National November Writing Month Competition

(This post is really for a limited audience. Regular political commentary could resume some day since I've closed my other political-letters-to-a-Persian-Gulf-leader blog after giving it more attention than this one.)

I've begun considering themes for NaNoWriMo again this year, having stopped last year's novel-writing race when my 90 year-old Mother had the first of several health issues. (She's much better now.) My daughter told me a couple days ago that she plans to join the November novel-writing month challenge again this year, but I didn't mention my own plan and she didn't ask.

The last two of my NaNoWriMo November novels were not fiction at all, but I chose to call them fiction for purposes of the competition. My family moved from the Seattle area to Bahrain in the summer of 1965. It was my senior year of high school, spent falling in love, a star-crossed romance with a side of politics, intrigue and well-known players. That was book one. 

The second covered the next 17 years and included wars in between rendevous with my lover up to the minute I saw him last. That was the minute when I found out the extent of personal danger into which he'd allowed me to be unwittingly placed.

The next book may explore those dangers and maybe a bit about the 1981 fictional terrorist operation so quaintly called a coup attempt. There has been a recent surprising development in my life which begs my attention to historical details of events and relationships on the island and in other countries, so NaNoWriMo is a disciplined approach and the time is right. 

November is just a few weeks away, so I've got decisions to make if I want to have the trilogy finished this year!



#NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo2019 #Bahrain #Seattle #Politics #StarCrossedLovers

Double-edged Swords

Did Trump collude with the government of Saudi Arabia, specifically with the Saudi war criminal Mohammed bin Salman in his money-grabbing, so-called anti-corruption purge of wealthy (and corrupt) members of the Al Saud family and businessmen?

In August, Trump rolled back anti-corruption and bribery regulations in the energy industry, taking bribery (fees, baksheesh) for oil and energy contracts off the books.

It's a double-edged sword. MbS uses the fat fees previously garnered as a reason to grab the bank accounts of those who received them under negotiations with their U.S. and other foreign partners. Word is getting out of the names of his prey, some of the biggest Saudi players in the industry. It's terribly convenient for American companies -- who provided the "fees" to Al Saud family members and business people and will be exposed during this purge -- will escape the rule of law here.

Is the threat of a new refugee crisis in Europe a double-edged sword? If Israel, the U.S. and Mohammad bin Salman continue with the belligerent chatter about attacking Lebanon, then it appears to be so.

Anybody else notice that Bahrain is shaped like a dagger? 

It seems that Bahrain's dictator and his family are whoring for Bonesaw, kissing the forehead that ordered the bombs to drop on Yemen's poorest children in their schools and buses, bowing to Israel's greed for all of Palestinian land and resources and support by clown foreign minister for Israeli bombing of several fellow Arab countries on phony security grounds. 

Supposedly, Bahrain needs the money from the blood-soaked hands of two men, of Bonesaw and his brain in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed. Why? Because the ancient unelected prime minister and all the "royal" women have socked away billions of unearned income and corruption is endemic. The island is poor. The rulers won't use their ill-gotten gains to improve the lot of the whole island.

It could be amusing in the Bahrain dagger could be used to cut that dirty, dirty connection, then bring back the assets abroad that aren't making income for the state and remake itself until global warming puts it under water.

#Bonesaw #Bahrain #SaudiArabia #MohammedbinSalman #MohammedbinZayed #Palestine #Bribery #Corruption #Baksheesh #Dagger #ComedianForeignMinisters #Lebanon #Yemen #Israel #PalestinePeacPlan #Kushner #Adelson #Trump #Refugees #WarForIsrael

Behind The Veil

for a little while.

Had to think about an interaction with three young people from Saudi Arabia with whom I chatted for about 20 minutes on a Seattle E-line bus at the beginning of the month. Two were women, one of whom is a student in her early 20s, chatty, the other older, didn't talk much, and the student's backwards-baseball-hat wearing brother, 28-30, with the trending Mo Salman beard. Dress was in northwest style. It was freezing cold.

They were sitting across from me on the side-facing seats, chatting. My linguistic radar kicked in. I thought that I heard Arabic, but it was rather noisy. Undaunted, in a quiet moment, I asked the chap to please speak a bit more so that I could tell what language they were speaking as I wasn't sure if it was one that I recognized, but it sounded like Arabic. One of the girls laughed and said that I was right, and the chap asked how I knew.

