Tag Archives: Yousef al-Otaiba

I took offense

This happens, it happens to you and me and there is nothing wrong with that. In this case it was an article in the Middle East Eye (written by Andreas Krieg), Dr Andreas Krieg is a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London, Royal College of Defence Studies and fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. He has spent more than ten years living, studying and working across the MENA region. As such he knows a lot more about defense than I am likely to ever will. But still I took offense. It was (at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-iran-war-broke-ambitions-little-sparta) were we see ‘How the Iran war broke the ambitions of ‘Little Sparta’’ and we are given “The UAE must abandon the illusion of strategic exceptionalism, and rebuild its autonomy through a collective Gulf security order” it is a decent setting, all whilst at present we see “Countries like the UAE and Qatar are moving away from pursuing purely independent, exceptionalist foreign policies, recognizing that isolated states are highly vulnerable in modern multi-front conflicts” this is seen as the “Small State” Dilemma. I am on the fence here as I am a little out of my frame of mind. Whilst we are given “The past three months have exposed the friction between Abu Dhabi’s ambitions and geopolitical realities. Iran’s attacks on Gulf infrastructure have confronted Abu Dhabi with the dissonance between its self-perception as a middle power, and its structural vulnerability as a small state.” It is one view to have and I cannot say whether it correct or not. As such we are given that “Presidential adviser Anwar Gargash recently lashed out at neighbours and partners, posting on X (formerly Twitter): “The friend has turned into a mediator instead of being a steadfast ally and supporter.”” Whist the added “His post captures the frustration in Abu Dhabi over the state’s inability to use its leverage to rally neighbours and partners around a more aggressive stance towards Iran. In an article last month, Emirati commentator Tareq al-Otaiba denounced Arab solidarity and multilateralism for its inability to collectively deter Iranian aggression. A month earlier, his older brother, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, announced in an op-ed Abu Dhabi’s readiness to join an “international initiative” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with the UAE prepared to share the operational burden.” And these truths are that, they are truths, nothing more. You might say that this is all and you would be correct but when we see “Despite the UAE luring Russian money and oligarchs to its jurisdiction, Moscow did not come to Abu Dhabi’s defence. Beijing issued the familiar language of concern and stability. Washington reassured, but delivered very little in terms of deterrence.” It is here my offense started. Moscow is whatever Moscow wants to be and is in it for themselves, nothing new, then we get Beijing. I reckon that it is shy from any actions because it might cut itself in the fingers if they come out, but it is Washington and optionally Europe and the Commonwealth as well (these last two parties are my speculative addition) they all delivered very little as deterrence and that shows what friends the UAE has, it has none. Even though Washington was eager to claim the billions and throw it all aside for fake AI, no action are seen. As such I took offense and whilst I took actions the only way I know (as I have no military or diplomatic powers), I created optional IP and after I showed an idea for a canal, which is now surpassed by a pipeline and that might be the better option. Still, after the massive attacks from Iran, I handed my IP to the UAE, the first one was created in January 2019 in ‘The impact of insanity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/01/20/the-impact-of-insanity/) where the IP would sink ships in the breakwater, closing harbours off for days, if not weeks or even months. The idea came from a Dutch bank robber who operated in the 70’s. As such I gave his idea new life. The one element I did not see was the time it would take for the ship to sink and if in case there was an inner hull I added a ring of C4, like a ribbon of prima cord (like off shore uses) and even if it would not open a hole, there would be several place where the inner hull would be punctured and the water would be coming in at a speed