Author: issandr

Links from my del.icio.us account for October 3rd through October 4th:

• Reuters AlertNet – Christian man killed in sectarian clash in Egypt – Forget sectarian tensions, security says this is just another Saidi stick-fighting/dancing incident: "Some security sources said fighting broke out after a Christian hardware merchant refused to give wooden sticks to Muslim minibus drivers.
  They said the drivers had wanted the sticks for a fight with Muslim minibus drivers from a neighbouring town.
  But others said a longstanding fight over land ownership between two families had spilled over after a man from the Christian family insulted a woman from the Muslim family."
• Center for Trade Union & Workers Services – The workers' rights NGO has an English-language blog
• BBC NEWS | Africa | Investigating ‘Africa’s Guantanamo’ – An Ethiopian gulag, run by the US
• The mystery of bombs in Syria | Jihadist blowback? | The Economist – Making sense of the recent bomb in Syria, and its jihadist connection
• » Israel-Palestinians: trilateral scenario Middle East Strategy at Harvard – Debate over "trilateral scenario" for Palestine has Egyptian and Jordanian diplomats Nabil Fahmy and Marwan Muasher sparring with Zio-apologists. They come off as very reasonable compared the shrill comments left by the others.

Links from my del.icio.us account for September 29th through October 2nd:

• Nasrallah to Lebanese Army: When All Else Fails, Turn East! – Middle East Times – Nicholas Noe on the stalled US arms deal with Lebanon and Hizbullah's call to look elsewhere
• Libyans savour joys of consumerism – Yahoo! News – Libya starts getting consumer lifestyle – for those who can afford it anyway
• IRAN: Official admits his Oxford degree was fake | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times – "The official in charge of guarding against fraud and forgery in Iran's upcoming presidential elections says he submitted a phony Oxford law degree as evidence of his qualifications for the job." I love the excuse he have: "He said he had been duped by an intermediary who had given him the degree."
• Is This a ‘Victory’? – The New York Review of Books – "We hear again and again from Washington that we have turned a corner in Iraq and are on the path to victory. If so, it is a strange victory. Shiite religious parties that are Iran's closest allies in the Middle East control Iraq's central government and the country's oil-rich south. A Sunni militia, known as the Awakening, dominates Iraq's Sunni center. It is led by Baathists, the very people we invaded Iraq in 2003 to remove from power. While the US sees the Awakening as key to defeating al-Qaeda in Iraq, Iraq's Shiite government views it as a mortal enemy and has issued arrest warrants for many of its members. Meanwhile the Shiite-Kurdish alliance that brought stability to parts of Iraq is crumbling. The two sides confronted each other militarily after the Iraqi army entered the Kurdish-administered town of Khanaqin in early September."
• Financial Troubles Humble U.S. – WSJ.com – "The success of the pending rescue of the U.S. financial system probably depends as much on the central banks of China and the Middle East as on Congress and the Federal Reserve." But will there be political strings attached? Although countries like Saudi have an interest in maintaining the dollar, since their reserves are mostly in dollars, one would think this is an opportunity for hard bargaining.

Links from my del.icio.us account for September 27th through September 29th:

• Mai Yamani: The Arab world’s cold war patron seems to be back | Comment is free – The ghost of Yevgeny Primakov is back to haunt us: "Today, US power in the Middle East is at its historical nadir, and Russia is seeking to fill the vacuum. Even America's closest allies – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel – are vulnerable as they face the aggressive expansion of "radical forces" represented by Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria, and the Iraqi resistance. In the prevailing atmosphere of turmoil and confusion, the radical Islamists attack the Americans as barbarous crusaders who have replaced the communists as the enemies of Islam. Indeed, for the conservative majority in the region, the US, with is pop culture and liberal democracy, is seen as a far more problematic ally than the autocratic and wealth-loving Russians."
• The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب – Check out this Angry Arab post on how the Petra News Agency photoshopped pics of Queen Rania to make her more covered up.
• Middle East Report 248: Waiting: The Politics of Time in Palestine – A new issue of MER focuses on Palestine
• Al Jazeera English – Africa – Egypt tourist kidnappers shot dead – The plot thickens – are the hostages in Libya or Chad? Are the kidnappers Sudanese, Djiboutian, Chadian, Egyptian? Did the Sudanese army's raid, which killed six kidnappers, make further negotiations more difficult?
• Terrorism: Firebomb attack on London book publisher | UK news | The Observer – "The London home of the publisher of a controversial new novel that gives a fictionalised account of the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with his child bride, Aisha, was firebombed yesterday, hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics."
• Armed robberies in Egypt’s remotest desert – Yahoo! News – This is what happens when you're next door to a failed state: "CAIRO, Egypt – The abduction of a European tour group in a distant corner of Egypt's desert underlines the potential dangers of adventure tourism pushing deeper into remote destinations and getting closer to conflict zones.
  In the case of the 11 Europeans and eight Egyptians held since Sept. 19, the lawlessness in the desert plateau of Gilf al-Kebir may be a spillover from the violence in eastern Chad and Sudan's Darfur region, where armed bands are notorious for hijacking and robberies."
• Egypt allows prisoners to order out restaurant food – Yahoo! News – Maybe they should just use otlob.com: "CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian prisoners are set to be allowed to order meals from any restaurant they choose after a trial run during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan was deemed a success, a senior security official said on Saturday." What this really is is yet another bonus for the well-off prisoners (usually kept together) who were mostly jailed for corruption and similar crimes. Ordinary prisoners will continue to live in atrocious conditions dependent on family visits for food. In other words, Egyptian economic segregation expands into prisons.

Links from my del.icio.us account for September 26th through September 27th:

• Golan brides know there is no going back – Yahoo! News – About a bride crossing the border from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria
• Car Bomb in Damascus and Rise of Salafi Groups in Region – Josh Landis: "The car bomb that exploded this morning in Syria is the first successful “al-Qaida” type terrorist attack in Syria in the last 10 years. Two theories are developing on little evidence so far. One is that the bombers were targeting a state security center. The other theory is that they were targetting Shiites. So far we don’t know what the truth is." Link this with the recent reports of troop movements on the Lebanon border + anti-Syria / anti-Hizbullah feeling among Lebanese Salafists that Nir Rosen recently wrote about (see links from a couple of days ago).
• Daily News Egypt – BUILDING YOUR OWN STATE – Ibrahim Hudaiby: "When my father decided to buy a farm in the suburbs of Cairo and live there a few years ago, his justification was that if you decide to live in Egypt, you should be ready to build your own state. I must admit it took me years to understand what he meant."
  "To secure a decent, respectable life in Egypt, one should never depend on the state. The state’s revenue mainly made up of taxes, tariffs and foreign aid, and the state’s different apparatuses do not function to serve Egyptians, but rather a few hundred influential politicians and businessmen. The state’s role starts by providing security for its citizens, residents and visitors. Mubarak’s regime increasingly fails to do so. Not only is the police unable to prevent the mounting number of crimes, but it also participates in threatening people’s safety through torture and corruption."
• #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation | Project Censored – The top under-reported story of this year is the death toll caused since the invasion of Iraq
• Sarah Palin: Henry Kissinger is Beyond Naive When it Comes to Diplomacy – Palin says Kissinger, Obama "naive" about diplomacy with Iran. Maybe Kissinger is naive, if he thought his time was well-spent with Palin.
• ‘The Secret’: Coming soon to a bookstore near you – Haaretz – Israel News – Controversy over new book on the Lavon Affair, which refers very dirty underbelly (involving Skeletor himself, Shimon Peres) of what was in any case very dirty business.