The appointment, pending congressional approval (which appears to be forthcoming soon), of Margaret Scobey as the next US Ambassador to Egypt has continued to get the local press’ interest, with her testimony to Congress’ Foreign Affairs Committee — notably her mention of the Ayman Nour case and the human rights situation in Egypt — earning much commentary. A long-time reader sent me the full text of Scobey’s testimony, which I’m posting after the jump. In the meantime, I’m curious to hear what readers know about the women who will become the first female ambassador to Cairo — a tough job if there ever was one considering that both sides are schizophrenic about what remains a deep, complex and important bilateral relationship. In my time in Egypt the three ambassadors I’ve known brought quite different styles to their post; their policies however remained largely the same even if constrained by rising anti-Egypt sentiment in Congress and the US press (and although this is less influential, vice-versa.) From what she said, Scobey appears to be more of the same.
Tag: egypt
Links February 6th to February 7th
Automatically posted links for February 6th through February 7th:
- Moroccan Held for Alleged Royal ID Theft – Moulay Rachid’s identity stolen on Facebook
- Nominee Backs Human Rights in Egypt – Margaret Scobey, future US Ambassador to Cairo, promises to fight for rights, Nour but discount aid pressure
- US admiral confirms secret camp at Gitmo – On secret facility of al-Qaeda suspects (so what does that make the others exactly?)
- Arab state power is on the defensive – Rami Khouri on decentralization and governance
- Be Riberar – Funny column by Magdy Gallad about schizo government
- Project on Defense Alternatives Infogate – PDA, a centrist security policy think tank, has revamped info, document and bookmark collection
- World Leaders Gather To Roast Mahmoud Ahmadinejad | The Onion – “Musharraf went on to update the group on the status of Ahmadinejad’s mouth, opening the floor to debate on whether or not it has sheltered a greater number of fundamentalist Muslim dicks than the Sudan.”
- Qatar focuses on its currency policy – Doha may drop dollar peg
Egypt: Will break legs of anyone crossing Gaza border
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt said on Thursday it would no longer tolerate Palestinians infiltrating the country from the Gaza Strip, and threatened to break the legs of anyone crossing the Rafah border illegally. “Anyone who breaches the border will have their legs broken,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency on public television overnight.
This makes Aboul Gheit sound like some third-rate mafia thug. Except he doesn’t look very tough, does he?
Suicide bomber kills one in Dimona
Suicide bomber kills one in Dimona – Haaretz
And did he cross from Egypt?
Links January 29th and February 3rd
Automatically posted links for January 29th through February 3rd:
- Qatar reports new damage to Gulf undersea cables – Fourth time in a week – I think there’s a conspiracy afoot
- Libya Sovereign Wealth Fund to Shun U.S., Ghanem Says – Qadhafi puts his country’s money elsewhere
- Ezzedine Choukri: “?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?” – Rafah episode shows current situation is losing one for all
- The path of centrist political Islam by Khalil Al-Anani – Al-Anani says MB hopeless, Wasat way forward
- Robert Fisk: The curious case of the forged biography – Fisk, hagiographer of Saddam Hussein
- Making a Great Arab City – I like this Rami Khouri piece on Dubai even though I am skeptical, because it praises the tradition of Arab cosmopolitan urbanism
- Arab Media Watch Arab Media Watch > Home – UK outfit combats anti-Arab bias in press
- Hamas explodes a giant hole in Egypt’s political cover – Op-ed takes Egypt’s hypocrisy on Palestine to task
- It’s time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton – Faraday prize winner defends historic Arab scholarship
- For sale: West?s deadly nuclear secrets – Whistleblower says top US officials sold nuke secrets to Pakistan (the person is not named in the article, but others say it’s Marc Grossman)
- Al-Jazeera Journalist Arrested in Egypt – Howeida Taha arrested, again
- AFP: Egypt censors book fair – Mohammed Choukri, Milan Kundera, Elias Khoury, Hanan al-Sheikh censored from Cairo Book Fair.
