must read: we no can see jihadis being directed by a central command:
Exclusive: Inside Future Movement’s Syria Arms Trade
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/exclusive-inside-future-movements-syria-arms-trade
It was soon revealed that the source had been working with Sakr for more than a year as part of an operations room established to support the Syrian uprising. (Photo: Haytham al-Moussawi)
By: Radwan Mortada
Published Thursday, November 29, 2012
Al-Akhbar has obtained recordings of Future Movement MP Okab Sakr organizing weapons transfers to the armed Syrian opposition at the behest of Future leader Saad Hariri.
The phone call is the first hard evidence of the role Sakr and his backers in Future were playing in providing arms and logistical support to the Syrian rebels.
In a three-part series built on documents, audio recordings, and interviews with sources close to Sakr, Al-Akhbar will shed light on Sakr’s attempts to hijack the Syrian uprising for his own means while running the armed opposition into the ground.
A few weeks ago, Al-Akhbar’s offices in Beirut received an anonymous phone call. The caller claimed he was in possession of “audio recordings which will expose MP Okab Sakr and his role is destroying the [Syrian] revolution.”
The news did not come as a surprise. Sakr’s connection to the Syrian opposition was well-known, and his role as an arms dealer to the rebels had been documented in the press.
Neither was it the first time that information about the existence of audio recordings of Sakr’s conversations had circulated.
Al-Akhbar initially doubted the caller and his motivations, but he promptly sent the first recording. It sounded a lot like Sakr’s voice, which was later confirmed by audio experts.
A few days later, the anonymous caller made another phone call to Al-Akhbar and gave his email address. Further communications were carried out over email and phone to identify the extent of the recorded material and its importance.
The source did not reveal the number of recordings in his possession, saying only that there were dozens. For further confirmation, he sent an excerpt from a second recording.
It was Sakr’s voice again and the voice experts were also inclined to believe so. Yet the recordings raised more questions about the identity of the source, including how the recordings came into his possession and what he hoped to gain by leaking them to the press.
It was soon revealed that the source had been working with Sakr for more than a year as part of an operations room established to support the Syrian uprising.
As for his motivation to provide the recordings, the source said that “Sakr ruined the revolution with his crazy dealings.”According to the source, there are several operations centers: one in Antakya, one in Adana, and one in Istanbul. He mentioned that Sakr had his own building in the Floriya neighborhood in Istanbul where meetings are held from time to time…..etc

Posted by: brian | Nov 30 2012 6:50 utc | 3

It is also not a democracy if there is a religious council that must approve all candidates and legslation before they can be voted on.
We can basically choose the kind of pseudo-democracy we want to see in this part of the world: secular, western-freindly despots or Islamist theocrats.
Either way, we are screwed, and the best thing we can do is to disengage ourselves as best we can, financially, policially and economically.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 30 2012 8:28 utc | 5

Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 30, 2012 3:28:44 AM | 5
collective action can do a lot …

Posted by: somebody | Nov 30 2012 8:57 utc | 7

ARABIC video showing proof of okab sakr organizing weapon transfer into syria https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OXGZz4CzM_Y#!

Posted by: brian | Nov 30 2012 9:54 utc | 9

their definition of ‘democracy’ isn’t the same as ‘one person – one vote’ and ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’. rather, their usage implicitly refers to business opportunities for their players to get a stab at exploiting new markets and usurping decision-making at key levels.

Posted by: b real | Nov 30 2012 13:17 utc | 11

Yemen is the model for democracy? Haha. I guess know one is buying the “Turkish Model” lunacy.

Posted by: Hilmi Hakim | Nov 30 2012 13:59 utc | 13

no 14 :-))
from the archives Interview with General Franco

We ended the lbng conversation by two appeals. The General appealed for tolerance. ” There is much that is done in England which we Spaniards do not like,” he said, ” but we do not dream of asking England to conform to our Spanish tastes. May we then not expect a like British and American tolerance for the things in Spain of Which you may disapprove, but which suit us ? The essential thing -to-day is surely co-operation for common ideals and for defence against common dangers.”

Posted by: somebody | Nov 30 2012 16:41 utc | 15

Stephanie Speirs: “I disagree with Gregory D. Johnsen’s characterization of United States policy toward Yemen and the man who leads it, John O. Brennan.”
Is Speirs qualified to criticize Johnsen?
Stephanie Speirs spent two years working on Middle East issues at the White House National Security Council, most recently overseeing US policy in Yemen during a tumultuous period of political transition and security challenges. Prior to the NSC, she worked on immigration issues for the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and managed field operations in seven states for the Obama presidential campaign. She attended Yale University, during which she studied and worked in Brazil, Italy, Korea, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Croatia.
Gregory Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. At the moment, he is a Fulbright-Hays Fellow in Egypt, working on Yemen. He has written for Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, and The Boston Globe. (A partial list of publications is now available.) He has also held multiple fellowships from the American Institute for Yemeni Studies and was awarded the David R. Schweisberg Memorial Scholarship from the Overseas Press Club in 2006. Johnsen has also advised and consulted for a variety of different organizations and has testified before Congress as an expert witness. In 2009, he was a member of the USAID’s conflict assessment team for Yemen. He has appeared on CNN, PBS’ NEWSHOUR, the Charlie Rose Show, BBC, NPR, al-Jazeera English and al-Hurra discussing Yemen and is often quoted in media outlets like the NY Times, the Washington Post and others. In 2001 and 2002 he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan. He holds a BA in History (honors) from Hastings College and an MA in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona.
You decide.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 30 2012 17:36 utc | 17

