Rosen on Iraq’s refugees

Boston Review – No Going Back:

The American occupation has been more disastrous than the Mongols’ sack of Baghdad in the 13th century. Iraq’s human capital has fled, its intellectuals and professionals, the educated, the moneyed classes, the political elite. They will not return. And the government is nonexistent at best. After finally succumbing to Iraqi pressure, the Americans submitted to elections but deliberately emasculated the central government and the office of the prime minister. Now Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki is the scapegoat for American failure in Iraq, and there are calls to remove him or overthrow him. But talk of a coup to replace Maliki fails to understand that he is irrelevant. Gone are the days when Baghdad was the only major city in Iraq, and whoever controlled Baghdad controlled the country. The continued focus on the theater in the Green Zone ignores the reality that events there have never determined what happens outside of it. Iraq is a collection of city states such as Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, Ramadi, Erbil, and others, each controlled by various warlords with their own militias. And the villages are entirely unprotected. Maliki will be the last prime minister of Iraq. When he is run out there will be no new elections, since they can’t be run safely and fairly anymore, and the pretense of an Iraqi state will be over.

A few more details on the Souha Arafat affair

From Tunisian magazine L’Audace:

Souha Arafat n’a cessé de se plaindre ces derniers mois d’avoir été trompée par Leïla en opérant divers placements à la Bourse de Tunis qui se sont avérés infructueux. De son côté, Leïla reprochait à sa partenaire en affaires de lui avoir mal conseillé certains placements à l’étranger. Leur idylle avait pourtant bien commencé par l’acquisition de 20% dans Tunisiana (téléphonie mobile), filiale d’Orascom qui est la propriété d’un copte égyptien. Pour cela, elles ont dû compter sur le coup de pouce de Mme Jihane Sadate, veuve du Raïs égyptien qui avait su convaincre l’homme d’affaires et intercéder en leur faveur.

Après l’union avortée entre Belhassen, frère de Leïla et chef de gang des Trabelsi, et Souha Arafat, rien n’allait plus entre Leïla et sa protégée. C’est que l’épouse du chef de l’Etat tunisien est d’une cupidité légendaire et fort connue pour ses talents dans l’escroquerie.

En effet, en décidant de la fermeture d’un lyçée français ayant pignon sur rue, le lyçée privé Louis Pasteur, appartenant au couple Bouebdelli, il était question pour les deux femmes “d’affaires” d’investir quelques 8 millions d’euros pour l’ouverture d’un autre lyçée privé dont elles seraient les propriétaires (d’ailleurs les travaux sont avancés, nous a-t-on précisé). Souha Arafat s’acquitta de sa part, environ 2,5 millions d’euros. Quant à Leïla, elle se défila à l’heure du versement arguant du fait que les démarches administratives accomplies combleraient ses 50% de parts dans le projet. Ce fut la goutte qui a fait déborder le vase.

More on this pathetic story after the jump.
Continue reading A few more details on the Souha Arafat affair

Packer: Ajami is Shia supremacist

From George Packer’s blog in The New Yorker, an odd theory about why Professor Fouad Ajami is so upbeat about Iraq:

It would be wrong to see in Ajami’s version of Iraq the same delusional thinking as in George W. Bush’s. The difference between them is the difference between a strategy and a fantasy. The President’s speech to the nation last Thursday, following the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, was perhaps the worst of his Presidency, misleading or outright false from beginning to end. But, as always with Bush, one felt that he believed every word of it: Iraq is a brave little country lighting the way to freedom in the Middle East, and freedom-loving people everywhere should rally to its side.

With Ajami, something else is at work. Of Lebanese Shiite origin, he has a deep knowledge of Middle Eastern politics (see his very good book “The Dream Palace of the Arabs”). According to Bob Woodward’s “State of Denial,” before the war Ajami was part of a group recruited on behalf of Paul Wolfowitz that provided an intellectual framework for the overthrow of Saddam. The group’s memo, which influenced the top figures in the Administration, declared that a transformation of the stagnant and malign Middle East should begin with war in Iraq—by now a familiar neoconservative idea but in 2001 quite audacious, even radical. Ajami repeated the argument in an article in Foreign Affairs just before the invasion, and nothing that has happened since has undermined his confidence in it. From the heights of his historical vision, a few hundred thousand corpses and a few million refugees barely register.

