before the Financial Crisis. Those who are comparing between that crisis which hit USA in 1929 and the current one are far from the truth . Europe was in that era trying to heal its wounds after a bloody world war I . There was no competitor for USA, which was self –Isolated. America gets a benefit from the bloody clashes in Europe during the 19th and 20th Century to be a super power and later the only super power in the world. It has used all its sources to be like that. It has not only used its sources, but it has used others sources either by military threat or by a colonial influence. All these are disappearing by an emerging of a new real economical and armed power like China which its soft power is spreading all over the world.

For My friend Who is dying: Resist the Death

2010-02-18T07:41:00.000+02:00

For My friend Who is dying: Resist the Death

Still have a lot to do in this life . I know that this life is very rich in every thing can entertain you and make you feel your personality and pride .It still very early to ask for your coffin. It Still early my friend. It is something awful to think in death . Resist , please try and please insist . I can’t live without your sensitivity and your understand for every thing.I still remember your laugh in that corner Cafe in Aleppo trying to persuade us that love is legend. I still remeber all those details which are pushing me to laugh and laugh.I still remeber your drunk at a small village house and your playing music on “Oud ” and your coarse sound which was wonderful for us at that night.

Life Briefed in 5 bottles|الحياة تتلخص في 5 زجاجات

2010-02-15T08:07:00.001+02:00

Life Briefed in 5 bottlesالحياة تتلخص في 5 زجاجات

bottles"]

Happy Valentine Day for them

2010-02-14T07:49:00.000+02:00

Happy Valentine Day for them

I Don’t know who was the creator and the inventor of this day . a lot of legends are talking about the origin of the Valentine day. I don’t have any prove that this day is dedicated totally for love . The love as a term has -unfortunately- turned to be commercial as every thing in htis globalized world and so turned the celebration of this day .
I don’t have a beloved and I am not going to celebrate and I will be alone as all previous years looking for my love in my dreams.

Invitations for google wave

2010-02-04T17:45:00.000+02:00

Invitations for google wave

Syrian TV Series

2009-09-05T19:29:00.001+02:00

All the Syrian TV year were disapointed . Nothing new and you can't see any real improvement in the TV tools . We still watch the same techniques used before 6 years without a real normal development.

Antagonizing Iran : A way to The Arabs end

2009-06-24T08:43:00.005+03:00

Mustafa Hamido 24/06/2009 mustafahamido@gmail.com
The happiness of some of "moderate Arab states " about what is happening in Tehran and the arise of the opposition against the regime there and which is reflected on their media is not understood. They consider the protestors there as "warriors for democracy " . What they are trying to hide and is clear for every one is the ideological background for those or at least for a part of them which want to overthrow "the Islamic Republic " regime.
It is clear that the biggest part of them is either nationalists or Liberals. In both cases the Arabs are the losers.
(1)
Arab states and a wide spectrum of its people consider the current regime as the problem of this region. They used to call it " The Mallaly’s Regime ". They had pushed Saddam to fight Iran to " Save The Arab Eastern Gate". This was popular in the Arab media literature in 1980’s. That war put the end of Saddam’s regime. It was a disaster for Saddam and the region.
Iraq has been debited and the region has collapsed after Saddam’s adventure in Kuwait. We should know here that the Iraqi’s invasion of Kuwait was a consequence of the 10 years war between Iran and Iraq. Kuwait has debited Saddam to help him in his war and ask for its debit directly after the end of the War although it was eulogizing him and describing him as " the Arab hero " and "The Arab Defendant ". It was an ugly years. Some of Arabs want to regain that period. What they lack is a character like Saddam who is ready to kill his people for his own fake glory.
Those who are describing themselves the "Moderate Arabs" are not ready to fight by themselves. They used to deploy intermediates to fight for their account and to use their fight and blood in compromise.
(2)
The Shah of Iran was ruling the Persian Gulf region during the 1960’s and 1970’s . He was the king of the region taking the advantage of the western support for him and his nation. He was the sincere guard for the western interests in the region. The west was in no need to use his direct force to save these interests. The Shah huge military force was enough. It seems that Arabs are really favoring that period. We should remember here that Saudi Arabia wasn’t a key player in the region as it is now. Although it has played a certain rules, however, it was totally controlled by a tight system taking in its consideration some Arab sensitivities toward Iran and its clear coalition with Israel, the x-enemy of the moderate Arabs and the enemy of the most of Arabs.
(3)
The Arab Moderate states don’t know its real interests. It had been used to overthrow Saddam Hussein and it is in a real need for some one to play his rule nowadays. Iraq which they were considering him the defender of their interests opposite the Iranian spread has been lost and become split between either an Iranian loyalty or an American one without a real key rule for those "the Moderate Arabs" .
Loosing Iraq has not awakened them. They are blind followers for the Americans, favoring the American Interests over their own interests. Wes should know her some fake facts, which they used to propagate as real ones. The problem of the moderate Arabs with Iran is not in fact with the current Iran . It is a historical clash between the uncivilized Bedouin who were living on the southern coast of Iran and on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf . As tribes, those Bedouins have given their loyalties for those who are paying . Some time they were loyal to Portuguese and sometimes to British and some times to the Iranians themselves. The rule was : The more you pay , the more loyalty you get . According to those historical events, we can find easily immigrations between the northern and southern coast of the Persian gulf. The Moderate Arab Media is focusing on the Emirates three Islands, which are occupied by Iranians from early 1970’s. These Islands has been occupied during The Shah period . It is not an occupation by the current Iranian regime. It is a historical matter can be solved easily .I can’t see a real Arab interest in antagonizing Iran . What they say about spreading the Shiites in the region is a way of trying to persuade Arab people that there is a real danger from Iran on their faith. Those who are worries on Sunnis are in fact neither Sunnis nor Shiites. They have their own believe and almost they are anti-religions and extremist seculars .
(4)
The last note here is a trial to clarify. The Iranian nationalists are in fact anti-Arabs and even in some times anti- Islam. They have their own view for the region excludes the Arab states, which they in fact don’t consider them as real states. They consider it as followers for the strongest in the region. One of the candidates to the last election blamed Ahmadinajad , the Iranian elected president , for his visit to UAE and participating in the Arab Gulf states council summit.

A Syrian talent behind the bars

2009-05-17T14:54:00.003+03:00

These exclusive pictures in the above album is drawn by one of the talented Syrian whose their destinies were very bad . After a lot of trials , he failed to get an opportunity to be a real painter. Although his talent is awful , he failed to have a support from any one even those who claims that they are ready to help. he is now behind the bars in a forgery case

The lies of the newspapers: review their archives

2009-05-13T14:22:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido
Nothing is more entertaining than reading newspapers after a a long period of its publishing. Reading the archives of newspapers telling you how we are dealing with our world on the basis of rumors and lies. Who claim themselves as political analysts, you will discover their truth after a period of their articles. These articles might be the features at the time of its publishing, however, it becomes useless and valueless after two or three years of its publishing. We are talking here about the daily newspapers articles and magazines articles which are touching the daily political issues and which a lot of strategies are built on it.
We still remember the feature articles, which were preparing for the American invasion of Iraq. Those articles had been published in what it is called the world leading daily newspaper in Washington, New York and London.
We were believing that all what they claimed facts, it was in fact lies. The US administration used those articles to persuade the world that Iraq is danger on world peace. Full of lies were crowded in those articles. No body account those newspapers and try to boycott it.

Escaping from Loans and their debts: Hundreds are fleeing from UAE via UAE-Oman borders to avoid their arrest

2009-04-08T09:40:00.004+02:00

By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter , The Gulf News . 04/04/2009
Dubai: Hundreds of illegal residents are fleeing the country via the UAE-Oman borders to avoid the iris scan, in order for them to return to the UAE, Gulf News learnt.
A police source told Gulf News that some people, who are wanted by police for bounced cheques, unpaid loans and other crimes, are also fleeing the country through the borders.
The source said they are crossing the desert using routes that will lead them to Salalah in Oman.
"After reaching Salalah they head to Yemen," the source said.
The source said some housemaids, workers and other expatriates, who are staying illegally in the country, are doing this to avoid the iris scan and the ban which will prevent them from coming back to the UAE.
He said some wanted people also fled the country in the same way.
"Police in the country are hunting those who are aiding these illegal residents and the criminals, to flee the country," he said.
He said they use four-wheel drive vehicles on their trips to help them through the desert.
"Their outings are dangerous. These agents who help the illegals to flee the country are armed while police and military forces on the border are chasing them which put their lives and the people who are travelling with them at risk," he said.
He said most of the time, the agents dump the infiltrators in the desert after taking their money.
He said they go through deserts from any emirate to reach Salalah which is the nearest area to Yemen on the border with the UAE.
He said they travel at night and it takes them one and a half days to reach Yemen.
Police said the country's borders are tightly monitored to prevent infiltration.
An Ethiopian housemaid who works for a Sudanese family in Sharjah, told Gulf News that she stayed in the UAE illegally for more than ten years before she infiltrated to Oman then to Yemen to avoid the life ban.
"I came to work in the UAE 11 years ago for an Emirati family in Abu Dhabi, but I absconded after two months and I worked for different families for ten years," she said.
She said when she decided to go back to her country, it was hard because her iris scan would be taken and she would be banned from coming back.
"If I had my iris scan that would not help me if I changed my passport in my country in order to come back here because I would be caught upon arrival," she said.
She added that last year she fled the UAE to Yemen then to her home country.
"When we went on our trip, I had an agreement with the people who helped us flee, to pay Dh3,500. We were seven people in one car. All of us were illegals. We were different nationalities. Indians, Filipinos, Ethiopians, Sir Lankans and Afghans."
She said that each one had paid different prices. The Indian woman had paid Dh2,500, some had paid Dh6,000 depending on the period of time they had been here and the cost was higher for wanted people.
She said that at the borders they were chased by police and her friend who was with her was afraid and jumped from the car.
"We had no clue what happened to her but later on we came to know that she died on the spot after jumping from the car," she said.
She said when they reached Yemen, they surrendered to the authorities there.
"The people who took us to Yemen, left us alone but they told us to go to the police and say that we had entered Yemen illegally, that we had no passports and wanted to go to our home countries," she said.
She said the authorities in Yemen questioned them and then deported them back to their countries.
"I changed my passport and I obtained a new employment visa in the UAE," she said.
The housemaid said she is now working legally. She added it was a horrible experience which she could not do again.
Gulf News spoke with senior Interior Ministry officials who did not comment on those who had illegally left the UAE via the land borders.

The Financial Crisis on our door steps :Robbery in Aleppo

2009-03-24T13:41:00.000+02:00

Mustafa Hamido
Jobless Syrians are in increase ,a Syrian report says early this week. Tens of small and moderate factories either closed or decreased their productivity by decreasing its working hours ,the same report adds . In a country like Syria which is in a converting phase from a centralized economy to a free market economy and with a lack of social insurance network covered by the government , thousand of Syrians will find themselves without a monthly stable income which is considered as a national crisis. Removing subsidiaries and stopping governmental employment push thousands to be a “ lack of hope “ persons. Their future is not clear and their daily life is not guaranteed. What is sure in Syria is the increase of crimes rate. This increase is not shown by numbers and figure, which is monopolized by government and controlled by it and for its interest. It is something clear for all people in Syria. Last week, a rare armed robbery has taken place in Aleppo, the most effected Syrian city by the international financial crisis where tens of its factories have either closed or bankrupted. Aleppo is considered as the Syrian Industrial Center . What was surprising in that operation is that it happened in the rush hours . The rumors have fuelled the city .and a video leaked showing the robbery has shaken the community . three innocents killed in this robbery .

Obama wants to say : Save Us Iran

2009-03-21T03:46:00.001+02:00

Nothing is new in Obama's message to the Iranian Leadership and people . We can only conclude that The Americans are in the corner and need a help from the Iranians who only have the ability to save Americans from sinking in Afghanistan after they win in Iraq. The New York Times has published on 13^th of this month saying that America is seeking for a route of Afghan supply even in Iran and before that , the same content has been published by The Washington Post. American now is in a crisis . The supply rout which should be safe through Afghanistan turn to be an unsafe rout for the supplies of its troops . In recent months , we used to hear about a continuous attacks on a supplying caravans trying to enter Afghanistan from the city of Peshawar. Taliban has claimed the responsibility about that attacks. There is no alternative of that route can be used except the safe route of Iran.

No body knows yet the Iranian reaction of the possible American ask to use Iran as the alternative route to Afghanistan . In fact , America is under siege in Afghanistan. It is surrounded by a real hidden and clear enemies. Even Pakistan which is considered as its ally is in a big troubles and in a case we can describe is as a cold civil war. Nothing is safe their. Even the president can be attacked and killed.

According to the American Army , 75 % of Us supplies is passing through the region of Taliban activity. The alternative which US is targeted is a route linking Afghanistan to the Arabian sea by Iran .There is already a road constructed by an Indian company linking between the two cities of Dealaram and Zarnag in Afghanistan and which are linked by a well constructed road to the Iranian border. Using this rule needs a compromise between US and Iran . Such this compromise should be based on a hard deal between the two sides. The security of Iran and its rule in the region will be a part of this deal. Not thing is final yet. It still needs months to sea the signs of such deal.

Orient and Syrian TV Services

2009-03-20T14:27:00.001+02:00

Orient can be classified as the first professional Syrian independent satellite channel . Addounia which tried to be that has failed to be an attracting destination for Syrians. It still broadcast as an amateur channel without a smell of professionalism. A lot of problems are inside it. The last problem is the termination of its Director , the dentist , Fouad Charbajy , who had worked before as the Director of Syrian Official TV and who failed to achieve anything during his period. The point of weakness in Orient is a lack of a political debate . It may due to the owners interests who is based in UAE and has interests in Syria and Egypt.

The Syria Temptation—and Why Obama Must Resist It

2009-03-02T07:03:00.000+02:00

Bret Stephens
“Start with Syria.” Thus did Aaron David Miller advise the incoming Obama administration on where its Mideast peacemaking priorities should lie. Miller, a former State Department official who first made a name for himself as a leading American negotiator in the Arab-Israeli peace processes of the 1990’s, had lost his faith that a deal between Israel and the Palestinians was possible, at least in the near term. But he was more sanguine about the prospects of an Israeli-Syrian deal, and confident about the good that could come of it. As he put it in a Washington Post op-ed in November 2008: Here there are two states at the table, rather than one state and a dysfunctional national movement. A quiet border, courtesy of Henry Kissinger’s 1974 disengagement diplomacy, prevails. And there are fewer settlers on the Golan Heights and no megaton issues such as the status of Jerusalem to blow up the talks. Indeed the issues are straightforward—withdrawal [by Israel from the Golan Heights], peace, security and water—and the gaps are clear and ready to be bridged.

Obama is a Marketing Face which will try to sell a vey bad Product for the world.

2009-02-24T13:35:00.002+02:00

It is very difficult for US wgich has been implicated in a lot of conflicts all over the world to persuad itself that it is now weak and relatively Banckrupted. for that and for the lobbies intersest inUS political Life , Obama will not make a difference. He has been come to try to late the banckruptcy of the American Regime. I don't think that he will do any thing good. Obama is a Marketing Face which will try to sell a vey bad Product for the world.

