World – Page 47 – praag.org

Embassy threats ‘had no basis in fact’

A high-ranking Yemeni security official has told McClatchy that the Obama administration’s recently announced terror threat which supposedly targeted US embassies had “no basis in fact” and was manufactured merely to dampen opposition to drone strikes.

After initially warning of a terror plot “thought to have been one of the most serious against American and other Western interests since the September 11 attacks,” the US closed 20 embassies and consulates earlier this month, 18 of which reopened soon after.

The announcement of the threat occurred as it was simultaneously acknowledged that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last year was linked to a clandestine CIA arms smuggling operation based in the Libyan city that was being used to transport arms to rebels in Syria, many of whom are allied with Al-Qaeda militants.

The announcement of the threat against US embassies also served to justify blanket NSA surveillance, leading some to suggest that the alleged plot was being hyped to distract from the Edward Snowden scandal. It was later claimed that the NSA had intercepted a “conference call” of Al-Qaeda members during which militants discussed an attack.

However, in a report entitled U.S. embassies in Muslim world reopen amid still-murky threats, McClatchy cites, “A high-ranking Yemeni security official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” who told the news outlet that the threat “had no basis in fact,” with the source bemusedly attributing “media reports about imminent terror strikes to a single official’s comments, which he cast as a misguided attempt at shifting public opinion in the face of increasing and unpopular American drone strikes.”

Dozens of people, labeled “suspected militants” by the US, have been killed in Yemen over the last two weeks as a result of at least eight drone strikes, attacks that have outraged Yemeni citizens. According to Princeton University professor and Yemen expert Gregory Johnson, the drone strikes are actually serving to recruit more terrorists.

“There are strikes that kill civilians. There are strikes that kill women and children. And when you kill people in Yemen, these are people who have families. They have clans. And they have tribes. And what we’re seeing is that the United States might target a particular individual because they see him as a member of al-Qaeda. But what’s happening on the ground is that he’s being defended as a tribesman,” said Johnson.

Figures show that 50 civilians are killed for every one terrorist taken out by a drone strike, which means that 95% of the victims are innocent men, women and children.

As Ron Paul noted recently, while the Obama administration is conducting drone strikes in Yemen to supposedly target Al-Qaeda terrorists, the White House is simultaneously supporting the allies of Al-Qaeda terrorists, the vast majority of whom have pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, in Syria.

Furthermore, as the high-ranking Yemeni security official reveals, the administration is also apparently manufacturing terror plots in order to justify these drone strikes as well as mass NSA surveillance. – Infowars.com

UN president supports African calls for Security Council reform

The President of the United Nations General Assembly has also thrown his weight behind calls for reform of the Security Council. Serbian Vuk Jeremic met International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in Pretoria.

Reiterating that an urgent call for change to have a more transparent and representative Security Council, the Minister says the UN body cannot mark 70 years in its current form.

“There will be no change without us, 70% of the issues that go to the Security Council for discussion are about us. So it cannot continue to be without us,” she added.

The council has five permanent members with veto powers and 10 elected non-permanent members with a two year term with no veto powers. South Africa has served two terms as a non-permanent member.

“If it does not encompass Africa then we better not have any change at all. And change is needed, otherwise the UN will slowly drift into irrelevance.”

The main challenge is to get the Security Council to agree on expanding the body. Another is for Africa to find a consensus candidate.

Libya claims 14 000 prisoners still on the run

Mandela and Gadaffi in better days... — Mandela and Gadaffi in better days…

Some 14 000 prisoners who escaped from various Libyan detention centres after the 2011 ousting of Muammar Gaddafi are still on the run, the interior minister said Monday.

Speaking less than three weeks after more than 1 200 detainees escaped during riots from a prison in the eastern city of Benghazi, Mohamed al-Cheikh told ministry officials the interior and justice ministries were “working together to get them back to prison so they can serve out their sentences”.

“No fewer than 14 000 former prisoners who were serving sentences including capital punishment and life are still totally free after fleeing from prison,” said Cheikh.

“This situation is one of Libya’s problems,” the official news agency Lana quoted him as saying.

Libya’s authorities have been struggling to reestablish law and order and form a professional police and army since the fall of Gaddafi.

