The Mother Of Idiots is always Pregnant!

 By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Firenze, June 21^st 2017.

Certain people just aren’t capable of seeing further than the tip of their toes, or even learn from others’ previous mistakes.. Illiteracy is not the issue here; but arrogance and ignorance are!

I have always been firmly convinced that the river Nile was, or should have been, the solid ‘Spinal Cord’ unifying the economies and hopes for common reciprocal growth of ten African nations stuck onto its banks.. A life line tying them strongly together to help each other evolve and develop independently from foreign influences and interests.

Instead, for the last eighty five years since the rise of the first African Independence Movements, we are witnessing a systematic dismantling of each and every element of that unity, by the means of two destructive weapons:

•       I.            Incompetent Governance; and
•    II.            Corruption.

Other than the socio-economic (relocation and/or migratory waves of rural population and nomad tribes, industrialisation, high cost of domestic energy/water supply, health…etc.) and environmental (deforestation, climate, agriculture, land fertility, pastures/live stock, fishery, dependence on fertilisers…etc.) impact of the project; its’ initial estimated costs amount to almost 15% of Ethiopia’s Gross Domestic Product, meaning Debts & long term interests which will all fall directly on the main consumer: Ethiopian Population!

However, the real catch here is ‘Foreign Interests’.. We know that since 2005 Israel’s undying hunger for Hydraulic resources control led it to acquire a century long exclusive contract for the full control and maintenance over Lake Victoria Waters!! The Feasibility Study of the Millennium Dam (now Renaissance Dam) was initially presented and promoted by Israeli Intelligence shadow firms.. Two thirds of the finance are guaranteed by Chinese banks (China is buying massive surfaces of African fertile lands for its future long term strategic agricultural projects).. France is already awarded the installations of Turbines, Energy Plants and Technical Assistance contracts for Electric Power industrial and domestic supply for the coming 75 years.

Those foreign interests must guarantee first-hand the absolute security of their newly acquired revenue makers, henceforth the probable unity of the ten Nile Basin Nations is definitely unwelcome.. Thus “Divide Et Impera” has returned to be an imperative reclaim! (Just look at the actual map of The Nile Basin Nations and compare it with the same just 50 years ago)!

That’s the main reason why I favour the complete destruction of that ‘Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’.. Simply because it represents all what I’ve always disapproved: The Great Aswan Dam.. Ever since 1969 Egypt has been socially, culturally, and economically suffering in an uncontrollable chain reaction to, and mainly because of, that project.

Ethiopians didn’t learned the lesson and they are repeating exactly the very same errors as we did half a century ago.. So, to my fellow Africans in Ethiopia I say: Welcome to the club.

Pass On The Word.

The Avalanche.

By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Pisa, June 21^st 2017

Observing the recent sad event of the Finsbury Park mosque in London, and today’s Regent Park mosque incident together with Trump’s related unusual tweet silence; an array of ‘WHYs’ rushed on me seeking answers, and forcing me to think things over.

One thing is a certainty, in my opinion, and that is the Radical Islamists (even simply Muslims according to Trump, or Fundamentalists, Extremists, Fanatics, Terrorists, Jihadists…Etc.. Anyway by now they are all considered synonyms by almost all Media and scholars) whom were first represented by Bin Laden’s QAEDA, then by Al Zarqawy’s regiments, hence came the turn of Taliban and Shabab, and now it’s Al Baghdady’s ISIL or DAESH; would group in with the West’s Extreme Right, Xenophobe Movements, Neo Nazi and Neo Fascist clans by the same identical Ideology of Supremacy, and by the use of the same homicidal tactics.

“Not only because all those ‘Intolerant’ resemble;” as Mr. Michele Serra once wrote “but because the ‘WE HATE YOU BECAUSE YOU HATE US’ satisfies to the maximum the genocidal rush of ‘EITHER WE OR THEM’ thus preparing for the scheme long-awaited by the Jihadist Movements: the blood bath which the fanatic minority hope to inflict upon the good-mannered pacifist majority”!

