Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Money where the mouth is

This excerpt from Winds of Change, which quotes the selected recollections of Egyptian writer Tarek Heggy needs little comment.

A few weeks ago, I was one of five people dining in a tent set up in the gardens of Al Wajba Palace in the Qatari capital, Doha. My dinner companions were the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thany, his wife, Sheikha Moza, daughter of Nasser el Mosnad, Sheikh Hamad bin Jabr al-Thany, foreign minister of Qatar and Dr. Saadudin Ibrahim. The dinner, and the animated conversation that accompanied it, lasted more than four hours, during which time the only person to enter the tent was a man who came in no less than six times. I assumed he must be either the Emir’s secretary or his intelligence chief, because each time he would whisper something in the Emir’s ear, listen to the reply and leave - only to come back and repeat the same scenario.

The third time he entered the tent, I asked the foreign minister whether I was right in thinking he was Sheikh Hamad’s’ secretary. When he told me I was wrong I said: “Then he must be the director of the intelligence service.” Again I had guessed wrongly: the man in question was none other than Waddah Khanfar, the director of Al Jazeera! I could only conclude that the TV channel, which costs the Emir of Qatar one billion dollars a year of his own money, is his number one priority. Moreover, the annual subsidy it receives from the Qatari treasury is equivalent to the military aid furnished by the United States to the largest Arab army.

So central is Al-Jazeera in the Emir’s scheme of things that Mr. Khanfar, a Palestinian who was formerly a member of Hamas, ranks as high in the country’s hierarchical structure as the prime minister, the grand chamberlain and the head of intelligence. Perhaps even higher, judging by the way he was allowed to barge into the Emir’s tent six times in the space of four hours. I heard later that a famous Egyptian writer whom the Emir consults regularly told him he should think of closing down Qatar before thinking of closing down Al-Jazeera (!), a backhanded compliment if ever there was one. Over dinner, Sheikh Hamad told me his foreign policy is based on the following simple principles. One, Qatar is small in both area and population. Two, it is surrounded by three thugs (the closest English translation to the Arabic word abadaya that he used). He decided to seek the protection of the biggest thug in the world, the United States, and invited its forces over, at his expense, to guard his tiny sheikhdom from its covetous neighbours.

I told him that while I understood what had driven him to take such a decision, I could not see where Al-Jazeera fitted into an equation based exclusively on interests. He launched into a long response the gist of which was that he enjoyed a game in which the number of heads of state who called him to complain about Al-Jazeera was far greater than those who called him for any other reason! However, I felt he was being disingenuous. I believe the calculations of the ruling Qatari triumvirate are taking into account some events that have already transpired, like the 1995 uprising, and others that are brewing under the surface but have yet to emerge in the open. However, I can guess what form these developments will take and the effects they will have. I can also bet that they will be far greater in scope than the 1995 uprising.

Commentary

In a world where the basic peace is kept by "the biggest thug in the world" what is the best use of a foreign country's marginal defense dollar? Is it the purchase of more military hardware or an investment in information weaponry? Or is it the hire of the best Washington lobbyists that money can buy? And consider: there is no American equivalent of Al Jazeera. Or a BBC.

48 Comments:

Blogger What is "Occupation" said...

So central is Al-Jazeera in the Emir’s scheme of things that Mr. Khanfar, a Palestinian who was formerly a member of Hamas, ranks as high in the country’s hierarchical structure as the prime minister, the grand chamberlain and the head of intelligence.

ah yes another wonderful tale of mr smith goes to washington, except this mr smith is a jew hating child murdering multi billionare criminal with a tv station

5/17/2006 05:03:00 AM  
Blogger 49erDweet said...

More than "a station" I would say. Illuminating post, W.

5/17/2006 05:12:00 AM  
Blogger ledger said...

I believe al Jazeera TV is a command and control apparatus on par with Hitler's High Command or any other major intelligence/propaganda/command service today. Al Jazeera certainly has the communications equipment and the stringers on the ground.

But, al Jazeera has another advantage - its cover is a legit news agency. It can freely cross state lines, setup shop, send out stringers, and film gruesome beheadings or car bombings or plant slanted stories will. The MSM repackages those stories and passes them down the chain.