On August 1, in the latest in a string of incidents, 18 prisoners escaped during an attack on a Libyan police vehicle taking them back to prison from a courthouse in the capital. The incident came less than a week after the Benghazi prison riot and jail break. In April, armed men attacked a convoy of prisoners near Tripoli, killing a detainee and wounding others.

The reports of escaped prisoners come in the wake of a recently uncovered American arms transfer to Al Kaida rebels in Syria which cost the lives of three US citizens, including ambassador Chris Stevens. – Sapa/AFP/prisonplanet.com

‘Ed Snowden is Jason Bourne’

A deep distrust of government has led young Americans to hold up NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a hero, Sen. John McCain said Sunday.

“There’s a young generation who believes he’s some kind of Jason Bourne,” the Arizona Republican said during on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the lead character in the Bourne movie trilogy who battled his own government, particularly the CIA.

Mr. Snowden’s revelations — including details of the National Security Agency’s data-collection efforts — have led to a debate on the national security vs. privacy question, and how to balance the two.

President Obama last week laid out a series of proposed reforms to government spying programs in an effort to reassure Americans that their Fourth Amendment rights aren’t being trampled. His proposals include having a privacy advocate argue against the federal government in court, more restrictions on the mass collection of phone records and other steps.

Mr. McCain, a widely respected figure on national security and his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said the White House’s recommendations could be beneficial.

But there’s a deeper problem that must be addressed, he said.

“Right now there’s kind of a generational change. Young Americans do not trust this government,” Mr. McCain said. “Without trusting government you can’t do a lot of things.”

Mr. Snowden now has been granted asylum in Russia in another blow to relations between the U.S. and its old Cold War foe. – Washington Times

Schoeman, Le Clos get gold in Germany

Team South Africa continues to fly the flag in FINA’s Swiming World Cup events.

After bagging 6 medals in the Eindhoven event last week, Roland Schoeman and Chad le Clos opened South Africa’s account with gold medals in Berlin, the German leg of the competition. South Africa’s veteran Schoeman got proceedings underway in fine style. The 33-year old, who claimed gold in the 50 metres breast stroke in the Eindhoven event last week, followed that up with another gold winning performance. With a time of 25, 65 seconds, Schoeman edged out Italy’s Fabio Scozolli.

Chad le Clos, the new superstar in world swimming, followed up on Schoeman’s triumph with yet another gold in his favourite event, the 200 meters butterfly. As is his habit, Le Clos started the race conservatively, but maintained his position with the leaders. Le Clos eventually charged to victory in a time of one minute, 49, 90 seconds.

Myles Brown became Team South Africa’s third medallist on the opening day of the competition. Brown claimed bronze in the men’s 400 meters Freestyle. The dynamic duo of Schoeman and le Clos ended the night in Berlin with another two pieces of silverware. In an exact replica of the event in Eindhoven, the pair claimed first and third places in the men’s 50 meter butterfly.

Obama ‘absolutely certain’ immigration bill would pass

President Barack Obama says he is “absolutely certain” that the Senate’s comprehensive immigration bill would pass the House if majority Republicans brought it up for a vote. But Republicans say they’ll bring up a series of narrow bills instead.

Speaking Friday at the White House, Obama said he would like to see the House act on the Senate bill in September, as soon as they return from summer recess. He urged the House to put forward a bill that could pass, even if does not match the Senate bill. The versions could be reconciled later. Obama says no bill would solve the nation’s immigration problem 100 percent.

The Senate-passed bill would include billions for border security and a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally. – Breitbart

Kenyan lawyer to sue Israel, Italy for killing Christ

A Nairobi lawyer wants to sue Israel and Italy for killing Jesus Christ.

Dola Indidis is taking his case to the International Court of Justice.

Indidis is Catholic and says he knows Jesus had to die, as espoused in the Bible.

But he doesn’t believe it was necessary for Christ to die so brutally.

Two thousand years after the fact, he wants Israel and Italy to be held accountable for the actions of Roman governor Pontius Pilate and Herod the King of the Jews.

“My case is that Pontius Pilate, who tried Jesus Christ, had no jurisdiction. The judge himself says on the record, says he had no jurisdiction. Later he changed the story when he was under pressure.

