Look what I just got in my email (red color added by me – the Saker): “Facing 2 years in jail for singing a song criticizing President Putin in a church, a member of Pussy Riot gestured to the court and said in her show-trial’s closing statements, “Despite the fact that we are physically here, we are freer than everyone sitting across from us … We can say anything we
In The Name of Allah, The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Peace be upon our Master and Prophet – the Seal of prophets – Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste and pure Household, his chosen companions and on all prophets and messengers. Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.Again we meet on this dear anniversary – Al Qods Day which was announced by Imam Khomeini as
I thought I had seen in all, from the 100 year ban on homo parades in Moscow to the Pussy Riot circus, but it appears that a new front has opened in the West’s “Free Sex and Blasphemy” crusade against Russia. Under the title Madonna Sued in Russia for Supporting Gays the very serious Wall Street Journal reports the following: MOSCOW—Some Russian activists have sued Madonna for millions of dollars,
Excellent news! According to SkyNews, The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called a meeting of foreign ministers for August 24 to discuss the stand-off sparked when Ecuador granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Twenty-three countries voted on Friday for the resolution proposed by Ecuador to convene the meeting at its Washington headquarters to discuss Quito’s stand-off with Britain over Assange. The US, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago voted
Two high profile freedom of speech cases are unfolding these days, the one of the Pussy Riot sentencing in Moscow and the granting by Ecuador of political asylum to Julian Assange. I would argue that both cases are in many ways if not similar, then at least comparable to each other. After all, in both cases we have college drop-outs breaking the laws of major power and in both cases
Commentary: Even though I had little doubt that Ecuador would grant asylum to Assange, it was really heart-warming for me to listen to the absolutely beautiful statement of Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, in particular after learning of the mind-boggling arrogance of the Brits who dared to cross a line very few, if any, governments ever dared cross: threaten to violate the sovereignty of an embassy (the only other example I
On August 3rd of this year, something truly remarkable happened at the United Nations: the UNGA passed a resolution formally condemning the Syrian regime and the UN Security Council but which everybody understood was really a condemnation of Russia and China over their triple veto of Western sponsored anti-Syria resolutions. The vote was 133 to 12. The 12 who voted “no” are: Russia, China, Syria, Iran, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Myanmar,
In The Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Peace be upon our Master and Prophet – the Seal of prophets – Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste and pure Household, his chosen companions and on all prophets and messengers. Dear sisters and ladies! Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. First, I would like to welcome you all in this annual ceremony – the
In The Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Peace be upon our Master and Prophet – the Seal of prophets – Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste and pure Household, his chosen companions and on all prophets and messengers. Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings. I welcome all of you in the various meeting places – Dahiyeh, Baalbeck, Nabatiyeh, and Tyr – and
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Note: While I am taking a couple of weeks off, others are working hard and resisting the Empire with every ounce of energy. Today, my friend Soraya has sent me this excellent piece of the real WMD of our times: sanctions. I am most grateful to her for allowing me to publish it and for all her excellent work. The Saker Sanctions: Diplomacy’s Weapon of Mass Murder In 1945, the
Dear friends, This Sunday I will be leaving on holidays for a couple of weeks. I will be camping in a mountainous area with a very slow and sporadic GSM coverage which means that I should be able to read emails and approve/reject comments made once a day or so, but that is about it. I will not be able to make normal posts here or, even less so, write
By Peter Lee for the Asia Times The question before the People’s Republic of China (PRC) leadership is how badly it misplayed its hand on Syria. Or did it? Certainly, the solution advocated by Russia and China – a coordinated international initiative to sideline the insurrection in favor of a negotiated political settlement between the Assad regime and its domestic opponents – is a bloody shambles. As articulated in the
By Pepe Escobar for the Asia Times (via the always excellent “Information Clearing House“) Once upon a time, early in the previous century, a line in the sand was drawn, from Acre to Kirkuk. Two colonial powers — Britain and France — nonchalantly divided the Middle East between themselves; everything north of the line in the sand was France’s; south, it was Britain’s. Many blowbacks — and concentric tragedies —
Frankly, this is a dumb story. But then, considering how politicized everything “Olympic” really is, it makes me wonder whether there is more to this one that meets the eye. Voula Papachristou Pretty simple summary: a Greek athlete called Voula Papachristou posted the following joke on her Twitter account: “So many Africans in Greece at least West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food.” I don’t know about you, but I
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich On July 23, 2012, in a scathing attack against the Wagf (literally translated to endowment), the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) opinion piece’s opening paragraph stated: “This year, as Israel observes the traditional period of national mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple on Tisha b’Av (which starts at sundown on Saturday), it has again been revealed that the Islamic Wakf is carrying out unsupervised work at the
I take refuge in Allah from the stoned devil. In The Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Peace be upon our Master and Prophet – the Seal of prophets – Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste and pure Household, his chosen companions and on all prophets and messengers.First I would like to welcome you all – ladies and gentlemen, and brothers and sisters – in this
by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich On July 18, 2012, attack on an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria took the lives of 5 Israeli nationals, a Bulgarian, and the mysterious suicide bomber. It is reported that the suspect, a young Caucasian, had a fake Michigan driver’s license. According to Israeli Haaretz, a top Bulgarian official warned that it would be a “mistake” to blame a specific country or organization for the attack. However,
