Kentucky Teacher Placed In Psych Ward For Declaring 9/11 Was An ‘Inside Job’

Kentucky Teacher Placed In Psych Ward For Declaring 9/11 Was An ‘Inside Job’
By Greg Szymanski on February 10, 2007

Michael Cook has been persecuted and placed in a psychiatric ward simply for saying 9/11 was an inside job and possessing firearms registered legally in Kentucky.

His story is just another in a long line cases where law abiding citizens have been systematically deprived of their due process rights and trampled on by a fascist mindset controlling America.

In a nutshell, Cook’s case exemplifies how freedom of speech and the right to possess firearms are being taken away from Americans. His story further shows how a right to a fair is being replaced with psychiatric incarceration based on flimsy and often-times concocted doctor evaluations.

Cook appeared Monday on Greg Szymanski’s radio show, The Investigative Journal, on the Republic Broadcasting Network at www.republicbroadcasting.org, telling how simply speaking his mind and exercising his rights under the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the Constitution are now leading to his second stint in a psychiatric ward.

“Right after this interview at 2pm eastern time, I have to surrender to the U.S. Marshall and then taken to a psychiatric facility. Who knows how long it will take, but the last time I was illegally held for 45 days,” said Cook who lost his job as a special educator for the Covington Ky., Independent School District after talking 9/11 truth to a school district aide.

Cook’s legal troubles began after he shared information to an aide about 9/11 being an inside job as well as telling the aide he legally possessed firearms, including a 45 caliber pistol locked safely away in glove box of his car.

“I have a concealed weapons permit and everything is registered in the state of Kentucky, but that doesn’t seem to matter to authorities,” added Cook, who has been relegated to working as a carpenter until his incarceration in a psych ward Monday.

Here is rundown of Cook’s story in bullet form:

—After Cook talks to school district aide, aide tells head of district who calls Covington Kentucky police.

— Police arrive at Covington School, confiscate his pistol and take him immediately to the Psychiatric ward at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital where he spent 45 days after being evaluated for only minutes, the doctor saying he was paranoid schizophrenic. Cook said the only thing he said to the doctor was that he thought 9/11 to be an inside job.

—Cook was then fired from his teaching position, having his license to teach revoked from in 2006 by the state of Kentucky . Cook is still fighting the revocation but the state has refused to hear any evidence from expert witnesses who promised to testify on his behalf. Cook feels that if was declared mentally ill for saying 9/11 was an inside job, then he should be allowed to proved expert testimony showing his statements were based on the opinions and conclusions of rational men and not based on delusions.

—After taking a carpentry job while fighting the state for his teaching certificate, Cook was then sued in civil court for not paying the $8,500 hospital bill which he is still fighting.

— Cook tried to fight this case but the judge entered a summary judgment without properly allowing Cook to present his case. When he appealed, it was denied.

—In the early part of 2006, President Bush was scheduled to make a speech at Northern Kentucky University. Cook emailed the University President in the days prior to Bush’s speech, saying a 9/11 truth movie should be played to those in attendance before the speech in order to stimulate a truthful discussion. He further stated in an email that Bush should be found guilty of treason by his peers and shot in front of a firing squad.

—Secret Service agents then visited Cook’s home prior to the Bush speech and confiscate his legally registered weapons. Cook said he never intended to be violent, but only expressed his concern about Bush’s failure to address the truth about 9/11 as well as the illegal war in Iraq.

–On 5/19/06, Cook participates in the Bush protest at Northern Kentucky University although two police cars were assigned to follow and watch him throughout the entire protest.

—Although his firearms were returned after the first altercation with the Secret Service, on 6/20/06 agents returned with a search warrant and confiscated the weapons saying since he was admitted to a psych ward he wasn’t allowed to possess any weapons.

—On 8/16/06, Cook was served with a summons and arraigned in federal court on 8/17/06. He received a court appointed attorney for the federal charges listed strangely under The United States of America v. Michael Cook; United States District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky; Criminal Case No. 06-66-WOB. He says he is not superstitious, but thinks it is worth noting the case number 666.

