Syria's lies and what the West can learn from them

A model of a Katyusha rocket launcher and a billboard promoting Hezbollah, the militant and political group. Leaked cables reveal American diplomats’ distress over the flow of arms to Hezbollah.

A senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official, a cable from the American Embassy in Damascus reported, flatly denied the allegation. But nine months later, administration officials assert, the flow of arms had continued to Hezbollah. According to a Pentagon official, Hezbollah’s arsenal now includes up to 50,000 rockets and missiles, including some 40 to 50 Fateh-110 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and most of Israel, and 10 Scud-D missiles. The newly fortified Hezbollah has raised fears that any future conflict with Israel could erupt into a full-scale regional war.

A major worry was that Syria or Iran had provided Hezbollah with Fateh-110 missiles, with the range to strike Tel Aviv. (A United States government official said last week that the 40 to 50 missiles were viewed as especially threatening because they are highly accurate.) Israeli officials told American officials in November 2009 that if war broke out, they assumed that Hezbollah would try to launch 400 to 600 rockets at day and sustain the attacks for at least two months, the cables note.

via nytimes.com

In the honor/shame culture of the Arab world, when someone does something wrong  it is not a source of shame until it becomes public. And that shame is to be avoided at all costs.
The world of diplomacy, on the other hand, is dedicated to keeping the unsavory facts out of public view, with the aim of eventually being able to convince the other party to cooperate due to mutual interests, or in some cases a sort of quid pro quo.
This secret diplomatic world of only privately expressing outrage plays into the Arab honor/shame dynamic perfectly. Arab leaders have no fear that their duplicity will be exposed by Western diplomats and they have no incentive to modify their actions. If it remains hidden from view, it is not a source of embarrassment. On the contrary, misleading the other party is a proud tradition - the Arab side speaks the language of the souk where both sides are expected to lie in order to strike a deal, and the honor goes to the one who most skillfully manipulates the other using a combination of lies and false compliments.
From that perspective, Arabs have a big diplomatic advantage.
The Western diplomatic fear that relations would be damaged by publicizing Arab misdeeds is overriding the huge potential benefits of threatening to expose those very misdeeds - to publicly shame the Arab leadership. In this way the Arabs can be forced to play the diplomatic game on a level playing field, not one where they can lie with impunity without any public consequence.
After all, even as this Syrian intrigue was happening, the US was preparing to return an ambassador to Syria - showing a public diplomacy completely at odds with what was really happening. Any way you slice it, this was a huge diplomatic victory for Syria and proof that its policy of lying to the US has no real consequences outside of hidden diplomatic outrage, which is meaningless to those within the shame culture.
Diplomats have a huge weapon in their hands - the truth -  and they need to start using that weapon a lot more than they do today.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

one commenter mentioned that sometimes totalitarian governments in opposition to another government from the same geographic area have a tendency to be secretive and use the honor shame culture as opposed to their transparent counterparts:

I don't think Arab culture has much to do with this story. Totalitarian dictatorships lie whenever it's expedient for them to do so, because they're not accountable to anyone but themselves for their words or deeds. The Chinese and North Korean governments lie routinely--much more than do the governments of Taiwan and South Korea, despite being steeped in nearly identical cultures.

you'd be surprised how quickly a culture can mutate under tyranny... and how quickly a country can go Islamic (speaking of tyranny). However Arab culture is different in that they manufactured the tyranny we call Islam

Cuba's Jewish hostage

via alongthemalecon.blogspot.com

his daughter's blog says she has breast cancer and has lost all her hair

RAUL CASTRO'S attempt to win foreign favor and investment for Cuba's moribund economy took a particularly cynical turn on Sunday, when the dictator celebrated Hanukkah with Havana's tiny Jewish community. Broadcast on state television, the event was designed to prove that the regime doesn't share the anti-Semitism of allies such as Iran and Venezuela. There was just one problem: No mention was made of Alan P. Gross, an American from Potomac who passed the holiday in a Cuban military facility, where he has been imprisoned for a year without trial because he tried to help Cuba's Jews.

Mr. Gross, a 61-year-old specialist in international development, traveled to Cuba under a contract from the State Department's Agency for International Development. His mission was to connect members of the Jewish community to the Internet, using laptops and satellite equipment, so that they could contact other Jewish communities and download information from sites such as Wikipedia. Though that is normal activity in most of the world - and Mr. Gross declared his garden-variety equipment to Cuban customs - he was arrested on Dec. 3, 2009.
Senior Cuban officials claimed that Mr. Gross, who is himself Jewish but speaks little Spanish, was sent to Cuba as a spy. Yet a year later, not a single charge has been brought against him - a violation of Cuba's laws. In that time, the contractor's health has badly deteriorated. According to his wife, he has lost 90 pounds and developed back problems that have caused partial paralysis in one leg. Several months ago, one of his daughters was diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Because of the loss of his income, his wife has been forced to move from their Potomac home to a small apartment in Washington.
Appeals by the State Department and congressional leaders for Mr. Gross's release on humanitarian grounds - or at least the detailing of charges against him - have fallen on deaf ears in Havana. Instead the regime appears to be intent on forcing an exchange of Mr. Gross for one or more of five Cuban intelligence agents who are serving federal prison terms after being tried and convicted on espionage charges. This makes Mr. Gross not a prisoner but a hostage - one whose continued detention is a flagrant violation of international law and human decency.

