Sunday, January 8, 2012

ماذا وراء الهجوم المركز على البروفيسور وليد فارس?

By Charbel Barakat 
Al Siyassa, Kuwait
January 8, 2012

البروفيسور وليد فارس الغني عن التعريف هو من اللبنانيين, بل المتكلمين العربية, القلائل الذين توصلوا بالمجهود الشخصي والمثابرة وروح النقد البناء إلى المراكز الأولى في قادة الرأي العالميين وبخاصة في الولايات المتحدة الأميركية.
البروفيسور فارس لم يخف يوما تطلعاته بالنسبة الى الشرق الأوسط أو لبنان ولا هو حاول أن يغير مفاهيمه أو منطلقاته كما يفعل الكثير ممن يريدون الوصول إلى الشهرة. البروفيسور فارس لم يرتهن لأي دولة أو منظمة أو "جهة" لتمويل طرح رأيه على وسائل الاعلام. ولكنه كان بإخلاصه ورؤيته وبعد نظره وتفهمه وتفسيره الاكاديمي للأمور ومجريات الأحداث ما جعل دور الاعلام ومراكز النشر ومؤسسات الرأي تلجأ اليه للتعليق أو التفسير أو شرح ما يدور من أمور بكثير من العمق والروية وبعد النظر. من هنا كان ضيفا محببا لأعضاء الكونغرس الأميركي أو البرلمان الأوروبي كما هو ضيف دائم على وسائل اعلامية ومؤسسات اكاديمية ومراكز قرار في عدد من دول العالم الحر.
البروفيسور فارس لم يسع إلى منصب أو دور ولا هو يقبل بكل ما يعرض عليه من هذه وتلك لأنه كثير المشاغل والاهتمامات. والبروفيسور فارس لا يتبع لأي تنظيم لبناني أو غير لبناني ولو أن له أفكاره وتصوراته وتعلقه بلبنان والمنطقة وتفهمه لمشكلاتها.
البروفيسور فارس الذي رافق الأحداث في لبنان أولا ومن ثم في الولايات المتحدة كانت له مواقف في مواضيع سياسية وكانت له مواقف تعتبر استباقية في مجالات عدة وهو حذر من أمور كثيرة ونبه من خطورة خطوات كبيرة قبل أن تتخذ وذلك من منحى منطقي ومتفهم لا من توجه عصبي أو انتهازي وصولي. والبروفيسور الذي نشرت له أخيراً اربعة كتب حول مواضيع تعنى بشؤون الساعة على الصعيد العالمي بما فيه الشرق الأوسط وآخرها "الثورة القادمة" والذي تنبأ فيه بما سمي "الربيع العربي" لم يخف تطلعاته ولا هو ساير في مفاهيمه, ومن هنا الاهتمام برأيه على أعلى الصعد والمستويات.
 أما ما دفع المرشح الجمهوري الاميركي رومني وفريقه لاختيار البروفيسور فارس كمستشار في حملته الانتخابية في ما يتعلق بالشرق الأوسط فذلك ليس لكونه سعى إلى ذلك بل لأن الطاقم الذي يعمل مع الحاكم رومني وجد فيه الرجل المناسب وهو لم ولن يجد أفضل منه لهذا الموضوع, ونحن هنا نعتقد بأن البروفيسور فارس بقبوله هذا المنصب سيضيف قيمة وجدية لحملة رومني أكثر بكثير مما ستعطيه هذه التسمية من أهمية كونها ستضعه في خانة محددة ومحصورة بجهة معينة ولو في أثناء الحملات الانتخابية فقط.
