jpyaks3 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Man those predictions by that Glenn Beck guy last year and again back in January about the spread of protests, riots, cough chaos, have been on point. Now if his prediction about similar acts of protests (with comparisons to Egypt or calling leaders Hitler) begin happening in our major cities........................... Everyone who paid any attention to the situation could have predicted the spread of protests, so I wouldn't exactly give him a ton of credit there. His bat**** insane predictions about the Muslim Brotherhood however, destroy any credibility (ha) he might have had, He didn't say what any reasonably intelligent person with any knowledge in the region wasn't already saying after Tunisia began in December so I guess I can give him credit for not being actively wrong like he tends to be about situations but saying his predictions are anything special is pretty laughable. Here is some awesome insanity from Beck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Actually, Dave, it's clear that this wave of democracy was caused by our invasion of Iraq, which everybody knows, we did because we knew that if we invaded Iraq, it would lead to democracy springing up all over the Mideast. I think you and W should claim credit for this. (Worked for Reagan.) I wonder if they saved that "Mission Accomplished" banner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 His conspiracy theory that a worldwide Communist movement is conspiring with Jihadists to take over the world is right up there with "Dwight Eisenhower is a Communist agent" in complete dumb****edness. I pray for anyone who takes Glenn Beck seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 So, is this situation in Bahrain our fault? We been propping up a brutal dictator? (The crackdown makes me suspect so.) Have to confess I'd never heard of the place till this. Just had to go look it up on a map. Another question is: Is there anything we can/should do about it? I have to confess, my ignorance about Egypt is a tower of expertise, compared to my ignorance on Bahrain. I don't know that it's our fault. We may have been pushing Bahrain to reform things over the years. On the other hand, we haven't exactly done a whole lot to stop these crackdowns as far as I can see. What is going on in Bahrain seems to be a large amount of inequality and oppression against the Shia majority of the country by the ruling Suni government and royal family. What is making things worse is first the slow reluctance of the government to acknowledge or do anything about the demands and complaints being made and then the ridiculous and repeated overreaction by the government to the increasing unhappiness of the protesters. It did not help for the King to come out and apologize for the deaths from a few days ago and then the police massacre people in the middle of the night a day later. I've seen mention of Iran by some discussing the situation there, but have gotten no indication at all that these protests or the protesters want anything to do with Iran. All they've been calling for is to be treated like human beings and equal Bahrainians to those in charge. ---------- Post added February-17th-2011 at 09:55 PM ---------- http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/2/17/bahrain-and-beyond-liveblog-the-regime-attacks.html More protests in Yemen: 2105 GMT: Reports indicate one person was killed and more than two dozen injured in today's clashes in Yemen.Journalists have been barred from the Al-Naqeeb hospital in Aden in the south of the country, with an estimated 400 guards surrounding the facility. and Syria: 2110 GMT: And now claimed footage of a protest in Damascus in Syria, complaining over the beating of a man by four police officers. A participant claims nearly 1500 people rallied for three hours and chanted, “The Syrian people will not be humiliated,” demanding the immediate release of beaten man with “Let him go! Let him go!” and “There is no God but God.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Don't look now,a man of peace has returned to Egypt. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/17/138093.html Banned Qaradawi returns to lead Friday prayers in Egypt http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/09/19/56858.html Shiite's are 'invading' Sunni societies: Qaradawi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Don't look now,a man of peace has returned to Egypt.http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/02/17/138093.html Banned Qaradawi returns to lead Friday prayers in Egypt ..http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/09/19/56858.html Shiite's are 'invading' Sunni societies: Qaradawi The second link doesn't work.... ---------- Post added February-17th-2011 at 10:11 PM ---------- More from Bahrain: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/16/live-blog-bahrain 12.45am New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof, based in Manama, wrote: As a reporter, you sometimes become numbed to sadness. But it is just plain heartbreaking to be in modern, moderate Bahrain today and watch as a critical American ally uses tanks, troops, guns and clubs to crush a peaceful democracy movement and then lie about it. This kind of brutal repression is normally confined to remote and backward nations, but this is Bahrain! An international banking center. An important American naval base, home of the Fifth Fleet. A wealthy and well-educated nation with a large middle class and cosmopolitan values. 2.50am Britain said on Thursday that it was reviewing decisions to export arms to Bahrain after anti-government demonstrators were killed in clashes with security forces."In light of events we are today formally reviewing recent licencing decisions for exports to Bahrain," said Alistair Burt, a junior foreign minister with responsibility for the Middle East. He warned that Britain would "urgently revoke licences if we judge that they are no longer in line with the criteria" used for the export of weapons. 