—On 02/05/07, he appears on Greg Szymanki’s radio show to tell his story at 1pm eastern time. At 2pm eastern time he surrenders to the U.S. Marshall and is taken to another psychiatric ward without being allowed to stand trial.
http://www.arcticbeacon.com./6-Feb-2007.html

Greg Szymanski

Greg also has his own daily show on the Republic Broadcasting Network, from 11:00am to 1:00pm central time, shortwave frequency 12.180. Listen on the internet at: www.rbnlive.com Greg Szymanski is an independent investigative journalist and his articles can been seen at www.LewisNews.com. He also writes for his own site www.arcticbeacon.com

Listen to my Radio Broadcast live Monday night at 8pm Pacific time on LewisNews, returning Jan. 1 2006 Radio http://webs.lewisnews.com/radio/index.htm.

CENTRAL ASIA-human right's inferno

U.S. State Department has released its 2010 Country Reports on Human Practices. As expected, Central Asian states did not make a significant progress in human rights practices. Vice versa, majority of our region’s countries turned their backs to what we call respect to human rights.

We will start with Uzbekistan because the situation with human rights and political freedoms in this coutnry was “granted” a huge paragraph in the Introduction to the Report. Along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, this Central Asian country, motherland for more than 28 million people, represented a South and Central Asia chapter.

UZBEKISTAN
Human rights problems in Uzbekistan included citizens’ inability to change their government peacefully; tightly controlled electoral processes with limited opportunities for choice; instances of torture and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; incommunicado and prolonged detention; occasional life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; denial of due process and fair trial; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; governmental control of civil society activity; restrictions on religious freedom including harassment and imprisonment of religious minority group members; restrictions on freedom of movement for citizens; violence against women; and government-compelled forced labor in cotton harvesting.

According to the report, human rights activists and journalists who criticized the government were subject to physical attack, harassment, arbitrary arrest, and politically motivated prosecution and detention. (Read neweurasia’s coverage of one of such cases — Abdumalik Boboev, stringer at Voice of America, has been fined several hudnred minimum monthly wages, adding up to $11,000)

(TAKEN FROM THE INTRODUCTION; we split it in few parts with some minor edits): Uzbekistan continued to incarcerate individuals on political grounds. While one political prisoner, human rights activist Farhad Mukhtarov, was released during the year, 13 to 25 political prisoners remained in custody, and family members reported that many prisoners were tortured. Human rights activists, their family members, and members of certain religious groups reported harassment and arrest by police and other members of the security forces.

Freedom of expression was severely limited and harassment of journalists increased during the year. Police and security services subjected print and broadcast journalists to arrest, intimidation, and violence, as well as to bureaucratic restrictions on their activity.

The criminal and administrative codes imposed significant fines for libel and defamation and the government used charges of libel, slander, and defamation to punish journalists, human rights activists, and others who criticized the president or the government. Freedom of association also was restricted.

The government tightly controlled NGO activity and regulated Islamic and minority religious groups with strict legal restrictions on the types of groups that could be formed and registered. Forced adult and child labor was used during the cotton harvest.

KAZAKHSTAN
Human rights situation in this country was reported by the following problems: severe limits on citizens’ rights to change their government; military hazing that led to deaths; detainee and prisoner torture and other abuse; unhealthy prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of an independent judiciary; restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and association; pervasive corruption, especially in law enforcement and the judicial system; prohibitive political party registration requirements; restrictions on the activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); discrimination and violence against women; trafficking in persons; and societal discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, and those with HIV/AIDS.

KYRGYZSTAN
The list of human rights problems in Kyrgyzstan included: arbitrary killings, torture, and abuse by law enforcement officials; impunity; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of judicial independence; pressure on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and opposition leaders, including government harassment; pressure on independent media; government detention of assembly organizers; authorities’ failure to protect refugees adequately; pervasive corruption; discrimination against women, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, and other persons based on sexual orientation or gender identity; child abuse; trafficking in persons; and child labor.

TAJIKISTAN
This country’s report included following human rights issues: restricted right of citizens to change their government; torture and abuse of detainees and other persons by security forces; impunity for security forces; denial of right to fair trial; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; prohibition of international monitor access to prisons; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion; corruption, which hampered democratic and social reform; violence and discrimination against women; arbitrary arrest; and trafficking in persons.

