person:brian whitaker

  • ‘How do they sleep?’ Roger Waters calls out US, UK & France over ‘faked’ Douma chemical attack — RT World News
    https://www.rt.com/news/459638-roger-waters-douma-opcw

    Citing newly leaked OPCW documents casting doubt on the April 2018 ‘chemical attack’ that triggered a bombing of Syria, rock star Roger Waters is calling out everyone who believed in the ‘murderous fairytale’ of the White Helmets.

    US, UK and France launched air strikes against Syria in April last year, after an alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, northeast of Damascus. The claims came from the White Helmets, a self-styled ‘civil defense’ organization backed by Western governments and embedded with the Islamist militants in Syria.

    “The White Helmets probably murdered 34 women and children to dress the scene that sorry day in Douma,” Waters posted on his Facebook page on Thursday, next to a video of his April 2018 concert in Barcelona in which he challenged the group as “a fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for the jihadists and terrorists.”

    Waters added he hopes that those in the media and the governments in Paris, London and Washington that bought into the White Helmets’ “callous and murderous fairytale are suitably haunted by the indelible images of those lost innocent Syrian lives.”

    Internal OPCW documents leaked earlier this week cast doubt on the organization’s final report about the Douma incident, which claimed chlorine was ‘likely’ used against civilians. Syrian and Russian soldiers that liberated the town from militants found chlorine containers and a laboratory for producing chemical weapons. Moscow has suggested that the OPCW hedged its report because it did not want to contradict the US narrative.

    #syrie #propagande

    • Intéressant : Brian Whitaker a publié un assez gros point sur cette « fuite ». Leaked document revives controversy over Syria chemical attacks
      https://al-bab.com/blog/2019/05/leaked-document-revives-controversy-over-syria-chemical-attacks

      A leaked document which contradicts key findings of an official investigation into chemical weapons in Syria has surfaced on the internet. Described as an “engineering assessment” and marked “draft for internal review”, it appears to have been written by an employee of the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) — the international body charged with the investigation.

      In April 2018 dozens of people were reportedly killed by a chemical attack in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, and western powers responded with airstrikes directed against the Assad regime.

      In March this year, after a lengthy investigation, the OPCW issued a report which found “reasonable grounds” for believing a toxic chemical had been used as a weapon in Douma and suggested the chemical involved was chlorine gas, delivered by cylinders dropped from the air.

      Although the investigators’ brief did not allow them to apportion blame, use of air-dropped cylinders implied the regime was responsible, since rebel fighters in Syria had no aircraft.

      The 15-page leaked document takes the opposite view and says it is more likely that the two cylinders in question had been “manually placed” in the spot where they were found, rather than being dropped from the air. The implication of this is that Syrian rebels had planted them to create the false appearance of a chemical attack by the regime.

      Whitaker, sur ce sujet, s’est régulièrement illustré par une dénonciation virulente de ce qu’il appelle les « truthers » sur la Syrie. Encore très récemment :
      https://medium.com/@Brian_Whit/how-a-yellow-cylinder-became-a-propaganda-weapon-in-syria-cc696a0bb0d9

    • Après, personnellement, le fait de conclure directement à l’analyse opposée (« les casques blancs ont fait le coup ») sur la foi d’un seul rapport minoritaire non retenu dans le rapport final, ça me semble excessivement prématuré.

    • Merci @gonzo, j’archive ! C’est assez marrant de voir cette guerre des noms se poursuivre, comme d’ailleurs entre la Corée et le Japon.

      Il y a eu une époque où les journalistes des médias qui écrivaient « Golfe » tout court ou « Golfe arabique » se voyaient notifié d’un refus d’entrer sur le territoire iranien quand ils se présentaient à la douane de l’aéroport (et faisaient donc un aller retour Téhéran par le même avion).

      Je savais les Iraniens ultra-sensibles sur cette question (j’ai reçu au cours de ma carrière des tonnes de documents et de lettres m’enjoignant d’abandonner l’expression « Golfe » pour « Golfe persique », seule dénomination « légale »... Mais jusqu’ici, c’était un peu plus discret du côté des États du Golfe qui avaient l’air d’avoir d’autres chats à fouetter plutôt que de s’occuper de toponymie.

      Je vais rechercher quelques exemples de cette propagande et les partager avec vous.

