by Scott Creighton
“Tunisia’s government has collapsed, partially due to food price inflation and unemployment, but also because of WikiLeaks.” Business Week / Information Clearinghouse
“Rather, WikiLeaks acted as a catalyst: both a trigger and a tool for political outcry. Which is probably the best compliment one could give the whistle-blower site.” Foreign Policy
“The truth is: this is a major, er, coup for Wikileaks and the transparency it promotes – especially against tyrants like Ben Ali.” Andrew Sullivan
Unless you’re a blatant sycophant just looking for something to praise Assange for these days, you are not going to come to the conclusion that this is a coup “for Wikileaks” and it most certainly was not “triggered” by Wikileaks either. That is, you won’t come to these conclusions unless all you read are the writings of these types of sycophantic Assange-worshipping opportunists.
These riots and this revolution were caused by crony capitalism and the neoliberalization of Tunisia at the direct expense of the vast majority of her people.
Mass unemployment and recent food shortages set in motion a tide that was not to be reversed. Tunisia was a tinder-dry field just waiting for a spark and no matter how many Assange zealots try to tell you otherwise, it wasn’t Wikileaks that set it off.
This revolution was years in the making and it was set off, not by the playboy millionaire living in a mansion in the UK, but rather by a 23-year-old student, Mohamed Bouazizi, who was trying to eek a living selling produce on the street who lit himself on fire on Dec. 17th 2010 because the police shut down his only means of supporting himself leaving him hopeless with nothing. That was Dec. 17th, 2010. The current revolution, the Jasmine Revolution, is credited as starting on Dec. 18th 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, the same location that Mohamed Bouaziz sold fruit in and set himself ablaze in.
On January 4th 2011, Bouaziz died from his wounds and that set off the final wave of protests which eventually led to the corrupt dictator, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, leaving for good. Go here to view photos of the revolution.
But leave it to Assange and his apologists to try to take credit for the courage and the sacrifice of yet another young man, just like they have with Bradley Manning.
Tunisia just swore in their 3rd president in 24 hours. A revolution overthrew the corrupt incumbent, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali who had been the defacto dictator of that country for 23 years. The prime minister of Tunisia, Mohamed Ghannouchi, had stated yesterday that he was taking over, but it turns out that the Prime Minister is not second in line of succession according to the Tunisian constitution, so the Speaker of their lower House of Parliment, Fouad Mebazaa, is being sworn in today.
The rejecting of Ghannouchi as Ben Ali’s replacement is a definite set-back for the powers in Washington. Ghannouchi has been a technocrat serving the Ben Ali regime and the elites in Tunisia in one fashion or another for decades. He’s been Prime Minister since 1999, Minister of Finance from 1989 to 1992, and Minister of International Cooperation from 1992 to 1999. The people of Tunisia didn’t want to replace one pro-Western corrupt crony with another, no matter how many Wikileaks cables tried to support that very conclusion.
“The man now president, Mohamed Ghannouchi was profiled in January 2006 in a secret US cable in 2006, recently released by Wikileaks. “A technocrat and economist, Ghannouchi has served as prime minister since 1999. Is rumored to have told many he wishes to leave the government but has not had the opportunity. Length of his service as PM also suggests Ben Ali [president until resignation] does not view him as a threat and he is unlikely to be viewed as a qualified successor. However, average Tunisians generally view him with respect and he is well-liked in comparison to other GOT and RCD [ruling party] officials.” Guardian
ForeignPolicy.com comes to the same conclusion that I have…
“Ghannouchi is not necessarily any more popular than Ben Ali, though he’s not nearly as tainted by the lurid tales of corruption and excess that so damaged the ruling family. But Tunisians certainly don’t respect the prime minister; they call him “Mr. Oui Oui” because he’s always saying yes to Ben Ali.” ForeignPolicy.com
Tunisia is facing a tumultuous new beginning. If they don’t select what Washington considers to the right replacement for Ben Ali in the upcoming emergency elections, you will probably start hearing about “al Qaeda” in Tunisia in the days and weeks that follow. Bet your bottom dollar that the spin doctors and propagandists are already booking flights into Tunisia to help run the campaigns of a few of the globalist’s favorite candidates.