This isn’t a case of the normal heartlessness of abstract thought. The Journal piece, along with his recent work in The New Republic, make it clear that Ajami has taken sides in Iraq, and that his pleasure comes from his sense that his side is winning. His prewar writings and advice might have led the President to believe that the transformation of the Middle East would be a democratic one—and perhaps, a generation or two from now, it will be. But Ajami is already declaring victory, because it turns out that he has a different idea altogether: Shiite Arab power.

Akbar Ganji’s open letter on Iran

I don’t care about Mahmoud Ahmednijad, who is cruel and petty (as opposed to Lee Bollinger, who is just petty), but I do care about this open letter by Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji and co-signed by an A-list of academics and intellectuals.

Open Letter from Akbar Ganji to the UN Secretary-General

September 18, 2007

To His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations,

The people of Iran are experiencing difficult times both internationally and domestically. Internationally, they face the threat of a military attack from the US and the imposition of extensive sanctions by the UN Security Council. Domestically, a despotic state has – through constant and organized repression – imprisoned them in a life and death situation.

Far from helping the development of democracy, US policy over the past 50 years has consistently been to the detriment of the proponents of freedom and democracy in Iran. The 1953 coup against the nationalist government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and the unwavering support for the despotic regime of the Shah, who acted as America’s gendarme in the Persian Gulf, are just two examples of these flawed policies. More recently the confrontation between various US Administrations and the Iranian state over the past three decades has made internal conditions very difficult for the proponents of freedom and human rights in Iran. Exploiting the danger posed by the US, the Iranian regime has put military-security forces in charge of the government, shut down all independent domestic media, and is imprisoning human rights activists on the pretext that they are all agents of a foreign enemy. The Bush Administration, for its part, by approving a fund for democracy assistance in Iran, which has in fact being largely spent on official institutions and media affiliated with the US government, has made it easy for the Iranian regime to describe its opponents as mercenaries of the US and to crush them with impunity. At the same time, even speaking about “the possibility” of a military attack on Iran makes things extremely difficult for human rights and pro-democracy activists in Iran. No Iranian wants to see what happened to Iraq or Afghanistan repeated in Iran. Iranian democrats also watch with deep concern the support in some American circles for separatist movements in Iran. Preserving Iran’s territorial integrity is important to all those who struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran. We want democracy for Iran and for all Iranians. We also believe that the dismemberment of Middle Eastern countries will fuel widespread and prolonged conflict in the region. In order to help the process of democratization in the Middle East, the US can best help by promoting a just peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, and pave the way for the creation of a truly independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. A just resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state would inflict the heaviest blow on the forces of fundamentalism and terrorism in the Middle East.

(continued after the jump…)
Continue reading Akbar Ganji’s open letter on Iran

Egypt’s attack on the press continues

Egypt jails three journalists:

CAIRO (AFP) – A court on Monday sentenced the editor of an opposition newspaper and two other journalists to two years in jail for “damaging the image of justice”, in the latest case against Egypt’s media.

Al-Wafd’s editor Anwar al-Hawari, Mahmud Ghallab and Amir Othman were jailed for “having published untrue information which damaged the reputation of the justice system and the justice ministry”, the court ruled.

The three, who did not attend the hearing and remain free on bail pending an appeal, were also ordered to pay small fines, a judicial source said.

The judge accepted the case filed by several Egyptian lawyers after Al-Wafd had in January quoted Justice Minister Mamduh Mari as saying that 90 percent of Egyptian judges were not up to the job.

Mari said he had been misquoted and the lawyers then claimed the reports had indirectly damaged their image.

“We are not at war, we didn’t reveal military secrets. We only did our job as professional journalists,” Hawari told AFP after the sentencing, insisting on the accuracy of the quote.