It's no wonder why Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thany depends upon al Jazeera. They are an unfettered intelligence and field ops service with no equal.

If the Sheik needs to know what's happening in Iraq he calls al Jazeera. If the Sheik needs some propaganda he calls al Jazeera. If the Sheik need to know where the next bombing will occur he calls al Jazeera.

I would guess if the Sheik need somebody knocked-off he just might call al Jazeera.

If there were one entity that the CIA could glean a lot of information from - I would bet it would be al Jazeera. They seem to know when and where the next "news event" will happen - and they usually have the cameras in place to film it.

5/17/2006 05:21:00 AM  
Blogger buck smith said...

OK I am dumb, who are the three thugs? Saudi, Iran and who?

5/17/2006 05:46:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

It may be that on one of those six occasions the Emir was informed that the "Plan" was well underway in South America.

In Ecuador the Government has "Nationalized" the $1 Billion USD assets of Occidental Petroleum Corp. Sending in the Army to guard the oil infrastructure facilities.

First Bolivia and now Ecuador.
Nah, there couldn't really be a Global Conspiracy.

5/17/2006 06:37:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

The third thug, Iraq

Remember it was Saddam's Iraq when the Emir called for US thuggery to assist him.

Soon Iraq will be "Same as Saddam"
per Donald Rumsfeld.

The names may change, but the song remains the same

5/17/2006 06:47:00 AM  
Blogger Alexis said...

And consider: there is no American equivalent of Al Jazeera. Or a BBC.

True. I think this comes from the arrogance of America's "globalist" ruling class, with the assumption that America's principles are so self-evident and America's power is so overwhelming that there is no need to even try to convince other nations of anything. "We command, so we expect it to be done."

If Thomas Friedman says the "world is flat", the rest of us are just supposed to agree with him because he said it. If President Bush (41) says "the Cold War is over", the rest of us are just supposed to agree with him because he said it. Meanwhile, foreign language programs flounder in our universities while "political correctness studies" classes flourish. This complacency is based upon assuming that the views of foreigners don't matter, unless perhaps it is the lunacy of Franz Fanon.

America has great strengths, but its ruling class (both Democrat and Republican) is not one of them.

5/17/2006 07:15:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

In WWII the allies kept a ship in the North Atlantic to provide weather reports by radio. Eventually realizing that such reports were of as much military value to the Germans as the U.S. and U.K., higher command ordered the weather reports to be encrypted.

Immediately after the encryption of the reports, the ship was sunk by a German U-boat. The meaning of this message was clear to everyone. Future reports were sent in the clear and the replacement ship was never molested again.

Considering the neighborhood he lives in, Al Jazeera is clearly the Emir's version of an unencrypted weather report. Even with U.S. aircraft and ships using his country as a way station, he will never be torpedoed as long as he keeps those valuable transmissions going.

5/17/2006 07:18:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Sirius: The transmissions were valuable to those with the ability to stop them and the means was not destroyed until they lost their value.

Whether Al Jazeera would be "torpedoed" if it became "fair and balanced" is a good question. Considering the casualty rate among journalists in the Middle East - which apparently Al Jazeera does not share in - that is a vital question. The Emir - who has Westernized his country more so than almost any other ruler in the area - certainly does not wish to take that chance. After all, he is captain of the ship of state. And traditionally captains go down with the ship.

5/17/2006 07:50:00 AM  
Blogger desert rat said...

"Objective truth"

Yes, that can be obtained by a weather station.

Political & Religious truths are hardly ever objective.

"... "I was personally shocked to find satellite channels having a field day covering the rise of a new religion in Egypt and interviewing its followers without anyone intervening," the despondent MP told parliament. Shobeir called upon parliamentary members to stand up to the spread of "superstitious dogmas".

Sheikh Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a prominent IRA member, explained how Bahaism contradicts the basic tenets of Islam. Bahaism reduces the five daily prayers to three, does not agree with such basic principles in Islam like hajj and jihad, changes basic personal status laws, claims that Prophet Mohamed was not the last of the messengers and that Hussein Ali, named Bahaaullah, received divine revelation to ease Islamic jurisdiction. Bahais have their own holy book called Al-Aqdas. They consider Bahaaullah a holy figure and carry out their pilgrimage to Akka where Bahaaullah lies buried.