5.14am The UK's Guardian Newspaper reported on Thursday that the British government has launched a review of arms exports to Bahrain, after reports that Bahrain security forces used UK-supplied weapons in the attacks on pro-reform demonstrators in the capital.The Guardian reported: Despite long-running concerns among activists over Bahrain's human rights record, British firms were last year granted licences, unopposed, to export an arsenal of sometimes deadly crowd control weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Isn't that the thing you have to put up with when there is freedom of speech and freedom to assemble? You get the Westboro Baptist Church, Klan rallies, and radical Imam's. His wiki profiles lays out the controversies around him pretty thoroughly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 You calling Qaradawi radical? That is not possible since the moderate Brotherhood wants him as leader...you must be confused Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 You calling Qaradawi radical?That is not possible since the moderate Brotherhood wants him as leader...you must be confused Lol. Damned if I do... I originally put "Imam's you don't like" but then I thought that would start an argument about how he's a radical and I don't feel like getting into that so I changed it. Reading his wiki profile though, he a really interesting character. Represents the contradictions of religion pretty damn perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Lol. Damned if I do... I originally put "Imam's you don't like" but then I thought that would start an argument about how he's a radical and I don't feel like getting into that so I changed it. Reading his wiki profile though, he a really interesting character. Represents the contradictions of religion pretty damn perfectly. Yeah I looked over the different stuff and it was odd how he seems highly compassionate and intelligent in some cases and disturbingly backwards in others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpyaks3 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Yeah I looked over the different stuff and it was odd how he seems highly compassionate and intelligent in some cases and disturbingly backwards in others. Yeah he has a really wide ranging set of beliefs, some things which are really progressive some that are not, he is a really interesting character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/17/libya.protests/index.html?hpt=T1 Raucous pro-government demonstrators took to the streets of Libya's capital overnight Thursday, state television reported, hours after at least seven were killed in clashes between security forces and those opposed to the North African nation's longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.Images from state television, labeled as "live" at what would be early Friday morning, featured men chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans, waving flags and singing around the Libyan leader's limousine as it crept through Tripoli. Scores of supportive demonstrators packed the roadway and held up pictures of their leader, in power for four decades, as fireworks occasionally dotted the night sky. At multiple points, Gadhafi playfully popped up from his vehicle's sun roof to acknowledge the support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 The Anti Government Protests In Libya Continue http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201121716917273192.html Deadly 'day of rage' in Libya Libyan protesters seeking to oust longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi have defied a crackdown and taken to the streets on what activists have dubbed a "day of rage".There are reports that more than a dozen demonstrators have been killed in clashes with pro-government groups. Opponents of Gaddafi, communicating anonymously online or working in exile, urged people to protest on Thursday to try to emulate popular uprisings which unseated long-serving rulers in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt. "Today the Libyans broke the barrier or fear, it is a new dawn,'' Faiz Jibril, an opposition leader in exile, said. Abdullah, an eyewitness in the country's second largest city of Benghazi, who spoke to Al Jazeera, said that he saw six unarmed protesters shot dead by police on Thursday. He also said that the government had released 30 people from jail, paying and arming them to fight people in the street. Opposition website Libya Al-Youm said four protesters were killed by snipers from the Internal Security Forces in the eastern city of al-Baida, which had protests on Wednesday and Thursday, AP news agency reported. Clashes also broke out in the city of Zentan, southwest of the capital, in which a number of government buildings were torched.Fathi al-Warfali, a Swiss-based activist and head of the Libyan Committee for Truth and Justice, said two more people were killed in Zentan on Thursday ,while one protester was killed in Rijban, a town about 120km southwest of Tripoli. He said protesters on Thursday in the coastal city of Darnah were chanting "`the people want the ouster of the regime'' - a popular slogan from protests in Tunisia and Egypt - when thugs and police attacked them. A video provided by al-Warfali of the scene in Zentan showed marchers chanting and holding a banner that read "Down with Gaddafi. Down with the regime.'' Another video showed protests by lawyers in Benghazi on Thursday demanding political and economic reform while a third depicted a demonstration in Shahat, a small town southwest of Benghazi. From earlier in the day: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/17/live-blog-libya 12.30am Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Libyan ambassador to the US, Ali Suleiman Aujali, said: Libya is a free country, and people, they can say, can show their ideas, and the main thing is that it has to be in the frame of the law and it has to be peaceful, and that’s it. When asked about allegations of people who have been killed, Aujali told Al Jazeera “I’m really very busy here, and my business, and I have some delegations, and I don’t have time to follow up with every piece of news.” He added: I am confident that Libya will handle this issue with great respect for the people. 