“He convicted Jesus, who also did not have an equivocal plea of guilty, and he sentenced him a sentence which was also not lawful…”

Indidis says Pope Francis is aware of his case and that some in the Vatican support it.

Few of Indidis’s compatriots feel the same though — but he’s adamant the ancient wrong needs to be corrected.

He’s seeking a judgment from the International Court of Justice that the legal process wasn’t followed.

Egypt denies Israeli attack

Egyptian Armed Forces Spokesperson Colonel Ahmad Ali categorically denied circulated reports of Israeli drone attacks behind the two blasts that hit the Egyptian city of Rafah Friday, killing at least five suspected terrorists.

“It is not true, either in form nor substance, that there were any attacks from the Israeli side inside Egyptian territory,” Ali told the state news agency (MENA).

“Likewise, the claim that there was coordination between the Egyptian and the Israeli side in this matter is a matter completely void of truth.

“The Egyptian border is a red line that could not be violated.” The Israeli government did not comment on the reports.

Several international news agencies have published reports about Israeli drone attack inside Sinai Peninsula Friday.

Earlier Colonel Ali released a statement saying that two explosions were heard at 4:15 pm in the area of Egra in Northern Sinai, adding that the area is currently being inspected to reveal the cause of the explosions.

Militants based mainly in North Sinai near the border with Israel have been launching attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets over past years, but they have escalated their assaults since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

The Sinai Peninsula is largely demilitarized as part of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979 but Israel has approved troop reinforcements to combat the militants and smuggling by Palestinians into Gaza. – KUNA

Zim to supply Iran with uranium

Mugabe greets Iranian counterpart — Mugabe greets Ahmadinejad

Zimbabwe has breached international sanctions with an agreement to supply Iran with uranium to fuel its nuclear programme.

Zimbabwean Deputy Mining Minister Gift Chimanikire said: “I have seen [a memorandum of understanding] to export uranium to the Iranians.”

The agreement, which was reportedly signed in 2012, is likely to cause alarm in western capitals.

The United States and the European Union have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran over its declared nuclear programme.

Zimbabwe is also subject to international sanctions over its human rights record and conduct of elections.

A report compiled by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog more than two years ago detailed a visit from Iran’s then Foreign and Co-operative Ministers to Zimbabwe to strike a deal, with the Iranians also sending engineers to assess uranium deposits

President Robert Mugabe, who won another five-year term in disputed polls in July, has publicly backed Iran’s nuclear drive.

During a visit by Iran’s then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Harare in April 2010, Mugabe said his guest should be assured of “Zimbabwe’s continuous support of Iran’s just cause on the nuclear issue”.

He said the uranium deal had been made without his knowledge, and was only known to a handful of people at the top of the government.

A Chinese company has been surveying yellow-cake deposits in the far northeast of the country and the Zimbabwe government has been actively looking for buyers, according to Chimanikire, who, as a member of Zimbabwe’s opposition is likely to be replaced now that the election has brought an end to the shaky coalition government.

Uranium ore, or yellow cake, can be converted to a uranium gas which is then processed into nuclear fuel or enriched to make nuclear weapons.

Iran has long maintained that it needs the uranium for peaceful nuclear aspirations, as a source of domestic energy.

Mugabe has begun his seventh term as Zimbabwe president following an election once again stained by accusations of widespread vote rigging

Despite the agreement, analysts have said it was likely to be a long time before Zimbabwe’s uranium reserves were ready for export. – Sapa

Stolen twin babies found

Twin baby girls allegedly stolen and sold by the obstetrician who delivered them in China have been recovered by police, state media reported Friday.

The girls, born last month in the northern province of Shaanxi, were allegedly victims of the same female doctor who sold a baby boy reunited with his parents earlier this week.

The obstetrician, Zhang Shuxia, told the twins’ mother in the delivery room that her babies had “deadly congenital diseases” and convinced her give them up, China National Radio reported.

Zhang also said their arms and legs were “broken” and stopped other relatives seeing them, the report added.

Similar details were described in reports this week about the boy, who police said was sold to a farmer with three daughters in the central province of Henan by alleged traffickers for 60,000 yuan ($9,800).

