My Views on News

The Middle East Times has reported that the escalating rhetoric between the feuding politicians of Beirut proved too much for the Arab League chief who has been trying to broker a deal to arrive at a settlement.

 

It is unfortunate indeed that the political crisis in Lebanon has not been resolved so far and we don’t see any amicable solution in the near future. The election to the office of the president which fell vacant after the pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud stepped down in November 2007. The presidential election has been postponed thirteen times as the politicians continue to fight over cabinet representation.

 

The entire Muslim world is plagued with internecine disputes which are a hindrance to peace and prosperity. I fail to understand that why is it so that we Muslims are not being able to solve such petty disputes. The Muslims in general and their leaders in particular must realize that they must show unity and rise above petty political disputes and think for the betterment of our people.

Caught in the wrong job? Monster can help. I recall this from a TV ad. I had no idea about the scope of their work. It was only when I visited their websites only recently that I came to know that they have a comprehensive database for job listings which can be searched very easily. If you are looking for a job or you want to change your job for a better one in Canada I would recommend you to visit their website.

 

Their search tool enables you to find jobs in different categories and you can find jobs at a particular place according to your qualifications. I think the first thing you need to do at Monster is to become a member by registering yourself and posting a resume. You either upload your resume or build one online using their tool. You resume will be seen by a large number of people; therefore you need to prepare it with care. You will get useful information about writing a good resume here.

 

They also help you in preparing for your job interview and let you know as to how to crack difficult interview questions. At times we are caught unprepared which does not leave a good impression. You need to be precise and too the point in your interview. You will find good information about the type of questions which might be put to you during the interview.

If you are fed up with using ordinary and dull looking eyeglasses which do go with your personality well there is Great Discovery: Zenni Optical. They can get you prescription glasses of high quality at a price which you will like. There prescription glasses are very affordable but the quality which they are providing is unmatched.

 

They have a whole range of frames from which you can select. The designs are very beautiful yet they are very cheap. Zenni Optical $8 Rx Glasses is their low price starter product range. You will see many beautiful frames which will tempt your taste and I am sure you will love to have such beautiful frames and such a reasonable price.

 

They have all type of frames which you can imagine. You can get frames made from stainless steel, plastic or acetate and memory titanium. The designs include full rim, half rim and rimless frames. They have frames for children and ladies as well. A complete description is given against each frame so that you know very well as to what you are buying. This would also help you in the selection of lenses.

 

If you want to place an order you must have a prescription. They have very high quality lenses available with them. Their anti scratch and anti radiation glasses are that the Best Thing Found: Zenni Optical particularly suited for the people who do computer work and driving. You can say

 

Inter County is a UK based company which specializes in providing high quality office furniture at competitive rates. You can order your products online and they will deliver your products through their own transportation system in order to insure fast and reliable service. Their commitment to quality service can be judged from the fact that they are an ISO certified company.

 

Their website is very comprehensive and you can find every type of furniture in order to furnish a good office. I shall confine myself to reviewing their office storage items which are necessary for keeping files and other type of valuables. They have the following range of storage items.

 

1. Cupboards
2. Wooden filing cabinets
3. Pedestals
4. Book cases
5. Lockers
6. Metal filing cabinets

 

The wooden filing cabinets are manufactured with a system for providing extra strength. They are fitted with anti cheat auto locking system which makes it impossible to open more than one drawer at a time. This also ensures that the cabinet does not trip over. The wooden cabinets come with a warranty of 8 years.

 

The metallic filing cabinets are built to meet British Standards and are very long lasting. These metallic cabinets are made from solid metal and some of them carry a warranty of 20 long years.

 

Their bookcases are available in different styles and sizes. The bookcases can be used to divide the room if needed because they have a finished back. They have height adjusters and a 25 mm top. All bookcases come with a warranty of 8 years.

 

I would recommend you to visit their website if you are interested in getting good quality at a price which they say is unbeatable.

 

According to press reports a least one million people have been killed so far in Iraq after the US forces invaded to find the weapons of mass destruction. How many more people will be killed  before it will be realized that enough is enough. It was claimed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussain could use them against western interests. When nothing was found after hectic search it was shamelessly told that the intelligence reports were deliberately falsified in order to find a pretext to attack Iraq.

Saddam was a despot, he was a cruel leader. I do not deny this. I think he has been outdone in cruelty and tyranny. Innocent people are being killed and their blood does not lie heavy on the world consciene. If only the Muslims could realize that their survival is hidden in thier unity.

Premiere Vanities is your online resource if you are looking to bring about some fresh change in your bathroom. Premiere Vanities has a large collection of bathroom vanities of different styles and make. They are offering vanities made from porcelain, wood, stainless steel and teak, each with its own touch of elegance and beauty. Beside vanities they are also selling linen cabinets of attractive designs.