الجهات التي حاولت المس بسمعة البروفيسور فارس منذ تسميته لهذا المنصب ولا تزال مستمرة بذلك وكل مرة من وسيلة اعلامية مختلفة هي نفسها ونجرؤ على القول انها هي من أضر الأكثر بمصالح العرب خصوصاً والمسلمين عموماً وجعل صورتهم تتواكب دوما مع الارهاب وتترافق مع الاجرام والتخريب حتى أشمأزت المجتمعات الغربية من هؤلاء وضاقت ذرعاً بطروحاتهم. ولذا فإن محاربتهم لوجود شخص مهم مثل البروفيسور فارس في منصب استشاري لأحد المرشحين لرئاسة الولايات المتحدة هو من قبيل " البغضة بالقرايب والحسد بالجيران" كما يقول المثل اللبناني, وهو سيزيد من تعلق المجتمع الغربي بأمثال البروفيسور فارس وليس العكس. وإذا كان الفكر القومي السوري أو البعثي هو من لا يزال يقود هذا الرأي بين عرب اميركا فان على العرب أولا والمسلمين المعتدلين, وهم الأكثرية الصامتة, ثانيا أن يتخلصوا من رواسب النازية تلك وينطلقوا نحو المشاركة في صنع القرارات والتحركات الحضارية. وإذا كان الفكر السلفي أو الاخونجي أو الخمينئي أو "كاير" وغيرها من التنظيمات هو من سيستبدل هؤلاء في تحريك الأرض وقيادة الرأي في الجاليات العربية والاسلامية في العالم فإن حركة التطور ستصاب بالشلل لمدة طويلة ولن تلقى هذه الشعوب آذانا صاغية مدة طويلة, فهؤلاء يملؤهم الحقد والتخلف وقصر النظر والانعزالية القاتلة في عالم الانفتاح والتكنولوجيا المتطورة والتي جعلت منه قرية صغيرة.
لن نخوض بالتفاصيل ونشرح كل ما يقال ونرد على من يعتقد بأنه عندما يعين شخص من أصل شرق أوسطي في منصب مهم في بلد مثل الولايات المتحدة الأميركية يصبح له الحق بإبداء الرأي فيه فقط لكونه يعرف الاسم أو قد يكون سمع به ونحن نقول لهؤلاء "حططوا عن بغلتكم" فلا أنتم من يصنع القرار ولا انتم من يؤثر فيه والأفضل لكم أن تتغنوا بأن أمثال البروفيسور فارس موجودون وقد أثبتوا بأنهم قادرون على الوصول إلى مراكز القرار وهم خير من يعرف كيف توصل الخيوط المقطوعة لا كيف يقطع كل اتصال بكل قوة قادرة ليبقى الشرق الأوسط وشعوبه يدورون في دوامة العنف والحقد والرجعية التي لا توصل إلى هدف ولا تروي غليل.
فإذا كانت "العربية" قد نشرت تقريرا عن هذا الموضوع الأسبوع الماضي ومن ثم "الديلي ستار" اللبنانية قبل يومين وبعض المواقع التي تدعي الدفاع عن العرب والمسلمين, فهذا مؤشر على ان هناك من يعتقد بأن وصول البروفيسور فارس هو ضرر على مصالحه لأن الموضوع المطروح هو نفسه ولكن في مواقع جديدة ومن أسماء تبدو مختلفة ولكنها كلها تصب في المكان نفسه. فمن يقف خلف هذا الموضوع... "العدو الصهيوني"?
كولونيل لبناني متقاعد مقيم في كندا
media.lccc@gmail.com



