As a… 20 February 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Riyadh, WAR!.trackback
Manama, Bahrain: A Bahraini anti-government protester at the Pearl roundabout holds up a poster with pictures of former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (centre), former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (left) and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein above a picture of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa with the words “soon” written in Arabic [Hassan Ammar/AP]
As a twisted Paladin, of sorts, rides in.
Hail the mush faced Mullen….
US top military officer arrives in Saudi Arabia
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
RIYADH — Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for the first stage of a Gulf tour to boost US relations with its allies in the region.
“Part of what I want to accomplish is to reassure our friends and also just listen to what’s on their mind,” Mullen told journalists.
The highest ranking US military officer’s visit comes as an unprecedented wave of revolts challenges Arab authoritarian regimes, notably in Bahrain and Yemen, after uprisings toppled rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.
The purpose of his mission is to “reassure, discuss and understand what is going on,” Mullen said, adding the “trip was scheduled for other reasons but as it turns out the context has changed.”
In his two-day stay in Saudi Arabia, US President Barack Obama’s top military adviser will meet high-ranking Saudi military officials.
At the top of the agenda is Bahrain, where six people were officially reported killed in last week’s demonstrations, raising pressure on the Sunni Muslim ruling dynasty to talk with the Shiite-led opposition.
Mullen said it was “absolutely critical” that governments and their opposition resolve differences peacefully.
“We certainly would like to see whatever happens happen in a non violent way,” he said. “That where there are differences, they be resolved non violently. And that governments and their people figure this out.”
The Sunni Saudi kingdom has expressed alarm at Iran’s nuclear programme and the Shiite Islamic republic’s growing influence in the Middle East, particularly Bahrain, Iraq and Lebanon which have sizeable Shiite communities.
Foreign ministers of the Gulf monarchies signalled support for Bahrain’s monarchy on Thursday in a joint statement, saying “our security is a collective responsibility and there is no question of accepting foreign interference.”
Bahrain is strategically vital to Washington as it hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which protects the Gulf’s maritime oil routes supplying US operations in Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia is a long-standing US ally and a key regional player in the war on terrorism, with Washington announcing in October a massive contract to supply Riyadh with fighter jets and helicopters.
Information that Saudi Arabia collects on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), operating out of Yemen, has also become critical to alert Western governments of potential threats.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.
Oh puhleese. The biggest mil power on earth arrives for a circle tour to urge ”peace” and ”non-violence”.
Don’t make me laugh too hard, now.
Archimedes, Applied
oh verrrry funnneee:
Nice!!
Hmm. Clever, but I wonder whose density is being calculated in the cartoon.
NATO probes claims it killed 64 Afghan civilians
Why Am I Here?
Redistribution from the Feds? Not Really.
Union hospital workers donate pizza to the Madison protesters.
ANY sort of unity among workers, whether under corrupt unions or other, more spontaneous, personal means, terrifies the WhoEver.
And you know god forbid that workers or protesters in Eqypt or our fav raves, Bahrain, other Gulf states, Saudi, communicate with protesters here.
Which will be happening now.
Or hey, in front of KFC in Beijing.
hopefully it those ties and support will spread …
FYI to those who don’t follow football, Woodson is a god here in WI:
Charles Woodson says he backs organized labor
Charles Woodson kicks ass — one of my favorite football players/human beings!!
This is sweet! Whatever helps to bring ‘em on!
Walker’s Home Town Sides With Workers
More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday
Is that Colorado springs CO… ?
It has been a years long cascade there, of diminishment.
A friend who stayed with me for 14 months when she needed to leave her husband, during the dotcom / dotdied era and there were NO rentals in SF, so I said, come here, and bring the cat. She finally moved to CS saying ti would be affordable. She could buy, etc.
It’s been a case of what next fr some years now, there. Plus it is all xtians and military. LOL and! she is a Wiccan (I think! who knows iwth organised religion, quasi or otherwise, pagan or otherwise)
yup, it is. I didn’t know Walker was from there, it explains a lot.
The Police Are Turning On Walker
oh I had not seen Dkos 0.0
Geesh Good luck to them all.
(but nice on the statement from the cop!, the one riding t the top!)
AlJazeera and ABC Online (Australia) are reportng that some Libyan troops are DEFECTING.
It’s in the headline of the AJ E article, but I am reading thru trying o find it.
Massive fighting apparently. And on to Tripoli and some straight to Qaddafi compound (so says the article)
A new world.
From the ABC Online report:
More from the ABC Online report:
welllllll…..
I hope those hoarded ‘maters’ rot on you mother fuckers….
Went to pick some up some basics for chicken soup, to recover my mom from her hideous “”US”/CALI ELDERCARE” experience ……can’t remember any time in CALI when there were no more than five medium sized tomatoes available in a “major” grocery store, …over at least a quarter century, …….while I certainly believe that global warming may in fact be quite the reality, I don’t believe at all that that is why there were only five tomatoes in that produce section ……..I say, just another not so subtle message……..(of course I could have bought vine ripened for $4.99 a pound, but the first and last time I bought them (at a much lesser price) I was really grossed out by the fact that one of the ones I never ate, seemed to last for about two months in the fridge, without ever showing its age)
hugs out, gotta run ……(yeah and go ‘middle east,’ ‘wisconsin,’ etcetera …………..)
one of the ones I never ate, seemed to last for about two months in the fridge, without ever showing its age
Ah c’mon diane. Get with the program….
Better living thru chemicals! It’s a Monsanto Baby! Not a mere tomato.
(give your mother a hug!)
Will pass the hug on sweety, ..thank you! warmth always helps…..;0)
(the tomato incident reminded me of a frustrated hours long search for a seeded watermelon last July (there were hundreds of seedless though).)
ugh Seedless watermelons. How awful.
omigod… the blog that catnip posted
http://www.libyafeb17.com/
says Qaddafi has fled to Venezuela (al Arabiyya)… hmmm. Odd place to go, but big oil alliances. (what do I know)…
AND that Amb to China from Libya has resigned as well.
Voice of a judge in Benghazi saying that Qaddafi forces used anti air craft ammunition on humans.
For some reason al jazeera is not covering Bahrain or Libya like they did Egypt.
AA maintains they wanted Mu to fall, but are careful of the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council. Of which Qatar is a member.
And that is the tour, part of it, that Mullen is on this week… He is going to all the Gulf states.
On the eve of the Iraq invasion we put down, or assisted the Whatever They Call the Royal Guard of Qatar, an insurrection in Doha. I notice it does not seem to get mentioned, but I remember it.
American who sparked diplomatic crisis over Lahore shooting was CIA spy
In other news: water, wet
New
LINK
……….. 8)