“This is not Iran, we came to you from Iraq, and we are Saddamists,” Muslim Brotherhood was doomed to fail

Saudi Princess: Muslim Brotherhood was doomed to fail http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/bint-saud-egypt-revolution-688/ July 05, 2013 06:31 Basmah Bint Saud.(Screenshot from YouTube user OxfordUnion) Tyrants are tyrants only when they are backed by the global powers, according to Saudi Princess Basmah Bint Saud. As an activist, writer and a businesswoman, Basmah Bint Saud is known for her strong support of those suffering from military, humanitarian, or civil crises in the Middle East. On SophieCo, the member of the royal family speaks about the Egyptian coup, Syrian mass genocide, and the forces that drive revolutions. ‘Egypt coup is just one of many to come’ Get short URL Published time: July 05, 2013 14:02 An Egyptian supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.(AFP Photo / Mahmud Khaled) Tags Army, Clashes, Opposition, Politics, Protest, Violence The ousting of the Egyptian President brought mass celebrations to the streets, but stability is yet to follow and establishing a system is key, argues Saudi Princess Basmah Bint Saud. The princess discusses the future of Egypt and Syria on RT’s SophieCo. RT: We are witnessing a coup in Egypt, but half of the population, that’s millions of people, are celebrating. Is this a military coup or a victory of the people? Basmah Bint Saud: It is both. The victory of the people is the victory of the army itself because maybe it is foreign to other people to know that army in Egypt has for so long protected the people rather than the government. So it is not something unusual for the army to abide by the people’s law. Since Morsi has been in power by democratic election the army has fought very hard to be independent and Mr. Morsi has fought very hard to have the army under his power. It is just a very normal reaction from the army to be where he is, and definitely celebrating that the army certified his identity and cut away from the political game. ‘Muslim Brotherhood should not be surprised’ RT: What about the Muslim Brotherhood? It’s a very well organized political machine with millions of supporters. How do you think they will react to the coup and overthrowing of their man? BBS: The Muslim Brotherhood up to ten years ago was considered a terrorist party and it hasn’t been recognized by the Islamic community in Egypt and the Arab world, except recently. We are not talking about a great party that has been in power for a long time. It has been considered a terrorist party for a long time. The Muslim Brotherhood should not be very surprised about their short time being in power because they have not been supported by Egyptians themselves for a long time. Rather than celebrating the Muslim Brotherhood failure, I don’t think by any means that Muslim Brotherhood is a political movement, it is rather a religious movement, politicized by other powers in the world. An Egyptian supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.(AFP Photo / Mahmud Khaled) RT: It’s not just MB in Egypt. Political Islam in general – we see it taking up the vacuum of overthrown dictators of the Arab Spring states. Why is that? BBS: Tyrants could never be tyrants if they are not backed by big powers. Systems cannot survive on their own in this globalized world. And the fight over the Middle East and its gas and its petrol has been going on for the last two centuries. We are just seeing the results of who wants more rights now, rather than any other meaning, which is superior and divine, which everybody have been singing for the last two – three years on the Arab spring. It has nothing to do with God, with quality or humanity. It has to do with who has more power on the ground. You take a tyrant, you put another. Nothing changes. If we don’t change the systems themselves, we can never actually change what is happening on the Middle East, whether now, or in ten years, or in twenty years. The people would still be rising, like in Iraq. Iraq had Saddam, and was broken down in the name of democracy. And in the 10 years after the fall of Saddam, what do we see in Iraq? Destruction, wars, bombs, fighting over your day to day bread, people are insecure, girls are being raped. And this was never happened in the time of Saddam. I’m not saying that Saddam was a good one. But I say: what is the alternative? We are making wars and revolutions, but we are not thinking about the consequences. What is the solution? Who can we put instead of Morsi, Mubarak and all this tyrants? They are all the same for me. They are all accessing the same power. If we don’t put a system in place, we are looking for a long-term revolutions in Middle East. It will never quite down. It will be another Afganistan, Iraq, Syria. So, we are just creating terrorism, as we are going along down the way in the name of democracy. ‘Economy is driving the revolutions’ RT: So, you think this coup, which just took place in Egypt could actually spill over in