Dear Editor,
US backed dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, fled Tunisia after two decades of totalitarian rule. Tunisians themselves sent him packing to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not surprisingly, Washington, Paris and London were all silent during the populist people’s movement that brought an end to the Ben Ali dictatorship.
Washington is busy assessing its next move since one of its staunchest allies in North Africa has fallen victim to a popular uprising, and there may be more. This North African earthquake is having aftershocks in Algeria, Egypt and Morocco where totalitarian regimes have oppressed the masses for over half a century.
Finally, Tunisians are tasting freedom, something that the United States’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) couldn’t predict. It is alleged that Ben Ali hosted secret US detention camps, and there is speculation that more exist in Algeria and Morocco holding Islamist terrorists. Under the global war on “terror,” dictators around the world have had a new lease on life, but in particular, North African dictatorships are becoming more and more brutal.
Al Jazeera, the so called ‘Bin Laden’ 24-hour news network was expelled from Tunisia during the Ben Ali dictatorship. It’s the only credible news network in the Arab world, and the Arab masses are being revolutionized because of it. The masses of Arabs are glued on Al Jazeera. This is what I witnessed while living in the Middle East. Al Jazeera’s offices have been closed in a number of Arab countries, including Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, because those regimes fear that the masses will be enlightened.
I have visited Tunisia as well as many other Arab/Muslim countries (Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and the Palestinian territories). The region is infested with dictatorships, the Gulf may be an exception. Gulf Emirs and Sheiks are very popular and liked by the masses from my observations, having lived in the region for four years. It’s up to the people of the Middle East and around the world to seek changes from inside.
It is obvious that the West only pays lip service to their ‘human rights and democracy’ mantra. Iran, the Sudan and Syria are the only nations in the Middle East that are vilified and demonised, and the West is loud and bold in supporting democratic moments and protestors in those countries. The United States and the European Union (EU) do not back democratic movements in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia because these are client states of the US. Now that Tunisia has exploded, Egypt and Algeria may be next, and their brutal dictatorships are frightened. Under those totalitarian regimes the masses can’t afford to buy khubs (bread).
But we hear no condemnation of political persecutions, ballot rigging, detentions, executions and cold-blooded killing of protestors in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. The US is absolutely silent. The world has become too familiar with these ugly double standards. The United States support of some brutal dictatorships in the Middle East is a major reason why the US is growing more unpopular in the Arab streets.
Yours faithfully,
Ray Chickrie
