West Asia News and Discussions

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shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Personally, I doubt the UK Pakis turning up in large numbers is true although it is fairly accessible, more accessible than perhaps NWFP and FATA. I have only heard of Libyans turning up in large numbers.

This is similar to Bosnia, they used jihadi's then without a worry of the aftermath. This is a lesson for us again, the creation of the extremist movement is for such situations. I think it is the control of KSA.

The battle in Syria is a proxy one that was originally envisaged by KSA. US and the west don't really want to see Asad go.

I am sure that Turkey as well as NATO will launch operations soon
Rudradev
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

Shyamd, any chance that Iran and Assad will retaliate inside KSA, UAE or other GCC countries via Hezbollah type proxies? Were Hezbollah involved in the Bahrain rebellion?

Or is Iran playing its cards close to its chest so as not to reveal its capabilities prematurely, because it expects to need them in the event of an Israeli attack on its nuke facilities?
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Rudradev ji, yes. The GCC know that after Assad falls, Iran will retaliate in the Gulf. They have said that from day 1. So the GCC is ready. with regards to Bahrain, yes Hezbollah were involved and the Iranian MOIS use Hezbollah etc to do their missions. Hezbollah give the Iranians access to the Arab world.
Hence why KSA blew $1 billion to bring Saad Hariri into power.

In the event of war, the Iranian backed cells will launch protests outside western embassies, target critical national infrastructure. But this is only if a war is to take place. To preempt any action the GCC Troops were deployed in these areas in Bahrain last March and were never deployed in beating up protestors as the western media portrayed (the west tried to being the Bahraini King down as well but that's a story for another day).

Iranian cells in the south of Iraq will launch attacks against Kuwait. After Assad falls the next step is to bring down Al Maliki and I am not sure if you have followed the news there but there are renewed attempts to bring him down. It is likely that this summer there will be mass protests.

The GCC have a permanent base now in Bahrain and pretty soon there will be a GCC naval base as well. The GCC is integrating into one block to face the external threat.

For now, everyone is trying to avoid war as it is not a desirable option for all of Iran's adversaries apart from Israel. So a lot is being done to slow Israel down, hence all these leaks by the Obama administration and intel reports that keep changing in accordance to how much pressure they want to put on Iran.

Make no mistake, the GCC is in open conflict with Iran and they are confident that they will win.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

SM Krishna will be due in Abu Dhabi on 14th and 15th April. Will get the inside scoop. More on Syria soon.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Agnimitra »

shyamd ji,

I wonder what the Iranian calculus on Syria is. Do they really need Syria to remain as it is, or are some of their purposes transferable? A hypothetical scneario:

If Sunnis are given Syria, then I think the Iranians may press for a transfer of populations in the entire region - all Sunnis would be made to leave Iraq and Bahrain and go and live in Sunni Syria. The Iranian leadership is not going to be Gandhian about that. Syria's Shi'a would be invited to come and live in Anbar, Mosul and Baghdad, and the Sunnis would be allowed to enjoy all of Syria's tiny oil wealth, leaving Iraq and Bahrain to the Shi'a.

Iraq seems to be a de facto Shi'a state. DJinnahs like Tareq al-Hashemi and his supporters like al-Mutlaq, al-Alusi, al-Issawi, Abu Risha and the Nufayfi brothers have been whining over the last 10 years that they somehow are entitled to a "unity government" in which Iraq's Shi'a majority that is nearly 5 times their community's size ought to share power with them. So these people will be asked to leave Iraq and possibly migrate to a Sunni Syria.

I think if anything happens, the Iranians would hope to partition Syria itself, apart from coercing a transfer of populations to consolidate control over oil-rich Shi'a Arab states.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Samudragupta »

Iran is not going to give up the Syria...Per se its not a Shia-Sunni issue but a Persian-Arab issue where the Persians are creating a severe faultline among the Arabs to control them in the WA....Loosing Syria to Arabs means Iran loosing the road to Mediternean...Iran is not going to create a Strong Shia Arab state.because that will result in the renewal of the Arab Nationalism this time the Shia version....Arab states fractured on sectarian lines are in the Iranian interest...

Iran is seriously not interested to be the custodian of the Shia....had it been so it would have acted in Pakistan where the greatest genocide of the Shias are happenning....
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Carl ji, already said ages ago, the plan or at least a threat is for anbar, KRG to secede to 'free Syria'. Take with it 70 billion barrels of oil. Syria will be a powerful and a very viable state. Anbar and eastern Syria have the same tribes anyhow.

It's in the offing but i think only as a threat for now. Notice in the recent white house meeting between Barzani and Obama, white house kept using words such as 'one Iraq' 'unified iraq'. These are words that Maliki uses. Basically Barzani put something on the table to obama which Obama rejected.

Iraq and Iran will still be a formidable entity for decades to come but it is enough to keep Iraq in check. They have been battling it out since the creation of mankind.

After Assad it is Maliki next. GCC is in open conflict with Iran and at the moment GCC look like they will be the clear winners
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

shyamd wrote:SM Krishna will be due in Abu Dhabi on 14th and 15th April. Will get the inside scoop. More on Syria soon.
Krishna to Co-Chair India-UAE Economic Meet
PTI | Dubai | Apr 13, 2012

Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna is visiting the UAE on a three-day visit from tomorrow during which he will co-chair the 10th session of the India- UAE Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation, officials said.

Krishna will be leading a 20­member delegation, consisting of senior officials from a large number of Ministries of Government of India from April 14 to 16.

The UAE delegation will be led by Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Minister of the UAE.


The last session of the Joint Commission was held in 2007 in New Delhi.

Indian embassy in the UAE said the meeting will discuss the existing issues pertaining to trade and investment and cooperation in diverse areas such as trade, investments, energy, agriculture, civil aviation, consular, security, education, community welfare etc.

"It will discuss measures to impart further momentum to India-UAE relations which are rooted in history and age­-old economic, social and cultural exchanges.

A Memorandum of Understanding on setting up of Joint Committee for Consular Affairs and a Protocol to amend the India-UAE Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement are among the agreements which are likely to be signed during the Joint Commission meeting," the embassy said.