But where/how did all that initiated? Why it has been so massively empowered? Whose motivating its escalation on both sides?

I think that it all started few decades over 200 years ago, by the late 18^th century, at the rise of the Wahhabi Movement in the Arabian Peninsula; when its founder Ibn Abdel Wahhab launched the Jihad against those Muslims whom he considered as enemies in and about by the peninsula, whereby the traditional tribal conquest traditions, he accumulated spoils and wealth to finance his 'mission' to spread his ideology.

To establish the Oneness (Tawheed) Nation and purify the Muslim State from ‘Idolatry’ or ‘Polytheism’; which made many Sunni scholars of the time consider the followers of that sect as outcasts (Khawarej), even outlaws, from the Ottoman Caliphate; since the Wahhabi doctrine has denied the 4 major Sunni schools, to rely only upon the Quran and confirmed Sunna texts; it also chose the verses and Hadiths related to the ‘Disbelievers’ and applied them on other Muslims; whom in their turn have reacted reciprocally, even violently.

That bloody conflict ended up by the formation of the First Saudi State, reaching Damascus in the north and Amman in the south; soon after, by 1818, the Egyptian forces under Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mohammad Alì Pasha, besieged the Saudi capital at the time Ad’Deraeya and destroyed it completely, in a war known as the Ottoman Saudi War.. Yet, by early 20^th century, backed by the British Empire, Abdel Aziz Ibn Saoud founded the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia; making the Wahhabi Doctrine the main support of the throne.

Now let me concentrate on how the Saudi/Wahhabi teachings have indoctrinated many Egyptians, Syrians, Libyans, Sudanese, Yemeni and other Muslims from various orgins, as to influence their homecoming behaviour and daily disciplines.

Just consider the fact that hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, mainly from humble social scales, along with their families, have been living and working for decades in the Kingdom and/or its “Satellite Gulf States”; other than those tens of thousands whom are traveling more than once for religious purposes (Hadj or Omra). Such durable ‘Cultural Friction’ is so influential that it drove most of them away from the Moderate Sunni practices into the extremes of the Wahhabi doctrine, only by habit and almost completely unaware of the change.

Take the Niqab for instance, their wives were obliged, by the laws of the land, to wear it then it became a habit, whereby by their homecoming it became contagious.. Then the Beard and the gowns.. Then the thoughts, rituals and practices will automatically change or mutate.

The change and the mutation, as anything else, are relative to the individual characters and capabilities; some are following by conviction, other by fear.. And both are the result of the absence of the active and oriented role of preaching and teaching; meaning Al Azhar, the Mosques and the Public Schools.

None of them has been doing a good job as they both did in the past 8 centuries.. Al Azhar is almost completely isolated from the streets and the schools; the schools are uncontrolled; and both are politicised.

The void is abyssal, and the faith is suffering.. The very same faith that produced the likes of Ibn Al Haytham, Jaber Ibn Hayyan, Al Zahrawi, Al Kindi, Ibn AnNafis, Ibn Zuhr, Al Idrisi, Al Razi, Ibn Khaldoun, Ibn Rushd, Al Khawaresmy, Al Afghany, Al Ghazali, Metwally AsSharawy…etc.. The list is encyclopaedically long!

I believe that lest we revise and refine our thoughts from the extremes and the rough edges that have distorted too many cardinal values of Islam, like tolerance, dialogue, equality, coexistence, acceptance, honesty, solidarity and generosity; we shall that speedy regression towards the Jaheleyyah!

Pass On The Word.

PS: I have carefully considered the choice of this article’s title ‘The Avalanche’, because I see it as the perfect fit to the actual situation by all the meanings of the term:

Ø  As a noun it is: a sudden arrival or occurrence of something in overwhelming quantities; and

Ø  In physics it is: a cumulative process in which a fast-moving ion or electron generates further ions and electrons by collision.

The Bloody Game of Democracy.

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS - Montopoli, January 26^th 2014.

