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Talk to Me about Political Irony : From Habib El-Adly to Zakaria Abdel Aziz

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Today Mubarak’s Former minister of interior Habib El-Adly returned to his home as a free man while former head of judges club and reformist judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz has been referred to a disciplinary committee in the ministry of justice  for participating in the storming of State security “SS” headquarter in Nasr City in March 2011 !!
Habib El-Adly "L" and Zakaria Abdel Aziz "R" 
Oh yes Mubarak’s notorious minister of interior  Habib El-Adly is now a free man and has returned back to his home , to his luxurious villa in October after being acquitted in all the trials he was facing. I do know what to say for real.
On the same day the ministry of justice announces that the minister of justice decided to refer reformist justice and former head of judges club Judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz to disciplinary committee for participating in the famous storming of state security “SS” headquarter in Cairo on 5 March 2011 along with 25 January protesters.
The judge who became an opposition figure after heading the battle of judiciary independence starting 2005 during Mubarak’s rule was reported to the ministry by a bunch of other judges for allegedly storming the the SS headquarter long with the protesters during the January revolution.
Interesting the storming of State security headquarter did not happen during the early 18 days of the revolution but it happened during SCAF's rule in March 2011.


Also the protesters did not storm the SS building but they were allowed to go into the building after it was evacuated from all the officers and employees by the army or rather the military police. The military police let the protesters in.
Then Judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz appeared from the no-where outside the building telling the young protesters and urging them to hand over all the documents they found inside to the army. Needless to say the protesters believed him and handed the army the documents they found at the infamous  capital of hell.
I remember that Abdel Aziz also spoke about detainees who were found in underground cells.
Now Abdel Aziz is being punished for allegedly storming the SS headquarter !! 
Please if you are tying to make fake history , wait till we are dead and fake it as you want. This history was documented in-real time. 
Anyhow I think it is not about that day in March 2011 but it is rather about the role Abdel Aziz played during the Mubarak’s rule. Judge Abdel Aziz said in media statements that he believed he was referred to a disciplinary because of his support to the 25 January revolution as well his role in the judiciary independence against Mubarak.
This is the not first time Abdel Aziz is referred to a disciplinary committee as he was referred among a group of veteran judges including big names from the Judiciary independence movement for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and engaging in politics !! 
I can not forget how Judge Zakaria Abdel Aziz acted during the time of Morsi or how he used to act during the time of Adly Mansour or Sisi keeping his mouth shut against all those violations committed by the name of Egyptian judiciary in the past few months but
the man is hunted down due to his past during the Mubarak’s era . I found out today through a quick search on You Tube that the Pro-Mubarak/Pro-Sisi TV hosts have been attacking the man for months for allegedly being a Muslim Brotherhood member despite it is known that he is leaning towards Nasserism in the first place.
This sends us a clear that Mubarak’s regime is not only still alive but it is a back for vengeance.
Currently there is a witch-hunt in judiciary as it seems and even those judges who are not members of the Muslim Brotherhood or Islamist are hunted down allegedly for being supporters of ousted Mohamed Morsi. The common factor between those judges are that they support the 25 January revolution and are against the practices of Pro-Mubarak/Pro-Sisi current head of judges club Ahmed El-Zend.
Needless to say when it comes to the political irony , I do do not know how it is okay for El-Zend to share his political views all the time when it is not allowed for judges like Abdel Aziz to express theirs !!
Anyhow I just can not stop thinking about that bigger political irony as well vendetta when it comes to Habib El-Adly and Zakaria Abdel Aziz !!

The Dummies guide to what Happened in the past 48 in the Middle East

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Okay from where shall I start ??  May be 24 hours earlier.
One unusual Wednesday
News came from the Unhappy Yemen that Iranian-backed Houthi fighters stormed Aden. The Northern Yemeni Militant group aided by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh stormed the presidential palace but did not find the Yemeni president Mansour Hadi.
Instead they captured his minister of Defense Mahmoud El-Subaihi and put a 20 million Yemeni Riyal “Nearly $100,000” bounty for president Hadi. I do not recall that in our miserable modem Arabic history we have  seen something like that I mean a bounty for arresting a president !!
The announcement on Al Yemen official channel
which is controlled by Houthis 
For more than we did not know where Hadi went. News reports spoke that he was still there in Aden while other reports spoke that he fled to Saudi Arabia through the sea. Either ways all sources confirmed that the legitimate president of Yemen was going to attend the upcoming Arab Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh next Saturday.