India's ambassador to the UAE, M K Lokesh said this is going to be a significant exercise for which both sides have been making extensive preparations.

"The talks will be led by the foreign minister but senior officials of other ministries such as commerce and petroleum will also be present," Lokesh told
UAE will also be holding an extraordinary Arab League summit in riyadh possibly this weekend. Probably to denounce the actions of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the 3 islands. UAE has recalled their ambassadro to Iran. Tensions raised.

----------------------------------
ONGC ‘nets $1bn Kuwait clean-up deal’
Clean-up effort: retreating Saddam Hussein army destroyed much of Kuwait by setting fire to oilfields
By News reports,

10 April 2012 07:43 GMT
An ONGC joint venture has scooped part of a $3 billion contract to clean up Kuwaiti oil spills caused by the retreating army of Iraq’s late deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, a report claims.

The Indian major’s joint operation with The Energy & Resources Institute, ONGC-Teri Biotech (OBTL) has been handed one third of the deal, India’s Business Standard reported.

The contract was won recently, the newspaper quoted ONGC chairman and chief executive, Sudhir Vasudeva, as saying on the sidelines of a conference.

The joint venture along with other unidentified firms will have to clean up an estimated 60 million cubic metres of oil spilled as Hussein’s army set fire to oilfields as it retreated from Kuwait following an invasion in 1991.
------------------------------------------------
Image

So we can conclude no US action in Syria for at least a week.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

For those interested, source just forwarded me a study by the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in turkey. They advise the Turkish Ministry of Foreign affairs and the Turkish govt.

The study is titled: A Safe Haven in Syria - Risks Opporutnities and Scenarios;

http://www.orsam.org.tr/en/enUploads/Ar ... BCrkin.pdf

You can see what Turkish intervention will look like, risks etc. The study was published a few days ago, this gives an idea of turkish strategic thinking on the subject and that they are taking it very seriously. It is now down to the decision makers.
ramana
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ramana »

Carl, Shia Islam homeland is Iraq. Ali and his progeny got shaeed in Iraq.
ShyamD, Anbar has a very historical role in political Islam. Its in Anbar province that the rebels against the Ummayads gathered and rallied around Al Safawa the first Abbasid Caliph.
So Syria taking back Anbar would be a return of Anbar to the older lands.
Philip
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

Two excellent viewpoints on Israel-Palestine.The first by Antara Sen on the "sturm " raised by Nobel winner Gunter Grass' poem about the immorality of Germany supplying nuclear-power Israel, subs that can launch nuclear attacks against non-nuclear Iran.

The second by ex-pres Jimmy Carter on the closing window of opportunity on resolving the MEast dispute and the issue of one or two states in the region.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/columnis ... s-must-say
What Grass must say
April 14, 2012

This is the time for the people who want to save me… to get to know themselves, through me.” That was little Oskar in The Tin Drum. Now, his comment fits his creator Gunter Grass just as well. Being the voice of conscience for Germany, if not for all of humanity in a violent age, has never been easy for Grass.

He has been repeatedly attacked and abused by lesser mortals who wished to shut out the moral sense he was banging on about much like Oskar on his little drum. And his poem What Must Be Said published last week has unleashed a volley of vicious personal attacks, labelling him an anti-Semite, an enemy of the Jews, a neo-Nazi apart from also being a senile old fool. Here are parts of the poem, translated by Heather Horn for The Atlantic:

What Must Be Said
“Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
What clearly is and has been
Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors
Are at best footnotes.

…Yet why do I forbid myself
To name that other country
In which, for years, even if secretly,
There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand
But beyond control, because no inspection is available?
The universal concealment of these facts,
To which my silence subordinated itself,
I sense as incriminating lies…

The verdict of “anti-Semitism” is familiar.
Now, though, because in my country
Which from time to time has sought and confronted
Its very own crime
That is without compare
In turn on a purely commercial basis, if also
With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares
A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,
Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence
Of a single atomic bomb is unproven…

Why though have I stayed silent until now?
Because I thought my origin,
Afflicted by a stain never to be expunged
Kept the state of Israel, to which I am bound
And wish to stay bound,
From accepting this fact as pronounced truth.
Why do I say only now,
Aged and with my last ink,
That the nuclear power of Israel endangers
The already fragile world peace?
Because it must be said
What even tomorrow may be too late to say;
Also because we — as Germans burdened enough —
Could be the suppliers to a crime
That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity
Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.
And granted: I am silent no longer
Because I am tired of the hypocrisy
Of the West; in addition to which it is to be hoped
That this will free many from silence…”

If we did not know who the poet was, the full poem would read as a rather impassioned — though not particularly beautiful — appeal for peace in a tense nuke-powered region, for “Israelis and Palestinians” and for “all people in this region occupied by mania”. It would be an anti-war poem triggered by the declaration of Germany that it would supply yet another nuclear-capable submarine to Israel, which has been threatening to attack Iran. Because it is widely known, though not officially confirmed, that Israel has a nuke, a nuclear war is not impossible.

The poem would seem to be a desperate, if somewhat naïve, plea for transparency in weapons inspection, for peace, and a warning to Germany that it could be complicit in another crime against humanity. Coming from an ordinary poet, this would be a friendly, anti-war poem worrying about the aggressive posturing of the current government of “the state of Israel, to which I am bound”.

But Gunter Grass is not just an ordinary poet. The poem got him instantly branded as an “anti-Semite”, as he had predicted, and an immoral impostor who had revealed his true Nazi colours. Of course Grass was banned from Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out against his “shameful” but “not surprising” attack on Jews, the Israeli embassy in Berlin said Grass was just following the anti-Semitic tradition of blood libel. In short, Israel was hopping mad.

Which is understandable. What is surprising is the response of the “liberal” West. Hatemongers are drumming up disgust for the author across Europe and America, but it seems to be worst in his own land, Germany, which has revered Grass for ages. The octogenarian Nobel laureate and Germany’s best known contemporary author is suddenly being attacked fiercely by his own people. Even the Social Democrats, who have gained enormously from Grass’s support for more than half a century, announced that the writer was no longer welcome in their midst.