In his article entitled “Kissinger Plan for Lebanon: Death by ‘Democracy’” published on EIR* May 27, 2005; Michele Steinberg wrote:

“...the Bush Administration’s major—and perhaps only—interest in Lebanon, is to use the country against Syria. For the neo-conservative fanatics run by Vice President Dick Cheney, Lebanon is seen as useful for either military strikes against Syria, or as a staging ground for a special operations regime-change in Syria. (See EIR, Feb. 25, 2005, “Lebanon’s Hariri Killed To Make a ‘Clean Break.’ ”)”.

And in the writer’s intent to explain the Kissinger plan for turning Lebanon into an advanced assault platform against Syria, being part of his strategy to control the Middle East’s resources (in accordance with the contents of his famous NSM200 of 1974); we can read this most significant passage:

“Another view, and perhaps the most dangerous, is to let the election proceed without destabilizations and ultimata from the United States about disarming the Shi’ite group Hezbollah. Then, after the election, as was done in Georgia, Ukraine, and even earlier in Peru, the U.S.-British imperial forces would use their covert and semi-open democracy funds to unleash Jacobin mobs in the streets of Lebanon to overturn the election. The stage would be set for another tragedy”.

Today, and after closely observing what has been going on the Egyptian territories, I can conclude that my doubts about a similar parallel pattern - perhaps even an identical twin copy - if not completely founded, however they are amazingly justifiable.

Pass On The Word.

*EIR: Executive Intelligence Review http://www.larouchepub.com

The Insuperable Abyss.

Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Firenze, June 14^th 2017.

Recently, several events have caused a growing conflict among a good part of the Egyptian population; between cheering supporters and shouting opponents. I have noticed that in most cases, each group has kept sustaining his stand emotionally, while very few have chosen to debate the merit of each issue rationally; thus both clans have been willingly creating that insuperable abyss of unreason which will be dividing them for God knows how long.

The events in question are:

       I.            The signature of an agreement by which Egypt’s government conceded the Red Sea Islands of Tiran and Sanafir to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

    II.            The Maritime Boundary Delineation Treaty signed between Egypt, Israel and Cyprus.

The first has triggered an overwhelming political, juridical, demagogic and intellectual commotion, which hasn’t settled yet. Instead the second couldn’t cause the same effect; even though a Maritime Boundary Delineation by definition has substantial strategic, economic and environmental implications, as it also confronts its signatories’ disputable ‘Restrictive vs. Expansive’ aspects of their Territorial Waters, Contiguous Zones and Exclusive Economic Zones. As such, it bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources.

From a strictly personal point of view, my problem is that both treaties are, or should have been, subordinate to constitutional rulings; which wasn’t the case in any; since none of them did pass first by the Parliament for reviewing and rectifying before denying or ratifying, as stipulated by the Constitution, simply because such treaties consist of a significant “strategic, economic and environmental implications”!

All Legal Dictionaries and studies have agreed to define the term ‘Constitution’ as:

“The fundamental law, written or unwritten, that establishes the character of a government by defining the basic principles to which a society must conform; by describing the organisation of the government regulation, distribution, and limitations on the functions of its’ different  departments; and by prescribing the extent and manner by which its sovereign powers will exercise their functions. As such, it is a legislative charter by which a government derives its authority to act.”

One of the cardinal principals of any constitution reads: “In a truly constitutional form of government, public officials are subject to constitutional rules and provisions; they may not violate them without punishment.”

Having said that, allow me to remind you of the following confirmed facts:

a)      Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court did issue a final ruling confirming Egypt’s sovereignty over the Red Sea Islands Tiran and Sanafir, motivating the sentence by “the lack of adequate evidence supporting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s claim to the islands, therefore the Executive branch of the Egyptian government does not have the administrative authority to cede the territory to Saudi Arabia”.

b)      The Court of Administrative Justice ruled that “Prime Minister Sherif Ismail violated the Constitution by signing the agreement” and nullified his signature.

So,  and in my personal opinion, Strategic National Security is no reason to breach the Constitution. I think that each of the treaties could have been addressed in Parliament before ratifying without jeopardising the secrecy of their true intents. Intents which I presume also vital for the welfare of the Egyptian people.