It’s worth noting that this is the same Mahmoud Marei whom, for the past year, has led a multi-pronged attack on the judiciary by cutting salaries, denying funds to independent judges, reassigning them, refusing to meet with Judges’ Club leadership for months, etc.

Bomber strikes Sunni-Shiite reconciliation meeting

Bomber strikes Sunni-Shiite meeting:

BAQOUBA, Iraq – A suicide bomber struck a U.S.-promoted reconciliation meeting of Shiite and Sunni tribal sheiks as they were washing their hands or sipping tea Monday, killing at least 15 people, including the city’s police chief, and wounding about 30 others.

Two U.S. soldiers were also wounded in the 8:30 p.m. blast at a Shiite mosque in Baqouba, a former al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, who gave the overall casualty toll.

The brazen attack, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, represented a major challenge to U.S. efforts to bring together Shiites and Sunnis here in Diyala province, scene of some of the bitterest fighting in Iraq.

About two hours after the blast, U.S. soldiers at nearby Camp Warhorse fired artillery rounds at suspected insurgent positions near Baqouba. There were no reports of damage or casualties.

Witnesses and officials said the bomber struck when most of the victims were in the mosque courtyard cleaning their hands or drinking tea during Iftar, the daily meal in which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

What a terrible, terrible mess.

White House criticizes Egypt on rights

White House criticizes Egypt on rights:

NEW YORK – The White House on Monday voiced displeasure with recent decisions in Egypt to crack down on dissenting voices within the media and to close a human rights group, saying it is “deeply concerned” about the moves.

“These latest decisions appear to contradict the Egyptian government’s stated commitment to expand democratic rights,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

The unusual public statement of discontent with the leadership in Egypt came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was having dinner in New York with Egypt’s foreign minister.

One supposes that this may have more to do with being embarrassed by the Washington Post again than anything else — another statement that carries no teeth and serves a domestic purpose.

Israeli blockbuster: “The Band’s Visit”

Egypt and Israel team up for award-winning film ‘The Bands Visit’:

Written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin, “The Band’s Visit” centers around the plight of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra after it arrives in Israel to open an Arab Cultural Center, only to find itself stranded at the airport without a welcoming committee or place to stay. The band finds an unexpected sanctuary at a café that sits at the outskirts of a remote desert town. Before the night is over, both the Egyptian musicians and their Israeli hosts will have grown a little wiser about their respective cultural idiosyncra

This film won several awards in Israel’s version of the Oscars. It sounds potentially funny — I just hope it’s not saccharine, especially as I am allergic to peace orchestras. In any case, one rarely hears about Israeli cinema — the last thing I saw is the very moving (French-Israeli) film about a young Sudanese boy who pretends to be Falasha Jew to become a refugee in Israel: Va, Vis et Deviens. (Update: You can get it on Amazon France.)

Blogging Egypt’s Factory Strikes

Blogging Egypt’s Factory Strikes:

Whether or not this is picked up in the American press shouldn’t matter. It’s a story to pay attention to, however you can.

The textile factory at Ghazl el-Mahalla in the Nile Delta is Egypt’s largest, with over 27,000 workers. Nearly all of the factory’s workers went on strike last December to demand their yearly bonuses, which had been withheld and which provide most of their annual salary.

On Sunday, some 10,000 of those factory workers went on strike again, demanding 150-day shares of annual profits, improved industrial safety, and a raise in their monthly bonuses.

Within a few hours the number swelled to 15,000 as Egyptian police surrounded the factory.

The Egyptian government quickly declared the strike “illegal.”

“The numbers of strikers are expected to rise in the coming few hours…the factory is under police siege,” according to posts today by Egyptian blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy. His blog, 3arabawy, is one of Egypt’s most widely read in English. Along with Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger who gained international attention last year by posting (and continuing to post) videos of police brutality, el-Hamalawy is a go-to source on the rumblings of a wide scale labor movement in Egypt.

Keep track of Hossam’s frequent updates to follow news of the strike. And come on, American journalists in Cairo, make the effort to do a different kind of story and head over to Mahalla al-Kubra. They make the best taamiya in Egypt.

Update: AP has a report on the arrest of labor leaders.