Author Archives: Linda S. Heard

Egyptians are by nature patriotic. They grumble about governments, wages, high prices, traffic, and poor educational standards; they’ll turn out to protest at the drop of a hat, but most will tell you their country is the Umm El Dunya, the “Mother of the World.” Continue reading →

The only surprise over the African Union’s condemnation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for bias is that it took so long to come. Since its inception on July 1, 2002, to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, the court’s impartiality has come into question. Continue reading →

A glance back at recent history illustrates the fact that rather than being a force for good in the Middle East and the Gulf, America is behind most of the region’s woes. Continue reading →

Egyptians are tentatively embracing their country’s renewed nationalistic spirit that’s wilted since the death of Jamal Abdul Nasser, a charismatic figure who inspired Arabs to hold their heads high. Many Egyptians now look to Defence Minister General Abdul Fatah Al Sissi as Nasser’s rightful political heir. Continue reading →

Man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to make me sick to my stomach. What kind of creatures are they, masquerading as human beings, who can lay armed siege to a shopping mall and turn their guns on men, women and children going about their daily lives, harming no one? Continue reading →

This is not the time for US intransigency or muscle-flexing. What began as an insurgency in Syria two-and-a-half years ago—the state versus home-grown rebels—is today a proxy war waged by big powers, non-state actors, Islamist groups and global jihadist organisations. Continue reading →

Twice-failed presidential candidate, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona is all over the place these days. It’s no exaggeration to say one can hardly pick up a newspaper without seeing his name in some headline, often partnered with his sidekick Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Who is he and why does anyone bother to listen to him? He holds no official position, but clearly has a jumped-up sense of his own importance, fed by the right wing’s incomprehensible adulation. Continue reading →

According to legend, if the apes desert Gibraltar (derived from its Arabic name Jebel Tariq in honor of the Umayyad commander Tariq bin Ziyad), so will the British. So when the numbers of Barbary Macaques began dwindling during World War II, Sir Winston Churchill swiftly sent off for replacements and ensured they received the best medical treatment. Today, the apes are thriving along with Gibraltar’s residents enjoying the benefits of an economy growing by 8 percent and the lowest unemployment rate in Europe of a mere one percent which is a dramatic contrast with the closest Spanish town suffering from 14 percent unemployment. Continue reading →

Just days ago, it looked like a done deal. The usual western suspects—the US, Britain and France—were determined to punish the Syrian regime for unleashing poisonous gas on its own citizens, with or without uncontestable proof. Military assets were positioned in the eastern Mediterranean. Continue reading →

Barack Obama’s ‘red lines’ have undoubtedly been crossed. Hundreds of Syrians gasping for air and unable to control their limbs were no Hollywood extras. Distraught parents cuddling their dead toddlers close to their chests were no bit-part actors. Continue reading →

Last week, Egypt’s interim government was in grave danger of international isolation over its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. Continue reading →

America’s sway on the Egyptian army and interim government is heading towards a zero end game. President Barack Obama has alienated America’s biggest Arab ally and is hacking away at a 30-year-long relationship. Continue reading →

As a British citizen, I am appalled and distressed at the position of the UK government on Egypt, especially its efforts, along with Australia and France, to take Egypt to the United Nations Security Council. Continue reading →

It’s beyond my understanding why Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continually falls into traps that serve to bolster American/Israeli credibility on the international stage, while leaving himself looking weak and ineffectual. Continue reading →

The revived US-brokered Israel-Palestine peace initiative comes across as a positive step in the right direction. Continue reading →

Al Jazeera has dutifully aired videos of Egyptian children enjoying the three-day Eid holiday within the largest pro-Mursi sit-in at Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adaweya Square. Continue reading →

The Egyptian people have spoken. Some 30-plus million rose up to save their country from an arrogant, obstinate leader who was driving the nation towards polarization and bankruptcy. Continue reading →

I can’t count how many Egyptian and foreign envoys have insisted that the country’s roadmap must include members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Continue reading →