Naturally I took the occasion to first ask him, in Arabic of course, where he is from. Saudi Arabia. Young banker from Jeddah just here for a vacation, visiting sister who is a student at a local college. I trotted out my favorite sentences in Arabic -- which sound very impressive, even to me -- and they all three told me that I speak beautiful Arabic. (Nevermind that it was three sentences and a joke.)

I gave them my website card, of course, asked the girlies to bookmark it, noted that I'd put my email there, told them to contact me if I could help them in any reasonable way.

I didn't mention my primary contacts in Bahrain, only that I'd lived there and gone on to study subjects related to that life-changing experience and followed closely events in the area. I did mention the some members of the Algosaibi family had been family friends and graciously hosted my sister and myself in Beirut before the civil war there. I did that because of the Algosaibi bank that was in the news a few years ago and the young chap is a banker; couldn't help myself showing off that I knew something about a big scandal in Saudi Arabia. Shortly thereafter, the bus ride was over. We went our separate ways.

It has struck me as very strange over these weeks that a banker, a Saudi banker, would ride a city bus. Lyft. Uber. Some other company. Cost of bus for three people more expensive than Lyft. Saudi Banker can't afford to hire a cheap car? They all had smart phones, smart clothing and good English. Perhaps they wanted the thrill of riding the bus which always smells like pot and booze because it's the one goes straight up and down the main highway. You know, a real slice of Seattle life without all those messy receipts. 

That's why I do it. Staying behind the veil.

Phony 1981 Coup Attempt in Bahrain

 It wasn't some "fringe radical Shia Islamist group" responsible for the so-called 1981 coup attempt in Bahrain. It was a carefully written bit of theatre. 

There are scholars who claim expertise on some aspects of life in Bahrain, who expand on the Wikipedia article on the coup attempt in December 1981, even write books about it. Well-sourced books, even, saying the responsibility is with some "Iran-supported fringe radical Shia Islamist group."

The December coup was preceded by your own coup attempt against your father shortly after I left the island in March. The lure, the plants and the practice for a fictional terrorist operation.

I haven't seen anyone who grew up on the island and is now an academic write about THAT unsuccessful coup. 

Al Saud play Game of Frogs

Al Saud headmaster say to Al Khalifa frogs, "Jump!"

Al Khalifa frogs say, "How high?"

Al Saud say to convicted war criminal and well-paid mercenary frog leading Sudan, "Jump!"

Al Bashir says, "How high?"

Al Saud say to Al Nahyan, "Join us in demanding frogs jump."

Al Nahyan "Okay, but maybe it would be better if an older, more experienced crown prince operated in the shadows, pulling frog puppet strings."

Al Saud say to Al Sabah, "Join us in demanding frogs jump."

Al Sabah say, "We prefer to mediate frog jumping competition."

Al Saud say to Qatar's Al Thani, "Jump!"

Qataris say, "We ain't frogs."

Shaikh Nimr Al Nimr Will Get His Revenge, Posthumously

Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, may he rest in peace, called for secession of the most-heavily Shia populated province of Saudi Arabia if there was no end to governmental discrimination, abuse, repression, jailing, torturing and murdering of its Shia citizens who live there and have lived there before the Al Sauds "unified" parts of Arabia. The fact that the province holds massive quantities of hydrocarbons by which the Al Sauds have enriched themselves and blackmailed the world is not unknown to its underprivileged residents.

Shaikh Nimr's martyrdom.

In the dark of night following the fireworks of New Year and by order of the murderous thug leading the Saudi regime, Shaikh Nimr was martyred by gory beheading for peacefully expressing his political views which may help bring about the breakup of the KSA in ways long sought by others.

2015 proved yet again that the Al Saud cannot competently manage the Hajj and the Holy Places. Calls have been loudly made since the two disasters last year for the administration to be removed from the Saudis, for an internationalized body instead.

Yemen would like three of its historical provinces returned to their sovereignty. Perhaps they might consider additional territory as part of the costs the Sauds must pay for the death, destruction and chaos they've wrought in the reckless Mohammed bin Salman "Bonesaw" and dirty war prince Mohammed bin Zayed's war and starvation campaign against the mostly innocent Yemenis.

(It's been reported that Mohammed bin Salman loves to play poker and gamble. One hopes he pays mightily for the gamble in Yemen, but so far it appears Bonesaw is using the country's funds and only mightily paying Trump, including the support of Kushner's plan to gift all of Palestine to Israel.)

