₦airaland Forum

From my inbox, read and enjoy.

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US Coup Backfires, But Most Media Outlets Unwilling to
Investigate, Cover Story
by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO - A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine "exposing"
a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance
movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate
about Washington's Middle East policies. Yet for more than
nine months, details of the plot were reported in the
independent Arabic press — and elsewhere — leading some
observers to ask: Where was the mainstream media?

"From the very beginning, Hamas has publicly insisted that
what happened in Gaza last year came in reaction to plans
being hatched against it," Tarek Abd al-Gaber, former news
correspondent for Egyptian state television covering Israel
and the Palestinian territories, told IPS.

Hamas has been widely blamed in much of the mainstream
media for carrying out a "violent coup" against the
Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip last summer.
After six days of heavy fighting, Hamas wrested control
of the territory from the government of PA President
Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the U.S.-backed Fatah movement,
in mid-June.

Hamas fighters quickly seized all official institutions
and symbols of governance in the Gaza Strip, including the
presidential residence in Gaza city.

Declaring a state of emergency from the Fatah-ruled West
Bank, Abbas announced the dissolution of the previous
national unity government, led by Hamas-affiliated Prime
Minister Ismael Haniyeh. Hamas leaders in Gaza, however,
refused to recognise the declaration, and have remained
in control of the territory.

Most western capitals, led by Washington, quickly condemned
the takeover, placing blame for the dangerous turn of
events squarely on Hamas. The refrain was taken up by much
of the western media, which consistently portrayed the
dispute as one between "extremist" Hamas in the Gaza Strip
and "moderate" Fatah in the West Bank.

Many Arab capitals, too, denounced Hamas's seizure of the
volatile territory. The day after the upset, Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak was quoted in the state press as
describing what happened as "the overthrow of Palestinian
legitimacy."

"What happened in the Gaza Strip was nothing less than a
military coup d'etat," Mohamed Basyouni, former Egyptian
ambassador to Israel and current head of the Shura (upper
parliamentary) Council's committee for Arab affairs, told
IPS at the time. "It was totally illegitimate."

Yet in its April issue, the U.S. leisure magazine Vanity
Fair makes a startling claim: that Hamas's takeover of
the territory was prompted by a secret U.S. plan aimed at
extirpating the Islamist group's leadership in Gaza.

In an article entitled 'The Gaza Bombshell', the magazine
purports to "lay bare a covert initiative" approved by the
White House and implemented by the U.S. State Department
"to provoke a Palestinian civil war."

Relying on confidential documents and former administration
officials, author David Rose writes that after Hamas's
unexpected victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative
elections, the U.S. administration drew up a plan to arm
Fatah cadres with the aim of forcefully removing Hamas
from power in Gaza. Under the terms of the arrangement,
Rose writes, Fatah received arms and financing through a
handful of Washington's Arab allies, including Egypt and
Jordan.

According to sources cited in the article, the plan was to
be jointly coordinated by U.S. Lieutenant-General Keith
Dayton and long-time Fatah strongman Mohamed Dahlan.

But the conspiracy was stillborn. After a Jordanian
newspaper leaked details of the plot, Hamas pre-emptively
seized control of Gaza on Jun. 14 and arrested much of
Fatah's leadership throughout the territory.

Instead of driving the Islamist group from power, Vanity
Fair writes, "U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently
provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza."

White House and State Department officials have strenuously
denied the article's claims. Nevertheless, the Gaza
"bombshell" has received wide coverage in the western news
media, with several commentators comparing the magazine's
"revelations" to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s,
which also involved the covert — and illegal — supply of
arms to the Middle East.

Yet according to many local observers, the existence of
the so-called "Dayton Plan" has been fairly well known
since the upset in Gaza more than nine months ago.

"Hamas has consistently and publicly stated that what
happened in June came in reaction to the Dayton Plan,
which aimed at the group's destruction," said Ibrahim
Eissa, editor-in-chief of independent daily al-Dustour,
which published Hamas's allegations last summer.