      #cartographie #propagande #manipulation #toponymie #golfe #golfe_persique #golfe_arabique

    • Je profite de ce post pour regrouper un certain nombre de liens et de docs :

      Congratulations ! Google Maps has recently added the term « Persian Gulf » on it’s maps !
      http://www.persianorarabiangulf.com

      Polémique sur le Net : Golfe persique ou Golfe arabique ? Juin 2010 (c’est pas récent mais ça reste d’actualité)
      http://observers.france24.com/fr/20100611-polemique-net-golfe-persique-golfe-arabique

      Persian Gulf ? Arabian Gulf ? One big gulf in understanding by Brian Whitaker
      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/27/gulf-of-understanding

      Persian (or Arabian) Gulf Is Caught in the Middle of Regional Rivalries
      http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/world/middleeast/persian-gulf-arabian-gulf-iran-saudi-arabia.html?_r=0

      How Google is showing Arabian Gulf on Maps
      http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/society/how-google-is-showing-arabian-gulf-on-maps-1.1560237

    • Reçu ce mail en copie en 2011. C’est un ancien prisonier politique iranien qui s’adresse à un journaliste d’un mensuel français :

      Cher Monsieur,

      Comme vous le savez, nous, des gens d’origine iranienne, avons un très grand respect pour vous et vos écrits, que nous traduisons d’ailleurs immédiatement et diffusons à travers le monde entier.

      Dans une de vos dernières livraisons, vous aviez utilisé le vocable « Le Golfe » au lieu du « Golfe persique ». Vous qui êtes un journaliste du haut rang et qu’avec vos prises de position courageuses vous forcez l’admiration de tout un chacun, pourquoi alors s’incliner devant un « nationalisme » à la c... de certains Arabes et écrire ce qui est faux, historiquement et géographiquement ?

      Avez-vous peur d’eux ? Ou vous ne voulez pas les vexer ? Dans ce dernier cas alors, vous devriez prendre des positions anti-palestiniennes, de peur de vexer les Israëliens ??!

      Je ne veux pas critiquer davantage un Maître alors que je ne suis qu’un tout petit disciple. Mais je continue à penser que détourner la vérité historique pour plaire à l’un ou à l’autre, ne devrait pas faire partie de la personnalité d’un très grand journaliste que vous êtes...

      Avec mes salutations resprectueuses.

      XX, ancien prisonnier politique iranien

    • Et cette dépêche publiée par la BBC en 2010

      Iran protests to China on distortion of Persian Gulf name
      Text of report in English by Iranian official government news agency IRNA website

      Beijing, 13 November: Iran protested to China on Saturday [13 November] for distorting the name of the Persian Gulf during the opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Asian Games.

      Iran’s Ambassador to China Mehdi Safari told IRNA that separate notes of protest were sent to the Foreign Ministry of China and organizers of the Guangzhou 2010 on the issue.

      While showing maps of countries on the big screens of the opening ceremony at the Asian Games, a map of Iran appeared for a few seconds with the fake name of ’Arabian’ instead of ’Persian Gulf’ on it, said the Iranian ambassador. He stressed that the term ’Persian Gulf’ was written in all international maps of Iran.

      Safari added that officials of China’s Foreign Ministry as well as organizers of the Asian Games have apologized for the incident admitting that the protest was completely relevant.

      Immediately after Iran’s protest, the Foreign Ministry of China issued an instruction which required all its affiliated bodies to pay due attention to the use of the correct name of the ’Persian Gulf’ in the future.

      Safari stressed that the distortion of the name of the Persian Gulf had nothing to do with Beijing’s foreign policy and its attitude towards Iran but was instead a mistake made by the organizers of the Asian games. The Iranian ambassador reassured the friendly ties between Iran and China.

      Source: Islamic Republic News Agency website, Tehran, in English 0755 gmt 13 Nov 10

    • Voilà une des lettres type que j’ai reçu pendant une bonne trentaine d’années. Et à les relire, et a considérer les arguments les uns derrière les autres, on finit presque par comprendre pourquoi la guerre.

      Dear Friends,

      I am writing to express my concern regarding your articleq and maps. I am very disappointed to see that the Persian Gulf is erroneously referred to as The Gulf. I do not know where to begin to express my sheer outrage and disappointment in this.

      As a respected organization, how is this mistake allowed to take place” I sincerely hope it is not an intentional doing. If so,
      let me explain why this should not be allowed to take place.

      The Persian Gulf has always been known as just that, the Persian Gulf. The country with the largest single maritime boarder along it is Iran, and in Iran the majority (51% according to The World Factbook 2003) are ethnic Persians. This puts the numbers at roughly 34 million Persians out of 67 million
      Iranians. The official language is also Persian. Many people are under the false assumption that Persia changed its name to Iran, when in fact this is not the case.

      Persia still exists today, as a large southwestern province in Iran. Persia was always but one piece of the Iranian Empire. Its central piece, and all the emperors, even up until modern times, were Persian. Iran is just the name of the Empire, because it encompasses more than just Persia (such as
      Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Baluchistan, etc.). In 1935 the Emperor, or Shah, of Iran officially asked all world leaders to refer to the nation as Iran, not Persia, which is but one part of Iran. It is similar to England versus United Kingdom or Holland versus The Netherlands. Officially calling England the United Kingdom does not mean that the English do not exist anymore.

      So why has this most unfortunate fate been assigned to the Persians. In Persian, the word Persia is pronounced Pars hence the native way of saying the language, Parsi, Perisan Gulf, or Khalije Pars has been the accepted name of that body of water since ancient times, not just by Persians, but by all Iranians, and indeed, all neighboring Asians, such as Arabs, Indians, and Turks. It is also officially used by all European nations.