To its credit, the Obama administration has put further improvement of relations with Cuba on hold while pressing for Mr. Gross's release. A statement released Friday said the State Department had "made it very clear to the Cuban government that the continued detention of Alan Gross is a major impediment to advancing the dialogue between our two countries." Raul Castro should know that orchestrated media events like his Hanukkah celebration are no substitute for reversing this wrong.

via washingtonpost.com

would be nice if Obama would free Pollard too and not be a hypocrite. 

Zionist shark found

Zionist sharks off the coast
of Sharm el-Sheikh,
which is currently part of Egypt.
via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

an image found on the internet
often in Palestinian forums

Dianne Feinstein is WRONG: says Prosecute Assange Under the Espionage Act

The Democrats are obviously pissed. They know the Wikileaks have hurt them

The law Mr. Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorized person to possess or transmit "information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.", says Dianne Feinstein

via online.wsj.com

It is not obvious that Assange has hurt the United States. If anything so far he has helped our interests. If we arrest Assange then we would have to arrest Obama and Clinton. Their actions with so called diplomacy, which were really lies, have hurt our country. If anything Assange should be rewarded for showing how unethical Obama and his allies really are.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

SS officer admits signing extermination order - sounds like a Palestinian justifying a political argument on facebook

Bernhard Frank. Signed order calling to kill thousands of Jews, but it sounds like Hillary Clinton would make us sign a peace agreement with this guy.

SS officer admits signing extermination order - Frank justified the orders, claiming they were given during the war, when there were a lot of partisan Jews, outlaws and robbers," added Gould. "When asked if the women and children murdered were also partisans and robbers, he shrugged his shoulders and didn't respond.

he would of gotten away with it with Mark Zuckerberg on facebook

via ynetnews.com

Palestinian protest disrupts fencing event in Spain

Pro-Palestinian protestors interrupt junior fencing competition in Burgos, chanting anti-Israeli slogans. 'I was shaking the whole competition, it was very scary,' Israeli teen athlete Irina Levin says via ynetnews.com

No offense to the teen that was attacked by Palestinian sympathizers, but you were holding a sword and you didn't use it? I would of made Shawarma out of their Nazi Asses 

Russia moves one step closer to joining WTO

via en.rian.ru

Russia and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday paving the way for Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The document was signed by Russian Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina and European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht ahead of the 26th Russia-EU summit in Brussels later on Tuesday. "We have reached an agreement on all of the key bilateral issues, including export duties on timber and railway tariffs," De Gucht said. He said consultations would be completed in a few months. The Kremlin has been negotiating the WTO entry for 17 years. Several foreign officials have claimed Russia may become a member next year. BRUSSELS, December 7 (RIA Novosti)
I suppose cooperation with a Russian free market is a good thing 
h/t @LizzieViolet

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested in U.K.

Although many of the sensitive sites — which include key suppliers of vaccines and other medicines — are well-known, Kean said the fact that they are listed as important to the U.S. gives enemies valuable intelligence. "It's one thing for a group to sit around and make a list of things that might be important to the U.S.," he said. "It's another thing to have the list that was developed by the U.S. government."

Randall Larsen, former executive director of the congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, said the list's publication would make WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange an enemy of the world: "Every nation in the world is soon going to realize what an enemy this guy is. He just published the target list."

via usatoday.com

I don't buy the US claim at all. These terrorist networks would not be that dangerous unless they already knew that blowing up a petroleum pipe raises the price of oil. Assange I might not agree with, but he is guilty of one thing. Egg in Obama's face

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

The DanielPipes.com Problem #cybersquat

Simultaneous with the opening of DanielPipes.org, on December 15, 2000, one John Michael Janney registered the domain DanielPipes.com. Under Janney's auspices, DanielPipes.com automatically redirected the visitor to the Council on American-Islamic Relations site and specifically to a page defaming me.
According to the Dallas Observer of May 18, 2000, Janney was a member of CAIR, the foremost Islamist lobby in North America. According to InfoCom Corporation in Richardson, Texas, he was an employee at the firm. (InfoCom was subsequently shuttered by the U.S. government.)
On learning the laws that protect against "cybersquatting," a lawyer representing me sent a notice to Janney, threatening a lawsuit if he did not release the DanielPipes.com web site. Janney subsequently allowed DanielPipes.com, to lapse.
In early 2002, I registered the now-available domain DanielPipes.com; since then, it quietly and automatically transfers the reader to DanielPipes.org. (April 3, 2002)
July 7, 2004 update: Ghassan, Bayan, Basman, Hazim and Ihsan Elashi of InfoCom were convicted today of terrorism-related charges, concerning illegal transactions with Hamas, Libya, and Syria.

via danielpipes.org

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