TURKMENISTAN
Country report for this authoritarian state says that although there were modest improvements, the government continued to commit serious abuses, and its human rights record remained poor. Authorities continued to severely restrict political and civil liberties. Human rights problems included: citizens’ inability to change their government; torture and mistreatment of detainees; incommunicado and prolonged detention; arbitrary arrest and detention; house arrest; denial of due process and a fair trial; arbitrary interference with privacy, home, and correspondence; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; restrictions on religious freedom, including continued harassment of some religious minority group members; restrictions on freedom of movement for some citizens; violence against women; and restrictions on free association of workers. Documentation of abuses was very limited.

The government initiated a broad effort to revise a variety of national laws to bring them into conformity with relevant international conventions. Other measured improvements in human rights included: the registration of two evangelical Christian groups; the pardoning of at least 22 prisoners of interest to the international community, some of whom were associated with the 2002 attack on President Niyazov’s motorcade; removal of external travel restrictions for at least four citizens; elimination of restrictions on internal movement for citizens; reinstatement of a 10th year of mandatory schooling; and establishment of a government commission tasked with bringing Turkmenistan’s practices in line with commitments in international human rights covenants.

Truth and Ivory Coast by Craig Murray

Truth and Ivory Coast
by Craig Murray on Apr 13th 2011
An article in the Guardian yesterday by Thalia Griffiths quite rightly pointed out the huge problems facing Alassane Ouattara in uniting and governing Ivory Coast. But the article is remarkably uncritical of Ouattara, and follows the common Western fallacy of promoting a “good guy” in a civil war when the leaders on all sides are “bad guys”.

This is the fundamental flaw in liberal interventionism. It inevitably leads to the imposition of governments like the ultra-corrupt coastal elite of Sierra Leone, like Bosnian and Albanian gangster mafias or like Alassane Ouattara. I wrote what I believe is the only genuine, full and eye-witness analysis of the truth of Blair’s Sierra Leone intervention in The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. The essential advice is simple. Follow the money.

That approach leads you quickly to note that Thalia Griffiths is the editor of African Energy. Ivory Coast is newly oil rich with extremely prospective deep fields under further exploration. That is why French army tanks finally crushed Gbagbo. That is why Sarkozy put such huge effort into establishing Ouattara.

Now we must not make the reverse error of glorifying the Gbagbo side. Gbagbo clung to office and postponed elections too long. He played the ethnic card. He indulged in nepotism. His forces killed the innocent. He was one of those noble and longstanding opposition figures who becomes something of a nightmare in power. His side cheated, beat and intimidated just as much as Ouattara’s side in elections which it is farcical to claim were free, fair and properly administered, or were any kind of realistic guide to the will of the people of a deeply riven state. I hope that Gbagbo is decently treated, but do not regret his loss of power.

That said, the attempt by Thalia Griffiths to puff Ouattara is simply a symptom of the saccharine treatment he will get in future by all those connected to western oil interests, including western governments. There were massacres on both sides, but the most startling were carried out by Ouattara’s forces, by ethnic militias which Ouattara deliberately mobilised with French money, including fighters brought in from neighbouring Liberia.

This by Thalia is an absolute disgrace:

Recent reports of atrocities in the west have blamed Ouattara supporters, but while conflicts over land pit northerners against southerners, it is cruel but convenient to blame Ouattara for the latest flare-up of conflicts that have existed for a generation. It is land conflict coupled with a breakdown in state security – not urban Abidjan politics – that are behind reports of killings in the west. Clashes like these are vile, but nothing new.

That is simply untrue. The massacre of 800 people at Duekoue a fortnight ago is thankfully extremely rare, and was without doubt committed by Ouattara mobilised militias. To try to lessen this is crass.

Consider this about Ouattara. He was Prime Minister to a truly dreadful African despot, Houphouet-Boigny, who was dictator of Ivory Coast for 33 years. Houphouet-Boigny moved the capital to his home village and spent US$300 million on building the world’s largest church there. He looted US$9 billion from the people of Ivory Coast. Ouattara was his ally, his finance minister then prime minister, and has never disavowed him. All that Thalia notes about H-B is that he had a policy of ethinic inclusion. That again is disgraceful journalism.