      There are many corrupt Arab leaders who insist on calling the Persian Gulf, The Gulf or worse yet, the Arabian Gulf. This is not for cultural or historic reasons, but rather for their own selfish purposes to express their power to foreign investors, and to try to take advantage of Iran‚s current unfortunate political situation.

      If respected organizations, and Newspaper allow these corrupt Arab leaders to systematically attack the respect and cultural integrity of the Persians, it will destroy a piece of history
      forever. Persians do not deserve this unjust treatment. Arabs have the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Oman. Calling it The Gulf is not only unwarranted, but also violates an entire people‚s cultural heritage.

      Besides, there are literally hundreds of gulfs in the world ! Both the United States and Mexico touch the Gulf of Mexico, but it is still called the Gulf of Mexico; the same holds true for the English Channel, which is half French.

      I urge you to take back this damage and refer to this body of water as the Persian Gulf in your future articles and on your website. It is not too late to reverse this terrible damage.

      Sincerely,

      XX
      Teaching Assistant & Fellow Department of Anthropology
      University of XX in United States

    • En 2004, alors que je participais à la rédaction d’un rapport environnemental dans la région du Golfe [persique, donc], j’avais reçu à deux jours d’intervalle, un plainte violente de l’ambassadeur d’Iran à Genève et un avertissement de mon patron, en l’occurrence le PNUE à l’époque, qui me demandait de « mettre à jour les documents » non pas avec l’expression « Golfe persique » comme le demandait les iraniens mais avec une expression complètement incertaine qui encore aujourd’hui me laisse perplexe :

      ERRATUM

      The name “Golfe” on the map ’Water Management and Water Conflicts in the Middle East’ should be changed to the name “ROPME SEA Area” in accordance with the agreed upon terminology under the:

      Regional Convention for Cooperation on the Protection of the Marine Emnvironment from Pollution (ROMPE) or the Kuwait Convention of 1978.

      Thank you,

      XX, UNEP, Nairobi.

    • Et quand l’ONU s’en mêle et sort un Working paper de 8 pages reprenant des arguments historiques, c’est tr§-ès très intéressant :

      Fichier pdf téléchargeable
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/2y0poljlig4n1se/carto%20golfe%20justif%20historique%20un.pdf?dl=0

      https://www.dropbox.com/s/1z6id6pm0j9i0lu/persian%20gulf%20brochure.pdf?dl=0

      In the end, it is worth mentioning that the name of Persian Gulf has been admitted in all the live languages of the world so far and all the countries throughout the world, name this
      Iranian Sea, just in the language of the people: PERSIAN GULF. Even our Arab brothers do not need to alter a historical name to have a gulf of their own, because there had been a gulf in
      their own name previously mentioned in the historical and geographical works and drawings, which is called at present the Red Sea (Bahr Ahmar).

  • Du kidnapping comme mode de suppression de toute contestation
    http://www.madaniya.info/2016/03/20/du-kidnapping-comme-mode-de-suppression-de-toute-contestation

    L’ambassadeur d’Arabie saoudite à Berne (Suisse) a alerté le cabinet royal sur les prémisses d’une grave crise entre la confédération Hélvétique et le Royaume d’Arabie saoudite qui pourrait prendre la forme d’un convocation, au pénal, de l’ambassadeur saoudien et de diverses autres personnalités politiques.

    L’affaire remonte à 2003 du temps du règne du Roi Fahd et de l’invasion américaine de l’Irak.

    Les personnes qui pourraient faire l’objet de cette convocation sont les suivantes :

    – Le Prince Abdel Aziz Ben Fahd, le propre fils de l’ancien roi Fahd (1982-2005)
    – Saad Hariri, ancien premier ministre du Liban et compagnon festif du prince Abdel Aziz, alias azouz
    – Saleh Al Cheikh, ministre des Affaires islamiques

    L’enquête, qui viserait ces trois personnes, porterait sur l’enlèvement d’une personne, réalisé sur le territoire suisse, en coordination avec l’ambassadeur saoudien. Un groupe d’avocats a réussi à convaincre le parquet général de Genève d’engager une procédure visant à enquêter sur les conditions de la disparition du prince Sultan Ben Turki Ben Abdel Aziz, petit fils du fondateur du Royaume.

    Sultan a été enlevé dans le palais du Roi Fahd à Genève, à la suite d’un traquenard, drogué et exfiltré de Suisse via un avion d’évacuation sanitaire vers l’Arabie saoudite où il a été maintenu sous contrôle entre hospitalisation et résidence surveillée. Son tort est d’avoir dénoncé un vaste réseau de corruption entre Rafic Hariri, ancien premier ministre du Liban et père de Saad et des princes de la famille royale saoudienne. Son rapatriement forcé a été décidé alors.