One for the “Welcome to Egypt!” file
The family of the Arabist’s better half lives in South Africa. I recently received a scan of a travel article that recently appeared in the Pretoria Sunday Times about a golfer’s adventure at the Taba Marriott involving an Israeli, an irate anti-Zionist, golf clubs used as weapons, useless hotel staff and rather over-zealous state security officers. Click on the link below for the PDF.
Cairo and Pyongyang
Here’s another chapter in the bizarre relationship between North Korea and Egypt. I understand it all begun when North Korea effectively ran Egypt’s air force (at least in Upper Egypt) around 1970, later sold scud missiles and related services, in 1989 built a war panorama, but also furnished Cairo with some of its best foreign cuisine restaurants.
Now, there’s business, too. Maybe inspired by Orascom Construction Industries investments in the North-Korean cement industry, Orascom Telecom undertakes to build up North Korea’s mobile phone network.
From afp:
It was unclear how widely the Orascom Telecom service would be available to the public. Spokespersons were not immediately available for comment.
North Korea began a mobile phone service in November 2002. But 18 months later, it banned ordinary citizens from using the service and began recalling unauthorised handsets.
There is still thought to be a mobile network in Pyongyang which is open for government officials. Most foreigners are not allowed to use mobile phones inside the country.
Cast into darkness
As every internet addict in Egypt knows, yesterday one of the main cables linking Marseilles to Alexandria was cut, bringing down most internet access in Egypt and elsewhere in the region (and even India). Some very limited access is still possible thanks to the undamaged cable going through the Suez Canal, but only to certain ISPs (TE Data apparently) or using dial-up. Even so, the internet is slow, and hence posting will resume after the problem is resolved. They say it will take five days — that’s five days without Last.fm, Bittorrent, RSS, YouTube and all of the other accoutrements of modern living. I predict complete social breakdown in vast swathes of Heliopolis and Mohandiseen as thousands are unable to update their Facebook status.Â
Links January 27th and January 28th
Automatically posted links for January 27th through January 28th:
- The Root | TheRoot.com – New African-American webzine
- Mort de George Habache – Carnets du Diplo – Alain Gresh
- Obituary: George Habash – David Hirst
- Killer noise pollution in Egypt – Average Downtown Cairo “like spending the day in a factory”
- Iran’s Literature Today – Contemporary Iranian lit in translations (and the original)
- US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 1 –
- US MILITARY BREAKS RANKS, Part 2 – Mark Perry on Iraq, the surge and military bureaucratic politics
- Egypt takes offers for nuclear project – Let the race for contracts begin
Links January 25th and January 26th
Automatically posted links for January 25th through January 26th:
- The Arab – New London-based magazine on MENA
- MidEast Brief::Egypt – Newish website links to articles on region
- Egypt says will keep border open and help Gazans restock – Unable to stop flow of people, Egypt maintains borders open
- Abbas: No talks with Hamas despite Gaza border chaos – Abu Mazen turns down Cairo talks with Hamas
- PALESTINIANS CREATE NEW BREACHES DESPITE EGYPTIAN ATTEMPTS TO SEAL THE BORDER – Article mentions Egyptian tanks on their way to border
- Gaza source: Hamas planned border wall blast for months – Amira Hass
- Gaza into Egypt Middle East Strategy at Harvard – M. Kramer revives “give Gaza a chunk of Egypt” idea, good response by S. Cook
- The People in Gaza Challenge Sham Peace Process – Juan Cole’s Informed Comment hosts Joel Beinin op-ed
- ANALYSIS: Gaza border breach shows Israel that Hamas is in charge – Haaretz analysis
- ?????????? ?????: ????: ???? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ??? – Mahdi Akef denied that Khaled Meshaal asked him to stage Gaza siege demos
- Furlough Day for Gazans (Prospects for Peace) – Daniel Levy
- Appeal for the defense of individual freedoms – Moroccan liberals call for right to individual freedoms after Islamist gay witch-hunt
- Egypt’s Gaza policy / A pan-Arab consensus? – Haaretz analyzes Egypt’s tough position re: Gaza and Hamas