The Visit of the Saudi intelligence chief to Syria :A deal to save ..

2009-02-15T21:10:00.001+02:00

What they can offer ?really I don't know . The intelligence work is very sophisticated and sometimes illogic. After two years of cold war between Syria and Saudi Arabia , We can't expect a lot . you may ask why? The answer itself is very simple : there is a clash between the both interests , especially in Lebanon.

I think that Saudi is trying to save the next election and try hard to make it in its side. Making a deal with Syria is a way of many . We should wait to clarify what especially going on .

AP Analysis: Qatar at heart of Mideast 'cold war'

2009-02-03T21:50:00.001+02:00

During back-to-back summits in recent days, tiny Qatar displayed some big mood swings.

First the Persian Gulf emirate hosted a Gaza crisis conference that included Iran's president and Hamas' leader and became a soapbox to bash America and its Mideast allies. Then three days later in Kuwait, Qatari leaders had lunch with Saudi King Abdullah and gushed about unity with Washington's top Arab partners.

President Barack Obama has inherited the familiar map of Arab-Israeli minefields. But off to the side -- sticking like an exclamation point into the Gulf -- Qatar could quickly become a quandary for the new White House.

"It looks a bit like a cold war in the Middle East now. There's the side firmly with the United States and (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas, and the others backing Hamas and, by extension, seen as moving toward Iran," said Nadim Shehadi, a Mideast affairs specialist at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

"And, like with a cold war, no side is willing to push it too hard because the risks are so great," he added.

Nearly every high-stakes question in the Middle East these days somehow draws in Qatar, which is the just half the size of Belgium but strives for a place alongside Arab heavyweights such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

It is rich in oil and gas reserves, has wide influence in the Muslim world as the patron of the Al-Jazeera TV network, and has proved adroit at maneuvering between rivals.

"You sometimes get the feeling that Qatar has multiple personalities," said Mustafa Alani, director of national security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "It's hard to say which one will show up."

Qatar once was content to leave the region's high-profile affairs to others. Then in 1995, a family coup brought the current emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, to power and he quickly began to carve out a new international identity for Qatar. Those ambitions have grown steadily bolder.

Qatar bid credibly though unsuccessfully for the 2016 Olympics. Last year, it brokered a complicated political accord for Lebanon, and it has offered to mediate talks to end the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region.

In the 1990s, it defied Arab hard-liners and allowed an Israeli trade office to open in the seaside capital, Doha. Last year, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni attended a Doha conference on Mideast peace.

It has long had cozy relations with Washington, hosts one of the largest U.S. air bases in the region, and allowed the Pentagon set up coordination hubs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But now, Qatar appears to be steadying itself for even larger-- and potentially riskier -- gambits with Iran, Hamas and other Western foes.

The Gaza aid conference called by Qatar brought the potential pitfalls with the West into sharp relief.

Key U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia boycotted the gathering in solidarity with Palestinian leader Abbas. He has accused Qatar of funneling huge amounts of money to rival Hamas, which Washington and the European Union consider a terrorist group.

Hamas' Syria-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, attended the meeting along with Syrian President Bashar Assad. The summit closed with a parting shot from Qatar: expelling the Israeli trade mission that represented one of the rare examples of tangible Arab-Israeli progress.

But the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahaminejad at the gathering signaled perhaps an even deeper policy reassessment by Qatar. The United States and its main Arab allies are worried about Iranian efforts to shift the regional balance of power. Tehran makes no secret of its desire to expand its influence in the Gulf and elsewhere through proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Qatar could be looking ahead for safer ground if the West's showdowns with Iran grow dicier. Qatar's apparent direction for the moment: trying to carve a path away from Saudi Arabia as its big brother while paying homage to Iran's growing clout and confidence.

But Qatar is still apparently interested in hedging its political bets. It may prove that Qatar is most comfortable being on the fence, some experts say.

"It does not have to be one or the other," said Mehran Kamrawa, a professor of political science at Georgetown University's Qatar campus. "What they are doing is playing all sides ... to maximize self interest, ensure a global and regional role and follow the logic of survival."

This approach appeared on display at the Kuwait meeting several days after Ahmadinejad left Doha. Qatar's prime minister, a member of the ruling family, called for "Arab reconciliation" and remained silent as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lashed out at Arab leaders who have built ties with Iran.

Obama also has indicated that Washington could be willing to hold direct talks with Iran, and if a thaw sets in after a 30-year diplomatic freeze, Qatar could find itself very comfortable holding the middle ground.

"Qatar feels it has a role to play," said David Butter, Middle East regional director at the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. "I am not sure what the end game is and I am not sure Qatar knows it either."

Analysis: In Gaza, Israel Tries To Excise Lebanon

2009-01-04T22:51:00.001+02:00

(AP) Israel says the main goal of its ground offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers is to end years of rocket fire on its southern towns. But perhaps an equally important, if unspoken, objective is to wipe away the errors of Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.

That 34-day campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas was marred by hasty decisions and unrealistic expectations. With meticulous preparations and limited aims this time around, the Gaza offensive is meant to restore the army's credibility at home _ and its power of deterrence against Arab enemies.

"Things are being done in a much more orderly way," Cabinet minister Isaac Herzog said.

Israel declared war on Hezbollah immediately after the guerrilla group burst across Israel's northern border, killing three soldiers and capturing two. With little debate, the government set out an ambitious agenda: to bring home the captured soldiers safely and destroy Hezbollah.

While Israel dealt Hezbollah a heavy blow, it failed to rescue the soldiers or stop the guerrilla group from raining 4,000 rockets onto northern Israel.

Soldiers returning from the war zone complained of poor training, inadequate supplies and battlefield setbacks, often in real-time interviews from their cell phones. Bomb shelters and warning systems failed, and in a crippling blow, more than 30 soldiers were killed just as a U.N.-brokered cease-fire was about to take effect.

The inconclusive outcome was widely viewed as a failure in Israel, costing the defense minister, military chief and other top generals their jobs and raising questions about the army's toughness. Surrounded by a sea of enemies, Israel relies on military superiority as a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

With that in mind, the military has said a central goal of the ground operation is to strengthen Israel's deterrence _ both with Hamas and its other enemies in the region.

"If they want to go for another round, they have to take into consideration the consequences," said one senior commander, who was not permitted to be identified under military guidelines.

In launching the mission, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was accused in a government probe of hasty decision making and "very severe failures" during the Lebanon war, has tried hard to send the message that he learned his lessons.

Olmert's inner Cabinet held no less than six lengthy debates over the operation, most recently on Friday, and he has repeatedly told the public how much he agonized over the decision to send soldiers into harm's way.

"This morning, I can look each one of you in the eyes and say that the government did its utmost before deciding on the operation," Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday. "This operation was unavoidable."

Olmert also has taken great pains to show that his objectives are limited to stopping the rocket fire _ not the far more difficult task of toppling Hamas. Officials have even acknowledged that rocket fire is unlikely to be halted altogether.

While the Lebanon crisis caught the army off guard, Israeli military officials say the Gaza operation was planned for months.

Troops have been preparing for the possibility of a Gaza invasion for the past year and a half, and the operation is making much heavier use of well-trained conscripts, in contrast to the rusty reservists who were thrown into battle in Lebanon.

Troops are also better equipped, though they've been ordered to leave cell phones at home as part of a tighter policy on controlling information.

Most critically, Israel moved quickly to the ground phase of its Gaza offensive. In 2006, it relied heavily on air power until the closing days of the war. The aerial attacks quickly ran out of useful targets, and allowed Hezbollah to prepare for Israel's last-minute ground push.

"We have implemented many lessons form the war in Lebanon. We feel our forces ready and very well trained," said military spokesoman Maj. Avital Leibovich.

Robert Fisk: The rotten state of Egypt is too powerless and corrupt to act

2009-01-02T23:42:00.001+02:00

There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" – the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut – and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people? And now – after three decades of Hosni Mubarak – can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals – but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.

Egyptians demand that Mubarak open the Rafah crossing-point into Gaza, break off diplomatic relations with Israel, even send weapons to Hamas. And there is a kind of perverse beauty in listening to the response of the Egyptian government: why not complain about the three gates which the Israelis refuse to open? And anyway, the Rafah crossing-point is politically controlled by the four powers that produced the "road map" for peace, including Britain and the US. Why blame Mubarak?

To admit that Egypt can't even open its sovereign border without permission from Washington tells you all you need to know about the powerlessness of the satraps that run the Middle East for us.

Open the Rafah gate – or break off relations with Israel – and Egypt's economic foundations crumble. Any Arab leader who took that kind of step will find that the West's economic and military support is withdrawn. Without subventions, Egypt is bankrupt. Of course, it works both ways. Individual Arab leaders are no longer going to make emotional gestures for anyone. When Sadat flew to Jerusalem – "I am tired of the dwarves," he said of his fellow Arab leaders – he paid the price with his own blood at the Cairo reviewing-stand where one of his own soldiers called him a "Pharaoh" before shooting him dead.

The true disgrace of Egypt, however, is not in its response to the slaughter in Gaza. It is the corruption that has become embedded in an Egyptian society where the idea of service – health, education, genuine security for ordinary people – has simply ceased to exist. It's a land where the first duty of the police is to protect the regime, where protesters are beaten up by the security police, where young women objecting to Mubarak's endless regime – likely to be passed on caliph-like to his son Gamal, whatever we may be told – are sexually molested by plain-clothes agents, where prisoners in the Tora-Tora complex are forced to rape each other by their guards.

There has developed in Egypt a kind of religious facade in which the meaning of Islam has become effaced by its physical representation. Egyptian civil "servants" and government officials are often scrupulous in their religious observances – yet they tolerate and connive in rigged elections, violations of the law and prison torture. A young American doctor described to me recently how in a Cairo hospital busy doctors merely blocked doors with plastic chairs to prevent access to patients. In November, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported how doctors abandoned their patients to attend prayers during Ramadan.

And amid all this, Egyptians have to live amid daily slaughter by their own shabby infrastructure. Alaa al-Aswani wrote eloquently in the Cairo paper Al-Dastour that the regime's "martyrs" outnumber all the dead of Egypt's wars against Israel – victims of railway accidents, ferry sinkings, the collapse of city buildings, sickness, cancers and pesticide poisonings – all victims, as Aswani says, "of the corruption and abuse of power".

Opening the Rafah border-crossing for wounded Palestinians – the Palestinian medical staff being pushed back into their Gaza prison once the bloodied survivors of air raids have been dumped on Egyptian territory – is not going to change the midden in which Egyptians themselves live.

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah secretary general in Lebanon, felt able to call on Egyptians to "rise in their millions" to open the border with Gaza, but they will not do so. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the feeble Egyptian Foreign Minister, could only taunt the Hizbollah leaders by accusing them of trying to provoke "an anarchy similar to the one they created in their own country."

But he is well-protected. So is President Mubarak.

Egypt's malaise is in many ways as dark as that of the Palestinians. Its impotence in the face of Gaza's suffering is a symbol of its own political sickness.

The Arab Media Coverage of Gaza Massacre

2008-12-28T16:10:00.001+02:00

All Arab channels are covering the Israeli's attack on Gaza . The best coverage yet is the the coverage of Aljazeera . Its advantage over other channels is its correspondents in Gaza and the pan-Arab and world correspondents.

If we compare its coverage to local stations such Al-Manar , Alquds …. We will know what we mean .

Al-Manar has a wonderful coverage as well as Alquds , However : these channels are covering from a local point of view.

Al-Manar is covering from a Lebanese Perspective and Alquds from a local Palestinian perspective . The Advantage of Aljazeera belongs to its Active-Correspondent-Network world widely and its ability to have a direct link to the world most influenced capitals .

The surprise in this war is in the coverage of Ramatan news agency which is a local Palestinian news agency headquartered in Gaza and has offices across the region in Cairo , Khartoum , Ramallah and Amman .

Most channels has broadcasted its pictures in the first day and it has been threatened by the Israel's Army by targeting its headquarter in Gaza if it continued its broadcasting the full-bloody pictures to the world.

We have first heard about this agency during the coverage of the Arab Summit in Khartoum , 2006 .It had an exclusive coverage for that summit given by the Sudanese authority .

Bush and The Shoes

2008-12-23T08:00:00.001+02:00

Dubai: When distance makes the heart grow fonder

2008-12-20T09:03:00.002+02:00

'Living apart together' seems to be the new marriage mantra for many couples in Dubai. The arrangement of living separately during the week and catching up on weekends, many say, is working well for their marriage.

While it is a painful compulsion dictated by financial reasons for some, for many others, compressing their married life into weekends is part of striking the right balance between professional ambition and personal commitment.

European couple, Eugene and Tony, who preferred not to give their second names, said it was a joint decision to remain a 'weekend couple'. Eugene works for a legal firm in Dubai while Tony is in the airline industry based in Abu Dhabi. When Eugene got a job offer from Dubai, the couple decided they could live separately for five days a week. And at the weekends, Tony drives down to Dubai.

"I was keen to take up the offer from the firm in Dubai. Both of us decided that for the time being we would compromise on the 'coming back to the same house' comfort," said Eugene, 31. She said although it was stressful at first they are now fine with the arrangement and happy that they make the most of their time together"

Reflecting similar sentiments, Tony, 28, said separation had actually brought him closer to his partner and every Thursday he looked forward to being with Eugene.

Filipino couple Faith and Johnson live apart because Johnson could not find a job in Dubai.

"He was in Korea and my three-year-old son was in the Philippines with our parents. After he quit his job and came down to Dubai, he could not find a job. So we had no option but to take up the offer he got which was based in the UAE-Oman border," said Faith, who works as an estimation engineer.

Faith lives in shared accommodation in Dubai, and Johnson comes down on weekends. "I won't complain because now I can at least see him during the weekends," said Faith, who is pregnant with her second child. She is of the opinion that separation enhances their time together.

"We still feel like newly-weds. We are always on the phone or texting each other. I think, as they say, distance is only bringing us closer."

For M.S. Kurian and his wife Elizabeth, the decision to live separately was mutual as both did not want to give up their professional comforts.

Adjusted

The couple have been married for the last 30 years and lived in Dubai but Kurian moved to Abu Dhabi in 2003 when he was promoted.

"It was a tough decision because we were so used to living under the same roof for over 25 years. Frankly, it took me almost a year to come to terms with the fact he would be away all week. Now I have adjusted," said Elizabeth, a mother-of-three, now aged 25, 23 and 17.

Kurian, 58, says, they have decided to continue the arrangement for as long as they are in the UAE.

"Both of us have reached a stage where we understand each other very well, and even if not physically together, we know we are always there for each other.

However, the seasoned couple would not advise the weekend arrangement for young couples.

"I do not think young couples should be doing this. They need to spend a lot of time together during the early years of marriage to build a strong foundation for their relationship. And that comes only by living under one roof," said Elizabeth, 49.

Source: The Gulf News

Good Bye Bush

2008-12-15T05:45:00.002+02:00

Slowdown Yet to Affect Retailers in the UAE

2008-12-13T03:39:00.001+02:00

13 December 2008

ABU DHABI — Early signals from the market in the current festival season indicate that the global recessionary fears have 'not yet affected' the retail sector in UAE as a whole and Abu Dhabi in particular, according to the major retailers.

Talking to the Khaleej Times here the officials of the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society (ADCS), the Lulu Hypermarkets and KM Trading said they have so far seen no sign of decline in sales or reduction in enthusiasm in any of their retail outlets here, in spite of the widespread reports of the credit crunch from most of the countries.

The retail outlets in the region launch aggressive sales offers for couple of weeks towards the end of November every year to coincide with the festivals like Eid, Christmas, Arabic New Year and English New Year. But this year when they launched the sales offers last week they too were apprehensive whether the global slowdown will dampen their turnover.

"But we are quite happy to say that the feed backs from the outlets in the last couple of days have dispelled those apprehensions. As of now there is no real slowdown in our sales. Today for example we have registered 46 per cent growth in sales. On an average we have been registering 24 per cent growth after we launched this year's sales offers. We have put about 600 items on our promotional sales category this time. And there are good movements for all of them," says the Marketing Manager of Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society, Bejoy Thomas.

The ADCS which is into 30 years' of operation accounts for 40 per cent of the market share in the retail sector in Abu Dhabi.

"The response has been encouraging not only grocery and other items,  but even in the luxury items like branded perfumes, electronics and textiles. We had opened an electronics shop in the ADCS outlet at Muroor Road last week. The response was tremendous there from the day one onwards," he said.

"We hope to achieve 15 to 20 per cent growth increase in our sales during this festival season, compared to our turnover in the normal days. This is what we used to achieve during this season every year. We're not feeling adversely affected by the global recessionary sentiments. The people here do not appear to have put a brake on their spending habits because of the reports of the current financial crisis. This is true not only in Abu Dhabi but across UAE," says a spokesman for the Lulu Hypermarket chains.

Echoing similar views a spokesman for the KM Trading said, people's psychology appear to be that they wait for the sales season to arrive to make their major purchases so that they will be able to get goods at cheaper rates than usual prices. "People cannot stop buying. They would have deferred their purchases from last month to this month, to take advantage of the sales season. People are flowing to our shops with the same enthusiasm as was visible last year."

Buoyed by the favourable customer response the retailers also dismissed the suggestion to introduce additional offers to woo customers this year in view of the global recession.

However, most of them conceded a better assessment of the market situation will be possible only around December 14 after gauging the customer behaviour during the ensuing holidays.

Slowdown Yet to Affect Retailers in the UAE

2008-12-13T03:36:00.000+02:00

13 December 2008

The ADCS which is into 30 years' of operation accounts for 40 per cent of the market share in the retail sector in Abu Dhabi.

Buoyed by the favourable customer response the retailers also dismissed the suggestion to introduce additional offers to woo customers this year in view of the global recession.

However, most of them conceded a better assessment of the market situation will be possible only around December 14 after gauging the customer behaviour during the ensuing holidays.

Islam as a religion of Secularism and freedom

2008-11-26T06:55:00.001+02:00

I have already written about the Islam and how some of Islamic scholars who have kidnapped the Islamic views and adopt it to be suitable for its religious views. What I saw from the comments was something shocked me. Some of the comments thought that my article was against Islam and they have commented according to that thought. One of the comments from my friend from New Zealand has tried to clarify that the Muslim community in New Zealand is one of the kindest communities in the country. I have extracted from her comment a kind blame against me. I think that she has understood that I am attacking The Islam. I wish that I was wrong. I am in Fact a real Muslim. I practice some of Islamic religious prays and fasting. The Idea which I have talked it was about the extremist which people outside the Islamic world thought that that was the Islam. Unfortunately, most of those scholars are erupting from one place, Saudi Arabia. I don't want to repeat what I have said last time. What I want to say here is just one Idea: Islam in its nature is a secular and modern Ideology. Secularism here is not that the extreme one which fights the religions and tries to expel "the God "outside our life. The secularism Which I am talking about can be called according to Egyptian thinker "Abdul Wahab Al-Mesiri " the partial Secularism which ensure the religious freedom and give the believe in God a s space on our life . The believe in God and the religious freedom is a way for the social security. This is the view of Islam. Those who don't believe in God have also the freedom to practice what they really believe in. It is something according to what we think and want to be. You can't consider Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states as the model of Islam. Islam is far more complex and also simple than you expect. The real Islamic model through the history were in the Great Syria, Iraq , Egypt and Andalusia. Islam in its origin is a kind of a secular religion. As I explain above, Secularism means the freedom. Just take a look to the minorities in these states from all religions. You can't see such these minorities even in US and Europe which claim that they have the freedom of practice. How you can explain these numbers of minorities (ethnic and religious)? Another One of the most important things in Islam you can't find it in any other religion. In contrast to all you may know about Islam, there is no rule for the Scholars in the relation between the believer and God. In Islam, there is nothing known as a religion scholars (Sheikhs). There is no intermediate between the believer and his God. Mediation is something has been created by the modern Scholars who want to control every thing. In Islam, the infant is born as a civil national person. No baptism and no interfering from the scholar in his born. It is something completely civil and secular.

Is Saudi Arabia implicated in Damascus Attack ?

2008-09-28T23:03:00.002+02:00

HTML clipboardIs Saudi implicated in Damascus explosion? This question is totally justified. The political relation between Syria and Saudi is the Worst. Saudi is backing the Anti -Syria in Lebanon and It has sent many signs that it is working to over-throw the Syrian regime. Earlier this year, The Russian intelligence has sent warning to the Syrian government warns it that there is a plan to disturb the Syrian security.
According to those warnings, Saudi and the American intelligence are working to disturb its security and spread explosions all over Syria. What we see in Damascus explosion is not far from that warning. Saudi has historical relations with extremists.
It has backed the radical Taliban in Afghanistan and it is backing the extremists in Tripoli of Lebanon. Tripoli which is besides the Syrian border has been converted to the capital of terrorism in the Middle East. Al-Qaida has a base their. Those terrorist are completely funded by Saudi intelligence which is trying to make them as a tool for its plans in the region. The following is some of major terrorist attacks in Syria :
1 – 29 Nov 1981: A car bomb in Syria kills 175 and injures hundreds in Damascus. Syrian Muslims Brotherhood has adopted attack .A lot doubt that It is also behind the last attack in Syria . Muslims brotherhood has activated its militant arm recently and it is operating its activities from Tripoli of Lebanon. Its leaders lives in UK and funded by Saudi Arabia .
2 -16 April 1986 : A series of attacks by bombs hit major Syrian cities kills 144 and injures hundreds .
3- 27 April 1996: an attack kills and injures 40 .

Our Right in having the Atomic Bomb

2008-09-26T19:42:00.000+02:00

US government is asking the International Nuclear agency for a full report about “ Syrian Nuclear program” Which it used to claim that Syria has it –Syria is denying having any such this program - after a statement of Chairman of this agency saying that there is no evidence that Syria have a nuclear reactor .
What I want to Say here that Bush administration is trying to fabricate such these evidence to accuse nations -which are not its allies - in having a nuclear program. Having a nuclear program is a right for any nation. Even having atomic bomb is also a right. You may be surprised about my last sentence. If we just take a look to the world super power you will know what I mean. All nations which are considered as a super power are having a nuclear bomb and even more. I know that they are not using it ,however, it helps them in defending themselves.
Imaging that Iraq was having such this bombs, Was America going to attack it and occupy it ?
I doubt, especially if we compare the Iraq’s mode to the North Korean model. America is using the Diplomacy with North Korea which has the atomic bomb which it has occupied Iraq which it hasn’t.

The appearance and the disappearance of the middle class in Syria

2008-09-20T08:59:00.000+02:00

After the epidemic inflation which hit the world, a lot of questions have appeared and its answers are must. Are we still having a middle class in Syria? I know that this question is critical for a lot, however, we must discus it. According the Syrian statistics authority, Syria poverty rate is around 10 %. This is an official number; however, a lot of experts deny this number and say that it is far more than this number. We aren’t discussing here the meanings of these number and we are not going to go in a debate between those who are with and against the official number.

It is something needs pages and pages to be discussed in. What we are trying here is a trial to clarify how the fall in basic services has affected the middle class in Syrian and convert it to the barriers of poverty. Since Syrian government has taken the decision to convert the Syrian economy from that which depends on central planning and social basics, to that which depends on the market economy and free market (the government has named it as a social market economy to absorb the reactions which condemn the new economic policy of the Syrian government.

Al lot of factors play a role in the continuous increase of poverty rate in Syrian and hence the disappearance of the middle class which was historically the main advantage of the social . The new economic policy pushes the government to increase the prices of a lot of services. During one year, Syrian government has increased the prices of Diesel, electricity , benzene ……. The main danger on the middle class was the diesel prices which “hit the counter ‘ of the Syrian budgets . Simply, increasing diesel prices affect on all fields. It has increased the transportation prices, the manufactured goods prices and the cost of the agricultural products. The government has justified these increases that it happens due to the international increases in fuel prices and to stop the trafficking of these “cheap products” across the borders to neighbor countries which these products prices are mush higher than Syria.

An ambassador to the hill- an opinion over new Syrian envoy to Baghdad

2008-09-17T02:35:00.000+02:00

Syria has opened a new page in its relation with Iraq. The problem of this page that it is based on the economical interests of Syria. It is not by any means based on the real opinion of Syrian government over Iraq’s government. What we see is a pragmatic cal step. Sending an ambassador to Iraq in this political situation is an n adventurous step. We don’t know a lot about the new ambassador more than he served as a governor of one of most important Syrian provinces from the security point of view “ Al-qonitira “.it besides the Syrian front with Israel. He should have been chosen according to a security point of view. He is going in fact to the hill of Baghdad. They know very well that he might be a target for kidnapping. All the previous trials with other Arab ambassadors prove this.

A new prostitution law in Syria:Punishing Clients and victimize prostitutes

2008-09-14T02:19:00.001+02:00

According to Syrian law scholars, Syrian Authority is preparing a draft for a new prostitution law. The new law will ease the sentence on prostitutes and will consider them as victims while it will punish the clients .
The new law also will forbid the advertisements for prostitutes that are found in newspapers. The prostitution phenomenon has increased after the invasion of Iraq. The poverty of Iraqi refuges has pushed many of Iraqi’s women to work in prostitution.
According to a study by the United Nations, there are 50 Iraqi women arrested in Syria every week for prostitution.

Diesel's price and the re-arranging of the Syrian community

2008-04-11T05:06:00.002+02:00

Distributing Diesel on Syrians by coupons is ineffective. According to the government , Each family will get 10 coupons / 100 L each . According also to the government the family will not have the right to get all the quantity of these coupons once. It is not yet clear what the quantity that the people will have the right to get it each time. Some leaks said that they would have the right to get 500 L maximumly in each time, Others said the quantity would be just 100 L each time. what we can conclude that we will have a real crisis . The whole image is not clear yet. Distributing Diesel is just a part of this image. Other parts will arise just after rising the Diesel price. rising Diesel's price will lead to an improvement in life cost in Syria and will lead quickly to re-arrange the Syrian community between upper class and poors making the middle class a part of the history.
--
Mustafa Hamido
Aleppous Services
Mail: mustafahamido@gmail.com ,
mustafa@aleppous.com
Web: Aleppous.com

Bush's plans for his next Mccain

2008-04-11T04:48:00.001+02:00

Saying that George crazy is crazy is a must. A lot of people believe that he is preparing something before he leaves the White House. maybe that is true, but the most true thing is that he will or say they will- they refer the the inner cycle which are around him- let his next (Mccain ) do his plans which he will put it on his desk before he leaves.

Protests in Egypt

2008-04-07T09:52:00.001+02:00

When thousands of people , workers, labours protest against increasing in the cost of life , that means that the home of those people is in trouble. What happened in Egypt yesterday is a remarkable sign that a real and effective change is going to take place in Egypt soonly. The problem in Egypt is common between all Arab countries. A bad distribution of wealth and putting all the economical activities between a close circle is the problem. You can see all that in all monarchial regimes in the Middle East which lack any accountability and transparently.

Arab leaders are Cocks!!

2008-03-24T11:00:00.001+02:00

Next Saturday, Arabs leaders and kings will arrive Syria to attend the Arab summit which will be hold for the first time in Damascus.

Frankly, it is not an extraordinary event. Arab leaders are ineffective and defective in their region. They are not the key-players in the Middle East. All the conflicts which are seen here in this region are away from their effects.

The problem of Arabs is that they have connected their destiny to the American presence in the Middle East.

A quick overview at the American position in the world will give us an expectation about the future of this presence in the Middle East. After the American invasion of Iraq, All the World have seen the Decline and The Failure of the American policy and their hope for a new American century. This Decline will affect soonly on their “Sub-allies” which are called The “Moderate Arabs”.

New powers have sparkled in the Middle East. No one of these powers is Arabic power. This is a logical result of the Arabs’ policy .Arabs have an occupied lands and they don’t want to fight to get it back. They only depend on the “Peace Negotiations “to try to get it back. They have spent more than two decades in theses negotiations without any real result.

During these two decades the nations which are surrounding the Arab World have developed its economy and their future.

We still don’t have any real project except that which is depending on stock market and real states. This is the only Arab project which they think that they can develop their nations depending on it.

Those who are adopting this kind of economy are know that this kind of economy will evaporate as soon as an shock will happen in the market.

The Arabs Summit is defective and will not give us any hope for our future. Arab Leader are cocks without a real rule for them away their hangar.

National decision in the middle east

2008-03-19T06:57:00.000+02:00

Who we should condemn? Our strategic position is very weak. We are as a doll in the Westerns’ hands can’t do any thing without a prior authorization from the colonial powers which had occupied our nations in the 20^th century. Unfortunately, the Middle East, which is my home is the only region in the world which doesn’t have its own national decision. What I mean hear by the national decision is that which conclude its own internal development decision in scientific, military and economic field.

It is not permitted by any means to form our own defensive industry. If we take a look at all wars which has happened in the region along 40 years, we can’t notice any weapons which has manufactured in this region. All our defensive tools and devices which we have used are westerns or Russian . From this we can get a conclusion that all the conflicts were and are controlled by foreign powers. If they hadn’t need these conflicts to take place, they would have cut their weapons’ supplies to us.