    Avec, en fin d’article, lien vers :
    Saudi prince alleges kidnap (2004, Brian Whitaker)
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jan/22/saudiarabia.brianwhitaker

    A Saudi prince who launched a campaign against corruption is claiming that he was kidnapped in Switzerland by members of the royal family, drugged, flown to Saudi Arabia, detained in hospital for two months under armed guard and then held under house arrest.
    Prince Sultan bin Turki, a nephew of King Fahd, told the story of his alleged abduction in a phone conversation with the Associated Press from the Saudi capital, Riyadh - his first reported contact with the outside world since he disappeared last June.

    et al-Akhbar, juillet 2015, abordant l’affaire dans le cadre des « Saudi Leaks », dont Madaniya reprend les grandes lignes :
    « مجتهد » يسرّب برقيات سعودية : سويسرا تلاحق الحريري وأمراء | الأخبار
    http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/236900

    غرّد الناشط السعودي الشهير «مجتهد»، على حسابه على «تويتر»، أن السفارة السعودية في جنيف أبلغت الديوان الملكي السعودي عن بوادر أزمة كبيرة تتمثل في احتمال استدعاء جنائي للسفير السعودي وشخصيات سيادية أخرى.

    ووفقاً لـ»مجتهد»، الذي ينقل عن نص رسالة مسربة من سفارة الرياض في سويسرا، يشمل الاستدعاء عبدالعزيز بن فهد بن عبدالعزيز وصالح آل الشيخ وزير الشؤون الإسلامية وسعد الحريري رئيس وزراء لبنان الأسبق وأسماء أخرى. وجاء في رسالة السفارة للملك أن الاستدعاء سيكون للتحقيق على خلفية جريمة خطف جرت على الأراضي السويسرية شارك فيها المذكورون بالتنسيق مع السفارة.

  • Singing the Qur’an : Blasphemy or religious devotion ?
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2016/march/singing-the-quran-blasphemy-or-devotion.htm#sthash.AM4XhKXe.Nxsw7XE8.dpbs

    The video above, from 2014, shows an Indonesian opera company giving the Qur’an a full choral and orchestral treatment. And – horror of horrors – it even includes female singers.
    In Islamic terms, or at least the more puritanical interpretations, this is certainly controversial but it is difficult to argue that the intention behind it is in any way irreligious or disrespectful.

    A few months later, Egypt’s highest religious authority, al-Azhar, issued a ruling on the Indonesian performance, describing it as “a deviation and a distortion”. Recitation of the Qur’an differs from singing, it said – and singing the Qur’an to a tune is forbidden. According to al-Azhar, adding a tune makes the Qur’an comparable to songs and reduces the capacity of the readers and listeners to understand the true meaning of the verses. (The full Arabic text of the ruling is here.)

    Al-Azhar, of course, has no control over what happens in Indonesia, though its ruling was cited in the case of the Bahrain “singer”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_q5EXpe4GI

    Si vous n’êtes pas touché par la foi après ça ! Brian Whitaker propose deux autres « interprétations musicales » du Coran dans le mêmearticle.

    #coran #islam #musique

  • Denying the obvious in Egypt : Sisi regime fights back over Regeni’s death
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2016/march/egypt-regeni-sisi.htm#sthash.4us0WulK.MEvGcjCG.dpbs

    Brian Whitaker n’oublie pas. Le point sur ce dossier qui ne remue guère les belles âmes tellement promptes à s’enflammer sur des causes qui les servent davantage.

    The killing of postgraduate student Giulio Regeni, apparently at the hands of Egypt’s security apparatus, has put the Sisi regime on the spot. In the face of an international outcry, the regime is responding with a mixture of bluster, conspiracy theories and diversionary tactics.

    #égypte

  • The Saudi execution will reverberate across the Muslim world | Brian Whitaker | Opinion | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/04/saudi-arabia-execution-muslim-world-sectarianism-syria-iraq

    (...) As Patey put it in his interview: “If you are trying to repair the Sunni-Shia split in Iraq in order to have a united front against Daesh, this will make life a bit more difficult.” Interestingly, just a day before Nimr’s execution Saudi Arabia reopened its embassy in Baghdad after a 25-year break. While this was formally hailed as the start of a new era in cooperation, some see it as an attempt to counter Iranian influence in Iraq and establish an unofficial mouthpiece for Iraqi Sunnis in Baghdad.

    It may also be worth recalling that nine Qatari royals disappeared in Iraq last month, apparently kidnapped while hunting with falcons. An unconfirmed report by Erem News, an Emirati website, claimed that their captors were seeking to exchange them for Nimr al-Nimr.

    (...) In Yemen, aggressive Saudi-Wahhabi proselytising, starting in the 1990s, stirred unrest among the Zaidi communities (a branch of Shia Islam), which then led to a series of Houthi uprisings. Today the Saudis are at war with the Houthis and Yemen is being destroyed in the process. Naturally they have characterised this as a war with Iran, though in comparison with what the Saudis and their allies have been doing in Yemen, Iranian involvement has mostly been marginal.