Later Wednesday the Yemeni foreign minister declared in statement to Sky News Arabia that Gulf states and Egypt would participate in a military operation to liberate Yemen. After couple of hours
Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs’ spokesperson say that the reports about a co-joint military operation were inaccurate and the situation of Yemen would be discussed later in the Arab Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh this week.
The Yemeni FM backtracked his statements and then said that it was the Yemeni government that asked for the the GCC help as well Egypt’s.
Pro-Sisi Supporters online claimed that Egypt would not help the Gulf states and stand against Iran as long as the Gulf states above them Saudi Arabia would not help Egypt in Libya. The Pro-Sisi supporters can not forget that Saudi Arabia left their President alone facing failure in security council in his quest for a military intervention in Libya resolution. Little they know.
On Wednesday there was a new fact in the Middle East , now Iranian-backed fighters are standing on the Southern borders of Saudi Arabia after controlling Iraq on the Northern Eastern borders. Whether you like it or not but Iran got a controlling influence in Syria , Iraq and Yemen. This is a new fact. We were waiting to know the next step for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Decisiveness Thursday
At nearly 2 AM Cairo Local Time Kuwaiti former tabloid journalist/Pro-Mubarak/Sisi/Current Military spokesperson Fajr El-Saeed announced on her official twitter account that the Gulf States would start a military operation against Houthis in Yemen. She was not bluffing as it turned out that Stratfor Global intelligence sent to its subscribers a report that the Kingdom would start strikes against Houthis.  


On 2.30 AM CLT Saudi Arabia announced that it started air strikes against the Houthis. While most of the Saudi population was sleeping , the Saudi ambassador held a press conference in Washington D.C announcing the operation. The Saudi TV channels went on fire.
Soon enough we know that the Kingdom was not alone as the GCC countries participated in the operation except One country “Oman”. Yes the Sultanate of Oman did not join its gulf sisters and it was not surprising because actually Oman has been always the diplomatic channel between Iran and the West , America and the Arab world. Do not underestimate its rule. Already I believe Oman is still playing that rule as the back door for talks with Iran when time comes. Saudi Arabia knows that very well.
At 10 AM I woke up on the news that Saudi Arabia led a coalition to support the legitimate president of Yemen against the coup of Houthis.
That military coalition included ten countries : Saudi Arabia , UAE, Kuwait , Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt , Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Pakistan.
Yes in a very silly bad cruel joke Egypt’s current regime is participating in a military coalition to support the legitimate president of Yemen who is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and is considered the Yemeni revolution’s president. Oh and the Prince of Qatar who was being called gay in the Egyptian TV channels in the past months is going to attend the Sharm El-Sheikh Arab Summit.
Okay let’s repeat that slowly Egypt and Qatar are participating in a military operation against Houthis in order to restore the rule of the legitimate president of Yemen who is backed by Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood. Oh yes the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood branch is another nemesis and they had nasty fights.
Anyhow it seems that the enemies of yesterdays will become the friends of tomorrow for the sake of Saudi Arabia at least for now.
A No-Fly zone was imposed on Yemen allegedly in 15 minutes only.

Now we got a massive military operation led by Saudi Arabia against Houthis in Yemen. The military operation is called by the Saudis “Operation : Decisive storm”. Photos of Saudi defense minister Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in the war room spread across the social media madly.
Prince Mohamed Bin Salman at the war room "SPA"
A trivial fact : Mohamed Bin Salman is currently the youngest minister of defense in the world.
Since late night the Saudi fighter jets destroyed allegedly Houthis’ targets including airports to prevent any Iranian enforcements.
The Saudis were the ones who spoke about the operation as well  Fajr El-Saeed.
The Kuwaiti writer claimed that the Egyptian navy forces reached to Bab El-Mandab strain and scared the shit out of the Iranian navy and made them run back to Iran. Interestingly once again she did not claim that alone but it turned out that Israeli intelligence website Debka claimed that Egyptian navy vessels controlled the strain. Ironically according to my informed sources the Egyptian vessels did not arrive to the stain when both Fajr El-Saeed and Debka claimed that claim.
Later that day we knew that Egypt officially sent 4 frigates to Bab El-Mandab strain. When it comes to the current conflict in Yemen,  that strain is the actually our true interest in that region for real when it comes to geopolitics and economy. That strain affects Suez canal.
As soon as the news of Egypt participating in a military operation in Yemen , I could not think in anything except the fact that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi needed a parliament to approve that military participation. Of course it does not matter. Needless to say when the words of “Military operation”, “Yemen” and “Saudi Arabia” were heard in the ears of many today in Cairo , it ranged a bad bell in the memory of many Egyptians whether old Egyptians or young Egyptians. It ranged the bad memory of “Yemen war” during the days of Nasser aka our Vietnam which preceded our even worst military defeats even in 1967. That bell was screaming when news website spoke about ground forces. Of course for hours neither the Egyptian presidency nor the Egyptian armed forces spoke. Then it was announced Egypt sent only 4 vessels to Bab El-Mandeb.
At the same time we knew that Saudi Arabia participated in the operation with 100 fighter jets and nearly 150,000 soldiers spread all over the Saudi-Yemeni borders.
The Sudanese ministry of defense at the same time issued a statement announcing that Sudan participated in the operation to protect the Holy Land in Mecca.
Soon enough after couple of hours the Egyptian presidency announced that Egyptian navy and air forces participated in the Operation. Then the Presidency also released another statement saying that Egypt was participating in the operation to restore the legitimacy in Yemen and to preserve the Arab identity.  
For hours there was nothing on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian armed forces spokesperson. News websites were quoting Mrs. El-Saeed from Kuwait as a military source. Yet thank Goodness at the evening Brigadier general Ahmed Samir published the Presidency statement as it is.
Later we knew from the Saudi armed forces spokesperson that only Saudi Arabia had all the fun today and other countries would join it later. So yes we have not participated in the air strikes yet. The Saudi army also stressed that there was no need for ground invasion at the time being.
Interestingly through the day we found huge support the operation from the unlike parties including the Muslim Brotherhood whether in Egypt or in Yemen or their supporters or their prominent figures especially Sheikh Youssef El-Qradawy. Of course the reason behind this is sectarian more than anything.
The Yemeni channels controlled and owned by Houthis have been shut down on Nile Sat and Arab Sat.
No more EL-Yemen channel on Nile Sat
"Hisham Al-Omeisy"
There have been many facts on Thursday.
I will speak about the Arab summit later on Friday as I want to sleep so much now.
Amazingly there is not much attention as  see in the world TV channels , may be because that news of the war in the Middle East has become something frequent and so it is another day in the boring Middle East. I can not blame them to be honest.
Of course this diagram by Karl reMarks summarizes the political situation perfectly. 
Karl reMarks's diagram of geopolitical relations in Mideast 

