ARABS DEFEND BASHIR, BLAME WESTERN COLONIALISM

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor general, last week issued an indictment against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. This made him an instant hero for civil rights activists, and the enemy of Arab opponents of "new imperialism."

...The arrest warrant aroused major controversy in Arab countries. They are once again perceived as incapable of preventing Western intervention into their affairs, and once again an Arab leader is in on trial internationally after the Arab League failed to impose its authority - as in the case of Iraq, Lebanon Palestine and Libya as well.

Since 2003, the Sudanese government's behavior was not condemned at a single Arab League summit meeting.

... "Western imperialism left the Islamic countries in the last century after it destroyed them and exploited their wealth through direct conquest, and came back to them via the window of conquest and destruction for its own ends, by means of the legal frameworks it set for itself such as the International Criminal Court, with the excuse of defending human rights and disseminating justice via Western, rather than international, criteria," wrote Saudi publicist Hamad al-Majid in the newspaper Asharq Alawsat.

... Bashir seized power in Sudan in 1989, and runs a dictatorial regime of terror there. He does not plan to report to the International Criminal Court. The Sudanese parliament, which he controls, is planning to rule that Sudan may return by any means, even by force, any Sudanese citizen arrested by a foreign power or by an institution Sudan does not recognize. Washington got the hint: Last week, it ordered the reduction of its diplomatic staff in Khartoum.

• "GAZA = HOLOCAUST;
• ISRAELIS = NAZIS;
• SADDAM = VICTIM;
• BIN LADEN = HERO;
• ISLAM = RELIGON OF PEACE."