Friday, January 6, 2012

Arab League brings more deaths to Syrians by diverting attention from Assad's killing machine

STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Gregg Edgar
Gordon C. James Public Relations
gedgar@gcjpr.com


Arab League Monitors are only bringing more deaths to the Syrian people by diverting attention from Assad's killing machine in the streets of Syria

Another 150 have died while farcical monitors give Assad a free pass by taking up what little bandwidth existed for Syria
PHOENIX (January 6, 2012) Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the co-founder of the Save Syria Now! issued the following statement regarding the Arab League monitors in Syria:

“Another week has gone by with the west abdicating its leadership role in Syria to a group of hapless monitors from the Arab League. While the media has regaled us almost daily with stories of attacks on these monitors, the real story of the struggle for the freedom of the Syrian people continues with another 150 dead in the streets.

Bashar Al-Assad is playing the free world as fools by standing in front of our media and agreeing to terms with the cabal of tyrants to end the violence, while in reality he continues to crush opposition beneath his boot. The protesters in the street know that settlement is not an option.  Stepping out of the streets with Assad in power may as well be a death warrant for them.

The Arab League's mission is beyond a farce. It is an inhumane travesty of global proportions run by a Sudanese agent of a genocidal regime whose President is wanted for war crimes committed in his own nation. The monitors have been told where to go by Assad's drivers and used primitive means of documentation if any at all. They are autocrats trying to save face for themselves while their fellow autocrat Bashar Assad is finding himself closer and closer to the end of his tyrannical rule.  The so called monitors have only afforded the Assad regime more time and sucked the bandwidth away from legitimate coverage of the atrocities that Bashar Assad has committed on his own people.

Instead of appeasing conferences with the OIC in Washington where America apologizes for OIC hyperbole over so called western Islamophobia and tries to restrict free speech, the West must put an end to this farce, by demanding that Assad let UN observers and international media into the country to document his crimes.  The United States must push harder on every front for the removal of Assad and step forward as a champion of freedom for the brutalized people of Syria and the free world.


About Save Syria Now!
Save Syria Now! is a group of Americans of Syrian descent organizing to put pressure on the United States to call for immediate action to be taken against the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria and to bring true liberty to the people of Syria.  We stand with the Syrians protesting in the streets to end the tyranny of the Assad family.  For more information please visit our website at http://www.savesyrianow.org/.

Monday, January 2, 2012

U.S. Delusional about Arab Spring, Iran Insists

By Reza Kahlili
American Thinker



The Arab Spring is turning into an American Winter, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, believes. Countries from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen and Bahrain, he insists, are struggling to overthrow ties to the West and embrace Islamist movements, which in the end will look to Iran for leadership.

And the leadership Iran would provide in such a scenario could bring on Armageddon as it amasses nuclear weapons in its quest for Islamic world domination.

"The developments currently unfolding in the world are different than those of the past since they are anti-U.S. and popular in nature," Khamenei said recently, according to MehrNews, the mouthpiece of the Islamic regime in Iran. "Some assume that the United States is stage-managing these developments behind the scenes, but it is sheer delusion. ... Today what we hear in the Arab streets are the same slogans that the Islamic nation of Iran has been saying for the past 30 years." he said.

"The fact that Western media outlets have predicted and acknowledged that Islamists will emerge victorious in the elections that will be held in countries in transition also prove the Islamic nature of regional revolutions," Khamenei said.



The Iranian dictator also criticized the U.S. for adopting a double standard toward the developments occurring in Egypt and other countries, adding that any popular, democratic and patriotic person who comes to power in one of those countries will definitely oppose the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel.

In recent months, many Iranian clerics have issued statements of admiration for Khamenei, calling him the deputy of the last Islamic messiah, Mahdi, the Shiites' 12th Imam, and even going so far as announcing that disobeying the supreme leader is equivalent to "apostasy from God." According to Shiite belief, Mahdi will reappear after great world chaos and destruction, and Islam will rule the world.

One prominent ayatollah, Mesbah Yazdi, one of Iran's leading advocates of Islamic end times' ideology, has stated that Khamenei ascends to the sky every year for five hours to meet with Imam Mahdi and to consult about what action to take next. It is said that Khamenei has been told by Imam Mahdi to continue full speed with the Iranian nuclear program and not to fear anyone or any threats.

That fanatical belief could become a self-fulfilling prophecy should Revolutionary Guard forces launch a nuclear attack against Israel. Iranian leaders have often stated their goal is to destroy the Jewish state.

The radicals ruling Iran believe that Khamenei is the mythical figure who will pave the way for the Mahdi's return. They believe the current uprisings in the Middle East -- as they call it, an "Islamic awakening" -- are another sign that the end is near and that Khamenei is on a righteous path for the final destruction of Israel, America and the infidels.