'Contagious' wars put minorities at risk

2008-03-01T11:17:00.001+02:00

Written by: Timothy Large

Is war contagious? That's a question posed in a new report that finds a growing number of minority groups at risk of genocide, mass killing or violent repression as ethnic conflicts spill across borders. From the Horn of Africa to Central Asia, minorities are in the firing line.
The study by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) ranks Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar as countries where minorities are most under threat, followed by Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Chad.
Some of these hotspots are not surprising. The U.N. refugee body estimates that up to a third of Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan or Syria come from minority communities, including Armenians, Turkomans, Chaldo-Assyrians and Faili Kurds. In Myanmar, the ruling junta has long targeted the Karen, Rohingya and Shan ethnic groups.
But the "biggest risers" on the risk radar are less obvious - countries like Pakistan, Ethiopia and Chad. These nations have become more dangerous for minorities since MRG's last "People's Under Threat" report in 2007.
As MRG sees it, what's changed is the export of the ethnic dynamics of conflict to kin populations across borders.
"So where you have fighting between Arab militias and settled communities in Darfur, we now see exactly the same pattern of attacks and retaliation across the border in eastern Chad," explained MRG director Mark Lattimer.
"Where you have a community caught up in the war on terror in eastern Afghanistan, with operations focused very heavily in the Pashtun community, so we have an exact pattern of conflict replicated across the border of Pakistan."
Ethiopia is a prime example of how the chain reactions of cross-border violence can hit minorities hard. Consider this flow of events.
In December 2006, Ethiopian troops helped Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists from Mogadishu. In the process some 50,000 Somalis fled across the border into Ethiopia. Many brought small arms and bitter tales of Ethiopian acts in Somalia, helping to fuel a long-running insurgency in Ethiopia's Ogaden region.
Attacks by Ogaden rebels prompted Ethiopian forces to launch a major counter-insurgency campaign in Ogaden in June last year. No surprises that allegations soon arose of widespread abuses against ethnic Somali civilians.
According to Lattimer, the U.S.-led "war on terror" has been especially bad news for minorities, with many countries using it as a smoke screen to crack down on smaller groups that don't toe the majority line.
"In a country like Pakistan there's quite clearly the military operations in the North West Frontier Province against suspected Al Qaeda sympathisers which have resulted in mass violations against civilians, demolitions of houses and so forth," he said.
"But there's also a rapidly increasing pattern of violations against Baluchis in Baluchistan where really the links with the war on terror are very tenuous. Basically Pakistan is using the support of the United States and its ongoing military operations as an excuse to crack down on home-grown dissidents."
Below are the 10 countries MRG is most worried about in 2008, along with the minority groups potentially under threat. See also MRG's Global Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, a new database that promises to be a valuable research tool.

1 :Somalia
Darood, Hawiye, Issaq and other clans; Ogadenis; Bantu; Gabooye (Midgan) and other 'caste' groups
2:Iraq
Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans, Christians, Mandeans, Yezidis, Faili Kurds, Shabak, Baha'is, Palestinians
3: Sudan
Fur, Zaghawa, Massalit and others in Darfur; Dinka, Nuer and others in the South; Nuba, Beja
4:Afghanistan
Hazara, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkomans, Baluchis
5:Myanmar
Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Mons, Rohingyas, Shan, Chin (Zomis), Wa
6:Congo (DR)
Hema and Lendu, Hunde, Hutu, Luba, Lunda, Tutsi/Banyamulenge, Twa/Mbuti
7:Pakistan
Ahmaddiya, Baluchis, Hindus, Mohhajirs, Pashtun, Sindhis, other religious minorities
8:Nigeria
Ibo, Ijaw, Ogoni, Yoruba, Hausa (Muslims) and Christians in the north
9:Ethiopia
Anuak, Afars, Oromo, Somalis, smaller minorities
10:Chad
'Black African' groups, Arabs, Southerners

Japan launches experimental Internet satellite

2008-02-23T12:44:00.000+02:00

By Teruaki Ueno TOKYO, Feb 23 (Reuters)

The launch had been briefly delayed after a ship strayed into restricted waters. Japan's scientists say the 52.2 billion yen ($490 million) launch of WINDS will help the country build one of the world's most advanced information and telecommunications networks. High-speed Internet access would play a key role in ensuring communications between a disaster-stricken area and rescue authorities in the event of major natural disasters such as earthquakes, JAXA officials said. "In such cases, the satellite will play a great role." "About 95 percent of households in Japan are capable of having broadband Internet access. So, why now?", a communications expert told Reuters on condition of anonymity. - Japan launched an experimental communications satellite on Saturday as part of an ambitious space programme that could help ensure super high-speed Internet access in remote parts of Japan and elsewhere in Asia. The H-2A rocket carrying the 2.7 tonne "KIZUNA" (WINDS) communications satellite took off into over the tiny island of Tanegashima, about 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo, at 5.55 p.m. (0855 GMT). The KIZUNA, equipped with three antennas targetting Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific regions, is referred to as the Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite or WINDS. The geostationary satellite will be used to conduct experiments on large-volume, high-speed data communications on remote mountains and islands with little Internet access. The launch comes 12 years after the project started, due mainly to technical glitches involving launch vehicles. "The WINDS will help develop a society with no digital divide where everyone can enjoy high-speed communications equally no matter where they live," said an official at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Space-based Internet access through Japan's domestically built satellite could also be used in various fields including "remote medicine," which allows patients in remote areas to receive sophisticated treatment from doctors in urban cities. "The infrastructure on the ground may not withstand a major earthquake, and remote areas may not have any access to optic-fibre networks, one official said. The satellite could also help in communications with other countries, the official said. "Data can be sent to Asian countries through WINDS faster than most other means," he said. But some experts cast doubt on the usefulness of the project. Saturday's satellite launch is part of a bold space programme, which sent the nation's first lunar probe into orbit around the moon last September. Keen to compete with its Asian rivals, China and India, in space exploration projects, the Japanese space agency has said it hopes to send astronauts to the moon by 2025, although Japan has not yet attempted manned space flight. Japan's space programme was in tatters in the late 1990s after two unsuccessful launches of a previous rocket, the H-2. Disaster followed in 2003 when Japan had to destroy an H-2A rocket carrying two spy satellites minutes after launch as it veered off course.

USA: Double standards is an old term , Say ugly policy

2008-02-05T23:55:00.000+02:00

I don't know what America really needs from the world. I am sure that it only needs to be the only civilized amd modern country in the world. It needs also not to be competed by other nations which want to be also civilized and modern states. After the Iranian launch of satellite missile this week, We have heard the white house and all American Deparments express their angery toward what Iran has done.
the white house said: ""I saw this morning that Iran, again, tested a ballistic missile. It's unfortunate that they continue to do that because it further isolates the country from the rest of the world," . Isolation in the American terms is opposite of openess . Openness means that you should have at least the same American policy or to obey what the Ameicans are asking you to do or to not. look also about what the states deparment spokeman said , it is totally ugly:US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the rocket launch as "another troubling development."
"The kinds of technologies and capabilities that are needed in order to launch ... a space vehicle for orbit are the same kinds of capabilities and technologies that one would employ for long-range ballistic missiles," he said.
the conlsuion from all that that they can welcome any development step if and and just if the country which is doing that step is monitored by the American spy agents or at least monitoring agents. we should refer to the statments which had sparkled after the chinese first step into space war by destroing an old satellite in the space by a developed technology that was not owned by countries rather than America and Russia. In that staements , America had condemed chinese and warn its neighbores from the Chinese threats. American policy is totally ugly like those who are running it.

Syrian opponents : New Liberals ,anti-resistance

2008-02-03T16:53:00.000+02:00

In the last two weeks , Syrians had heard about the arresting of some opponents who are members in the Damascus Declaration to join their colleagues in the Damascus-Beirut Declaratin. Someof those who had been arreseted are known to Syrians and to the world and some of them are not. Opposing the government is a human right wich is not negotiable . I believe in it and I used it before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. After 2003 , a lot of what i was believing in has frozen in my mind and in fact I tried to fight any trial from it to profound its place in my mind. Freezing it , in my opinion, is jusitiied. what has happened in Iraq has make the coup in a lot of people's believes. You can't see the people remains in the streets and talk after that about democracy. The Calsh in the region today gives another reason to freeze my beleives. It is a clash between those who are calling themselves Moderates who are backed by Americans and the resistant powers. I can't see Syria outside the resistant camp. Nor its history neither its modern era justify for it to be outside that camp. Those who are calling themselves Opponents and specially the members of The Damascus Declaration are in Fact trying to adobt what the Moderate arabs are propagte it. Those in facts are new liberals which are coallating automatically with the American project in the region. Just know their friends and you can admit that they are against the resistance. In Lebanon they are friends of those who are totally against the resistance. Not only against it but also tried in summer 2006 to destroy it by their hidden coallatin with Israel.

Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast

2008-02-01T23:59:00.000+02:00

(CNN) -- An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days.

Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.

Ships have been dispatched to repair two undersea cables damaged on Wednesday off Egypt.
FLAG Telecom, which owns one of the cables, said repairs were expected to be completed by February 12. France Telecom, part owner of the other cable, said it was uncertain when repairs on it would be repaired.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the cables off Egypt were likely damaged by ships' anchors.
The loss of the two Mediterranean cables -- FLAG Telecom's FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen telecommunications companies -- has snarled Internet and phone traffic from Egypt to India.

The hidden conflict between Arabs and Kurds

2008-02-01T23:48:00.000+02:00

"Just away from my village is the conflict. It is a hidden one which you can't notice and can't know its exact details" Ammar says. Ammar who is one of the Iraq's refugees in the Gulf states gestured to the TV while he was talking.He is one of those who has abandoned their homes and landed in one of the gulf states after his dad has been beheaded by a Kurdish armed power. One of the unknown conflict in Iraq is that between The Arab Tribes and The kurds. Kurds who are trying to seize more land are using what the terrorists are using in Baghdad to push the Arabs to leave their homes. This is specially can be seen In Mosuls' country which is by the Kurdish Area.

No thing is perfect

2008-01-30T08:46:00.001+02:00

living with people is very difficult. To be a lone is an advantage compared to arguing with people and trying to compromise all issues with them. you can't even have a soul rest with them. life is a kind of endless clash between your personality and their personalities.No thing in this life is perfect. This is an important rule we should know.

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Hamas says won't abandon rockets under Israel attack

2008-01-23T00:37:00.001+02:00

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday Palestinians would continue to target Israel with rockets until the Jewish state ended what he called its "onslaught" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

But he said the Islamist group would consider any deal that ended Israeli attacks and restored Palestinian rights.

Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says it will not formally recognise Israel and its 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

"We are dealing with aggressive Zionist behaviour. Let Israel stop its aggression and its occupation of Palestinian land and the resistance, including rockets, will stop," Meshaal told Reuters in an interview.

"If the Zionists make an offer we will study it. Our cause is based on steadfastness and patience. The enemy will not break us," he said.

Israel says its attacks on Gaza, which have killed and wounded scores of Palestinians, and a blockade on the narrow coastal strip are aimed at stopping rockets and cutting support for the groups firing them.

Meshaal said international pressure that forced Israel to resume fuel deliveries to a power plant in Gaza should continue until the blockade was removed.

"This immoral and inhumane siege has been going on for months. The Arabs must take responsibility as well and not leave the Palestinians alone," Meshaal said, referring to the repeated closures of a crossing to Egypt.

ARMED STRUGGLE

Asked about what Hamas critics call the futility of armed struggle against Israel's far superior military forces, Meshaal said there was no other way to force Israel to relinquish occupied land.

"A diplomatic effort without strong cards and Palestinian unity that does away with resistance lacks the basis for success," Meshaal said, referring to peace talks with Israel led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The talks were launched after the Annapolis peace conference, which was hosted by the United States in November.

"These talks are useless with Israel insisting on holding on to the big settlements, refusing to respect the 1967 line and the refugees' right of return," he said.

Meshaal repeated his call on Abbas to accept unconditional talk with Hamas to solve differences between the two groups that have led to violence and two administrations in Gaza and the West bank.

"It is time to turn the page on the peace talks and reach consensus on a new strategy that forces Israel to return Palestinian land," Meshaal said.

Palestinian groups opposed to the peace talks, including Hamas, will hold a large meeting in Damascus on Wednesday.

Organisers said the conference, which will be also attended by a number of independent and national Palestinian figures, will issue a call for unity.

"We have no option but to hold on to national rights and sit on the table to solve the internal Palestinian crisis," he said. (Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

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Mustafa Hamido
Aleppous Services
Mail: mustafahamido@gmail.com ,
mustafa@aleppous.com
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Looking for a partner

2008-01-18T04:56:00.001+02:00

I am just waiting to meet my partner. It is very difficult to live alone keeping your soul alone and your feeling looking for one who deserve to give all its warm to her. I am not that one who is running after his desires to satisfy it and calm it. Relationships are not just a body relation . It is more complex than that. Maybe intercourse is a part of that complex relation but it is surely no the whole story or even it doesn't considered the main part of the relation. I know that most of those who are walking in malls are running affecter there pennies' desires . I know that very well,however, at a certain point in their lives they will find themselves alone looking for the rest of their souls which the sex relation didn't afford.

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President al-Assad Inaugurates Rehabilitation project of Kwaik River in Aleppo

2008-01-06T09:55:00.001+02:00

Quaiq river which had died from 40 years is alive again. This river which was one of the most important places in Aleppo has disapeared from its prestigious places after Turkey has built a Dam on its springs in 1920. It became by time a place for sewerage and trashes. On Saturday President Bashar Assad attended a special ceremony for its launch depending on Euphrate river as a main source of water.Now , Aleppo has a river and all Syrians are happy for this wonderful news.The following is the official news from Syrian news agency.

Aleppo,(SANA)-

President Bashar al-Assad inaugurated on Saturday an SP 1.1 billion- cost rehabilitation project of Kwaik River in Aleppo.

President alAssad opened the waters of Euphrates River to run into the watercourse of the Kwaik river with an influx force of 3 cm per a second , ushering in for the revival of the river that goes through the city of Aleppo from north to south after an absence of nearly four decades.

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New blog

2007-10-26T23:44:00.001+02:00

Visit Our New Blog :

http://Aleppous.com/blog

No new posts will be added to this blog.
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Mustafa Hamido
Aleppous Services
Mail: mustafahamido@gmail.com ,
mustafa@aleppous.com
Web: Aleppous.com

My dream is so simple

2007-10-26T18:11:00.001+02:00

I am just want to know what will happen in the coming decades in this region. I know that some states will disapear and others will erupt and those who are trying to coalate with America are going to a bigh troubles in their homes. It is just expectations.No thing is surely in this world. We should resisit to win . Resistance means fighting against those who are trying to invade us and divide us. My dream is so simple. The Union of the Great Syria. Its union will solve almost the all problems in the middle east.

The Failure of the Israeli Left and the Two-State Solution

2007-09-21T14:21:00.000+02:00

Remi Kanazi, June 23, 2007

The only way to break down a racist and exclusivist structure is to chip away at its base and force an alternative reality.

Time and again one is told of the Israeli "left," the many number of Israelis, ranging from members of the Knesset to shop owners, dedicated to peace. The 40-year occupation is of particular concern to putative peace activists and purported individuals of conscience. "The burden of occupation" and its ugly realities, as many so-called dovish Israeli politicians have pointed out, tear at the moral fiber of the Jewish state. Yet, even when one looks at the horrors of the occupation in the Israeli media and political circles, it is at best through the Israeli prism, which juxtaposes the pain of Israel in equal magnitude to the pain of the Palestinian people. This Israeli pain, without its counterpart's suffering, is transferred to the papers of the U.S. press and is ultimately exponentially magnified, giving the American people a distorted awareness of the Israeli narrative.

Nonetheless, there must be a clear understanding that only one people is living under occupation — many after being dispossessed in 1948 and again in 1967. By even phrasing today's climate as a conflict, it lends support to the assumption that this is a dispute between two equal sides, with equal grievances. The complexities of the Palestine question is further complicated by issues beyond the 40-year occupation, including the Palestinian right of return, the Israeli settler movement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the third class status of Palestinians living in a Jewish state.

