End of an era as Prince Bandar departs Saudi intelligence post

Prince's exit could signal shift in kingdom's policy towards Syria, with looming leadership transition complicating picture

The Guardian, Ian Black, Middle East editor, Wednesday 16 April 2014

Prince Bandar bin Sultan in 2008. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Prince Bandar bin Sultan's departure as head of Saudi intelligence, confirmed this week, marks the end of an era for a flamboyant and powerful character on the Middle Eastern stage. The big question is whether it signals a meaningful shift in the kingdom's policy towards Syria and its commitment to the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

Bandar – known as "Bandar Bush" from his 22 years as Saudi ambassador to the US – is a legendary networker and hawk. The Saudi press agency said he stepped down at his own request. (It did not say whether he would continue as head of the national security council, a less important position.) He will be replaced by his deputy at the Saudi equivalent of the CIA, Youssef bin Ali al-Idrisi, who is not a royal and therefore far less powerful.

For the past 18 months Bandar had led Saudi efforts to better co-ordinate the supply of weapons to Syrian rebels fighting Assad. But he faced criticism for backing extreme Islamist groups and thus risking a repeat of the "blowback" that brought Osama bin Laden's Saudi fighters home after the officially sanctioned jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Bandar's departure is not a complete surprise. Amid unprecedented tensions in relations between Riyadh and Washington, there had been signs he had fallen from favour and had in effect already been sidelined on Syria.

"Bandar's approach was very black and white," said one well placed observer. "And he seems to have over-promised to the king in terms of confidently predicting Assad's departure."

He was often abroad, reportedly being treated for health problems, or "unavailable" at home due to illness. He is also known to suffer badly from depression. Several months ago he failed to turn up for an urgently-scheduled meeting on Syria with David Cameron at Chequers.

According to sources in Riyadh, Bandar faced strong opposition from the powerful interior minister (and possible future king), Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who led the crackdown on al-Qaida following a wave of attacks between 2003 and 2006. Bin Nayef became increasingly concerned about battle-hardened young Saudis returning home radicalised after fighting in Syria. Bandar's removal probably reflects that policy divergence, western diplomats and Saudis say.

Bandar has irritated the Americans with outspoken criticism of Barack Obama's failure to punish Syria following the chemical weapons attack near Damascus last August. After that he talked of limiting interaction with the US in protest at its policies on Syria, Israel and especially the beginning of rapprochement with Iran – the latter an unchanging bogeyman and regional and sectarian rival for the Saudi prince. Bandar was also said by a senior Arab figure to have angrily threatened the emir of Qatar, which upstaged its larger neighbour in backing anti-Assad forces. His departure may help heal the rift between the US and the kingdom following last month's meeting between Obama and Abdullah. That, in turn, could impact on Saudi policy towards Syria.

Bandar, a former fighter pilot, is King Abdullah's nephew. He was close to presidents Reagan and both Bushes. He negotiated huge arms deals for the kingdom – including the infamous £43bn al-Yamamah agreement with the UK. The Guardian reported allegations that he had received £1bn in secret payments from BAE.

Known for his showy lifestyle – he has a penchant for cigars and flies in a private Airbus – he has kept a low profile since returning from the US to Riyadh in 2005. He became head of intelligence in July 2012. Apart from the Syria file, he was also closely involved in Saudi support for Egypt's military rulers after they ousted the Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi.

Saudi-watchers say decision-making in Riyadh is in poor shape. King Abdullah is 90 and frail, Crown Prince Salman is 78. Last month the appointment of a new deputy crown prince, Muqrin, a relative youngster at 68, again focused attention on the succession.

"The looming transition in Saudi leadership … may contribute to the uncertainty and opacity of the kingdom's foreign policy-making," said Yezid Sayigh, of the Carnegie Foundation. "Already highly personalised, decision-making may become further dispersed as multiple centres of princely power prepare to compete over the succession from King Abdullah."

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Twitter popularity tests conservative Gulf

Yahoo – AFP, Wissam Keyrouz, 1 February 2013

AFP/Mohammed al-Shaikh - Customers are seen browsing Twitter messages
 on their smartphones at a coffee shop in Manama, Bahrain, on January 29, 2013

Twitter's unmatched platform for public opinion is emboldening Gulf Arabs to exchange views on delicate issues in the deeply conservative region, despite strict censorship that controls old media.

