Epstein Secrets

bama completely missed the revolutionary wave of Middle Eastern democracy—precisely the wave the neocons had hoped to trigger with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. When revolution broke out—first in Iran, then in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria—the president faced stark alternatives. He could try to

eocons had hoped to trigger with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. When revolution broke out—first

trol the SCAF — he sacked Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi; military chief of staff Sami Anan; and t

he entire Middle East. "We have far more freedoms," one peddler hawking fruit in the same square lamented, "but far fewer jobs." Another noted that Mohamed Bouazizi, the vendor who set himself on fire, did so not to vote in a democratic election but because harassment by local officials had cost him his livelih

fraid. In 1989, Americans gloated as the Soviet Union, our former rival for Middle Eastern supremacy, retreated ignominiously from the region. When Saddam Hussein tried to challenge us from within, we thrashed him in the Gulf War. Throughout the 1990s, we sent our economists, law professors and investment ba

red. Lines were being drawn—between Arabs and Persians, between Sunnis and Shiites. EFTA00586649 18 A decent man tried to broker this feud, King Hussein of Jordan, himself a Sunni claiming descent from the prophet. He wrote to Gadhafi: These are "sensitive times," he said, for Palestinians and Leba

y, retreated ignominiously from the region. When Saddam Hussein tried to challenge us from within, we th

burg rulers, led to the division between Belgium and Holland. In the case of the Arab awakening of 2011, 46-year-old policewoman Fedia Hamdi struck Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian stallholder in a market, and in protest he burned himself alive (in the subsequent investigation it appeared that in fact Hamdi had not

onist Iran. One part of that barrier had already crumbled in 2003 when the U.S. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023462 --- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis now see themselves as the last Sunni giant left in the region. The Saudis were further agitated when the p

462 --- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis

- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis now see

ered by the self- immolation of an overeducated 26-year-old Tunisian vegetable seller whose cart was repeatedly confiscated by the authorities. After Mohamed Bouazizi was slapped by a policewoman when he tried to complain, he reached the end of his tether. Bouazizi’s public suicide turned into a social movement bec

a sizeable advantage. This is not naïve or farfetched. After all, it was the plight of Tunisian vendor HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031929 --- PAGE BREAK --- 18 Mohamed Bouazizi and the symbolism of his fate that sparked all the revolutions across the Middle East. The images of the rebels in Libya liberating their country (as

06. But a simple, strictly Middle East research will give you one million deaths in the all-Muslim Iran-Iraq war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolution; 25,000 deaths in 1970-71, the days of Black September, by the Jordanian government in its figh

-Israeli conflict. In another calculation ignoring "small" massacres like the one that goes on in Syria and other deaths during the Arab Spring, only Saddam's Iraq, Jordan, the elder al-Assad's Syria, Iran-Iraq war, the bin Laden campaign in Iraq, the Iranian Islamic revolution and the Turkish-Kurdish con

q war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolu