Fahmy family lashes out at Canadian govt

Mohamed Fahmy's family in Canada has had some rude things to say about the Harper government's utter disinterest in the case.

Can't say I blame them.

Have to admit the think tank here at Falling Downs believed Baird was going to make Fahmy's release his swan song. Apparently five millions wasn't enough to seal the deal. After all, what's five million from Canada when Mad-Dog-Putin shows up a week later and puts a multi-billion nuclear energy program on the table?

Canada under the Harper gang has never missed an opportunity to poke Putin in the eye. Had we been but a tad more diplomatic in our "diplomacy," it's not hard to imagine Putin lobbying for the release of our Canadian journalist. (Interesting to read the comments for the NP article and see how many Canadians don't consider Fahmy a "Canadian.") The non-stop anti-Putin vitriol out of Ottawa for the last decade could give al-Sisi a motive to keep Fahmy just to suck up to Putin.

Ironically, at the time al-Sisi was deposing the democratically elected Morsi, he was getting nothing but accolades from Canadian media and the Harper gang. The praise was virtually universal.

And there he is today, holding hands with Putin.

Obviously we've had some shortcomings in the world 'o diplomacy...

As for the Fahmys, I understand their confusion. The Canada they thought they moved to when they arrived here twenty-five years ago isn't the Canada they live in today.

Sorry about your luck, folks, but you'll get more sympathy from the Egyptian embassy than from the government of Canada.

Putin gives thumbs-up to Pentagon's not-yet-elected democratically elected leader for Egypt

The other day Vlad "The Hammer" Putin gave the green light to Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's run for the presidency of Egypt.

The policy wonks inside the Beltway were apoplectic; "HEY, HE CAN'T DO THAT; THAT'S OUR BUMBOY!!!"

And they had good reason to think so. After all, it's US and not Russian cash that maintains the Egyptian elite in power. It's US and not Russian gifts of military hardware that keeps the Egyptian military in charge.

There are basically two different ways of approaching this. Putin is cutting the Pentagon's grass with this show of support for al-Sisi. While we have not yet seen al-Sisi's political chops up close, it's safe to expect he's going to be a strongman type once he is duly "democratically elected." His cuddly meeting with Putin serves notice to the State Department folks that there's more than one game in town.

On the other hand, the Beltway boffins could take heart that their arch-nemesis Putin has exactly the same high hopes for Egypt's leadership as they do; a neutered secular regime that has no patience whatsoever with the slightest hint of a Koran-based government.

A win-win for Putin and the Pentagon. A lose-lose for democracy in Egypt.