Things to worry about - Middle East and North Africa related

Two news stories to worry about overnight.

1) Defensetech asks the question that I have been wondering about for a few days now - Will Gadhafi Resort to Terrorism to Fight Back?'
DefenseTech puts it this way:

'We all know Gadhafi is no stranger from using such tactics from bombing several European airports and a Berlin nightclub to blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland, the colonel has long used terror as a way of hitting Western governments for perceived slights against his regime.

With his forces being pounded into oblivion by a number of foreign miltaries, who knows what Gadhafi will do. Yes, he gave up his nuclear weapons program years ago. However, Libya is still reported to have tons of chemical weapons stockpiled. Keep in mind, that the colonel has said that his weapons depots are open to loyalists. We don’t know what type of weapons, money or combination of both he’s giving to potential terrorists. U.S. officials are already worried about this, as they should be.

DT has already discussed the potential for the weapons looted by rebels to make their way to conflicts around the world. This situation could be made far worse if Gadhafi deliberately arms bad organizers in one last spite-ridden effort to hurt the West.'

DefenseTech are right but also remember that this is also the man who supplied arms to the IRA in order to enable them to kill and maim as many Britons as possible. He has no scruples and he has the contacts to once more spread his lethal legacy around the world. I have no doubt that if he felt he had no way out then any WMD stocks he has would be supplied to whichever terrorists want to make use of them and as usual London will be one of the first targets. Whilst you wince at the possible prospect don't forget that this 'mad dog' regime is one that until very recently had the Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and LSE seal of approval - I still await their apologies, I suspect in vain.


2) Pajamas Media as usual provide more analysis than the main Stream Media as they report this:

'Several grand ayatollahs in Iran have issued a fatwa for Muslims to come to the aid of their Shiite brothers in Bahrain, who they claim are suffering horrific crimes from their government in collaboration with the Saudi armed forces. They further emphasized that the people of Bahrain have every right to demand freedom and their fair share from the state.

Shia-News, a site associated with Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi (a hard-line Shiite Twelver and an influential figure in the suppression of Iranians during their uprising to protest the fraudulent presidential election of 2009), is registering volunteers to participate in suicide bombings against Saudi interests around the world. Hundreds have already registered. Reports from inside Iran indicate that an alert has gone out to the Revolutionary Guards Quds forces throughout the world to prepare for attacks on Saudi establishments.

...

The ayatollahs who cry foul over the Saudi action in Bahrain have not spoken one word against their own Islamic regime, which is guilty of the rape, torture, and the murder of thousands of Iranian boys and girls for their uprising and demand for freedom and democracy. Human rights groups have reported that Iran, in just one month, executed more than one hundred people. The slaughter continues on a daily basis: the Iranian Supreme Court recently stepped up the executions by “expediting” death sentences.

The proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia is just beginning — expect to see many more such conflicts in the Middle East which will expand onto the world stage.'

Shiite against Sunni, anyone who remembers the horrors of the 1980's Iran Iraq war
with its half a million or so dead, knows what that might entail.



2011 is looking like becoming a very very dangerous year in the Middle East and beyond as the tensions long suppressed explode both metaphorically and literally.