A year ago, your organisation was riding a wave, you had it all. Just over half of the Egyptian people put their trust in the hands of your presidential candidate Mohammad Mursi; the rest were apprehensive but willing to give him a chance. They counted on him to preserve their newly-born democracy; they believed him when he said he would be a president for all Egyptians. He failed dismally on all counts—even you wouldn’t argue with that because no one among you has even attempted to gloss his miserable record. Continue reading →

What a difference a month makes! The biggest gainers from the Arab Spring were Islamist parties dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Tunisians, Libyans and Egyptians were broadly sympathetic to their decades-long struggle to join the political mainstream and were, to varying degrees, prepared to give them the opportunity to govern. Their opponents say they had their chance and they blew it. Simmering discontent came to a head in all three countries on June 30, when 33 million Egyptians called upon their military to rescue them from a government that failed to live up to its promises. That call was heeded on July 3—and is now being echoed in Libya and Tunisia. Continue reading →

Egyptians backing their country’s new transitional government have been taken aback by the disapproval of Western governments, media and human rights organisations to the new status quo. Continue reading →

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has penned itself into a corral by assuring its following that the ousted president will be returned to office on their shoulders. “Mursi, Mursi, Mursi” must have been chanted millions of times by the crowds in Nasr City’s Rabaa Adawiya’s Square, where the failed president has been turned into a saint-like figure by a host of speakers ranting against “the coup.” High profile Muslim Brotherhood (MB) figures are behaving like cult leaders, playing on people’s religious beliefs, whipping up fervor, so as to blur the line between politics and faith, thus creating a group mind that will sacrifice their lives to do their bidding. Continue reading →

The sheer extent of the uprising on June 30 astonished the world. Bird’s-eye footage indicates it was the largest in history. Just as remarkable was the military’s swift intervention ordered by Defence Minister General Abdul Fattah Al Sisi, one of Mohammad Mursi’s trusted appointees, who proved to be a patriot when he took the tough decision to rescue his country from a brewing civil war. Continue reading →

They seek him here; they seek him there. The whereabouts of whistleblower Edward Snowden still puzzles media hawks trolling every nook and cranny of a Moscow airport where it’s believed the fugitive from US justice is still in transit. Continue reading →

June 30, 2013, marking one year of Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi’s presidency, was hyped by the opposition as a game changer. However, even the most optimistic could not have predicted the mass turnout in cities all over the country. Millions of Egyptians took to the streets of 25 of the country’s 27 governorates to vent their discontent, taking liberal local TV anchors, who for months have been calling for people to get off their sofas, by surprise. Continue reading →

Osama bin Laden was permitted to flee his Tora Bora cave complex to Pakistan and now it appears that his protectors, the Taliban, which the US pledged to defeat, are poised to become Afghanistan’s prodigal sons. The $6 trillion (the war’s financial burden on the US alone) question here is: What were the past 12 years all about? Tens of thousands of Afghan lives have been sacrificed; over 3,000 coalition soldiers have been killed while 50,000 were wounded in action, many requiring care for the rest of their lives. Continue reading →

Britain’s Guardian doesn’t hesitate to go where the corporate media fears to tread. One of a handful of papers worldwide that dared to publish the damaging WikiLeaks cables, this week it exposed its acquisition of “top secret documents.” They reveal that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been contravening America’s sacrosanct constitution as well as the PATRIOT Act by mining citizens’ private data, including audio and video, gleaned from computers, social media sites and telephone networks via Prism—an electronic eavesdropping system to which UK intelligence agencies enjoy access. The paper alleges that in one month alone, the NSA “collected 97 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide.” Continue reading →

Those of us who believed the Internet was the door to greater freedom have been conned. Wherever you are on the planet, your emails, texts, audio, video, Skype calls, and social media pages are an open book for American spies via the PRISM program’s technology that is also capable of logging your telephone calls. Continue reading →