"But the group's claims received little coverage in the
mainstream Arab media — even (Arabic language news channel)
al-Jazeera didn't give the issue much attention," Eissa
told IPS. "The plot allegations were only covered in a
handful of independent newspapers and on websites
sympathetic to Hamas."


Abd al-Gaber agreed that Egyptian state media wholly
neglected to convey Hamas's point of view regarding the
reasons for the Gaza seizure.

"The official press took the U.S. line and simply blamed
Hamas for everything," he said. "The White House insisted
on calling Hamas's actions a 'coup' regardless of the
circumstances, and official media — in the west and in
the Arab world — repeated this mantra."

One notable exception to this was the Egyptian English-
language state broadsheet al-Ahram Weekly. In its Jun. 21
edition, only one week after the Gaza upset, the newspaper
quoted Hamas leader Yehia Moussa at length about the failed
plot.

"[U.S.-backed Fatah fighters] were planning to carry out a
bloody coup against Hamas involving the murder of hundreds
of people, including Hamas's political and religious
leaders," Moussa was quoted as saying. "But we managed to
thwart their plans before they could carry them out."

Nor did IPS miss the story. In August of last year, in an
article devoted to Fatah's declining popularity ('Bush
Could Have Given Fatah That Kiss of Death'), IPS explicitly
cited the Dayton Plan as a chief reason for Fatah's
deteriorating image on the Arab Street.

"Fatah's image has also been tarnished by revelations that
emerged in the immediate wake of the Gaza upset regarding
a failed plan to extirpate the Hamas leadership," IPS
reported from Cairo on Aug. 21. "According to Hamas
officials, the 'Dayton Plan' — named after U.S. General
Keith Dayton — had been scheduled to take place on
Jul. 13."

Citing Hamas spokesmen, the article noted that that the
operation "was to be led by Fatah-affiliated strongman
Mohamed Dahlan with logistical support from the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency."

The article went on to quote Essam al-Arian, a leading
member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement — which
controls a fifth of the Egyptian parliament and is
ideologically close to Hamas — as saying: "The so-called
Dayton Plan aimed to manipulate the Palestinians into
waging war against each other."

So why, then — if details of the U.S. plan were so readily
accessible for the last nine months — are Vanity Fair's
disclosures being treated by the mainstream media as new
information?

Mohamed Mansour, professor of media at Cairo University,
says the belated reporting proves the overwhelming bias
against Hamas in much, if not all, of the western media.

"Western media institutions do everything in their power
to tarnish the image of the Palestinian quest for state-
hood," Mansour told IPS. "This can only be attributed to
the Zionist influence on western, particularly American,
media — a fact that can no longer be debated."

Although the Vanity Fair article serves to vindicate
Hamas's Gaza takeover, Mansour went on to question the
timing of its publication.

"Why did the media take so long to break the story?" he
asked. "I suspect the article was only published now to
further aggravate the rift between Hamas and Fatah and
divert attention from developments elsewhere."

According to Eissa, Egypt's official press has yet to
mention the contentious Vanity Fair report.

"Even now, the state press hasn't reported on the Vanity
Fair story," he said, noting that al-Dustour, by contrast,
had published translated selections from the article in
the first week of March.

Eissa added: "Like much of the western media, the official
Arab press would rather ignore Hamas than publish stories
that might serve to justify the resistance group's
actions."

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You are welcome.

Take care and do have a wonderful week.

My worry is that from 2kva it becomes dangerous to maintain 12VDC as the current involved in any configuration becomes large when compared to lower configurations. A 5 kva 12VDC system will have at least 416 A where as the preferred 5kva 48VDC has about 104A to contend with.

Again when you parallel batteries it is true that the voltage remains the same but the problem is that paralleling 4 batteries to get say 12V 200Ah x 4 =12V 800Ah will mean that the charger will take at least 4 times the time it takes to charge a single battery to charge the 4 batteries connected in parallel.

Just go through these things and see how you can modify them so you don't have problems with your customers.