We leave sarcasm to reality. We are in a very critical time now in the Middle East as well the in the Muslim World. Let’s just pray for the Yemeni people in the upcoming hours because they are the ones who are paying the price just like the Syrians , Lebanese and  Iraqis. 

Operation Decisive Storm : Day 2

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Day Two from Operation Decisive in the Middle East with lots of updates and news.
President Mansour Hadi arrived safely from Saudi Arabia to Sharm El-Sheikh.
Egypt's President El-Sisi with President Mansour
at Sharm El-Sheikh airport "Egyptian Presidency" 
On Saturday the Southern Sinai resort city will host another one of those historical Arab summits.In my life time I witnessed several of those historical Arab Summits including that one in Baghdad and what followed it from an Iraqi invasion to Kuwait. Of course this history is well known.
Anyhow it is expected that the Saudi King himself will attend the opening of the Summit and will address the nation. Riyadh had a busy Friday even more than Sharm El-Sheikh as Prince Mohamed Bin Salman met with a number of high ranking defense officials in the countries participating in the Yemen Legitimacy coalition.
The young minister of defense met from Egypt the General Intelligence chief Khaled Fawzy.
Mohamed Ben Salman and Khaled Fawzy "SPA"
Now I am surprised that Egypt’s minister of defense or Chief of Staff did not go with Fawzy. I am even more surprised that the ministry of defense has not published a real statement about our military role. Instead the ministry of foreign affairs is doing this role.I do not know what to say.
Anyhow the Egyptian frigates have arrived on Friday to Ban El-Mandab strain. Till this moment the Egyptian media is repeating the claims that the Egyptian navy vessels made the Iranian vessels shit in their pants. 
US department of state secretary John Kerry spoke with the GCC leaders and I think that he agreed with them on what is next in a way or another.
In a very interesting development Pakistan seemed to be reluctant to participate militarily like the rest of the countries in the coalition after it was announced that it would participate by ground troops. On Friday Pakistani minister of defense Khawaja Asif stated that Pakistan would not participate in the military operation in Yemen but would defend Saudi Arabia if it is in any danger facing its territorial integrity. Asif said in front of the Pakistani parliament that Pakistan “was not prepared to take part in any conflict that would divide the Muslim world on sectarian lines.” I really respect those words and respect the fact the minister of defense in Pakistan speaks to the parliament about that matter in the first place.


Of course Pakistan got its own Shiite population and does not to be dragged to the Arab Sectarian shit because it has its own domestic shit to deal with. By the way I think you should read this Washington Post’s piece about the history of the military relations between Pakistan and the Kingdom. 
Interestingly I noticed that Saudi Newspaper Al-Madina published an infograph on its official twitter account included both Egypt and Pakistian as well the United States from the countries supporting the military operation in Yemen yet not participating.
Both Pakistan and Egypt are said in the Infograph “ready to participate”. This is more than interesting.
Technically Egypt is only participating for real with its naval forces. We have not heard anything about our air forces.
The media has been less enthusiastic about the war in Yemen because may be it is Friday.
Anyhow on Friday the media went on fire when BBC Arabia claimed that it knew from its sources in Beirut that the one and only notorious General Qasem Soleimani was in his way to Yemen.
BBC Arabic tweet that has been deleted later 
The Arab social media realm went on fire especially that this is the BBC.
The British network later said that it was trying to get a confirmation.
Hours later we found the most dangerous military man in the Middle East was sitting besides the Supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamini in a religious ceremony in Tehran.