The U.S. government and Big Oil had a well-developed contingency plan to break up KSA into five parts around the time in September 1980 when Saddam Hussein began the long war against Iran. U.S. Sec. Def. Brown's comments about it were in the press and I repeated them in a private conversation in Bahrain shortly thereafter with a senior government official who is now even more senior, the sel-appointed king. He laughed, but it was out the side of his face.

The Eastern Province is surely a candidate for separation, and more if there is justice. Adding a bridge and fast trains and some islands to which it is historically-related would help resolve a sectarian issue in three Persian Gulf countries on the Arab side, but that is down the road a bit.

Meanwhile, the energy companies who are happy to do business with Iran will be more than happy to do business with the Shia-dominated government of the new province just as they now do business with the Al Sauds. Green is green, isn't it?

Shaikh Nimr will not be forgotten. 

Bahrain military plane falls out of sky in Saudi Arabia

The useless local press says the BDF plane malfunctioned before it crashed with military personnel onboard in the Saudi province close to Yemen.

Perhaps when an airplane is hit by an incoming missile it will malfunction.

Irony On Every Corner

Yesterday some research on Amb. Roebuck, now in Bahrain, made me seriously wonder why he got that post considering there is abundant evidence that his primary skill is stirring up sectarianism.

The answer came today in a complaint from the Sultan of Turkey. Erdogan warns that there is a plot to stir sectarianism in order to divide the region. Of course it is a surprise to him and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf that such a plot could be hatched and they be not only unaware, but no part of it.

He thinks the Saudi tanks in Bahrain went across to test the strength of the causeway and cannot return due to safety concerns.

Time for Regime Change ... in Bahrain

It's my belief that the U.S. may finally lead, may demonstrate zero tolerance of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf's continued funding or contributions in kind, or blind tolerance of the flow of money, weapons, Captagon, and the bread out of the mouths of babies to the terrorists all over the Middle East and Africa and the sub-continent. The U.S. has laws against the use of banks in financing terrorism. Many banks have been fined and or banned from doing business in the U.S. or Europe because they violated such laws. Currently some big, important countries are forming their own banking systems to get around sanctions and their attendant hypocrisy.

Anybody who pays a bit of attention to international affairs knows these things. We also know that the various terrorist groups rely on other means of support. No point to waste time on these knowns.

An example needs to be made of a player in the Gulf, for the rest of them to take serious notice. I don't know how much Ajman or Um Al Qaiwain are contributing funds or banking access to their citizens to send money to their Sunni brethren fighting in the sovereign states of Iraq and Syria. Since the U.A.E. is a federation, it may be federal money, but in the case of Abu Dhabi, we know there is material support of terrorists. Ditto Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and ...

Bahrain. Banks. Remember when Bahrain was well on her way to being the banking center of the Gulf but didn't get there? Still, there are a good number of banks established in the Island, connected to the banks in the other Gulf states and the world. I betcha there is plenty of dark money flows through that entrepot to the head-choppers de jour by whatever name, through "charities" of course, and for "humanitarian" purposes.

Time to make an example. Time to shut them down. Time for a radical change in the island, a change that will ensure the rest of the Gulfies shut down their terrorist funding, tell the Saudis and Qatar to tell their clerics to fatwa the end of jihad for which they fatwa'd the beginning, and to fatwa the end of the sectarianism and hate campaigns, and to fatwa the end of blaming Iran for the shamal that blows sand in their eyes.

Time for the U.S. military in Bahrain to send the Saudis and Emiratis -- and whatever other military of the Peninsula Shield forces crossed the bridge or flew into the Shaikh Isa Air Base or arrived in ships to put down the anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain -- time to send them home. We have intelligence that some members of those foreign forces have been plotting to carry out unfriendly actions against the U.S.N. In the current tense atmosphere, we need all of them to leave. Immediately. It's a matter of force protection. Chop chop.

Also, any of the Al-Khalifas and their lackeys who believe they may be held accountable for state crimes against civilian population may want to take their cars and retinue across the bridge as well. He who fears an uninvited helicopter landing in the courtyard of the palace he may be in one night with Wife Number Two, may want to consider such advice. Perhaps he may want to consider such advice the next night when he is in the palace of Wife Number Three, or the next in the palace of Wife Number Four. (Pretty sure Wife Number One no longer receives such visits, but that's just gossip.)

Time to close all the banks in Bahrain that have sent one dinar or any other currency to support the terrorists assaults on sovereign countries. It is well known which banks have been involved. They're done. Swift. Let the other states know they've got a limited time to clean up their acts.