RuuDie:
@ Afam,

Please a li'l overview on Apache2triad, i'm sure you've used it. . . . . . are you saying that with this apache thingy installed on my Windows, i ain't g'onna need 2 install MySQL seperately ?
The documentation i read on it bemuses me some. . . . . .

If you install Apache2triad you will not need to install MySQL separately. Even PHP is installed for you. Good luck.

CAPACITY - PRICES

1,500VA - N40,000

2,000VA - N55,000

3,000VA - N75,000

5,000VA - N120,000

What are the DC Voltages for these inverters so that one can understand how many batteries one can use with them?

Was there any tangible evidence against Bamaiyi in the first place?

Keeping a man for close to 9 nines in jail without successfully convicting him is in itself a very unfair action.

ACT MY AGE? For responding to someone that clearly does not have a clue about what he is talking about?

Or do you subscribe to people misleading others on this forum.

Anyone that posts nonsense should as a matter of urgency be corrected lest people get the wrong impression that the forum is made up of people that know next to nothing.

my2cents:
he heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (my laff don dey reach london )h!!

Una never finish this one https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-115434.0.html and now una wan start another one.

Reminds me of some people in the village that are only happy when other people have problems. Poor style.

mambenanje:
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/industry-news/php-vs-java-vs-ruby-000887.php

And he points us to a website running on PHP, wonders shall never end.

kazey:
You don't know what you are talking about, and because of that I wont waste my time explaining the dynamics of programming languages, and how they are used for different purposes etc.

Exactly, he wants someone to explain to him and yet he is not humble enough to ask for help.

I noticed this sometime ago and stated that he was obviously new to the web. He disagreed, well maybe he spends most of his online time watching porn otherwise someone that claims to know shouldn't even be asking about the meaning of web 2.0 let alone making the ridiculous statements he made on this particular thread on PHP.

And to imagine that this clown was offering useless advice on how I should develop a website, nothing wey person no go see for nairaland.

Go out there are learn what you don't understand. Trying to use ill thought out comments to get enlightenment on issues won't get you anywhere.

PHP is for startups. This is the most stupid comment I have read on this forum by someone that thinks he knows.

Sure. Also, keep providing unsolicited advice to people even when they have asked you to keep your advice to yourself. Na by force?

Uche2nna:
Hmmmmm, Afam
Where u go hide since?

Hide ke? I dey. Just that the rate at which people were manufacturing new user names once they are banned was getting rather high and before you know it you may be arguing with just one person using 3 different usernames.

Pat Utomi again?

What would he have done?

We talk as if the $16B has gone down the drain forgetting that some of the projects have reached up to 75% completion in terms of design and procurement as actual construction ( which is what people see on site) usually accounts for less than 30% of the money in such contracts.

Unfortunately, we cannot compromise on the quality of our inverters and reliable components cost money.

1 year full warranty can only be offered when you are sure of your product and I really do hope that we could reduce the cost of our inverters.

Thanks for your kind words.

damolat:
Afam, at the beginning of this thread, I quite respected you and was critically concerned about what decisions you made and why you made them. I then wasted my time trying to debate reasonably with you. Now, unfortunately, you have turned yourself into a laughing stock. I would express my honest opinion, in that you should sift through this thread in your spare time, get rid of all the insults and attacks and guard jealously all the advices and tips given you so that it can in the long run, make you a better person.

My dear, I don't need advice from an idiot like you.

You have been writing nonsense because I disagreed with an advice of yours even when I thanked you for giving the advice because it was the right thing to do.

Go straight to hell and try to become a better person yourself, stop bothering about other people hypocrite like you.

Let the respect you claimed you had for me purge you for ever, it is people like you that are very poisonous and petty, silly dog.

Done with the reviews, thanks.

user credentials changed.

kazey:
hmm what happens to IT consultants that need to get paid?

http://www.justwebservices.com/consulting.php

The link above basically answers the question.

@my2cents,

Thanks a lot. Will sort them out asap.

NB: The admin login credentials have been changed as site wide changes/updates could be implemented even when not desirable.

Will point the client to the web version and see comments they will come up with.

