The almost invisible hand of the US in Tunisia’s “jasmine revolution”

By Ein Katzenfreund | January 25, 2011

There is every reason to congratulate the Tunisian people for being rid of the dictator Ben Ali. His corrupt regime was a plague for the people and a shame for the country. The saga is that after Mohamed Bouazizi from Sidi Bouzid immolated himself, a heroic and protesting people managed to oust the corrupt dictator Ben Ali of the French client state using demonstrations and communicating via Twitter and Facebook. There is just one problem with this saga. It’s just one half of the truth.

This half of the truth says protests beginning in Sidi Bouzid spread accross the country, reached the capital Tunisia and ousted Ben Ali. Crucial in this process were a few internet activists for freedom of speech, transparency and democracy like @wedaddy, @slim404, @nawaat, @benmhennilina and @SBZ_news, which are all well connected to each other. These activists were spreading the news of the protests nationwide and made sure they reached the capital, using US based social media like Twitter and Facebook. Finally, after more than 70 deaths, the protests culminated in Tunis and forced Ben Ali to flee.

The other half of the truth is the covert hand of the United States, which planned, oversaw and directed the colored “jasmine revolution”. While the Tunesian people can rightly be proud to have become rid of Ben Ali, the helpful hidden hand of the United States may bring a high political price with it.

Wherever the United States has formed a colored revolution and successfully dominated  the post revolution process of building democracy, the outcome has been an ugly right wing puppet regime of the United States, and some of these pseudo democracies proved to be even worse than what the people had before. One may take as a reference war criminal Saakashvili of Georgia, NATO mad man Yushchenko of Ukraine or dictator Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan.

So, how can we help prevent Tunisia becoming a US puppet right wing pseudo democracy? First of all, make the almost invisible hand of the United States visible.

On January 7th, Elliott Abrams, GW Bush’s “Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy”, welcomed the collapse of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia a week before it happened:

“Tunisia, whose literacy rate has long been the highest in Africa at nearly 80% and whose per capita GDP is about $8,000, should have the ability to sustain a democratic government — once the Ben Ali regime collapses.”

This is an interesting statement. Most of the world expected at that time, that dictator Ben Ali would order security forces to strike hard under false security pretenses and have his police and military shoot the protesters down until the country would become deathly quiet. A “miracle” saved Tunisia from this fate. Tunisian military Chief of Staff Rachid Ammar sided with the protesting people on January, 13th, and forced the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali to flee with this historic decision. Thierry Meyssan says, before making this critical decision, Rachid Ammar had been contacted by Africom Commander General William Ward. Whether this claim is true or not, I do not dare to say, but it’s clear, that the Tunisian regime was so angry with the U.S. for backing the regime change that it had summoned Washington’s ambassador to Tunisia, Gordon Gray, days before Rachid Ammar made his historic decision to let the uprising succeed and I don’t believe in “miracles”, especially when they are predicted by regime change specialists of the U.S. government.

On January 15th, one day after Ben Ali fled, David Kenner was quoted at the elite foreignpolicy.com website; Scott Carpenter, GW Bush’s point man of his MEPI regime change program, confirming a hidden U.S. hand in Tunisia:

“We were doing a lot of stuff very, very quietly – not to say covert, but very quietly.”

Shortly after, Ben Ali’s prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi became the prime minister of the revolution and he promised to build a national unity transition government, restore freedom and hold elections soon. Rachid Ammar’s military forces successfully faught Ben Ali’s security forces and restored the public order. Union bosses formerly in bed with Ben Ali were to take part as ministers in the transition government and US-friendly opposition “leader” Ahmed Najib Chebbi became Regional Development Minister – in a cabinet where all crucial positions were held by former Ben Ali cronies in the RCD party. So the US seemed happy, the Tunisian revolution was labeled “Jasmine revolution” and it seemed to be a sure pro-US pro-Israeli finish, when after the promised elections Ahmed Najib Chebbi would be president.

Then something unexpected happened. The bases of the unions forced their bosses to resign from the transitional unity government and staged protests to oust Mohamed Ghannouchi and the whole corrupt RCD party formed by Ben Ali with him.

US-backed Rashid Ammar went to the protesters telling them to stop trying to oust the RCD cronies, telling them this would destroy the revolution. And while their fellow Tunisians protested on the streets to oust the RCD, the attitudes of pro-democracy and transparency Twitter activists, who managed the communication process of the Tunisian uprising, also changed. Very interesting tweets came from @Wedaddy, well funded by organizations like the right wing Bradley Foundation who tweets, though also fluent in French, Hebrew and Spanish, mostly in English and Arabic, at 25th Jan 2011:

A lot of soldiers worked VERY hard in the shadow, behind the scenes, to get google Facebook to intervene #sidibouzid

Soldiers worked in the shadow. Interesting statement for a pro-democracy and pro-transparency activist, isn’t it? And these shadow soldiers seemed to have a lot of influence, at least so much, that they were able to push Facebook to close some of their notorious security holes due to the Tunesian uprising, as the Zionist magazine The Atlantic happily laid out.