May Allah grant our people the wisdom and courage to cross that abyss.. May Allah save the Egyptians from drowning in that abyss of unreason.. May Allah bless Egypt.

Pass On The Word.

NB: Did any of the above mentioned treaties include similar clause?

“Each Party shall notify the other of the completion of its constitutional procedures necessary to bring this Agreement into force. This Agreement shall enter into force on the day of receipt of the later of those notifications.”

Ecchoing Cycles!

By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Siena, May 24^th 2017.

All throughout their history, many Arab Kings (tribe and clan leaders) have seeked for, and depended upon, foreign help! The relations between Arabs and the Sasanian Empire in Persia is a brilliant, yet shameful, example.. Just have a closer look at the disastrous effects from the disintegration of the Ayyubid State right after the death of Salahuddin, and you’ll notice the many similarities of how and why Arabs are in their present state of division.

When the landlords hire mercenaries to protect their interests and, in that scope, do the fighting for them, it has almost always ended up that mercenaries took control and toppled the landlords.. The Memelouks (literally: slave soldiers) did precisely that, seizing power over North Africa, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Hijaz and Yemen from the grasp of the Ayyoubids.

The Ayyoubid Empire

I’ve been thinking about that while watching Trump’s visits to KSA, Palestine and Italy; listening to related talk shows and the opinions of all pros and cons.. Allow me to say mine.

When he released his slogan “America First”, and when in many interviews and rallies has bluntly declared: “…Iraq and the Arabs must pay and they will pay trillions of dollars…” promising to acquire total control over Iraqi oil reserves; he wasn’t joking.. He was, and is convinced that the Arabs must settle the bill for the many “SACRIFICES” the US have gone through to calm the region’s troubled waters.. He did believe what he was saying, though forgetting that his America have always, since WWI, aimed and plotted just for that.

Well, if he truly believes that, it is his privilege; the problem is when the Arabs prove to follow such belief.. By donating 100million dollars to the Ivanka Trump Foundation, also by buying American weapons for billions of dollars. The tragedy is the Arabs themselves.. They asked the help of the US to liberate Kuwait from the grip of Saddam Hussein, overlooking the fact that it was an American scenario carefully written before hand, and executed to the letter by the then American ambassador to Baghdad, April Catherine Glaspie, and an egocentric arrogant Saddam fell in the CIA trap.

It was always the Arab oil (in KSA, Iraq, Libya).. Since the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1973; the Us and its’ allies were attentively planning and aiming at the full and total control of Arab and Middle Eastern resources.. They were just waiting to create the right moment.. The moment when the Arabs are in a state of total political chaos and social disorder.. What better moment than now as the oil prices are in their lowest levels since decades.. Very convenient for a deal.

Now Trump has found his chance and is loudly playing that tune.. His western allies are singing the chorus lines.. And the Arabs are the audience who’s paying an extremely expensive ticket to stand by idly, echoing the tune while watching the fireworks flaring all over their skies and burning their fields.

Same is happening again, only the modern versions of our time’s Al-No’man(s) are not kissing the hands of 'Khosrow II' or 'Yazdegerd III'; they have been systematically delivering their nation’s destiny to the New Empire's mercenary forces.

Pass On The Word.

It happened once.. And it’s happening again!!

By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Montopoli, May 22^nd 2017.

Like every morning, I sat in the garden enjoying the first warm sun rays and read the news; my eyes at once caught that political cartoon on the first page of ‘La Repubblica’! It shacked me strongly, resuscitating sad old notions and memories.. And very much interlaced with our region’s most actual grievances.. Allow me to share them with you.

Just a century ago, an intelligence memo written in January 1916, by T. E. Lawrence (in folkloric jargon Lawrence of Arabia), described the Arab Revolt (or Great Arab Revolt began on June 5, 1916, and was declared on June 8 by the Sherif Hussein bin Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks) as “…beneficial to us, because it marches with our immediate aims, the break-up of the Islamic 'bloc' and the defeat and disruption of the Ottoman Empire, and because the states [Sharif Hussein] would set up to succeed the Turks would be … harmless to ourselves … The Arabs are even less stable than the Turks. If properly handled they would remain in a state of political mosaic, a tissue of small jealous principalities incapable of cohesion”.

