EGYPT - Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt (الزاوية الإسلامية في المصر), representing the most powerful opposition group in Egypt's General Elections, is now launching their candidates. As the Brotherhood is officially forbidden and, therefore, excluded from the elections, their members are acting as "independent" candidates who, nevertheless, don't hide their real origin. An interesting feature by Al-Jazeera [Nov. 26, 2010].



Another video: Two days before the 2010 General Elections, a spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt describes the situation of Egypt's most powerful opposition group. Its all about how to resist the dictatorship of President Mubarak's National Democratic Party that is expected to sweep parliament with the help of ruling power and secret police, ignoring, both, the basic rules of democracy and the outcome of earlier lawsuits on election fraud [Nov. 26, 2010].



UPDATE after General Elections:
Outcome of the first round of elections in Egypt. "Independent" candidates related to the Muslim Brotherhood lost all their seats in parliament. As the Brotherhood is known to enjoy broad public support in Egypt, the elections should be considered as rigged. Al-Jazeera report from December 1, 2010.

WIKILEAKS ويكيليكس - Latest News

موقع ويكيــــليكس يعتزم نشر وثائـــــق جديدة
يقول إنها أكبر سبع مرات من الوثائق السابقة

الـسفـيـر الأمريكــي في بغداد يقول إن
نشر وثائق سرية جديدة أمرسيئ للغاية


Wikileaks announced its decision to publish a new
set of documents that should include seven times
more documents than those earlier published.

U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is considering the
latest Wikileaks publication as extremely serious.

Yesterday, November 26, and in its feature "Behind the News", the Arabic channel of Al-Jazeera broadcast a discussion including two correspondents from Washington and Beirut on the impact which latest publications by Wikileaks, expected to come this weekend, might have on diplomatic relations between the U.S. and their international partners like Russia and China.
Above all, regional relations have been discussed that are considered to be extremely difficult. As to the Iraqi subject, for instance, U.S. relations with Turkey and Iraqi Kurds might be affected. The same problem might arise for the negotiations between Israel and Palestine, now being pushed forward by the Obama administration at a very critical state.

The British daily "The Guardian" which is among the few papers of international repute that got an exclusive taste of Wikileaks' upcoming release, already wrote about an expected publication of secret cables from U.S. diplomats in their November 27 edition.



To get an idea of the range of subjects Wikileaks is dealing with, here a screenshot of Wikileaks' table of contents extracted from an earlier release, dating back to October 22, 2010. Click to the image and load the attached pdf file !



UPDATE from December 2, 2010:
Further news from the WikiLeaks release of U.S. diplomatic cables. This time it's about Russia. Different U.S. sources hold Russia as a Mafia state where organised criminals and parts of the government are working "hand in hand".



UPDATE from December 3, 2010:

ويكيليكس و المخطط الحرب ضد الايران من العربية السعودية

Viktor Bout - Master of War

The famous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has been
surprisingly extradited from Thailand to the U.S.A. on
behalf of the Thai government.

After two years in a Bangkok prison, he is now facing
charges of supporting terrorism by selling all kinds
of arms to Africa, Central Asia and Central America.
It is namely his arms delivery to the Latin American
rebels of FARC organization that makes him wanted by
U.S. authorities. He had been captured by Thai troops
under the guidance of U.S. specialists in March 2008.

Despite accusations against the Thai prime minister
made by Bout's wife Ala and angry comments from the
Russian government, Viktor Bout has already been flewn
out on a U.S. military plane and accompanied by several
U.S. agents. Nevertheless, it seems that some Thai laws
have been "bended" in this case.

By the way, it's the same Viktor Bout that served as a
model for the 2005 motion picture "Master of War"
or "El Señor de la Guerra", starring Nicholas Cage as
the main character.

[Source: RUSSIA TODAY TV, Spanish service]



UPDATE, November 18, 2010:
[Source: Al-Jazeera TV, English service]

AFGHANISTAN - Reduction of Foreign Troops Demanded

President Karzai recently urged the reduction of foreign troops in his country. As well, he demanded that foreign units should refrain from military activity at night.
Source: Al-Jazeera.

PAKISTAN - Bombing Karachi into Ruins

Yesterday, a huge blast hit the center of Karachi, Pakistan's most important center of commerce and industry. An enormous crater has been formed by the detonation of a truck loaded with about 1.000 kilograms of explosives. This happened on a police compound housing a crime investigation unit of the Pakistani anti-terror squad. The building itself has been totally ruined and about one square kilometer of the town has been affected as well. Even in distant houses lots of windows have been knocked out by an enormous wave of pressure. The incident left at least 15 dead and 100 wounded, most of the victims being security personnel.