"This is all superstitious political dogma that attempts to shake social stability," Bayoumi said. "It is all the philosophical brainchild of an ordinary person, and his followers have been notoriously used by occupation powers." ..."


All because a Egyptian Court rulingproviding official recognition to Bahais.
The ruling "... has done little to ease the debate on this Israeli-based cult within Eygpt. ..."

The truth of the Bahai depends, it seems to rely more on perspective and faith than objective truths, at least to the Muslim Brotherhood.

They see "objective truth" as this
"... The Middle East is increasingly becoming the target of colonial plans which seek to create rifts in the social fabric," El-Banna told Al-Ahram Weekly.

El-Banna regretted that "some Western powers are constantly seeking to portray Islam as biased towards women and Copts" and that now "they are creating this new problem to further establish those misconceptions in the Western mind and justify future occupation plans." El-Banna referred to similar scenarios in Darfur, Iraq and Lebanon in support of his argument and cautioned that Bahais "were notorious for being instrumental in helping the British occupation of India." ..."

5/17/2006 08:02:00 AM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

Having the media on your side is better protection in the modern world than having cruise missiles. Big Media editorial perspective is the most efficient of all force-multipliers.

5/17/2006 08:03:00 AM  
Blogger Karridine said...

"...that now "they are creating this new problem to further establish those misconceptions in the Western mind and justify future occupation plans."

Oh, no, Sir! YOU created this problem when your Muslim predecessors cruelly persecuted Baha'u'llah!

YOU created this problem
when YOU had the Glory of God exiled in chains to Akka, near Haifa, Israel!

YOU created this problem
when you ignored His call to set your people FREE, to worship God as THEY choose, not as YOU demand of them!

YOU created this problem when you refused the equality of men and women!

YOU created this problem
when you denied the one-ness of humankind, and set yourself above others around you!

YOU created this problem
when you deny Muhammad's whole ministry, PROPHECYING the Coming of Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God!

No, Sir. Those people dedicated to the Glory of God are well-wishers of whatever government they live under in this world, but they are NOT cowards, ignorant, superstitious or elitist!

5/17/2006 08:36:00 AM  
Blogger Karridine said...

Desert Rat, thanks for the post.

Karridine

5/17/2006 08:38:00 AM  
Blogger Big Bad Boy said...

Cool Sooo many comment you get on this Blog......... COOL !!

5/17/2006 08:41:00 AM  
Blogger allen said...

There is a story of the Rothschilds beating the stock market by rapidly responding to their Continental news sources before others were the wiser.

The only thing that could trump that would be the CREATION of news. Imagine the power of knowing that petroleum WOULD rise $5.00 tomorrow. Could a Palestinian be instrumental?

5/17/2006 09:34:00 AM  
Blogger KI4THC said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5/17/2006 09:48:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Allen: I understand that Saddam Hussein used to do just that. Set up deal to sell short or bid on futures.
Then lock up a radar on a patrolling aircraft or make some bombastic statement and watch the price surge.
Or be concilatory toward the U.N. or the U.S. and drive the price down.
Very easy for him to make a killing that way, by both creating the news and controlling part of the market.
One wonders if Putin and the Iranians are not both pulling the same trick.

5/17/2006 09:52:00 AM  
Blogger Ash said...

sure the current administration has their own network FOXNews...

The US government in general funding its own BBC??? hmmm, I can just see the branches of government writing laws to keep the glorius network in line - every dang angle must be covered and they'd just tie themselves up in knots so we'd end up with what we have now - The Tony Snow show.

5/17/2006 09:53:00 AM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

I confess that I do not know the size of the Canadian Mission. I do recall the unfortunate "friendly fire" incident in 2003 where four Canadians were bombed and killed by US aircraft. However one feels about the war on terror, there is a clear western interest in dissuading a failed narco-terror from reasserting itself in Afghanistan. Let's hope the Canadians do the right, if unpopular, thing and stay the course.

