GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Is the Arab Middle East Really Ready for a True Revolution?

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: News Real Blog

BY PHYLLIS CHESLER

14February2011 10:58amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Is the Arab Middle East really ready for a true revolution? A genuine uprising in the Muslim world which does not focus on the issue of women’s rights is not much of an uprising and does not bode well for a true democracy, one defined by the rule of law, a constitutional system of checks and balances, a separation of mosque and state, freedom of religion, a free press, universal education, individual human rights and freedom.

Miraculously, amazingly, a Saudi woman or a number of Saudi women have just launched a new and fabulous Facebook page. They call it Saudi Women Revolution. It features a white smurf-like figure joyfully throwing off her chains and has links to the Saudi women’s drive-in and to campaigns against child brides.

They are talking about arranging meetings in Jeddah and Riyadh.

Given what they know can happen to them: divorce, loss of custody, being honor murdered by their families, jail, torture (flogging), and murder (beheading, stoning), I must congratulate them for their awe-inspiring bravery. Alas, we do not have such brave women here.

I will also pray for their safety. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Regime stability of Arab States and Iran

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Iranian Diplomacy

11February2011 9:48amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Can Iran become the old and new bridge head of the West? Geopolitically, it is located between the Middle East, the Caucasus and Asia. According to the German Ur-father of the Middle East expert Prof. Dr. Peter Scholl-Latour, Iran remains an "island of stability".

In the meantime, the revolts that started in Tunisia have spread to several Arab countries, and have now reached Egypt. It is evident why the riots have captured Egypt most intensely. The regime of President Hosni Mubarak was akin to the Tunisian regime in many ways, despite the fact that the Egyptian system will prove to be more stable and more resistant, particularly as it profits from the experience of the Tunisian revolution and the awkward TV appearances of President Zeynel Abidin Ben Ali.

The current unrest in the streets of the Arab countries have thus far not spread to Iran, in spite of the strong reductions of subsidies that began one month ago, which pose the greatest structural economic reform in recent Iranian history. Some Western commentators regarded the reductions of subsidies as a success of the latest sanctions, even though the IMF has been recommending Iran for many years to cut its gigantic subsidies. As a matter of fact, the reductions, which have occurred, are a sign of the political stability and economic prosperity of Iran. No government prior to Ahmadinejad was able to tackle the long overdue reform, although the debate in Iran had been going on for more than a decade. It is all the more bizarre that even some newspapers with laissez-faire policies in the U.S. and Europe played down and did not welcome these bold measures. Ultimately, there were no protests whatsoever after these severe reductions. (read full report)

 

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's advertisers or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Deep US-Saudi rift over Egypt: Abdullah stands by Mubarak, turns to Tehran

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: DEBKAfile

10February2011 11:27amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: The conversation between President Barack Obama and Saudi King Abdullah early Thursday, Feb. 10, was the most acerbic the US president has ever had with an Arab ruler, DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report. They had a serious falling-out on the Egyptian crisis which so enraged the king that some US and Middle East sources reported he suffered a sudden heart attack. Rumors that he had died rocked the world financial and oil markets that morning and were denied by an adviser to the ruling family. Some Gulf sources say he has had heart attacks in the past.

Those sources disclose that the call which Obama put into Abdullah, who is recuperating from back surgery at his palace in Morocco, brought their relations into deep crisis and placed in jeopardythe entire edifice of US Iran and Middle East policies.

The king chastised the president for his treatment of Egypt and its president Hosni Muhbarak calling it a disaster that would generate instability in the region and imperil all the moderate Arab rulers and regimes which had backed the United States until now. Abdullah took Obama to task for ditching America's most faithful ally in the Arab world and vowed that if the US continues to try and get rid of Mubarak, the Saudi royal family would bend all its resources to undoing Washington's plans for Egypt and nullifying their consequences. (read full report)

 

 

 

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's advertisers or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Arab Rebellions Puncture Qaeda Propaganda

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Newsmax

31January2011 2:35pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Revolts in Egypt and Tunisia have struck a blow against al Qaeda's call to violence as a means of overthrowing autocratic governments, showing "people power" to be a more effective weapon.

The adaptable militant group, with strong roots in Egypt, will work hard to exploit any sense of disappointment if the eventual outcome of the uprising there does not deliver better lives for the Arab world's most populous country, analysts say.

But for now the group has no easy answer to the evidence presented by the world's television screens -- that ordinary men and women are doing more to weaken the 30-year-old rule of President Hosni Mubarak than years of attacks by armed groups. (read full report)

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Oman says UAE spy network exposed, UAE denies role

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Reuters

30January2011 12:56pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Oman said it had uncovered a UAE spy network in the Gulf Arab state that targeted its government and military, the state news agency of the U.S. ally reported on Sunday.

Neighboring United Arab Emirates, a regional energy, financial and tourism hub that typically has had friendly relations with Oman, denied having links to any such network.

A regional security analyst found the allegations puzzling but suggested one possible motivation for such a network was that the UAE wanted to know more about Oman's links with Iran. (read full report)