Then time to invite the "other" foreign forces in Bahrain to go home, the mercenaries imported to act with an iron fist against protesters and change the demographic balance of the island. Bahrain can afford their return tickets and severance pay, and the houses and villas they leave behind will find people who've been waiting a long time to live in one and the jobs to support their upkeep.

Then reinstate the political parties and have a fair election for a new house of parliament to take the place of the one which Hamad appointed. Two houses, equal. An elected prime minister, no matter that the confession of the winner will not win the approval on the other side of the bridge.

Matter of fact, that is the point. Representative government is going to come to Bahrain. The U.S. and a coalition of willing friends should immediately implement steps to bring it about. It should be a rousing success. It should be without bloodshed if the dictator and his supporters know what's good for them. They have the option to leave, to cross the bridge, to keep their passports or give them up, or they can stay and face the music. It's a one-time, time-limited offer. Do they trust an independent judiciary to give them the fairness they've denied those who oppose them? Perhaps Najd might be an attractive destination to consider?

While the Al Khalifas are considering relocation, rather quickly it is suggested, it might be worthwhile to inform them of another personal financial matter. Funds derived from the natural wealth of the island and funds derived from corrupt deals made over, say, the past 40 years, which have made their way to foreign banks, will be frozen. Mansions scattered all over Europe, all over the globe, paid for with state money pilfered by the royals, will be seized because the funds to buy them traveled through the banks.

The government of Saudi Arabia does not want its favorite terrorists designated as terrorists in the upcoming Hashemite designation of who is a terrorist. Ditto Qatar. Changing the names of their terrorist groups may have fooled some, particularly those who can't read the Arabic script on those black flags, but they're terrorists and they have no sovereign state. There is a simple solution. All those "fighters" and "rebels" supported by the Saudis should have the option:  die or move to Riyadh. Ditto, Qatar. Ditto, U.A.E. Ditto, Kuwait. That should keep the paymasters busy while there are big changes in a small country, changes which Turki Faisal, Bandar Sultan and Adel Al Jubair and their addled king can huff and puff and threaten to blow down, and Bahrain, with coalition support, of course, can flip them something else to blow.

For instance, the new and elected government of the peaceful and protected islands of Bahrain could, with continued coalition support, of course, announce its intention to rectify a historical wrong, to unify the islands with the historical Bahrain on what is presently considered to be the K.S.A. mainland. It was rumoured the prior threat of such pursuit by unspecified means was sufficient for Bahrain to secure from K.S.A. proceeds from the Abu Safa oil field over the years. Historical Bahrain would include the oil-laden area with a large Shia population, the oil of which belongs to the state. Have some bravura, take Ras Tanura.

The fun could begin soon. Perhaps we need to order some more of those Freedom Donuts. Remember the anxiety they caused the first time we provided hot donuts to a few protesters? Hospitality donuts, truly. That's all it was, but Khawalid spun what many considered a laughable conspiracy theory set forth to distract the gullible, inter alia. More Krispy Kremes than last time, please. We need them for the upcoming holidays and happier times. Freedom Donuts after regime change.

Why The Gulf Nations Don't Take Syrian Refugees

so ...

The lousy NYT ran a story a couple days ago about the fact that wealthy Persian Gulf nations -- whose state and private funds help support the Sunni terrorist groups in Syria and elsewhere -- are not taking in refugees fleeing from the war in Syria. It's highly likely that they're also not taking in victims of the Saudi's dastardly aggression in Yemen, either.

Nope, the Gulfies are good at importing Sunni mercenaries from all over the Arab world, to do the tough jobs which their own citizens cannot be trusted to do. For example, in Bahrain they fill out the ranks of the military, police and secret services. They're brought in to alter the demographic balance on the island as well as assure loyalty through financial and other benefits such as free housing and medical care, cheap loans, subsidized meat, bread, electricity and fuel. How else could those men and their families afford to live in the Gulf? They even pay the ultimate price for those jobs, dying in lands not their own and for a country not their own.

Well, if they're unskilled or day laborers, they can live in accommodation with multiple other such workers or in the lousy worker camps built for those who are doing the manual labor that has built the gleaming towers throughout the Gulf. There were eleven such men living in a one bedroom apartment in the block of flats where I lived in Adliya the last time I was there. I doubt that situation has changed since then.

If they're rich refugees, no problem. Welcome. 

Cowards. Rotten cowards, the whole lot of them. I read Marc Owen Jones's piece putting forth some cogent reason why their regimes don't take in refugees from the conflicts they support. He left out the obvious. They're a bunch of cowards.