According to an Iranian secret documentary revealed back in April, titled "The Coming Is Upon Us," the current unrest in the Middle East is a divine signal that Iran will soon help usher in the end of days and the return of their messiah, Mahdi.

Khamenei, since being appointed the supreme leader of the regime, has shown to be a vengeful and cruel dictator, ordering the assassination of opposition figures outside the country, and the arrest, torture and execution of thousands of Iranians inside the country who voiced their resentment against the injustices of the Islamic regime. Khamenei was responsible for the fraudulent elections of 2009 in selecting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term and ordering the suppression of the Iranians with their uprising against the regime.

Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Iranian Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, recently announced that he plans to ask the United Nations to bring Iran's supreme leader before the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Reza Pahlavi is among the exiles working for regime change in Iran. He said at a Paris news conference recently that Khamenei must be held responsible for the executions, jailing and torture of political dissidents.

Pahlavi said he will submit a complaint about Khamenei to the five permanent U.N. Security Council members along with a report of the cleric's alleged crimes.

It is time for the world community to stand on the side of justice and condemn the crimes done by the Islamic regime in Iran and hold its leaders responsible, for if we remain silent, we are complicit.

And silence could very easily lead to that self-fulfilling prophecy.


Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 Appreciation: Radio Koocheh & Tea Party Tribune

 


Much appreciation to independent Persian media outlet Radio Koocheh and the bipartisan Tea Party Tribune for raising awareness of our Federation's associates, friends, and those we admire in 2011. Powers like rights to free press, and acts of unity across the Middle East with the West are integral parts of these revolutions that will soon bring liberties for all. 

Radio Koocheh: www.radiokoocheh.com
Tea Party Tribune: www.teapartytribune.com


Best to All for 2012



Prague’s Havel Is Gone Waiting For The Middle Eastern Havels To Come - Dr. Walid Phares
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/140864
Muslims around the world must unite to condemn attacks on Christians - American Islamic Leadership Coalition
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/141574
Why is Rafsanjani’s son studying at Oxford? - Emanuele Ottoleghi
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/140873
PolitiZoid: Raiders of the Lost Mubarak
http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/12/13/politizoid-raiders-of-the-lost-mubarak/
Petrodollars funded Middle East Studies failed to predict the Arab upheavals - Dr. Walid Phares
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/139162
http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/12/12/petrodollars-funded-middle-east-studies-failed-to-predict-the-arab-upheavals/
Phares to Arab media: "Strategically the US lost to Iran in Iraq" - WalidPhares.com
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/139038
Islamist lobbies' war in Washington on Arab and Muslim seculars 
By Dr. Essam Abdallah
http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/12/08/islamist-lobbies-war-in-washington-on-arab-and-muslim-seculars/
Libya's missing missiles: a threat to US airline passengers - Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/138659
Speech: The Importance of the Rule of Law - Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/133832
Huffington’s Blogger wages Jihad Against Republican Candidates by Misrepresenting Muslim-Americans - Ali Abdallah 
http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/12/06/huffingtons-blogger-wages-jihad-against-republican-candidates-by-misrepresenting-muslim-americans/
Jihad: Gingrich Contends with Theology and Romney Addresses the Strategies  - Attorney John Hajjar
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/139511
http://www.teapartytribune.com/2011/12/14/jihad-gingrich-contends-with-theology-and-romney-addresses-the-strategies/
 "..US Response to Iran Aggression Fumbling.." - Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld & K.D.M.  Jensen
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/134743
"I Won't Let Iran Get Nukes" - Mitt Romney, WSJ
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/134362
KAHLILI: Iran already has nuclear weapons - Washington Times
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/132749
An Open Letter to European Parliament's Delegation ~ Independent Iranian Activists
http://radiokoocheh.com/article/132261