The authorities have been attempting to limit the damage by handing out jail terms to some whose tweets have been deemed offensive in the Muslim states, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But the popularity of the microblogging website has even extended to princes, ministers and other high-profile officials who are eager to express their opinions, sometimes even upsetting their own governments.

"Twitter is being used by the governments and elites (in the Gulf) as much as it is used by ordinary people," said Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, an academic in the United Arab Emirates.

An avid tweeter himself, the professor of political science said the site "provides a wide platform for free expression without any restraints," acknowledging such space "could cause a headache for the authorities" who control most other media.

Islamists and liberals -- especially in Saudi Arabia -- exchange blows over a plethora of subjects in the virtual arena, while some tweeters who use pseudonyms have become popular for their insights into the ruling class.

Prominent among these is @Mujtahidd, or The Diligent, whose tweets about developments in the Saudi royal family have attracted his account more than 912,000 followers.

Mujtahidd's identity remains secret.

Saudi internet surfers are seen checking

 their Twitter accounts at a coffee shop in 

Riyadh, on February 9, 2012.

One of his latest tweets was a claim that Saudi Arabia was "backing the French military campaign in Mali (against Islamists) with $6 billion in the form of an arms deal".

Saudi Arabia has not made any official comment on the situation in the African nation.

High profile Dubai police chief, General Dhahi Khalfan, also has used Twitter to mount a fierce campaign against Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

Through his @Dhahi_Khalfan account, which has more than 362,000 followers, he accused the party of Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi of plotting against his country.

The opposition also used Twitter and Facebook extensively to mobilise anti-government protests in Bahrain, where a month-long uprising in 2011 was initiated by the February 14 Revolution cyber group.

Activists provide real-time Twitter feeds on clashes with police during protests that continue in the archipelago despite a heavy-handed crackdown in March 2011 that quelled huge rallies.

The Bahraini interior ministry responds with its own statements on Twitter.

"The level of freedom of expression furnished by Twitter is not available anywhere else," said Abdullah, the professor.

But using this margin of freedom has landed some tweeters in jail as authorities do not take criticism lightly.

Kuwait has jailed two Twitter users for two years, while dozens are being tried over messages deemed insulting to the emir, while imprisoned Saudi tweeter Hamza Kashgari awaits a trial that could send him to the gallows over postings seen as apostasy.

Kuwaiti youth activist Hamad al-Olayan (2nd R) walks out of the Justice Palace

 (courthouse) in Kuwait City, on November 3, 2011, after he and fellow activist

 Tareq al-Mutairi were questioned for allegedly making remarks on their Twitter

accounts deemed offensive to the status of the Gulf state ruler

Abdullah said the "huge number of offensive and obscene tweets" had upset many people -- and not just governments.

Kuwaiti commentator Saad al-Ajmi, who previously served as a minister of information, said governments should not panic over the impact of social media networks and should use them as a "gauge for public opinion".

"Such windows (of freedom) opened by new channels of expression can't be closed," said Ajmi, also an ardent tweeter.

In figures, three million people in Saudi Arabia, representing 12 percent of the kingdom's population, have Twitter accounts, according to a report by The Social Clinic, a Jeddah-based consultancy.

Women represented 45 percent of tweeters in the ultra-conservative kingdom where women face strict social constraints, are not allowed to drive and have to cover themselves from head to toe in public.

Activists found in Twitter an open platform to promote women's rights, with the hashtag #women2drive and Facebook group of the same name giving a huge publicity boost for a campaign to allow women to drive.

Similarly, many prominent Saudi preachers are active tweeters with one cleric, Mohammed al-Arifi, attracting 3.8 million followers -- the most in the Gulf region.

Tweeters in Saudi Arabia post about 50 million messages on the network each month, helping Arabic to become the fastest-growing language on the blogging site.

"It is permissible to demand rules that regulate (Twitter) because there are many offences," said Abdullah, adding that "laws should not be rashly prepared, nor be tough, and should go through parliaments".

Elected parliaments enjoying strong legislative powers hardly exist in the Gulf monarchies and sheikhdoms, where most councils are either fully or partially named by the rulers, and their powers are limited.

