All Change Syria

Well Syria has just ended the long phase 1 of the civil war. The rebels have captured Damascus and Bashar al-Assad has taken his family and fled to Moscow and claimed asylum.

Ahmed al-Sharaa - De-facto New Leader Of Syria?

The key to his fall, seems to be his ignoring Turkeys attempts to negotiate a peaceful power swap or arrangement with the rebels. They finally lost patience with his refusal to shed any power, and silently authorised the rebels offensive by not saying no. 

Trumps Travel Ban Travails

President Trump has reissued his travel ban list (minus Iraq), which of course is still essentially the same list of countries who were under extra scrutiny under President Obama (now minus one). Although you would never know this from the pro-refugee, pro-immigration liberals, who weep every time a refugee is refused entry.

Many Americans Remember Iranians Treatment
Of Hostages - Even Though Liberals Don't.

Now I am happy to admit that President Trump is possibly a tower short of a shopping mall, but in this area I actually think he's being rather restrained, as there are many more Islamic paradises he could have included in the list. So with his minimalist list of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen (six of the seven countries on the original 27 January order), the US have subjected the citizens of those countries to a 90-day travel ban and extra background checks.

Voting Rights and Wrongs

There are two essential parts to any democratic system and those are that

(a) The people can vote for whomever they want (within some limitations on parties advocating violence against other citizens), and

(b) People who exercise their vote, do so with the knowledge that they are responsible for the end results.

Tunisia is the first of the "Arab Spring" countries to vote for a new government and has just voted for the Islamist party 'Ennahda' as the biggest party in its constitutional assembly, how this turns out will become clear in the coming months. It may be a mistake that just leads to Sharia law and an Iranian style regime.

The people of Gaza voted for Hamas, and then complained that because they had democratically elected an terrorist organisation as its government, then the rest of the world should accept that this legitimised them and their policies .... wrong.


Voting For These, Is Hard For Democracies To Digest  

If Hitler, or Stalin were 'democratically' voted into office today, would this mean that we should all accept that the 'holocaust', or 'the Purges' were legitimate policy goals, or treat them as pariah states? Well most Hamas supporters believe in much the same policies towards the Jews as Hitler (who is popular in the Muslim world)  ....

As discussed earlier, having a democracy make you responsible for the standard of the government you have voted to represent you. The Tunisians are responsible for what they may end up getting by dabbling with Islamic politics, and the people of the Gaza strip have to live with the results of voting for a terrorist group as their government.

Too many of the deluded apologists for these nasty little regimes in the West forget this second responsibility when they bleat on about the democratically elected groups of the Middle East, and it might be better if responsible democracy rather than oil supplies governed US and Western policies in the Middle East.

Libya's "Banksy"

During any war there are some oddly surreal moments, and the overthrow of Gaddafi has thrown up one of these at a checkpoint in Benghazi being manned by engineering student, Ibrahim Humaid, aged 22. He was bored, but excited by the possibilities that his new 'Freedom' offered. The war had moved West to Tripoli, and there wasn't much to do at the checkpoint, so he started painting caricatures of Col Gaddafi, and just kept going.

Now I don't necessarily agree with the Arab idea that everything wrong in the Islamic world is because of 'Zionists', and so his suggestion that Gaddafi was a Zionist Rat is frankly plainly stupid .... Gaddafi was all Arab, and all Rat .... but hardly a Zionist.

But regardless of that one caveat, I think its fair to suggest that Mr Humaid has a real talent, and could, if he can throw off these religious blinkers, as quickly has he has thrown off the shackles of the regime, become the Arab "Banksy".


The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



The Work of Ibrahim Humaid

 

The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



The Work of Ibrahim Humaid

 

The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



The Work of Ibrahim Humaid

The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



The Work of Ibrahim Humaid



Ibrahim Humaid At Work



The Artist - Ibrahim Humaid



The NATO Myth

The NATO myth is that they are a group of 28 independent member countries, united in a common defence and interest. The truth is that when push comes to shove its just the US, Canada and the UK - with occasionally the French (when it suits them) who take any action and defend the interests of the rest ....