Cross your fingers for the people of Tunisia. What they took back by force the neoliberals will surely look to reclaim by stealth and deceit… just like they did here in the U.S. with Product Obama.
Whatever happens to them, they took a huge step. They defiantly rose up against an entrenched power and declared they would take it no more. Many paid with their lives. Far too many. One lit a fuse by sacrificing his life and though he will never know it, he gave his nation a fighting chance at real change.
Don’t allow these Assange apologists to tarnish the history of what has happened in Tunisia. Don’t allow these propagandists to hijack a real, organic revolution for their own selfish propaganda.
When you hear someone claim that this was a Wikileaks Revolution, you tell them “no. This was a Tunisian Revolution. This was a People’s Revolution. This was Mohamed Bouazizi’s Revolution”. This was Mohamed’s Revolution.
Filed under: Mohamed Bouazizi, Tunisian Revolution, Wikileaks CIA Honeypot
Very interesting article. I have generally agreed with everything so far by Scott Creighton.
Another blog I respect and enjoy, aangirfan always has great research and informative posts. He has been covering Tunisia for a few weeks, and has several great articles up now.
His take on this is the polar opposite of this one.
He suggests the Soros empire has been a big part of numerous fake revolutions, and that this Tunisian mess is about the CIA and Israel taking control.
Color me undecided at this point.
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/
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Somebody
aangirfan is pretty much right on the money. Yes, many of the so-called color revolutions were staged attempts (successful or not) to implement a regime change in some targeted country for the good of people like Soros and the rest of the globalists. The Green Revolution in Iran comes to mind because that one was heavily blogged about by Andrew Sullivan, one of the authors I quoted at the beginning of this article.
But aangirfan is only telling you PART of the story in his reporting…
Take a look at what he does with his earlier article…
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/01/cia-wrecks-another-country.html
Here is his quote from TIME magazine…
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1678272,00.html
and this is the actual quote from TIME…
notice he leaves off “and trade with the West”?
Tunisia is a neoliberalized country. Just like aangirfan points out, many US and British multinationals had come to Tunisia to take advantage of cheap labor. That TIME magazine article he quotes was from 2007 and they were praising the business friendly atmosphere created by Ben Ali and the rest of the cronies over there.
read what aangirfan didn’t mention from that article…
Back in 2007, the powers that be were warning Ali that he was going to have to open up his society, just a little, in order to avoid what happened these past two months.
I think they were trying to install Mohamed Ghannouchi in his place in order to maintain some kind of control on the situation after Ali was ousted but that didn’t work out for them either.
I would not be at all surprised to see them painting the next leader, if he isn’t part of their crony system, as a “terrorist” from the Muslim Brotherhood. They will need justification to go in with the military to restore order.
notice, that is exactly what aangirfan was writing about.
Here’s what Hezbolla says about the revolution in Tunisia, from Uprooted Palestinian website…
“15/01/2011 Hezbollah expressed on Saturday its “pride in the Tunisian people’s uprising which paves its way towards the hoped-for freedom,” calling on Arab leaders to “draw lessons from what happened in Tunisia.”
In a statement it released, Hezbollah said it respects and appreciates the people’s will that amazed the world through its strength, unity and cohesion. “This is a proof that truth rises from the people and reflects its free will, not the foreign powers.”
Hezbollah said it’s the Tunisian’s people right to choose their representatives and elect whoever they want to lead the country.”
http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2011/01/hezbollah-urges-leaders-to-draw-lessons.html
now, unless you think Hezbollah is in the pockets of the U.S. and Israel, …
I read that Tunisia exploded because of hyper-inflation per food access. While the ruling family owned most of everything.
Like what is well underway here in the USA. That’s what I believed of what I read, anyhow. More capitalism, less freedom, less food. Billionaires too big to fail, little kids too small to notice. Until they’re your kids, it seems.
Yeah. The next step here in the states will be to allow the states to fail that way they can pass the neoliberal austerity plans on a state by state basis. follow that up with Obama pushing his plan to defund the department of education so they can privatize all those dollars as well. and still the people in this country swoon over his speech at a memorial pep-rally
Good info Willy, thanks.
