Black Helicopters. Blaaaack helicopters!
Has anybody noticed an increase in helicopters over the capital the last few days? Any thoughts?
I think It's either an increase in routine training of RAFO pilots, or GW Bush is going to be stopping through Muscat during his upcoming middle east junket.
Either that or a giant government spying conspiracy, where they are using the helicopters to read our minds and predict future crimes. I, for one, am lining my cap with tinfoil right now.
Just kidding. Do you guys think Bush wil be stopping here?
23 comments:
I think Oman and Qatar are the only not included
But never say never
I doubt it. There hasnt been an official visit of that level since Guno happened. Nor has H.H made any visits.
^ hmmmm... Guno?!
As Al Bustan is still closed a big state visit will not happen until it opens unless a small visit then they will stay in a palace. Last high official from US was Dick Chenney.
Well,... since last year or even the year before, presidents who visit Oman were no longer hosted in Al-Bustan Palace, even when it was open before the renovation. They are hosted in Al-Alam Palace itself and a whole new section for visiting presidents & their escorts have been constructed 2 years ago or so.
So, Guno and Al-Bustan Palace renovation have nothing to do with non-presidential visits done since Guno. If a president is in Oman on an official visit, he's hosted in Al-Alam Palace and not Al-Bustan Palace Hotel, even if it's open...
Yes but where does said visitor's staff and entourage stay? One of the hotels.
So what y3ni? If a president decides to visit Oman nowadays they will tell him no don't come because our Al-Bustan Palace is still under renovation?! :-s .. that doesn't make sense.
Amjad, you think the GCC was cancelled last year because of Gonu? It was cancelled because the Al Bustan was not ready. Belive me or not, I know. Agree about Al Alam, but Al Bustan is still the primary state visit accomodation, so big delegations need the hotel for security reasons and its facilities and amount of rooms.
Dude
you are not revealing any secret
It was said in public by officials [I dnt remember which Min exactly, probably Macki] that GCC meeting couldn't be held due to insufficient infrastractures and regardless of Guno
anonymous: well, I never mentioned anything about GCC meeting being cancelled either due to Guno or Al-Bustan not being ready... lol. and as balqis said, a9lan it's something which was announced publicly!
And no, Al-Bustan is NOT the primary accomodation for presidential visits. Al-Alam palace is, and that's for two or three years now, even when Al-Bustan was open. They didn't spend that much of money & didn't expand Al-Alam palace for nothing! They did that because they wanted Al-Alam palace to be 1) the primary accomodation for any presidents whom is on an official visit to Oman. and 2) to be the official office of His Majesty. Al-Alam palace is even no longer the accomodation of His Majesty. His Majesty's primary accomodation is Bait Al-Baraka in Seeb, and Al-Alam is merely an official office for HM and the primary accomodation for presdients on visits.
OK, I might agree with you that the visitor's staff and entourage would need to stay in a hotel like Al-Bustan Palace, but my question is still there, now if a president wants to make an official visit to Oman they will tell him no don't come because our Al-Bustan palace is under renovation? lol.
My point is, I don't understand why some people here are relating Guno & Al-Bustan palace renovation to NOT having any recent presidential visits in Oman... Definitely it has NOTHING to do with Guno and Al-Bustan.
I sort of thought if Bush visited he would come in with a small, core entourage on an unmarked plane.
He'd meet HM at the airport in the VIP section or maybe head out to Bait al Barka. it would be a short, three or four hour visit. No need for hotels at all.
Stone and I are watching the sky, because I"m dying to be able to say "the eagle has landed"...
H.M. to welcome that idiot at the airport ?!
Ya salaaaaaam
Maximum we can send Sayyid Asad
Seems more quiet now
Maybe it was just some security operation
He's an idiot, but he's an Idiot who is the leader of the free world.
When a two term president(who's nation provides millions of dollars in foreign aid and just signed of on a FTA with your smallish but strategically important developing nation) makes a first landmark visit to Oman, you can bet your ass that HM wil meet him wherever the logistics allow.
Additionally, if Bush were to stop by, it would be to discuss matters that only the Sultan could give his blessing to. --- bombing campaign against Iran, Straits of Hormuz issues, The gradual trickle of Petro-dollar-Whahabist-islam southward into Oman, Our strategic airfeilds and ports...
He is the leader of nothing, let alone of the free world
He was elected cause of his father and money, not for his IQ or abilities
And in fact we're seeing the results today in the M.E.
Rice and Cheney plan everything
H.M. will not give any blessing cause big decisions are taken within the GCC so there is no need to go and welcome him in the airport .
No one wants any war now
Bush can bring his butt back home
Oman is not smallish
Just needs to move faster with its potentialities
And if an FTA means to be slaves to a nation with no culture nor history, then better to move our commercial interests to Asia as we already doing
His Majesty and Bush never met before , did they ?
I only remember when Bill Clinton came to Oman in late 90s I guess...
Balqis,
What a load of horseshit. Bush may be an idiot, but HM sure isn't. HM is, however, smart enough to only meet Bush in private! Oman needs as many economic friends as it can get, and the USA could be a very important one for Oman's long term future. The country can't even employ 70% of its high school graduates now, with the new development projects in full swing.
And sorry to point it out, but Oman really is small. On real currency GDP terms, the USA economy (no. 1 in the world) is more than 500 times bigger than Oman's. Oman is ranked 77th by the World Bank. And Oman's long term economic 'potentialities' seem to be dominated by selling hydrocarbons and serving beers to fat Germans and Saudis on the beach.
