Hizbullah is openly and strongly backing the Assad regime in its struggles against the "terrorists"/"peaceful protesters" (depending on who you ask). 

After 2 busy years (working for a living), we have decided to come back due to popular demand (sort of). Events around the world, particularly in the past few months in the Middle East make it hard for us to keep silent. 

Anwar al Awlaki, a US born and educated Muslim cleric is currently living in Yemen. Though he presents himself simply as a scholar and teacher, he is considered one of the greatest recruiting/propaganda resources of the greater global jihad. His blog will make it clear why. We have decided to link directly to a recent posting The Voting for Sharia in Somalia in which, though parliament in Somalia voted for the implementation of Sharia in Somalia, he calls for the continuation of the Jihad in that country against what he sees as an illegitimate government. Reading the comments to many of his postings provide a great understanding of the proponents and followers of Islamism.

Starting today after a long time off, we are setting a new concept for this blog. The main theme of exposing you to sites of foreign/hostile countries/organizations/forces in the English language will remain. Every entry will expose you to one interesting subversive site with a short explanation about the site.

Zimbabwe has been on the verge of political upheaval following last month's elections. Last week a Chinese cargo vessel packed with Chinese made arms docked in Durban, SA, with the intention to offload the cargo that was to be transported on to Zimbabwe. South African Trade Union Workers have since refused to offload the cargo and actually helped block the offloading out of fear the the incumbent Zimbabwe government will use the weapons to attack and intimidate opposition supporters. Today the boat reportedly headed back for China. Following the intended Chinese shipment, we wanted to examine the views of the Chinese, Zimbabweans and opposition sources, some which claim for deeper Chinese involvement in support of the incumbent Zimbabwean government, including the existence of Chinese military personnel in , to see if we can bring some clarity to the role, if any, that China is playing in the current turmoil in Zimbabwe.

Background:
For background summary info see: Opposition ‘Clear Victor’ in Zimbabwe, U.S. Says
For more information, including on a $240M arms deal conducted in 2004 between China and Zimbabwe, see: Chinese Supply of Weapons to Zimbabwe Blocked

Chinese:
Xinhua the official Chinese news Agency has reported scarcely on the Zimbabwe elections. In general they have maintained China's policy not to interfere with other states Sovereign matters and claim this shipment was a "regular" arms shipment. Today they issued the following report Zimbabwe 'free to source arms from any country' quoting a statement by a Zimbabwean minister at a press conference.

Zimbabwe:
The Herald, the voice of Mugabe and Zanu-PF the ruling party, has of course been critical of foreign medias attention to the matter and have asserted Zimbabwe's governments right to the arms, while stressing the strong relationship with China.  As in today's article:  China Clears Air on Arms Shipment, while at the same time reporting on alleged election fraud by the opposition: More ZEC Officials Arrested for Electoral Fraud

Opposition Sources:
This is Zimbabwe, a well written, anti Zanu-PF blog, provides interesting reporting on alleged abuse of the Zimbabwe government/army on opposition. The blog also cites reports from other publications that the arms boat discussed may actually be headed for Angola. However more importantly the blog reports on April 16th of the possible existence of Chinese soldiers in Mutare Zimbabwe: Chinese Soldiers Seen in Mutare.

Following the American Intelligence assessment stating that Iran halted its nuclear weapons efforts, we thought it would be interesting to compare the Iranian reaction as reported in the Western Press to the reaction in Iranian Press.
In the Western Press it was fairly mildly reported that Ahmadinejad called the US intelligence report a 'victory' for Iran's nuclear program even stating in some places that it was a shot against the Iranian enemies. In The Iranian press the news was celebrated with strong words of praise for the Iranian efforts, vows to continue and increase the nuclear efforts and condemnation for the US.

Baztab News, an Iranian newspaper reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the US intelligence report on the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programs shot a bullet into the head of all ill-wishers of the Iranian nation. In Press TV, the website of the official Iranian English language news network, Ahmadinejad is quoted saying " The report released by 16 US spy agencies which signifies the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities has put an end to the dreams... . Today the site followed up, reporting that Ahmadinejad is looking to build 50,000 centrifuges for Uranium enrichment. Another interesting item in the site, though unrelated to the latest report, is a report on the Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting invitation to participate in a caricature contest about US Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Program. Finally in the official site of President of the Islamic Republic of Iran (i.e Ahmadinejad), Ahmadinejad warns certain countries that if they do not change their behavior, he will change it for them.

