….A transitional period. But what follows? In the Arab world there is a crumbling of the always tenuous nation state system that existed, a sort of cobbled artificial entity not truly at home in a Western conceived habitat, yet now imploding and searching for new political forms. It is a forewarning that the West could be presented with the same fault lines, the same sectarianism, the version of Salafist violent forces but within different contexts and tempered by the substantially greater wealth in play. But the same dynamic should not be viewed as strictly an Arabic phenomenon, but part of larger forces, inevitable as the Industrial age, and its responses based on those economic dimensions are reaching a termination point as we seem to be on the cusp of something new, but not well articulated and well defined, but something clearly related to technological unemployment and artificial intelligence that will transform work and society as never before.
—The role of female Mossad agents emerged in 1986 when “Cindy” lured smitten nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from London to Italy, where he was drugged, kidnapped and shipped secretly to Israel and spent 18 years in prison.
The secret sisterhood admit that they often feel they are “living in a movie, on a constant high” but are at pains to dismiss the idea that they are merely sexual weapons.
“A man who wants to gain access to a forbidden area has less chance of being allowed in. A smiling woman has a bigger chance of success,” Yael, a Mossad legend, tells Lady Globes.
“We use our femininity because any means is valid,” says Efrat, another agent. “But even if we think that the way to advance the mission is to sleep with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, no one in the Mossad would allow us to do it. Women agents are not used for sexual purposes. We flirt, but the line is drawn at sex.”—Read More:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/wed-do-anything-for-israel-but-we-dont-do-that-say-mossads-female-secret-weapons-8139975.html image:http://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/the-arab-mess-and-americas-dilemma/
It has more to do with decades of perceived western imperialism – and the organisational skills of the Salafis, known for their no-compromise, literal interpretation of the faith.
Such rightwing Islamists were wrongfooted by the Arab spring. For years, the jihadis and Salafis thought they had a monopoly on revolution and were the only viable opposition to the Arab dictators.
When the regimes were threatened by popular uprisings, the Salafis took weeks and months to respond. In Libya they initially called for the demonstrators to support the ruler of the land, Muammar Gaddafi. As it became clear that the revolutions would not instantly deliver the brighter future people had marched for, the Salafis began to use that discontent to their advantage….
Protest. Occupied Territories (West Bank) from the Economist on Libya and what they call “remarkable progress” ? …Indeed, a further disquieting aspect of the new Libya is the continuing ability of local militias, especially in places such as Misrata and Zintan that bore the burden of the battle against Qaddafi, to ignore the writ of the central government. Moreover, tribal and ethnic tensions on the fringes of the country and in remote southern cities such as Sebha and Kufra, continue to provoke periodic outbreaks of violence that stir bad blood and deter investors.
Yet there has also been remarkable progress, especially on the political front, in the months since the death of Qaddafi on October 20th. On September 12th the newly elected General National Congress, a proto-parliament, elected Mustafa Abushagur, a secular-minded electrical-engineering professor previously based in California who had been in exile for 31 years, as prime minister. He is expected in a few weeks to appoint Libya’s first-ever democratically chosen government. Another body will write a constitution. A full-fledged parliament is to be elected within 18 months. These steady advances have been achieved with surprisingly little discord and much satisfaction after decades of tyranny. The mood in the country is still overwhelmingly hopeful.
The most striking outcome of the congressional election in July was the relative failure of the Islamists, whose main party, Justice and Construction, allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, got only 17 out of the 80 seats elected by proportional representation on party lists, whereas a coalition of secularists, liberals and milder Islamists won 39. An Islamist party including Abdel Hakim Belhaj that was lavishly financed by Qatar got no seats at all. Read More:http://www.economist.com/node/21562944 image:https://www.facebook.com/pages/כולנו-נגד-השמאל-הקיצוני/149605125093627
They are brilliant at agitating on the streets – working on the unemployed, the frustrated, people who feel life should be better. In Tunis, the Salafi agitation began months before the propaganda film – the Innocence of Muslims – surfaced. They attacked cinemas, secularists and artists. In Bahrain and Syria they worked along sectarian lines, and in Egypt they launched vicious confrontations with the Coptic Christians.
In Libya, the Salafis have been systematically burning Sufi shrines and trashing Christian cemeteries, while the government has felt too weak to confront them. Some of the demonstrations – in Damascus, Khartoum and Tehran – will have been backed by the state.Read More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/
d/2012/sep/14/embassy-attacks-salafis-jihadists
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…A schlock softporn director named Alan Roberts has been identified as the director of the film that ridicules Muslims and the prophet Muhammed and has incited violent protests across the Middle East, according to a report by Gawker published Saturday.
According to Gawker, an Alan Roberts is listed as director on casting calls and call sheets of “Innocence of Muslims” from the summer of 2011, back when the film was innocuously called “Desert Warriors.”
Further, the report says, Roberts’ real name is Robert Brownell, a 65-year-old small-time director and editor, whose directing credits include some softcore porn from the 70s and 80s like 1977′s “Young Lady Chatterly,” “The Sexpert” and “The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood,” third of the Happy Hooker trilogy. Other credits reportedly include low-budget films like 1991′s “Karate Cop” along with 28 editing credits.
“My gut tells me he (Roberts) was just a has-been director who was trying to prove he could still be Hollywood,” an actress who worked on Innocence of Muslims reportedly wrote in an email.
Gawker wrote that it has tried to reach Roberts, “but his business associate told us he ‘turned off his phone’ soon after protests broke out over the film and is laying low. But he said Roberts was ‘non-political’ and did not have any apparent anti-Islam feelings.”
According to the report, “Roberts may have been duped by the film’s producer in much the same way as the rest of the cast and crew. They believed they were participating in a period piece about ancient Egypt and had no idea the movie would be edited and dubbed into a piece of Islamophobic propaganda.” Read More:http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/report-softcore-porn-director-behind-innocence-of-muslims-film-that-sparked-anti-u-s-protests-1.465188
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