5/17/2006 01:29:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Dr. Zaius is a leftist whose whose website speaks for many of them.

5/17/2006 01:38:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

According to Technorati and Google blog search, Dr. Zaius has links only to himself.

5/17/2006 01:41:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

with whom he plays with, often, it seems

5/17/2006 01:52:00 PM  
Blogger Wm_Edwin said...

On our late, unlamented pseudo-simian:

Evil is surely wasted on the wicked.

***

Behold your ideological by-blow, Marx - Rousseau - W.E.B. DuBois - all you Western promulgators of industrial-scale utopia:

Your "revolution" is here in the custody of an unwit who has adopted the handle of a professorial *ape.*

Didn't any of you "benefactors" see it coming? The "human race" was (perhaps more in your day) the category by which individuals demanded recognition; now we see it here used as a foil for the tortured designs of a dismal fool.

Treat a man as the product of evils too great to overcome, and you diminish his soul.

And at the end of that road, far better, it must seem to him, to be a gorilla. With tenure, obviously, because who wants to pick one's own grubs?

5/17/2006 02:36:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Dr. Zaius,

You are hereby instructed never to post on this site for using abusive, profane and unacceptable language.

5/17/2006 03:02:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5/17/2006 03:07:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Folks,

Please don't engage Zaius in a conversation. I want his reply to my instruction for the record.

5/17/2006 03:09:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

aristide,
the link to the Bahai article, from Eygpt, indicates the full lack of Freedoms that would be available to minority Eygptians, like the Bahai or the Copts, under a Muslim Brotherhood dominated Government.
This as opposed to Mr Mubarak's rather "slow" move to to liberalism, even if it is driven by the Courts.

Do you still believe the US should renounce it's ties to Mr Mubarak?

It seems to me that "two steps forward and one back" is better than ten steps back and twenty years of Mohammedan extremists defacing "old gods & icons" as they did in Afghanistan.

As Mr Jefferson said. "Death to Tyrants" but is Mr Mubarak a tyrant, really?

5/17/2006 03:30:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

Wretchard,

I am sorry your superb site was defaced, however briefly, by that idiot.

Jamie Irons

5/17/2006 03:31:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

the market has no memory

niether should we

5/17/2006 03:34:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Boy, that's de troof -- this last week it has forgot ALL its manners.

5/17/2006 03:40:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

So many unwanted house guests that just do not want to leave.

Part of the deal with Arab TV is that, like here, the Events must be "staged" and "spun".

If we do not have "agents" or PR people out making the US case, on Arab TV, we have but ourselves to blame.

Who is working the phones?
Mr Snow's arrival at the White House instigated a flurry of releases, almost constant, I'm told.

Who is working Al-Jazeera?

5/17/2006 03:55:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

A clue in the White House?
Snow was on Hewitt:
He reads Hewitt, Powerline, Malkin, and Instapundit.
Is organizing a blog war corps to keep up and respond.
Ya think maybe it might help to get input from others than just sycophants and Texans?!!!
---
radioblogger.com, later

5/17/2006 04:09:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Hugh accused Snow of filibustering on Hannity and Ingraham.
I'll be listening to Ingraham later, will be interesting to hear what subject caused problems.
Anybody hear/see Hannity?

5/17/2006 04:24:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

I hope for the best, doug. It is doubtful that "comprehensive reform" will be coming this year.

That Dick Meyers fellow at CBS has already proclaimed it "lame duck season".

But I think, like Mr Clinton said, the President is always "relevent"

Devil's got a blue dress on!

5/17/2006 04:30:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

'Rat,

That Dick Meyers fellow at CBS has already proclaimed it "lame duck season"...

Dick Meyers = Love child of Dick Morris and Harriet Meyers???

;-)



Jamie Irons

5/17/2006 04:42:00 PM  
Blogger Jamie Irons said...

'Rat,

Apologies...I now see you were referring to this:

Dick Meyer

Sorry.

Jamie Irons

5/17/2006 04:47:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Harriet and Dick.
That's just Sick!

