Month: June 2006

The Pahlavi restoration project

Probably the funniest thing I’ve read all week — especially the last paragraph:

By the way, Mr. Pahlavi says that in a democratic Iran, he would be honored to assume the title of shah in a parliamentary system, but only if the Iranian people ask him to. He already has at least one vote. On the way to meet him at his house, the nice lady who drove me there quite naturally referred to her boss as “His Majesty.”

Letter from Ayman Nour

Gameela Ismail has sent a letter by her husband Ayman Nour smuggled out of prison three days ago. The letter is intended for Edward McMillian-Scott, a Conservative MEP and the vice president of the European parliament. McMillian-Scott has been quite active on the Nour case and human rights in Egypt in recent years, driving the European parliament’s involvement in the affair. Gameela also notes that the Egyptian authorities have now prevented Nour from writing letters for three months. The letter urges MEPs to make their voice heard for his case.

An English translation follows.

Continue reading Letter from Ayman Nour

Renditions exposed

The Council of Europe today came out with a bashing report on the US “ghost flights” in Europe, identifying a “spider’s web” of landing points around the world airports, used by the CIA for its “extraordinary rendition” program, whereby Islamist suspects are moved around the world to secret detention and interrogation centers. The report also exposed 14 European countries, which are either “involved in or complicit” in the suspects’ illegal transfer and detention.

Washington and several European capitals, stand accused, have rejected the report, saying it’s solely based on “allegations.” Continue reading Renditions exposed

Youssef Darwish passes away

I received more troubling news in the morning–another prominent leftist figure passed away. Youssef Darwish, an Egyptian Jewish Communist legend, died today at the age of 91. Darwish joined the communist movement in the 1930s. He was an active campaigner against the British occupation, the Egyptian royal system, and the Zionist movement.

Darwish, the son of a Jewish jeweler, devoted his life to working class issues. He, together with veteran lawyer Ahmad Nabil el-Hilaly, led a split from the underground Egyptian Communist Party (ECP) in the late 1980s, protesting Ref3at el-Sa3eed’s authoritarian command over the organization. Darwish and Hilaly formed a faction inside the ECP around 1984, denouncing el-Sa3eed’s revisionist views on Mubarak’s regime and the state of Egyptian capitalism. El-Sa3eed then claimed there were divisions within the regime, between the institution of the presidency, which he claimed represented the “progressives” (sic), and other institutions like the interior ministry, etc. El-Sa3eed also claimed there was a difference between “parasitic” capitalism and “patriotic” capitalism. The job of the Communists, he stated, was to support the latter against the former.
The two veteran activists also opposed el-Sa3eed’s drive to merge the ECP with the licensed Tagamu3 Party. They were careful to outline the limits of “legalism� in the Egyptian context, and the necessitiy for the Egyptian working class to organize itself independently in a revolutionary party.
The faction finally split from the ECP sometime between 1987 and 1989, forming the People’s Socialist Party (PSP), which maintained presence in Ain Shams University, Cairo University and some industrial centers.
There was also a debate within the left then on the position towards the rising Islamist giant. El-Sa3eed’s line on Islamism regarded the Muslim militant groups as “fascists,” who should be repressed by the government at any cost. Thus, during the 1990s, the Egyptian Communist Party foolishly allied itself with Mubarak’s regime in his “war on Islamic fascists.” Continue reading Youssef Darwish passes away

State Security Prosecutor renews Sharqawi’s and Sha3er’s detention

State Security Prosecutor renewed today the detention of Mohamed el-Sharqawi and Kareem el-Sha3er, the two Youth for Change activists who were detained and brutally tortured by State Security police on May 25, 2006.

The very kind-hearted prosecutor also decided that Sharqawi could finally start receiving medical treatment at El-Manial Hospital.