Soleimani was photographed too many photos as I have noticed to prove that he was not in Yemen.
The leader of Hezbullah Hassan Nasserallah spoke in another lengthy speech attacking Saudi Arabia and claiming that Iran has never gave him any orders.
Interestingly his speech was not broadcasted by Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya or Sky News Arabia but rather on Hezbullah’s Al Manar TV and Lebanese Al-Mayaden. Man I still remember how much popular this man was in Egypt.
On the ground the coalition continued to hammer down the defenses and military posts of Houthis. Nevertheless Reuters report that the Houthis advanced in the East and South of Yemen.
Did I say that Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared on Friday and called for a ceasefire as well talks ??
Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier Friday in Sana'a 

Now before some claim that Houthis are the product of the Arab Spring, I would like to hint out that Houthis have been there before the Arab Spring for a long time and actually according to the timeline I made from Ahram Online’s chronology of Houthis’ insurgency in Yemen they have been there since 2004.

By the way the dates in that embedded timeline are not accurate because there is not month option.
Anyhow as you can notice every couple of months there has been fight between Houthis and the government led Ali Abdel Saleh or tribes.
Of course nobody is paying attention to the fact that there hundreds of thousands of Yemenis displaced from their homes thanks to all those fights and wars.

Sharm El-Sheikh Arab Summit 2015 : The usual historical summit

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On on Sunday Sharm El-Sheikh saw the conclusion of the annual Arab Summit. This time Egypt headed the summit and you can imagine how the local media dealt the matter as an evidence that Egypt’s President Abdel El-Sisi was leader of the Arab world. There had been very high expectations already in the Egyptian media describing as the most important historical summit attended by all the Arab heads of states…etc.
Day One Recap :
Despite we got too many important issues the Arab leaders should discuss in the meeting but everyone knows that the only thing to be talked about is Yemen and what happened and is happening in Yemen.
Nevertheless there were other issues on the agenda listed by the head of the summit Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The other two issues were :Founding a joint Arab military Force and the situation of Libya.
El-Sisi’s meeting with the Qatar’s Emir Prince Tamim was another important scene in the summit.
The Ruler of Qatar came to Egypt for the first time after recalling his ambassador from Cairo last February after rejecting the Egyptian air strikes in Libya. The two leaders met and acted warmly like nothing happened kissing each other in front of the camera and smiling. Prince Tamim addressed Abdel Fattah El-Sis as his excellency.
Tamim and Sisi 
It is worth to mention that Journalists like Yasser Razek who are close to Sisi’s administration claimed that the Egyptian president would not meet his Qatari guest earlier. That was not an official visit to Egypt by the way , the Qatari Prince was attending the summit.
TV hosts like Ahmed Moussa who used to call Tamim as gay said welcomed the arrival of the Prince. For awhile it seemed that Egypt and Qatar reconciled after all.
Of course the arrival of Prince Tamim was important to Egypt but it did not captured the attention of the world as the arrival of Yemen’s President Mansour Hadi. The runaway president showed up in the city of Sharm El-Sheikh. He came from Saudi Arabia.
There was a meeting held between Salman , Hadi and Sisi.