Friday, December 30, 2011

AILC: Muslims around the world must unite to condemn attacks on Christians




NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:           
Gregg Edgar
Gordon C. James Public Relations
602-690-7977


Also posted on Radio Koocheh, independent Persian media: http://radiokoocheh.com/article/141574


Muslims around the world must unite to condemn attacks on Christians
Washington, DC (December 31, 2011) – The American Islamic Leadership Coalition, a group of diverse American Muslim leaders released the following statement regarding the awful tragedy that struck Christian communities in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
The radical Islamist organization Boko Haram, which murdered and maimed innocent Nigerian Christians on Christmas Day, does not represent the majority of Muslims around the world.  Boko Haram is a radical Islamist group (“boko haram” means "Western Education is Sinful") that attacked churches last year as well and has vowed similar attacks in the future. Their actions should be condemned by all Muslims, especially by Muslim leaders


Islamist groups like Boko Haram want to create an Islamic state based on their interpretations of shariah (Islamic jurisprudence).  The Christian presence in Nigeria is perceived as a great impediment to this mission (48 % of the Nigerian population is Christian). The choice Christmas Day to perpetrate their wanton violence illustrates the hateful fascistic sectarian state Boko Haram seeks to impose upon the Nigerian people.

Boko Haram is guided by militant Islamism and its medieval notions of society. For them, full citizenship is limited to those who share their religious beliefs and affiliation, and their Christmas Day act demonstrates the depravity to which they will stoop in realizing that grim vision. The Nigerian government has thus far been unsuccessful in preventing attacks on its Christian citizens, despite a crackdown against the militant group by paramilitary agencies.

The Vatican and secular Western leaders have rightly condemned the attacks on Nigeria’s Christians as heinous, evil, and cowardly.  We would like to hear unequivocal denunciations of Boko Haram and other radical Islamist groups terrorizing Christian and other minority communities from every respectable Muslim leader in the free world.  Muslim scholars, activists, politicians, and community leaders must respond forcefully to the murderous and supremacist tendencies of Muslim extremist groups, and support the enforcement of the rule of law against such groups. The world must not tolerate or excuse carnage against fellow citizens on any day in any country. All Muslims, and all civilized governments around the world, must put an end to the madness and hatred expressed in brutal acts such as the Christmas attacks in Nigeria.

We hereby declare our total condemnation against the supremacist Islamism  which feeds groups like Boko Haram, and call upon all our Muslim brothers and sisters to stand for pluralism, freedom, and the unyielding and equal respect of universal human rights for all people, especially in Muslim majority nations.”

About the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC)
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) is a diverse coalition of liberty-minded, North American Muslim leaders and organizations. AILC’s mission advocates for defending the US Constitution, upholding religious pluralism, protecting American security and cherishing genuine diversity in the faith and practice of Islam. AILC provides a stark alternative to the Islamist organizations that claim to speak for what are diverse American Muslim communities. For more information on AILC, please visit our website at http://www.americanislamicleadership.org/.
AILC Coalition Signatories
Golam Akhter
Bangladesh-USA Human Rights Coalition Inc.
Washington, DC

Bahman Batmanghelidj
Founding Member
Alliance for Democracy in Iran
Virginia, USA

Abdirizak Bihi
Somalian Community Activist

Manda Zand Ervin
President
Maryland, USA

Tarek Fatah
Founder
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Farid Ghadry
President
Reform Party of Syria
Washington, DC

Jamal Hasan
Baltimore, MD

Past President
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Arif Humayun
Circle of Peace
Vancouver, Washington

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.
President
Phoenix, AZ

Member, Advisory Board
Free Muslim Coalition
Dallas, TX

Racquel Evita Saraswati
Activist and Journalist

Behrooz Sarshar
Virginia, USA

Jalal Zuberi, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Atlanta, GA

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Of Pharaohs, Kings and Generals: What about the Egyptian People?