But also Houphouet-Boigny and Ouattara’s Ivory Coast was the base for both French military and CIA operations throughout the continent and for promoting the very worst kind of western interests – which is why Africans view with huge suspicion Ouattara’s instalment by Western forces.

Ivory Coast was allied to apartheid South Africa and was the sanctions busting capital of Africa. Vast amounts of goods, including but not limited to oil, were consigned to Ivory Coast on their papers and trans-shipped to the apartheid regime to bust sanctions. Ivory Coast also provided all the logistic back-up to Jonas Savimbi and UNITA and it was in Abidjan that the CIA and apartheid regime worked together to promote the terrible Angolan civil war.

It was also in Abidjan that the CIA organised the coup that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah and planned the death of Patrice Lumumba. (Again, we should not fall into the goodies and baddies trap. The CIA and Ivory Coast regime were definitely bad. But Nkrumah too had become a cruel dictator – again, read The Catholic Orangemen of Togo.)

Ouattara became head of the african department and deputy managing director of the IMF in the 1980s when that organisation was forcing disastrous structural adjustment programmes all over the continent. African nations were forced to liberalise, reduce tariffs and open up their economies when no such constraints were placed on the developing nations with which they were trading. To give just one example of how this worked, which I personally tried but failed to counter: Nigeria was forced by the IMF to reduce tariffs on imported sugar. The EU then flooded Nigeria with millions of tons of sugar, at one third of the cost of its production, with the remaining two thirds paid to European farmers as export subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy. Nigeria’s sugar plantations – which were actually very efficient – collapsed under the unfair subsidised competition from which Nigeria was not allowed to protect them. That was Ouattara. France was very happy with him.

So not only does Ouattara need to heal the deep divisions in his own population, he has to prove to the rest of Africa he is not just a western tool. That will not be easy. I pointed out in an earlier posting that there is dislike between Ouattara and Zuma; I hope that this gives you some idea why.

Japan nuclear operator aims for cold shutdown in 6-9 months

Japan nuclear operator aims for cold shutdown in 6-9 months
By wmw_admin on April 17, 2011

Tiaga Uranak – Reuters April 17, 2011

Japanese nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) hopes it will be able to achieve cold shutdown of its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant within six to nine months, the company said on Sunday.

The firm said the first step would be cooling the reactors and spent fuel to a stable level within three months, then bringing the reactors to cold shutdown in six to nine months. That would make the plant safe and stable and end the immediate crisis, now rated on a par with the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

TEPCO, founded 60 years ago, added it later plans to cover the reactor buildings, damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11.

The latest data shows much more radiation leaked from the Daiichi plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought, prompting officials to rate it on a par with Chernobyl, although experts were quick to point out Japan’s crisis was vastly different from Chernobyl in terms of radiation contamination.

TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said he was considering resigning over the accident, but that he couldn’t say when.

“This is the biggest crisis since the founding of our company,” Katsumata told a news conference at which the timetable was unveiled.

“Getting the nuclear plant under control, and the financial problems associated with that… How we can overcome these problems is a difficult matter.”

The toll from Japan’s triple catastrophe is rising. More than 13,000 people have been confirmed dead, and on Wednesday the government cut its outlook for the economy, in deflation for almost 15 years, for the first time in six months.

TEPCO and the government are under pressure to clarify when those who have had to evacuate the area around the damaged plant will be able to go home. Prime Minister Naoto Kan faced heavy criticism over comments, which he later denied making, suggesting the evacuees might not be able to return for 10 or 20 years.

“We would like to present objective facts to help the government make judgment and outlook on when those who have evacuated can come back home,” TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata told a news conference at which the timeframe was unveiled.

Katsumata also said the company was taking steps to cope with the possibility of another big tsunami. The area has been rocked by large aftershocks since the magnitude 9.0 quake struck and triggered the devastating tsunami.

But he said he had no idea how much it would ultimately cost to stabilize the plant.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Elaine Lies and Linda Sieg

World food crisis looms as prices soar to record high

World food crisis looms as prices soar to record high


Philip Haddon – City Wire February 4, 2011

World food prices surged to an all time high last month on the back of extreme weather conditions and unrest in the Middle East.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Food Price index rose for the seventh month in a  row. It now stands at 231, well above the last record high of 224.1 in June 2008 and the highest since records began in 1990.