I didn't say we must close doors
The FTA with India and Singapore can't replace the one with US
But the Gulf and Oman itself, must rethink of the way their alliances are built
Red carpet can't be given to a gang that has done so many damages in the region
Yes Gulf states are fully responsible for Iraq situation for example, but time has come to put an end to American arrogance/ignorance
Amjad, You are correct, this is Bush's first visit to the reigon, and would be his first meet with HM if such a meet were to occur. Clinton visited here in the ninties, and I'm almost positive I remember seeing photos of HM in the Oval office with Clinton, maybe when he was in the states for a UN session?
Balquis, I don't know where to begin... I would be interested to know if you have ever actually been to the United states.
1) As Dragon pointed out; Oman is small (geographically, population wise, and economically).It's a fact, not a slam.
2) Like it or not, the US still leads the free world in almost any way one chooses to measure it. Economically, Creation of new technology, funding for the UN, foreign aid, defense spending, cost of goods according to the big mac index, politically... I could go on for hours. For another Year, Bush is the presedent of the US, and thus the leader of the free world. We don't have to like it, but again, it's an accepted fact.
3) I can say with confedence that the entity who gives permission for military operations here in Oman is NOT the GCC council. THe individual giving the approval would be HM, and no one else.
4) I don't think an FTA means being slaves, but that and a million other reasons dictate that if Bush were to show up here, he'd be meeting with HM directly, in a location where security could be assured. be it the airport, or elsewhere.
5) It's rather harsh to label the United States as a country without culture or history, and it's really careless for those who live in glass houses to throw stones, if you get my drift.
Until recently, Oman's perceived culture and history involved Slave Trading, piracy, Voo-doo, incense, dates and goats. I'm not saying that is the only history we've got, but those who are ignorant of anything but what they want to see could easily skew it that way, and be mostly correct.
6)It's fun to say things like "we must end American arrogance and Ignorance" because just about everybody will go oh yeah... those bad, bad, arrogant, fat americans.
Sometimes I wonder if the Americans will just get fed up with it all, and say ok world, fuck you. We are shutting off GPS (provided to the entire world free of charge courtesy of the US), shutting down your internet, stopping all foreign aid, and ceasing to fund or participate in the united nations. In thirty years when everything is still screwed up here there and everywhere, you will have to find someone else to blame for your problems, like yourselves.
or maybe not, I am afterall an unemployed blogger and mommy, not a foreign policy expert.
Am European
Please leave me the pleasure to call them as I like
I can say with confidence that H.M. is a wise person
He dsnt need the GCC approval nor that of Iran for anything decided within his territory but he knows that every move of his country must be done in harmony with the others of the region
The freedom you are talking about, is not the real freedom
If granting an fta means coming here and say "hey you stop slavery to indians" [when in reality you just want the freedom for yourself], then leave it please
If freedom means that when we are in a joint operation in Afghanistan and talibans capture couple of italians, they come and say "we must solve it with a quick operation and you must follow us cause we know more about you about these issues" then no
That's not freedom nor alliance : that's arrogance
If you heard Bush speech in AD, he put it nicely but exactly in the terms I explained
Gulf countries must be his allies cause same as in Europe and Asia, they will protect the rights of the people, they will introduce them to the global economy, they will help reforms
Bullcrap
They're leaders in technology cause they have money : some of the best brains of my country are there cause they pay well
Am not against America : am against this administration which has brought incredible damages to the M.E.
They started a war in Iraq based on a lie and they almost made it bad like Saddam
They went in Afghanistan to defeat the Talibans and now the price of the poppy is higher than before
[my country came with the only practical solution for the moment, which is buying it for therapeutic uses to break illegal traffic]
They installed a regime in Pakistan, then they wanted to remove it by sending another puppett but couldn't protect her
They want to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by being on Israeli side [EU sends billions for health, education. infrastructures to Palestine and Afghanistan]
They destroy everything, everywhere they go
Let's wait for a new administration, worse than this can't be
Rambo Bush can come whenever he likes, but we dnt need him to say that Iran is a threat
We very well know that but can't be solved with a war every time
They failed, they cannot come here and teach us how to deal with problems
1 - I stand corrected, as Amjad mentioned Al Alam palace is the accommodation used for state visits. Al Bustan is used for the escorts. Al Bustan is the hotel used for the GCC conference and all its rulers.
2 - Bush is not the leader of the free world! He is a leader in one of the free world countries, but imprisoned the world with his satanic leadership, and mindless attitude. Sadly he does not represent his countries power, but uses this power to coherse many countries for his own personal agenda. Look at the US now, heading towards a recession at the end of his reign! Most Americans want change, insist on change, and dont want there country to be associated with Bush.
3 - USA as a country does do many great things as mentioned by suburban, and hopefully the next President will continue this, minus the macho war attitude.
4 - Aren't we talking about black helicopters!LOL
Acropolis Review has more on Bush's trip:
http://acropolisreview.com/2008/01/george-w-bush-after-thought-middle-east.html
Just a final wrap up comment, since this has predictably turned into a flame on America... Sigh.
Balqis,
when I was asking if you had ever been to america, it's because you seem confident to judge America, and Americans, with indesputable authourity. Just curious where you get your qualifications to do so, and your profound understanding of the american mentality.
George bush, and his screwball administration are the worst thing to happen to the world in a long time. And to have re elected him for a second term was like???? It will take ages to undo the damage. Fortunately, America has term limits, so he's gone forever next year. It's a pity I can't say the same thing about the Al Sauds.
And what heppened to the black helicopters? Must have been a government mind conrtol experiment afterall.
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