    Another effect of this onslaught in Yemen, whether intentional or not, has been to empower militant Sunni elements there, including al-Qaida and Islamic State. In the wake of the Arab spring uprisings, sectarian narratives have also proved a useful tool for Gulf monarchies leading the counter-revolution – characterising protesters as foreign-inspired or at least not representative of the Sunni mainstream.

    (...) One problem the Saudi regime now faces is that the sectarian and anti-Iranian narrative on which it relies has been undermined by the international nuclear deal struck with Iran last year. The kingdom had little choice but to officially accept it – though it is still far from happy about it. Provoking Iran might be one way of demonstrating that unhappiness. And in the context of Saudi-Iranian relations, Nimr’s execution looks less like a miscalculation than part of an emerging pattern.

  • Des expatriés bahreïnis cherchent l’aide israélienne pour améliorer l’image du royaume | Middle East Eye | Alex MacDonald | 29 septembre 2015
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/des-expatri-s-bahre-nis-cherchent-l-aide-isra-lienne-pour-am-liorer-l

    Un groupe de plaidoyer pro-gouvernemental bahreïni a signé un « protocole d’accord » avec l’organisation controversée Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), liée à Israël, afin de corriger l’image du pays comme point chaud des violations des droits de l’homme.

    Les organisateurs de la campagne « C’est ça Bahreïn », une délégation de 200 Bahreïnis en visite actuellement en Amérique, ont déclaré que l’accord était destiné à améliorer la perception du pays à l’étranger.

    « Nous sommes déterminés à coopérer étroitement afin de modifier la perception négative des médias vis-à-vis de la situation à Bahreïn et d’utiliser le modèle pluri-centenaire de liberté de culte, de coexistence pacifique et de respect mutuel de Bahreïn dans la lutte contre le terrorisme mondial », a déclaré Betsy Mathieson, secrétaire-générale de la Fédération des associations d’expatriés de Bahreïn, une organisation pro-gouvernementale basée dans le royaume.

    « Bahreïn est victime d’une couverture médiatique négative et la campagne ‘’C’est ça Bahreïn’’ a hâte de travailler en étroite collaboration avec le MEMRI, qui fait un travail remarquable sur de nombreux fronts. »

    La révélation est susceptible de susciter la controverse à Bahreïn, un pays qui ne reconnaît pas Israël officiellement et où le soutien populaire pour la cause palestinienne est très fort.

    Le MEMRI a été décrit comme un « organe de propagande israélien » et accusé par l’ancien responsable de la rubrique Moyen-Orient du Guardian, Brian Whitaker, d’« être à l’affût des pires citations possibles en provenance du monde musulman afin de les disséminer autant que possible ».

  • Rubbish and revolution in Lebanon. Garbage protests challenge the ’deep non-state’ – Brian Whitaker
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2015/august/lebanon-rubbish-protest.htm

    Does it really require a revolution to clean up Lebanon? The answer, according to many of the protesters, is yes. If the politicians can’t organise something as basic as garbage collection, then they too should be treated as garbage and swept away.

    Rubbish is being recycled, so to speak, as a political metaphor. For Sami Atallah of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, the crisis over rotting trash “exemplifies what is fundamentally wrong with the country: A political class that has no interest in serving the public. They have intentionally manufactured a crisis because they do not agree on how to ’divide up the cake’.” 

    Atallah provides a potted history of the politics and economics of garbage collection in Lebanon over the last 20 years and points out that the Lebanese pay more per ton than almost any other nation. In Beirut, this is the result of some secretive, over-priced and non-competitive contracting, he says.

  • Yemen, long on the brink of catastrophe, may have tipped over the edge | Brian Whitaker | Comment is free | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/23/yemen-brink-catastrophe-mosque-attacks-civil-war

    Dans l"article de Whitacer, deux faits peu connus (de moi au moins) :

    It remains to be seen, though, whether Hadi is truly welcome in the south, where the Herak movement has been agitating for independence from the north. Hadi is himself a southerner but, having spent 17 years as Saleh’s deputy, he may be too closely associated with what the separatists regard as northern domination.

    Hadi is still recognised by the UN as Yemen’s president but his legitimacy is wearing thin. His accession to the presidency was ratified, after a fashion, in a one-candidate “election” and his term in office was originally supposed to last only until 2014.

  • ISIS and the war of ideas
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2014/october/isis-and-the-war-of-ideas.htm#sthash.UYnfvJqM.STZEhSpn.dpbs

    Certes le #sectarisme est la plaie du monde arabe comme le dit Brian Whitaker, mais il n’est pas du tout sérieux de prendre à témoin un officiel occidental sans prise en compte de l’histoire récente (), et de préconiser une « bataille des idées » sans aborder le versant social et économique ni la pourriture des dirigeants arabes (également pris à témoin !) et leur soutien par les mêmes officiels occidentaux.