5.23am In a statement on its website on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said Libyan security forces has killed at least 24 protesters and wounded many others in its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 New Protests in Bahrain More protests break out in several areas in BahrainSitra, Bahrain (CNN) -- Protesters began to gather in several areas of Bahrain Friday morning, a day after a violent police and military crackdown left four dead and scores wounded. What seemed like thousands of people -- some chanting anti-government slogans -- marched in the town of Sitra to attend the funerals of three of the four people killed Thursday. "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the martyrs," some chanted. Many in the crowd carried black flags or Bahraini flags, and some referred to security forces involved in the crackdown as "criminals." There was no police in the area, but a helicopter hovered above keeping a watchful eye on the procession that stretched a half a mile down a road. The crowd chanted praises to the people killed in the protests calling them martyrs and also leveled a strong message calling for death to Bahrain's ruling family. Demonstrators also gathered in an area of the village of Karzakan for a funeral for another victim, about 7 miles west of the capital city Manama, witnesses said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 New Protests in BahrainThe crowd chanted praises to the people killed in the protests calling them martyrs and also leveled a strong message calling for death to Bahrain's ruling family. What that strong message was is not important enough to print...or are they simply calling for their deaths? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 What that strong message was is not important enough to print...or are they simply calling for their deaths? I think that was the message. Although I wonder if they really mean "death" as wanting them to die or be executed, or if they just want them out of power for good. Of course it may be both, lol. I haven't seen any specific quotes on that so far other than this though: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112184122210251.html Many of those present chanted slogans against Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family. They said they were both grief-stricken and angry at the heavy-handedness of the police, and that they were demanding that the international community take notice of what they call the brutality of the security forces."The regime has broken something inside of me ... All of these people gathered today have had something broken in them,'' said Ahmed Makki Abu Taki, whose 27-year-old brother Mahmoud was killed at the Pearl roundabout. "We used to demand for the prime minister to step down, but now our demand is for the ruling family to get out.'' And that's coming from the brother of someone who was killed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 You would think it important enough to clarify Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 You would think it important enough to clarify It might be just a focus by Al Jazeera more on gathering the info and less on explaining the details. (since they're covering so many different protests right now. Although they do have a lot of other details....) It could also be a problem of translation into English. For example, in Iran with Farsi, both sides say "Marg bar" which means "death to"...but also can mean "down with" to condemn someone or something they're protesting against. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Yes,but you would think a news source based there would be capable of more clarity since they know both the language and customs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 There's been more shootings in Bahrain and more reports of the army and police using live ammo on the protesters. There are apparently at least 60 wounded at the hospital from today alone. http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/16/live-blog-bahrain 5:45pm Security forces have fired tear gas on thousands of pro-reform marchers in Manama after angry calls to topple the Gulf nation's monarchy. Some demonstrators are moving in the direction of Pearl Square, a day after riot police swept into the area to destroy an Egypt-style protest encampment. 5:52pm New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof just tweeted this: Panicked crowds running thru hospital after police attack. Drs rushing to ER. Tear gas grenades outside, wafting in. 6:07pm Our correspondent in Bahrain says numerous reports are coming in that live fire is being used to shoot at protesters. These were not the birdshots that were used to disperse protesters on Thursday, but live bullets. We are hearing it was not the police who is shooting. It is the army. 6:09pm An Associated Press cameraman says he saw army units shooting anti-craft weapons above the protesters in apparent warning shots and attempts to drive them back from security cordons about 200 metres from the Pearl Roundabout. 6:22 pm A doctor of Salmaniya hospital tells Al Jazeera that the hospital is full of severely injured people after the latest shootings. We need help! Our staff is entirely overwhelmed. They are shooting at people's heads. Not at the legs. People are having their brains blown out! 6:39pm Bahraini troops shot at protesters near Pearl Roundabout and wounded several, Jalal Firooz, a former Shia lawmaker says. Firooz, of the Wefaq bloc that resigned from parliament on Thursday, said demonstrators had been elsewhere in the city, marking the death of a protester killed earlier this week when riot police had fired tear gas at them.The demonstrators then made for Pearl Roundabout, where army troops who took it over after the police raid on Thursday, opened fire, he said. Police had no immediate comment. 