Supposed peace activists find solace in verbally condemning the settlement movement and the harsh conditions that emanate from occupation. Yet most aren't doing anything to actively stop it, and when moral fiber is truly urgent, as was the case during the Lebanon war or the continuing debilitating sanctions and bombardment on the Palestinian people, they remain silent. Condemnation after a war isn't moral reflection, it's cowardice. There is no difference between hawkish and dovish policy in Israel, only a divergence in the approach to implement it. Those on the "far left," who are the brink of being classified as "self-hating Jews," including self-styled humanitarians such as Meretz MK Yossi Beilin, only serve to massage their own egos and consciences by portraying an image that they are fighting for peace. In reality, these people assign themselves to the same racist and exclusivist ideology that came into form long before the creation of the state of Israel.

The discourse that frames the parameters of debate pertaining to the Palestine question is disturbing on multiple levels. Take for example, the recent fighting in the Gaza Strip. Nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian rocket attacks over the last seven years, while last year alone, 700 Palestinians — half of them unarmed civilians — were killed throughout the occupied territories. Reading the news columns, be it in Israeli or Western newspapers, one would think it was the Israeli people who were occupied and being indiscriminately killed. The opposite remains true: when one woman is killed in Sderot, it consumes the Israeli media and immediately becomes headline material for nearly every Western newspaper.

The cease-fire between occupied Gaza and Israel is another case in point. Hamas eventually ended its unilateral recognition of a cease-fire because of continued attacks by Israeli forces inside of Gaza and the West Bank. The demand for a Gaza/West Bank cease-fire by Hamas is seen by Israel as the same old story, where "conventional wisdom" suggests that the obstinate, overreaching Arabs insist on the fulfillment of unreasonable demands, when they are in no position to do so. Yet, calling on the Palestinians (including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade), to accept a truce localized to the Gaza Strip, giving Israel impunity to act within the West Bank, is tantamount to asking Hamas not to fire rockets at Sderot and the Negev, while remaining free to bombard Tel Aviv and Haifa. The Palestinians are a people, no less than the Israelis are a people, and a death in Ramallah is as significant as a death in Gaza City.

Every problem afflicting Palestinian society, be it the expansion of the Apartheid Wall, checkpoints, flying checkpoints, curfews, or the restriction of goods and access to education, is characterized as necessary measures for Israeli security. Nonetheless, many non-partisan organizations, including the World Bank, the United Nations, the Hague, Amnesty International and a number of other institutions have condemned Israel and its tactics on levels of morality, legality, and effectiveness. Logically, if one is looking for peace with a society, economic strangulation and imprisonment will not create an environment conducive to peace. The Wall is not being built on the internationally recognized green line and encroaches so far into the West Bank that thousands of Palestinians have been kicked out of their homes, lost their land or have been split from their towns, workplaces, and schools. Even if one were to justify the Wall, which the Israeli Shin Bet has called an ineffective means of protection, why not build the Wall on Israeli territory? "Punishing" the Palestinian people by creating a greater refugee problem and economic deprivation is hardly an incentive for Palestinians to resort to more preferred tactics of resistance. Furthermore, settlements continue to grow, far surpassing the number of settlers that were removed from Gaza, and even with the basic cessation of suicide bombings, restrictions in movement have markedly increased in the West Bank.

The issue of the 400,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is particularly startling. Policy in the United States has slowly shifted from a two-state solution on the basis of the green line, with no Jewish settlers within Palestinian territory, to the vast majority of settlers staying in place, with effective Israeli control of half of the West Bank for an indefinite period of time. The prevailing truth that Israel and America want people to accept is that time creates "indisputable" facts on the ground, meaning: if a crime is committed for a long enough period of time, the international community and the victim must recognize the crime. It is to the bewilderment of the Palestinian people that they are seen as the uncompromising ones when they are asking for no more than international law provides. Sadly, it was the Labor party-the party that many purported peace activists are members-that propped up and legitimized the settler movement, leading to one of the many disputes Palestinians and Israelis find themselves in today.

Many so-called Israeli peace activists point to Camp David 2000 as the quintessential example of Arab rejectionism. One is told that Israel offered the Palestinians 95 percent of the occupied territories, including a grand compromise on East Jerusalem. Let us suppose this is true and forget the Palestinian narrative, that by engaging in Oslo, the Palestinians had effectively relinquished the right to 78 percent of historic Palestine (a "generous" compromise in their minds). Even looking through the Israel prism, one should ask themselves, if Israel was interested in peace (added to the fact they are the occupying force with the upper hand), would it not be reasonable with peace at the forefront of one's mind, to give up all of the occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 5 percent of the Negev? While Israel has much empty land, an abundance of resources, power and capital, an Israeli could claim that on principle alone, the state could not commit to such a plan. But is principle really an option when peace could be just over the horizon or even a remote possibility? If the offer failed, the Israeli left could point out further Arab rejectionism, could it not?

The way in which one is expected to digest the so-called "facts" of the Israeli occupation and the Palestine question hinders any rationale debate and demonizes any individual calling for an end to Israel's racist and hegemonic policy, as was the case with former president, Jimmy Carter. If there were a 100 suicide bombings in Tel Aviv tomorrow, it would not diminish the Palestinian right to see an end to the occupation, nor would it minimize the urgency. Furthermore, Israel is not occupying Palestinian land as a punishment. It is not as though a suicide bombing struck Tel Aviv 40 years ago by a Palestinian group and the Israel army decided it was time to clamp down on Palestinian society. Rather after a preempted strike on neighboring states, Israel colonized a land that the international community, including the United States, insisted it had no business occupying.

A quick and just two-state resolution to Israel/Palestine may sound like an oversimplification, but if supposed steps towards peace were made and "offered" at Camp David 2000 and at the following talks at Taba, the same type of directive could be taken today. But let's be honest with ourselves, the two-sate solution is dead. It is a figment of the imagination of the Israeli left and of the multitude of Palestinian leaders and diplomats who have gone enormous lengths to sell out the Palestinian people. That is the danger of looking at the two-state solution and Israel/Palestine through an Israeli prism: it draws the parameters of practicality, affecting even those who support the Palestinian plight. Israel doesn't want peace, not under a Barak government, a Sharon government, an Olmert government or a Peres government. It's been forty years, and yet Israel has become married to the settlements and to an ideology that sees a Jewish state with inherent rights over its non-Jewish citizens, but more critically it as an expansionist state that believes in the right to permanent domination of the lands it controls.

The only way to break down a racist and exclusivist structure is to chip away at its base and force an alternative reality. This would require not only ending the occupation, but looking internally at the Israeli state, a Jewish state, a state which doesn't and can't function as democracy for all its people. Many Palestinians leaders and supporters within Israel have come to realize this and have been ostracized for bringing this notion to light, namely Azmi Bishara, while many more will be undermined and attacked in the future. Yet, divestment, boycott, and sanctions coupled with a movement forward for both Israelis and Palestinians to live as equals in a shared society is the only hope for true peace. This new path must run counter to the Oslo mentality of submissiveness and acquiescence: a model much like South Africa, Northern Ireland and Belgium. It is time for an end to the occupation, but more importantly, it is time to look through a new prism, one that sees a better solution for Israel/Palestine.

Ramadan is next week

2007-09-01T22:18:00.000+03:00

Ramadan is next week. It is something special for us as Muslims and even for Christians who are living with us in Syria and the Middle East. You can say that it is a celebration and waiting for biggest one at the end of its 30 days. It is not an only fasting from the sunset to the sunrise. It is another way of life totally different from what we used to live during a year.

The awful Season in the history of World

2007-08-17T17:20:00.000+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

This summer ,maybe, the hottest in the recorded history of the world. The middle east has faced the most awful summer season in its history. The East Mediterranean which was considered as a moderate climate specially in summer has faced a very hot season. In Syria the temperature has risen to 50 C which has not faced ever in its history. I had red in The Times that Italy also is facing an awful season. Its production of wine is going to fail this year. The quantities will be less than the normal while the quality will be better owing to high temperature which is concentrating the taste.

Saqfu Al-Alam a new Syrian series targeting the westerns

2007-08-05T00:46:00.000+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

A new Syrian series directed by a well known Syrian director Najdat Anzour called (Saqf Al-Alam) which means The roof of the the World will be broad-casted in next Ramadan season based on a middle ages Islamic journey by Ibn Fadlan to Scandinavia. The main target of this series is clarifying the Islam and trying to defend the prophet Mohammed which had been attacked by a Danish cartoons in 2005.

Between War and Peace, a Certain Tranquility

2007-07-31T00:09:00.001+03:00

By Andrew Lee Butters....Time magazine

"Why do you need peace?" says Yuval Matzliach, 32, a dairy farmer who until two summers ago lived in the Gush Katif settlement bloc in Gaza. "Giving land doesn't give you peace. Living on the land of Israel, this is the point of living."

For Matzliach peace would likely mean once again uprooting himself and his family — he nows runs a falafel shop in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967, and whose return to its Syrian owners remains a basic requirement for peace with that country and normalization of ties with the wider Arab world (as Arab League envoys visiting Jerusalem last week reiterated).

But on the Golan itself, which rises like a table of volcanic rock at the top of the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee, there's little sense that anyone is even contemplating the possibility of packing up and leaving as a result of a land-peace swap with Syria. Nowhere is that more clear than in the town of Avneitan, home to some 23 families forcibly evacuated by the Israeli government from settlements in the Gaza strip in 2005. These Orthodox families believe that Jews have a divine mandate to live not just within the current borders of the Jewish state but on all the territory surrounding it that they consider part of the Biblical Land of Israel. The government dumped them in a hotel here after the Gaza pullout, where they lived for a year before moving into pre-fab houses on land donated by sympathetic locals. And they say they're not going to leave their new homes without a struggle.

Life on this grassy plateau of cattle ranches and apple orchards moves at a different pace than in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, just a few hours drive away. Israel once viewed the Golan's strategic cliffs as a safeguard against a Syrian armored invasion, but they appear to have as effectively deterred a different kind of invasion — one of Israel's sprawling suburbs, fast food chains and traffic jams.

And unlike their previous situation in Gaza, Israelis like Matzliach feel little pressure to leave from the Golan's Arab inhabitants — unlike the huge Palestinian majorities in the West Bank and Gaza, there are now just four Arab towns in the Golan. Their Syrian inhabitants are mostly Druze Muslims, who speak Arabic and Hebrew, run apparently prosperous businesses and farms, and mingle easily on the streets with Israeli soldiers. "I've got many Israeli friends," says Yahyah Abu Shaheen, a 51-year-old contractor in the town of Buq'ata. "We've grown up together and we're human beings."

But while many Golanese Druze carry Israeli ID cards, most refuse to become Israeli citizens, either out of loyalty to Damascus, or out of concern that they might be seen as traitors if the territory is returned to Syria. Abu Shaheen and his neighbors also chafe under the restrictions of a closed border that cuts them off from family, friends and country. One of Abu Shaheen's daughters married a Syrian cousin and moved to the suburbs of Damascus earlier this year, and he doesn't know when he'll see her again.

While a change in the Golan's political status doesn't appear to be on the current political horizon, there's always a chance that it could once again become a battlefield. Though Syria has repeatedly called for peace negotiations with Israel since the end of last year, it has also stepped up the rhetoric of resistance in the absence of peace. With outdated Soviet-era equipment, Syria's conventional army is no match Israel's top-of-the-line U.S. military technology. But the Syrians say they are changing their tactics and learning from the kind of asymmetrical guerrilla war that Hizballah waged so effectively against Israel in last summer's Lebanon confrontation.

Israel has responded by alerting its own forces in the Golan, and staging large-scale military exercises. But a cheerful sense of confidence — or complacency — still pervades the Israeli occupied areas. At the end of a day reporting, I encounter an Israeli armored unit wrapping up exercises by loading their battle tanks on tractor-trailers, while leaving their personnel carriers parked by the side of the road, ready to be stolen or sabotaged by anyone who dared. "Mind if we take one for spin?" I called out the departing troops. "We're leaving our guard dog," answered one, barefoot at the time, as he pointed to a harmless-looking stray. "And he's a real beast."

A problem of a lot of problems

2007-07-15T20:01:00.000+03:00

A view from Syrian traditional market in Aleppo(from Agencies)

Mustafa Hamido

ACTUALLY ,WE ARE FACING A PROBLEM IN ELECTRICITY IN SYRIA. It is not a new thing for people here. They had faced such this problem in early 1990's due to a lot of reasons. The main reason for all that is the corruption . Syrian bureaucratic system is totally corrupted .Changing ministers and prime ministers has not effected any thing here. The problem is not actually in the officials which are temporary in their responsibilities . It is actually in those who have spent decades in authorizations and ministries. The mentality itself should be changed. Any real talk about reform will not be real without a real talk about the mentality. Electricity is not the only problem which the mentality is accused in. it is just a symbol about what we are facing in Syria. Because electricity is more connected to basic people needs, we are talking about it here. If you go to the telecommunication sector you will see disasters. Fortunately we are not enough developed to connect our life to this sector, however, we are at the end of the rank in telecommunication in comparison to our neighbors in the region. Frankly, we need a real change in the officials' mentality to achieve a real reform and development.

Borders stores in UK shelve Tintin book

2007-07-13T17:05:00.000+03:00

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

Borders is removing "Tintin in the Congo" from the children's section of its British stores, after a customer complained the comic work was racist, the company said Thursday.
David Enright, a London-based human-rights lawyer, was shopping at Borders with his family when he came upon the book, first published in 1931, and opened it to find what he characterized as racist abuse.
"The material suggests to (children) that Africans are subhuman, that they are imbeciles, that they're half savage," Enright said in a telephone interview.
"My black wife, who actually comes from Africa originally, is sitting there with my boys and I'm about to hand this book to them.... What message am I sending to them? That my wife is a monkey, that they are monkeys?"
The book is the second in a series of 23 tracing the adventures of Tintin, an intrepid reporter, and his dog, Snowy. The series has sold 220 million copies worldwide and been translated in 77 languages.
But "Tintin in the Congo" has been widely criticized as racist by fans and critics alike.
In it, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi depicts the white hero's adventures in the Congo against the backdrop of an idiotic, chimpanzee-like native population that eventually comes to worship Tintin — and his dog — as gods.
Remi later said he was embarrassed by the book, and some editions have had the more objectionable content removed. When an unexpurgated edition was brought out in Britain in 2005, it came wrapped with a warning and was written with a forward explaining the work's colonial context.
Enright, who said he first complained to Borders and Britain's Commission for Racial Equality about a month ago, argued such a warning was not enough.
"Whether it's got a piece of flimsy paper around it or not, it's irrelevant, it's in the children's section," he said, adding that he felt the book should be treated like pornography or anti-Semitic literature and not displayed in mainstream bookstores at all.
Borders agreed to move the book to its adult graphic novels section, but said in a statement it would continue to sell it.
The Commission for Racial Equality backed Enright, saying in a statement Thursday that the book was full of "hideous racial prejudice."
"The only place that it might be acceptable for this to be displayed would be in a museum, with a big sign saying `old fashioned, racist claptrap.'"