G 20 Summit 2010 - Saving Western Economy

U.S. President Obama's speech at the end of the actual G20 Summit in Seoul has two crucial points: How to restore U.S. trade balance and urging China to allow their currency being driven by the laws of the market.
In fact, there are dark clouds in the sky when it comes to the relation between western markets and eastern expansion.

G.W.Bush on Terrorism - Torture OK !

In his 481-page memoirs "Points of Decision", former
U.S. president George Bush jun. now justifies the use
of a special torture called "waterboarding" when it
comes to harvest information from detained suspects
of terrorism.
Seen in the frame of widespread international mistrust
against the U.S. way of dealing with that matter and of
fruitless efforts by the Obama administration to imme-
diately close the detainee camp at Guantánamo, such
stances are not really helpful to restore U.S. credibility
in the world.
But what else did you expect from the Bush league ?

Islamic Terror - Bloody Harvest

Today, 70 persons died in two different bomb explosions in Peshawar province in north-western Pakistan while about 120 were injured. UN secretary general Ban Ki Mun expressed his concern about these attacks that had two mosques as their targets.
Similar attacks in the past have been related either to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. As more and more "foreign mercenaries" are closing the ranks of the Taliban, it is difficult to decide from the outside which element of Islamic resistance is now dominating each operation of the Taliban forces.
Arabic source



Another Arabic source is analyzing the position and performance of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan in the frame of regional political relations and tensions in Central Asia:
طالبان و القاعدة في باكستان
شكلت طالبان باكستان ما يشبه درعا لكل من القاعدة وطالبان أفغانستان ووفرت لهما ملاذا آمنا رغم كل الضربات التي كالتها لها أميركا بنفسها أو من خلال الضغط على الجيش الباكستاني لتنفيذ عمليات عسكرية في منطقة وزيرستان والمناطق الحدودية. لكن ما لعب لمصلحة طالبان والقاعدة معا هو أن باكستان تدرك أنه ليس من مصلحتها القضاء على طالبان أفغانستان والقاعدة نهائيا، لكون ذلك يصب في نهاية المطاف لصالح الهند والأحزاب والأفغانية الموالية لها. كما أن إسلام آباد لا تثق بالنوايا الأميركية، خاصة وأنها سمحت سابقا للتحالف الشمالي الموالي لإيران والهند بالسيطرة على كابول وفرض رؤيته الخاصة، وقامت راهنا باستقبال رئيس الوزراء الهندي مانموهان سنغ في البيت الأبيض قبل إعلان الرئيس الأميركي باراك أوباما لإستراتيجيته الجديدة في أفغانستان



أوباما و سنغ

Obama backing permanent
membership of Pakistan's
arch-enemy India in UNO
Security Council (Nov.2010)

---

The same day, it was published by the Arabic service of Al-Jazeera that the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai on September 3 has to be related to Al-Qaeda because Bin Laden's organization took over responsibility for bombing that plane in a video recently found on the internet. Now, the United Arab Emirates UAE will review the possibility that a bomb caused the UPS plane to crash in Dubai although no proof has emerged so far. Read more !



Earlier information on "UPS explosive parcels" is available on another blogspot of mine (=> look at further news of the day).

Latest news (November 9, 2010):
Now, the Jemenite government decided to hunt down Awalaki (picture
below) who is seen as one spiritual leader of Al-Qaeda terrorists in
Jemen, deemed to be responsible for building and mailing parcel bombs.


Arabic source

U.S.A. - Republicans Win The House

Just minutes ago, CNN prejected that U.S. Republicans are going to win over the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in the 2010 Midterm Elections. Such elections in the middle of a presidential term are putting about one third of the House's seats at stake. At the same time, there are new senators to be voted to the second chamber of Congress. In addition, some states are voting for new governors this night.

Bad luck for President Obama whose healthcare program and economy stimulus plan are being rejected by the Republicans and their pacemakers, the Tea Party Movement, their common neoliberal position being: "Too much involvement of state endangers freedom of individual enterprise."

Yet, distribution of seats in the Senate is still undecided at this time. Maybe, the majority in Senate held by Obama's Democratic Party will turn out to remain solid.