“When you hear someone claim that this was a Wikileaks Revolution, you tell them “no. This was a Tunisian Revolution. This was a People’s Revolution. This was Mohamed Bouazizi’s Revolution”. This was Mohamed’s Revolution. ”
Tear.
Great article.
Well, it sure as hell WAS a Mossad and CIA operation.
And since they are much more closely connected to wikileaks (their creation and asset) I won’t tell them no.
This was no people’s revolution. It was a classic Soros orchestrated coup to benefit the USA and Israel.
Free clues…….http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/
many people are getting confused by all this simply because prior to the final push, the neoliberals figured they had to get rid of their front man in Tunisia.
If you take the time to look at the dates of the quotes people are supplying you will find that they are mainly after the Dec. 18th 2010 uprising began.
The CIA and the powers that they work for aren’t stupid people. Once they understood that they couldn’t regain control of the country one way, they opted for another. In this case, they started talking about removing the dictator after it was clear he could no longer remain in power in any way that would leave him reputable after it was all done. So they prepped the next in command, in this case, it was the Prime Minister who tried to take power the other day. Turns out, that wasn’t constitutional. So, the head of the lower house took over as per the constitution.
Now the people there are still angry with good reason. That guy is not much better than the one they outed and they are going to have to try and fight for a real election, this time, with the political party that had been denied its participation in the last election… the most popular party in the country.
We will see about that.
Think about Hilary Clinton running around warning the other puppet regimes in the region last week. She was telling they they stood a chance of having the same thing happen if they don’t institute some kind of cosmetic social reforms. Now the important thing here to remember is that she was making those speeches prior to the recent overthrow of Tunisia.
How did she know? Because she is in the State Department and they keep up to date on developments like this. PLUS it was in the majority of the newspapers across the world. Just not in ours.
Truth is, they knew Ben Ali was doomed. Hell, that is pretty much what the Wikileak memo was saying… back in 2007! The guy was nearly as bad as Suharto and his family was just about as corrupt.
So yes, they knew it was happening and they tried to mitigate their losses as best they could. They tried to install their number 2 choice, but that backfired and he wasn’t made president.
So now, what do they do? Well, they do their best to make it look like the entire revolution is illegitimate in the eyes of the west….
and it looks like they are already off to a good start.
You’re quoting a wikileaks article from 2007 to prove Ben Alli is a bad guy?
The record of prosperity, women in important positions, life expectancy, education and religious freedom in Tunisia is the envy of the Arab world.
Ben Ali is guilty of trying to remain in power. Same as Castro.
Better a dictator who loves his country and his people and opposes foreign intervention, than the appearance of democracy with the usual suspects calling the shots from behind the curtain.
This was a coup, not a peoples revolution.
Free water……..http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/01/cia-ps-op-in-tunisia.html
C’mon, all you horses, drink up!
“You’re quoting a wikileaks article from 2007 to prove Ben Alli is a bad guy?”
uh, actually… I didn’t say anything like that. I simply mentioned the cable to show you that the state department knew they were going to be having trouble with their asset/puppet in Tunisia a long time ago. This is the exact same thing that they were saying just before Ben Ali was overthrown.
oh wait a minute… you are saying Ben Ali was one of the good guys? Really?
Ben Ali is the same as Castro huh?
Does Castro have a deal worked out with the state department to interogate and hold black bag detainees? Does Castro meet once a year with the state department to work out security details and concerns?
[15] See United Nations report on secrete detention practices
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-42.pdf
[17] Background Note: Tunisia, U.S. State Department, 13 October 2010:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5439.htm#relations
[5] World Bank Indicators: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.MA.ZS/countries/TN?display=graph
[6] Joël Toujas-Bernate and Rina Bhattachary, Tunisia Weathers Crisis Well, But Unemployment Persistsa. IMFSurvey Magazine: Countries & Regions , 10 September 2010:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2010/car091010a.htm
Ben Ali is the same as Castro huh? I don’t think so.
Think Cuba is hooked up with the IMF and World Bank? Ben Ali was…
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5439.htm
any other questions? or maybe you want to quote aangirfan’s Tweet that someone sent suggesting Mohamed Bouazizi is still alive as more “proof”?