The doctor and two other suspects were detained after the boy’s family became suspicious and reported their case to police. The blaze of publicity surrounding his recovery has prompted a wave of others to come forward.

One of the girls was found in Shandong province, more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) from her birthplace in Fuping county, and her sister around 160 kilometres away in Shanxi province, the website of the People’s Daily said citing local authorities.

So far five officials have been sacked in Fuping, including the director of the county’s health department and the head of the hospital where the children were born, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Police had received reports of 55 possible incidents by Thursday, including 26 allegedly involving Zhang, it added.

Lou Qinjian, governor of Shaanxi, on Thursday called the case “vile” and vowed to punish those responsible “seriously”, it said.

Fuping is the home county of the family of Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Trafficking of children is a serious problem in China, blamed in part on the “one-child” policy which has put a premium on baby boys, with girls sometimes sold off or abandoned.

Under the policy, aimed at controlling China’s vast population of more than 1.3 billion, people who live in urban areas are generally allowed one child, while rural families can have two if the first is a girl.

In a much publicised case, Chinese police rescued 89 children and arrested 355 suspects in December after breaking up a series of child trafficking rings. – AFP

Lebanon blasts on Israel border were ‘Hezbollah trap’

Two blasts that wounded four Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon were in fact an “ambush” set by Hezbollah, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday.

The explosions hit the patrol on Wednesday when the troops ventured 400 metres (yards) into south Lebanon, parts of which are controlled by the powerful Shiite movement.

“The enemy blundered when they violated the border with Lebanon, and fell into a trap that only the resistance could set,” said the newspaper, which has links to Hezbollah.

“Only Hezbollah can make bombs that blow up Israelis” when they pass by, it said.

Hezbollah, which has close ties to Iran and the regime in Syria, is considered Israel’s arch-foe, and the two fought a brief but bloody summer war in 2006.

“The Israeli unit fell into a well-set ambush and the enemy found itself faced with a difficult question: ‘How did Hezbollah know we were there?'” the daily wrote.

“The ambush is a dangerous failure for the enemy because it shows that Hezbollah has an intelligence structure that allows it to know when a patrol arrives, its route and to set a trap for it,” it added.

“That means the resistance is prepared for every eventuality, in case of confrontation on a wider scale or in case of a general conflict.”

The Lebanese army said four Israeli soldiers were wounded by explosions 400 metres inside Lebanese territory.

Israel’s military confirmed the toll without specifying what side of the border the soldiers were on as they were “carrying out nocturnal activities in the Lebanese border area when the explosion occurred”.

The soldiers were members of an elite unit, Israeli public radio reported.

A UN officer in the area said the 10-strong Israeli unit withdrew taking their wounded with them, as troops on the Israeli side of the border fired flares to aid their exit.

The barbed wire marking the border had been cut, an AFP correspondent reported, and the two blasts occurred in a pine forest several hundred metres into Lebanon.

The heavily mined area has seen several rounds of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the incident on Wednesday but gave no details.

“Our soldiers defend us and our borders, which is what they were doing last night. We will continue to react to defend Israel’s borders,” he was quoted by military radio as saying.

Hezbollah controls large parts of south Lebanon.

In 2006, it fought a bloody 33-day war against Israel that devastated much of the Shiite-majority south and parts of Beirut.

The conflict killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them troops. – AFP

Chaos as huge fire guts Nairobi airport

Firemen inspect the damages inside the Nairobi airport building

by Peter Martell

A devastating fire shut down Nairobi’s international airport for much of Wednesday in a “major crisis” that forced the cancellation or diversion of scores of flights at east Africa’s biggest transport hub.

The first flights from abroad operated by Kenya’s national carrier will land early Thursday, officials said, with customs and baggage processed through what is normally the domestic terminal because international arrivals were gutted in the four-hour blaze.

Cargo and domestic flights out of the Kenyan capital resumed early Wednesday evening.

It was not clear whether other airlines would also land as early as Thursday.

The inferno, which started before dawn, sent plumes of black smoke billowing out of the main arrivals terminal.

But by 9:00am (0600 GMT), firefighters had succeeded in stemming the raging flames, despite a lack of both water and equipment.

