New Egyptian war: Americans lose, again

Source : islmaicinvitationturkey.con

Looking at the banners in the massive Egyptian protests last week, we saw many anti-American slogans. Likewise, the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that was deposed by the military last week was very critical of what it saw as U.S. support for the coup. Why is it that all sides in this Egyptian civil war seem so angry with the United States? Because the United States has at one point or another supported each side, which means also that at some point the U.S. has also opposed each side. It is the constant meddling in Egyptian affairs that has turned Egyptians against us, as we would resent foreign intervention in our own affairs.

For more than 30 years, since the U.S.-brokered Camp David Accord between Israel and Egypt, the U.S. supported Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. Over that period the U.S. sent more than $60 billion to prop up Mubarak and, importantly, to train and seek control over the Egyptian military. Those who opposed Mubarak’s unelected reign became more and more resentful of the U.S., which they rightly saw as aiding and abetting a dictator and denying them their political aspirations.

Then the U.S. began providing assistance to groups seeking to overthrow Mubarak, which they did in 2011. The U.S. continued funding the Egyptian military at that time, arguing that U.S. aid was more critical than ever if we are to maintain influence. The U.S. Administration demanded an election in Egypt after Mubarak’s overthrow and an election was held. Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won a narrow victory. The U.S. supported Morsi but kept funding the Egyptian military.

After a year of Morsi’s rule, Egyptians who did not approve of his government took to the streets to demand his removal from power. The U.S. signaled to the Egyptian military that it would not oppose the removal of Morsi from power, and he was removed on July 3rd. With the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-led government came the arrest of many politicians and the closure of many media outlets sympathetic to them. Then the U.S. government warned the same Egyptian military that undermined democracy that it needed to restore democracy! Is it any wonder why Egyptians from all walks of life are united in their irritation with the United States?

Despite the Egyptian government being overthrown by a military coup, the Obama Administration will not utter the word “coup” because acknowledging reality would mean an end to U.S. assistance to the Egyptian government and military. That cannot be allowed.

Instead, we see the same Obama administration that is on a worldwide manhunt for pro-transparency whistle-blower Edward Snowden demand that the Egyptian military exercise “political transparency” in its dealings with the ousted Muslim Brotherhood-led government.

So, successive U.S. administrations over the decades have supported all sides in Egypt, from dictator to demonstrator to military. There is only one side that the U.S. government has never supported: our side. The American side. It has never supported the side of the U.S. taxpayers who resent being forced to fund a foreign dictatorship, a foreign military, and foreign protestors. It has never supported the side of the majority of Americans who do not wish to get involved in the confusing internal affairs of countries thousands of miles away. It has never supported the side of those of us concerned about blowback, which is the real threat to our national security. Unfortunately, U.S. administrations continue to follow the same old failed policies and Obama is no different. More intervention, more foreign aid, more bullying, more empire

New mob killing in Egypt's Sharqiya: Son of Brotherhood leader beaten to death

Source : Ahram Online

Scores of residents beat to death the son of a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm Friday in Zagazig city in Egypt's Nile Delta Sharqiya governorate, which has seen a significant number of mob killings recently.

Security sources told Ahram Online that hundreds of El- Qataweya village residents ransacked the house of Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leader, Rabie Lasheen, in the early hours of Friday, setting his furniture and three cars on fire apart from killing his son. Revenge was their motive.

Lasheen's son, Youssef, was accused of shooting a 28-year-old man merely for insulting his father in a Facebook post for his affiliation with the FJP. An auto rickshaw (tok tok) driver in his 40s was accidentally gunned down too.

The revengeful mob, including members of both men's families, dragged Lasheen's son to the street and used bladed weapons while assaulted him, according to Al-Ahram's daily correspondent. The assistants then left him for dead in the street.

Youssef was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to the fatal injuries.

The police forces were completely absent from the scene until dawn on Friday, where only two policemen were dispatched to Lasheen's house after the end of the melee, according to Al-Ahram's correspondent.

Mob killings have been recurrent in villages and rural areas across Egypt, thanks to a security vacuum seen after Egypt's 2011 uprising.

The Sharqiya governorate is considered to be the most plagued with brutal unofficial executions.

Saudi Cleric Urges Reforms to Ease Tensions in Kingdom

Source : http://www.almanar.com.lb

Saudi preacher has appealed for reforms in the ultra- conservative kingdom, warning in an open letter posted Saturday on social networks that denial of rights was raising tensions in the country.

"The people have aspirations, demands and rights and they will not stay silent on total or partial confiscation of their rights. When you lose hope, you can do anything," said Salman al-Auda from Sahwa, a movement close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

He appealed for a series of reforms and "opening of a new horizon" in the kingdom which applies a strict version of Islam.

Auda said the rising tension in Saudi Arabia was the result of "corruption, unemployment, poor housing, weak health and educational services and a lack of political reforms."