And there was a stark warning from the FAO that these high prices will remain high for some time.

Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at the organisation, said: ‘The new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating. These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come.’

Meanwhile, in an interview with Reuters, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said: ‘We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices.’

There are a number of factors across the globe which are exacerbating the situation.

Capital Economics’ Julian Jessop fears the uprising in Egypt could have severe implications for food prices after the unrest helped push oil above the $100 mark.

Jessop said:  ‘Extreme weather conditions last year damaged crops in many parts of the world, notably harvests of wheat and sugar. The resulting increases in food prices have contributed to social unrest in many countries, including in Egypt. Governments in the rest of the Middle East and elsewhere, fearful of contagion, are responding by restricting exports of agricultural commodities and/or increasing imports to add to precautionary stockpiles.’

A massive snowstorm in the United States and floods in Australia are among the forces of nature which could push prices up further.

‘The Arab awakening began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005′

‘The Arab awakening began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005′
By Robert Fisk on April 15, 2011
Robert Fisk – April 15, 2011

First, to reports from the revolutionary front lines in Syria, in the same imperfect, but brave, English in which they were written less than 24 hours ago…
“Yesterday morning I went to the square to demonstrate, I arranged it with guys on Facebook, I don’t know them, but we share the same ambition of freedom, that night I was awake until 6am watching the news, it was horrible what’s happening in Syria, the security forces slaughter people as if aniamals !!!…
“I wore my clothes and went to (the) sq. there was about 150 security service in civilian cloths in street calling for Assad’s life [ie praising Assad] and one taxi car the driver was driving against the cars to stop them moving in street, I am not sure if he was revolutionizing or just empty the street for security service!, it was crazy, I was angry that they are calling for the dictator’s life and want keep him running Syria like he doing.
They were looking around at every man in street if he doesn’t call for president’s life they beat him and arrest him, of course I didn’t call for his life and I took my phone and started taking video to show the world who’s calling for this dictator, his gang! 2 guys were running infront of the demonstration – they are revoluter but they had to run with this gang until freedom seekers arrive from ommayad mosque, those 2 guys told me not to take video and hide my phone.
 “I hid it in my pocket but suddenly about 40 men from secutiry came to me, they started shoulting ‘he is taking video, he is taking video!!’ 5 guys hold me (like when they arrest someone) and started beating me…another 7 attacked me, they took my phone, my ID and my money and other 7 guys attack me, they said why are you taking video bastard??
“‘We will kill you all enemies of assad, Syria belongs to assad not to you bastard people!!’ Immediately I said: ‘I am with you guys!! We all follow president assad even to death!’ they said then why are you taking video?’
“I said ‘because I am happy there is demonstration calling for the greatest leader assad…’”
“There was one man (looks like officer) caught me and slapped me and he was the last one in this fake demonstration which calls for assad life…”
The second report:
“Assad is lying I assure you! There is more than 6000 political prisoner in Syria so what does let 260 free mean?!!…they said the emergency law to be lifted BUT they will create new law against terrorism, which will be worse than emergency law we are sure!
“They said they will fight the corruption, do you think that Assad will arrest his cousin Rami Makhlouf, his brother Maher Assad, his uncle zo al himma shaleesh, will Assad arrest all his family, take their money and give it back to us??…the gang in Lattakia are Alawiyeen gang belong to Assad family we all know them in Syria they are called shapeeha, the people in Lattakia were demonstrating against the government and afterwards the secret service, police and army brought these shapeeha to scare people and kill them.
“In Syria we are not demonstrating for food or money, we want to change the whole system and hang all Assad family…”
This is raw stuff, the voice of popular – and young – fury that will not be quenched by torture rooms and the cosh. Both Syrian men escaped arrest – though one has now had to flee his country – but their accounts tell a grindingly familiar story from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya… The fake pro-government demonstration, the promiscuous use of secret police violence, the popular knowledge of corruption and the production of plain-clothes regime thugs – “baltagi” in Cairo, where Mubarak used them, which literally means “thugs” – and the sectarianisation of suppression (the “Alawiyeen” in Lattakia are Alawi (Shia) gangs from the sect to which the Assad family belongs.
