TURKEY/SYRIA On 15 February 2020 both the Qatar-based and owned, and pro-Muslim Brotherhood, and pro-Turkey www.aljazeera.net and the Saudi-owned www.alarabiya.net and both of their TV outlets reported that Russia is accusing Turkey of arming “rebel” groups in Syria with American manufactured weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. Both news outlets also reported that in addition to Turkey […]
IRAQ The Saudi owned site alarabiya.net is reporting that in the southern (Shi’a) city of al-Basra, members of the Iraqi Hizbollah, which is one of the heshd sha’bi (popular mobilization) units directed by the late Qaseem Sulaimani and his Iraqi deputy al-Muhandess, drove pick-ups into a crowed of anti-Iranian protestors, in an attempt to break up the […]
Recent evens in Iraq and Libya have dominated virtually all Arabic TV news programs and internet sites this weekend, as events and reactions continue to unfold. EGYPTIAN REACTION Popular Egyptian talk show host ‘Amru Adeeb, on his show al-hakaya (the story) which airs every weekend on MBS-Egypt, opened his coverage of America’s killing of Qaseem […]
ERDOGAN SETS STAGE FOR LIBYA INVASION This past week Turkey’s President Erdogan stirred another hornets’ nest with his claim that there are 1,000,000 Turks living in Libya (total population 5,000,000)–the implication being that he has the right to defend those “Turks” should the need arise. This should remind all foreign policy wonks of 1974. The […]
In late 2019 a student pilot from Saudi Arabia committed a terrorist attack for Allah on the U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, while a couple of his Saudi colleagues filmed it. This has caused a recycling of all the accusations against Saudi Arabia over the last couple of decades: Saudi Arabia has been […]
ANTI-IRANIAN PROTESTS During the weekend of 06-09 December the sin’aat al-mawt program on the Saudi-owned al-arabiyya TV covered the Iranian interference in the demonstrations/revolts taking place in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. The Iranian and Iraqi dissidents interviewed for the show claim that Iran has been using its baseej personnel to physically attack demonstrators in Iran […]
IRAQ/ISIS An entity calling itself “The Iraqi Media Security Cell” has announced on twitter that it has just arrested a major lieutenant of the late ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. This fellow called himself Abu Khaldun, though his real name is Hamid Shakir Saba’ al-Badri. According to a report on al-arabiyya he was caught by Iraqi police […]
ANTI-IRANIAN DEMONSTRATIONS The Lebanese have been demonstrating for weeks against Hezbollah’s control of their government, which is just another way of saying that they are demonstrating against Iran’s control of their country by proxy. They are demanding a new government of technocrats not connected with any political party be appointed to run the government. The […]
IRAN/SHI’A CRESCENT An “Arab Spring” 2.0 revolt of sorts has been taking place in both Iraq and Lebanon for the past several weeks. These massive, country-wide demonstrations in both countries have taken on an anti-Iran flavor–even in the Shi’a-dominated regions of Iraq. These demonstrations, particularly in southern Iraq have become rather violent with live rounds […]
LIBYA The war in Libya, after months of stalemate, has heated up again. There is some evidence that the troops led by Gen. Haftar have been gaining some ground in Tripoli and other areas held by the Tripoli government. The reason for this turn of events appears to be Russia. The civil war in Syria […]
TURKEY/SYRIA The Saudi-owned al-arabiyya TV station has reported today that Turkish forces have fired on Syrian forces. (that’s Syrian as in the Assad bunch from Damascus). This comes because of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whom we allied with during the ISIS war and who were forced to make mends with Damascus upon the U.S. […]
IRAQ This past week, Arab Spring-like protests have been taking place in Baghdad and numerous other Iraqi cities. The protests have been mainly against corruption, which is rampant in Iraq. Other issues mentioned by protesters are lack of jobs, defects in public services, and the excessive Iranian influence. Iraqi Shi’a have been the primary movers […]
Friday, 27 September, al-Jazeera Arabic reported that the call for demonstrations against President as-Sisi asked for the people to hit the streets after the Friday prayers. That has already happened early Friday morning U.S. time. In the meantime the security services blocked off all the streets and bridges leading to midaan at-tahreer (Cairo’s center plaza […]
The number one topic this past week in the Arabic media is the attack against the Abqaiq oil refinery installations in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province. Immediately after the attack the Shi’a Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility saying that they used ten drones to attack two separate refineries in Saudi Arabia’s eastern region. These claims […]
According to an article on www.aljazeera.net (Arabic version) of 28 July 2019, the Jordanian “artists union” demanded that all Jordanian actors and technicians working on a certain film set in the Petra region should withdraw from the project–even though the producer of the film is himself, an Arab. The reason given for pulling all the […]