    () Quand l’#USAID finançait des livres scolaires afghans préconisant de zigouiller les athées au nom du Djihâd.

    En paywall sur le WaPo :
    From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad ; Violent Soviet-Era Textbooks Complicate Afghan Education Efforts
    By Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway
    Washington Post Staff Writers
    Saturday, March 23, 2002 ; Page A01
    http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/409274513.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar%2023,%202

    Archivé ici :
    http://supportdanielboyd.wordpress.com/usa-printed-textbooks-support-jihad-in-afghanistan-and-

    In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to the Soviet occupation.

    The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in keeping with its strict fundamentalist code.

    As Afghan schools reopen today, the United States is back in the business of providing schoolbooks. But now it is wrestling with the unintended consequences of its successful strategy of stirring Islamic fervor to fight communism. What seemed like a good idea in the context of the Cold War is being criticized by humanitarian workers as a crude tool that steeped a generation in violence.

    Last month, a U.S. foreign aid official said, workers launched a “scrubbing” operation in neighboring Pakistan to purge from the books all references to rifles and killing. Many of the 4 million texts being trucked into Afghanistan, and millions more on the way, still feature Koranic verses and teach Muslim tenets.

    The White House defends the religious content, saying that Islamic principles permeate Afghan culture and that the books “are fully in compliance with U.S. law and policy.” Legal experts, however, question whether the books violate a constitutional ban on using tax dollars to promote religion.

    Organizations accepting funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development must certify that tax dollars will not be used to advance religion. The certification states that AID “will finance only programs that have a secular purpose. . . . AID-financed activities cannot result in religious indoctrination of the ultimate beneficiaries.”

    The issue of textbook content reflects growing concern among U.S. policymakers about school teachings in some Muslim countries in which Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism are on the rise. A number of government agencies are discussing what can be done to counter these trends.

    President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have repeatedly spotlighted the Afghan textbooks in recent weeks. Last Saturday, Bush announced during his weekly radio address that the 10 million U.S.-supplied books being trucked to Afghan schools would teach “respect for human dignity, instead of indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry.”

    The first lady stood alongside Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai on Jan. 29 to announce that AID would give the University of Nebraska at Omaha $6.5 million to provide textbooks and teacher training kits.

    AID officials said in interviews that they left the Islamic materials intact because they feared Afghan educators would reject books lacking a strong dose of Muslim thought. The agency removed its logo and any mention of the U.S. government from the religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn Stratos said.

    “It’s not AID’s policy to support religious instruction,” Stratos said. “But we went ahead with this project because the primary purpose . . . is to educate children, which is predominantly a secular activity.”

    Some legal experts disagreed. A 1991 federal appeals court ruling against AID’s former director established that taxpayers’ funds may not pay for religious instruction overseas, said Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law expert at American University, who litigated the case for the American Civil Liberties Union.

    Ayesha Khan, legal director of the nonprofit Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the White House has “not a legal leg to stand on” in distributing the books.

    “Taxpayer dollars cannot be used to supply materials that are religious,” she said.

    Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university’s education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.

    During that time of Soviet occupation, regional military leaders in Afghanistan helped the U.S. smuggle books into the country. They demanded that the primers contain anti-Soviet passages. Children were taught to count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines, agency officials said. They acknowledged that at the time it also suited U.S. interests to stoke hatred of foreign invaders.

    “I think we were perfectly happy to see these books trashing the Soviet Union,” said Chris Brown, head of book revision for AID’s Central Asia Task Force.

    AID dropped funding of Afghan programs in 1994. But the textbooks continued to circulate in various versions, even after the Taliban seized power in 1996.

    Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprintings during the Taliban years. Today, the books remain widely available in schools and shops, to the chagrin of international aid workers.

    “The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are even much worse,” said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit.

    An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.

    The military content was included to “stimulate resistance against invasion,” explained Yaquib Roshan of Nebraska’s Afghanistan center. “Even in January, the books were absolutely the same . . . pictures of bullets and Kalashnikovs and you name it.”

    During the Taliban era, censors purged human images from the books. One page from the texts of that period shows a resistance fighter with a bandolier and a Kalashnikov slung from his shoulder. The soldier’s head is missing.

    Above the soldier is a verse from the Koran. Below is a Pashtu tribute to the mujaheddin, who are described as obedient to Allah. Such men will sacrifice their wealth and life itself to impose Islamic law on the government, the text says.

    “We were quite shocked,” said Doug Pritchard, who reviewed the primers in December while visiting Pakistan on behalf of a Canada-based Christian nonprofit group. “The constant image of Afghans being natural warriors is wrong. Warriors are created. If you want a different kind of society, you have to create it.”

    After the United States launched a military campaign last year, the United Nations’ education agency, UNICEF, began preparing to reopen Afghanistan’s schools, using new books developed with 70 Afghan educators and 24 private aid groups. In early January, UNICEF began printing new texts for many subjects but arranged to supply copies of the old, unrevised U.S. books for other subjects, including Islamic instruction.