And now the regime in Damascus is claiming that Lebanon is one of the outside powers sewing discord in the “Um al-Arabia Wahida”, the mother of the Arab nation, specifically the Lebanese March 14 Alliance of the outgoing Lebanese Sunni prime minister Saad Hariri, whose principal opponents are the Lebanese Shia Muslim Hezbollah party and their allies.
See how easy it is to create a “sectarian” war in Syria and then infect your neighbour with the virus?
These are not idle words. Revolutions don’t start with dramatic incidents – the self-immolation of an unemployed Tunisian, the destruction of a Coptic church – however dramatic these tragedies may be.
In reality, the “Arab awakening” began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005 when, appalled by the assassination of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri (Saad’s father), hundreds of thousands of Lebanese of all faiths gathered in central Beirut to demand the withdrawal of Syria’s 20,000 soldiers in the country.
Bachar made a pitiful speech in Damascus, abusing the demonstrators, suggesting that live television cameras were using “zooms” to exaggerate the number of the crowds.
But the UN passed a resolution – a no-soldier zone, rather than a no-fly zone, I suppose – which forced the Syrian military to leave.
This was the first “ousting” of a dictator, albeit from someone else’s country, by the popular Arab “masses” which had hitherto been an institution in the hands of the dictators.
Yet I recall at the time that none of us – including myself, who had lived in Lebanon for decades – realised how deeply the Syrian claws had dug into the red soil of Lebanon over the previous 29 years. Syria’s Lebanese stooges remained in place. Their “mukhabarat” security police simply re-emerged in transmogrified form.
Their political murders continued at whirlwind speed. I spent days chasing from the scene of one car bomb or hit-job to another. This is what terrifies the demonstrators of all the nations struggling to throw off their brutal – and often American-supported – masters. Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of the Egyptian army, for example, is now running Egypt. Yet he is not only a close friend of America but a childhood and lifelong friend of Mubarak, who was allowed to whinge the usual ex-dictator’s self-congratulatory excuses on al-Arabia television (“my reputation, my integrity and my military and political record”) prior to his own questioning – and inevitable emergency entry into hospital. When the latest Tahrir Square crowds also called for Tantawi’s resignation, the field marshal’s mask slipped. He sent in his troops to “cleanse” the square.
When the Iranians, in their millions, demonstrated against Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s dodgy presidential election results in June of 2009, many members of the “green” movement in Tehran asked me about the 2005 Lebanese revolution against Syria – dubbed the “Cedar Revolution” by the US State Department, a cliché that never really caught on among the Lebanese themselves – and while there was no direct political connection, there was undoubtedly an inspirational junction; two sets of tracks of the same gauge which reinforced the idea that the youth of Tehran and Beirut belonged to the same transport system of humanity and freedom.
Of course, there were many in the Middle East Muslim world who hoped the security forces could be won over to their side. In Cairo, individual soldiers did join the revolution – on a large scale, in Yemen – but wolves do not turn into pussycats. And – despite one obvious historical example in the region – it is unrealistic to expect anyone to save the world by walking towards their own crucifixion. Police chiefs, however personally devout, will do as they are told – even when their orders involve mass murder.
Take, for example, the Saudis. The Independent is in possession of an extraordinary – and outrageous – order from Prince Nayef Biu Abdul al-Saud, the Saudi minister of interior, issued on 11 March, prior to the much-feared “Hunayn Revolution” organised by Shia and Sunni intellectuals last month.
Hunayn was the name of a battle which the Prophet Mohamed won by a virtual miracle against far more powerful armies.