5/17/2006 05:14:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Ozzie and Harriet

I think if the Nelsons

My kids think of the Osborns

Time marches on, as do the media messages. Is the media reflecting the culture or driving it?

Here and/or in Arabia?

5/17/2006 05:39:00 PM  
Blogger Tony said...

Hugo Chavez' approach is the most reliable. Buy the AK-47's, simple devices you can maintain yourself, that will reliably deliver a fearsome damage upon your enemies.

Sell the F-16', which without factory support are worthless against any of the enemies they are designed to face.

Against a dispersed enemy (like your neighbors, like yourself) in Indian country, your capability to fly these things and actually hit an appreciable number of the targets on the ground goes down by the month, as you have no ability to support training, maintenance or re-supply, and your chances of effective use is nil.

Your ability to fight these orphaned F-16's against a more sophisticated enemy than a bunch of guys w/ AK's is less than nil. So, sell the useless junkers. IFF you can sell the idea to Iran or any other enemy of the USA that they can use them any better than you can.

Go Hugo Chavez, reduce your country to every other third world military situation. Your power projection is the effective range of an AK, which is not very far.

If Iran actually accepts these Phyrric scepters of F-16's, I'll be surprised.

5/17/2006 05:49:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

This is pretty bad (TBC may've already covered it elsewhere). Like the guy at LAX a couple years ago, or the Egyptian co-pilot who crashed the airliner at sea, or many others--a lone-wolf retail operation, seemingly spontaneous, by a successful, educated professional (this guy, a 29 yr old lawyer), in the flush of a good material life. It's gonna be a long decade.

(link snip)"The court is best known for its strict upholding of secular laws, in particular a ban on headscarves in universities and public offices....

5/17/2006 06:05:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Not just the range of an AK, tony, but the range of a long suppressed and frustrated population.
From Boliva, to Eucuador which by their defacto actions haved joined his Club, just today.
The FARC still controls large swaths of Columbia
Mr Ortega is resurgent and Mr Castro is still empowered, half a century after his major advesary was buried
Mexico is dysfunctional and, as discontent and pressures increase, as the relief valve can take no more...
AK's are more than enough, if there is the Will & Desire to use 'em.

5/17/2006 06:10:00 PM  
Blogger Mike H. said...

'Ugo Chavez, offered cut rate heating oil to the east coast last winter via Citgo, offering cut rate oil to Europe this summer, can't supply the customers that he already has at present, signed 2 billion $ contract with Russia to provide the oil to service his customers, is staring at a statement by Saud that oil could go down to $40 bbl. This is not one stable dude. Now if you'll excuse me I think I'll go back to sleep, wake me when the war starts.

5/17/2006 06:12:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Interview w/Taliban ht Froggy Commenter

5/17/2006 06:17:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

A communist, someone who has nothing, and wants to share.

Mr Chavez certainly qualifies.

The people that he represents, they qualified as well.
Those AK's, 100,000 of 'em, last I heard, enough to mess up the hood.

Pablo Escobar had nothin' on Hugo, neither in cash flow, men or material.

Like compariing aQ with Iran
It took years to take down Pablo with "shadow warriors" & Los Pepe's

We have not yet faced the seriousness of the threat, some would rather nap.

Misunderestimating all over again.

5/17/2006 06:25:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

Synchronicity: USA, Brazil, Panama, Colombia break up major cocaine ring, arrest el jefe in Brazil, meanwhile a peasant riot in Colombia, over "global trade hurting their crop sales" is attended by a post-action critique of the police by Amnesty International. link

5/17/2006 06:32:00 PM  
Blogger buddy larsen said...

That Taliban link--the interview--that's the guy who shot down the Chinook--with the 16 man SF team onboard.

5/17/2006 06:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Good to see MSNBC give him some fame and acclaim.
On Deck:
Murtha outdoes Murtha on Hardball, CHARGING Marines w/civilian massacre.
Whata guy.

5/17/2006 07:13:00 PM  
Blogger Deuce ☂ said...

Desert Rat said:

"We have not yet faced the seriousness of the threat, some would rather nap.

Misunderestimating all over again."

Good one DR

5/18/2006 12:17:00 AM  

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