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The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20,2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

Women stand up against the hijacking of the Arab Spring

RNW, Janet Nammur, RNW English section, 18 October 2012

(Photo: Facebook)

              

Half of Arab society is screaming at the other half: “I am just as good as you are!” The 'Uprising of women in the Arab world’ has launched a Facebook campaign. It’s urging Arab women to rise up against what they call ‘male dictatorship’ in order to complete the Arab spring.

Students, teenagers and mothers quickly began posting their pictures on the Facebook page. Each photo features a participant, carrying a poster explaining why she supports the uprising. Or he, because large numbers of young Arab men are also backing the campaign.

Dictators in their houses

The campaign ‘I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world’ started in early October.  In a press release, the four women who launched the campaign stated they wanted “to remind everyone that the revolutions were aimed at dignity, social justice and freedom, and that these three goals can never be realised if women are absent from the public sphere”. They added, "we have to continue the revolution to oust male chauvinism that turns every man into a dictator over his wife, daughter, sister, and even mother”.

Many activists and bloggers have welcomed the campaign. In less than three weeks, the number of 'likes' that the page has attracted has increased to over forty thousand.

Women from East to West

The Facebook page full of pictures reflects the problems that women face in various Arab societies, ranging from sexual harassment to women’s inability to pass their nationality on to their children.

“I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world,” writes a Syrian mother, “because I have been a Syrian all my life, but my children are Russian because that’s my husband’s nationality”.

Protesting against the obligation to cover her face, a Saudi girl held up a paper in front of her face: “I’m in favour of the campaign because I cannot take a picture of my own face”.

My body is mine

“Please look at our brains, not our bodies”, say several participants. “I’ll back the uprising of women in the Arab world until men stop looking at my body and start understanding my thoughts”, writes one woman. Another says, “women are still prisoners of their virginity”.

A Syrian girl, for her part, writes: “My body is mine. It doesn’t belong to the liberals whose only aim is to undress it, nor to the radicals whose only aim is to cover it”.

Rape in the name of marriage

Voices are also being raised, opposing the use of religious laws against women. “Islam is my dignity”, says a girl from Sudan. “I won't accept to be insulted or raped in its name.”

One of the main complaints on the page is Islamic legislation allowing marriage of under-age girls. “Yemeni law allows me to be raped if I am fully physically developed, even though I am still a kid”, says one Yemeni woman. “They call that marriage.” A male compatriot says he is “tired of fatwas and a male-dominated society that condones the marriage of children”.

Work twice as much

Another hot topic is equal rights in society and the workplace. “I don't want to work twice as hard as my brother and earn half as much”, says a girl from Sudan.

People are also expressing their concerns about developments in Tunisia: “the Personal Status Code is in danger”, writes one young man, “but it is the best legal framework for women in the Arab world.”

Look beyond appearances

The pictures of the women on the 'Uprising of women in the Arab world' page have also been criticised. Some zealous visitors have launched personal attacks and written obscenities.

The moderators of the page have responded forcefully: “When we put up a picture of a veiled woman, no one objects to her appearance. But when we post the picture of a woman who doesn’t cover herself, it is immediately plastered with comments claiming that her appearance is weakening the cause!”

They are particularly sorry to see that some of these comments come from women themselves. “This just goes to prove that women can do other women an injustice without even being aware of it.”

People are continuing to post new pictures in support of the uprising. According to Lebanese artist and activist Joumana Hada, “that’s because women deserve more and they are capable of more”.  

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"Recalibration of the Human Being" – Jan 7, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text Version)

“… It may seem oversimplified, but we have mentioned many times before that the planet is out of balance. The balance we speak of is the balance between male and female consciousness. Years ago, we gave you this information. We told you that the planet is heavy in the gender of masculinity. It's not balanced. This balance affects the grid, and the planet, and Gaia. But Humans have given this energy to the planet in what they have developed over history. This is now changing, since Humans are changing. As Humans change, so does Gaia. ..”

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version) - New

“.. Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.) ..”

Romney's Bungled Critique of a Failed Mideast Strategy

Bloomberg Businessweek, Romesh Ratnesar, September 13, 2012 

A man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after
being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi late
 on September 11, 2012.

Mitt Romney’s response to the assaults on U.S. embassies in the Middle East was willfully misleading (accusing the Obama administration of issuing a statement sympathizing “with those who waged the attacks,” indisputably ill-timed (trying to score political points off a national tragedy) and quite possibly fatal to his chances of becoming president. If Romney hoped to draw a foreign-policy contrast with Obama, he blew the opportunity.

