ULTRAS

By: Ahmed M. EL NAHAS – Castelfiorentino, February 14^th 2012.

Ever since the plotted cruel massacre of Port Said soccer game, and almost all the news include a word that is completely far from being of Arabic origin or even deriving from any Arabic dialect.. “ULTRAS”.. A Latin term, “Ultrà”, conjugated as per English plural by simply adding an “S”! It doesn’t make sense, same as most of the tons of lexical inventions invading our collective intellect through the barbaric hordes of the modern communication technologies' jargon that we can see on internet, in sms texting, on blogs and so on.. Like encrypted ciphers.. Known to a closed circle of few individuals forming together a single “Clan” following the same “Cult”.

So, knowing that the Latin word, written “Ultrà”, means something like: farther than, more than, beyond or on the other side of; I decided to find how the term devolved to become almost synonym of “Fan” or “Supporter”.

We know for certain that the term was used for the first time in modern English language back in June 1941 by the “British Military Intelligence” for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the “Government Code and Cipher School” at “Bletchley Park”.

"Ultra" eventually became the standard designation among the western Allies for all such intelligence. The name arose because the intelligence thus obtained was considered more important than that designated by the highest British security classification then used “Most Secret” and so was regarded as being “Ultra Secret”.

At the closure of WWII, the term hibernated for long till mid sixties waking up with the new trend of manipulated fanatic sport cheering. At first British Ultras were all non-violent groups, focussed with the sole purpose of getting behind their team, through traditional flag displays, chanting, and similar, strictly following four key points to being an Ultra, all of which must be obeyed, these are:

·           Never Stop singing or chanting during a match, regardless of the scoreline,

·           Never sit down during a match,

·           Attend as many games as possible, home and away, regardless of distance/cost, and

·           Absolute loyalty to a particular stand.

Later on, and as a second phase of the process, those cheering groups were encouraged at the time by the Labour Party in Liverpool, Glasgow and other cities, to start a multitude of “Brotherhoods” (which could later on become active militias) easy to maneuver and mobilise for whatever purpose, social or political.

In a latter phase, they were manipulated through extremist songs, anthems, signs and training to increase their volatile violence we saw by the hooligans in the eighties.. Same technique is used to reorganise the "Neo Nazi" groups and violent "Black Block" International Brotherhoods.

The practice became contagious to many countries.. Remember “Al Kataeb” Political Party in Lebanon during the sixties and the seventies?  Well  it started as an “Amateur Football Team” which became a club that, further on and by adopting the same practices used in England, grew-up to evolve into the iron arm of the extreme conservative right, grouping together all the Christian Fractions, fighting for ten years the Muslim Coalition bounding Palestinians to Sunni to Drouz, in what became known as  the  “Lebanese Civil War” of the seventies.

We know from the released documents of the White House and of the British Foreign Office, that the Lebanon Civil War was a successful MOSSAD plan executed at the time under the direct supervision of Ariel Sharon!

Now is there any similarity or parallel with the “Egyptian Ultras”????

Take care my friends.. Beware of the wolf.

Pass On The Word.