Thanks to everyone that took time to see the system.

Sorry for not being too detailed.

It is actually a system based on a client that wants to be able to manage 1000s of CVs, they recruit for organisations so want to be able to retrieve CVs matching certain criteria from time to time and knowing the status of CVs submitted for certain projects.

Basically the CV and Tracker are all that would have sufficed but I figured they would be better off with a complete system including managing clients, projects and even users as against only the admin running the stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to see the system.

NB: About my comments, it is clear why I made them because it seems some of us are more interested in blaming anyone that responds to attacks rather than blaming the people that initiate attacks.

Hello,

Could anyone review the CV management system meant for internal use (but of course would work online) at www.nayourshop.com ? Project has taken 3 days already and I hope it would be completed today.

I only uploaded the system to an idle website for the owners to be able to view and make comments.

NB: Comments are welcome on the functionality of the system and any attacks on the poster will be responded to in kind.

User area | www.nayourshop.com/index.php

afam - username
afamdeep - password

or

kenneth - username
kennethdeep - password

Admin area | www.nayourshop.com/admin

admin - username
adminpass - password

Once the functionalities are ok the look and design will follow based on client preferences.

tundewoods:
Silence and Maturity are both golden and rare.
Not all of us are gifted with it, keep talking na you get your mouth, Enjoy !

Thanks and I am beginning to enjoy this whole thing.

Well, people are bound to be philosophical when they are not the ones being attacked or insulted.

When people insult you may you have all the grace in the world to ignore them.

I don't have neither do I need that type of grace.

If the forum is not ok then leave the forum and focus on other sections where they show maturity by ignoring all insults.

Sometimes I am pissed off at the level of sycophancy and hypocrisy people display and I hope this does not replicate in real life.

@Farriel,

Once people learn to stop insulting others for whatever reasons.

You can disagree or oppose anyone without resorting to insults.

And so far it is working. You cannot solve a problem by running away from it, you tackle it squarely and decisively.

It seems those that are quick to resort to insults really don't have anything to show for what they are bragging about as has been shown by timmy who now has to claim he designed websites he never designed.

If wishes were horses,

I guess I am really enjoying this anyway as many of the people insulting others have a way of displaying their stupidity.

For someone to descend so low as to show another person's website as his work just to have a portfolio I really believe we have dogs here, no doubt about that.

Bring it on, you shall always get responses in kind.

@smartsoft,

Unless we like lying to ourselves the best way to resolve issues is to apportion blame appropriately and in doing so you don't blame someone that is being attacked, rather you blame the person attacking.

But if you are disappointed in me that I responded to him and other idiots like them then feel free as I will not make you happy by keeping quiet and having dogs insult me simply because I put up a website for review even when facts support the position that they do not have better projects or even organized websites.

Spending less than 10 minutes on a website and seeing very shameful and disgraceful errors including outright lies where other people's projects are listed as his? Is there no shame in people any more?

It is this type of frustration and desperation that makes people go into armed robbery and ritual killing, too bad.

mambenanje:
@Afam and Timmy
I think you guys have had personal problems before because I don't understand why you guys are fighting rightnow
the reason all of us are talking on this post is because Afam posted a site for review and frankly speakin the sites design was Crap which Afam himself had accepted but if you guys continue then I would like others to see the two company sites

Afam: http://www.justwebservices.com/

Timmy: http://www.techimpactwebs.com/

looking at the two portfolios if I was to hire somebody for my next project I will most probably call in Timmy because people (users) don't care if is php or xxxx running the sites or how complicated the algorithms are if the site is not presentable the codes and algorithms are wasted. infact users don't care about the codes they care about what appeals thats why linux is still not taking the market from windows on the desktop. Design first the codes after
if you want attack me bring it on. but Afam don't think you can attack me on anything infact don't waste your time

Mr, I didn't know you were stupid enough not to know who the aggressor is.

Your comment on why linux is not taking the market from windows is another blockbuster nonsese from your stable, always talking about things you know very little about.