    Within days, the Afghan interim government announced that it would use the old AID-produced texts for its core school curriculum. UNICEF’s new texts could be used only as supplements.

    Earlier this year, the United States tapped into its $296 million aid package for rebuilding Afghanistan to reprint the old books, but decided to purge the violent references.

    About 18 of the 200 titles the United States is republishing are primarily Islamic instructional books, which agency officials refer to as “civics” courses. Some books teach how to live according to the Koran, Brown said, and “how to be a good Muslim.”

    UNICEF is left with 500,000 copies of the old “militarized” books, a $200,000 investment that it has decided to destroy, according to U.N. officials.

    On Feb. 4, Brown arrived in Peshawar, the Pakistani border town in which the textbooks were to be printed, to oversee hasty revisions to the printing plates. Ten Afghan educators labored night and day, scrambling to replace rough drawings of weapons with sketches of pomegranates and oranges, Brown said.

    “We turned it from a wartime curriculum to a peacetime curriculum,” he said

    • L’USAID restait droit dans ses bottes,
      http://www.equip123.net/docs/e1-RoleofNGOsAfghanistan.pdf

      The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Education Sector Support Project (UNO-ESSP) funded by USAID made a significant contribution to the Afghan education system both in Afghanistan and in refugee camps in Pakistan by developing a curriculum for primary levels (1-12), and training 3,500 teachers (17% females). Though the curriculum was initially Jihad-oriented, a revised version without the war messages became the standard curriculum, which is used to this day.

    • Une partie de l’article du WaPo traduit ici,
      http://www.mondialisation.ca/de-lafghanistan-a-la-syrie-droits-des-femmes-propagande-de-guerre-et-cia/5331097?print=1

      « [D]ans le cadre d’une tentative clandestine visant à stimuler la résistance à l’occupation soviétique, les États-Unis ont dépensé des millions de dollars pour fournir aux élèves afghans des recueils remplis d’images violentes et d’enseignements islamiques militants.

      Les premiers livres, plein de discours djihadistes et de dessins d’armes à feu, de balles, de soldats et de mines servent depuis ce temps de programme de base du système scolaire afghan. Même les talibans ont utilisé les livres produits aux États-Unis.

      La Maison-Blanche défend le contexte religieux en disant que la culture afghane est imprégnée des principes islamiques et que les livres “sont entièrement conformes aux politiques et à la loi des États-Unis”. Des juristes se demandent toutefois si ces livres violent une loi constitutionnelle interdisant que l’argent des contribuables serve à promouvoir la religion.

      [D]es représentants de l’AID ont déclaré qu’ils avaient laissé le matériel islamique intact, craignant que les éducateurs afghans ne rejettent des livres ne contenant pas une forte dose de pensée islamique. L’agence a enlevé son logo et toute mention du gouvernement étasunien des textes religieux, a affirmé la porte-parole de l’AID Kathryn Stratos.

      “L’appui à une éducation religieuse ne fait pas partie des politique de l’AID, mais nous sommes allés de l’avant avec ce projet parce que l’objectif principal […] est d’éduquer les enfants, une tâche principalement laïque”, a déclaré Mme Stratos.

      [P]ublié dans les principales langues Afghanes, le dari et le pachtoune, les recueils ont été conçus au début des années 1980 grâce à une subvention de l’AID à l’Université du Nebraska à Omaha et son Centre d’études afghanes. L’agence a versé 51 millions de dollars aux programmes d’éducation de l’université en Afghanistan de 1984 à 1994. » (Washington Post, 23 mars 2002.)

    • Olivier Roy : « Ce qui se passe en Irak et en Syrie est le prolongement de l’Afghanistan »
      http://www.telerama.fr/monde/olivier-roy-ce-qui-se-passe-en-irak-et-en-syrie-est-le-prolongement-de-l-af

      En 1985, vous voyez arriver les premiers djihadistes algériens et turcs…

      Cette guerre les a fait exister, puisqu’ils étaient considérés par l’#Occident comme des #alliés. Pour les #Américains, s’ils tuaient des Russes, c’était bien, et s’ils se faisaient tuer par les Russes, c’était bien également. Moi, sur le terrain, je voyais qu’ils étaient soutenus par les #Saoudiens et les #Pakistanais, que ce n’était pas qu’une histoire de têtes brûlées, mais le résultat de #politiques_étatiques et religieuses. J’ai compris que cette guerre aurait des effets de long terme, que c’était l’acte de naissance d’un nouveau phénomène social : le #djihadisme.

    • Winning “Hearts and Minds” | Jacobin
      https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/terrorism-america-isis-obama

      Consider some of the terrorist groups Obama mentions in his op-ed. While much has already been written about the US role in the growth of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, the TTP in Pakistan also owes much of its success to US policy in the region (along with America’s unsavory ally, Saudi Arabia).