the region? BBS: I don’t think it’s going to be the end in Egypt, it’s going to spill over the whole region. It's not only the whole region, it’s the whole globe, that is undergoing the shift. And economy, Europe, Spain, Greece, the States, South America, North America, Brazil. Look at the globe. What’s happening? You have to connect things together. You cannot just talk about Egypt, without talking about Syria, Brazil or Europe. Economy everywhere is driving the revolutions. And this is that nobody have seen. We are naming actually revolution by the religions, but basically its economic: unemployment, not giving the proper human rights, the social human rights, security, social security, environmental security, child security, government security, borders security. This is all our issues, which are really important for today's person. And we are not actually addressing this issues, we are looking at it in a very secular, political way. And we name the religion the cause of revolution. It is not, it is economic, and that’s what we are seeing right now. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood.(AFP Photo / Louafi Larbi) RT: Qatar and Saudi Arabia today expressed no objection to a military court in Egypt, but there are supportive of a hard line in Syria, they are powering huge amounts of money, weapons into a country as part of a savage war. Why such a dramatic difference in dealing with those states? BBS: I would like to ask that question to myself. There is so many contradictions. Even the States, I meant, when we look at President Obama’s remarks about bringing down of Morsi, and saying it’s undemocratic. Well, you can’t say anything except it contradicts every single vibe and any human being in the Middle East. Who should be saying, what’s democratic and what’s not. If I do not exercise democracy in my country, how can I ask it from other countries? There’s a lot of contradictions on the political scene. And everybody is confused and confusing the masses about the messages they are sending from the top P5 security club. RT: Would you agree that the two countries Qatar and Saudi Arabia are actually competing in exporting hard line Islam to the region, and that is all comes out to control, who control the regions throw hard line Islam? BBS: Saudi Arabia and Qatar could not do anything on their own. There is support from the different parts of the world for these things. As Russia supports Syria, Saudi Arabia is against. It’s like a game, like a football game. Everybody trying to put the ball in the other person’s goal. It’s a game of power. =================== Saudi Princess accused of Human trafficking and enslaving a Kenyan Woman arrested by Californian Police http://wp.me/p1ccsT-6Ah JNN 11 July 2013 California : A Saudi Arabian princess was arrested Wednesday and charged with human trafficking in Santa Ana, California for allegedly holding up to five women against their will and forcing them to work for several families in an Orange County condominium complex. According to CBS News, police arrested 42-year-old Meshael Alayban, one of the six wives of Saudi Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud, and charged her with one count of human trafficking, a charge that could send her to prison for up to 12 years if convicted. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said that Alayban was arrested after a 30-year-old Kenyan woman contacted police saying that she was a victim of human trafficking. The woman, carrying a suitcase, flagged down a bus in Santa Ana on Tuesday night. She told the driver and fellow passengers that she was trying to escape a situation where she was being held against her will. The passengers urged her to contact police. The woman said that she had been hired in Kenya in 2012 to work for Alayban’s family. When she arrived in Saudi Arabia, she was stripped off her passport and forced to work more than double the amount of hours she agreed to for less than half the money. Attorneys for Alayban insisted that the situation is simply a dispute over work hours and that the Kenyan woman is lying. Rackauckas rejected that characterization of the matter. “This is not a contract dispute,” he said at a bail hearing for Alayban on Wednesday. “This is holding someone captive against their will.” Alayban’s bail was set at $5 million. Rackauckas argued that the amount should be set higher, that even $20 million would not be enough to compel a Saudi royal to appear in court. The judge also required Alayban to submit to GPS tracking and forbade her to leave to county without getting permission. Alayban’s attorneys argued that the bail amount should not be set at a staggering amount just because their client is wealthy. Rackauckas pointed out that the Saudi consulate had already offered to put up $1 million bail for Alayban. The Kenyan woman said that she was brought to the U.S. in May with the family. She was put to work cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, doing laundry and ironing for families in four units