Moreover, the prosecutor extended today the detention of 50 Muslim Brotherhood activists, who were also detained in the May pro-reform demos. AP journalist Nadia Abou El-Magd reports: Continue reading State Security Prosecutor renews Sharqawi’s and Sha3er’s detention

Dirty tricks in Palestine

I’ve been following the events taking place in Palestine with consternation for the past few months. Like Yasser Arafat before him, Mahmoud Abbas seems all too willing to collaborate with Israel and the US against the Palestinian people’s own interest to remain in power. It’s not that I particularly want to defend Hamas, but more that Abbas is pushing for a civil war that will likely be bloody and detrimental to Palestinians, who already have enough to worry about. Add on top of this the growing realization that a unilateral solution will give a veneer of legitimacy to Israel’s definitive annexation of parts of the West Bank (and control of various other parts of it through direct military presence or indirect pressure), not to mention the Golan Heights. All of this reminds me of what I thought when Hamas won the elections: they won because they are fighting back, not because of corruption in Fatah or other problems. Abbas does not think about fighting back the occupation anymore, he is too busy fighting to keep his privileges and power. It’s classic divide and conquer.

This editorial by Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, reproduced below, explains the situation quite well. It’s obviously going to have a repercussion beyond Palestine, especially as Egypt will probably be arming and training Abbas’ newly expanded personal militia.

Dangerous dirty tricks in Palestine

By Ali Abunimah

The Electronic Intifada 6 June 2006

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4765.shtml

Palestinian Authority chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas is pushing the internal Palestinian situation towards a dangerous and unnecessary crisis. He has called a referendum supposedly to gain public endorsement for a document written by Hamas and Fatah members held in Israeli jails which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in all the territories occupied in 1967. But Abbas’ ploy has nothing to do with hastening the creation of such a state, and everything to do with Fatah’s inability to come to terms with its defeat in last January’s legislative elections.

Without consulting PA prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, Abbas announced that Hamas would have ten days to accept the prisoners’ document without any changes or he would call a referendum. Hamas made clear that it views the referendum as illegal. Palestinian law makes no provision for referendums, and only the legislative council, in which Hamas has a huge majority, can amend the law. No matter; Abbas, like President Bush, can seem to find powers to do anything he wants as the need arises. Following the collapse of talks between Hamas and Fatah on June 5, Abbas announced that he would go ahead with the referendum by “presidential decree.” The next morning he announced a three-day extension of his deadline to allow for “dialogue,” but made clear that Hamas had to take or leave the document as is.

Continue reading Dirty tricks in Palestine

Legendary 1970s student leader passes away

I received an SMS, saying Ahmad 3abdallah Rozza, the legendary 1970s student leader, has passed away.
Rozza was a political science student at Cairo University, in the beginning of the 1970s, when the leftist-led student movement was witnessing a revival, after being suppressed under President Nasser for two decades.

Students, then, spearheaded mass demos in 1971-73, calling for war against against Israeli occupation forces in the Sinai peninsula, and campaigning for social and political justice for Egyptian citizens. Continue reading Legendary 1970s student leader passes away

A letter from a former Islamist detainee

I received today from my friend Alia Mossallam an English translation of a letter sent to Magdi Mahanna–the prominent columnist at Al-Masri Al-Youm, my favorite daily liberal tabloid–from a former Islamist detainee who spent 13 years in prison without trial. It sheds some light on the 1990s Egyptian “war on terror,” which the regime brags (or at least used to brag before the Sinai bombings) it was a “successful model for fighting terror.” Please read the letter….. Continue reading A letter from a former Islamist detainee

CRAP lives!

Thanks Brian!

For all the indignant defenders of CRAPs (Courageous Reformist Arab Personalities, of course!) who regularly leave messages here accusing me of being an appeaser of Islamofascists of whatever– I just want you to ask yourself: does it make sense that most prominent CRAPs are completely uncritical of US policy in the Arab world when most Arabs tend to be? And that a good number of them seem to work for Benador Associates? And don’t fall back on the “most Arabs are brainwashed” theory…