“Everything is being done to resume normal operations,” presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu told reporters outside the charred arrivals hall of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), where hours earlier flames had lit up the pre-dawn sky.

International passengers were given priority to fly to Kenya’s second city Mombasa to connect to onward flights while Nairobi’s domestic terminal was being prepared to handle flights from abroad.

Some 16,000 passengers usually transit through JKIA every day, Esipisu said.

The airport is a regional hub for east Africa, with many long-distance international flights landing there to connect to countries across the region.

Kenyan business operators were eager for a swift return to normal operations following the disaster.

“This is the busiest time of year for international flights,” said Duncan Muriuki, head of Destination Africa, a tour operator.

“We have people stuck in Mombasa, so it will definitely impact us negatively,” he said, adding that clients stuck at the coast would face journeys of several hours to travel by road to the capital.

The flower sector, which provides a livelihood for some half a million Kenyans, could be hard hit by the fire, as any delay in shipping out fragile lilies and roses would result in big losses.

Jane Ngige, who heads the Kenya Flower Council, said harvesting at flower farms had been halted Wednesday while the trade association waited for more information.

Tens of thousands of passengers could be affected by the JKIA’s closure, while regional airports have limited capacity and will likely struggle to handle all the travellers unable to land in Nairobi.

Around 250 flights take off and land there every day, regional aviation sources said, adding that some six million passengers used the airport last year.

The fire was reported to have begun at the immigration section at arrivals, but the cause is not yet known, with police chief David Kimaiyo saying that investigations had begun.

No casualties have been reported, but two people — an airport worker and a passenger — were taken to hospital due to smoke inhalation, Kenya Airways chief Titus Naikuni said.

The interior ministry was forced to issue public appeals for Nairobi’s notoriously congested traffic to give way to trucks ferrying water to the airport after firefighters tackling the blaze ran “dangerously low on water”.

Soldiers and police even came with buckets to help put out the fire, said Sylvia Amondi, who was at the airport to pick up a relative who had been due to arrive there.

“The international arrivals station has been completely destroyed, the roof has caved in and the floor is covered in debris and water,” she said.

Behind the scenes portly civil servants braved massive puddles to sift through soggy papers and files in what was left of their offices.

In the baggage claim area, only a giant advert for multi-choice TV remained untouched.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose father Jomo Kenyatta — Kenya’s first president — the airport is named after, visited the devastated terminal along with his top security chiefs to assess the damage caused by the “huge inferno”, the interior ministry added.

Kenyatta later called the fire a “tragic event”, and promised everything would be done to resume normal operations “as soon as possible”.

In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama had called Kenyatta to offer US support.

August is one of Kenya’s busiest months for tourism, a key industry for the country, as foreign travellers fly in to see its wildlife and enjoy the white sand beaches on its Indian Ocean coast.

The airport offers direct connections to Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and other African cities. -AFP

Obama cancels meeting with Putin over Snowden

US President Barack Obama has canceled a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow which was scheduled for September. The move comes after Russia’s recent decision to grant temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

The US decision is seemingly a diplomatic snub to Russia amid heightened tensions between the two countries over recent issues listed by the White House as “missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last 12 months.”

“Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship,” Washington said in a statement.

Citing lack of progress on this and other agenda items, the White House said the president deemed it more “constructive” to postpone the summit.

Instead of visiting Putin in Moscow, Obama will add a stop in Sweden to his early September travel itinerary.

Moreover, the US president will not be meeting alone his Russian counterpart while he stops over in St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, diplomats said.

Russia responded by saying it is “disappointed” by the move, with Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov adding that the situation showed the US “is still not ready to build relations with Russia on an equal footing.” It is “clear” that the decision is related to Snowden, he said, reminding that the US for its part has repeatedly refused Russia’s past extradition requests.

The cancelation comes just after President Obama expressed his “disappointment” on Snowden’s asylum – and talked of Moscow slipping into “Cold War” mode despite his calls for negotiations.

“There have been times where they slip back into Cold-War thinking and a Cold-War mentality,” Obama told to Tonight Show host Jay Leno Tuesday night. “And what I consistently say to them, and what I say to President Putin, is that’s the past and we’ve got to think about the future, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to cooperate.”