These few countries have to spend their money, risk their citizens lives, and take the political flak from a largely brutish third world, and the equally brutish (ex) communist block. The rest cower behind these three or four countries and do nothing (often reaping economic advantages as well). Some even actively campaign to do nothing - as if this is a valid political stance, while some others such as Turkey take a 'religious' stance of saying we can't pursue regime change in Muslim countries, but are happy to urge such actions against non Muslim countries (such as asking NATO to attack 'Christian' Serbia, when 'Muslim' Bosnia was attacked).

Frankly, the campaign against Libya (called Operation Unified Protector) has proved once again that we should probably collapse NATO, then reform it as a UK / US / Canadian 'Northern Defence Alliance', and tell the rest they are on their own ...... they deserve each other. 

 

But as that's unlikely to happen, perhaps only an large external threat will cause the alliance to reform and members to actively support it both financially and politically.

Strange Comment By Dictators

Over the last few weeks, as regime after regime in the Arab world has come under pressure from protesters, there have been strange utterances from each of the dictators who have been threatened. In  nearly every case they have said that the protesters were being misled by outsiders, or "armed gangs" of foreign-backed militants...... but also they are "drunk" or "drug addicts".


Libyan Drunks Marching ..... 

The Libyan woman lawyer who was gang raped by Gaddafi's men in Tripoli, and who in her distress went to the foreign press hotel to complain (before being bundled away by secret police, to not be seen again), was also described as "a drunk, a prostitute and a thief" by a regime spokesman.

Now, apart from the ludicrous nature of these statements, which are the same claims that these regimes have made against opponents for the last thirty or forty years, there is the strangeness that alcohol is illegal and prohibited to the Muslim faithful in any of these paradises on earth ..... alcohol is actually one of the principal rewards (along with sex) that is given to the faithful when they die (men only - women get nothing), so they only get to drink an alcohol beer when they are dead (which many of the regimes have tried quite hard to arrange).

All The Taste ... But None Of The Fun!

In fact alcohol is not sold anywhere openly in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia or Yemen where these protests broke out - only non alcoholic beers .... so just where are all these 'Drunks' coming from? 

I just can't work out where these dictators think all these are gangs of drunks were actually hiding for the last thirty years, nor where they were getting their drinks from to become 'Drunks'?

Post Script: The woman lawyer, Iman al-Obeidi ended up in Colorado USA, where she was later charged with a number of violent offences, including a February 2014 assault on two patrons at a down-town bar in Boulder, Colorado for which she was convicted in May 2015 of a Class 4 felony - she was sentenced in Boulder District Court to 6 years in prison. So she was in fact a violent drunk after all. Life is odd sometimes.

The Thirteen MP's

Thirteen Names: John Baron, Graham Allen, Ronnie Campbell, Jeremy Corbyn, Barry Gardiner, Roger Godsiff, John McDonnell, Linda Riordan, Dennis Skinner, Mike Wood, Caroline Lucas, Mark Durkan, Margaret Ritchie ...... nothing unusual in them, so what have these thirteen names got in common?

Well, these are the thirteen Members of the British Parliament who voted against the imposition of a "No Fly Zone" over Libya, and presumably therefore to allow Gaddafi and his mercenaries / militia's to march into Benghazi and exact a terrible retribution (I don't think any right minded person would deny that the torture cells would be in full swing once Gaddafi got a firm grip).

None of these MP's is accountable to the public for their parliamentary votes, because UK Democracy isn't actually very democratic in reality, and they are only accountable once every 4/5 years or so, to a public that has short memories and tends to vote tribally. This contrasts to the US, where Congressmen and Senators are often held accountable by pressure groups e.g. the "Tea Party" or interest other groups.

Who Knows Why 13 UK MP's Voted
Against Stopping This Tyrant?



So the only way to determine what made thirteen UK MP's vote to sit back and allow Gaddafi's mercenaries a free rein in East Libya, is to look at their records as posted on a Public Website:

Conservative: John Baron (Basildon & Billericay)

Ex Army then Merchant Banker and apparently consistently 'anti-war' ..... John Baron was a member of Iain Duncan Smith's Frontbench team, but resigned in March 2003 in protest at Duncan Smith's support of the Iraq War. So although his motivations are not entirely clear, it is at least a consistent stance.