We are happy for him

2007-07-04T11:38:00.001+03:00

I can say happily that I am very happy for the British journalist Allan Johnston who has been abducted in Gaza and spent more than 100 days in abduction. He is free now and appearing smiling after his release this morning. I am happy for him because he is a human being who has feelings. He has also a family which surely was worried about him and he has friend who were waiting his appearance to calm down their worries. He is not the last one who is going to be abducted by armed forces all over the world. He is innocent. I know that very well, however, a lot of other journalists who are abducted are, in fact, mixing between intelligence and journalism. It is right that the barriers between those two carriers are a little bit unclear; however, journalist must put himself under strict conditions to don't let himself to be an agent for this or that. Unfortunately, most of who are abducted are agents for an intelligent agencies and this exactly what push us to don't take care about their abduction.

The legality and the illegality

2007-06-23T12:12:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

What happened in Gaza last week is not a military coup. It is, in fact, a trial from the legal government which is elected directly from people to take the control on the security forces which the ex-government had tried to keep its controlling on it. What happened is a struggle between the legality and the illegality, between those who are with the occupation and those who are resisting it and finally between those who are with the American project in the region and those who are against it. In the coming weeks, a lot of critical documents will be published and will clarify all mysteries which happened in Gaza and the west bank and which still hidden and not clear.

IRAQ: Plight of refugees worsens as Syria, Jordan impose restrictions

2007-06-17T20:57:00.001+03:00

BAGHDAD, 17 June 2007 (IRIN) - Scores of Iraqi men, women and children gathered on the pavement of Baghdad's central Salihiyah area waiting for the big grey bus to take them to neighbouring Syria and help them flee their country's violence. "Staying in Iraq is like committing suicide," said Hala Numan Jabre, a 41-year-old mother of three girls as she threw her six coloured bags onto the bus. "There is no safe life in Iraq, it's like a jungle. There are no public services, there is no rule of law, and everywhere there is killing and kidnapping. That is why we've decided to take our daughters away until things get better, God willing," Hala, a teacher of English, said. Every month, tens of thousands of Iraqis flee to Jordan and Syria - the only two neighbouring countries which have opened their borders to Iraqi refugees. "The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on 5 June, and "the number of Iraqis fleeing to neighbouring countries remains high". At least 2.2 million Iraqis are sheltering in Jordan and Syria. Other countries with common borders with Iraq - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and Iran - have allowed in very few Iraqis. Early this year, the UNHCR called for international support to help Jordan and Syria cope with the influx of Iraqi refugees. "Calls for increased international support for governments in the region have so far had few results," the UNHCR added. Syria, Jordan impose restrictions Since then, new entry and residency conditions have been imposed in Jordan and Syria, resulting in tens of thousands of refugees being stranded on Iraq's borders and families being divided according to their age and the type of passport they hold. To enter Jordan, Iraqi refugees must be over 40 or under 20, must prove they have sufficient funds to support themselves in the kingdom and, most importantly, must hold a new 'G' generation passport. "Going to Amman is like gambling," said Ammar Yassin Khalid, a 22-year-old student at the University of Baghdad who was denied entry four months ago as he had the older 'S' series passport. Now, Khalid has his new 'G' series passport after paying US$400 in bribes. Nasser Hikmat Jaafar's family was disappointed when half his family was denied entry to Jordan. They reached the border with the Kingdom on 11 June at sunset after having driven about 900km from Baghdad. "They allowed entry just for my wife and two daughters and denied me and my three sons. They didn't tell us the reasons, but just said they are fed up with men of such ages [between 20 and 40 years old]," Jaafar, a 58-year-old government employee, told IRIN on 14 June as he was heading with all his family to the Syrian border, which is about 500km from Iraq's Jordanian border. "We spent last night at the border. My wife and daughters slept inside the GMC suburban we are hiring and me, my three sons and the driver slept on the pavement," he added. "I can't leave my daughters and wife alone so I'm taking them to Syria instead where entry for Iraqis is still easy." Entering Syria is easier but residency conditions have been imposed: Refugees can stay a maximum of three months and then they have to renew their residency by leaving the country and returning. "What can we do? Leaving Iraq is a must for us and we have to accept their [Jordan's and Syria's] rules as we have no other choice," said Yahya Hassan, a 38-year-old supermarket owner who was kidnapped two weeks ago and freed after paying a ransom of $50,000. "If we stay in Iraq we will definitely be killed. Outside [Iraq] we will suffer but at least we will feel safe and secure," Hassan said as he queued with his children to get the bus to Syria. Citing Iraqi government figures, the UNHCR said some 1.4 million Iraqis are now in Syria, up to 750,000 in Jordan, 80,000 in Egypt and some 200,000 in the Gulf region. Syria alone receives a minimum of 30,000 Iraqis a month, according to the agency. Resettlement of most vulnerable refugees According to UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis, since the beginning of the year, UNHCR offices in countries around Iraq have registered more than 130,000 Iraqi refugees. By the end of May, they had interviewed some 7,000 of the most vulnerable Iraqis and sent their dossiers to potential resettlement countries. "The UNHCR urged these countries to make rapid decisions and facilitate the departure of those most in need. Resettlement, however, remains an option for only a few of the most vulnerable Iraqis. UNHCR's goal is to provide up to 20,000 Iraqi resettlement cases to governments this year," Pagonis said. The UNHCR statement said in Syria alone about 47,000 of the 88,447 refugees registered since the beginning of 2007 are in need of special assistance. Of them, about a quarter require legal or protection assistance, including many victims of torture; about 19 percent have serious medical conditions. The UNHCR statement added that the number of Iraqis accepted for residence in various countries outside the Middle East, particularly in Europe, remained low.

IRIN news

Israel sent secret messages to Syria

2007-06-09T15:38:00.000+03:00

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israel has put out secret feelers to Syria, but has not received a response, Israel’s deputy prime minister confirmed Saturday.

The comments came a day after an Israeli newspaper reported that Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran’s virulently anti-Israel regime.

Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking Saturday to Israel Radio, confirmed that a message was sent to Syria, but would not describe the content in detail.

“In light of the tensions in the current period, and considering the fact that in the past ... the Syrians sent messages that they want peace, I thought and I still think today that a secret channel is one of the channels for checking intentions and expectations,” Mofaz said.

“And such an approach, in a secret channel, was done. And this was said clearly by the prime minister’s office. At this stage, there is no Syrian response, or any comment on this issue.”

Mofaz said he considered a back channel to be important, noting that Israeli peace agreements with other Arab countries started in such a way.

Syria ambivalent?
He said Syria seemed to be ambivalent about peace talks with Israel. “At the beginning, they (the Syrians) speak about their desire to renew talks and the process, and after messages are sent, there is no answer,” he said. At this stage, he said, Israel is not sure what Syria’s intentions are.

Syrian officials were not immediately available for comment.

On Friday, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad through German and Turkish diplomats saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and to give up the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

Olmert’s office has not commented on the report. But an Israeli official said earlier in the week that Israel had been taking soundings on Syria’s intentions through an undisclosed third party. That official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name.

Israel and Syria have held several rounds of peace talks in the past. The last attempt broke down in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, which Syrian artillery shelled Israelis before the 1967 war.

Assad has recently urged Israel to return to the negotiating table, but has not publicly addressed Israel’s demand that Damascus scale back its ties with Iran, its main ally in the region, and stop backing Lebanese and Palestinian groups committed to Israel’s destruction.

Green light for negotiations
Yediot said President Bush gave Olmert the green light for negotiations with Syria in an hourlong phone conversation last month.

Mofaz said the two leaders plan further discussions during their scheduled meeting at the White House on June 19.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv could not be reached Friday for comment on the newspaper report.

In the past, Israeli and U.S. officials have said privately that Washington didn’t want Israel to talk with Syria, because of its ties to militants in Iraq and its meddling in Lebanon. But Bush is under pressure from allies, lawmakers and advisers who think Washington should improve relations with Syria in an effort to isolate Iran.

Syria backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon during their war with Israel last summer, while the political leadership of the Palestinian militant group Hamas is headquartered in Damascus.

After the Lebanon war, Assad offered to open negotiations with Olmert, but Israel dismissed his overture as a tactic to ease his regime’s isolation in the West. Last week, however, a senior Israeli official said Olmert was assessing prospects for new talks.

It is not clear what drove the turnaround.

Inconclusive war

The inconclusive Lebanon war made Olmert too politically weak at home to make headway with his proposed withdrawal from large swaths of the West Bank, and negotiations with Syria could help to dispel the widespread image in Israel that he has no political agenda.

Alternatively, Olmert might have reached the conclusion that Syria is serious about making peace or that Israel should not rebuff peace overtures.

Palestinian analysts have speculated Israeli is trying to undermine Syria’s support for Palestinian militants and to divert attention from stagnated Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Returning Golan, which Israel annexed in 1981, is not a popular idea in Israel. The heights dominate much of northern Israel, overlooking the country’s largest source of drinking water, and are home to wineries and popular tourism sites.

A poll by the Teleseker company published in the Maariv newspaper Friday said 84 percent of 500 Israelis surveyed oppose a full withdrawal from Golan and 44 percent opposed any pullback. The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Why they are attacking?

2007-06-05T12:09:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

in policy as in our life, talking frankly will generate a lot of enemies for you. saying that is not a new thing. We know a lot of examples of those who had been killed and others threatened due to their frankly words. The new thing which I new lastly, that some of those who are trying to attack what I am trying to explain, attack the heritage which they don't have and attack a life style which surely they don't have. It is not a bravery to attack a heritage while you was looking for grass to eat in burden desert. We should respect the civilization of others especially if that civilization has taught us and enter us in the modernity.

Protesting against Whom?

2007-05-30T07:56:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

It is not surprising that a majority of the people in the middle east region are poor. The rates of poverty is increasing year after year without a hope that what the governments claimed results of reforms is going to be gained soonly. Poverty is directly connected to lack of democracy. It is a balanced equation, poverty equals dictatorship . Without a well educated people and full stomach people , we will not see any real democracy. In that case , Democracy will be a kind of profounding the traditional rulers who used to rule without any kind of accounting. The big question now and the most serious is : are we able to create a democracy with this high rate of poverty? You can say easily that any democracy with the poverty is temporary and is very limited.

Radio stations team up for Madeleine

2007-05-28T13:15:00.001+03:00

ITV NEWS

Two hundred commercial radio stations across Britain today joined forces to keep attention focused on missing Madeleine McCann.

The stations played a special version of the Simple Minds song Don't You Forget About Me shortly after 8am.

The song featured audio clips and was inspired by a video shown at the recent Uefa Cup final in Glasgow.

Glasgow-based Radio Clyde said the broadcast was an initiative by commercial radio stations UK-wide, including stations in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.

Meanwhile her parents could meet the Pope as they embark on a tour to keep her disappearance in the public eye.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has spoken to Gerry McCann and will help the family to meet Pope Benedict XVI as soon as possible.

Mr McCann and his wife Kate are embarking on a series of trips in the hope that the four-year-old may still be found. The visit to Rome would be the first of a number they are expected to make including Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Madeleine was snatched from her bed in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, Portugal, on May 3 as her parents were dining nearby.

It has emerged that a friend of Mr and Mrs McCann saw the child being carried off in the arms of a mystery man just before she joined the couple for dinner, but did not realise it was Madeleine being abducted.

Described as the principal witness in the case by police sources, the woman said she saw a young blonde girl wearing "distinguishable" pyjamas and wrapped in a blanket being carried by a white man aged between 35 and 40.

The description of the suspect was not issued until day 22 of Madeleine's disappearance - something believed to be of great frustration to the McCanns.

There is still only one named suspect in the case - property developer Robert Murat whose house is just 150 metres from the McCann's apartment.

Clarence Mitchell, the Foreign Office liaison officer for the family, is helping the McCanns plan the trip.

Mr and Mrs McCann have received two offers of private jets to use at their disposal. One is thought to have been offered by the multi-million pound British tycoon Philip Green.

But the couple are very conscious of appearing to be enjoying a luxury lifestyle and may only use the jet because it is the most practical option.

Mr and Mrs McCann will leave two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie in the care of relatives while they are away from Portugal. Other destinations being considered include Madrid, Seville, Berlin and Amsterdam.

The syrian opposition and the failure of the American project in the middle east

2007-05-28T12:20:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

The Syrian opposition is in the corner now. I mean that which coalated with the American project in the middle east. The former vice president and his pastly enemies newly allies the Muslims brotherhood. American project in the middle east seems that it is going to collapse. Even the American empire which has been created during last 17 years is going to collapse. America is also in the corner. You can't understanad the Syrian opposition rule without understanding the policy of tools which America used to use it during its shoort history.

Analysis: Iran complicates U.S. politics

2007-05-27T14:27:00.001+03:00

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Iran presents a difficult balancing act for those in power in the U.S. — and those seeking it. For President Bush, condemnation of Tehran's nuclear efforts must now be mixed with diplomacy. U.S. and Iranian ambassadors plan to sit down Monday in Baghdad in a rare direct meeting to discuss stabilizing Iraq.

Nearly all the 2008 presidential hopefuls want to sound strong in confronting Tehran's growing nuclear capability, its support of militant groups and its hostility to Israel. Yet they want to do so without frightening a war-weary U.S. public with new battle alerts.

One more U.S. military entanglement in the Middle East is not on anyone's political wish list.

The maneuvering comes against a backdrop of rising tensions. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency last week accused Iran of accelerating its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international demands. President Bush said he would work with allies to toughen penalties against Tehran. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pledged there would be retreat.

The U.S. moved two aircraft carrier groups into the Persian Gulf in a show of force. Iran has detained several U.S. citizens, including a 67-year-old Iranian-American scholar who was visiting her ailing 93-year-old mother.

In all, hardly an auspicious prelude to the Baghdad talks that were supposed to offer a late spring thaw after a 27-year freeze in formal U.S.-Iran relations.

Iran is particularly difficult terrain for Democrats, who have made criticism of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq a centerpiece issue in the 2008 campaign and are advocating U.S. troop withdrawals.

"One of the problems with the position that the bulk of the party takes on Iraq is that it's very hard to be tough on Iran at the same time that you're dovish on Iraq," said Democratic consultant Doug Schoen, who did polling for President Clinton.

"And considering that the Iranians are fomenting a lot of the terror in Iraq, it's sort of inconsistent to say we want to get out of Iraq but we want to be tougher against the Iranians. It's a conundrum. It's a challenge and I think it's one that's probably hurting the Democrats," Schoen said.

The Iran dilemma has led to some rhetorical backing and filling, both at the White House and on the campaign trail:

_White House Press secretary Tony Snow, speaking of the upcoming talks, said it was "not unusual to have conversations of this sort." But direct contact has been rare since the 1979-80 hostage crisis. Snow said the possibility of granting Iran full diplomatic status would not be contemplated and never has been offered.

_Vice President Dick Cheney issued blunt warnings to Iran during a recent trip to the region. He said the U.S. would stand with allies to "keep the sea lanes open" while resisting Iran's nuclear and regional ambitions. How did that square with the upcoming diplomacy? "They're separate issues," Cheney insisted.

_Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., said "we must never take the military option off the table" for either Iran or North Korea. That brought criticism from the left. At the first Democratic debate, the first-term senator said a nuclear Iran would be a "major threat," but that it would be "a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran."

_Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., suggested the U.S. needs to directly engage Iran's powerful clerics, calling Ahmadinejad "their front man, their puppet." Campaigning in Iowa late last month, Clinton said, "If we ever have to use force against any country, it should be seen as an action of last resort, not first resort."

_Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., tried musical comedy. Campaigning in South Carolina, he responded to a question about military action against Iran by breaking into the melody of the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann" but changing the lyrics to "Bomb Iran." His audience laughed; anti-war groups said the comment was dangerous and reckless.

All Democratic candidates favor negotiating directly with Iran. Most of the Republicans are wary.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., says direct talks should not be held with Ahmadinejad, whom he called a "thug." Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Iranian leader was a "madman" courting assassination by Shiite extremists.

Among Republicans, McCain proposes bolstering U.S. forces near Iran to discourage intervention in Iraq. Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., wants to help dissidents destabilize the Iranian leadership by spending $100 million a year for "democracy building, civil society building, and civil disobedience building."

To P.J. Crowley, an official at the National Security Council and the Pentagon during the Clinton administration, "Iran is the major winner from our invasion of Iraq."

Both Iran and Iraq "are very complex issues that are difficult for decision-makers regardless of political affiliation," said Crowley, now with the liberal Center for American Progress.

Complicating matters is the administration's past hard-line in refusing to talk to Iran, said David Mack, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs in the administration of the first President Bush.

U.S. allies in the region — including the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — do not like or trust the Iranians, Mack said. "Yet they have been urging us to deal with them because they live in the real Middle East, where people who have business to conduct sit down across a table and argue about it," he said.

Lebanon: A new field for the internatioal conflict

2007-05-24T11:24:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

Lebanon is boiling. It is the filed of all conflicts in the world. When US tried to prove its strength in the world after its clear defeat in Iraq went to Lebanon and has supported anti-Eastern powers which includes an important portion of Christian and a westernized Muslims. It failed also in Lebanon. It is playing its last card .Lebanon is easily considered as an important cold battle field not only between Syria and US but also between Russia , China from aside and US and its allies from the another side. Look at the missiles which had been used in last Summer war from the resistance side and you will discover easily that more that 90 % from that missiles were Russian and Chinese. We shouldn't wait a lot till clarifying of the reality of that conflict.

He is extremist

2007-05-19T14:59:00.000+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

I can't describe him as a terrorist. He is Wahhabi. He has learnt in the Wahhabi's institutes which are already spread inside Saudi Arabia and all over the poor Islamic States. Wahhabism is directly connected to Extremism. It is a kind of a relationship which can't be split easily. Those who are promoting to put face scarf and for the black dresses for women are entirely flattering and trying to export their own understanding for Islam. During a graduation ceremony for girls in a preparatory school, The gifts for the girls were booklets authored by a Wahhabi's Shaikh. In his text , he insists on one Phrase: " The Legal scarf in Islam is that who covers all the body ,face..hands, Eyes........" . The title of his book is" She is queen". From the title , you can understand the entire text. He is promoting for a special understand for Islam and trying to describe who follows that understanding from girls as a queen.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria are holding consultations to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis

2007-05-13T20:31:00.001+03:00

BEIRUT (IRNA) -- A Lebanese news source has said that the foreign ministers of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria are holding consultations to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis.

The Lebanese �As-Safir� daily Saturday quoted certain sources who are pursuing the case as saying the Saudi foreign minister in his meeting with his Iranian counterpart has laid emphasis on discussing ongoing developments in Lebanon while the Iranian minister said there would be no obstacle in this regard.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal held a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of an international meeting recently held in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh port city on Iraqi security.

As-Safir added Mottaki has called on Al-Faisal to raise the issue with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, saying the Syrian minister has welcomed the case.

Al-Moualem has presented a proposal on holding a tripartite meeting between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria in Damascus to discuss Lebanon, said the daily, adding Tehran and Riyadh have given a positive response to the offer.

The Lebanese daily, however, believes the case needs more consultations.

Tehran and Riyadh have made efforts during recent months to reduce tension in Lebanon.

The Lebanese were to reach an agreement but it was not achieved following lack of understanding and mutual confidence among domestic Lebanese groups.

Analysis: 'Civic Duty' -- a post 9/11 film

2007-05-07T21:28:00.001+03:00

By SHAUN WATERMAN

WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Mostly when we talk about a political film, we mean one with a didactic point of view: in its purest form, a simple lecture, like Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

But cinema can be political in another way. It can be a mirror to a nation's flawed soul. Like "The Deer Hunter," like "The Conformist."

"Civic Duty" is such a movie. An ambiguous tale of one man's post-Sept. 11, 2001, descent into a kind of hell -- but is it a paranoid trap of his own delusion, or is he really the only person who can stop the next big terror attack?

At the center of the film is the complex figure of Terry Allen, portrayed with humanity and depth by Peter Krause. Having lost his job just after the terror attacks, Terry begins to harbor suspicions about his new neighbor, a "Middle Eastern guy" (the confident U.S. debut of Egyptian matinee idol Khaled Abol Naga) who takes his garbage out in the middle of the night and keeps a makeshift lab in his kitchen.

Fueled by the endless fear-mongering of the continuous news networks ("The media is essentially the devil on Terry's shoulder," says screenwriter Andrew Joiner), his growing obsession starts to alienate Terry from his wife (a luminous Kari Matchett) and draws him into escalating, angry confrontations with Richard Schiff's beautifully underplayed FBI Agent Hilary.

This part of the film, despite almost frenetic camera-work and editing, drags slightly. But it also drags you in -- largely thanks to Krause's absorbing and sympathetic portrayal.

Terry's eventual breakdown and the convulsive climax it precipitates -- as ugly and inevitable as the death it portrays -- is deftly handled by director Jeff Renfroe, as the pace of events finally catches up with the speed of the editing and cinematography.

The tragic resolution is followed by a clever twist: the kind of cinematic sleight-of-hand that leaves one wondering, even after several viewings, exactly what the filmmakers intended.

That ambiguity is deliberate, according to Krause.

In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, the actor explained that in the original script, the ending had vindicated Terry's paranoia.

"Terry is crazy, I think, by the end of the film. ... The original idea ... was to shock the audience, turn them around," by revealing his delusions as truth.

But by leaving the question open, Krause says, the film's makers are trying to make a point.

"As responsible artists, it's more important to ask a question: Why are we allowing ourselves to continue to live in fear?"

It is a subject he waxes lyrical on: How can we live in this new world where it is rational, up to a point, to wonder whether our neighbor might be plotting to kill us all?

"We all felt frightened here in the (United) States after Sept. 11, and with good reason," he said, adding that the news media had at first "fairly reflected that fear but then started to magnify or amplify it back to us."

At some point, he said, the news media "crossed the line" and became an echo chamber for national paranoia.

"It's not a good thing psychologically (or) emotionally," he said of that state of mind. "But it is the world that we live in. We can't discount the fact that terrorists have continued to try and attack us."

But it is the psychic cost of that new world that the film explores.

Krause says the national psyche has rebounded, to some degree. "You can't exist in a heightened state of fear indefinitely," he said. But the fear can and does easily return.

"Something like the shootings at Virginia Tech happens and the button gets pushed again," he observed, adding that in the wake of that massacre, the same questions were being asked: "Are we paranoid enough? ... Are we aware enough? Are we concerned enough about what's happening next door?"

"When people watch the film, they look at themselves in the mirror," says producer Andrew Lanter. "They have to ask: Who was I during that time (after Sept. 11)? Were my fears rational or irrational?"

Terry is the guy who finds out where that line is by stepping over it -- the only way, as Hunter S. Thompson once observed, that anyone can find out where any line is.

To Krause, it was important that Terry be a basically apolitical everyman. "He is really meant to symbolize the silent majority."

Because the character can't be pigeonholed, he explained, the story lets no one off the hook. "Conservatives couldn't dismiss it as a caricature. ... Liberals can't say 'That's not me.'"

Krause says Terry, like many Americans, feels disempowered.

"I am not my country. ... I don't get to vote on foreign policy," the character cries at one moment -- but Krause said that's not a claim Americans can make: they have a duty to "demand that their government represent them."

"Complacency is a disease in this country," he said. "You can't have government of the people, by the people and for the people if the people don't get involved."

SYRIA: DESERTIFICATION THREATENS 65 PERCENT OF COUNTRY

2007-05-04T19:38:00.001+03:00

(AKI) - Rising heat, dwindling rainfall and soil erosion threaten to reduce some 65 percent of Syria's territory into a desert wasteland, a Damascus-expert has said, contradicting official reports that desertification threatens 18 percent of the country. "The temperature increase, together with erosion are killing plant-life and causing fertile topsoil to disappear, as is the squandering of water resources and inadequate irrigation practices," the expert, speaking on condition of anonimity, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

According to the expert, rising salt levels are threatening the fertility of 50 percent of land lying along the banks of the River Euphrates with some 6,000 hectares of land a year becoming not suitable for agricultural production due to illegal irrigation.

The authorities are failing to modernise the irrigation systems that would help curb the desertification process, she said.

Encroaching desert due to drought is one of the main challenges facing Syria, admits Muhammad al-Oudat, a senior environmental researcher with Syria's national nuclear energy entity.

"Deforestation, the illegal construction of roads in rural and suburban areas as well as uncontrolled grazing as well rising temperatures," are the main causes for desertification, al-Oudat told AKI.

The government is working with the United Nations Development Programme to develop projects aimed at safeguarding the environment and to offset the desertification threat, he said.

Where we are going?

2007-04-29T21:01:00.001+03:00

Mustafa Hamido

All leaked stories about the last war in Lebanon (summer 2006) proved that "Arabs" were supporting Israel and trying to destroy the legal resistance in Lebanon. If we know those who supported Israel, We can guess or even expect the next step for America in the Middle East. The "moderate Arabs" are the natural allies of America in the Middle East. Those are who gave it all imaginable and unimaginable facilities to invade Iraq and destroy its system. Those also who are criticizing the Iranian interfering in Iraq and which is a consequent of the The American Invasion. From the Wide view, We can say that America is going to use the Gulf states against Iran as a card to bargain on it . Iran is a regional super power and it is very difficult to neglect it and it is more difficult to defeat it.

U.S. House approves Iraq pullout date, despite likely veto

2007-04-26T11:43:00.001+02:00

By Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny :WASHINGTON: The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a $124 billion war spending bill that would require American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1, setting the stage for the first veto fight between President George W. Bush and the Democratic majority in Congress.

Only hours after General David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, told lawmakers he needed more time to gauge the effectiveness of a troop buildup there, the House voted 218 to 208 Wednesday to pass a measure that sought the removal of most combat forces by next spring. Bush has said unequivocally and repeatedly that he will veto it.

"Last fall, the American people voted for a new direction in Iraq," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. "They made it clear that our troops must be given all they need to do their jobs, but that our troops must be brought home responsibly, safely and soon."

Republicans accused Democrats of establishing a "date certain" for America's defeat in Iraq and capitulating to terrorism.

"This bill is nothing short of a cut and run in the fight against Al Qaeda," said Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky.

On the final vote, 216 Democrats and 2 Republicans supported the bill; 195 Republicans and 13 Democrats opposed it.

The Senate is expected Thursday to approve identical legislation, which provides more than $95 billion for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30, with the money conditioned on the administration's willingness to accept a timetable for withdrawal and new benchmarks to assess the progress of the Iraqi government.

Democratic leaders plan to send the bill to the White House early next week - coinciding with the fourth anniversary of Bush's May 1, 2003, speech aboard an aircraft carrier when he declared the end of major combat operations before a banner that said "Mission Accomplished."

At the White House, Dana Perino, the deputy press secretary, released a statement minutes after the vote, calling the bill "disappointing legislation that insists on a surrender date, handcuffs our generals and contains billions of dollars in spending unrelated to the war."

With the outcome essentially preordained, advocacy groups on both sides of the issue were readying campaigns to try to shape public opinion as the showdown unfolds.

Groups aligned with the Democrats plan to capitalize on the connection between the veto and the "mission accomplished" anniversary. Americans United for Change has produced a television commercial that replays scenes of Bush on the carrier and says: "He was wrong then. And he's wrong now. It's the will of one nation versus the stubbornness of one man."

Allies of the president are mobilizing as well. The conservative Web site Townhall.com was organizing an online "no surrender" petition, and urging visitors to the site to tell the Democratic Party's "rogues' gallery that we will not stand for their defeatism," adding, "While they may lack courage, our troops do not and they deserve the resources needed to win this war."

With the vote barely behind them, House Democrats were already considering how to respond legislatively to Bush's veto. Though there are differing ideas, Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who oversees defense appropriations, said his preference would be to "robustly fund the troops for two months," and include benchmarks but no timetable for withdrawal.

The briefing by Petraeus and other senior Pentagon officials appeared to do little to influence the House vote. Lawmakers said the commander had made no overt plea for them to oppose the legislation, which provides more money for the Pentagon than the president had sought for the war as well as billions of dollars for other unrelated projects.

"I'm not going to get into the minefield of discussions about various legislative proposals," Petraeus told reporters at the end of the two briefings. "I don't think that is something military commanders should get into."

The general pointed to a drop in sectarian killings and security gains in Anbar Province as improvements in recent weeks but referred to reversals as well. "The ability of Al Qaeda to conduct horrific, sensational attacks obviously has represented a setback and is an area in which we are focusing considerable attention," he said.

Lawmakers, speaking on condition of anonymity because the briefings in the House and Senate were classified, said that while the general had pointed to successful weapons seizures and a substantial drop in killings as evidence of progress, he and the others could not quantify how they would evaluate future success.

Lawmakers who attended a session said Petraeus had said he would need until September to judge whether the troop increase was meeting its goals in quelling the sectarian and terrorism-related violence in Iraq.

In addition to Petraeus, lawmakers in the House and Senate heard from the deputy secretary of defense, Gordon England; the deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte; and Admiral Edmund Giambastiani Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As they walked into the House briefing, the officials were greeted by about a dozen war protesters, some of whom shouted: "War criminal! War criminal!" One woman walked alongside the general, urging him in a softer tone to consider her point of view.

After the briefing, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, disputed criticisms that Democrats were trying to end the war before giving the administration's plan a chance to succeed.

"Nobody is saying get out tomorrow," Hoyer said, noting that the legislation would allow American troops to stay in Iraq to battle terrorist groups.

He and Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, differed on what emerged from the briefing as the most significant cause of violence in Iraq. Hoyer attributed it to sectarian strife, while Boehner cited Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, calling the group "the major foe that we face in Iraq today."

Republicans took issue with the absence from the briefing of Pelosi, who had talked by telephone to Petraeus. "This latest insult to our troops should come as no surprise since others in the Democrat leadership have declared the war lost," said Representative Geoff Davis, Republican of Kentucky. A similar message reverberated on talk radio and cable television news programs on Wednesday.

Aides said Pelosi was working on the vote count in her office, and meant no disrespect to the military commander, but had already heard his Iraq report. Democrats also noted that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and a defender of the war, was out of town, announcing his presidential campaign in New Hampshire.

Democrats sought to portray their approach as reasonable and called for Bush to reconsider before sending the bill back to Congress, where Republicans hold enough votes to sustain his position.