in a condominium complex. Since March 2012, she said, she has been working 16-hour days, 7 days a week, and has only been paid $220 per month. Under the terms of her original contract in Kenya, she was to work 8 hour days for five days a week and earn a monthly salary of $1,600. When police searched the condominiums, they found four women from the Philippines who were being held in similar conditions. When police asked them if they wanted to leave, they said yes and came willingly. No charges have yet been filed in connection to their situation, said Rackauckas Alayban will be arraigned on Thursday. Alayban faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. =============== Royal treatment: Bahraini princess & princes accused of torturing activists Get short URL Published time: January 25, 2013 05:20 Edited time: January 25, 2013 21:38 Photo from Report: Citizens in the Grip of Torturers Bahrain, Crime, Human rights, Law, Violence A Bahraini princess is in court for the torture of three pro-democracy activists in detention. The princess’s case is the latest in a string of cases of torture and violence has seen the light in a report issued by Bahraini opposition. Princess Nora Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa who serves in Bahrain’s Drugs Control Unit, allegedly collaborated with another officer to torture three activists held in detention following a pro-democracy rally against the island kingdom’s monarchy. Bahraini princess Nora Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa Bahraini princess Nora Bint Ebrahim al-Khalifa The princess categorically denies the charges of torture set against her. Two of the princess’s alleged victims were Doctors Ghassan Daif and Bassem Daif, who went to help the hundreds wounded when police opened fire with teargas and birdshot during protests in 2011. They were taken into custody in March of that year when it is thought that al-Khalifa tortured them. The third victim, 21-year-old Ayat al-Qurmazi, was arrested for public reading of inflammatory poetry criticizing the royal family. She claims her blindfold slipped while she was being tortured and she caught a glimpse of al-Khalifa. As Muslim women have never before been known to take part in interrogations and tortures, Nora Al-Khalifa stands out as the grossest character in the human rights activists’ report, RT’s Nadezhda Kevorkova said. Princess Nora’s case is the latest in a series of torture scandals highlighted in a report by the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights. A 55-pages report titled ‘Citizens in the Grip of Torture’ is based on the nine interviews with named and anonymous witnesses. It was published both in English and Arabic. The report states that two of the Bahraini King’s sons Nasser Bin Hammad Al-Khalifa and Khalid Bin Hammad Al-Khalifa, as well as two other members of the royal family, Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa and Nora Bint Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, directly took part in torturing the activists. Ayat al-Qurmazi Ayat al-Qurmazi Torture stories include rare details that Muslims usually prefer to shun for ethical reasons, Bahraini opposition activists told Kevorkova. After getting numerous letters from torture victims who mentioned the four members of the royal family among the arresters and torturers, the report’s authors decided it was vital to get an investigation going, RT’s Kevorkova said. Included in the report are short CVs of those four members of the Bahrain’s royal family accused of human rights violations. Nasser Bin Hamad, the fourth son of the King Hamad, is a colonel and commander of Bahrain’s royal guard. Bin Hamad, his 23-year-old brother, has also held a number of senior positions despite his young age and is married to Saudi Arabian King’s daughter. The other two Al-Khalifas directly responsible for cases of torture and violence as stated in the report are Colonel Khalifa Bin Ahmed, a high-ranking police officer dismissed from his post in September 2011, and Lieutenant Nora Bint Ebrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain’s Drug Enforcement Administration. Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (L), Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa (M), Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (R). (Photos from Report: Citizens in the Grip of Torturers) Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (L), Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa (M), Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (R). (Photos from Report: Citizens in the Grip of Torturers) Tortured for reading verses Poet Ayat Al-Qurmozy was arrested in March 2011 after reciting a poem against the Bahraini regime during a peaceful demonstration in Pearl Roundabout. She was detained by masked men dressed in civilian clothing. On her release, al-Qurmozy told of tortures used on her by both men and women. One of the women involved was identified as Nora al-Khalifa. The report states that Nora spat on al-Qurmozy and