7:55pm An Al Jazeera producer in Manama reports on the shooting: Our sources say people were participating in a solidarity protest for the doctors and nurses who helped on February 17. They decided to walk to Pearl Roundabout, with the idea of giving police and army flowers, as a gesture of goodwill. They didn't even make it, army opened fire about 500 metres away. Witnesses said they were aiming at head and chest. Salmaniya hospital is now calling for blood donations. The Pearl Roundabout right now is full of riot police. ---------- Post added February-18th-2011 at 01:17 PM ---------- CNN's coverage of it: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/18/bahrain.protests/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1 Violence flared again in the center of Bahrain's capital Friday evening, as a confrontation between security forces and protesters resulted in several deaths and dozens of injuries. CNN's Arwa Damon, who was nearby, said she was interviewing a man covered in blood when a volley of shots was heard. That prompted "complete chaos" with "people running as fast as they could," she said.The man Damon interviewed said someone next to him had been shot in the head, Damon reported. Security forces launched a massive and sustained barrage of tear-gas canisters and fired guns, witnesses said, and tear gas also was fired in nearby residential area Ambulances were seen after two marches tried to merge near the roundabout in central Manama, and bodies were being loaded into the vehicles. One man said demonstrators would keep up the effort. Asked if he was afraid for his life, he said, "There would be nothing more honorable than to be killed fighting for freedom for my country." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brave Little Toaster Oven Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Not looking good in Bahrain....yikes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/16/live-blog-bahrain The latest from Bahrain: 9:00pm Dr. Ibrahim at Salmaniya hospital in Manama tells Al Jazeera there are around 100 wounded after Friday’s shooting. "Many of them have severe head and chest injuries." And Libya is going wild right now. Dozens are dead there and protesters seem to have taken over multiple cities. http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/17/live-blog-libya 2:06 pm Deadly attacks on peaceful protests - that is what eyewitnesses are reporting from all over Libya. The country's "day of rage" has left at least 24 people dead, according to Human Rights Watch. Despite media restrictions in Libya, reports of protests and violence have emerged on the Internet. Many amateur videos have also been uploaded, which cannot be independently verified. 3:41 pm There is a fierce battle over the eastern Libyan city of Bayda, the Reuters news agency reports. Two Libyan exile opposition groups earlier claimed that that the city had been taken over by anti-government protesters who were joined by local police forces, but now it appears that government "militias" have been reinforced and are clashing with residents, who are fighting back "with any weapons they could find." 4:40 pm YouTube user "analibyana" or "I am a Libyan" posted this compilation of footage of recent protests in Libya. Please be warned that it contains graphic images of the injured and possibly dead: Ud9XuqVV_Js 4:54 pm Following up on news of death tolls in Libya. Al Jazeera online producer Evan Hill spoke with a doctor in Benghazi earlier this morning who cited two close friends - doctors in Benghazi and Bayda - who reported 14 and 25 deaths in those cities, respectively. The death toll in Libya seems likely to rise above the earlier count of 24, reported by Human Rights Watch. 5:55 pm Al Jazeera speaks with Mohamed el-Berqawy, an engineer in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. Berqawy describes a "massacre" going on in the city and makes an impassioned appeal to the Arab League and United States for international help: 5FXyWI0yG2g WTF? 7:11 pm More reports of potentially very deadly fighting in Bayda. Aamir Saad, a political activist, claims that anti-government demonstrators in Bayda have "executed 50 African mercenaries" - presumably a reference to the government militias - and "two Libyan conspirators". Remember: Bayda is where protesters managed to regain hold of the city with the support of local police, according to Reuters. LibyaFeb17.com, an invaluable source of social media aggregation on the Libya protests, posted a translated version of the television interview given to Al Jazeera Arabic by Saad. 7:58 pm Sources on the street in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the site of large protests, are now claiming that they have driven government militias away and taken control. These reports are primarily being fed through English-speaking Twitter users who are not in Libya themselves, such as @ShababLibya, @Cyrenaican, and @ChangeInLibya.ShababLibya tweeted at 7:45: "#Benghazi protesters burnt down the radio station and taken the media and will make announcements shortly!! BREAKING URGENT #Libya" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I expect the government to be slaughtering protesters in Iran. But in a supposedly western country with lots of money from the US, and supposedly with a strong economy and a thriving middle class, like Bahrain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I expect the government to be slaughtering protesters in Iran. But in a supposedly western country with lots of money from the US, and supposedly with a strong economy and a thriving middle class, like Bahrain? If someone would have told me a few weeks ago the two main news stories right now would be what's going on in Libya and Bahrain, I'd think they were crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpyaks3 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Protesters have basically taken over Benghazi, they have their own pirate radio station on the air right now. http://libya.blog-video.tv/ Looks like they are definitely making progress even though Tripoli seems to be pretty quiet right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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