America behind Arab Uprising



It might seem a while ago, but in the hearing of nomination of Condolezza Rica as Secretary State she said "the work that America and our allies have undertaken and the sacrifices we have made have been difficult and necessary and right. Now is the time to build on these achievements to make the world safer and to make the world more free. We must use American diplomacy to help create a balance of power in the world that favors freedom. The time for diplomacy is now".

America has long continued to promote "freedom" ideologies despite their "idealistic" nature and departure from "realism". As part of this freedom movement that America took on after WWI and its freedom initiative to protect its interests nationally and abroad, it has worked hard to maintain and retain its very own creed and impose it on other nations. This kind of freedom sprung the creation of institutes such Freedom House, which served "as a leading advocate for policies to advance the democratic idea". What we have to know is that "Freedom House is a strong voice for U.S. foreign policy that places the promotion of democracy at the forefront. Freedom House representatives regularly testify before Congress, provide briefings to Congress, the State Department and other agencies, and argue the case for freedom at conferences, in op-eds and through media appearances".

Having said that, the emphasis to spread this so called American infused philosophy, the "freedom mission" has been taken on board even before the Bush Administration, as this foreign policy has been established during the time of Nixon passed to Carter, Reagan and Bush Sr. after the success of the Iranian Revolution, the spark of hatred between Iran and Iraq and the Middle Eastern regional war. However before we can look into that, an interesting Ron Nixon article in the New York Times ignited speculation to who was really behind the Arab nations sweeping uprising. As stated in his article "a small group of American government-financed organizations were promoting democracy in authoritarian Arab states". In politics, an authoritarian government, by definition, "is one in which political power is concentrated in a leader or leaders, typically by the people, who possess exclusive, unaccountable, and arbitrary power". With that in mind, it opposes the so-called American plea for "democracy" i.e. freedom. which is why it has taken this tone with the Arab Nation Uprising.



With this stringent syllabus-like methodology, America continues to strive to get governments to become more "free", even to the point of training and readying people to stand against their regime like it has done with Wael Ghanem of Egypt after training him in the arts of e-communication.

Ron Nixon, a journalist for The New York Times states that "the money spent on these programs was minute compared with the efforts by the Pentagon. But as American officials and others look back at the uprising of the Arab Spring, they are seeing that the United States' democracy-building campaigns plated a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known, with key leaders of the movements having been trained by the Americans in campaigning, organizing through new media tools and monitoring elections". He interestingly continues in saying that "a number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington".

Some of the interesting facts that have been found were the similarities in the techniques in the revolutions of Bahrain and Egypt. It is obvious that they have been rooted from a common hub and the patterns are rather obvious to the naked eye from photojournalism techniques such as: telling a story, stop and shoot, conveying a message and making the viewer question to social networking training and elements of revolutionary sympathy.
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The New York Times:

Article: U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprising

Source: New York Times

Continued

National Democratic Institute:

Article: Bahrain on Edge

Source: National Democratic Institute

Audio Recording- SKYPE Conversation (*Important)

International Republican Institute:

Article: Canadians in the thick of Arab world's democracy struggle

Source: Canadian Press

Training Sessions by U.S. Government funded Institutions:

 Mattar Mattar with member of Freedom House

 Mattar Mattar sitting opposite to Condoleezza Rice during a discussion regarding Middle East issues

 Mattar Mattar at Human Rights Watch HQ during his quick visit to the United States

 Mattar Mattar on a special quick visit to the United States sitting across from Rice

 Mattar Mattar at a debate/negotations workshop in the United States

Mattar Mattar along with many Egyptians and citizens of the Arab world who have been trained by the United States

Michael Simon, who worked on targeting for the Barak Obama presidential campaign of 2008, spoke last week to members of the Egyptian Democratic Academy in Cairo.

June 11, 2010

Source (Bahrain Center for Human Rights Blog)

An honorary ceremony held at Nabeel Rajab's House- President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights- in the presence of the Head of Middle East and North Africa division, Ms. Sarah Lee, her assistant Mr. Joe Stork and a group of experts and consultants in the same organization. In addition a group of members of the center and another group of lawyers interested in rights issues in Bahrain have attended the honor ceremony.

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Patterns of Training- Exposed:

BAHRAIN PHOTOGRAPH - Technique: Telling a Story

EGYPT PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Telling a Story

BAHRAIN PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Conveying a Message 

EGYPT PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Conveying a Message 

BAHRAIN PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Stop and Shoot (Peaceful) 

EGYPT PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Stop and Shoot (Peaceful) 

BAHRAIN PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Make the Viewer Question

 EGYPT PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Make the Viewer Question

BAHRAIN PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Similar Tossed Phrases

EGYPT PHOTOGRAPH- Technique: Similar Tossed Phrases

John Kerry (U.S. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) celebrating the Egyptian revolution and regime overthrow of a once U.S. ally.

Foreign policy problems are more complicated than Americans and their native idealism. The use of force to stop human-rights abuses or to promote democracy, they argue, usually ends poorly. In the fall of 2002, six months before the invasion of Iraq, George Kennan, perhaps the most articulate realist of the 20th century said, "Today if we went to Iraq, as the President would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end".  Thus, it is important for America to choose the right side in this ongoing Iranian battle of the mind before it makes the same mistakes it did with Iraq when it handed it over to the Persians on a plate of gold.

The hands of U.S. meddling in Arab affairs are obvious and the patterns of training have been exposed clearly and without question. The schooling methods were by the book and evidence has it that the same noted institutions have been behind these training camps for revolutionary youth movements in the Arab nations from Westernized Tunisia to Extremist Yemen.