Posts From The Saker
Moqawama.org reports: Before the recent developments in Bahrain, portrayed by forces of neighboring Arab countries entering the Bahraini land, as well as the use of violence which harvested many as martyrs and wounded, Hizbullah can only express its deep concern and strong condemnation of targeting peaceful civilians. Hizbullah views that the military intervention and the use of violence in face of a peaceful popular movement will not only be to
Good news! I now have it from two separate and well-informed sources: Hezbollah did not participate in any decision concerning the official position of Lebanon on the issue of the no-fly zone. Furthermore, I was told only a statement published on the website http://www.english.moqawama.org/ can be seen as an official Hezbollah statement. This makes me wonder whose instructions the Lebanese representative at the UNSC was following when he decided to
The BBC is reporting that Israel seized a ship which had left Turkey and was bound for Egypt under the pretext that it was carrying arms “destined to Gaza”. The ship was seized some 200 miles (320km) from shore, i.e. in international waters. The pirated ship has been taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod. But we already knew that international law does not apply to the “only democracy in
From the reports I hear on al-Jazeera it appears that Lebanon is supporting the idea of a UN-imposed and, obviously and inevitably, US/NATO enforced no-fly zone over Libya. And by “Lebanon” what is meant is the Hezbollah supported, if not lead, Lebanese government. As I already wrote, a no-fly zone over Libya is a terrible idea which, if implemented, will create an open-ended Imperial military intervention which nobody will control
Since I am on something of a roll on the topic of the technological aspects of what I call “surviving in a world of zombies”, I have decided to post some links to the audio recording of a recent presentation by Richard Stallman (a personal hero of mine) on the issue of Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks. In this absolutely fascinating talk, Richard (who often is
Since have recently posted a review of ebook readers I decided that it might be a good idea to post an excellent article by John Sullivan, the operations manager at the Free Software Foundation (of which I am a ‘card carrying member’), debunking some of the lies told to us by big corporations about the issue of ‘ebook lending’. John’s piece, entitled “Lending: A solved problem” appeared in the Fall
Yep, you read that right. Seven hours standing naked. And it get better: “According to First Lieutenant Brian Villard, a Marine spokesman, the decision was ‘not punitive’ and done in accordance with Brig rules“. What is amazing here is not only that this type of torture is apparently legal, but that it is not even a disciplinary punishment. The list of US and international conventions, law, and treaties this kind
FYI – an interesting interview of Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa by RT TV: (many thanks to F. for this pointer!) Link to original article
Following NATO’s meeting today it appears that the organization is lukewarm about the idea of a military intervention in Libya, including a no-fly zone. The fact that the very same folks who illegally attacked Yugoslavia are now seriously speaking about the “need for legal sanction” is really rather disgusting, but it’s good news anyway. So what’s next? Well, a situation a la Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal is one possibility.
Russian TV has shown a statement of Foreign Minister Lavrov who declared that Russia opposes any type of military intervention in the Libyan conflict. The Eltsin years are over and I don’t think that Russia will back down from this. So no UNSC resolution authorizing any US/NATO military intervention will be passed. Besides, I suppose that China would also oppose it. As for the US Empire, I am not sure
RT TV has just announced that the Shia of Saudi Arabia have declared that this Friday will be a “day of rage”. Considering that the US Empire will use absolutely all of its capabilities and resources to maintain its control on Saudi Arabia it is frighting to think of what could happen if Saudi Arabia blows up. Saudi Arabia is neither Egypt, nor Libya. the differences are substantial. First, I
The BBC reports: Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has lost his position as head of the Assembly of Experts, which selects the supreme leader and supervises his activities. Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was selected to replace him.
This is the fifth installment of my series “Surviving in a world of zombies” (for the previous parts, see here, here , here and here). Today, I am going to discuss “ebook readers”, again. Indeed, in my initial post about ebook readers, I wrote the following: One more thing: there are plenty of dedicated book readers out there, including Amazon’s “Kindle”, Barnes and Noble’s “Nook” and others. My advice is
Al Jazeeraq just provided some juicy details about what happened to the British SAS in Libya: they landed in a miltiary helicopter in the middle of the night, but they were heard and rapidly surrounded. After a 10-15 minutes firefight they surrendered to the Libyans. Frankly, I had a better opinion of the SAS. For the US Special Forces, such a SNAFU would be standard procedure, but for the Brits?
According to Reuters, an 8 men SAS team has been taken prisoner by pro-Gaddafi forces near Bengazi (thanks to Palestinian for this info! The Saker). So the SAS is already on the ground. (The parallels with Bosnia become stronger and stronger with each passing day…)
Dear friends, I think that it is fair to say that there appears to be a array of different views amongst us concerning the events in Libya [just for the record, my personal opinion is that it is a blessing that the people of Libya have risen up against Gaddafi and I hope that they will give him the boot. However, I am also concerned that this entire revolution is
I would be interested in hearing your reaction to this interview. What do you make of the guy and his responses? Thanks, The Saker
(make sure to click on ‘cc’ for subtitles in English and watch on full screen)
Journalise: “The Libyan regime has used tear gas in Tripoli to disperse protesters. There is a heavy presence of security forces in the city. An eerie calm is now all over the city” English: “There is nothing to report” [And this is after Friday prayers (when presumably the cops cannot prevent people from gathering or storm mosques…)]