Now.. In our quest to understand the present, and in view of Lawrence’s memo highlighted contents, let us recapitulate the historically ascertained facts:

a)      On November 9^th  1914, the first week of the Great War (WWI), the British Crown had to cut a deal with the rapidly growing Zionist Movement regarding the Palestinian Matter.. Shortly documented into an official letter known as the “Balfour Declaration”.

b)     The immediate result of WWI (according to the outcome of Versailles Peace Conference 1919)  was the designing of new borders based upon the Sykes - Picot secret agreement, set to define newly invented controllable entities (to become later pseudo-states) without any concern of demographic structure and regardless of ethnic, sectarian, religious and cultural differences.

Sykes - Picot Map

c)      The Western Empires Colonial interests were clearly displayed in their fervent pursue of all types of the region’s main resources monopolies (maritime, agricultural, industrial, mineral mostly OIL)!

However, things have slightly changed at the closure of the Second World Massacre (WWII).. Independence Fever swept all over the Western Empires territories in Asia, Africa and of course that freshly designed Middle East; and as a result the risk of losing the generous benefits that they have already enjoyed, added to the heavy financial burdens of the conflict itself; required a totally new approach: Containment.

That was the preaching sermon of the rich and muscled new comer’s growing ambitions, the United States of America, to convince the exhausted Empires to let go temporarily their grips on the colonies, in order to regain economic health; inspired by Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points, they all sat to exploit and establish new goals followed by related strategies, tactics and plan of executive actions.

Meaning that they had to accept, compromise, deviate, manipulate, negotiate, and tackle those invented entities into trivialities which will consume energy but mostly MONEY.. Hence, the necessity to invent new means of control: ‘International Bank for Reconstruction and development’ (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Just look at the paramount promptness in forecasting and planning; these two financial institutions were the fruit of the 1944 Bretton Woods accords; and yet both are still managing the entire 3^rd world’s destinies in Asia, Africa, South America, and recently parts of Europe itself.

Following the success of ‘Containment’ policies, a new phase must spin ahead: Hegemony! Tools of which were nothing but the initial minutes present in the above 1916 Lawrence’s intel memo.. The oldest dominion principle conquerors have ever invented: “dīvide et īmpera” the Latin for Divide and Rule. So, here we are.. throughout the last 5 decades we have witnessed an exagerated acceleration of “cause and effect” excuses, even lies, invented just to do that.. Like:

1. Nominating “Mujahedeen” the Afghani War Lords and financing, arming and training them; in order to attract most Arab and Muslim frustrated, and mostly ignorant, youth to join the conflict.
2. The theatrical presentation of the Anthrax Phial by Colin Powell at the UN Security Council, used as an excuse to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. 
   
3. Infiltrating (by means of local assets) the ranks of the middle eastern anti-corruption opposition movements to enhance the national, tribal, sectarian, religious and cultural divergences as to ignite endless and most consuming conflicts.
4. Same tactics were also used to split the Horn Of Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands, the West Afriacn Nations, the African Great Lakes Nations, and Central African States; and the turn came to hit the Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Mauritania…etc.

Once those two phases have matured their fruits, the final step must be: “Redrawing the Middle East”!

The map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).

Now, The newly appointed US president has just sold billions of dollars worth of arms to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!! Not to protect itself from foreign agression or domestic terror organisations; but to continue its bloody war in Yemen.

Congratulations Arab Nation, we're now borrowing money to buy their weapons to kill each other!

Got the picture now??!!

Pass On The Word.

Terror.. The other Side of War On Terror!

By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas - Firenze, May 21^st 2017.

Since its ratification in 1929/31, the “Treatment Of Prisoners Of War”, known as the “Geneva Convention”, prevailed in defending the rights of those unfortunate soldiers, or civilians, caught in the custody of their adversaries in any belligerent conflict between two or more nations.