of several gallons per second. Then I went on creating IP to take out the rails of Iran, this would always be possible, but my way which I discussed in ‘With Ice please’ which I discussed (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/03/10/with-ice-please/) where I showed the idea to blow away the Rail Clips, holding the rails down. It can be done with little effort and the small explosives will do nothing to harm the rails, what happens is that the elements  holding down the rails will be removed with liquid nitrogen and a small explosion that would shatter these clips, do it in a corner, the train will not see anything wrong initially and as the rail gives way, the train will go bouncy bouncy down the hill and off the rails. It done correctly, several cargo trains will see this happening, reducing commerce for Iran and reducing the efficiency of their infrastructure. The elements that give offense was the fact that Andreas Krieg gave us that the UAE needs to be seen as a little Sparta. But as I see it, others that take offense of non-commitment and I for one created the IP that would enable the UAE to strike back. And I saw Iran as the danger that need not be around and I started to create options as early as 2019. I even had an idea to make their nuclear reactors useless, I did something, against apparently Moscow, Beijing, Washington and London that are all in it for themselves (as one would expect) but they had no problems selling fake AI settings for billions and I take offense to that, so I gave them optional solutions. And a I see it, it is a lot more than they are doing. I even crested the idea that one person could lead a massive drone attack, which came through the Iranian attack on Aramco, as such I gave the UAE (Saudi Arabia too) ‘Droning right along’ which I wrote on June 14th 2025, almost a year ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/06/14/droning-right-along/) I saw Iran as the danger it is and I created something for that, will it work? As I see it the China’s Chongqing drone show proves me right. My show will not be seen by a lot of people, but a dozen drones could be piloted by one person and the massive consequence for Iran is that they could lose refineries, airports and a few other places. And if you have half a dozen pilots, you could hit them all at once. Iran could say goodbye to whatever they hold on a near instant setting, it might take longer to make some instant noodles. As such whatever Andreas Krieg states, it merely creates offense as he says “All Iran needs to do to weaken the UAE strategically is to remind investors, insurers, shipping companies and expatriates that the Emirates is not an exception to the Gulf’s insecurity.” All I had to do is get even one of my IP to work correctly and it is goodbye Iran and I am willing to hand all this IP over to the UAE so that they can make it work. As such: “All I have to do, Is take away whatever Iran thinks they have. I cannot make the false claims President Trump does, because my ideas are not based on ‘beautiful big balls’ they are merely adaptations that were out there all along. They are all adaptations on ideas from WW2, with modern technology adaptations. Iran could lose it all and no billions are spent (Washington states that the Pentagon had an  estimated $29 billion directly), at best a billion is used to test the ideas and adapt the fabrication of these weapons, but the drones are already available, they merely need some programming adaption and then these drones are fitted with claymores, or a variation of them and that comes down to about $25K for the drones and the ‘packaging’ no billions were required. The package is dropped about 10 kilometer from the refinery and off they go. There are a few ways to go about it, but I am still considering that a MQ-9 Reaper could drop 2 packages with a abundant amount of cheap drones, as such tow refineries might be hit at the same time. As such, these investors might want to consider to bet against the UAE, there is every reason to consider that I could come up with a few more ideas to make Iran regret that they ever attacked the UAE, but as I see it and as I suspect that Andreas Krieg is seemingly aware of the strategy behind all the attacks on the gulf states, but I might be wrong in my assessment too, so there is that too. What I do know is that I have done more than any ‘proclaimer to be an UAE ally’ and I did it free of charge. So there!