The site is very good and the product line is arranged in manner that one can easily go to the things which one wants. You can find vanities according to size and price range. If you need single bathroom vanities, which have only one basin, the site has a lot to offer. They have many designs from which to choose. If you need vanities of larger size to furnish a large bathroom then you must go for double bathroom vanities.

They are offering good discounts on their products, particularly on the clearance sale where you can buy products at remarkably low prices. The orders are shipped daily and payment can be made online through credit cards. They accept Google checkout as well. You can return the product if you for any reason you do not come to like it when you receive it within thirty days.

In Iraq and elsewhere, terrorism thrives with Saudi support.
by Stephen Schwartz

ALMOST SIX YEARS after September 11, 2001, and more than four years since the beginning of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq, the American government and media have begun to admit something every informed and honest Muslim in the world has known all along. That is: the "Sunni insurgency" in Iraq, as well as 9/11 and certain acts of extremist Sunni violence inside Iraq before then, are consequences of the official status of the ultra-fundamentalist Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia, Iraq's southern neighbor. Saudi Wahhabi clerics have preached and recruited for terror in Iraq; Saudi money has sustained it; the largest number of those who have carried out suicide bombings north of the Saudi-Iraqi border have been Saudi citizens.

Does this sound obvious and familiar? Perhaps to regular readers of THE WEEKLY STANDARD and THE DAILY STANDARD , which have reported frequently on the Saudi connection to terror in the Iraq war since the phenomenon first appeared. But the truth is finally seeping out elsewhere. On Friday, July 27, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported on the links between Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabi terror in Iraq, employing their usual cautious and polite language when dealing with the desert kingdom. The Post ran a Reuters rewrite of the Times reportage, casting the problem in terms of Saudi distrust for the Shia-led Iraqi administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the resulting difficulties facing Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates as they visit the Saudis this week. Seven paragraphs down, the story quoted the Times about the real issue: "the Saudis had offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq and U.S. officials were increasingly concerned about its close Arab ally's 'counterproductive' role in Iraq."

"Counterproductive" is a euphemism for Saudi state subsidies to Wahhabi clerics who demand the genocide of Shia Muslims, urge young men to go north and sacrifice themselves to that end, and preach eulogies after their deaths. It is also a diplomatic way to describe the official Saudi policy of ignoring financial contributions by rich Saudi citizens to support Wahhabi terror in Iraq. Others might call such behavior acts of war rather than merely "counterproductive."

The Times itself, in an article by Helene Cooper, further noted, "Of an estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters who enter Iraq each month, American military and intelligence officials say that nearly half are coming from Saudi Arabia and that the Saudis have not done enough to stem the flow." Administration officials, the paper reported "spoke on the condition of anonymity because they believed that openly criticizing Saudi Arabia would further alienate the Saudi royal family." Then came the bald truth: "the majority of suicide bombers in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia [and] about 40 percent of all foreign fighters are Saudi. Officials said that while most of the foreign fighters came to Iraq to become suicide bombers, others arrived as bomb makers, snipers, logisticians and financiers."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has "revealed" information about the Al Rajhi Bank, one of the kingdom's main financiers of Wahhabism, most of which has been available in print for several years. The "fresh" disclosures include the role of the Al Rajhi Bank in facilitating Saudi extremist operations. But the Journal admits that the Al Rajhi name appeared on a document many Westerners were loath to take seriously, the "Golden Chain" roster of al Qaeda donors seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo, and handed over to the U.S. government in 2002.

Yet even the Journal seems not to have noticed that the Al Rajhi financial system's Suleiman Abdul Al-Aziz Al Rajhi also created the SAAR Foundation, an object of the federal raid known as GreenQuest, which struck a nest of Islamist entities in Northern Virginia in 2002.

Why has there been so little media interest in the role of Saudi money and influence in Iraq and elsewhere? The best explanation is media cooperation with the official U.S. preference for the "quiet, behind-the-scenes influence" that one administration after another has defaulted to in dealing with Saudi problems, and which the Saudis exploit to continue their deceptive ways.

Saudis and Iraqis, even with own imperfect media, are much better informed. Here is what they have been reading.

* On July 25, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported on 61 Saudis held in Iraqi jails. The inferred charge was terrorism.

* The day before, Al-Watan described an uproar over Saudi clerics advocating the destruction of Shia holy sites in Iraq. According to Iraqi sources, the Wahhabis have specifically called for the destruction of the shrines of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in Karbala, and of Caliph Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, in Najaf--the two most sacred Shia sites. As also reported in Iraqi media, students at the Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, located in Riyadh and known as the "terrorist factory," have organized activist groups and sent members streaming north to join the onslaught on Iraqi Shias.