We thought it essential to add an update following Musharra's declaration of Emergency (Military) Rule to our last item on the bombings on Bhutto's welcome procession. For a very good review of the situation and its causes see:
Pakistan Emergency Amidst Growing Talibanization

Pakistani Press:
Dawn, Pakistan's most read English language paper, which prior to the anouncement was very critical of Musharraf seems to have lowered its tone and seems to beleive that Musharraf does not seek to maintain military rule in the long term as can be seen Beyond emergency rule
Another popular paper, the News (the English version of Jang) condemns Musharraf primarily for media controls, but also takes an ambiguous view about his intentions and the direction of Pakistan: The Saturday surprise and after

Islamist Sources:
Jamaat-e-Islami naturally condemns the actions and is trying to mobalize people to protest claiming this is a US led move as can be seen in Qazi declares movement against military dictatorship
Very little on Lal Masjid other than a short claim that Emergency Rule was imposed only due to them: Emergency Imposed in Pakistan!

We are continuing this series that started with the bombing of the Bhutto procession and continued with the imposition of Emergency rule.

General Public Forums

Seeing what is written in the forums gives a view of what what the public thinks although it is not completely representative (the people who post are younger and more technology savvy in general).

Net Pakistani Forum's, although messy, provide a diverse view of the situation. Quite a few posters supporting the Musharraf's move, as can be seen in the survey on the site Who can run the country better?,which shows that among the users of the site most support Musharraf with Nawaz Sharif a distant second. This seems to be in contradiction to a previous survey that shows that the large majority of users think Musharraf imposed emergency rule for his own interest: Who forced Musharraf to impose emergency. But is consistent with many postings that say the imposition of Emergency Rule was either "not surprising", but wrong or "necessary", although most hope it will be short lived.

A different very good forum that shows very diverse, but generally well voiced views is the forum of Muziq Pakistan, a popular Pakistani music site. The thread titled Emergency in Pakistan  provides many views condemning the move as dictatorial, but others defending Musharraf saying there is no one else who could bring order to Pakistan.

Opposition

Jamaat-e-Islami the Islamist party published a new item in which it claims to reached agreements to cooperate with the PML (Pakistani Muslim League), the party of Nawaz Sharif, the exiled former Prime Minister. In this article the claimed that the leaders of both parties directed workers to collect information on police and administrators that are harming lawyers and "political workers", so they can be held accountable after Musharraf's rule ends: Jamaat, PML (N) joins hand to agitate against Musharraf Martial Law

The PML the PML website does not mention anything about Jamaat-e-Islami and actually says they have contacted the PPP (Pakistan People's Party, headed by Bhutto) to coordinate efforts (and it is unlikely that the PPP will be involved in any efforts with the Jamaat) for more see the PML website.

Intro:
First, I would like to point out that Pakistan related items are very interesting for the type of discussion that we are conducting, because of the relatively free and diverse press and other sources and because of the wide use of the English language.

The much anticipated return of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan after 8 years in exile was marred by disaster as unkown assailants set of explotions (supposed suicide bombings), killing more than 136 (according to most Western sources). See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Karachi_bombings for more about the bombing.

Following the bombing there began speculation regarding the perpetrators. Western press generally tended to point to the Islamists (primarily Taliban and Al Qaida), but various assumptions were made in Pakistan including by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the leader of Musharraf's party, who said Bhutto and her husband arranged the attack to stir up public sympathy. A good summary of the Western view and the divergent views in Pakistan can be found in Robert Novak's article Pakistan's Musharraf needs Bhutto, and U.S. may too in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Pakistani Press:
Much of the Language Pakistani press have blamed the same sources as the Western press (i.e. the Islamists) but have also been putting responsibility on different elements in the "Authorities" (as has Bhutto) as can be seen in a fairly thorough opinion piece in Dawn, the oldest English language paper, titled A nightmare foretold.
The Daily Times, a secular and more liberal paper put the blame exactly and directly on Islamist sources, primarily Al Qaida, as can be seen in Editorial: Attack on Ms Bhutto was foretold

General Forums: Net Pakistani, a Pakistani portal and forum, which provides diverse info and links about beauty, TV and the news provides a good idea of what the non-Islamist fairly educated general population thinks . In its News and Current Affairs forum the comments on the news of the bombing  show the confusion and mistrust in the public as to who actually perpetrated this as summed up by "Riz Ahmad": "could be pro-taleban guys could be agencies/government could be "external" factors orr could be PPP itself...
whoever did it... its bad.. killed innocent lives.. made so many children orphans and so many wives widows n so on.... the list of affectees is long..."

