Caviar and Coups

Just remembered that when I left Bahrain last and returned to London in March 1981, I had a tin of iced Iranian caviar with me. It was a gift to me from a merchant in the Suq, that I'd hunted up specifically as a gift for my upstairs neighbor at the grotty garret. 

I had to laugh today thinking that it was so easy to get Iranian caviar at the very time when you chaps were practicing your fictional terrorist operation (which I used to call your phony coup) and cooking up some blame for Iran. It's funny, that.



#FalseFlag #Coup #FictionalTerroristOperation #Bahrain #Caviar #BlameIran #London #Helpfromspecialfriends 

Is Trump's Syria Withdrawal Order a Quid Pro Quo for Russian Election Help? Really?

This is hard to understand, how a well-educated and widely read and respected reporter puts forth a ridiculous Russian conspiracy. Man, oh man, this seems like something one would hear in a small old-fashioned coffee shop in the old suq of Manama where the wi-fi is somehow interrupted. The thing is: 1000's of well-educated and important people read the extensive coverage given to certain events she provides. 

I daily read a substantive, somewhat progressive blog about politics and security led by an expert document analyst who links directly to sources for facts, and a team – each with his/her own expertise -- who has worked together for years in different online formats and venues. I think it’s one of the best blogs using documentary evidence in narrow scope within their areas, with a sophisticated narrative.

 However, it is not the only academically expert independent blog about politics and security and it’s become apparent to me that the lead blogger is not an expert in the complexities of the Middle East, nor are the other team members. Her summary of the conspiracy she believes the Mueller investigation will uncover, and as such she continues to promote to this very day, is that Trump is pulling the U.S. military out of Syria as Russia’s reward for its supposed interference in the 2016 election to get him elected, and that the agreement to do so was made manifest the minute he was sworn.

She’s covered a number of substantive issues and I greatly respect her work generally, but when she puts out opinion rather than documentation on Syria, when she advocates for continued U.S. presence there under any pretense, when it’s apparent that she doesn’t read deeply informed opinion such as she can give on her own research subjects, it lowers the quality of her work. It’s removed from documents. She fell for White Hat propaganda about chemical/gas attacks, repeatedly. Her crusade against Russia and Turkey is not quite up to the Mad Cow Maddow standard, but it approaches.

I don’t prefer to argue with her or her colleagues, especially the one whose habit is to demean those who disagree with their vaunted opinions. I don't seek the attention. I won’t name her, but I’m not going to sit still, see the crap folded in with the caviar.

She evidently believes war should be continued because Sultan Erdogan says he will bury the terrorist PKK-aligned Kurds in ditches after the U.S. leaves. She maybe never saw huffing and puffing, man-strutting. She leaves out the complex relationships between the parties in the war and went straight for the R2P propaganda line. She apparently doesn’t read the on-the-ground war reporting done by those with more years of experience than she has; there’s a couple with years of experience with online presence and summaries on Twitter.

So she says that Trump is basically allowing Kurds to be killed by Turks because either the Russians or the Turks or both have compromising evidence of actions taken by Trump which could be released and cause him more legal and political troubles. 

She certainly doesn't understand why Erdogan has gone after Mohammed Salman for murdering Jamal Khashoggi, not even the nutshell version that Bonesaw is unfit for service in defense of the Holy Mosques including Jerusalem. She doesn't appreciate the wily Sultan.

Her team must be backing up her uninformed speculative opinion or they would argue with her in the commentary. I despise Trump too, for a long and lengthening list of dodgy actions he’s taken in the interests of himself and his spawn. However, I think it’s beyond silly to think that removing troops from Syria is a gift to Russia.

It’s a gift to Syria, but a small one, like a slice of good chocolate cake. It doesn’t mean that the schemes against Syria -- of the Turks, Kurds, Israelis, Kushner and Bolton-led neocons along with some dollar diplomacy from Mo Zayed and Bonesaw -- will just fade away. 

Mujtahidd says Bonesaw wants to be Warrior Prince of a big war with American bombs and bombers following his and Mo Zayed's catastrophic failure in Yemen, whilst Netanyahoo and Trump both need a serious diversion to escape pending legal woes. He suggested that the Mattis's resignation as Sec Def wasn't merely in opposition to Trump's demand that the troops be removed from Syria since "We've defeated ISIS except for one percent that neighbor Turkey" will clean out, but because Trump is determined to attack Iran and Mattis knows that Iran will retaliate against our forces and interests in the Persian Gulf. 

Trump doesn't care, then, because he owes favors to whoever has been pulling his anti-Iran strings for money. Maybe he is pulling U.S. troops out of Syria to clear the path for Israel to start another war it can't fight for itself. I don't know. He's got some issues.

If only things were so simple as U.S. troops and mercenaries getting out of a mess we sure don’t need in Syria after years of kowtowing to wingnuts -- and all as a favor to Russia from Trump because they engaged in activity promoting his candidacy. It’s hard to believe a serious blog would put out tripe like that.