into her mouth, slapped her in the face repeatedly, administered electric shocks and shouted anti-Shia slurs. On the eighth day of her arrest, al-Qurmozy was brought blindfolded into a room full of men, documents the report. They shouted abuse at her and demanded she tell them by whom she was given the verses and how much she was paid for reading them. “I was surprised by a woman grabbing me and slapping me hard in the face… When she was screaming, cursing and slapping me hard on my face, the blindfold came down off my eyes and I saw her face a bit but they rushed to lift it,” al-Qurmozy later said, as cited in the report. Al-Qurmozy was then brutally beaten, and Nora gave her electric shocks every time she lost consciousness, the report says. After that Nora allegedly went on torturing the young poet every night, beating her on the face and spitting on her every time she found her without a blindfold. Threatened by rape, the poet girl was forced to confess to her ‘guilt’ in front of a camera. But her torture continued after al-Qurmozy was thrown into a car, the report says, elaborating on how Nora slapped her on the head, threatened to cut out her tongue, spat and put a wooden bathroom broom into her mouth and beat her continually. All these abuses were witnessed by another arrested woman, Jalila Salman, who was put in the same car. Tortured for taking part in demonstration Sheikh Mohammad Habib al-Mekdad, president of Zahraa Association for Orphans, was arrested at home in April 2011 by a group of 50-60 people wearing civilian clothes and masks. He was still in detention at the time of the report. Mohammed Habib Al Mekdad Mohammed Habib Al Mekdad Al-Mekdad was stripped naked and beaten, and then put in pitch-dark prison cell, where he was continually tortured, the report says. According to al-Mekdad, he was hung head down, beaten for hours, and had sensitive body parts exposed to electric shock. Prince Nasser Bin Hamad came to interrogate al-Mekdad and other detainees, making sure they recognized him before their questioning, the report says. On learning that al-Mekdad took part in a Safriya protest march in front of the Bahraini king’s palace, where some people shouted “Down with King Hamad,” the prince began beating him. Prince Nasser then supervised the torture in person, Al-Mekdad said at the February 2012 court trial according to the report. There he showed more than 50 electric shock traces on his body and told the judge he was tortured by a drill piercing his leg and humiliated by spitting in his mouth. Prince Nasser forced al-Mekdad to kiss pictures of the royal family in between the torture sessions. None of these words were taken down in the court, and the judge asked al-Mekdad to remain silent, saying that “this court has its respect,” the report states. Tortured for SMS This is what happens in Bahrain if the king’s son finds a suspicious SMS in your phone, RT’s Kevorkova said, citing the story of the man speaking on condition of anonymity. According to the report, the man was stopped at a checkpoint near Safriya Palace in May 2011 while driving in a car with his wife and children. He recognized one of the patrolmen as Prince Khalid Bin Hamad. Unsatisfied with the fact that nothing was found in the car, the prince started searching through text messages on the man’s phone, and found an old SMS on the Pearl Roundabout demonstration. The prince then ordered the man’s brother be called to take the woman and children home, but on his arrival both were arrested, the report says. They were thrown to the ground, beaten and forced “to repeat the royal greeting,” with Khalid Bin Hamad ordering to beat them again for every royal family member’s name they didn’t know. The men were also forced to eat hot chili peppers and insult some opposition figures. The reports states that the police has also started beating the men on coming to the scene. Both were sentenced to 60 days in prison and dismissed from their jobs. Another man cited in the report was also arrested at a checkpoint after policemen noticed his car was parked near Pearl Roundabout and took the car’s number down. For that he was put in al-Qalaa prison and tortured daily with the use of special devices and techniques, including chaining, limb piercing and beating with clubs, the report claims. He was also deprived of sleep and his religious practices, the report adds. Prince Nasser Bin Hamad allegedly supervised the man’s torture, which was carried out by foreigners. “This is not Iran, we came to you from Iraq, and we are Saddamists,” they shouted as they tortured him, according to the report. The man was cited as saying that his friend Karim Fakhrawi, who was also detained, died during one such torture session. RT sent a letter to Bahraini Information Affairs Authority last week asking for the comment on the report, but has so far not received an answer. ­RT's Nadezhda Kevorkova contributed to this report ===================== The World According to Beblawi by Joshua Stacher | published July 11, 2013 - 