Now, all that said… kinda makes this statement of yours seem a little off, doesn’t it?
The “usual suspects” were calling the shots in Tunisia under Ben Ali’s reign. Hell, they were partnered up in the GWOT AND had the IMF there signing new deals every single year since 2002 if I am not mistaken.
Hell, Ben Ali’s son got in on the privatization sweepstakes when he bought up a state owned bank and sold it immediately to a foreign country….
so, unless you want to show me where Castro is hooked up with the US State Department working defense deals and helping with the rendition programs while also in bed with the IMF and World Bank and a founding member of the WTO…. I would say… you are wrong on this assessment. nothing personal.
You are bending over backwards to prove Ben Ali was a bad guy and that this revolution was a people power issue.
Perhaps you have let go of the people’s revolution idea. Your repetition that this was truly a peoples revolution, organic and real……..then the CIA tried to catch up and get on board………..is simply not credible. This was a Soros CIA Mossad coup. Lets get that out of the way early and agree on that, shall we?
Moving to the real issue. Ben Ali, good guy or evil dictator and puppet of CIAMossad?
I am not prepared to go the wall defending Ali, but I am even less willing to go with your black and white assessment of him. I have been keeping an open mind on this and read many informative summaries of this over the past two weeks. You seem to be selling an idea, without room for middle ground. I have at times leaned your way, but your rigid views in this fluid situation seem odd.
Castro over the years has done many cruel things and his jails were most certainly home to many peaceful political dissidents. I am a huge fan of Castro, but I am not naive enough to think he never abused people and human rights to prevent dirty spies from the US/Israel empire from infiltrating.
I have been to Cuba 4 times, Morocco, Lybia and Egypt, but never Tunisia. The CIA and Mossad harass these small countries for decades, they never quit, they use front groups calling for human rights, they stir up all kinds of trouble with fake opposition parties.
Castro knows when you fight a dirty villain like the USA, you do not survive if you fight fair. Fight dirty, trust no one. This is the necessary paranoid mind set of any benevolent dictator who wishes to save his nation from the evil empire, the USA.
Ben Ali played ball, he kissed ass and lived to fight another day. In that sense he is like Castro. Limited victories, preventing the evil empire from taking control, a true walk on the razors edge for Castro or Ali.
I am keeping an open mind on Ben Ali. Those who demonize him without context, in the end allow everyone to view this Soros fake revolution as good or benign, instead of viewing it as a massive crime and an illegal coup.
Thanks for the nothing personal comment, appreciated. For now I won’t say much more on this. After a few more days of watching things unfold, I will reaffirm my views or make clear that your views on Ben Ali were correct.
Still undecided, but enjoying the debate.
you seem to be forgetting one key thing… Castro, say what you will about him, was certainly not aligned with the US, the IMF, the Global War on Terror, or the World Bank.
Ben Ali most certainly was. He was aligned with all of them. He had opened up the country to neoliberal process, and his people were suffering for it. Why is it that you failed to even mention any of that research I put up there for you?
You seem to have forgotten all of that in your search for the middle ground.
The state department was trying to keep their grasp on Tunisia and they are still trying to keep their grip on Tunisia.
People there are still in the middle of a revolution because after the new president was sworn in, the Ben Ali aligned prime minister announced a “coalition” government, made up pretty much of the same people Ali had running the show in the first place.
So the people are still fighting. Still protesting. And the government is still cracking down on them at Hilary Clinton’s request.
No, no no. I have NOT forgotten Ben Ali and his several cozy relationships with evil entities such as the IMF, World Bank, and various globalist trading deals. Show me a country that does not have entanglements with those vampires!
The deciding question is not if he dealt with those evil disgusting criminal enterprises.
Issues of how he dealt with them, for what purpose, how much of a fight he put up, how he stood up for his people. Once again I am looking for answers, and finding many many concrete examples of him doing good work. You are far too busy defending your point of view and seem to have too much ego invested in this exchange. I will continue to look for good info the Tunisia mess because I am free to do so. Too bad you have stopped accepting new information. In case anyone else is interested………
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/01/bernard-lugan-on-tunsia-cia-run.html
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