#Trump #Bonesaw #Syria #Russia #Bolton #Israel #Kushner #Netanyahoo #Iran #FalseFlag #MoZayed #MohammedBinZayed

#MohammedBinSalman #Bahrain #Manama #Diplomacy #GunboatDiplomacy #Bribery #ConspiracyTheories #Payoff #Mattis #PersianGulf #Dubai #Kurds #Maddow #MadCowMaddow #Yemen #JamalKhashoggi #Turkey #Erdogan

Guiliani, really?

Don't waste your time on planet Earth with Rudy noun-verb-9/11 Guiliani. Don't give him and his creepy buddies one red cent. He's a fucking joke. Truly. You don't need to waste Bahraini dinars paying Rudy to set up a meeting with any legislator in D.C. and you didn't need me to tell you that.

His wild and crazy work for the whining corrupt ninny in the White House is not something that you can get to work for you. 

Guiliani is going through an expensive divorce and he's traveling in your area looking for easy money. Give him a handshake and say bye-bye. Don't put a dollar in his greasy palms. 

I notice that you met him in an office by the street. Couldn't wait to get away, right?





#RudyGuiliani #Guiliani #Bahrain #Trump #WhiteHouse #Lobbyists

International Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, to Protect Bonesaw Al Saud vs Intelligence Community Assessment

John McCone came to mind today when reading Jed Shugerman’s Salon piece on Nixon’s lawyers who went to prison for their crimes including Kleindienst, who’d given a sweet deal to ITT in an antitrust lawsuit settlement. I wondered if McCone was on the ITT board or employed by them at that time, so I went to my files and then to Google.

(I once saw a cool photograph at Norcliffe of your grandfather Hamad standing with John McCone in Bahrain during the days of the British Protectorate, probably related to Standard Oil or Bechtel.)

And doggone it, I was diverted by Wikipedia with the fund solicitation during a quick trip there, ended up spending way more time than intended because John McCone was a fascinating war profiteer, engineer, government servant and businessman.

However, one find was a reminder from his archives of his term as CIA Director and some of the bloody operations he oversaw, including regime changes, and when he was no longer in government service, how he either attempted to use or did successfully pay CIA personnel for the benefit of ITT to aid in the overthrow of Allende.

Shugerman suggests that Trump’s so-called Acting Attorney General, Whitaker, may be taking care not to end up incarcerated for participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. There's certainly an international conspiracy to obstruct justice going on.

I wonder if the members of Trump’s administration who publicly declare that there’s no smoking gun (and the Netanyahoo administration and you and the weasel Mohammed bin Zayed) if any leaders will face justice for openly participating in an international conspiracy to obstruct justice for the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi and disposal of his body in an undoubtedly un-Islamic manner.  Perhaps there will be international justice for the Saudi crown prince’s conspiracy to murder Khashoggi.

The torture queen waterboard-tape-evidence-destroying CIA Director did not participate in the Mattis and Pompeo dog-and-pony show circling round what Lindsey Graham calls the “smoking bonesaw.”  She held a separate briefing with a limited number of our Congressional committee members, in classified session. It seems likely that she confirmed the leaks from the intelligence community that they’ve got a high level of confidence in their assessment that Bonesaw is ultimately responsible. 

It could not be concluded otherwise from the totality of information publicly released by President Erdogan and leaked by others with intercepted communications.

So what is the role of the CIA in this? Looking through the window of tonight’s research, what is the corporate interest pushing to oust disgraced killer Bonesaw? While I welcome his removal from power, trial and justice for murder and war crimes, I cannot but wonder who the McCone is in this set of circumstances. I just hope it's not Brennan.

#CIA #Mattis #Pompeo #Trump #TurkiBinFaisal #AdelAlJubeir #Netanyahoo #Bonesaw #MohammedBinZayed #MatthewWhitaker #ITT #JohnMcCone #Allende #JamalKhashoggi #MohammedBinSalman #JohnBrennan #Vendetta #SmokingBonesaw #AlSaud #SaudiArabia #Bahrain #Sisi

U.A.E. Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed, Would Be Ashamed

2018 was declared the year of the late Sheikh Zayed, may he rest in peace. I think that he'd be horrified and ashamed of the well-publicized and the well-hidden activities of his son Mohammed, perhaps more than that of any of his other 17 sons.

Mother made lots of videos of Sheikh Zayed when the family lived in Abu Dhabi. She agrees with me. He would not want his name associated with what his sons are doing. (She's doing okay, got out of the hospital with a pacemaker last week. She sends her regards to you and Uncle Khalifa. I don't understand her, but you may pass it on directly if it suits you.)

There's more ... 

but I'm busy right now. Nevertheless, have a look at the hashtags and you'll know the content, maybe before I write it.

====== Apologies for the delay. There were cakes to be baked.

I believe with all my heart that Sheikh Zayed would never, ever have given his heart and soul to Israel in the circumstances, to have consorted with Bonesaw in the destruction of Palestine, allowing the theft of Jerusalem, threats to the Holy places and the contrived continuing slaughter of Gazans. He would reject the wicked plan of Sheldon Adelson and Netanyahoo, the No-Palestine-Peace-Plan, and he would see the paid-for support of that whining, lying, corrupt ninny in the White House is not for a just and lasting peace.