Islamist Sources:
An interesting source is Jamaat-e-Islami website, the largest muslim (some will say fundamentalist) political organizaiton in Pakistan who state: "The mission of Jama’at-e-Islami and the objective of all its efforts and struggle shall in practical terms be the establishment of the Deen (establishment of Divine Order or the Islamic way of life) and in essence the achievement of Allah’s pleasure and success in the Hereafter." In an article published on the site Qazi deplores blast in Benazir welcome rally, the president of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the opposition coalition between the religious-political parties, blames the government and police very directly. He said agencies always come out with the theory of suicide attack after such blasts to exonerate their own responsibility, although millions of people observed the blast in police van on TV."
Another interesting source is the forum of the Red Mosque Lal Masjid and the adjacant Jamia Hafsa Madrassa, which has tried to enforce Sharia law in its area until it was sieged by police in July. The Jamia press release on the matter is very harsh blaming Bhutto and Musharaf  of their murderous ways.  A corresponding Lal Masjid press release is just as harsh.

Intro:

Since it was discovered in 2002 that Iran has renewed its efforts to acquire nuclear capabilities, the topic has been a major press item. The related possibility of Iran possesing nuclear weapons is often presented in Western media as the greatest forseable risk to global stability. As such the West has been trying to halt Iran's nuclear development efforts through sanction and threats, including the threat of military action. Russia, which has been building one of the Iranian power plants, and China have been somewhat ambiguous about their desires and have often prevented various measures proposed primarily by the US and in the recent past, France.

Following Putin's meeting yesterday with Ahmadenijad, in which, he stated that Iran has the right to nuclear power and warned the against the use of force and Bush's subsequent speach today in which he warned that a nuclear Iran would result in World War III, we thought it would be interesting to get some insight into the Russian view on Putin's visit and a Nuclear Iran.

Summaries:
For comprehensive summaries of the Iranian Nuclaer program see:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran
and
www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/nuke.htm

The Russian View:
Presenting the official view the government funded RIA Novosti or Russian Information and News Agency presents a good summary of the view of the relations between the two countries in the article Vladimir Putin's first visit to Iran, published on Oct. 15th, with the main theme that "Iran has proved to be a good partner and one that Moscow would like to keep. " the Agency also published a couple articles on the Russian Commitment to complete the Busheher nuclear plant on time.
ITAR-TASS, another official news agency presents a good summary of Putin's and Ahmadinejad's statements following the meetings, which again retierates the good relations and agreement between the two on many foreing policy issues.

Some of the most interesting Russian sources are that Nationalist papers and websites. One good sources is the site Pravda.ru, which is not to be confused with  Pravda, the popular daily newspaper. Pravda.ru claims to be different by taking the "pro-Russian approach". The paper has an opinion article following the visit about the different approaches taken by Russia's President and the Empire's despot (the US is often referred to as the Empire by the Nationalist sites) titled:Two men - one sane, one not. The article insinuates that the US, not wanting Putin to go to Iran, may have had something to do with the warnings Putin received about a planned assasination attempt.
Another good source is the Strategic Culture Fondation, which a few days before the meeting putlished, on the 12th of October published Vladimir Putin’s Visit to Iran: A Breakthrough is Needed which states that "In conditions of U.S. aggressive lobbying of its interests only heads of the Russian and Iranian states that have had long historic ties, can provide a corresponding impetus..." and on the advantages of a good relationship between the two countries "A new war against Iran can be unleashed under any pretext other than its factual or mythical “nuclear ambitions”. It can be much more prosaic, linked with its oil..... The situation will give more headaches to our “partners” in what is known as the “anti-terrorist coalition”, which is without any exaggeration “a myth at its finest."

*We are still waiting for the commentary of another more extreme source, which is always an interesting read, but updates infrequently - ARI.ru, the online Russian Information Agency, which in its principles published on its site they state "We think that the information field formed by the international (mainly Jewish) clique, which has taken over the best part of the mass media, is far from contributing to a thorough insight into the current events, misinforms and distract the Russians' minds from actual problems. Thus, it sideways contributes to the Russians DYING OUT." and that "What we need is a modern, original, authentic Russia, a country of free people who believe in God, love their Motherland, their nation and their own culture."