January 2008 – Page 2 – Testbist

Links for January 14th

Automatically posted links for January 14th:

Daily Kos: Bush fawns over the U.A.E. – Great takedown of Bush’s appraisal of UAE as “model society”

Total, Suez, Areva to build two nuclear plants in Abu Dhabi – The Middle East nuclear race that really matters

Bush Nudges Mideast on Democracy – Story number 129747247 on Bush abandoning democracy talk

Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel – Tiny Iranian boats not aggressive and posed no threat

Pursuing happiness behind the veil – The LAT’s Jeffrey Fleishman: king of the mixed metaphor

Islamists emerge in stifled Tunisia – Returnee mujahideen spell trouble

Kuwait set to invest as Merrill seeks $4bn – Another big Gulfie investment in top Western financial firm

EGYPT HOLDS ARMY OFFICERS FOR ‘PLOTTING ISRAEL ATTACKS’ – Now, if you were an Egyptian Islamist in the army, would it be Israel that’s your target?

EGYPT: Iraqi refugee return driven by lack of money IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Egypt | EGYPT: Iraqi refugee return driven by lack of money | Early Warning Refugees/IDPs | News Item – Iraqis fleeing death find poverty in Egypt

Links for January 13th

Automatically posted links for January 13th:

Arab Stereotypes in American Film – Jack Shaheen short

Barack Obama – I’m sure we’ve seen him somewhere before – Armando Iannucci on Obama: it’s dead on

Comment is free: Laughing at dictatorship – Ibrahim Hudaibi on Mubarak jokes

Arabs eye £500m Liverpool buy-out | Sport | The Observer – Dubai group to buy Liverpool FC

Citi Looking Abroad For Major Investors – WSJ.com – Waleed Bin Talal to invest

Links for January 12th

Automatically posted links for January 12th:

The Lost Archive – Recovery of lost German archive of early Qurans

Egypt?s cartoon revolution – Yemen Times – Profile of Destour cartoonists

Rival Egyptian families agree to end ‘mustache war’ – Saidi mustache vendetta ends in reconciliation

Egypt’s new golden age of television | Menassat – Review of Egypt’s satellite channels

Bush Alters Stand on Palestinians – WaPo as bad as NYT, thinks Palestine occupation is just “presence”

Links for January 11th

Automatically posted links for January 11th:

Islam and democracy | The practice?and the theory | Economist.com – Rather flawed piece since it alleges democracy not discussed in Muslim lands

The Arabs | Between fitna, fawda and the deep blue sea | Economist.com – “IT IS not easy to be an Arab these days”

George MacDonald Fraser – Economist obituary of Flashman creator

ACLU: Court Rejects Government?s Attempt to Deport Egyptian to Torture – Egyptian convert successfully claims torture is likely if sent back to Egypt

House Leaders Vow Tough Stance on Iran – Tom Lantos potential successors just as gung-ho on Israel

Torture In Egypt: The Nadeem Center?s Report at 3arabawy – Hossam has torture report available for download

Egypt names site of first nuclear reactor – It’s Dabaa, whatever the real estate speculators wanted!

CIA: We said back in 1974 that Israel had nuclear weapons – But in Seymour Hersh’s “Samson Option” it’s clear the US knew, but did not want to hear, in late 1960s

25 Simply Amazing Mosques – List includes many modern mosques, but what about Hassan II in Casablanca?

Threat To Cut U.S. Aid Opens Rift With Egypt – Forward looks at Egypt’s accusations at Israel lobby

Links January 9th and January 10th

Automatically posted links for January 9th through January 10th:

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151,000 civilians killed since Iraq invasion – WHO, Iraq Gov says revises death tool (1/4 that of Lancet)

Has the Era of Cheap Oil and Food Prices Ended? – Walid Khadduri addresses top question in many Arabs’ minds

Can the Middle East sustain democracy? Middle East Strategy at Harvard – Debate on Arab democracy – Alterman, Dunne, Carpenter, etc. in comments

La rééducation des terroristes d’Arabie saoudite – Jihadi re-education: to do jihad, make sure the Saudi Gov says it’s OK

US candidates are vague on Middle East democracy – Steven Cook examines — Edwards has most concrete plans

Jacob?s Jottings: The Case of Fouad Ajami The National Interest – Another Ajami takedown, this time on his newfound Huntingtonism

Rehabilitating Libya – International Herald Tribune – Op-ed reminds of Libya’s nastiness — or does it not count when victims are not Western?

Democracy: inevitable no more – M. Albright on democracy, but she was never a supporter of Arab democracy

Saudi Calls on Sarkozy to Visit Alone – After some in Egypt were outraged by Sarko’s new girlfriend, Saudi draws the line

Links January 7th and January 8th

Automatically posted links for January 7th through January 8th:

Bhutto Killing Roils Province, Spurring Call to Quit Pakistan – WSJ.com – Sindhis outraged, some call for armed insurgency, secession!

Trip Notes from the Middle East – White House blogs during Middle East trip

The Clash – Fouad Ajami, with hindsight, agrees with Huntington and fears for West

Menassat – New NGO website on Arab media

Egypt Police Officer Jailed 5 Years – Another conviction in a police abuse case

G H A S B O U B A: Touareg Genocide – Very interesting interview (in French) of Niger Touareg leader

An American in Iran – The New York Review of Books – Max Rodenbeck visits Iran

Links for January 6th

Automatically posted links for January 6th:

Report: FBI translator says Israel planted nuclear ‘moles’ in U.S. – Another twist the Larry Franklin affair / Israeli spy operation in US

Interview with Khalil Enani – Author of new book on Muslim Brothers

Egypt police torture mentally handicapped boy – Can a day pass without one of these stories?

Egypt court jails three police in abuse case – Another conviction against police torturers

al-Qaida Videos Now on Cell Phones – Bin Laden & co. develop multimedia distribution platforms

Links December 19th and January 5th

Automatically posted links for December 19th through January 5th:

Fashion and Faith Meet, on Foreheads of the Pious – NYT article from Dec 2007 on that bizarre Egyptian fetish, the zebibah

Al Jazeera appelée à présenter ses excuses – Al Jazeera called on by its Algerian staff to apologize for poll about Algiers attacks

Le Monde.fr : Le Dakar 2008 a été annulé – Paris-Dakar race cancelled for first time because of “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” threats

Benazir Bhutto | Economist.com – A good obituary

AFP: Egyptian woman in legal test of SMS divorce: report – Woman argues third divorce SMS makes it legal

Guardian’s Tehran correspondent expelled without explanation – Robert Tait kicked out of Iran

Anti-Zionist author kicks off speaking tour of Lebanon – Norman Finkelstein tour

Du Nil à la Seine, l’étrange destin des Badraouis – Unusual story about an Egyptian village that specializes in emigrating to France

U.S. envoy Jones starts Mideast security push – New American governor of Palestine arrives