I believe that Sheikh Zayed would never, ever have promoted a war against Iran and told the U.S. it would join a silly "Gulf NATO" and apartheid Israel in an actual hot war. I don't believe that he would put the people of the Emirates at the risk of the actual missiles of Iran in sufficient numbers to cause widespread death and destruction. He would not have even made an attempt to convince the mentally ill Bonesaw that it's a great idea to demonize Iran and all the Shia, to sectarianize and contemplate a real war.

For what? Do you honestly think that a military attack on Iran by any of the players -- whether due to a false flag or fictional terrorist operation or as a result of a long-running ambition of the Israel-firster neocon crowd who've got Bolton, Kelly, Pompeo and others in place or for any other reason -- would overlook the U.A.E. in response? Do you think that the few missiles the Houthis have landed in the U.A.E. and KSA is the extent of damage to be expected in a war with Iran? Do you think Iran will suck it up?

(I suppose that you and the boys think Bahrain would be safe from retaliation because we've paid for and have got the Fifth Fleet there and the Brits have paid to move back in. How did that work out when Saddam Hussein fired a few SCUDS your way? I forgot.)

I don't believe for a minute that Sheikh Zayed, a man with multitudes of sons and daughters, would have supported the inhuman, filthy war that Mo Zayed is leading on behalf of fucking Bonesaw. I don't believe that he'd allow a son of his to deliberately cause the deaths and unbelievable conditions of the masses, the millions of people of Yemen wretchedly thin from planned starvation, to have committed war crimes intentionally, many times. It is demented. Imagine your spawn with just skin and bones instead of fat asses. 

(I am deeply ashamed that the U.S. military supports it. It is one of the worst policy decisions made by President Obama and carried on by the Pentagon to this day, but that's not the subject of this post.)

I do not believe that Sheikh Zayed would have entertained the thought of allowing Abu Dhabi to be known as the country who hired thousands of foreign mercenaries not just to fight the dirty war in Yemen, but now openly known to assassinate opponents. Hired killers who've murdered clerics and important members of Islah in Abu Dhabi, Dubai andYemen have made the front pages of the major newspapers here because some are American, which is illegal and will soon be a matter for investigation in Congress. 

And then there's the hired killers of Jamal Khashoggi, where they're all Saudis and the important members of the Killing Delegation are connected to Bonesaw. However, that assassination wasn't carried out or accompanied by U.S. mercenaries, no matter the oversight, if any. I guess that would be the "smoking gun" that nobody can find.

I do not believe for a minute that Sheikh Zayed would have provided diplomatic or other cover for the disgraced Bonesaw as you did, let alone be photographed smiling, handing that blood-covered thug gold medals for his crimes, which you did. Seeing that made me sick to my stomach, knowing how low you've stooped. Jesus, I hope you didn't kiss his nose. I'm very sure that Sheikh Zayed would not have.

There's more, but not tonight.








#Ancestors #SheikhZayed #FatherOfTheUAE #UAE #SaudiArabia #JamalKhashoggi #Yemen #WarCrimes #Qatar #Bahrain #Egypt #Libya #KhalifaHaftar #Bonesaw #MohammedBinSalman #Hamas #Socotra #RedSea #Hodeida #Palestine #KushnerNoPeacePlan #FictionalTerroristOperations #PhonyCoups #FalseFlags #LandGrabs #Musandam #DonaldTrump #AbuDhabi #Tunisia #Morocco #ProbablyForgotSome

Will A Caliph Take Down A Killer Prince? I Ask You.

Watching the brilliant Erdogan slowly reel out the evidence that Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud himself orchestrated the brutal torture and murder and bonesaw destruction of the body of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (God rest his soul) reminded me of a talk we had years ago. 

It was before I understood the politics involved but certainly not before you did.

Erdogan's involvement in Syria and Iraq has led some scholars and analysts (who know more than I do about history in this particular area and whose online or printed output I read) to refer to the President of Turkey as Sultan Erdogan.

Erdogan's political skills are no match for either Mohammed bin Salman or the fox who thinks no one is looking, i.e., Mohammed bin Zayed or Mo Zayed's Palestinian pit bull, Mohammed Dahlan. 

Erdogan has outfoxed our moron in the White House, got Trump's knickers in a twist because he needs the traitorous Bonesaw Al Saud for the Trump Kushner Netanyahoo Adelson "No- Palestine-Peace-Plan." Erdogan has put out irrefutable evidence that Bonesaw gave the order, was in on the multi-part, multi-man plan, and demanded the head on a platter after it was pulled out of the diplomatic bag.* 

It seems obvious that President Erdogan will accept nothing less than the removal of Bonesaw from any possibility of him inheriting the Custody of the Two Holy Mosques, as surely the immoral killer should not hold such an honor. 

It is also no secret that there is a rivalry between the Turks and the Wahhabists to lead the Sunni umma. Erdogan has proven himself time after time in the face of obstacles set upon him by you chaps in the Persian Gulf and your Western enablers.