Because pampering Israel, the land of the Jews, seems to be the way to atone for the sins of the Holocaust. The horrific injustice done to Jews by the Nazis, which can never be condoned, has led to a dangerous politics of victimhood. The Jew is the prototypical victim, so the blessed land of the Jews, Israel, is above criticism. And because Germany is still reeling from the guilt of the Holocaust, it cannot get itself to think clearly about anything relating to Israel.

To make matters worse, Grass had been conscripted into Hitler’s Waffen SS when he was 17, just before the war ended. He has been living with the guilt for almost 70 years. It took him 60 years to even reveal this, and he was pilloried for it even then. Why hadn’t he said so earlier, screamed his critics, he should immediately return his Nobel Prize. Well, it takes time to reveal one’s shameful secrets. Even if one was just a kid who was drafted and had no choice. Besides, as the current mudslinging proves once more, if Grass had indeed revealed this earlier, he would never have been allowed to become the literary stalwart that he is, let alone get the Nobel. Being a coward is not a crime. Nor is being smart. But making false accusations of Nazism against one who has been the biggest critic of Nazis for decades is criminal.

Maybe we need to pull away the wool of political correctness and take a good look at reality. Criticising the policies of Israel is not about hating Jews, it is not anti-Semitism. Fobbing off legitimate criticism of Israel by labelling it anti-Semitic is a shrewd ploy to censor disapproval. Anyone who has read Grass knows he is not anti-Semitic. One only hopes that the poem will actually end the silence and start the debate that Grass wishes for.

The writer is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/opini ... ace&st=cse
Don't Give Up on Mideast Peace

By JIMMY CARTER
Published: April 12, 2012

The current focus of leaders in Washington and Jerusalem on Iran has obscured the near-death of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and the inevitable catastrophe toward which Israel is now moving.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have been establishing more and more settlements in Palestine on confiscated land. While they profess their support for a “two-state solution,” their actions all aim to create a “Greater Israel,” from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. Washington has voiced opposition to these steps, but has not made any strong efforts to prevent them.

Since 1967, the consensus in the international community and among the majority of Israelis has been that there would be two political entities, with Israelis returning to their pre-1967 borders except for some small land swaps along the border. The Camp David Accords of 1978, accepted by Israel, called for the withdrawal of political and military forces from the occupied territories, and President George W. Bush specifically endorsed a Palestinian nation in this area. As late as May 2009, President Obama accepted this concept as the basis for peace. This strategy has been abandoned as Israel tightens its control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, now populated by more than 2.5 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians.

There is a profound difference between “two-states” and “one-state.” The former contemplates two nations with citizens living side by side in peace under terms to be negotiated between leaders of the two principal parties. Other world leaders have almost universally acknowledged that strong help and influence of the United States will be necessary, and all the Arab nations have offered to support such an agreement.

In the case of the “one-state” outcome, if granted the full rights of citizenship, Palestinians would play a major role in the new nation with a possible majority in the future. If deprived of these rights as inferior and second-class dwellers on the land, this will be a system of apartheid that will not be accepted by the international community.

As former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in 1999, “Every attempt to keep hold of this area as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a nondemocratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binational state, and if they don’t vote it is an apartheid state.” Eight years later, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that if the two-state solution collapsed, Israel would “face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.”

During my last conversation with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his stroke, he discussed with approval the “small land swaps” along the 1967 border. His proposal was that Israeli settlers living near Jerusalem should remain, with Palestinians given a land corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza, on which a highway and railroad could be established. He had earlier said that the “occupation” of Palestinian territories was “a terrible thing for Israel and for the Palestinians and can’t continue endlessly.”

Shaul Mofaz, the new leader of Israel’s Kadima party, said recently, “The greatest threat to the state of Israel is not nuclear Iran,” but that Israel might one day cease to be a Jewish state, because Palestinians could outvote Jews. “So it is in Israel’s interest that a Palestinian state be created.”

The people are already greatly mixed. About 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinians, although living under severe restrictions. The number of Israeli settlers in Palestinian territories has grown from about 5,000 when I left office in 1981 to about 525,000.

However, the overall region is changing. Past efforts by Egypt, the Carter Center and others to bring about reconciliation among Palestinian factions, leading to another democratic election, have been frustrated by differences among them, exacerbated by opposition from Israel and the United States and acquiescence from former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The newly elected leaders in Egypt are determined to use their influence to reconcile Fatah and Hamas and press for a final status agreement including peace with Israel. With international support, such an agreement is entirely possible.

It is heartening to realize that “peace in the Middle East,” based on the two-state solution, is still feasible — but not for much longer.

Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, is founder of the Carter Center, which works to advance peace and health worldwide.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

X post

Leak by source. Before any news bulletin - In Ankara talks, Iran asked US and Europeans to make sure Israel not to launch an attack as long as negotiations continue!!! There is also semi approval of stopping 20% enrichment and the Iranians made a list of demands such as saying not to dismantle the reactor near Qom and remove some sanctions.

You heard it first here!
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

On My Blog:
Ankara Whispers...
The latest from Ankara is the following:

The latest from Ankara is that Iran asked US/European powers to restrain Israel from striking as long as negotiations continue. There is also semi approval of stopping 20% enrichment and in return Iranians made a list of demands such as saying that they wont dismantle the reactor in Fordo and asking the west to gradually remove some sanctions in return.

Next will continue to talk in Baghdad: - why Baghdad? This is possibly due to Iran having an extensive intelligence network there in order to find out what the negotiators are thinking.

Why do the Iranians want to talk all of a sudden?
1. Possibility of an Israeli military strike and 2. Congress's decision to pass another batch of U.S. economic sanctions affecting the import oil from Iran. Analysts believe that Iran has been accumulating during the last six months of Uranium enriched to 20%, giving it greater flexibility to withdraw from the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and putting together a bomb during a short period as did the North Koreans. The Iranians know that the Israelis know it and so the fear of Israeli strike seriously.

India has started looking elsewhere for oil because it fears that Iranian oil may be disrupted as a result of a war.


Syria:

Turkish strategists have released a report on the 10th of April regarding intervention in Syria. For more insight into what an intervention will look like please read the report:
http://www.orsam.org.tr/en/enUploads/Ar ... BCrkin.pdf

However, the Turkish/NATO strategists know that action in Syria means challenging Russia hence are extra cautious on Syria. Challenging Russia is a big NO NO for NATO and don't really want to go into conflict with Russia. Plans are certainly in place. It is likely that intervention in Syria will only take place if NATO are with Turkey on the plans as they are challenging Russia.