“To all the honourable heads of police in the areas of Riyadh, Mecca and Medina, al-Bahr, Qassim, the northern borders, Tabouq, Sharqiya, Qaseer, Najwan, Jezaan and the head of the emergency Special Forces,” Nayef begins – note how responsibility is neatly spread across the entire network of the “mukhabarat” – “previous to our conversations regarding the so-called ‘Hunayn Revolution’ – if indeed it exists – with its single goal of threatening our national security: this group of stray individuals spreads evil throughout the land. Do not show them mercy. Strike them with iron fists. It is permitted for all officers and personnel to use live rounds. This is your land and this is your religion. If they want to change that or replace it, you must respond. We give thanks to you – and good luck!”
This outrageous order – which, mercifully, did not have to be obeyed – was well-known to the Americans, who have so bitterly condemned the Assad regime’s brutality in Syria but who, in this case of course, uttered not a bleat.
Shia, it seems, are targetable in these revolutions – whether they be of the Saudi, the Bahraini, the Syrian or, indeed, the Lebanese variety.
Prince Nayef’s instruction is worthy of investigation by the International Criminal Court at the Hague – he orders his police chiefs to shoot down unarmed demonstrators – but even if his men had performed their bloody duties (and they have, in the past), he is safe. Saudi Arabia is one kingdom where we in the West will no more tolerate Arab “awakenings” than will the local autocrats. No wonder every Saudi carries an identity card which refers to him not as a citizen but as “al-tabieya” which means, in effect, “serf”.
The odd thing about all these revolutions, of course, is that the dictators – be they the Ben Alis, the Mubaraks, the Salehs, the Assads, even the al-Sauds – spend more time spying on foreigners and amassing documentation of their people’s transgressions than in trying to understand what their own indigenous populations actually want. Eric Rouleau, a Le Monde correspondent in Iran, who subsequently became French ambassador to Tunisia, has recounted how “General” Ben Ali, Tunisian minister of interior between 1985 and 1986, wished to acquire the very latest French communications equipment from Paris. The “pitiless ‘superflic’”, as Rouleau cruelly called him, trained by American intelligence in the US, had files on “everyone”.
At one meeting with Rouleau, Ben Ali outlined the greatest threats to the Tunisian regime: social “unrest”, tensions with a certain Colonel Gaddafi of Libya (here, one must admit a certain sympathy for Ben Ali) and – most serious of all – “the Islamist threat”, whatever that may be. Rouleau remembered how “in a theatrical gesture, he (Ben Ali) pushed the button of a machine, which in an instant unrolled an unending list of names whom he said were under permanent surveillance. An information engineer, obsessed with technology, Mr Ben Ali did not cease to use this science of information gathering”. Rouleau, who was sending back to Paris less than flattering accounts of the regime and its interior minister, was puzzled that his relations with Ben Ali declined steadily – until the day he ended his mission. “On the day of my final departure from Tunisia, when I went to pay my courtesy visit to him,” Rouleau was to recall, “he asked me, in a state of white-hot anger, why I regarded him as a CIA agent possessed of unstoppable ambition. And he started quoting from his files, almost word for word, my own confidential telegrams to the Quai d’Orsay… The ambassador had not escaped from the intricate workings of his spy centre.”
Ben Ali could penetrate the French embassy, but as president he simply failed to learn about his own people. There is an unforgettable photograph of the soon-to-be-deposed president as he rather tardily visits the young suicider-by-fire, Mohamed Bouazizi, as he lies dying in his hospital bed.
Ben Ali is doing his best to look concerned. The boy clearly unable to communicate. But the doctors and paramedics are watching the president rather than their patient and doing so with a tired impatience, which the president obviously does not comprehend. From small kindlings do great fires grow.
Take the first uprising against Bashar al-Assad in Deraa – home to the old steam train station, by the way, in which TE Lawrence was supposedly assaulted by an Ottoman officer in the First World War – where no amount of sophisticated intelligence could have forewarned the regime of what was to come. A place of historical rebellion, some youths had painted anti-Assad graffiti on a wall. The Syrian security police followed their normal practice of dragging the young men to the cop shop, beating and torturing them. But then their mothers arrived to demand their release. They were verbally abused by the police.
Then – much more seriously – a group of tribal elders went to see the Deraa governor to demand an explanation for the behaviour of the police.
Each placed his turban on the governor’s desk, a traditional gesture of negotiation; they would only replace their turbans when the matter had been resolved. But the governor, a crusty old Baathist and regime-loyalist, took the turban of the most prestigious sheikh, threw it on the floor of his office and stamped on it.