All the bots and trolls aren't going to be enough to keep the lurid, gut-turning details of the Khashoggi murder from the majority of the people throughout the kingdoms and emirates. They may not be able to publicly condemn Bonesaw and his vile crimes against Yemen or this murder or his agreement to give away Palestine, but they're going to be made aware. They're going to know that Erdogan is providing evidence to rid the neighborhood and maybe the world of this mass killer. Erdogan is going to earn himself a lot of "good will" if he can truly take the killer down.

I was thinking about that today when I remembered that I asked you this: Do you think there will be a Caliph in our lifetime? Do you think there is a Muslim leader who could be as powerful as the Pope? I mean, other than the Shia Grand Ayatollah Khomeini? A Sunni leader?

It would be far more intriguing to discuss that subject now, at least to me.

*(Hell, considering the dialogue which has been released to the public in written form and multiple venues, it wouldn't surprise me if Bonesaw has the dead man's head stuffed like a trophy in a special little room, kinda like the stuffed giant lion or tiger, I forget which, you had mounted on a platform on the floor in the small room off your old BDF office at the Defense Ministry in the early 1980s. You know the one.)

#Erdogan #MohammedBinSalman #Bonesaw #MohammedBinZayed #MohammedDahlan #AyatollahKhomeini #Bahrain #Turkey #Caliph #Yemen #Bahrain #UAE #AlSaud #Palestine #Israel #Trump #Netanyahu #SultanErdogan

Why Would You Kiss Netanyahoo's Hand?

Please, please don't do it. Please don't give into Israel-firsters Sheldon Adelson and Kushner's dirty deal for the Palestinians and Jordan. 

You've already kissed the ass of killer Mohammed Bonesaw with favorable publicity following the state murder of Jamal Khashoggi. 

Please do not betray the Arabs whose land, water, oil, olive trees and homes have been stolen by Israelis under cover of "security."

Please don't bow down to that dirty dog Netanyahoo and his Zionist land-and-resource stealing government. Please do not bring that dog to Bahrain and kiss his hand and the underhanded takeover of all Palestine, of Al Aqsa and all of Al Quds, of the ruthless murdering by the rogue Israeli state of 1,000s of  innocent Palestinians.

Resist the pressure to do this unseemly and inappropriate act. You're not Sultan Qaboos. You're not trying to mediate, to be a peacemaker. Please don't do it. It's 100 percent wrong.
===============
Afterthought.When I first read your book, First Light: Modern Bahrain and Its Heritage, the lack of proofreading was obvious. This was especially so in what I thought at the time was either an egregious proofreading error or a deliberately spiteful act on the part of your ghostwriter. I was personally offended on your behalf. You can find it in the 1st English edition published in 1994 by Kegan Paul International Limited, London, at 94:23:12-13. Two words. I guess that's what you must be doing with all these demeaning acts of support to those who deserve no defense whatsoever.

Update: Spelling it out for you, even if you're angry with me. "Suck work" is apparently what you're doing now. You were told, "Suck it," and you're doing it with your eyes open. 

#Palestine #Bahrain #Israel #JaredKushner #SheldonAdelson #Jerusalem #AlAqsa #Bonesaw
#JamalKhashoggi

Guitars Take Trips, But They Ain't No Piano

(Blah, blah, blah. There was text here, but I cut it, need it for something else. Summary: a guitar works in a limited way for a singer and musician who loves the piano, but better than nothing, and my guitar went from London to Damascus to Bahrain to Santa Monica and Seattle.)



And now I'm blaming you because I don't have a piano or a house in which to play it. Try and make sense of that.



(Meanwhile, tomorrow is the first day of November and NaNoWriMo, so I'll be busy writing 225 pages of the next book over the month and this is likely the last post for a bit.)



#Bahrain #NaNoWriMo

Speedy Retirement for Shaikh Khalifa in November

Golly, I hope it's true, no matter the catalyst, that Uncle Khalifa will finally be retired in November as the longest-serving member of the Al Khalifa dictatorship. He won't need the golden parachute or a new gold watch as he's probably stashed a substantial portion of Bahrain's wealth into Swiss and Lichtenstein banks. 

His departure is the best gift to Bahrain imaginable if you don't replace him with his two shadows, the Khawalids, but with the (supposedly) more agreeable Salman.

I have a lot to say about him in the book that I'm planning to finish next month in the annual NaNoWriMo sprint to complement the one that I wrote last November. Every day that I write a paragraph, a page, a chapter or more, I bless the many diaries that I wrote and kept and you've been unable to steal, despite the Major's attempt in my old London flat. For just one example, I'd like you to think back to the threats Uncle made to me in the Mayfair Dorchester when I was 18. You heard them, all wrapped in honey, Sherry Brandy and talk about your destiny. I wrote them down.

I wish him well.




#Bahrain #KhalifabinSalmanAlKhalifa #PrimeMinisterShaikhKhalifa #Dorchester #London #NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo2018 

Stop Defending Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud

You need a new plan. 