A leak of a report by officials, giving an insight into failures by NATO in the recent campaign in Libya suggests that NATO is not onboard.
The article in NYT can be read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world ... ato&st=cse

PM Erdogan's visit to KSA also ended in numerous disagreements on financing of refugees, purpose of the safe haven and most notably Islamists ruling the Free Syria in a post Asad world.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

India and UAE have deepened their relations. They have offered India greater economic cooperation and with the signing double taxation avoidance this paves the way for UAE sovereign wealth funds to invest in Indian infrastructure projects. The sovereign wealth fund ADIA will visit India next month to look at infra projects. They have already signalled DMIC as a major investment proposal.

Not just that they also invited India to invest in oil exploration in the UAE.

India has agreed to play a greater role in the region both diplomatically and militarily. India is more trusted than Turkey. You will see more in the offing in terms of strategic relations.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Agnimitra »

shyamd wrote:India is more trusted than Turkey.
Why is that?
brihaspati
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

Reincarnation must be true! Before the Ulugh Khan conquest of Gujarat - with all the lurid descriptions of loot, massacre, enslavement and destruction - bigmouths like Siddharaja Jayasimha went out of their way to vouch for Muslim traders and financiers and investors. At that time, the majority of the sea-trade fleet were owned by non-Muslim big-traders and financiers and investors. Siddharaja himself had a wonderful army that had stood him in good stead in predatory forays on his neighbours. He is known to have taken a personal interest in protecting "foreign" and especially "Muslim" investment/trade from the west of India.

Maybe that time he recognized that his protection of investment from the Gulf did not go far enough since he was not based in the flood plains of Yamuna. This time around he would not make the same mistake.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by SBajwa »

Same thing getting repeated over and over from centuries and the grand old men of indian politics slept.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Carl wrote:
shyamd wrote:India is more trusted than Turkey.
Why is that?
Big influence over Iran and access to all. Morals, growing military might, leverage over both parties.
shyamd
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

India is the insurance policy for them given that there isn't anyone there to give military support. They'll help make us a super power, restrain pak, Jordan and morocco were rejected by UAE and Oman because they wont add anything to the GCC security. India is the new pillar. The infra deal is the SamE that US got which helped develop their economy.

Win win, more economic development, more tax into coffers to buy weapons. How do you think PRC defence budget got so large.
brihaspati
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

So the Gulf Islamic countries are going to make India a sooper power?!!!! USA became a sooper-power because of Arabic infrastructural investments? Did Arabs invest before or after USA became a sooper-power? Who really made USA a super-power and when?

Who is teaching economic history to our super duper Gulf-premi foreign policy experts?!!!! Or is economic history being also reconstructed just as Thaparites were unleashed to invent a new history suitable to justify what some financiers and mercantiles wanted at the cost of aam Indian? Is this where our foreign policy experts have sunk to?

Which FDI has helped the trickle down phenomena in India? How has "development" benefited the common Indian? Financial investments from abroad from the big capital sources help whom actually? And who bears the costs?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

A small hint.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... /?page=all
Religious and ideological support has been also provided by Hussein Shihata, a leading Sunni scholar of Islamic Economy at Cairo’s al-Azhar University. Mr. Shihata’s July 10, 2002, fatwa says: “We do not use the term ‘economic jihad’ as a mere motto or a resounding slogan with no action. Rather, we mean by it a practical jihad that requires action to turn it into an effective and concrete reality. The aim behind that is to benefit all Muslims and to challenge the aggression staged by the U.S. and Jews against Islam and Muslims.”

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who claims to abhor bin Laden, seems nevertheless eager to follow his agenda. In an interview with Arab News in May 2002, the prince said that if the Arabs “unite through economic interests,” they would achieve influence over the U.S. decision-makers. Since government sources estimate Saudi holdings in the United States at $400 billion to $800 billion, the matter warrants public attention.

The Saudi agenda extends far beyond policy-makers. In the late 1990s, the privately owned Massachusetts technology company, Ptech, designed software used to develop enterprise blueprints that held every important detail of a given concern. The company was financed with more than $22 million, by Saudi multi-millionaire Yasin al Qadi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The Saudis thus gained access to strategic information about many major U.S. corporations such as SYSCO, ENRON, and the U.S. Departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice, Energy, and even the White House. The extent of the damage, if it was investigated, remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, substantial Saudi and Gulf financial contributions “to bring the proper message to America’s brightest minds,” are pouring into U.S. educational institutions through Arab and Islamic centers and professorial chairs. Last month the prince gave $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities. According to the Center for Religious Freedom, the Saudis also supply textbooks for public libraries, schools and colleges, and provide the content concerning Islam to some U.S. textbook publishers.

The Saudis’ potential influence on U.S. and international media was recently illustrated by the prince’s purchase of 5.6 percent of voting shares in News Corp., the world’s largest publisher of English newspapers. Moreover, Reuters reported on Dec. 5 that the prince announced his plan to “spread the right message” via a new television channel, “The Message,” to broadcast to the U.S. within two years.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

Now you know why blogosphere is so important for revolutions.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/19/300-mi ... i-not-new/
More On That $300 Million Saudi Investment In Twitter: It’s Not New
Erick Schonfeld
Monday, December 19th, 2011

The blogosphere and tech press is all atwitter about the news that Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal invested $300 million in Twitter. While the identity of the Saudi prince as an investor was not officially confirmed before, the investment itself is not new. The investment was part of the previously announced $800 million financing Twitter closed last September, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal.

Fortune’s Dan Primack reports that the Saudi shares were a purchase of secondary shares. Indeed, half of that $800 million didn’t even go to Twitter. They were secondary shares purchased directly from employees and other existing investors. It appears that the Saudi prince took three quarters of the $400 million tranche set aside for secondary sales.