* On July 17, the Grand Mufti or chief Islamic cleric of the Saudi kingdom, Abd al-Aziz Al Ash-Shaykh, cautioned Saudis not to go to Iraq to engage in terror, and said that "those who mislead young Muslims, calling them to jihad, refuse to send their own sons to participate in the same conflict."

* On July 16, the Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted the comment of Prince Nayef, the Saudi interior minister who wriggles like an eel on this issue, that Saudis lured to participate in the Iraq terror are "brainwashed teenagers." The same day, the Saudi daily Al-Hayat interviewed U.S. Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey, who argued that financing terror in Iraq is no different from contributing to al Qaeda elsewhere.

* And the day before that, on July 15, the Wahhabi website Al-Sahat posted a list of Saudi terrorists recently killed in Iraq, with names, addresses, and dates and places of their demise.

This, too, is merely the beginning of a long inventory of such information reported in the Muslim world. Nobody can say the Saudis, Iraqis, and other Muslims do not know who organizes and supports the Wahhabi terror in Iraq.

None of the recent "revelations" should come as a suprise to anyone. In 2002, THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported on the Al Rajhi financial network and terrorism; in 2003 on the Saudi injection of Wahhabi radicals into Iraq, including Saudi media publicity about their deaths in defense of Saddam Hussein and on Saudi involvement in combat against the U.S.-led coalition at Falluja; in 2004 on general Saudi support for terror in Iraq, and yet more on the Saudi involvement in the fight for Falluja.

One question remains: How many more American and Coalition soldiers, as well as innocent Iraqis, will be killed before the Saudis are compelled to end their support for terrorism in Iraq?

Stephen Schwartz is a frequent contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates today start a key Middle East mission to seek Arab support for the Iraqi government and also discuss weapons sales to regional allies.

The secretaries of state and defense are making their trip at a time when America’s credibility in the Mideast has plummeted. The United States has failed to stabilize Iraq, destroy al-Qaida, pacify Lebanon, isolate Syria or bolster moderate Palestinians.

So far, U.S. support for Israel’s ill-fated war in Lebanon and its efforts to undermine radical groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon have borne little fruit. Along with its support for autocrats such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, such actions have undercut U.S. claims that it is championing Muslim democracy.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a news briefing in Washington on July 27 that a primary objective of the tour is to seek Arab support for Iraq.

They hope to persuade Iraq’s neighbors to help stabilize the country, to counter Iran’s growing ambitions and to try to get real movement on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. There is also an overarching aim: to reassure worried allies in the Middle East that despite its troubles in Iraq, the United States remains committed to the region.

In my opinion Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates face a tough assignment. Because Gulf states - particularly Saudi Arabia - have started to get nervous about Tehran's increasing influence in the Persian Gulf region.

Source : Munaeem's Blog 

British defense firm BAE Systems secretly paid £250,000 (about $500,000) for the daughter of a Saudi prince at the center of bribery allegations to go on a luxury honeymoon, The Sunday Times newspaper today reported.

The weekly said a senior BAE executive authorized the payment to Prince Bandar Bin Sultan's daughter and her husband to enjoy a six-week break in Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, Australia, and Hawaii.

It quoted Peter Gardiner, the managing director of the travel firm that arranged the trip, as saying: "BAE instructed me to give Bandar's daughter and her husband the honeymoon of a lifetime at BAE's expense.

"Who says that big business doesn't have a heart?"

It was not clear whether Gardiner spoke directly to the newspaper, but he has previously spoken out in the long-running claims surrounding BAE Systems attempts to secure defense contracts with the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television investigation broadcast in October 2004, citing Gardiner, alleged that Prince Turki Bin Nasser, whose son Prince Faisal Bin Turki married Bandar's daughter Reema, was the main beneficiary of BAE's millions.

Prince Turki - who was, at the time, head of the Saudi air force - and his family, enjoyed about £2-million ($395-million) worth of luxury hotels, limousines, flights, and security at BAE's expense, Gardiner told the BBC at the time.

BAE Systems had been under investigation in Britain for allegedly setting up a £60-million slush fund to secure continued business after the Al Yamamah deal in 1985, which provided Hawk and Tornado jets for the Saudis.

But the investigation was shelved last December. The government's most senior law adviser, attorney general Lord Peter Goldsmith, said to continue could have harmed Britain's national and international interests.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has supported the move, but the Paris-based anti-corruption watchdog Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said it had "serious concerns" about the probe being dropped.

Meanwhile, The Guardian newspaper in Britain has alleged that BAE secretly transferred more than $1 billion to accounts controlled by Prince Bandar, who was, at the time, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington.