If the revelation of soldiers working in the shadow for regime change is interesting, the following statement of wedaddy from Jan 25th is even more interesting:

The day will come where we will tell the full story of what happened behind the scenes during #sidibouzid now isn’t the time.

So Ben Ali is definitely ousted, but it’s a bad time for the truth? That is completely contradictory to all stated democracy and transparency goals of the revolution. So, what is Wedaddy waiting for? For the end of the unexpected protests after Ben Ali was ousted, so he can be sure the pro-US forces have their power secured in Tunisia? Wadaddy doesn’t say, why is there no time for truth on processes behind the scenes after Ben Ali was ousted.

But there is another very interesting Tweet. Look at this Wedaddy tweet of 25th Jan 2011:

2 ppl who played a pivotal role in the electronic war against Ammar404 behind the scenes: @Rafik @netfreedom #sidibouzid

So, wedaddy speaks of two people played “a pivotal role behind the scenes” in the Tunisian revolution. Have a look yourself, who @netfreedom is: it is Robert Guerra, director of the Internet Freedom project at Freedom House soft war organization. “Freedom house” is the right wing US organisation close to the CIA which played a pivotal role in the string of “colored revolutions” of the last decade, which put US lackeys like war criminal Saakashvili into power and called it democratisation. And see here a fresh presentation of Robert Guerra, where he takes pride for what he calls the “Jasmine revolution”. Now you know, where the term “Jasmine Revolution” comes from. It’s a term of Freedom house, invented probably long before it happened.

So, can we now expect that right wing US protagonists will seek to destroy leftist movements, islamic movements and real unions and bring instead a rightwing US puppet regime in Tunisia? Have a look, who just went to Tunisia: Jeffrey Feltman. Jeffrey Feltman is the chief enabler for the Zionist apartheid state in the Obama administration, who orchestrated the bloody US-sponsored Israeli campaign of lies and terror against the people’s resistance in Lebanon – calling it “cedar revolution”. And what do Feltman and the US currently do in Tunisia? They are trying to destroy the influence of unions, leftists and islamic popular resistance.

Tunisia can still prevent the Sidi Bouzid revolution being stolen but the US and the Zionists are trying to steal the #sidibouzid revolution, to make a “Jasmine Revolution” out of it and to install a rightwing pro-zionist regime as they did in so many countries before which had colored revolutions with almost invisible hands of Freedom House and friends in it.

The following is a time-line prepared by Aangarifan:

• 2000 – President Ben Ali broke all diplomatic ties with Israel

• 2003 – Ben Ali refused to take part in either of the two wars against Iraq.

• 2009 – Sakhr El Materi, chairman of the Tunisia-US Parliamentary Friendship Group, met the US ambassador at Materi’s home (Tunisia: Dinner With Sakher El Materi – TuniLeaks) “The Ambassador raised economic liberalization, noting the importance of opening up to franchising.”

• 2010 – A report (Transformation: Tunisia) notes: “Despite the formal abolition of trade barriers for industrial goods with the European Union as of 1 January 2008, in practice, Tunisia has seen too little progress in terms of trade liberalization.”

• May 2010 – General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command, visited Tunisia and met Tunisian Minister of Defense Ridha Grira. “Minister Grira had recently returned from very positive talks in Washington with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.” (Tunisia – U.S. Africa Command Blog)

• October 2010 – Sakhr El Materi, chairman of the Tunisia-US Parliamentary Friendship Group, had talks with top Americans in the Pentagon and the State Department.

• November 2010 – A cable from the US embassy in Tunis released by wikileaks describes Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s family entourage as a “quasi Mafia” because of its “organized corruption”.

• 17 December – Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old university graduate, reportedly set himself alight in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid in a protest over unemployment. He reportedly died on January 5 from burn wounds.

• 24 December 2010 – an important Washington think tank (Institute for Policy Studiesa) had an article about a possible change of regime in Tunisia (Foreign Policy In Focus.): “It would do Tunisians, even (Tunisian President) Ben Ali, well to recall how many US allies different American administrations have discarded…”

• 7 January 2011 – the Council on Foreign Relations’s Elliott Abrams (Elliott Abrams: Is Tunisia Next?) seems to suggest that the fall of Ben Ali would be a good thing. “Tunisians are clearly sick of looking at all the giant photos and paintings of Ben Ali that appear on walls, posters, and billboards all over the country… “If Tunisia can move toward democracy, Algerians and Egyptians and even Libyans will wonder why they cannot.”

• 8-10 January – More people die in three days of rioting. Mysterious rooftop snipers are at work.

• 13 January – The army withdraws from Tunis, which remains occupied by special forces. The leaders of the North African branch of Al-Qaeda/the CIA call for the overthrow of Ben Ali.

• 14 January – Ben Ali leaves the country.