Edward Snowden, whose US passport has been revoked, was granted one year’s temporary asylum in Russia last Thursday, finally leaving the confines of the Moscow airport where he had been holed up since June 23. His new residence permit allows the former CIA employee to work and freely travel all across Russia.

The former CIA employee is wanted in the US on espionage charges after revealing secret NSA surveillance programs to the public.

Among other issues, Russia and the US have considerable differences over the situation in Syria, with the US government determined to see President Bashar Assad ousted from his position. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees gave a green light to arm Syrian rebels at the end of July.

Obama has also voiced antipathy towards Russian legislation against gay rights activism, saying on the Tonight Show that he has “no patience for countries that try to treat gays and lesbians and transgendered persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.”

The last time the two leaders met was in June at the G8 Summit in Ireland.

The G20 summit will be held on September 5-6, with the US deeming it sensible to still attend, as the annual gathering brings together the world’s largest economies. Obama said that it makes sense for the US to have high-level representation at the event. – RT

Egypt outraged by likely US ambassador

US media reports that Robert Ford, former top US envoy to Syria, will be Washington’s next ambassador to Egypt has sparked a vitriolic Twitter campaign over a Canadian conspiracy website’s claims that he once ran “death squads” in Iraq.

A little over two years ago, on July 8 2011, a convoy carrying the then US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford made its way through army checkpoints to the besieged city of Hama, then the centre of protests against the rule of the Assad regime.

The surprise visit was seen as the first concrete sign of US support for the Syrian opposition. It sparked a furious response from the government.

The veteran US diplomat is now being showered with invective and diatribe on Twitter.

The latest social media campaign against Ford was sparked by media reports over the weekend that US Secretary of State John Kerry had recommended the former envoy to Syria as the next US ambassador to Egypt.

But a number of Egyptians on Twitter were having none of it.

Within hours, hashtags such as #NoToRobertFord in English and in Arabic, “We refuse the American ambassador to Egypt,” appeared on the microblogging site.

“The new sponsor of terrorism in Egypt,” tweeted one user, referring to the US career diplomat. Another warned, “Watch out Ford, if you come to Cairo .. You won’t be an ambassador .. You will b a target”.

The Twitter campaign followed the publication of a post on a Canadian conspiracy website, accusing Ford of running “death squads” in Iraq, where he was political counsellor to the US embassy in Baghdad between 2004 and 2006.

The website in question, run by the Centre for Research on Globalisation, is known among other things for its scepticism of the official explanation of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The Egyptian daily, al-Masry al-Youm, reported the allegations, but could not establish their veracity.

The backlash could not come at a worse time for Washington. Anti-US sentiments are running high in the world’s most populous Arab nation and recipient of an annual $1.5 billion in US aid.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters accuse Washington of backing the Tamarod movement, which campaigned for democratically elected Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster earlier this year.

On the other hand, Morsi’ opponents are convinced the US is supporting the Brotherhood, while current US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson has turned into a reviled figure in the country.

In this milieu of mutual suspicions and rising tempers, Ford’s extensive diplomatic experience in the region has turned into a disadvantage instead of an asset.

A fluent Arabic speaker, Ford has also served in Bahrain and Algeria, leading some critics to draw parallels between the US diplomat and civil unrest in the countries he has been posted.

“When Robert Ford enters a country, he brings the shayatin (devils) in,” tweeted one user in Arabic, while another called the US envoy “the architect of fitna” – or upheaval.

Ford has been billed to take over the ambassadorship in Egypt after Patterson was nominated for a senior State Department post last week.

Patterson was appointed ambassador to Egypt in 2011, the year Ford was appointed top US envoy in Damascus. He was withdrawn from Syria in February 2012, after the security situation seriously deteriorated in the war-torn country.

While the New York Times cited unnamed US officials as saying Kerry had recommended Ford for the post, US State Department officials have not officially confirmed the report.

Ford’s appointment would require a recommendation by US President Barack Obama, followed by a Senate approval.

But for critics of the seasoned US diplomat, it’s never too early to express their opprobrium – on Twitter. – France24