You have defended in public the prince who orchestrated the gruesome torture and killing of Jamal Khashoggi. You've seen the pathetic and numerous responses of the Kingdom of Silence and Gold, and you know they are bull shit. (You're very familiar with cover-ups of political murders, but that's not the point today.)

The depth to which you've sunk in the slime of Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's depravity is stunning, to defend a sadistic, egomaniacal killer. He deserves no defense whatsoever. 

I know you've changed. I didn't recognize the man I loved when I saw you the last time. I truly wonder if you hate yourself for the man you've become, submissive to the killer prince.

You have the opportunity of a lifetime to redeem yourself right now, to stop being complicit in the cover-up and in the dirty ongoing wars. You could start with one step.

You could do it. You could get out of the fucking Al Saud slime. You can refuse to do Bonesaw's bidding, starting with no more gag-inducing P.R. for him. Again, he deserves no defense whatsoever.

I know that Trump is still defending Bonesaw while saying the cover-up is atrocious. Trump and his Jewish backers need Bonesaw for the anti-Palestinian, anti-Iran crusade and you know it. There's other military, economic and political reasons too numerous for here explaining why the U.S. and Al Sauds and Mohammed bin Zayed hold hands, dirty hands. You know all that, too.

I know that Bahrain has its hands out for cash from the Al Sauds and some of the U.A.E. sheikhs, and like Trump, for you it's all about the money. You will get it eventually, you have some leverage, but you could cancel the unneeded arms sales since Bahrain doesn't need to buy its U.S. protection. Remember? We pay your government for basing and facilities, we pay to upgrade them and have our own forces and material to protect. We're not leaving. So cancel those orders, use the funds wisely. You've got an opportunity right now -- while you look like a dirty, stinking, wet lapdog in front of the whole island -- to find and fund the most widely urgent project. Make amends!

You could ask Uncle Khalifa to return some of his corrupt gains since he seems to have got the lion's share. You, as the head of the family, could ask them all to start giving back instead of taxing non-family in more numerous ways every year. You could "find" funds buried in a budget somewhere to cover those returned by family since I know you won't do it openly. 

You can then wait for bigger financial help from your fellow dictators until Bonesaw is executed as he deserves under Sharia law.  Only the Khashoggi's could spare his life or the lives of those men who followed Bonesaw's orders via cellphone, Skype, WhatsApp or extra-sensory perception. They should not show him a bit of mercy. Khashoggi's life is the only life of thousands which Mohammed bin Salman has taken in Yemen and for which it seems possible he may be held accountable and face justice. 

Stop kissing the killer's ass, please. It's not a good look for you.



#MohammedBinSalman #JamalKhashoggi #MohammedBoneSawMan #ShariaLaw

DNA

I finally did one of the well-known DNA tests and am allowing the publication of results. There was nothing surprising in them, all European.

My daughter has agreed to do the same, but hers should be half European and half Arab. 

Have you done a DNA test? If you haven't, will you please do one and allow the results to be made public?

Have a lovely day.

#DNA

Update 8/23/19
Thank you for asking (alleged) oldest son to do the DNA test, at least I assume that's how it happened when he told her to use an alias for the test, too. 

I don't think that I was ever more grateful in my life than a couple weeks ago when the results came in and I found out that she does not have a lying, bonesaw-loving, murderous dictator for a father. It's ironic as Hell that I lied to you about the seminal matter during the "confession" you wrought from me, telling Johnson later that almost everything that I told you was true, but that you would discover the big lie if you'd taped the conversation and heard my hesitancy in answering that critical question.

Of course I wish that I'd not relied upon the doctors (two different doctors, the first in Bahrain and the second in London) for the due date. I also wish that I hadn't convinced myself that you were the father of my child, most likely based on my desire (and plan) to have your child because I'd loved you for so long, even though I knew you would not like it. I truly thought that I'd be leaving the island before you found out and had no plan to tell you. The fact that you "recognize a pregnant mare" when you see one and that you saw me at the race track gate the day your new track opened, driving your car with the then crown price of Morocco, put paid to my plan to leave with my pregnancy undetected. Your summons was quick.

Of course, you had no idea that I'd previously been threatened by Ali and the dire situation I found myself in after my "non-coerced confession" was signed and witnessed in the U.S. Consulate. My guess is that you still don't, but Khalid the monster fixed that on my way through his office after exiting yours with his announce that Ali had murdered his first wife in Morocco. 

So, the matter is still sticky, but the relief that you are not related to my child is consoling. Ali has no idea, especially as he didn't believe that he was the father, the reason for his threat that he couldn't be responsible for what he'd do if I named him.

My escape was good because of that confession, but my fear -- that you'd take my child and cause her to spend her life in Arabia or harm her -- only ended recently, with the DNA news.

I didn't believe the person claiming to be your number one son was the same person in touch with my daughter. Why? Because he never made an attempt to meet her in person. Now I've changed my mind since he suggested they will meet when she returns to Britain. Of course it could be more Al Khalifa lies and promises, but the DNA news is not a lie.