The problem with a lot of Nigerians is hypocrisy. When I was being insulted and attacked for posting a website for review I am sure you guys were enjoying it, now I responded to someone who displays other people's websites as his and you all start talking about stopping, dogs are indeed better.

@smartsoft,

My reply also applies to you.

I respond to insults. I never insult people but have a right to defend myself.

The truth of the matter is that people always want to feel good with themselves by trying to put other people down, if that pleases you be my guest but insult me I will respond in kind, period.

The level of hypocrisy here is stinking to high heavens.

@timmy,

You have zero credibility, stealing someone else's job by claiming you developed it just to boost your portfolio?

That is criminal and I am certainly not surprised.

The good news is that clients these days take time to attend to details otherwise people like you will continue to defraud clients by even claiming to have developed websites he had nothing to do with.

Guy, I see you as a common criminal.

Good luck.

@abhosts,

U sure have eyes for quality websites. Why are you embarrassing timmy like this?

http://www.covenantuniversity.com/ is the 800+ static website, thanks for pointing me to his portfolio.

However, the website is still opening (over 4 full minutes), I guess I need to go take a bottle of fanta outside and chat with some friends before I can view the website.

How come I am seeing the exact picture (the girl with the pony tail hairdo) on this 800+ static website guru that was showing on smartsoft's website? This girl go dey cry by now. So much so for web designers and bragging rights.

Well I found the following under 6 minutes, only God knows what I would have found if I had stayed longer

http://www.techimpactwebs.com/portfolio/fidelitypensionmanagers.com - 404 Page not found

http://www.covenantuniversity.com/colleges/index.html - As static as it was since 2006, check the copyright information

http://www.techimpactwebs.com/portfolio/index.php?name=uba%20insurance - ends here (http://www.ubainsurance.com/) make una help me see how ubainsurance website come end up for hia. Needless to say the company refused to renew any agreement with the 800+ static website champion

http://www.techimpactwebs.com/portfolio/index.php?name=cwg - web development for the http://www.cwlgroup.net/ is certainly not by timmy as he is claiming but by http://www.aurora-it.us/. Check the site credit.

It seems that almost every page has its own problem to contend with and this guy is looking for a website to revamp when his website is not organized? Na wah oo

His main website is as current as 2006-2007 as in copyright info. Little wonder timmy was looking for in house web designers. Add web programmers put and stop displaying websites that have long expired in your portfolio.

Again, timmy should be able to state exactly what he did for each project lest he keeps adding other peoples project simply because he disccused with them about the projects.

I know enough not to design a 800+ static website and stupidly brag about it.

Dry cell batteries may or may not be deep cycle batteries.

Deep cycle batteries are manufactured with thick plates and they can withstand frequent charging and discharging cycles without harming the batteries.

We don't sell batteries, however the best (based on availability) that I can recommend now is from Asia (www.sunnyway-battery.com). The importer sells for N45k but if I am to get it for you I will charge you N48k due to the cost of transportation from his base (Ojo) to my office at Ikeja.

12V 200Ah batteries with 10years design life that means you will use the batteries for quite a while before having any problems whatsoever.

Some of them actually run businesses in their dreams. People that have never used the computer to do anything useful but will have all the advice in the world to offer others.

It's like the money doubler looking for who to help when in fact he needs all the help he can get.

So the 800+ static website is now dynamic. How? Did you replace the word static with dynamic and expect the site to become dynamic?

You are waiting for a list from me, I think there are better ways to get clients than depending on this method even though I am sure no client will want a 800+ static website, trust me on this one.

What is the site address again?

Actually I am trying to see if the national assembly can make design of 800+ static website punishable because you are a complete embarrassment to IT as a whole.

I got work for you, I need a 900+ static website that will be updated every day, send your quote or rather paste your quote here, olodo.

timmy:
You know what? ive decided to write one of your clients a revamp proposal of one of your dirty works and guess what? il be duin it for free, because im so sure they just might not be able to afford me. if you've got the ball, list out any of your jobs, letme choose the one il revamp,

Ok, but first revamp the 800+ static website first and I will take it from there