It also claimed that BAE bought the prince a top-of-the-range Airbus airliner worth £75 million and was still paying the costs of flying it.

Both BAE and the prince, who The Guardian said received funds in US accounts for at least 10 years, have strenuously denied any charges of wrongdoing.

View Original Article

dave in boca writes :



Dave's world has more...

Tariq Alhomayed comments that the activation and the unanimous approval of the Arab initiative in the Riyadh summit of solidarity and Saudi efforts to realign the moderate states in the region has cornered the Olmert government and has led to Israel losing positive points on the international stage.

He notes :

"Israel can no longer claim that there are no moderate states or partners in peace in the region. However, instead of declaring its approval of the Arab initiative and considering it a favorable opportunity for peace – which it is –, it preferred to play a public relations game with this historical opportunity, with the intention of just scoring points.

We saw Israel trying its best to embarrass the Saudis with flattery, knowing that its praise is viewed as condemnation in our Arab world.

The Saudis did not heed and proceeded with responsible political action.

Peace needs an international deterrent, and I doubt that Bush is capable of doing this. When the late Arafat (may God rest his soul) missed out on the so-called Clinton proposal, his actions were labeled a crime. Today, we are undoubtedly faced with the Olmert crime. Olmert is not a man of peace but a statesman who wants to score points."

Pentagon, policy planners are conducting secret meetings to discuss what to do in the worst-case scenario in Iraq about a year from today if and when President Bush's escalation of more than 20,000 troops fails.

None of those who are taking part in these exercises believes that the so-called surge will succeed. On the contrary, everyone thinks it will not only fail to achieve its aims but also accelerate instability by providing a glaring example of U.S. incapacity and incompetence.

The profoundly pessimistic thinking that permeates the senior military and the intelligence community, however, is forbidden in the sanitized atmosphere of mind-cure boosterism that surrounds Bush.

"He's tried this two times -- it's failed twice," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Jan. 24 about the "surge" tactic.

Saudi Arabia is watching with anxiety the developments in Iraq. She has  growing reason to be alarmed about the rising influence of Iran's hard-line Shiite regime in war-torn Iraq.

Khomeini regularly ridiculed the Saudi regime, and other Iranian leaders called for its downfall. Its leaders were corrupt and profligate. Khomeini leveled the ultimate insult: Saudi Islam was "American Islam."

As sectarian violence continues to deepen there -- and with the balance of power across the Middle East possibly at stake -- there is a growing danger that the Saudi leadership will try to protect its interests by supporting Sunni radicals in their fight against Iranian-backed Shiites, even though these same fighters are also rabidly anti-American. That could have ominous consequences for the long-standing, though always complicated, alliance between Riyadh and Washington.

Publicly, Saudis talk of the Iranian threat, both because they see it as growing and because they know that they will find sympathetic ears in Washington, especially now that the Bush administration is blaming Tehran for the deepening chaos in Iraq.

From Riyadh's perspective, a stable and strong Iraq was a threat to the kingdom's security but at least had long balanced Tehran's influence -- a balance that ended after the United States toppled Saddam from power.

Compounding the Saudis' fears about the region is the threat of unrest at home. As sectarian war increasingly dominates Iraq, religious tensions inside the kingdom are growing. Saudi Sunnis, many of whom see the Shiites as apostates, hear horror stories of atrocities committed by Shiite militias in Iraq and are agitating for Saudi intervention to protect Iraqi Sunnis.

Saudi Arabia's long-suffering minority Shiite population, in turn, sees the carnage that Sunni suicide bombers are wreaking in Iraq against Shiites, and fears that hard-won reforms in its favor over the last 15 years may be reversed.

Iran has effectively created a Shi'ite "state within a state" in neighboring Iraq, defying both Iraqi Sunnis and neighboring Sunni nations, according to a Saudi security report.

 (More)

Some two weeks ago, according to the New York Times, Saudi King Abdullah issued a warning to Vice President Cheney during his one day summoned visit to Saudi Arabia. His nation would provide financial support and aid to Iraqi Sunnis if the United States pulled its troops out of Iraq.

Read the Full Article 

Via the NYT: Idea of Rapid Withdrawal From Iraq Seems to Fade - New York Times:

In the cacophony of competing plans about how to deal with Iraq, one reality now appears clear: despite the Democrats’ victory this month in an election viewed as a referendum on the war, the idea of a rapid American troop withdrawal is fast receding as a viable option.

 (More)

Nawaf Obaid is "an adviser to the Saudi government," but his opinions "are his own and do not reflect official Saudi policy." Roger that. With that boilerplate warning out of the way, Obaid takes to the pages of the Washington Post to warn us in no uncertain terms that if we try to withdraw from Iraq, the Saudi monarchy will make us very, very sorry: (More)

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