He said "a security solution would only aggravate the situation and block the path to reforms," adding that "nobody wishes to see a spark transform into a fire that would burn the country".

The detention of Saudis accused of extremism would only "increase the bitterness, the desire for revenge and mushrooming of jihadist thinking in prisons," Auda warned.

The cleric, whose sermons are popular in religious programs on Televisions, called for the release of rights activists like Mohammad Gahtani and Abdallah al-Hamed jailed for denouncing human rights abuses, and denounced the "continuing practice of censorship" by the kingdom's information officials.

Saudi Arabia has remained relatively untouched by the Arab Spring uprisings, but protesters have tried holding peaceful demonstrations to demand the release of prisoners of conscience.

An independent Saudi rights organization says the country has about 30,000 political prisoners, a charge Riyadh denies, claiming there are none.

Al-Manar Website Uncovers Internal Document for Al-Nusra Front

Source : Al-Manar

Al-Manar Website Uncovers an Internal Document for Al-Nusra Front:

How Turkey Recruits Fighters in Syria

The document is a ten page application form distributed by the Turkish authorities on Syrians inside Syria. Based on the information mentioned in the application, the individual is enlisted either in the ranks of a certain phalanx that fights in Syria, as an intelligence agent, or as a recruit for the intelligence agents that work inside Syria.

The source of this document is an injured Syrian who was in the ranks of the militants. His family took him to Europe for treatment after he was injured in his spinal cord, so he passed on this document to us to publish it and comment on its articles and points.

The injured Syrian said the Turkish authorities established a “Center for Civil Society and Democracy in Syria” as a civil facade to Al-Nusra Front and the militants its trains and arms in its lands before it sends them to Syria.

Turkey also relies on these forms to specify the individuals that it could take to military training camps in Turkey, as well as those who could form military and security cells inside Syria.

He added that “all the supervisors of this center are from the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and they personally lead Al-Nusra Front.”

The injured Syrian further tells us that one person could fill more than one form, as he could fill forms for people he knows, or he could work on finding people that would fill their personal forms.

Moreover, Turkey presents for each individual, who could find 60 people to fill forms in Syria, a large sum of money.

The injured Syrian said that this form was put by the Turks and they are the ones who supervise the training program, while Qatar and Saudi Arabia fund the civil society center, in addition to cash money that come from France, America, and Germany.

The application form is consisted of 28 articles, and the following points are noticed in it:

1- Article number seven is related to military information and data from the Syrian Arab Army, and it is consisted of 13 sections.

2- Articles between nine and 23 are questions and information about the Syrian society.

3- Articles between 23 and 27 are security and intelligence questions.

4- Article 28 includes questions about the sectarian structure in each applicant’s region.

UAE-Egypt Crisis: Mubarak and Iran Lurk in the Background

Source :  Al Akhbar English

Wednesday’s visit by the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi to Egypt only added more fuel to the fire burning between Cairo and the United Arab Emirates.

Tensions between the two countries intensified after the recent arrest of 11 Egyptians in the UAE on charges of belonging to a secret Muslim Brotherhood cell that was plotting to destabilize the country.

Abu Dhabi fears that relations between its long-time foe Iran and, until recently, its close ally Egypt will improve as its relations with Cairo sour.

According to head of the Cairo-based al-Sharq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies Mustafa al-Labbad, Egyptian-Iranian relations have a long way to go before they return to normal.

He dismisses the idea that Salehi’s visit will significantly change the nature of the relationship between the two countries, arguing that it is intended to prevent relations from worsening.

As an example, he points out the collapse of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi’s attempt to bring together Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to devise a solution for resolving the Syrian crisis.

In the case of the UAE, he attributes the increasing tensions to “threats that the regime is sensing, particularly from the rising star of the Islah Front in the UAE, which is seen as a shadow branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Saudi Arabia, too, shares the same concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood will one day influence a section of the Saudi elite that is independent of the regime, thus threatening Riyadh’s influential role in the Arab world.”

Former advisor to the Egyptian foreign minister Hani Khlaf largely agrees with Labbad, criticizing Mursi’s speech at the last Summit of the Non- Aligned in Tehran, in which the Egyptian president “reminded us of sectarian divisions between Sunnis and Shia.”

He adds that any new government in Egypt was bound to have problems with those Gulf countries that once had warm and close relations with the fallen Mubarak regime.

He suggests that one source of Abu Dhabi’s frustrations toward Cairo may be due to the fact that successive Egyptian governments after the revolution “refused an offer by the Emirates to pay a large sum of money – possibly amounting to billions of dollars – to keep Mubarak out of jail.”

Khlaf explains that the UAE did this out of loyalty to Mubarak, adding that Egypt’s current relationship with the Arab Gulf countries after the revolution is the opposite of what it was before.

“For example, the Mubarak regime maintained close ties with the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain before the revolution as compared to tepid relations with Qatar and Kuwait,” Khlaf says.