Dispute & Diplomacy Over 4 Persian Gulf Islands

Listening to the United Nation General Assembly speeches this week, I heard Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan demand that Iran give up possession of the strategic and resource-rich Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa and the two Tunbs to different historical claimants, namely the states of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaima, or, in the alternative, consent to let the International Court of Justice decide which country or countries have the right to them.

This is not a new demand. I wrote a lengthy term paper at university in the mid-1970s about the 1971 independence of Bahrain and formation in the Persian Gulf of the U.A.E. It included this matter.

( Aside: my research and result so fascinated my professor that he maintained a copy and was able to discuss it with me over 40 years later. I found that he'd used some of my work without attribution, but never mind, that happens at universities, students know it. He's gone now.)  

Most people who hear the demands of the Arab states with respect to the three islands claimed by the U.A.E and Iran do not know or recall that there were actually four Persian Gulf islands involved before Iran took control of the three disputed islands. The fourth was the British Protectorate of Bahrain, ruled in some aspects by the Sunni Al Khalifa family for over 180 years by 1971, but also by other countries historically, including Iran. 

The matter is multi-dimensional but a pedestrian summary would include: Bahrain had and has a majority Shia population with religious, family and other ties to Iran; aspirations for freedom, equality and dignity by the entire population, but especially the under-served Shia segments and those who know discrimination in many ways; a plebiscite asking if Bahrainis wanted to align with Iran or be independent; they heard promises from your family and the Brits of a constitution and rights and chose independence; the U.K. made a secret deal with the Shah, trading independence for Bahrain -- rather than restoration of Bahrain as a historical Iranian province -- for the restoration of Iran's historic right to Abu Musa and the two Tunbs. 

Influential factors have now changed. One of importance is that there's a Bahrain causeway connected to historical Bahrain some 18 miles long with special lanes for members of certain tribes on both sides. Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled across that bridge to help your family and friends maintain power in 2011, and remain to this day, along with paid mostly Sunni mercenaries from other countries used to alter the demographic balance and suppress dissent in all forms.

To be fair to Iran, if the original 1971 deal is to be renegotiated, if the two member states of the U.A.E. who claim Abu Musa, Lesser and Major Tunbs AND the fourth island, Bahrain, all want to do what's fair, then the causeway built by the malign actor Saudi Arabia and a debt trap, must be immediately given to Iran, along with the full extent of territory stolen from the Arab Shia population by the Al Sauds in their historical rampage across Arabia. 

The planned causeway to Qatar could be built and Bahrain, then aligned with Iran, could share in the immense gas wealth and form a new, peaceful partnership. The fishermen of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah could resume fishing or buy shares in luxury hotels to be built on the islands.

You want something significant, then you give something significant, right? That's what happens in negotiations between equals. Some underestimate their opponent.

#Bahrain #UAE #SaudiArabia #UK #Sharjah #RasAlKhaimah #AbuMusa #Tunbs #Hormuz #StraitofHormuz #Iran #Qatar #Oil #PersianGulf 

Was protecting you a gift?

I wonder if you ever realized that this suggestion was a gift from me:  that we remove ourselves from outside and your car near the beach one night to inside a Yusef bin Ahmad Kanoo villa nearby. 

I said it was the sand and then the need for a shower afterwards, even while we had been eager at the car, outside the car to be more precise. You agreed and we moved inside the house where, you may recall, there was a small dinner party in honor of your Saudi friend Prince Bandar. Somebody lost something somewhere, remember? I do. Gulf Air stewardess. We all had a good laugh about who might find what was lost.

At least one of us was aware on the beach that night that Bahrain is a small island with a lot of eyes and very fast gossip. Your enemies could have had a field day. I stopped it that time. At least one of them was at the party.

It's My Birthday, So Some Thoughts on Gifts

Today's my birthday. 70. It rained this morning, even when I walked outside to accept delivery of a Tuxedo cake from a couple of my former neighbors. Seattle needs rain, so it was a gift. I took a bit of metaphysical credit, too. My birthday, my rain.

Then some good political news made for another special moment. Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to serious charges for which a Trump pardon will be ineffective and which will surely implicate Fat Nixon's lard ass in conspiracies and obstruction. Because I pay close attention to D.C. politics, I was happy for a bit that my birthday was the occasion on which it happened, so I thought of it as a gift.

Yesterday afternoon I made a decision not to do what I'd planned for this morning, to go and watch the new version of "A Star Is Born" with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, even though I don't like the venue where it's currently showing. I know the story line and my daughter suggested in Messenger from abroad that my mood wasn't compatible with a tragic film where the male lead dies in the end, so I had a rethink. Her excellent advice was a gift.

I needed to get out, it was sunny and so I walked down to the Majestic cinema on Market Street to watch "Crazy Rich Asians" instead of Cooper's film. 

I wanted comedy rather than tragedy, the reviews were good, some of the actors have been on the late night talk shows and it seemed like it might fit my needs. I didn't know when I walked in that it would be a stereotypical plot, only played out with Chinese and other Asian actors rather than white folks in the previous three versions. (The cinematography of Singapore is stunning in it, which I was reminded this morning watching Free Practice 3 of the Formula 1 Grand Prix going on there this weekend.)