As I see it, I might have made Anwar Gargash proud that there was at least one party willing to assist the UAE, even if that one was a mere tourist at best. And I do understand that even if I took offense, Andreas Krieg did nothing wrong. He did his job, but the article that he wrote came over massively wrong with me and perhaps that was his intent all along (even though he possibly tried to get someone more important to take notice of what he wrote). So have a great day all, I will try to create a few more obstacles for Iran if possible.

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A big tree in the desert

It started a little while ago, 4 nations got angry at Qatar, I wrote about it earlier. There were issues on both sides and there were intelligence considerations as well. In this Germany intelligence decided to shed light on the matter by investigating certain sources. A path I reckon that until now has not been too successful. A path that was equally a given not to be too successful, yet what was not expected was the issue shown a few days later when on July 16th The Washington Post (at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/uae-hacked-qatari-government-sites-sparking-regional-upheaval-according-to-us-intelligence-officials/2017/07/16/00c46e54-698f-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html), the issue shown with “The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari government news and social media sites in order to post incendiary false quotes attributed to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, in late May that sparked the ongoing upheaval between Qatar and its neighbors, according to U.S. intelligence officials“, in addition there is “In a statement released in Washington by its ambassador, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE said the Post article was “false.”“, which is to be expected. Finally we get “Qatar has repeatedly charged that its sites were hacked, but it has not released the results of its investigation. Intelligence officials said their working theory since the Qatar hacks has been that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt or some combination of those countries were involved. It remains unclear whether the others also participated in the plan“, which is an equal truth. In addition, we need to realise that this is not some fake news site, this is the Washington Post, America’s answer to The Times, and its high ethics in journalism have been established for the longest of times, so when we see a mere 2 hours ago (at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/qatar-diplomatic-crisis-latest-updates-170605105550769.html) the update “Foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt say they are ready for dialogue with Qatar if it shows willingness to fight ‘terrorism’” a quote given after we see the headline ‘The latest news after some of the Gulf states and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and imposed a land, sea and air blockade‘, yet in light of the found hack(s), how valid are these blockades? In addition we see in regarding the Hajj pilgrimage that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are in a he said versus he said situation, a side we would not have expected from these two evolved nations. There is a larger drawback in all this, as Turkey is trying to ‘ingratiate’ their own agenda, they are now becoming a stronger middleman for anything Iran has in mind, whilst not being connected to the action and in addition to that, the pressures at present are also enabling abilities in Palestine. There is no clear intelligence that is in the open that should be regarded as reliable, yet the ‘watercooler chats‘ seem to imply that calls between the PSS and Hezbollah wave allegedly been happening with some ‘regularity’ in the last 4 weeks, if that is so, than additional pressures on Israel cannot be far away.

Back to Qatar, the latest news gives that according to Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State that Qatar has met with the commitments that they were promising, there is a given that when Saudi Arabia, in conjunction with three allies that are not the smallest, any nation under pressure would be willing to comply with any reasonable demand that does not impede national pride to get in the way. Yet, what has the opposition offered at present? In my view the German promise seems unlikely to result to be any form of a working tactic to get some kind of resolution in play. You see, if there was any actual support being given, it would not be registered. I hope that the Americans learned that part when they found Osama Bin Laden a mere one mile from an elite Pakistani military academy. In my view there is no way that those involved with the security there had no knowledge of EVERY building within two miles of the academy. In that same air, you might think that Qatar is aware of any terrorist involvement, that is not the case, but there is ample proof on a few levels that it is utterly impossible that no one knew. The issue becomes how high does it go?

In that same light we need to look at another source. In this case I am looking at a piece by Sami Moubayed. The title ‘Qatar PR blitz is fooling no one‘ (at http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers/qatar-pr-blitz-is-fooling-no-one-1.2067427) is not the part that matters. We might wonder why he focusses on the amounts like $150,000 a month for ‘research, government relations, and strategic consulting services‘, which might also include ‘communications with members of Congress and Congressional staff, executive branch officials, the media, and other individuals‘, the second cost at $2.5 million for former US Attorney General John Ashcroft who would be auditing Qatari efforts at halting terrorism funding. It is interesting how he is going to achieve that as the scope of monitoring and verification is close to impossible when we consider the rogue spears we have seen in Iran in the past, a mere general was able to give the largest level of materials and support towards the enemies of Israel. In this I saw that over that they missed out on options to increase visibility of close to 75% for a mere $10,000 a month (excluding my commission mind you), in light of the mentioned $138,000 not the greatest expense. Yet the important truth is given soon thereafter in “This is where the problem started and where serious work needs to be done to rebrand the country’s political orientation. No PR firm can do the job — it can be done by one person only, being Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani“, which is only partially true. They still need a facilitator to give a wider voice, or better spoken a channel to transfer the words of Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani to a much wider audience.

