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    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Arabs Are Beginning to Miss the Dictators

    Arabs Are Beginning to Miss the Dictators

    by Khaled Abu Toameh
    March 7, 2012 at 5:00 am

    Freedom of speech, instead of growing, has died. "We are not with this Spring of violence, war, destruction and killing." — Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, head of Lebanon's Maronite Church.
    On the first anniversary of the "Arab Spring," many Arabs are beginning to wonder whether they would soon start missing the corrupt dictators who ruled them for the past few decades.
    The "Arab Spring" was supposed to bring democracy, transparency and reform to the Arab world. It was supposed to end human rights violations and see the birth of a free and independent media.

    The "Arab Spring" was supposed to promote the rights of women and minorities in the Arab world and encourage young Arabs and Muslims to abandon extremist views and terrorism.


    The "Arab Spring" was supposed to be led by young and charismatic Western-educated activists who would bring moderation and pragmatism to the Arab world.


    The "Arab Spring" was supposed to turn the Arab countries into attraction for tourism and investors from all around the world.

    But judging from the outcome of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, it is evident that the 'Arab Spring" has failed to achieve any of these goals. As far as many Arabs are concerned, their "spring" has thus far proven to be a total disaster.


    Residents in several Arab countries affected by the "Arab Spring" protests said they feel less safe now than they did before the uprisings, according to a study conducted by Abu Dhabi's Gallup Polls.


    The four Arab countries where the leaders have been toppled are now in the hands of Muslim fundamentalists, who used the "Arab Spring" as a vehicle to rise to power.


    Tunisia's Islamist party, Ennahda, is already demanding an Islamic state. Human rights activists say that with the arrival of the "Arab Spring," freedom of speech in Tunisia, instead of growing, has died.


    Nabil Karoui, owner of a Tunisian Tv station, is currently on trial for blasphemy after airing the French-Iranian animated film "Persepolis," which features a cartoon depiction of God. About 150 lawyers filed lawsuits against Karoui for "violating sacred values" and disturbing public order."


    Two weeks ago, hundreds of Muslim fundamentalists who follow the radical Wahhabi doctrine of Islam took to the streets of Tunis to demand the implementation of Sharia laws in their country.


    The "Arab Spring" has also seen the rise of Islamists to power in Egypt, where the country is jointly controlled by a military dictatorship and Muslim Brotherhood.


    The military rulers are responsible for massive abuse of human rights and freedom of expression, while the Muslim Brotherhood and their even more radical rivals, the Salafis, are working hard to turn Egypt into an Islamic state.


    Libya and Yemen, the other two countries affected by the "Arab Spring," are on the brink of civil war. Libya has fallen into the hands of dozens of armed ruthless militias, some of which are affiliated with Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda. In Yemen, Arab political analysts say that it is only a matter of time before the country falls into the hands of Al-Qaeda.


    In these four Arab countries, women, Christians, journalists, human rights activists and political opponents are being targeted, and in some instances slaughtered, on a daily basis either by the new rulers or militiamen and Muslims fundamentalists.


    The "Arab Spring" is anything but a "great revolution." It is a spring of massacres, destruction and violence, as Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, the head of Lebanon's Maronite Church, put it.

    "We are with the Arab Spring but we are not with this spring of violence, war, destruction and killing," he told Reuters. "This is turning to winter. We cannot implement reforms by force and arms. How can it be an Arab Spring when people are being killed every day?"


    The Stonegate Institute


    Background on the NEW leader of Libya.

    Libya’s new PM Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb: Nothing like Gaddafi (and that’s the point)


    1 November 2011
    The black flag of Al Qaeda has been reportedly flying over the courthouse in Benghazi. Just how worried should the West be about how post-Gaddafi Libya is shaping up?

    Libya’s interim leadership has chosen Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb, an electronics engineer from Tripoli, as the country’s new prime minister. Al-Keeb was chosen on Monday by 51 members of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and will appoint a cabinet in the coming days. Jalal el-Gallal, an NTC spokesman, said al-Keeb received 26 votes, reported The Guardian. Al-Keeb takes over from Mahmoud Jibril, who resigned when Libya’s liberation was declared on 23 October.

    “El-Keib presented his plan for the next eight months to the NTC, which includes working to restore order and stability, rebuilding cities destroyed by Qaddafi, rehabilitating the rebels and starting to collect their weapons”, Abdul Majid Saif Al-Nasr, an NTC member, told Al Jazeera.
    Who is al-Keeb? He earned a masters degree from the University of Southern California in 1976 and doctorate from North Carolina State University in 1984 before teaching in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, according to a biography posted by the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, where he is listed as chairman of the department of electrical engineering, reported Bloomberg Businessweek. Al-Keeb left behind his business career to join the NTC.
    Libya’s new PM Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb: Nothing like Gaddafi (and that’s the point) | The Periscope Post


    Torture, Rape in Prisons Under Libya's New Government

    Rights officials say rape, torture, and summary executions are widespread in Libya's prisons under the post-Qaddafi regime.
    By Gavriel Queenann First Publish: 1/28/2012, 10:20 PM



    Libyan rebel fighters
    Arutz Sheva: Wikimedia Commons

    In Libya its a case of "meet the new boss; same as the old boss."
    The UN's top human rights official said Friday that Libya's transitional government must take control of its prisons and prevent further atrocities against detainees.
    “There's torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Associated Press.
    Pillay says she is particularly concerned about sub-Saharan African detainees whom the brigades automatically brand as fighters for the late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
    Briefing the UN Security Council about Libya on Wednesday, she demanded action from the world community.
    "Something has to be done immediately to assist the authorities for the state to take control of these detention centers," she said.
    Former rebel groups are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 makeshift detention centers around the country.
    The aid group Doctors Without Borders suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata on Thursday because it said torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation.
    Amnesty International said Thursday it had recorded widespread prisoner abuse in other cities that led to the deaths of several inmates.
    The allegations, made some three months after Qaddafi was captured and summarily murdered in the field by rebel fighters, are an embarrassment for Libya’s National Transitional Council.
    NTC officials have been struggling to hold a nation divided by region, sect, and tribe together while at the same time trying to paint the new regime as better than the period of Qaddafi's despotic rule, also characterized by a cult of personality.
    A major obstacle to transitioning Libya to a stable, civilian government has been the refusal of the disparate rebel groups who overthrew Qaddafi to accept central military authority.
    Last week, fighters from the infamous Qaddafi-loyalist Brigade 93 drove revolutionary forces out of the former Qaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, raising serious questions about the new regime's grip on the country.
    Torture, Rape in Prisons Under Libya's NTC - Middle East - News - Israel National News
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    And Obama and friends did this!!!

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