Labour: Graham Allen (Nottingham North)

Ex Warehouse Worker and Labour Party Researcher whose alleged radicalism prevented his ministerial career rising further than  Labour government whip. He was at the forefront of a successful campaign to recall Parliament to discuss Iraq in September 2002, attempting to organise an unofficial recall if the House would not formally sit. His constituency, has one of the lowest rates of educational attainment in the country, sending the fewest number of children to university of any constituency, and has high unemployment.

Labour: Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley)

Ex Coal Miner and an outspoken 'Socialist'. He has often voted against the government on issues such as the Iraq War. Campbell 'accidentally supported' the first 'National Fetish Day', due apparently to him not understanding the meaning of the word "Fetish". Campbell said in an interview, "I thought a fetish was a worry, like worrying about backing the right horse." When the government nationalised Northern Rock in 2008, Campbell declared it the 'People's Bank' and opened an account ... In May 2009, during the MPs expenses scandal, Campbell agreed to give back over £6,000 he had claimed for furnishings in his London home.

Labour: Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North)

Considered to be one of the most 'left-wing' or socialist members of the Labour Party and is in the Socialist Campaign Group. He has a weekly column in The Morning Star and is a long-time supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), for whom he is one of its three Vice-Chairs. He was fiercely opposed to the Iraq War and has spoken at many anti-war rallies in Britain and abroad. He is an elected member of the Stop the War Coalition steering committee.

Labour: Barry Gardiner (Brent North)

He worked as a senior partner in shipping insurance and arbitration for the ten years, before his election to parliament. He accused Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand" and has been described by Andrew Roth in The Guardian as "One of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs" .... its not clear why he has voted against stopping Gaddafi.

Labour: Roger Godsiff (Birmingham Hall Green)

He was a bank clerk for five years from 1965, before becoming  a political officer from 1970 with a banking staff 'trades union' until his election to Parliament in 1992 ... In October 2006, Godsiff was one of 12 Labour MPs to back a call for an inquiry into the Iraq War. He also rebelled against the government in November 2005 on legislation permitting the detention of terrorist suspects for 90 days without trial and his constituency has a large Muslim population and the anti Iraq war "Respect Party" were his chief opponents in the last election. Ahh, that probably explains a lot ... 

Labour: John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington)

Trades Union and Council politics until he entered Parliament in 1997. He voted against government policies such as the 2003 Iraq war, and in October 2006, McDonnell was one of 12 Labour MPs to call for an inquiry into the Iraq War. In May 2003, he praised the IRA, saying, "It's about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table. The peace we have now is due to the action of the IRA." He later said that the, "deaths of innocent civilians in IRA attacks is a real tragedy, but it was as a result of British occupation in Ireland. Because of the bravery of the IRA and people like Bobby Sands we now have a peace process"...... enough said. There's a word for him that comes to mind ...

Labour: Linda Riordan (Halifax)

She worked as private secretary for the previous Halifax MP, and she was selected as the Labour candidate from an all-women shortlist ..... legalised sexism. No 'previous' on Iraq, but not been a MP long enough .... but is also a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and has often rebelled against the Party leadership.

Labour: Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)

Full time politician and known for his 'left-wing' views -  On taking his seat, he undertook publicly to stand down from Parliament at the age of 65 (therefore in 1997), just as he would have retired had he remained as a miner; this was so that he would not be 'taking another man's job' .....four elections later he's still an MP. He is also a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and voted in 2003, against the Iraq War; he later rebelled against the party line when he voted against government policy to allow terror suspects to be detained without trial for 90 days. In March 2007, Skinner with 88 other Labour MPs also voted against government policy to renew the Trident Nuclear Missile System.

Labour: Mike Wood (Batley & Spen)

He was a probation officer and social worker from 1965 to 1997 before becoming an MP and he is a member of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group. On 31 October 2006, Wood was one of 12 Labour MPs to calls for an inquiry into the Iraq War.

Green Party: Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion)

Began her career as an activist in the anti-nuclear movement with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and has espoused pretty much every 'green' and animal welfare issue since. Worked full time for Oxfam before Parliament in 2010.

SDLP: Mark Durkan (Foyle)

Student organiser, then working for John Hume as his Westminster Assistant ... then mainstream politician .... no record of 'anti-war' voting on his Wiki listing.

SDLP: Margaret Ritchie (Down South)

Parliamentary assistant to Eddie McGrady MP from 1987 to 2003 .... then MP. Despite the SDLP's opposition to "double-jobbing", Ritchie currently retains her seat in the Assembly as well as her seat in the House of Commons .... say one thing, do another..... no record of 'anti-war' voting on her Wiki listing.