In summary of the movie plot, a well-educated young woman from an ordinary background who's fallen in love with a young man from an extremely wealthy family -- much to her surprise -- is rejected by his family as unsuitable for them, despite her best efforts to please them. It is all so familiar and has a happy ending, though, unlike ours. I was in tears through half of it, but that's the sentimental me. I cry easily, too often, as always.

Today I thought about all the years that I've written you letters for your birthday, over 50 years now, albeit they've moved from hard copies to here, and some that I wrote and saved as I could not send them while keeping a very low profile and didn't care to have them intercepted. It was probably a gift to you that I didn't send them all, but perhaps you will have the opportunity to read them one day in a different format.

I thought about the fact that you never had to do a thing for any of the small gifts which I accepted from you, other than ask someone else to fetch them. 

Then I thought about the fact that I worked hard, all day long, every day, for a whole summer to save up the money to buy for you the last gift that I brought to Bahrain, the tall and beautiful vintage brass lamp made from a World War II battle shell, carved with a lighthouse and a lady in flowing robes, with the three fluted, matte pink lamp shades at the top. The major said that he'd have it polished for you.

I wondered if you appreciated it for one moment, let alone the gift of my efforts to acquire it, ship it to London and then bring it to Bahrain for your military treasure collection, just like the WWI battle helmet that I brought you in a prior visit and the helmet from Vietnam in an even earlier visit. Of course, our gifting cultures are entirely different. We say "Thank you."

I've never had a new car and quit driving over 20 years ago because it's expensive to maintain a car and I wasn't driving much. I don't like traffic and Seattle is one big traffic jam. I laughed at fast cars in the film because it reminded me that you just throw cars away. Out went the E-type. Out went the red Thunderbird. Out went the navy blue Rolls with our names on the inside doors. Not having to drive is a gift to me, most of the time.

I've never owned a grand piano or a house to put one in. I remember talking with you about pianos more than once, about you buying one and bringing it to Bahrain, then gifting it to one of your sisters. I remember you saying that I'd have a grand piano some day, ah yes, and you'd build me a little villa, that you'd get for me what my heart desired. I had to give up my little piano with the move here in May because the management won't allow it. That's been very hard on me, perhaps worst of all the negative things associated with this place, because playing the piano and writing music has been my saving grace for a long, long time. My music is a gift even without the piano.

I don't even have a decent kitchen with the latest move from the rat-infested house to this cubbyhole apartment that would fit inside the reception room at Safriyya where we spent so much time together. I'm still dreaming up and inventing new soft, frosted cookies for my artisan collection, but now must do half the preparation in my dining/living room/office space rather than the teeny kitchen, but I don't care because at least there's an oven. 

So, there are gifts, things for which I'm grateful today, moments and imperfect people to treasure.

The First Marriage

You asked me every time we met if I've married again.

I did not. I never married anyone but you.

I love this photograph which you sent me along with a love letter after I was sent away from you (one of the times when I was sent away from you.) You didn't like the photo because you'd shaved off your mustache and felt that it made you look like a monkey with a cigarette in your mouth. Remember?

Chapter

Hindsight

Hindsight becomes even more clear with age, but photos and diaries plus education and interest provide not only clarity, but understanding, an important aid in writing a memoir.

It doesn't surprise me at my age to discover documentation appearing to show that various intelligence agencies, both British and American, had an interest in our relationship from the onset when we were teenagers of 15 and 16 to the last meeting at your office in the Ministry of Defense over 15 years later.

It did surprise me to identify some of those involved over 50 years after the fact, and I'm not referring to your uncles, whose sources you were well aware of.

Home Videos

          I just found out something that I did not know, or if I did, that I'd long forgotten. It's so exciting. I will try to figure out how to make a CD out of it and send you a copy, for Old Times' sake, if you want one. You won't have to share it with anyone else. It's between the two of us, and as you could recall from context, we were still innocent teenagers. You were 16 that January. I was 17.

Even though I don't like you at all anymore, I cannot resist looking back at the photos and diaries and such, especially since I've been writing these letters to you as well as working on The Project. They bring those warm feelings rather than the others described over the years in this format. I like reverie. I look at the earliest photos and can still sink into love again. It's ridiculous, I know, but it is the nature of star-crossed love. Even broken promises, betrayal and abandonment cannot change it. Old photos.

Remember just before you went back to England for spring term in 1966 and we were at my family's house and we were having fun behind the long curtain between the living room and dining room? Mother filmed us that day! I knew that she'd used her video camera sometimes, including at the horse races and the stables, and that she'd made photos and home movies of what I think could now be considered all "The Players." I don't really give a hoot about those, but I'm happy about the one that is you and me in Manama. Perhaps it will take the pain of Now away for a moment. A home movie!

Hacker Schmacker

Four times in the last week I have been hacked and the worst was yesterday. I'm assuming that your goons are hard at work and enjoyed reading the first draft. It seems that copies of everything on the hard drive were taken and then the drive wiped. 