“One candidate, no “No” vote.”
Think of that as Israeli-American democracy for their colonies of “untermemschen”.
This article has some info that will probably surprise quite a few:
Americans Have Less Access to Justice than Botswanans … And Are More Abused By Police than Kazakhstanis
http://www.globalresearch.ca/americans-have-less-access-to-justice-than-botswanans-and-are-more-abused-by-police-than-kazakhstanis/5313318
“But the World Justice Project – a bipartisan, independent group with honorary chairs including Supreme Court Justices Kennedy, Breyer, Ginsberg and O’Connor – just released a report saying that Americans have less access to justice than most wealthy countries … and many developing nations.
Among high-income countries, the U.S. ranked near the bottom in access to civil justice … behind Estonia, United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic and other countries.
Indeed, the report ranks developing countries such as Botswana and the former Soviet nation of Georgia as having more access to the civil justice system than the U.S.
Americans have experienced more unfair physical abuse by police than in Kazahkstan, Russia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Romania and other countries.
When compared to other countries in North America and Western Europe, the U.S. ranked third to last in checks and balances on the power of government officials and absence of corruption, and second to last in protection of due process, freedom of speech and other fundamental rights, access to civil justice, and access to criminal justice.”
Comparison tables, more info and sources at the link. One can see where decades of neo-lib/neo-con fascist, zionist rule has left the USA. Like Israel, it’s reputation for democracy and freedom is nothing more than a PR image to cover the fact it is a thoroughly fascist polygarchy as nasty as any of the others.

Posted by: вот так | Nov 30 2012 18:32 utc | 19

the backstory on Yemen
The hit-job on Johnsen written (supposedly) by Stephanie Speirs and published in the NY Times was obviously ordered up by John Brennan to counter the effect of Johnsen’s new book: ‘The Last Refuge’: Yemen, Al-Qaida And The U.S.
NPR: In his new book, journalist Gregory Johnsen charts the rise of Yemen as a haven for al-Qaida and explores the recent history of radical Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
from an NPR interview:

“[T]he Achilles’ heel for the United States in Yemen is that too often it just doesn’t know what’s taking place on the ground. The CIA doesn’t know what’s taking place, it doesn’t know who is in a particular car, it doesn’t know who is really a member of al-Qaida. The State Department and diplomats, they’re very, very good, very talented people and they tend to know a lot about Yemen but, as we’ve seen, there are very real security concerns, and the regional security officers often limit their movement and so they can’t get out in the country and find out what’s taking place. … So both the CIA and policymakers in Washington tend to be operating more on assumptions than on hard facts.

Ooooh, that hurts.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 30 2012 19:22 utc | 21

Let’s be clear — scum like Brennan and Speirs have no interest in democracy. More than 2,500 people have been killed by Obama’s drones, directed by Brennan and some by Speirs, many of them civilians and bystanders, including American citizens, irrespective of the absence of any “imminent threat” to the United States. With people like this democracy will always be a possibility, not a reality. (h/t Nader)
I hope I haven’t been too easy on them.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 1 2012 3:25 utc | 23

Progressive Australians for Syria
11 hours ago
In Algeria, the Islamists lost heavily in the local councils election… It is very clear that Arabs have realised the reality of Arab “spring” and its devastating impact
الجزائر || الانتخابات المحلية : هزيمة نكراء للاخوان و للاحزاب الاسلامية
شهدت الانتخابات المحلية لانتخاب المجالس البلدية و الولائية في الجزائر نسبة مشاركة بلغات 44 بالمائة. حيث عرفت الأحزاب الاسلامية و حزب مجتمع السلم المحسوب على الاخوان المسلمين هزيمة أخرى بعد هزيمة الانتخابات التشريعية و جاءت في آخر الترتيب.
في حين فازت الأحزاب ذات التوجه الوطني و اليساري بأغلب المقاعد حسب الترتيب الآتي : حزب جبهة التحرير الوطني، التجمع الوطني الديموقراطي، الحركة الشعبية الجزائرية، جبهة القوى الاشتراكية ثم حزب العمال…..

Posted by: brian | Dec 1 2012 23:25 utc | 25

Syria سورية
Yesterday
Dutch prosecutors say police have arrested three Muslim men who wanted to travel to Syria to fight in the country’s civil war.
Prosecutors announced Friday the men, aged 22, 23 and 33, were arrested Thursday in the port city of Rotterdam “because they planned to travel to Syria to take part in international armed Jihad.” They did not specify if the men were Dutch.
A search of their home uncovered knives, a sword and a crossbow.
The men’s identities were not released in line with Dutch privacy law. They were due to be arraigned Friday by an investigating judge in Rotterdam.

Posted by: brian | Dec 2 2012 1:37 utc | 27

Russia, China and united Korea could tackle ecological challenges
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_02/Russia-China-and-united-Korea-could-tackle-ecological-challenges/
“Russia, China, and a united Korea could assist in addressing challenges of climate change and “green growth” – ensuring economic development while minimizing environmental damage.
This conviction was voiced in interviews for several news agencies by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. According to him, if North and South Korea were to cooperate in this area with Russia, firstly, it would be possible to use cheaper and ecologically cleaner Russian hydropower plants to generate electricity.
“We could cooperate with Russia in many other areas, such as gas, for example. Namely, using gas, which produces less carbon dioxide during combustion than oil or coal,” – said the South Korean president.”
Friendship, co-operation with the “bad guys”? That is not allowed in Israeli-American authorised democracies. How long before Lee Myung-bak is assassinated, or forced to recant on upon an alter of kosher big macs?

Posted by: вот так | Dec 2 2012 4:56 utc | 29