Sisi , Hadi and Salman "Egyptian presidency" 
Needless to say people were waiting to hear the words of King Salman of Saudi Arabia. Yemeni President Hadi and the Iraqi PM Fouad Masum. Iraq has already expressed its rejection to the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen.
The opening session of the summit started. The former head of the summit 1929-born Prince of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmed slammed the Arab Spring revolutions. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi expressed his support to the Saudi-led Operation in Yemen to protect the Arab identity, supported the military intervention in Libya, called for a joint Arab military force and called for a political solution in Syria. He also renewed his support to a Palestinian State whose capital is East Jerusalem and spoke about internet threat as tool to promote terrorism.“I just do not know what the problem of the military presidents of this country with the internet is !!”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expressed his sadness for not solving the Syrian conflict.   
After reminding Egypt’s president with the economic conference “and indirectly with the Saudi’s financial support to Egypt from what I see” , King Salman of Saudi Arabia focused in his speech on Yemen and how foreign parties instigated the Houthis mainly then he spoke about the Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.
Yemeni President Hadi also addressed the summit about his country’s new misery supporting the Saudi-led operation against Houthis.
As soon as the Yemeni president finished his speech , the King of Saudi Arabia left the summit returning back to his country. It was a strange scene on TV. King Salman walking away from the hall speaking with the Yemeni President and then El-Sisi accompanying him.
In less than two hours it was announced that Salman and Mansour left to Riyadh. It is kind of strange because I knew that a presser was planned for President Mansour on Sunday after the closing ceremony. The Yemeni minister of foreign affairs was left to represent his country.
Despite Qatar is participating in the Saudi coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen, Prince Tamim of Qatar said that Arabs should speak to Iran.
Iraqi PM Fouad Masum stated that his country would be Islamic State free within a year and his country and that Iraq called for a political solution in Yemen.
Mahmoud Abbas of Palestinian Authority said the usual speech about a Palestinian State whose capital is in East Jerusalem.
The UAE delegation did not include the usual big names as announced earlier in the Egyptian media.I am reading speculations about why the big names did show up. The Dubai Derby is not more important than the summit for real.
The King of Morocco did not come either despite that his country will host the next session of the Arab Summit in 2016.
Of course the Syria’s seat was empty.
Those were the important the speeches from my point of view and actually I believe that they introduced us to what happened next.
Now you must know that Iraq , Syria “El-Assad” and Algeria are calling political solution in Yemen. Oman did not participate in the operation. Saudi Arabia and the GCC are against political solutions in Syria. Most of the Arab countries care less about the military intervention in Libya. 
Interestingly later that leaks from the closed sessions afterwards stated that Saudi Arabia opposed the idea of establishing Arab Joint forces.
Prince of Qatar leaves and we do not know if the Qatari ambassador to Egypt returned back to Cairo or to Doha. 
Day 2 Recap :
The Closing session started. El-Sisi reads the declaration of the summit announcing that the Arab countries agreed on principle to establish Arab joint forces and that League of Arab States secretary general was assigned to follow up on that matter. According within a month the Arab countries has got the choice to join the forces and their chiefs of staff should meet for further discussion. Those Joint forces should be specialized in quick intervention against any kind of instability generally speaking.
Iraqi PM asked for a word and said that he had a comment. “The capital of Palestine is Jerusalem and not East Jerusalem” He said. It is worth to mention that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was criticized before by Arab Nationalists , Nasserites and Islamists for saying “East Jerusalem” instead Jerusalem like in the past.
A message from Vladimir Putin to the summit was read in the closing session calling for political solutions in Syria and Yemen.
The Saudi veteran FM Saud El-Faisal asked to comment on the message and OMG , this is the most interesting and best thing in the whole summit. In fragile voice El-Faisal slammed Putin and Russia directly.“How can Russia proposes a solution to what is happening in Syria when t is part of the Problem” He said.

Saud El-Faisal slams Putin

Of course Putin is the best friend of Sisi who believes that political solution is best thing for Syria.
And Morocco will head the summit next year. That’s it folks.
By the way the Arab Summits lost Qaddafi for real. With Qaddafi it has become very boring. We used to wait for Qaddafi’s crazy speeches or rather rants. They were so much fun.
In the end this is another usual historical summit. 

Operation Decisive Storm : Day 5

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The Arab Summit is over and Operation Decisive Storm is still on.
Today is the 5th day if I am not mistaken when it comes the Saudi-led operation.
In the morning the sad news came that not less than 45 civilians were killed in a refugee camp by the strikes of the Saudi coalition according to the International Organization Migration “IOM”. According from what I understand the Marzraq refugee camp is close to some Houthi Military location. The photos coming from the camp are completely graphic. Sadly enough the Pro-Saudi Media claimed at first that the Houthis were responsible for this tragedy. Of course after the statement of IOM , you hear nothing.
Thanks to the decade-long fight between Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh not less than 100,000 Yemenis are displaced from their original homes especially in the North.
Those thousands are joined by new thousands who are leaving Sana’a and Aden in order to avoid the air strikes.
The Coalition spokesperson the airstrikes will intensify , which means things will be even harder in upcoming days. Regarding the airstrikes on the refugee camp , the Saudi spokesperson said in his briefing to the press that “Houthis implant their forces in residential areas” and that the coalition air forces were targeted from that residential area earlier today.
Interestingly The Saudi Spokesperson that there had been no Naval action or infiltration on Monday when news reports spoke about How the Egyptian Navy warships shelled the Houthis outside Aden.
KSA and allies have to intensify the air strikes as the Houthis are reportedly gaining more land in some irony. Already the strikes on Monday included new city in Yemen after Sana’a , Saada and Aden : Taiz
After the press conference with coupe of hours new air strikes targeted the Houthis’ missiles and ammunition’ facilities in Sana’a, in the  Fag Al-Attan area. The explosion were heard all over the city. Homes and windows were reportedly shaken due to the explosions. Things are getting from bad to worse because tweeps in Sana’a say that the Houthis spread anti-aircrafts missiles on the houses of some districts in the Yemeni capital. This means more civilians will pay the price.
Here are collection of photos and videos showing the situation there.
Those photos are stills from a video shot by political and communication analyst Hisham Omeisy in Sana’a. The video is below.
Hisham Omeisy