Twitter still had to approve these secondary sales, which provided a necessary release valve for employees with vested options. You could even argue that Twitter should allow employees to sell even more shares, given that some of them are leaving in order to do just that.
brihaspati
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

More on Saudi investments and who are most likely to be keen to get them and for what and what are the outcomes for the aam:
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2008/ ... llary.html
The Saudi investments in Bill and Hillary Clinton
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Agnimitra »

shyamd wrote:Big influence over Iran and access to all. Morals, growing military might, leverage over both parties.
shyamd wrote:India is the insurance policy for them given that there isn't anyone there to give military support. They'll help make us a super power, restrain pak, Jordan and morocco were rejected by UAE and Oman because they wont add anything to the GCC security. India is the new pillar. The infra deal is the SamE that US got which helped develop their economy.

Win win, more economic development, more tax into coffers to buy weapons. How do you think PRC defence budget got so large.
shyamd ji those sound like big promises, I hope they are even 10% true, even if 400% exaggerated. :)
Luring India does make sense, even if just to keep India from getting too wrapped in Iran's self-important geostrategic domination of India's ME calculus. I would think that India should continue to play the Iran card and other cards in order to milk this GCC insecurity for all its worth.
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Ah yes - UP showed sure electorates are a thing of the past, and may need more certificates from pureland. Also foreign support for potential political expenses might be drying up in the global crises - and the Gulf oilers are the onlee ones lest with spare cash. Hence the urgency perhaps.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

shyamd wrote:India is the insurance policy for them given that there isn't anyone there to give military support. They'll help make us a super power, restrain pak, Jordan and morocco were rejected by UAE and Oman because they wont add anything to the GCC security. India is the new pillar. The infra deal is the SamE that US got which helped develop their economy.

Win win, more economic development, more tax into coffers to buy weapons. How do you think PRC defence budget got so large.
Shyamd-ji,

We are the GCC's Insurance Policy eh?

Then they might want to make at least a token gesture of trust to consolidate this insurance policy no? I mean, since we're so important to them and all.

Something like, maybe, declare complete, official, public support for the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir as an irrevocable and integral part of the Indian Union. Not a "Muslim issue", not even on the backburner, but declare with finality that J&K is Indian first and Indian last. Could GCC nations bring themselves to do that? Not a very high price to ask, no, since they're counting on us to pull their chestnuts from the fire with the blood of our jawans and the treasure of our people?

I mean if the almighty KSA led the GCC pack in making it explicit that there is no grounds for secession of J&K on religious terms... that the occupation of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan by Pakistan is completely in contravention of all international laws they recognize... then that would pretty much negate the jihad justification for J&K separatism once and for all. Will they do it?

Or will they just continue to invest in our "infrastructure" as they already are... i.e. freshly painted, high walled, spanking new Madrassa compounds sprouting up like fungi in every far-flung and remote district of India?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by D Roy »

The whole matter is straightforward.

You need 1 trillion plus for the infra push as has been announced by GOI time and again. A part of that money will come in from the GCC.

This is not a GOI brainwave by the way. it is very much being facilitated by India Inc based in western India.

It is an era where the GCC is being told that they should invest more into building highways in India rather than Madarsas.

The new generation of GCC monarchs are responding positively because they know the power of India Inc. India-KSA could break new grounds only when a certain industrialist sitting in a certain high tower gave his assent to a certain something that KSA had wanted for a long time.

The topiwallahs or dhotiwallahs do not guide Indian foreign policy. India Inc drives it and that is exactly why India will also never give up on Iran. India vacuumed up a lot of cheap oil and is now "reducing" imports to avoid sanctions. :wink: That corridor to central asia is something that we will never give up. However the whole idea is to make sure that neither the GCC nor Iran think that they can take India's support for granted.

India Inc is also driving our naval expansion and the GCC knows who is on the verge of becoming top dog in the waters of their coast. While a lot of people in Unkil land think they might just be able to keep 10 CBGs the fact is, it is not happening. there will come a time in the next few decades when America will not be able to keep more than one CBG on station all the time in the Gulf.

And by the way, the recent UP election is essentially a caste assertion. Under Mayawati both Dalits as well as Arzals had become seriously empowered. this is something that was unpalatable to OBC samaj in both the majority and minority religions. Remember in the run up to the OBC reservation campaign OBC Muslim Samaj had played an important role in the whole thing.

in the final analysis the vote share of SP is not that much greater than BSP at all and in the years to come, SP will decline in UP owing to demographics and greater horizontal caste consolidation by the Dalits and Arzals ( who have better TFRs and declining mortality rates).


There is one very big difference between the middle ages and now. The arabs and central asia have stuff that *we* need rather than it being the case that only Hindustan is the sone ki chidiya. Hindustan is of course a land of great opportunity but it is also now a Gargantuan Garood that needs oil to wet its wings.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Rudradev ji, yes KSA will grant us observer status there (how it's not there already is a bit of a joke anyway). So we can actually defend ourselves and not let the paki's run riot as they have been for a while.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

Carl ji, look at the visits and the deals. A lot more strategic cooperation is in the offing and you will see soon.
They even provided intelligence to capture a person involved in 26/11. Not to mention that they have deported individuals wanted in terror attacks, PFI activists have also been arrested. Increasing oil supplies and have provided us with a guarantee to provide us oil in the vent of an emergency. They will also be investing in our strategic reserves facilities.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

D Roy wrote:The whole matter is straightforward.

You need 1 trillion plus for the infra push as has been announced by GOI time and again. A part of that money will come in from the GCC.

This is not a GOI brainwave by the way. it is very much being facilitated by India Inc based in western India.

It is an era where the GCC is being told that they should invest more into building highways in India rather than Madarsas.

The new generation of GCC monarchs are responding positively because they know the power of India Inc. India-KSA could break new grounds only when a certain industrialist sitting in a certain high tower gave his assent to a certain something that KSA had wanted for a long time.

The topiwallahs or dhotiwallahs do not guide Indian foreign policy. India Inc drives it and that is exactly why India will also never give up on Iran. India vacuumed up a lot of cheap oil and is now "reducing" imports to avoid sanctions. :wink: That corridor to central asia is something that we will never give up. However the whole idea is to make sure that neither the GCC nor Iran think that they can take India's support for granted.

