2007 — Page 177 of 361

Mansoura-España crisis updates

Posted on 19/06/200707/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Around 50 Kefaya activists in Mansoura demonstrated today in front of the United Bank, to protest the bank’s mistreatment of its Mansoura-España Garments Company workers. Simultaneously, a trade unionist delegation arrived in Cairo for negotiations with the Labor Ministry, the bank’s management, and the General Federation, only to find their meeting was postponed till tomorrow as Hussein Megawer the head of the Federation did not show up, according to a trade unionist, because he was busy with visitors from the US.

Meanwhile, the United Bank continued its crackdown on the factory workers, referring six new names for disciplinary board, on charges of instigating a strike, which may decree a new wave of sacking:
Sahar Shouman
Lawahez Ali
Badri Bedeir
Saad Abdel ‘Al
Hanaa Abdel Wahab
Mohsen Abdel Nabi

Bush knew about Abu Ghraib

Posted on 19/06/200720/01/2021 By 3arabawy

From Al-Jazeera:

The White House has denied assertions by a former leading military investigator of the Abu Ghraib scandal that the president and leading military officials knew about the abuse at the prison in Iraq before it became public.
A spokesman said George Bush first learnt about the abuse from media reports.
“The president said over three years ago that he first saw the pictures of the abuse on television,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is spending the weekend at his ranch.
Stanzel was responding to questions about a New Yorker magazine report quoting retired Major-General Antonio Taguba, as saying “the president had to be aware” of the abuse of prisoners by US military guards.

Abu Ghraib, Painting, by Fernando Botero

Mubarak’s regime (and AP?) to help fleeing Fatah loyalists reach West Bank

Posted on 19/06/200731/01/2021 By 3arabawy

The AP editors still insist on inserting “moderate” whenever they refer to Abu Mazen or Fatah!

Egypt is trying to arrange passage to the West Bank for more than 300 Palestinians from the moderate Fatah group who fled the Hamas takeover in Gaza, Palestinian and Egyptian security officials said Monday.
Egyptians and Palestinians have agreed to “ease the trip back to the West Bank” for some 340 security officials close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ moderate Fatah party, said a Palestinian official at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Read the rest of the report here.

I have another suggestion, instead of “moderate” why don’t you write the “progressive” Abu Mazen? Or Fatah “which believes in women rights” or any similar lie to make Dahlan’s thugs more polished up in front of the Western readers?

SHAME ON AP! Their editors also took the same approach re Mubarak’s regime in the 1990s (and up till 2004; now they don’t do it as frequently, except when Condi is in town) by insisting to describe Mubarak as a “moderate” while his security was kidnapping demonstrators, and rounding suspects in the thousands together with their families and children, torturing and sexually abusing detainees, and shooting at strikers and student demos.. That did not matter for AP. All what mattered to its editors was how our president was in dealing with America, and how lovely he was by fighting those terrorists. Now AP is repeating the same approach re Abu Mazen.

What’s even more hilarious, are those (like the Christian Science Monitor), who like to present the current conflict as one between “Islamist” Hamas and “Secular” Fatah!

First, it is NOT true Fatah is a “secular nationalist” movement anymore unlike what the CSM editors might have learned from Wikipedia or Memri. Guys, that was in the past. Fatah’s thugs now are as “Islamized” I can assure, moreover the fight in Palestine is not over implementing Shariaa or veiling women, so why the fuck is this Islamist/Secular dichotomy. But hey, if there’s anything we can smear Hamas with, and polish up Abu Mazen, then do it, even if it’s a lie.