Hisham Omesiy 
Hisham Omeisy
Those photos below were taken by photographer called Mohamed El-Ama in Sana’a 




Explosion in Sana’a

Explosions in Sana’a’s Faj Attan hill by Hisham Omeisy

ما يحصل في فج عطان انفجارات تهز البيت والعمارات

Posted by Hani Ali on Monday, March 30, 2015
This video was shot by Yemeni journalist Ali Al-Mujhad and was sent to Washington Post Beirut-based correspondent Hugh Naylor
I really hope that all parties involved in that fight to think about the civilian casualties especially the coalition. The more civilian casualties fall because of the fires of Operation Decisive , the more Houthis will gain public support.
On the other hand the archeologists are concerned with the fate of Old Sana’a which is on the UNESCO World heritage list. 
By the way before I forget regarding the Yemeni refugees , the Egyptian government has issued new restrictions on Yemeni visitors.
From @NoonArabia

The Yemen is currently unhappy

That thing was standing next to me on the car's window. I did not scream #EgyptianSpring #Egypt #Blogger #Insects #hornet [Flickr]

March 31, 2015 at 11:23AM

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That thing was standing next to me on the car's window. I did not scream #EgyptianSpring #Egypt #Blogger #Insects #hornet March 31, 2015 at 11:23AM via Instagram http://ift.tt/19vVdis

Operation Decisive Storm : Think About Humans For Once “Day 6”

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Operation Decisive Storm has not reached yet its goals as the Houthis and their allies in Yemen did not give up. On the contrary Houthis are advancing towards Aden. On Wednesday Mansour Hadi’s administration itself admitted that the Houthi militants reached to the center of Aden and demanded the people of Aden to resist them.
As far as I was told and Know the people of Aden aka the Southerners are angry that they are being dragged to the fight of the Northerners in the first place. 
Now this video will explain to Westerners simply what is happening in Yemen.
Yemen Explained- Al-Araby El-Gadid
On the other hand The International Committee of Red Cross “ICRC” announced that obstacles needed to be removed in order to deliver the much needed medical supplies and aids to Yemeni hospitals across the country. Among those obstacles : Allowing the ICRC’s planes to land in Yemen in order to deliver medical aids as Saudi air forces sealed off the Yemeni airspace. The coalition should ICRC planes land and help the Yemenis. 
I can not believe how the Saudi coalition did not let the ICRC plane land in Yemen to deliver the medical supplies in the first place. This is the stupidest thing ever. Just like in Syria the medical staff of ICRC is being targeted in the cross fire
There is no final or official death toll about the victims. The UN Human rights Council says that at least 97 Yemenis have been killed since last 27 March while the UNICEF says that at least  62 children were killed and 30 others were injured in the fight over the past in a press statement it released on Tuesday.



Important and alarming numbers about the humanitarian
Crisis in the unhappy Yemen. 
The explosions and projectiles are turning the life of Yemenis who do not fight inside the cities in to hell. It seems that Houthis find the best places to store weapons and missiles to be besides the residential areas and to install anti—craft missiles over houses with no regards what so ever to the human beings living in those buildings. 
Either ways there are hundred of thousands of Yemenis are paying and have been paying heavy prices for civil wars and proxy wars as well in the past 20 years with more 300,000 Yemenis displaced inside the country itself. 
Personally I began to notice a trend among Yemeni tweeps to reject that war altogether. They launched from couple of two days ago “#KefayaWar” hashtag
#Kefaya war by Yemeni Blogger "@Sala#Yemen"
And like what the Yemenis on twitter say Fuck Hadi , Fuck Saleh , Fuck Houthis … Enough wars.

Now moving to another problem we have got thanks to this war : The Egyptian expats in Yemen.
We got between officially 6000 to 7000 Egyptian expats in Yemen according to Egypt’s ministry of manpower and immigration while unofficial numbers speak about not less than 18,000 Egyptian citizens. Of course those Egyptians were forgotten when the Egyptian diplomatic mission to Yemen departed the country to Cairo after the storming of Houthis to Aden. Those Egyptians’ safety were not put in consideration either when Abdel Fattah El-Sisi decided that Egypt participate in the Operation Decisive operation.
Now after the Egyptian expats began to speak  in the media about their fear , the ministry of foreign affairs asks them to head to the Saudi-Yemeni borders and the Omani-Yemeni borders and to return back home to Egypt from there.
There is one problem in the whole issue or two problems to be precise : Saudi-Yemeni borders are located in the North where all the action is , already Saada governorate on the Saudi Borders is the hometown of Houthi movement and actually it got all the biggest share of strikes. On the other hand the road to Omani-Yemeni borders is controlled by Houthis, Ali Abdullah Saleh’s loyalists and bandits as well.
Needless to say the Egyptian expats are extremely worried that Egypt engages in ground operations because this means their safety will be in danger. 
It is the 6th day of that war and the Arab media or rather the media of both sides are lying as usual and spread awful sectarian vibes that we are going to pay its price sooner before later 