Better Late Than Never

It appears that the United Nations was forced by world opinion, in to taking action against Gaddafi's militia and mercenary forces just in time.

Gaddafi's Militia Fighters

According to reports some of his militia and mercenaries had actually got in to the suburbs of Benghazi when the no combat zones were agreed up on by the Security Council, and that's possibly why the Russians and Chinese just abstained.

Gaddafi Not Funny Any More

Colonel Gaddafi has been the subject of much ridicule on this blog over the years, but we here at PC Towers think its fair to say that the joke has worn thin now and that the time for mocking is over ....

Gaddafi in fur hat in Tripoli's Greeen Square this week. 

"A Tyrant is always just a Tyrant", no matter what the stupid outfit, or the ridiculous pronouncements they make.

Gaddafi and his murderous henchmen and family have been exposed for what they really always were ... red in tooth and claw murderers. 

Gaddafi's Foreign Adventures

The loss of his role as African Union chairman appears to have disturbed the 'Gadfather's' normal equilibrium and he's now having spats with all and sundry ...

Hannibal Gaddafi Deported

He started with the Swiss, where his call for a Jihad (Holy War "Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," he said. "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran".

The Gadfather Flexes His Muscles

Muammar Gaddafi's role as King of Kings, and head of the African Union looks to be heading for an acrimonious ending, as that little monkey known as 'rules' and possibly its cousin 'democracy' have reared their heads.

The problem is that Gaddafi is not exactly democratic by nature or inclination, or rather he practises 'one man, one vote', and he's that 'one man' with the 'one vote' in Libya.

Now that his one year reign as head of the African Union is coming to an end he is not a happy 'gadman'. His solution? Why not just change the rules so that he stays as head of the African Union? Simple! And to that end, one of Libya's Arab clients (no oil), Tunisia, has now suggested prior to a African heads of state summit next week, that Col Gaddafi stay on.

This would be fine if everyone just understood that Gaddafi is the only man for the job, but unfortunately some of the AU members don't quite see it the 'Gadfathers' way, and these 'troublemakers' are insisting that the AU rules mean that its Malawi's turn to lead the union.

"Personally I am confident that the candidature of Malawi is going to be endorsed by the whole African Union," said Eduardo Koloma , Mozambique's deputy foreign minister.

As usual with Africa, the sound of the begging bowl rattling is never far away. The AU is looking for $1.3bn for its programmes, Malawi is poor, Libya is by far the richest of the AU members (in terms of contributions), a deal is on the cards, and this blog is confident that with an exchange of cash to Malawi and the AU, our man will retain his status as the 'Big Man' of Africa.

STOP PRESS!

The BBC is reporting that Gadaffi has handed over the Chairmanship of the AU to the Malawian leader but apparently with not much good grace. He is reported as having complained about being sidelined, left out of decisions and most crucially, of not being invited to represent Africa at big meetings such as the G20, G7 and World Economic Forum at Davos.

He is also said to have made a very pointed reminder about how much funds Libya has contributed to the AU and suggested that as he had been in power the longest (no mean feat in a continent where re-election is optional) he should be given a special post in the organisation ........ obviously no elections are foreseen in Libya for the next decade or so.

I suspect that the AU will still be looking for the $1.5bn after this little episode.

North African Dynasties

A few weeks ago I posted a comment on the trend towards new heredity dynasties being created around the world.

The Men Who Would Be Kings

This occurs when the 'democracy' didn't take, and is most obvious in the Muslim world, but the ex-communist countries such as North Korea have espoused this idea as well.

The Colonel Speaks His Mind

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has said he would like any 'United States of Africa' to include "Caribbean islands with African populations"..... this is after he was recently made King Of Kings, by African traditional leaders, and then took the role of Chairman of the African Union.

This latest announcement, follows on to his dismissal of African democracy, and his plan for a "United States of Africa" (ruled presumably by a promising new 'King of Kings'), it all promises exciting times for a defunct organisation.

I will be watching his eccentric reign as King of Kings and AU Chairman with some interest, it looks like there is a real 'player' in town, and I for one will enjoy the show.

The "King of Kings"