Leading Australian academic Scott Burchill has some thoughts about Libya: 1. Military intervention like this can make the humanitarian crisis worse, as it did in Serbia in 1999. Milosevich’s attacks on Kosovars only escalated after NATO’s bombing campaign begun. So even though the West controls the skies over Libya, expect ground attacks by Gaddafi loyalists…
Showing all posts tagged Saudi Arabia
We were for Gaddafi just before we were against him
Thank you, Wikileaks: Following a meeting in Tripoli between Libyan leader Colonel Qaddafi, his son Muatassim and a United States Congressional delegation led by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman on 14 August 2009, the American embassy classified diplomatic cable to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton highlighted the close working relationship both nations enjoy to…
US-backed thugs in Saudi Arabia armed by Western arms firms
As Saudi Arabia crushes peaceful pro-democracy protesters, let’s not forget the Western firms doing business with the brutes: A newly-released secret U.S. diplomatic cable has alleged that British-based defense contractor BAE Systems PLC bribed Saudi officials in return for lucrative arms deals. The cable from the U.S. embassy in Paris, released by WikiLeaks on Friday,…
Obama very happy to change little in the Middle East
The New York Times clarifies what the Obama administration is really thinking about the Arab world. “Pragmatism” is the key word. In other words, backing autocrats who do the dirty work of Israel and America. Anybody still in love with the supposedly grand visions of Barack Obama? In the Middle East crisis, as on other…
Voices of change rise in Saudi Arabia
Extract from a statement released on 5th March by a number of young Saudi men and women: We are young men and women from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As other young Arabs are bringing about the grand political and cultural change that the Arab world is witnessing today, we find that we share with…
Libya isn’t a Western plaything
While parts of Libya begin to imagine a life without Gaddafi – wonderful quote in this typically incisive Anthony Shadid piece in the New York Times: “There is no call for the overthrow of the government; only Colonel Qaddafi is mentioned, as lackey, tyrant and the man with really bad hair” – Western powers are…
Tariq Ali: who is denying democracy to Arab world?
In many countries, the Western powers that back military dictatorships in places such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Yemen and Libya:
Saudi royals stealing from the government they own
Corruption and brutality in Saudi Arabia; a revolution is sorely needed in that country. And once again, America’s complicity is clear for all to see: When Saudi King Abdullah arrived home last week, he came bearing gifts: handouts worth $37 billion, apparently intended to placate Saudis of modest means and insulate the world’s biggest oil…
Ongoing importance of separating Zionism and Judaism
The following interview by Sam Whiteley appears in today’s West Australian: Freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein is no stranger to controversy. “The silence is over,” says Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question which generated a swell of public debate and was shortlisted for the 2007 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish…
Arms dealers see Middle East uprisings as a money spinner
How many Western governments are offering financial incentives for these leeches to sell death? Most of them: As Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi ordered attacks on his own people this week, thousands of arms sellers from the United States and other countries hawked their aircraft, riot gear and rifles to Middle Eastern buyers at the Persian Gulf’s…