Operation Decisive Storm : The battle of Aden goes on and on

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First of all the UN announced that at least 516 Yemeni were killed and  not less than 17,000 were injured in the fight last week. 
Early Thursday a huge dust storm hit the Gulf States paralyzing life for many hours as well as it seems the Operations of Decisive storm.
For several hours we did not hear about air strikes like the past week instead we heard that that Houthis took over Aden and stormed the Presidential palace there for the the billion times. We also heard there have been huge street fights between the Southerners militias and Houthis as well the Pro-regime loyalists and Houthis.
Aden from the Sea on Thursday
Inside the city itself 
The fights were inside the residential areas. The residential buildings were being shelled by Houthis in day light.
Here is a video showing the fights in Aden streets exactly at Kraytor street.
Street fights at Kraytor street in Aden
The shelling reached to Aden’s “Serah” ancient fort.

Serah Fort on fire on Thursday "Mazen Al-Hebshi"
By the mid day Reuters spread that sources in Aden Port were talking about land forces embarking. Exactly they were speaking about tens of special forces from some country. The early reports claimed that they were Egyptians then Saudi forces. Hours later it turned out that those mysterious forces were actually Chinese forces that came on the board of a Chinese warship to evacuate the Chinese and Asian citizens from Aden Port.
The news from Yemen did not stop here. As more bad news kept coming. Earlier Thursday Al Qeada fighters stormed one of the major prisons in Yemen in Hadhramout’s Al-Mukalla freeing hundreds of their members.
Al-Qaeda shelling Al-Mukalla
They also stole the branch of the Yemeni Central Bank in the governorate and declared as An Islamist governorate.
Only by afternoon the airstrikes resumed.
Ironically and oddly enough Saudi Arabia , Egypt , Qatar, Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda are against Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh. It is a mad world indeed.
On Thursday also Saudi Arabia announced that it lost a solider “Soliman  Al-Maliki” in the fight against Houthis at the Saudi-Yemeni borders.
Late Al-Maliki 
Egypt also is said to lost citizen in the fight. According to Masrawy news website 46-years old Yahia Mostafa, a truck driver was killed at the Saudi-Yemeni borders. News websites in Egypt say that Houthi militants attacked him at the borders area and blew up his truck. His family is asking the government to retrieve his body.
The International Red Cross has suspended its operations in Yemen. Okay can the Arab League do something ?? That Arab Red Crescent Organization can send supplies to Yemen For God sake.
Since early Friday the Clashes continue in Aden.
The Coalition sent supplies from ammunition , weapons and medical supplies to the People’s Committees fighting the Houthis in the city.
A photo showing the supplies with their parachute
"Aden Al-Ghad" 
Here is the video showing the supplies
Of course the Houthis and Anti-Houthis forces took those supplies.
The huge sand storm is heading to Yemen by the way.

Random Notes On Kuwaiti Media, Our Yemen War 2 and Other irreverent Stuff

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If you think that it is awkward that the Egyptian media quotes Kuwaiti Journalist Fajar El-Saeed for Egyptian military news and updates then you have to think again. It seems that the Kuwaiti Media , not only Fajar El-Saeed will replace the official statements of the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson after all.
On  Wednesday the media was on fire and many news websites in Egypt and Yemen published news reports that Egyptian armed forces sent paratroopers to Yemen in a huge development. The source of that news is Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai.
On March 29 , 2015 the Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Egyptian paratroopers were dropped at the city of Mocha to secure its port as Bab El-Mandab strain. 
On March 30 , 2015 the Kuwaiti newspaper’s Cairo correspondent Ahmed Abdel Azim reported that Egyptian military units from Navy forces , air forces and ground forces arrived to Yemen according to anonymous Egyptian sources. He also claimed that 25 Egyptian jet fighters reached Yemen and participated in the air strikes targeting Houthi-controlled areas like in Sa’ada , Al-Malahiz and Taiz 
The report claimed also there were Egyptian ground forces fighting Houthis.
There has been no official comment about those claims whether from Egypt or Saudi Coalition till this day.
I remember when Operation Decisive Storm started , the Egyptian presidency made it clear that only the Navy forces and air forces are participating in the operation.
The role of the Navy forces is to protect Bab El-Mandab strain as announced. During then I remember sources told AFP or AP that 4 Egyptians warships were deployed to protect the strain.
There has been no official statement till this day from the Egyptian armed forces about the exact kind of participation in the coalition or the number of jet fighters or warships or even the number of Egyptian soldiers participating in the operation.  
Where is the transparency ?? I think Egyptians need to know the truth about our participation in Operation Decisive Storm. I do not know if I have to explain fundamental facts on why they need the truth.