India Inc is also driving our naval expansion and the GCC knows who is on the verge of becoming top dog in the waters of their coast. While a lot of people in Unkil land think they might just be able to keep 10 CBGs the fact is, it is not happening. there will come a time in the next few decades when America will not be able to keep more than one CBG on station all the time in the Gulf.

And by the way, the recent UP election is essentially a caste assertion. Under Mayawati both Dalits as well as Arzals had become seriously empowered. this is something that was unpalatable to OBC samaj in both the majority and minority religions. Remember in the run up to the OBC reservation campaign OBC Muslim Samaj had played an important role in the whole thing.

in the final analysis the vote share of SP is not that much greater than BSP at all and in the years to come, SP will decline in UP owing to demographics and greater horizontal caste consolidation by the Dalits and Arzals ( who have better TFRs and declining mortality rates).


There is one very big difference between the middle ages and now. The arabs and central asia have stuff that *we* need rather than it being the case that only Hindustan is the sone ki chidiya. Hindustan is of course a land of great opportunity but it is also now a Gargantuan Garood that needs oil to wet its wings.

UP elections came in because it simply showed that older religious minority mobilization was no longer guaranteed based on religious appeasement from one party onlee. Hence for financier politician the conclusion has been that he needs more funds to buy out and older prices are not enough. This was mentioned to point the connection between the possible need to look for alternative funding sources and finding it in the ME as political funding.

As for middle ages and now - even then, India desperately looked for something that ME possessed - horses. The drain on the Indian economy for buying peninsular horses have been well documented. And it would be a laugh to claim that India now is no longer a sone-ki-cidyia.

India Inc existed in the middle ages too - with fantastic investments in the navy that traded all the way into gulf, with wonderful camaraderie and partying around in Hormuz. Just before the fall in Gujarat and west coast - merchants sailed with large fleets to the ME, and they owned the overwhelming proportion of the fleet. Within 100 years the situation reversed with ownership of the fleets transferred to muslim merchants from the Gulf - helped of course by the new regime in place.

India Inc may sink - but they drag down the aam jaanta too when they sink. Usually however they dont pull up the aam janta the same way when they bob up.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by D Roy »

Come now, don't be so harsh on India inc. :wink:

and they don't own the navy, only use it. :mrgreen: And this time its not about merchant bonhomie but about Chakras and Vikramadityas off the coast of various pure lands.

Things are different from the middle ages. We did not use horses to till our land now did we? Horse imports by the Rashratkutas or by Vijaynagar later on are an order of magnitude removed from our energy needs today which is at the core of sustaining growth.


trying to find analogues in history is fine. but I am sure you would agree that the cycle is tilted in the opposite direction.

What India is doing with the GCC is similar to what the West has done with it in the past four decades. Provide protection in return for investment and oil.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Mahendra »

Interesting indeed that the super power maker, custodian of the holy mosques and holier oilfields has to depend on the custodian of the holy begging katora, Pakistan to defend them if attacked by custodians of the nooklear reactors minus fuel rods Shia Iran. The Gelf is a comedy circus where the custodians of joo hatred are also indirect supporters of Joos against Shias. Why should Indians die for these people for the sake of a few thousand freshly minted madrassas mushrooming along the coast line hainjee?
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D Roy wrote:Come now, don't be so harsh on India inc. :wink:

and they don't own the navy, only use it. :mrgreen: And this time its not about merchant bonhomie but about Chakras and Vikramadityas off the coast of various pure lands.

Things are different from the middle ages. We did not use horses to till our land now did we? Horse imports by the Rashratkutas or by Vijaynagar later on are an order of magnitude removed from our energy needs today which is at the core of sustaining growth.


trying to find analogues in history is fine. but I am sure you would agree that the cycle is tilted in the opposite direction.

What India is doing with the GCC is similar to what the West has done with it in the past four decades. Provide protection in return for investment and oil.
No, merchant navies then also fought sea-battles and were combined navies in many cases. There are reported cases of Gulf merchants getting Indian allied fleet and attack other Indian merchant fleet and ports.

Comparing with western strategies and actions on the Gulf powers is a laugh too. The British navy literally bombarded the ancestors of many of the current royalty to smithereens on the claim that they were engaged in the noble profession of piracy [after the foundations of the brit maritime empire had been established by royally patronized pirates and then pirates wiped off to make the empire respectable and deny legitimacy to others to go the same route].

I find it interesting that you too like some others, do not like history when parallels go against what you want to justify - [following on from such examples as claiming historical Arabic investment turning USA sooper power which was now being repeated by India] and now you are claiming that India is repeating what the west did to the gulf powers. In that case India is not doing what the west did.

If you say that history need not repeat exactly - but with essential similarities - then my thesis remains valid. For the primary comparison point is the role of Indian big capital/finance in protecting ME subversion because of tied flow interests.
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Western military dominance was practically demonstrated on ground against ME powers, ruthlessly, without any hesitation, and deliberately as a lesson - to win Islamic loyalty in Mesopotamia. Onlee after that came trade and bonhomie.

India has destroyed, punished, "genocided" none in the Islamic world to win Islamic loyalty. Mercantilism onlee goes so far and not beyond with Islamism. People can ignore the posts I have made on this page referring to indications of how Islamism looks at economics as a tool of jihad and investments. But others who want to understand the danger should follow up the leads on their own.

History teaches us not about material conditions, but the mental profile and attitudes of key role players. That is where the lesson on historical India Inc of the past has to be taken on. How do they react when it comes to protecting or not the entrenched interests of foreign ideologically motivated financiers/merchants and the role of political regimes who might benefit or may depend on such flows for their political clout.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Agnimitra »

B ji, all that is cool. But its a difficult accomplishment to get wealthy ME elites to buy Indian protection and invest in Indian infra (not just madrassahs). Its much easier to later turn around and kick them in the nuts if things get problematic.

Its a good thing, let the money come in at this crucial time in our development. You're worried about adharmik desi mercantile classes selling out the rashtriya interests, but we only need a vigilant nationalist core to wreck things for them if they choose not to buy into the civilizational vision.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Mahendra »

It is not easy to kick anyone out given that there are millions of Indians who could be virtually held for ransom in the Gelf. It is better not to sign on to 25000 madrassas for one bridge connecting 2 madrassas in Malapurram kind of agreements
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by shyamd »

King Abdullah came in 2006, how many madrassah's/schools/mosques have you seen built with official money? None. Jama Masjid was an official offer whcih was rejected.