In many ways, that’s unfortunate. The eruption of anti-American violence in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere has exposed flaws in America’s strategy in the Middle East and in particular the decade-long goal of implanting democracy in the Arab world—an idea that became known during the Bush administration as the Freedom Agenda. The trouble for Romney is that his closest advisers don’t want to distance themselves from that agenda; if anything, they’re prepared to double down on it. And that goes a long way toward explaining why Romney has yet to prove he’s up to the job of commander-in-chief.

In the aftermath of 9/11, a consensus took hold in America’s foreign-policy establishment. Victory in the war on terrorism required not just the liquidation of al-Qaeda but wholesale reform of Islamic societies. Radicalism was merely a symptom of repression. The overriding strategy that guided U.S. policy for half a century—preserving stability and the balance of power in the region—was tossed aside. If the region’s autocratic regimes failed to set their people free, the U.S. wouldn’t hesitate to do it for them.

This thinking led in part to the invasion of Iraq, a war opposed by liberal Democrats like Barack Obama. Yet as president, Obama has bought into the Freedom Agenda as well. With the emergence of the Arab Spring in 2011, Obama shed his realist instincts and embraced the project of democratizing the Middle East. The administration backed the ouster of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and Yemen’s Ibrahim Saleh and offered covert support to rebels battling Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. The idea that the U.S. is better off with democratically elected governments in power than with autocratic ones has become a bipartisan article of faith.

The rage on display on the streets of Cairo and Benghazi and Sana’a, however, tells a different story. There’s simply no evidence that the introduction of democracy will make the Middle East any more stable any time soon. Supporting the aspirations of the Arab people to choose their own leaders is undoubtedly worthy, in and of itself. But it’s folly to believe that doing so will extinguish radicalism or make extremists in the region hate America and its allies any less. Undertaking costly military interventions to depose tyrannical regimes may be morally justified, but they haven’t made America any safer or empowered moderate, pro-Western forces in the region. And as experience has taught us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, the chaos that regime change unleashes is often beyond our capacity to control.

A Republican candidate advised by wise men such as Brent Scowcroft or Henry Kissinger might have spelled out a soberer, more realistic approach than the one pursued by the last two administrations—one that deemphasized democratization and accepted the limits of the U.S.’s ability to remake the region in its image. It would acknowledge that the Freedom Agenda hasn’t worked—or at least, not nearly as well as we might have hoped.

But Romney’s foreign-policy views have been shaped entirely by the same cohort of neoconservatives who came up with the idea of the Freedom Agenda in the first place. So rather than present a coherent, responsible critique of the administration’s foreign policy, Romney blusters about attacking Iran and intervening in Syria’s civil war, while repeating the transparently bogus charge that Obama is “apologizing” for America and offering sympathy to the enemy.

Such posturing probably plays well on Fox News. But it instills little confidence that Romney has any clue about what the U.S. should do in the Middle East.

Ratnesar is deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.

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"Healing the Military Energies in our family Tree" – Jun 13, 2011 (Kryon channelled by David Brown)

“ … There’s much violence and anger throughout the world; when we look at the Middle East, we can see that changes are coming there. The West has a lot of power over the Middle East, but that power will begin to dissolve. The Muslim people of this world will begin to have their own power, and their own prosperity, and they will begin to disconnect from the Western World. This disconnection doesn’t have to be violent as violence only happens when somebody hangs onto what doesn’t belong to them....

... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Facebook Israel-Arab youth group has rare meeting

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Jerusalem, August 27 2012

A Facebook-based movement for Mideast youth says the group has held its first gathering, bringing young activists from Israel and Arab countries to Germany to promote peace.

Nimrod Ben-Zeev of the YaLa-Young Leaders group says 18 members from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Kuwait met in Berlin over the weekend.

Ben-Zeev, an Israeli, said the group was selected from the most active of YaLa's 162,000 Facebook members.

Meetings between Israelis and citizens of Arab nations are rare. Except for Egypt and the Palestinians, none of those represented have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Ben-Zeev said Monday the movement wants to empower Middle Eastern youths to work together to improve their communities. It plans an online university next year.

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

Dalai Lama: I support the Arab Spring (Video)

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is Holiness The Dalai Lama talks exclusively to Piers Morgan about the Arab Spring and what it's done for the world.