Needless to say that sort of reports about Egyptian ground forces’ involvement in Yemen affect on the Egyptian expats in Yemen who are still there stuck in cities like Sana’a with no safe way out. The Yemeni Facebook pages share those unconfirmed news reports and the comments start pouring from the type “Let the Egyptians come and will dig their graves like in 1962” and that sort of talk.
Already I want to understand how the decision to participate in the Operation Decisive Storm has been taken. I want to understand the position of the Egyptian state from what is happening because I feel that I am lost.
I remember following the storming of Aden from two weeks ago the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs said that the reports of a military action by Egypt and GCC were inaccurate then next day we found out that Egypt was officially participating in a coalition that launched a military operation in Yemen !! Then  the Saudi media did not consider Egypt part of the coalition but rather like Pakistan was ready to participate and help the kingdom against the Houthis at the same the Egyptian media claims that the Egyptian navy kicked the ass of the Iranian navy.
At the same time we have complete silence when it comes to the army’s official media.
We are reading in the websites in the past few days that there are Egyptian ground forces in Yemen and then I find the President saying in a speech at some armed forces event that he was calling all the fighting parties in Yemen to be responsible !!
El-Sisi and SCAF on Saturday 
Mr. President officially we already took a side in that fight.
On Saturday he made short TV speech after his meeting SCAF after the Sinai attacks on Thursday where he made it clear to reassure that the security of Gulf was Egypt’s responsibility and that time was different than the one in the 1962. 

March 1963 the original Egypt's Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amar
explains to UN Under-Secretary Dr. Ralph Bunce the Egyptian operations in
Yemen Civil war 
Some consider that meeting and speech were a prelude for a ground invasion especially Egypt’s chief staff Mahmoud Hegazy's visit to Saudi Arabia in order to attend a meeting about that Future Joint Arab Forces.
Somehow I believe it has to do with Sinai more than Yemen this time.
I just do not know. The Pro-Sisi Media actually is sending mixed messages especially with the recent war of words between the Egyptian media and Saudi media “Needs a whole post about it” 
I do not understand exactly where we are standing from Yemen and the fight there for real. Personally I feel that El-Sisi and his administration did not want to join Saudi Arabia but had to because he does not want to lose the new King’s support especially in that critical matter. This is my own interpretation to the whole matter.
Needless to say sending our troops abroad got specific steps in the constitution. Yes El-Sisi replaces the Parliament as he got legislative powers but sending our troops over borders got specific rules if I am not mistaken according to the Constitution. In the first brief statement issued by the Egyptian presidency regarding Egypt’s military participation it was stated that the constitutional procedures “to send troops across borders” were met but there was no direct or explicit mention that El-Sisi headed a meeting for the National Defense Council.
According to Constitution 2014 , article 152  the President should seek the approval of the National Defense Council and cabinet as well in case of the absence of the parliament on sending our troops in combat missions beyond borders. Interestingly
Armed Forces’ chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazy was in New York attend the United Nations Chiefs of Defense Conference. He left Cairo on 24 March and returned back on 30 March. The Chief of staff is among the 12 members of the National Defense council should be present if the council convenes as far as I understand. This is a side remark.
It is worth to mention that El-Sisi headed a National Defense council meeting to discuss the air strikes on Libya in February after the murder of 20 Egyptian Christian workers by ISIS.
Again this is a side remark that should have been brought up since day one. We already know that Constitution is irreverent stuff for this regime.

Egypt's Renaissance " Nahdet Misr" statue made by Mahmoud Mokhtar in #Giza #Egypt #Blogger #Photo [Flickr]

April 05, 2015 at 12:10PM

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#Spring is here #Photo #Giza #Blogger #Egypt April 05, 2015 at 12:10PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1axDJne

April 05, 2015 at 12:49PM

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Egypt's Renaissance " Nahdet Misr" statue made by Mahmoud Mokhtar in #Giza #Egypt #Blogger #Photo April 05, 2015 at 12:49PM via Instagram http://ift.tt/1a3P51s

In the way to #Sokhna #Egypt [Flickr]

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DSC07985 [Flickr]

DSC07987 (2) [Flickr]

Blood Moon in Egypt ?

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Those photos are taken from Ain El-Sokhana , Suez governorate tonight. I though that Egypt would miss the Blood Moon which appeared for few minutes before the Moon would become what would refer to “ a 14th Night Full Moon” in our Egyptian culture. It is so bright right now.

DSC07987 (2)

DSC07985

DSC07971

#sea #hill #Sokhna #mount #Egypt [Flickr]

DSC08084 [Flickr]

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