They have pumped in money via hawala. Even then, year after year new regulations, are being made to counter it. In fact, KSA has even been informed that all their transactions will be scrutinized by security agencies.
------------------------

Dubai row escalates into diplomatic headache for UAE
Posted: 16/04/2012 | Author: IISS Voices | Filed under: Alanoud Al Sharekh, Gulf and Middle East Security | Tags: dubai, Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, UAE |Leave a comment »

A recent decision by the United Arab Emirates to withdraw the residence permits of 30 Syrian men who took part in an unlicensed protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad outside the Syrian consulate in Dubai in February has provoked a war of words between a controversial Muslim Brotherhood figurehead and Dubai’s police chief. The dispute between Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi and Lieutenant-General Dahi al-Khalfan risks spiralling into a diplomatic confrontation between the UAE and its neighbours.

Speaking during an episode of his long-running popular al-Jazeera show ‘Shari’a and Life’ in early March, Qaradawi denounced UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan and his brother Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Having previously been banned from entering the UAE himself for inciting dissent, the extremist cleric asserted that 100 Syrian families had in fact had their residence permits withdrawn and also attacked the UAE for revoking the citizenships of some Islamists in the country. Claiming to speak on behalf of Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun, Qaradawi threatened to incite Muslim rage against the UAE both on his show and during his Friday sermons.

In response, Khalfan threatened to issue an international arrest warrant for Qaradawi if he did not retract his threats to the UAE. Though he took pains to explain the UAE’s position on the Syrian protesters during various media appearances (a much smaller number of Syrians’ residence permits were revoked for other legal infringements besides the protest), he also delivered an anti-Muslim Brotherhood message, accusing it of conducting attacks on his country by means of social media and illicit political activities. That same week the UAE had arrested an Emirati imam and political activist associated with the Brotherhood in Ras al-Khaimah on charges of inciting dissent against its rulers in his sermon on the Syrian protesters.

This is not the first time that Khalfan has had a run-in with the Muslim Brotherhood. He claims to have already been a target for its ire in 2011 when he accused the Brotherhood in Egypt of inciting insurgency to serve its own political ambitions and accepting foreign funding to that end. At the January 2012 Gulf Cooperation Council National and Regional Security Conference in Bahrain, Khalfan gave a long presentation covering the most urgent threats to GCC security and stability as he saw them. The Muslim Brotherhood, as part of a greater ‘US foreign policy plan to destabilise the area’, featured heavily among them, as did a nuclear-capable Iran. Khalfan cautioned that Saudi Arabia would most likely be the next target of the US’s ‘divide and conquer agenda’ following the fall of Syria.

Khalfan has since stated that Western intelligence leaks confirm his theory that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood is part of a systematic plan on the part of the US to dismantle the current ruling systems of the GCC by 2016. He has predicted that this movement will take off in Kuwait by 2013 since it is already leaning significantly towards political Islam, and from there spread throughout the Gulf states. He has also suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood poses a much larger threat to the GCC than Iran.

These statements pose a diplomatic dilemma for the UAE. Despite Khalfan’s claims that these are personal opinions, as a representative of the country’s security apparatus they imply state sanction. Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan warned that if an arrest warrant were issued against Qaradawi, ‘the entire Muslim world, and not only the Brotherhood, will take action against the Emirates’. The statement was condemned by GCC Secretary-General Abdul Latif al-Zayani, who deemed it ‘unwise and irresponsible’, as well as Arab League Secretary-General Nabeel al-Arabi. The Egyptian government quashed rumours that Foreign Minister Mohamed K. Amr had met the Emirati minister of state for foreign affairs, Dr Anwar Gargash, on the sidelines of the Russia–Arab League meeting in Cairo in order to explain the Egyptian government’s position with regards to Ghozlan’s threat. Ghozlan later conducted several media interviews in an attempt to smooth relations with the UAE and characterise his initial statement as a ‘misunderstanding’.

Kuwaiti-based members of the Muslim Brotherhood echoed Ghozlan’s initial sentiment, especially the prominent preacher Tarek al-Suwaidan, who was banned from entering the UAE in 2011, and is currently being sued in Kuwaiti courts by Khalfan for using an ‘unacceptable’ term to describe his actions towards Qaradawi. Saudi Islamist Sheikh Awadh al-Garni has also weighed in, reiterating the loyalty of GCC members to the Brotherhood.

However this war of words develops, it will have a great impact on the UAE’s relations with the new political leadership of many Arab countries. Khalfan has urged the GCC leadership to free Syria from its current regime while making sure it does not fall into the grips of the Muslim Brotherhood as ‘others have’.
Just shows you how serious things are between the MB and the Salafi GCC. MB see themselves as the middle path and have a great emphasis on modern education - most of the top rung are all PhDs engineers doctors lawyers etc.
Last edited by shyamd on 18 Apr 2012 01:47, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Agnimitra »

Mahendra,
So people will keep an eye on where the money goes. DMIC is not "a bridge in Mallapuram" investment.

At the same time India should keep balancing Iranian versus Arab, etc. If the proverbial hits the fan, ransoming is a game two can play.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by brihaspati »

Carl wrote:B ji, all that is cool. But its a difficult accomplishment to get wealthy ME elites to buy Indian protection and invest in Indian infra (not just madrassahs). Its much easier to later turn around and kick them in the nuts if things get problematic.

Its a good thing, let the money come in at this crucial time in our development. You're worried about adharmik desi mercantile classes selling out the rashtriya interests, but we only need a vigilant nationalist core to wreck things for them if they choose not to buy into the civilizational vision.
It was still possible to have a vigilant independent "nationalist core" in the medieval period when it was a not a single modern rashtra - which after the lessons taught it by the Brits, deliberately maintained the policy of disarming of the commons, so that the single rashtra has monopoly over coercion and violence. When mercantiles have such a degree of penetration of the rashtryia machinery that they can go along with justifying their personal profit/mercantile motivations under the pretentious cover of general development, you cannot develop an independent nationalist core that will be allowed time and space to grow sufficient strength to throw the imperialists back.