12:19pm It took a day of back-room negotiations, but the powers behind Egypt’s throne finally settled on Hazem Beblawi, an economist, as interim prime minister. Beblawi, 76, served as finance minister in 2011, when Egypt was under the direct rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He wrote against the Gamal Mubarak succession project when that stance was not fashionable in respectable Egyptian society. Those who have met him say he is bookish and capable. Egypt’s state-run media is going to great lengths to argue that there is a new sheriff in town. Unlike his three predecessors in the interim slot, they say, Beblawi is neither an old-school apparatchik nor a yes-man beholden to unseen bosses. The new leader himself said that his cabinet will be chosen “based on experience and efficiency.” Is Beblawi the answer? Intriguingly, one of his main claims to fame before July 9 was his scholarly publications, particularly those about the “rentier state.” His chief argument is that excessive reliance on “rents” -- unearned state revenues -- makes governments bloated and unaccountable to the citizenry. Such governments are “rentier states.” Rents classically come from hydrocarbon deposits or other natural resources. But foreign aid, tourist dollars and the remittances of migrant workers are also rents. In the case of Egypt, so are tolls upon traffic in the Suez Canal. The key for Beblawi’s theory is that rentier states do not have to extract taxes from the people in order to pay the government’s bills. The rentier state, in fact, is flush enough to prop up living standards with handouts of varying generosity. The result is a dynamic of “no taxation, no representation.” Governments have fewer incentives to perform well; because they do not bankroll the state, citizens have less leverage in pushing for more rights or a greater say in public affairs. To put it another way, in the world according to Beblawi, rentier economies are no good at producing democracy. Middle East studies is not often ahead of the curve. On rentier state theory, however, Beblawi and his intellectual descendants were light years beyond conventional understandings. (Subsequent research has pushed rentier state theory well past Beblawi’s formulations. And the question of oil’s relationship to democracy is still very much a question. On its own, oil does not do anything. The people who receive the money that oil sales generate make the decisions.) Can an academic who studies Arab economies break Egypt’s impasse and deliver the bread, freedom and social justice that so many have clamored for since January 2011? It’s not promising, and rents are a big reason why. Every instant expert in the firmament, for instance, has an opinion about US aid to Egypt, much of which goes to the army. Should the assistance continue? Should it be conditional? In practice, the debate is already resolved in favor of keeping the aid flowing -- the “national interest” is too pressing, the lucre for the arms industry too great. (Much of the aid to Egypt is Foreign Military Financing, which by US law must be spent on purchases from American weapons manufacturers.) But the White House and State Department are facing embarrassing questions before the television cameras. How can the US go on sending money to a military that has just mounted a coup? Rushing in to save the day with supplemental cash injections are the Gulf kingdoms. Qatar provided nearly $8 billion to Muhammad Mursi’s government during its year in power, but less than one week after the Muslim Brother’s ouster Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait had already topped their gas-rich neighbor, pledging a combined $12 billion to the fledgling “civilian” interim government in Cairo. So Beblawi comes to the prime minister’s office amidst a windfall of rent. An early proponent of rentier state theory is overseeing a rentier economy with international partners floating on rents of their own and willing to use them to “stabilize” Egypt. A further irony: Beblawi coined the term “rentier mentality” to describe the essential laziness of Gulf Arab monarchies vis-à-vis the task of governing. The enormous oil and gas rents in the Gulf effectively reward the regimes for rule by handout. Now, in effect, Saudis, Emiratis and Kuwaitis are rewarding Egypt’s coupmasters in the same way. What will Beblawi do with the rent? He won’t give more handouts, apparently. “The canceling of subsidies requires sacrifices from the public and therefore necessitates their acceptance,” he told Daily News Egypt in an interview before Mursi’s removal. “It is crucial that they understand the scope of the danger that the current size of subsidies imposes on Egypt’s economy, and they must also feel that rationing is done in a way that guarantees social justice.” It’s not clear, given his scholarly output, that the new premier even believes that Egypt can be a democracy. But the crowds in the streets of Egypt’s cities may have ideas of their own -- about subsidies and about political theory.