A Year On – A Few “Arab Spring” Links

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December 18, 2011

Must read:
The Washington – “Moderate Islam” Alliance: Containing Rebellion Defending Empire – James Petras

Is Egypt becoming another Pakistan? – Yes. Fits the model Petras explains

The Girl – very brutal beating of protestors (see video at 0:30)

Gas pipeline from Egypt to Jordan and Israel blown up for the tenth time … and counting

Libyan scramble for £100bn in assets fractures the peace at Tripoli airport – chaos in fighting over the loot

In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll – duh

This is just the start of the struggle – Patrick Cockburn

Posted by b on December 18, 2011 at 12:26 UTC | Permalink

Comments

” All target regimes have one crime in common: Using their national resources to develop modern secular states – independent of imperial dictates.”
This is the key sentence in the Petras article..Thanks b.

Posted by: ben | Dec 18 2011 15:36 utc | 1

In the Cockburn article he mentions the West’s failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, but, are they real failures yet? who really controls the resources of the two countries? I believe the goal of the West’s intervention in the region is resource hegemony,so, I think history is yet to be written there.

Posted by: ben | Dec 18 2011 15:54 utc | 2

More fighting is expected after unidentified gunmen shot and wounded a son of army commander General Khalifa Hifter in a battle outside Tripoli’s biggest bank, then kidnapped another on Friday.

I see the CIA stooge has now become the “army commander” or Libya’s top general

Posted by: blowback | Dec 18 2011 23:20 utc | 3

Somewhat funny: Libyan rebel leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj sues British Government for illegal rendition to Libya

Head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Abdel Hakim Belhadj is taking legal action against the UK Government and its security forces for their part in the illegal rendition and barbaric treatment of both himself and his pregnant wife in March 2004.
Mr Belhadj, also known as Abu Abd Allah Sadiq, became a symbol of the new Libya as a commander of the anti-Gaddafi forces in the 2011 Libyan civil war. He has instructed law firm Leigh Day & Co to take legal action against the UK Government and the secret services following his illegal rendition to Libya in 2004, claiming complicity in his torture. Legal action charity Reprieve are instructed as US counsel and providing investigative support.
…

Posted by: b | Dec 19 2011 13:06 utc | 4

Quite amazing pictures of recent Tahir clashes

Posted by: b | Dec 19 2011 13:51 utc | 5

Petras, in discussing the viability of the Imperialist-Moderate Islamist alliances, sticks to hypotheticals and guesses about the future, and doesn’t mention the best evidence we have — Operation Iraqi Freedom which converted a dictatorial but modern secular state into an Islamic state allied with imperial enemies (Syria, Iran), an economic and political basket case for all to see. Afghanistan is a work in progress but its failures are obvious too. So actual practice is demonstrating the failure of these alliances.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 19 2011 17:06 utc | 6

The burning of the Institut d’Egypte in Cairo is a great event in the destruction of ancient culture. We’re talking about ancient archives, including an original copy of Napoleon’s experts’ “Description de l’Egypte”. The videos show some volumes being rescued by the protestors, but certainly many are lost.
This is the equivalent of the pillage of the museum of Baghdad: it is that serious.
No-one knows who did it. They say it was molotov cocktails by the opposition, but the government is equally happy to see things go up in flames, if blame can be placed elsewhere. Ephemeral politics displaces the unique history of the past at any moment, it seems.

Posted by: alexno | Dec 20 2011 0:56 utc | 7

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