The hafta system will ensure that the foreign imperialist agenda is covered up if accidentally exposed and that sources of irritation to the generous hafta givers are removed using the coercive machinery of the rashtra itself.

Madrassah building is still going on - and only extreme naivette will stick to counting the number and quality of the madrassah buildings as proof of investment. Money goes around to buy land, expand settlements, and fund theology covered muscle groups - to carry out intimidation and territorial consolidation. Areas contiguous to main supply routes through the borders are being consolidated - all that needs money.
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From the terror finance blog :
http://www.terrorfinance.org/
As mentioned earlier, the Saudi royal family fears domestic terrorist groups, especially the Yemen-based branches of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group. Most of AQAP members are Saudi whose aim is to topple the royal family. The March 2011 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on Saudi Arabia details the Kingdom’s progress on its domestic al-Qaeda terrorists cells, [31] confirming the 2009 GAO’s finding that “U.S. and Saudi officials report progress on countering terrorism and its financing within Saudi Arabia.” However, the GAO report noted that there was hardly any efforts to prevent “funding for terrorism and violent extremism outside of Saudi Arabia” (Emphasis added).[32] Again, little has changed since Under Secretary Levey testimony before the Senate Finance Committee in 2008 that Saudi Arabia is “serious about fighting Al Qaeda in the kingdom…[but] the seriousness of purpose with respect to the money going out of the kingdom is not as high.”[33]

In 2010 the Saudis dismantled 19 AQAP cells in the Kingdom. The operation included the seizure of 2.24 million riyals (over $600K) and the detention of 149 cell members—including 25 from other Arab, African, and South Asian countries.[34] The arrests foiled at least ten attacks by AQAP on government and military targets, and officials, according to the Saudis. [35] In June 2010 after exposing a 60-person fundraising cell for AQAP, the Saudis announced that they were reviewing their terrorism strategy.[36]

With self-preservation in mind, the Saudi intelligence services tipped off the American, British, and German governments of AQAP planned terror attacks in late 2010. In October after the burqa ban was enforced in France, the Saudis warned of a possible al-Qaeda attack on the country.[37] In November the Saudis scored political points and public recognition for revealing that AQAP had planted explosives on European cargo planes bound for the United States.[38]

However, the State Department’s leaked cables confirmed the GAO’s 2009 conclusion that the Saudis showed “progress on countering terrorism and its financing within Saudi Arabia, but noted challenges, particularly in preventing alleged funding for terrorism and violent extremism outside of Saudi Arabia.”[39]
Saudi Arabia is a theocracy dominated by Wahhabi power figures that (despite Saudi protestations to the contrary) control both governmental and non-governmental sectors of the country. The government/ruling family makes or breaks the wealth of all its subjects. Moreover, successive Saudi kings have created ”charitable” organizations to fund the worldwide spread of Wahhabbism and have on occasion organized several national campaigns encouraging citizens to support Sunni terror organizations outside the country.[42] Thus it would be wrong to distinguish between contributions to radical Sunni organizations by the ruling family, the Saudi government, and wealthy Saudi subjects.

Afghanistan’s financial intelligence unit FinTraca reported in May 2010 that Saudi contributors have funneled over $1.5 billion to Afghanistan through Pakistan since 2006. Most of the money has entered Afghanistan through Pakistani tribal areas, especially through North Waziristan, which is known as “al-Qaeda’s heartland.” Mohammed Mustafa Massoudi, the director general of US-trained Afghan intelligence in Kabul, said, “We can trace it back as far as an entry point in Waziristan” the uncontrolled tribal border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Then went on, “Why would anyone want to put such money into Waziristan? [for] Only one reason: terrorism.”[43] The likely destination of the money was thought to be the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Since 2006, these groups have killed at least 1,525 American soldiers in Afghanistan and maimed thousands more.[44] As former Under Secretary Levey declared in his April 2008 testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, “Saudi Arabia today remains the location from which more money is going to terror groups and the Taliban—Sunni terror groups and the Taliban—than from any other place in the world.”[45]

The Saudis also support Pakistan’s Laskhar-e Taiba (LET), a terrorist group most known in the West for perpetrating the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which killed over 200 people and injured over 300 more.[46] Pakistani police reported in 2009 that the Saudi al-Haramain Foundation—a charitable organization designated as a terrorist sponsor by both the US and Saudi governments[47]—gave $15 million to jihadists, including those responsible for suicide attacks in Pakistan and the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[48]

The Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization’s (IIRO) Philippines branch, which was run until his death in 2007 by Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law until his death in 2007, was designated a terrorist sponsor by the US Treasury in August 2006 “for facilitating fundraising for al Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups.”[49]

This apparently did not stop Saudi support for the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group. A Wikileaks-released cable from the US Embassy in Riyadh described the US Government’s concerns with the IIRO’s continuing Saudi funding of al-Qaeda-affiliated group in the Philippines.[50] Dated February 24, 2007, and classified as “secret,” the cable detailed a February 6, 2007 private meeting between US assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Francis Fragos Townsend and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. Townsend asked the foreign minister to stop the “involvement of the Saudi ambassador to the Philippines Muhammad Amin Waly in terrorism facilitation,” noting “his intervention to get two members of IIRO out of prison.” Prince Saud declared a belief that Waly’s actions “may have involved bad judgment rather than intentional support for terrorism” and Waly remained in his position until October 2009.[51]

Despite evidence of IIRO funding to radical Muslim groups the world over, the US Government has refrained from designating the IIRO in its entirety as a terrorist organization. As a result, the IIRO obtained membership in the United Nations’ Department of Public Information (DPI) in August 2010. This membership provides the IIRO the perfect cover from which to expand its reach.[52]

Saudi funding to the US-designated Muslim Brotherhood Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, has never stopped.[53] In March 2007 Israel notified the US that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh transferred a $1 million contribution he received in Saudi Arabia to Hamas’ “armed wing,” the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.[54] On December 16, 2009, while Hamas was shelling Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh told Al-Jazeera that he passed $1 million in funding from a Saudi donor to Hamas’ “armed wing.”[55]
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