Sami is right when he states “Only he has the power to change his country’s image in the eyes of its neighbours“, and in this I am not even mentioning his valid reason of “All Qatar needs to do is walk away from Hamas and Yousuf Al Qaradawi“, which would have been a good idea any day of the week. Qatar has a few more options, options that they did not even realise that they had. There is a case to be made to revamp Al Jazeera TV’s editorial policy. Yet as it is speaking to the hearts and minds of Muslims (to a larger extent), I would not be able to give proper advice in that place, what does matter is that non-Muslims know what Al-Jazeera is, yet in reality those people do not know what EXACTLY Al-Jazeera is and that could be a small task, easier rectified and it starts on their own website. Not the flaccid minute under the heading of ‘about us‘. That current part of 200 words with the ‘Who we are‘ is so minute, so none telling that is overlooked with the mere blink of an eye. The words there “Launched in 1996, Al Jazeera Arabic was the first independent news channel in the Arab world dedicated to providing comprehensive news and live debate“, is laughter incarnate in my personal opinion! I am willing to bet a building on the fact that their 1996 was a challenge worthy of a small novel to say the least, so why not properly introduce Al-Jazeera to Muslims and non-Muslims alike? If Al-Jazeera is truly in 100 countries, the cheapest of solutions (read: SAP Dashboard) could add visibility to what is being offered, the network could grow through offering visibility using a mere BI consultant, which in all likelihood is already walking around in at least one of their 100 offices. In similar visibility they are presently (as their website indicates) not in France or the Netherlands, and perhaps at least in one office in one of the Scandinavian countries with the ability to offer local language support to thousands of Muslims. To the extent that this is PR that is massively cheaper than some PR offices offer and that is something Qatar would have in their own hands, working a social network with localisation. Interesting that that was not mentioned anywhere.

My ideas are directly reflective of the words of Sami Moubayed as he states “Somebody needs to whisper in the ear of the emir — and senior management at Al Jazeera — that they need to do a better job to polish their image; rather than spend millions on agencies in London and Washington, it’s far more urgent — and less costly — to do the job at home“, yet he does it in absence of directness or direct ideas on how to do it. I reckon that is fair enough, the man is a historian; he mostly lives in the past, not in the tomorrow. That is not an accusation; it is merely a factual realisation.

In this, the strongest point he makes is seen with “After a wave of agony swept the Arab World since 2011, this doesn’t sell any longer throughout the region. In fact, it sounds and reads as cheap, cliché, and very outdated“, this is exactly why the entire dashboard is such a step forward, I noticed a few more issues. There would be a fair debate whether this is laziness, or mere editorial policy. A case could be made for either side, yet the issue remains.

As we say goodbye to the Al-Jazeera side, we need to embrace one more part in the article by Sami. When we revisit the title ‘Qatar PR blitz is fooling no one‘, I will argue that there is no fooling going on, the article reads nice, but it is not an ‘or’ situation, Qatar is in a ‘and’ situation, where they need to visit issues on inclusion and finding more options to visit, not choosing from some selection and there is a need to be clever about it because the cost and effect of $150,000 a month needs to be examined as how it was spend and what was gained. The question on rebranding politics is also up for grabs, is it about branding or making sure that the visibility is correctly vetted? These elements are not the same and the cause and effect here is also implicitly seen as we see the reactions from the 4 neighbours currently not happy with Qatar. In this, there is an additional part for me set in the issues from Saudi Arabia. I have not read the original reports (and my knowledge of the Arabian language can be rounded upwards towards 0%), yet the press on a near global scale have never given proper item by item view of all the elements, more important towards the evidence as the other 3 (minus the hacking UAE) have offered them with shown source intelligence. It would be so embarrassing if the other three plaintiffs are all depending on one and the same source (an unknown part and speculative from my side). I believe that open clear communication is a first step to resolve it. the fact that my glasses got initially tainted because Al-Jazeera was kind enough to start that day with voicing anti-Semitism through  broadcasting sermons by the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, that was not a good day for Al-Jazeera in light of the stresses in Doha that day. This is exactly why reforming, or better stated editing the ‘powers to be’ within Al-Jazeera sooner rather than later.