"I believe that this legislation, if people were to just take their time and read it, is the exit strategy that the president ought to be pleased to receive," said Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic whip.

But Republicans called it a dubious attempt at micromanaging the war and said Democrats were also seizing the opportunity to stuff the bill with home-state spending.

The president's allies, aware of public dissatisfaction with the war, acknowledged the difficulties on the ground in Iraq while portraying the Democratic approach as a prescription for defeat.

"It's been ugly, it's been difficult, it has been very painful," said Representative David Dreier, Republican of California. "We all feel the toll that has been taken and are fully aware of the price we are paying, especially in a human sense. But we do not honor those who have sacrificed by abandoning the mission."

The House vote Wednesday, and the preceding debate closely resembled those of one month ago, when the House passed its initial version 218 to 212.

The future of kurds after the American defeating in Iraq

2007-04-18T23:43:00.001+02:00

Mustafa Hamido

There is no major sign that America is going to win in Iraq. It is undoubted that it is going to the most serious disaster for its troops outside its soil since Vietnam War. The major question which is erupting is the future of the Kurdish existed territory in North Iraq and the future of Kurdish ambition in creating their own independent state. We can say that the future of their ambition is like their past. There is no hope for their state. All regional powers are against their project. From the historical facts we can conclude that no Independent state had been created without a major regional or even international war. After the defeating of the American troops, the future of Kurds will be dark. Their only protecting power will be expelled outside the region and that which will ease the mission of the regional power to destroy any hope for independence.

What if your relative was a communist? Call him comrade!

2007-04-10T21:04:00.001+02:00

Mustafa Hamido

What your action if you discovered once a day that your relative was a communist. In our unconscious feeling, communist means unbelievable in God. This meaning is widely rejected from the people in your community who are deeply believing in God and fighting using words and actions against communists. I was shocked when I discovered that one of my relatives was communist and was organizing marches against the government. I asked myself a lot, was he fasting in Ramadan as we used since our childhood and was he believing in God? They are tough questions still unable to answer it. I am not going to condemn his past. It is his freedom in choosing his former doctrine. I know that he is paring now and fasting. He is a believer now.

Pawns in a losing game: Britain's policy in tatters

2007-04-08T01:37:00.001+02:00

The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_

If anything symbolised the degree to which Tony Blair's adventurous foreign policy has embroiled Britain in dangerous, unpredictable conflicts and wholly unintended consequences, it was the juxtaposition of joy and horror last Thursday.

The television news channels ran endless footage of 15 sailors and Royal Marines, freed by Iran after a two-week hostage saga that had taken almost daily twists and turns. But scrolling across the bottom of the screens was the news that four other service personnel, two of them women, and an Iraqi interpreter had been killed by an explosion in southern Iraq, the worst British loss of life in a single incident there for several months. A fifth soldier remains in a critical condition.

With two other soldiers having been killed, and another badly hurt, by small arms attacks in Basra, it meant Britain had lost six troops in Iraq during a single week for the first time since June 2003. It brought the number killed in Iraq to 140, with 109 having died in combat. This was a shock to the public at home, whose attention had been diverted by the hostage crisis from the forces stationed in southern Iraq to those patrolling the Gulf. No soldier had been killed in Basra for nearly a month, and the Government had announced that 1,600 troops would shortly be withdrawn; the pullout will begin this month, leaving the remaining contingent at about 5,500.

Any day now, British troops will hand over the Shatt al-Arab hotel, one of their last forward operating bases in central Basra, to their Iraqi counterparts. Urban patrols of the kind that make our soldiers vulnerable are expected to dwindle, with the emphasis switching to protecting the main base at Basra airport, which is outside the city.

But last week's deaths, and the fact that one of the women killed was a close friend of Prince William - Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer was at Sandhurst with him - emphasised that Iraq remains unfinished business. Not only that: it leaves Britain entangled with Iran in a relationship far more complicated and sinister than the wranglings over the sailors and Marines seized in the Gulf. In time the latter episode will come to be seen as a minor part of a much wider struggle.

Forced to react to both events at the same time, the Prime Minister spoke of the welcome return of the captured servicemen and one woman, "safe and unharmed", before turning to the "sober and ugly reality" of Iraq. It was far too early to say that any elements of the Iranian regime had been involved in the Basra attack, but "the general picture ... is that there are elements at least of the Iranian regime that are backing, financing, arming, supporting terrorism in Iraq".

This is an accusation that has been made regularly in the past four years, but in the absence of specific proof, such claims tend to fade away after an initial flurry. Basra 's police chief said the device that destroyed a Warrior armoured vehicle, killing most of its occupants, had not been seen in the area before, and was a shaped charge of the kind the US has accused Iran of supplying to insurgents further north. British military sources did not confirm his claim, however.

What Mr Blair was at pains not to say in his reaction, but many would have been thinking, was that neither the hostage drama nor the bombing in Basra would have happened if he had not taken the decision to invade Iraq in partnership with President George Bush in 2003. For television viewers, what linked the two events was the glee of Iraqis and Iranians at having British forces at their mercy.

In Basra, local people smilingly held up trophies, including an army helmet, after the explosion. In Tehran, it was the sight of Faye Turney and her 14 male colleagues having to thank the hardline Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for graciously agreeing to forgive their transgressions and let them go. Both spectacles would have heightened doubts about why we are still in Iraq - doubts that will not have been allayed by the familiar assurances of an outgoing Prime Minister that going there was "the right thing to do".

For all Mr Blair's insistence that Britain had not negotiated or been humiliated, the outcome of the naval crisis will add to the impression that the Iraq adventure has weakened not merely his position, but that of the country. That is uncomfortable when so many other issues need to be resolved with Iran, not least the world's fears that it is seeking to make nuclear weapons, despite its angry claims to be exercising its right to develop civil nuclear power.

Yesterday the Iranian ambassador to Britain, Rasoul Movahedian, called for a goodwill gesture following the release of the 15 captives. "We played our part and we showed our good will," he told the Financial Times. "Now it is up to the British government to proceed in a positive way."

In Tehran, meanwhile, a top Iranian official has said Britain apologised for entering Iranian waters in a secret letter that was a condition for the captives' release. "They didn't make a threat to us," said Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister who now advises Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, on foreign policy. "They said sorry, we won't trespass again." Mr Ahmadinejad said at his press conference on Wednesday that "the British government sent a letter to our Foreign Ministry, and said that this will not be repeated".

The Foreign Office flatly contradicted Mr Velayati, who also claimed Britain sent a delegation to negotiate in Tehran. He was seeking to defend the Iranian government from hardliners' anger at the release of the sailors, and went on to suggest the crisis arose in response to Iranian fears about a Western military build-up in the Gulf.

For all the British denials, the remarks look certain to fuel speculation about a back-room deal. Both sides have said the release - which Mr Ahmadinejad called a product of "Islamic compassion" - was unconditional. But Tuesday's release of an Iranian diplomat, kidnapped in Iraq in February, was seen by many Iranians as a precursor to the sudden announcement that the Britons would be freed.

The propaganda war has scarcely let up since. Iranian channels broadcast Friday's press conference by the freed captives, now in uniform rather than their Iranian-issue suits, in which they spoke of being blindfolded, kept in isolation and led to believe that their execution was imminent. Ms Turney, who was not present, was said to have been told that all her colleagues had gone home, and that she was the only one still being held. But viewers in Iran saw a banner that warned that the freed personnel had been coerced into their statements by the Ministry of Defence.

The latest shot in this war was the appearance yesterday of the freed Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who said he had been tortured by the CIA during his detention. He was questioned about Iran's relations with Iraq, and assistance to various Iraqi groups. "Once they heard my response that Iran merely has official relations with the Iraqi government and officials, they intensified tortures, and tortured me through different methods days and nights," he said.

Whatever the truth or otherwise of his claim, it underlines that this was never simply a bilateral spat: there were four parties to the dispute, with the US and Iraq in the other two corners. They, rather than Britain, were in a position to give Iran rewards for letting the service personnel go. Along with Mr Sharafi's sudden reappearance, five Iranians seized in Arbil in northern Iraq - diplomats, according to Tehran; special forces operatives, according to Washington - were allowed the consular access Iran had vainly been demanding.

Britain insists its only written communication during the crisis with Iran, sent last Saturday, restated that the incident happened in Iraqi waters, refused to admit responsibility for the crisis and did not offer an apology. However, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett did express "regret" that it happened, and the tone of the note is understood to have been conciliatory.

The softer message coming from the Foreign Office contrasted with the tough language used earlier by Mr Blair, and gave Iran room to back down. Iranian insiders say that it was Mr Blair's decision to take the matter up with the UN Security Council that prompted a harder Iranian line in the first week of the crisis. A conversation on Tuesday night between Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, and Mr Blair's senior foreign policy adviser, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, then laid the ground for the surprise release of the prisoners on Wednesday.

But the Iranians kept the British guessing until the last minute. Mr Larijani told Sir Nigel that people should watch Mr Ahmadinejad's intervention until the very end. Only after the President had spent more than 40 minutes denouncing Britain's historic interference in Iran, and had awarded medals to the Revolutionary Guard officers who captured the sailors and Marines, did he suddenly announce that they were to be freed.

Aware that Mr Ahmadinejad's gracious pardoning of the 15 was a propaganda coup beamed live around the world, and a humiliation for British diplomacy, officials went on the offensive, explaining that the release had been a vindication of Britain's "dual track" strategy: dialogue plus consolidating international and regional support.

Some positive developments have emerged from the two-week crisis, it is said, not least a continued improvement in relations between the UK and Syria, whose offer to mediate was taken up by Britain. There is also some hope that Britain can exploit its new channel with Iran to help with Iraq. The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshair Zebari, was "very active" in passing messages to the Iranians, said a senior government source, who denied any link between the hostage release and the positive developments inside Iraq with the "Arbil five" Iranians.

But now that the hostages are home, there will be concerns in Whitehall that Iran will seek to press its propaganda advantage on the nuclear issue, with an announcement expected at a nuclear facility tomorrow. One senior source said ruefully: "They caught us on the hop when they seized our guys, and now they have caught us on the hop the way they have been freed."

But according to some hardliners in Iran, it is their country that has been made to look weak. They interpreted Mr Blair's comments on Tuesday, talking about a "critical 48 hours", as an ultimatum. When the Britons were released, in their view, it seemed that Tehran had backed down. They had wanted to see the sailors and Marines tried and a public apology forced from Britain.

"The release of the sailors gave the message to the West that in negotiations with Iran they need to respect its dignity," said Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a former newspaper editor who is close to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's powerful former president. "Iranians say the map of their country looks like a cat - and this cat needs to be petted and stroked rather than cornered. Because that makes it scratch and fight."

In an occupation of Iraq that veered off course almost as soon as Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad, the greatest unintended consequence of all has been the trump card it has handed to Tehran. Having alienated Iraq's Sunni minority and given power to a majority Shia community which will always see Iran as its natural ally, Britain and the US have no choice but to seek Iranian co-operation if they are to extricate themselves without ignominy. For Mr Blair, that means restraining Mr Bush as much as seeking to restrain Iran.

Far more is at stake here than Britain's dwindling force in southern Iraq, or jousting between British inflatables and Iranian speedboats in the Gulf. The American-led "surge" in Baghdad, which is aimed at curbing violence at least to a level that might make an exit strategy possible, depends on some degree of Iranian acquiescence.

America's most hostile Shia opponent, the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, might or might not have gone to Iran to escape the security crackdown, but the political wing of his movement has spoken in favour of giving the "surge" a chance to succeed. If Tehran had shown open hostility, it would also have been difficult for the US to secure the co-operation of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, for Sunni-friendly measures such as reinstating former Iraqi army officers and paying pensions to sacked Baathist officials.

The days are long gone when Washington's triumphant neo-conservatives, having seen the Iraqi regime fold within weeks, talked openly of conquering Iran next. But Tehran still complains that it has Western forces to both its west and east, in Iraq and Afghanistan, while two US carrier groups are in the Gulf to keep alive President Bush's implicit military threat on the nuclear issue. Britain and the US are both accused of supporting separatist groups who have carried out bombings and kidnappings on Iranian soil.

Dealing with the Tehran regime and its passive-aggressive approach to the rest of the world has never been easy. But Britain, which is about to dispatch Prince Harry into the dangerous environment of southern Iraq, where Iran has unquestioned influence, is compelled to grit its teeth and do its best. Explaining this to a public which is already bemused about the reasons for Britain's continued presence in Iraq is another matter.

Victims of war: The dead

Rifleman Aaron Lincoln

Age 18. Died as a result of injuries sustained during a security patrol in Basra on Monday.

Rifleman Lincoln, 2nd Battalion, the Rifles, was shot when a gunman opened fire on part of the patrol. He was evacuated to the field hospital at Basra air station, where he died from his injuries. The Newcastle United fan from Durham had joined the Army, following in his grandfather's footsteps, last July and was deployed to Iraq in January 2007.

Kingsman Danny John Wilson

Age 28. Died as a result of injuries sustained during a patrol of Basra City last Sunday. The Cumbrian father of one began his second tour of duty in Iraq with the 2nd Battalion, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, in March. His wife, Tracey, received an anniversary card from her husband days after he was killed. She said: "Saturday was our sixth wedding anniversary. He phoned me five times that day because he was thinking about me being on my own."

Kingsman Adam James Smith

Age 19. Died alongside colleagues in the Warrior armoured vehicle hit by a roadside bomb on Thursday. Kingsman Smith, who grew up in Liverpool, joined the Army in 2004 and was deployed to Iraq last November with the 2nd Battalion, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. Kingsman Smith's family said: "Adam, our hero, our star. He had everything to live for. We keep thinking, hoping, it's not real and at any moment we will wake up from this nightmare."

Corporal Kris O'Neill

Aged 26. Died on Thursday in Basra when the Warrior armoured vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb. Cpl O'Neill, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, was the father of twins and husband to Tina. He had worked hard to recover from a knee injury in order to be deployed in January to Iraq, where he taught first aid to Iraqi police. The medic's squadron commander, Major Phil Carter, said: "I could always depend on Cpl O'Neill."

Private Eleanor Dlugosz

Age 19. Died providing medical support to a Warrior patrol on Thursday. From Southampton, she was on her second tour of duty in Iraq with the Royal Army Medical Corps, returning in March after completing her Class 1 Medics Course in the UK. Her colleague and friend Private Stella Lee said: "She brightened up everybody's day with her cheesy smile. She was a privilege to work with and know. She will always be in our hearts." Her troop commander, 2nd Lt Vinny Ramshaw, described her as "a strong and morally courageous woman".

Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer

Age 24. Died alongside Corporal Kris O'Neill, Private Eleanor Dlugosz and Kingsman Adam James Smith when their Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb during a patrol in Basra on Thursday. Second Lieutenant Yorke Dyer trained alongside Prince William at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. A spokesperson for Clarence House said: "Jo was a close friend of his and he is very much thinking of her family and friends right now and they will remain in his thoughts and prayers." Second Lieutenant Yorke Dyer was attached in December 2006 to the 2nd Battalion, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, in order to gain operational experience in Iraq. A keen hockey player, Second Lieutenant Yorke Dyer was born in Berlin and went on officer training at Sandhurst after completing a degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.