Please say "Let's hear it for backups." Photos, letters, diaries. All backed up. Honestly, Hamad, it would be far better if you'd do the right thing, keep your promises to me, hit the Memory button and think for awhile.

Then again, perhaps it was Anonymous?

Tea and Chess

Oh, the irony. I just found this as I was packing curios into a box for the move out of this house. My daughter brought it home to me at Christmas time when she visited from London. Fortnum & Mason is just up the road a bit from where we lived for the first three plus years of her life, in a "grotty garret" as the Major said.

The grand chessboard. Remember how we used to play? My last move was providing cover for you.

Here's the closeup. Can you read it?

Trust Me

Do you remember what you said when I asked you if you trust me? You'd taken my purse from my hand, opened it and looked through the contents before handing it back to me. 

"I trust you very little, my dear, and that's more than I trust most others."

I remembered what you said today as it hit me that my biggest mistake in life was directly the opposite. I trusted you more than any others, right from the beginning.

I thought the depth of our love, first love, true love, ages 15 and 16 and 16 and 17 and 17 and 18 and 25 and 26 and whenever we were together, was more than sufficient for trust. You put me in danger at 32 and still I trusted that you would keep your word subsequently.

Tell me this, please. Did you think, knowing me all those years, that I would take a story to the National Enquirer? Even understanding the recent surprise I gave you, did you honestly think at some point that someone whose heart you knew so well would join the ranks of women who'd had private relationships with foreign leaders and sold a one-page story to a supermarket tabloid?

(By the way, either your oldest son or someone acting as him expressed to my daughter a concern that details could end up in the Seattle Times. I pointed out no such thing had happened in decades and was unlikely to happen then.)

Maybe there was only one page to those stories. Maybe they weren't as intriguing as ours, mixed in with politics and world affairs. 

How's your trust level doing today? Do you still trust me more than most others, my dear? 

I do wonder sometimes if you've appreciated my discretion all these years. You didn't ask me for it. It was a gift from me to you. Some gifts wear out over time and cannot be repaired. 

Rats

Palaces. 
Villas. 
House with rats, rat mites, a hazardous tree falling onto and into the house and, recently, raw sewage spilling onto my kitchen floor from burst pipes in the old house where I rent one floor and my crazy hoarder landlord lives in part of the basement with his garbage and rats dancing on his back at night while he sleeps. Palaces to rat-infested, filthy holes, just like your prisons. If I could go from one to the other, think what it could be like for you.
       A rat like you.

Mae West's Good Advice

Mae West, famous American actress from Hollywood's Golden Age, wrote:

          "Keep your diaries when you're young and they'll keep you when you're old."

I kept my diaries. I kept the letters. I kept the photographs. 

I kept my promise for more than 40 years to keep these things out of the tabloids and gutter press. 

You failed to keep every promise that you made to me. 

I remind you of one important thing. I never signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Fake Coups, Phony Coups and Fictional Terrorist Operations

Past references have been made to the so-called 1981 Coup in Bahrain by many, including by newspapers, magazines and published scholars. Wikipedia has an entry. All that I have read paint the blame on Iran, which became the boogeyman after the 1979 revolution proved that a government in the Persian Gulf could be changed by the will of its people.

Of course, as you and the good Major are aware, I had and have an entirely different view from that which has prevailed in the public discourse. I discussed the event -- shortly after it occurred -- with the Major in a personal conversation at a famous and favored Chinese restaurant in Mayfair. He was rather surprised that I was aware of it, as the details of the event were, shall we say, reiterated? Those details had been closely held by those involved. Surprise!

I've been calling it the Fake Coup or the Phony Coup, here and elsewhere in public, for a good number of years while busy with daily life far away from what had been planned for me. The Fake Coup been a mere footnote in my written and unpublished work until last November. Now I'm dealing with a housing emergency and have to delay for a month or so finishing that lengthy project for publication.

However, today Google provided a translation of an important Saudi blogger's post which caught my eye and inspired this post. The translation is much more accurate and picturesque than "Fake Coup" or "Phony Coup" could ever be. Since the Interior Ministries of many countries in the world include the both police and all sorts of internal security services, it is typically Interior Ministry personnel who carry out fictional terrorist operations. The example cited today was such an operation in Tunisia carried out by the Interior Ministry, supported by Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., to justify repression during the so-called Arab Spring and deposing of Ben Ali.

Isn't that a beautiful term? "Fictional Terrorist Operations." I could just say it again and again. It better describes a fake and phony coup. If I could write a poem or song in Arabic, which I can't, but if I could, I would write one repeating that word and finding lovely rhymes to accentuate the irony.

It would be no surprise that the family ruling a small island country like Bahrain would use the services of both Interior and Defense ministries in 1981, along with a wee bit of help from some special friends, to carry out a fictional terrorist operation. The surprise is that a detailed and well-wrought cover-up worked, so far, but apparently you were unaware of the identities of all the special friends.

2018 Birthday Wish for You

A few days late because I've been ill for over a week. I felt bad about missing your birthday this year on the actual day. I've not missed it since 1966. Sorry.

My birthday wish is quite simple:  I wish you were a better man.