The people of Deraa came out in their thousands to protest; the shooting started; Bashar hastily dismissed his governor and replaced him. Too late. The fire had been lit. In Tunisia, an unemployed young man who set himself alight. In Syria, a turban.
These episodes, of course, are not without their foundation of history. Just as the Hauran district, in which Deraa is situated, has always been a place of rebellion, Egypt was always the land of Gamel Abdul Nasser.
And oddly – although Nasser was the originator of the military dictatorships which were to cripple Egypt – his name was spoken of with respect by thousands of the demonstrators in Tahrir Square who successfully demanded Mubarak’s overthrow.
This was not because they forgot his legacy but because, after decades of monarchy and British colonial rule, they regarded Nasser as the first leader who gave Egypt self-respect.
Nasser’s daughter Hoda was undoubtedly right in February, when she said that “the parallel with the people’s power, the spontaneous uprising that brought my father to power, especially heartens me… People thought that the youth of today are apolitical, but they proved their detractors wrong.
“My father would have been ecstatic. He would have been proud of the people who demonstrated in Tahrir Square, chanting slogans urging radical political reform and social change. Nasser remains at the core of revolutionary mythology in Egypt and the Arab world at large. That is why you saw the portraits of Nasser hoisted high in Tahrir Square.” Against all this, the Libyan “revolution” is beginning to stale; its blood congealing along with the words once used about it.
The tribes we once acknowledged as a democratic opposition – namely the Senussis of the old Idriss family – are now called “rebels” by our press and television colleagues, the uprising is now a “civil war”, an unpleasant way of reminding ourselves why we must not put “boots on the ground”.
Our Tory masters – especially our odious defence minister of the time – invented the Bosnian “civil war” to delay our intervention in the Balkan ethnic cleansing.
Most Arab nations would be happy to see the end of Gaddafi, but he sits uneasily amid the pantheon of “revolution”. Wasn’t he supposed to be the original revolutionary against the corruption of King Idriss and later scourge of the West and Zionism?
Oddly, there are parallels with Syria which we – and Assad – may not like. For it is Syria’s refusal to bend to the United States’ “peace process”, its unwavering support for the Hezbollah “resistance” in Lebanon which broke the Israeli army in 2006, which allows the Assad family – caliphs, I suppose, by definition – to claim that their independence and their refusal to bow down to US-Israeli demands constitute a long-running revolution in Syria of infinitely more importance than the street fighting gangs of Deraa, Lattakia, Banias and Douma.
Hamas maintains its head political office in Damascus. Syria remains the lung through which Iran can breathe in the Middle East; through which Iran’s own president can enter Lebanon and proclaim – to the horror of the Lebanese whom Bachar Assad now blames for his own country’s violence – that southern Lebanon is now Iran’s front line against Israel.
And now let’s go a little further. On 31 March, the Israelis – who have steadfastly opposed the overthrow of the Middle East’s dictators – published a series of photo-reconnaissance pictures of southern Lebanon, supposedly marking the exact locations of 550 Hezbollah bunkers, 300 “monitoring sites” and 100 weapons storage facilities run by Syria’s Lebanese Shia militia allies in the country. They had been built, the Israelis claimed, next to hospitals, schools and public utilities. The documentation was fake. Visits to locations marked on the map uncovered no such bunkers. Indeed, the real Hezbollah bunkers known to the Lebanese are not marked on the map. The Hezbollah quickly understood the meaning.
“They are setting us up for the next war,” a veteran Hezbollah ruffian from the village of Jibchit told me. If Israel had really discovered our positions, the last thing they would have done is inform us they knew the locations – because we’d immediately move them!”
But last week, the Turkish air force forced down an Iranian transport aircraft supposedly flying over Diyarbakir en route to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo with “auto spare parts”. On board the Ilyushin-76, the Turks found 60 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, 14 BKC machine guns, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, 560 60-mm mortar shells and 1,288 120-mm mortar shells.
Forget Facebook. These were not part of any Arab “reawakening” or “uprising”, but further supplies for the Hezbollah to use in their next conflict with Israel. All of which raises a question. Is there a better way of taking your people’s minds off revolution than a new war against an enemy which has resolutely opposed the democratisation of the Arab world?