For me, I have always been a fan of oversimplifying any issue, so when I look at the grievances now in play, if there could be talks and the three nations can name one item that would show the good intentions of Qatar, what would it be and could Qatar comply with these three items? You see, it might sound oversimplified, but the reality is that all large achievements start small, one step at a time. In that way, we are not enabling either Iran or Turkey (there are issues with some of their decisions), there is an open view of the matter at hand and there is movement in a stress reducing direction. If those three items would stop the blockades, there would be a first step in resolution and more important, as I personally see it, the risk of escalation, as two nations miscommunicate between two optional dinghies and send missiles in the wrong direction is definitely a good element to prevent. Consider the implications, if we see the choice from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Would the biggest issue of his kingdom be with the dissidents or with the Iranian connections?

I believe that certain actions are becoming increasingly important, not merely because of the pressures and stresses, the short term issue is seen as we read “The boycotting countries have previously told the WTO that they would cite national security to justify their actions against Qatar, using a controversial and almost unprecedented exemption allowed under the WTO rules” (at http://www.trtworld.com/mea/qatar-crisis-latest-developments-413572), the problem here is that if this element is accepted, the WTO is not merely a cannel of facilitation, it would leave Qatar with very little to work with, it would in addition leave Turkey with holding the bag as the shops are showing in big signs ‘From Turkey by air – New products‘, if those remain Turkey itself ends up in deep hot waters with all the repercussions that follow. As my Law classes included all matters Wise, Terrible and Obvious, the words as given in Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2017/03/01/trump-admins-yugely-terrible-trade-idea-to-ignore-wto-rulings-america-doesnt-like/#7edfa5103a9f)

With: “Not obeying WTO rules allows countries to close their markets to your exports, it doesn’t force them to open them up“, that would be a stage with issues on several levels we really don’t want to end up at.

This also gets me to the article for another reason. The March 1st article shows more than you expected. You see with “The Trump administration sent shockwaves through the world of trade yesterday when the Financial Times reported that it was looking for ways to bypass the World Trade Organization, the 22-year-old oversight body that adjudicates trade disputes, and which Trump has called a “disaster.”” we now get a second consideration, is the Trump administration using the Qatar strategy to try to thwart the WTO in another way, trying to take away the equality and fairness that the WTO had in the past to set a different set of rules. Did the White House legal team brief the four non-Qatari minded players to use this to put more pressure on Qatar? It might be a valid tactic, yet the US could have had other reasons for pushing the WTO, the question is whether that is equally in play here, if that is so (speculative from my side) than it is the US that has done more than increase pressures on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE. It is trying to change the global setting of trade in what I expect to be the most selfish of reasons, under those conditions, we might soon see that being a member of the EU is no longer a benefit, as it would become the anchor holding the other EU nations back in trade, merely for the reason that they cannot simply change trade rules for the EU.

So if Doha means Big Tree, we have to wonder what the board looks like at present, it seems that certain actions have been put into motion to set a season of drought for this big tree. We can argue that they did part of it to themselves, yet when we see that other players have had certain personal needs, who is actually trying to resolve the situation with a total absence of personal selfish needs? As I see it not the PR firms, in equal measure there are certain steps that Al-Jazeera could have put into place months ago, yet that too has not been achieved, so who on the side of Qatar is actually thinking of Qatar? I know it is not Turkey or Iran. I do not know who is, but as we see other sources state that “In a study by David Andrew Weinberg that was published in January by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) titled “Qatar and Terror Finance: Part II: Private Funders of [al-Qaida] in Syria,” he wrote: “Based on these cases, there is no persuasive proof that Qatar has stopped letting certain terror financiers off the hook.”” (source: Jerusalem Post), we see that Qatar needs to start considering what is important to Qatar, because in the end Hamas will not care, they merely continue with their path of hatred against that state of Israel with whatever funds they can lay their fingers on. With all the considerations we would want to give to Qatar, it is the actions of Qatar, shown by too many sources that they themselves are becoming (read: have become) their own worst enemy. The one question that Sami Moubayed leaves us with is any of this done (read: facilitated) with the clear approval of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar? That is the part that matters the most and that path also shows the path of least resistance in hopefully finding a solution to the matter for all the players involved.

 

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