      Militant groups in Pakistan have long benefitted from state patronage and alliances with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda. The former is perhaps the defining theme in mainstream media coverage of Pakistan’s ostensible “double game.” What is less often emphasized is the infrastructure established during the Afghan Jihad by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, with US and Saudi funding, which produced thousands of militants.

      According to an estimate by US officials, some fifteen thousand fighters were trained in “bomb-making, sabotage and urban guerrilla warfare” in Afghan camps that the CIA helped set up. As one American official told journalist Jason Burke in 1999, “we created a whole cadre of trained and motivated people who turned against us. It’s a classic Frankenstein’s monster situation.” The shared CIA and ISI strategy during the Afghan Jihad resulted in flooding the region “not only with all kinds of weapons but also with the most radical Islamist recruits.”

      Already well established by the time the US invaded Afghanistan, militant groups in Pakistan were jolted into action by the war and its subsequent spread into the country. The militant landscape changed significantly after the Pakistani government’s decision to support the US war in Afghanistan.

    • Je crois qu’il y a un non-dit, ici. C’est le genre de sujet où, me semble-t-il, reviennent habituellement les effluves nauséabondes des Protocoles. Quand un gugusse balance quelque chose comme ça, je crois qu’on retombe là-dedans :

      The sheikh claimed that atheism is a “new phenomenon” that has been “coined by the Zionists”.

  • The rise of Arab sectarianism : How Iraq war and social media played a part
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2014/january/the-rise-of-arab-sectarianism.htm#sthash.A2OXM3bX.1KNnn3rh.dpbs

    The rise of Arab sectarianism

    Brian Whitaker synthétise fort clairement plusieurs études importantes sur l’essor du « confessionnalisme » (sectarianism : en l’occurrence comprendre l’antagonisme sunnisme/chiisme) dans le monde arabe.

  • Bahrain thanks UAE for banning speaker

    Brian Whitaker’s blog, February 2013

    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2013/blog1302.htm#gulf-golden-handcuffs

    Bahrain has expressed its appreciation to the UAE for turning away a British academic who was due to speak at a conference in the Emirates last Sunday.

    Bahrain’s foreign ministry said the UAE’s decision was “a true reflection of the strong bonds of fraternity between the UAE and Bahrain and an example of GCC co-operation in addressing such issues”.

    Dr Kristian Ulrichsen of the London School of Economics (LSE), had been scheduled to speak about Bahrain at a conference, “The New Middle East: Transition in the Arab World”, which was jointly organised by the LSE and the American University of Sharjah.

  • Brian Whitaker’s blog. Bahrain thanks UAE for banning speaker
    http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2013/blog1302.htm

    Bahrain has expressed its appreciation to the UAE for turning away a British academic who was due to speak at a conference in the Emirates last Sunday.

    Bahrain’s foreign ministry said the UAE’s decision was “a true reflection of the strong bonds of fraternity between the UAE and Bahrain and an example of GCC co-operation in addressing such issues”.

    Dr Kristian Ulrichsen of the London School of Economics (LSE), had been scheduled to speak about Bahrain at a conference, “The New Middle East: Transition in the Arab World”, which was jointly organised by the LSE and the American University of Sharjah.

    The title of Dr Ulrichsen’s talk was “Bahrain’s Uprising: Domestic Implications and Regional and International Perspectives”.

  • Libye, des milliers de personnes auraient pris d’assaut 800 habitations non attribuées. La police aurait laissé faire.
    http://aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4B691654-6590-41EC-B30F-7424AD7D04C4.htm

    وقالت مصادر صحفية ليبية مطلعة في اتصال هاتفي للجزيرة نت إن آلاف المواطنين اقتحموا مشروعا يحوي 800 وحدة سكنية في منطقة الغوارشة بمدينة بنغازي، حيث اقتحموا هذه الشقق التي لم يتم تسليمها لأصحابها واستولوا عليها.

    #Libye

  • Brian Whitaker: Tunisia – The fall of President Ben Ali
    http://www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/tunisia/tunisia_fall_of_ben_ali.htm

    On January 14, 2011, President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia after 23 years in power. He was the first Arab head of state in recent history to be removed by a popular uprising.

    The events leading up to his overthrow were scantily reported in the mainstream international media, though I followed them regularly on my blog.

    I have compiled all my blog posts below, together with a couple of articles I wrote for the Guardian’s Comment Is Free website, in chronological order. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of what happened during the Tunisian revolution.

    #Tunisie

  • This week in the Middle East | Brian Whitaker
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/30/tunisia-uprising-egypt-hostages?CMP=twt_gu

    The biggest story from the Middle East this week … No, the biggest, most important and most inspiring story from the Middle East this year is one that most readers may only vaguely have heard of, if at all. It’s the Tunisian uprising.

    For almost two weeks now, people up and down the country have been protesting, some of them rioting, others demonstrating peacefully – and all in a police state where the penalties for defying the regime are severe.

    #Tunisie