By Michael Granger
Radnor Geopolitical Report
Chicago, December 2011

On February 11, 2011, after the Egyptian Military turned the barrels of their guns away from the protesters in Tahrir Square, Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down as president of Egypt and the world was moved by the restraint shown by the military. It was seen as a gesture of love of country and respect for the Egyptian people and not a ploy to wrest control of the revolution from the intrepid protesters. There was a universal feeling that Egypt had crossed the Rubicon, away from dictatorship and rule by force to that of the people through the rule of law.

Instead, they were changing the figurehead of what essentially remains a military dictatorship. Less than a year later, the junta installed to transition Egypt to the democracy the people were desperate for has broken the promise and has betrayed the trust. Instead, and once again, the cries of the Egyptian people for democracy have been met with brutality.

It must be difficult for a country with such a rich history, reaching back 5000 years, a pioneer in agriculture, architecture, mathematics and even the first known treaty, to shift its paradigm of governing from dictatorship to democracy, away from being ruled by pharaohs, kings and generals, to the rule of the people. It is truly amazing how tone deaf the generals have been to the will of the people. They have betrayed the sacred trust of the revolution and it is doubtful that the current leadership can ever be trusted to be shepherds to take their citizens to a new Egypt. It seems that democracy is not in their DNA.

It is quite disappointing to see Egypt’s military leadership behave this way. How can they possibly ask their people to return to the past and reject the self-evident truths that form the basis for democracy: All men are created equal and are endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights, once tasted, leave an unquenchable thirst in the human spirit. This thirst cannot be quenched but is rather increased by dictatorship and despotism.

In the age of its primacy, long before the birth of Christ and preceding the rise of the Greeks and the Romans, Egypt was a center of enlightenment. We all desire to visit the pyramids and to marvel at the great examples of human advancement Egypt showed the world. Dictatorial leadership in the age of democracy is at best a throttle on that kind of progress.

Like any other difficult situation, there is a positive side, however short-term, to the military being in charge. It is that they are the best equipped by experience to manage relationships with allies like the United States and Europe without injecting sectarian politics into the equation. This, however, cannot long prevail over the necessity of bringing Egypt to democracy.

The question now is that given the broken trust, can the various parties work out their differences without bloodshed. Because if the military turns its guns on Egypt’s citizens in a wholesale fashion, the society will forever be scarred. When a government turns its guns on citizens who express legitimate yearnings for democracy, it changes into a totally different animal. It becomes a retched, despotic regime unworthy of governing.

Much of life is about choices and the military junta in Egypt has a choice to make. They must choose between a democratic Egypt and a discredited Egypt.

The Egypt we hope and pray for is the former. The Egypt we dread is the latter.



Egyptian security forces raid human rights & democracy organizations



Please see headlines, press release and footage below. Seven (7) of the seventeen (17) American and Egyptian entities include:

- Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary (Nasser Amin, Chair and rights lawyer)
- Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory
- Future Center for Judicial Studies
Konrad Adenauer Foundation (German think tank, affiliated to Chancellor Angela Merkel's party)
- International Republican Institute
- National Democratic Institute
- Freedom House

Related organizations receiving similar allegations:

- al-Sunna al-Muhammadiya Association (conservative Islamic Salafi movement)


Video: Egypt authorities raid foreign-funded NGOs - EuroNews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsgTFJh0nGI



Video: Egyptian security forces seize computers and files
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFtiySV1rmI




Press Release: Freedom House Condemns Raids of NGOs in Egypt
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=1544


Report: US 'Deeply Concerned' After Egyptian Police Raid Offices of US Rights Groups - FoxNews
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/29/us-deeply-concerned-after-egyptian-police-raid-offices-us-rights-groups/#ixzz1hy9pQcOT


Report: Egypt police raid offices of human rights groups in Cairo - Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/29/egypt-police-raid-human-rights-groups


Report: Egypt security forces storm NGO offices - AlJazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/12/20111229152611424630.html


Report: Egypts Democracy Activists Fear Wider Clampdown