“These two countries,” he adds, “were therefore more supportive of any attempts to shed remnants of the old order, as opposed to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular.”

Khlaf further attributes the crisis to “the presence of symbols of the old [Egyptian] regime in the Emirates, in addition to businessmen who had ties to Mubarak.”

Many of them, he explains, are very influential, having developed close contacts with a number of powerful members of the Emirati ruling class and have been granted residency there as a result.

And it did not help that the Egyptian presidency showed such high concern for the alleged Muslim Brotherhood cell, according to Khlaf.

It was to such an extent that Egypt’s intelligence chief, Rifaat Shehata, joined the high-level delegation sent to the UAE to look into the case of those arrested.

Lebanon Muslim Brotherhood lauds Iran 6-point peace plan for Syria

Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey

The secretary general of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has lauded Iran’s six-point peace plan to settle the unrest in Syria, urging all parties to remain committed to the proposal to secure its implementation.

According to Press TV, Ibrahim al-Masri in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi on Friday said: “The fulfillment of such plans requires the commitment of all sides and we hope that we will witness the end of conflicts and implementation of reforms in Syria in the near future.” During the meeting, the two sides discussed regional developments. Roknabadi and al-Masri called for efforts to settle the unrest in Syria through negotiations and political approaches. They also stressed the importance of maintaining stability in Lebanon and adopting measures to prevent the impact of Syria crisis on the country. On December 16, 2012, Iran unveiled the details of its six-point plan to resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria, which calls for an immediate end to all violent and armed acts. The plan calls for sending humanitarian aid to Syrians following the end of all conflicts, lifting all economic sanctions imposed against the country, and facilitating the return of displaced Syrians to their homes. It also urges talks between the Syrian government and the representatives of all Syrian groups regardless of their political and social tendencies in order to form a national reconciliation committee.

EU calls on Muslim Governments to Protest Embassies

BRUSSELS, September 15 (RIA Novosti) Tags: "Innocence of Muslims", Christopher Stevens, Catherine Ashton Chief EU diplomat Catherine Ashton strongly condemned the attacks on Western diplomatic missions in several Muslim countries and urged the local authorities to ensure their security. "I have been following the development with great concern and urge the national authorities of the affected countries to quickly ensure the safety of diplomatic missions and to protect diplomatic personnel," she said in a statement to RIA Novosti. Riots erupted across the Muslim world this week in response to an American anti-Islam video, "Innocence of Muslims," posted to the Internet on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three others were killed in Benghazi on Tuesday in one of the first of several such riots, which have since spread to Tunisia and Sudan, among other predominantly Muslim countries. About 5,000 rioters also attacked the Embassies of Germany and the U.K. in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Egypt president names Copt and woman among assistance

BBC News -

Samir Murqus, a liberal Coptic writer, was named assistant for democratic transition, officials announced. Pakinam al-Sharkawi, who teaches political sciences at Cairo University, will be in charge of political affairs. During his election campaign Mr Mursi said he would appoint Copts among his advisers, possibly as vice-president. However, he named Mahmoud Mekki, a veteran judge who campaigned for judicial independence under Hosni Mubarak, as his deputy. Copts, who make up about 10% of Egypt's 82 million people, were also disappointed that the new cabinet includes only one Christian.

The two other assistants appointed on Monday are members of the two Islamist parties which dominated parliament before it was dissolved in June after a court found the election law had been unconstitutional. Imad Abdul Ghafour, the head of the ultraconservative Salafist Nour party, is in charge of relations with civil society, while Issam al-Haddad of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, will look after external relations and international co-operation. Mr Mursi also named on Monday the first 17 members of his "presidential advisory team", with whom he will hold regular meetings. They include former presidential candidate Mohammed Salim al-Awwa, Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam al-Aryan, political expert Seif al-Din Abdul Fattah and writer Sekina Fouad.

Muslim Brotherhood's partying reveals candidate for Libyan PM

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Muslim Brotherhood's partying reveals candidate for Libyan PM - Xinhua |

TRIPOLI, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) --The Justice and Construction (J&C) Party, political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, announced its candidate for the prime minister in the new Libyan government on Saturday. Awad Barasi, now Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, will join the competition for the J&C Party, according to an official statement. "Mr. Barasi is a well-known political figure. We believe he is best suited to lead the coming transitional phase of the Libyan state, especially since his term in electricity ministry was marked by his wise leadership and responsible attitude. Despite all the difficulties, his ministry managed to provide electricity during the past and present periods," said Mohammed Sawan, chairman of the J&C Party. The J&C Party's main rival would be the National Forces Alliance (NFA), led by wartime Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril.

The NFA came first in Libya's parliamentary elections last month and won 39 seats in the national congress, while the J&C came second with 17 seats. The J&C is hoping to win over independent members in the congress to secure premiership.