Whereas article 81 states that “…individuals who follow the armed forces without directly belonging thereto, who fall into the enemy's hands and whom the latter think expedient to detain, shall be entitled to be treated as prisoners of war”. This provision covered military support contractors, civilian war correspondents, sutlers, etc.

Yet, at the distance of 86 years, things have drastically changed.. POWs are no longer considered, or treated, as such; but simply and solely they are TERRORISTS, of whom and with whom anything goes.. Torture.. Humiliation.. Rape.. Have all become integrant chapters from the new book of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”! Today studied, tutored and trained all over the world!

Just consider the scandalous cases of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib; where those ‘techniques’ are used, not to get from the prisoners information (already by itself an unacceptable practice) yet may help saving the lives of compatriots; but simply to humiliate the enemy, with no other reason.

Emergency Response Division (ERD) commonly nicknamed “Dirty Brigades” is a special Anti-Terrorism Task Force especially chosen from the ranks of Baghdad Army, and highly trained on modern Interrogations Techniques by American and Italian “Consultants”!

Here is how they operate.. As the battle for Mosul is still roaring, ERD operatives exercise their own developed versions of the “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” they have learned on Mehdi Mahmud, a civilian from a small village that was under DAESH till recently, whom they suspect being DAESH (ISIL) collaborators!

PS: To know more about the enhanced interrogation techniques, click here: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-13-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-the-cia-used-on-detainees-2014-12?IR=T

No Past.. No Future. Not even Present!

By: Ahmed M. ElNahhas – Pisa, July 22^nd 2015.

The traditional/conventional, yet liberal, environment in which I was raised, has been the crucible where  the fundamental social and religious values melted together to forge the person I have become. Values like family, love, tolerance, respect, integrity, honesty, mercy, loyalty, solidarity, independence and reason; have outlined, among others, the untouchable boundaries of my mind’s Liberty and Freedom. Accordingly, we (my generation and I) lived by the code: my liberty ends where yours begins.. Simple and practical.

Today instead, things have drastically changed.. Every known value to my aging brain has turned into its precise opposite, and I can’t recognise my stand anymore, because the gap separating Conventional from Modern is dangerously widening.

Every decade new standards are being set and re-set to establish new modifications to the existing measures. Why? To meet the new Demand.. The frequent modifications could be justifiable in the fields of scientific research and discoveries; but not in moral, ethic and ideal Principles and Values.

Example: the Medical Society can modify in + or – the parameters measuring the diagnosis and therapy for a certain pathology, but only as a result of a thorough scientific research, or in light of new discoveries, not based upon a debatable Market Research.

Also the decreasing of an established measure of pollution for political reasons cannot be justifiable or even acceptable, because it affects negatively the health standards of a given population against the positively growing benefits of an industrial lobby.

Things became worse when such modifications began to show on moral, social and political Values and Principles.. A trend which started earlier in the 17^th and 18^th centuries  as a Populist Demand to conquer and defeat the Absolutistic dominion of Monarchic and Religious Institutions over every aspect of the commons’ daily life; but soon after the Great Revolutions that trend turned upon the essence of existence itself: Family and Gender.

Only in the past seven decades, terms like Freedom and Liberty have suffered the consequences  of many modifications, procuring them the kind of elasticity, and flexibility, that allowed them to include Dissoluteness, Disintegration, and Libertinage! Thus, in today’s New Globalised World Order, sacrosanct Conventional values as Freedom of Expression and Civil Rights became the safe haven for Pornography, Civil Unions, Same Gender Union and Marriage, Free Safe Sex, Abortion.. Etc.

When Modern became synonym to Progress, the Conventional and Regress became one!! Henceforth, everything became appetisingly feasible and acceptable with no limits or barriers of any kind: Moral, Ethical, Social, Traditional, Political, Economic or Religious. Because all of these have been absorbed by the term Modern Civilisation.

Conventional as I am, I refuse that Civilisation.

Pass On The Word.