yemen nuke power

Yemen signs deal to build nuclear power plants to generate electricity?By FAGR QASSIM ALIAssociated Press WriterSAN'A, Yemen (AP) _ The Yemeni government on Monday signed anagreement with a U.S. energy company to build nuclear power plantsover the next 10 years to generate electricity, official said.Yemen's plan to build plants to generate 5,000 megawatts of energyfollows similar announcements made by other Arab Gulf and Middle Eastcountries to develop peaceful nuclear energy programs."The energy issue is a very important issue, and it is the main forcethat drives our developments," said Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujurat a ceremony after the signing of the agreement with Houston-basedPowered Corporation.Yemen, one of the poorest countries in Arab world, is looking to buildnuclear plants to generate electricity and to desalinate sea water inorder to meet the needs of its urban population and boost thecountry's industrial development, government officials said.The Gulf Arab country hopes to diversify and expand its energyresources due to declining oil production. Yemen produces 330,000barrels a day, down from 480,000 barrels few years ago."We are going for a build, own and operate model," said Mustafa YahiaBahran, Electricity and Energy Minister, referring to a plan that hasthe company that builds the plants also owning and operating them. Theprojects will abide by international regulations in compliance withguidelines set by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, officials said.Bahran said the project will also attract foreign investment and bringYemen closer to meeting the requirements needed for a full membershipin the Gulf Cooperation Council.The association of energy-rich Arab states in the Persian Gulfincludes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain,Qatar and Oman.The GCC as well as Jordan, Egypt and Turkey in recent months haveannounced that they were interested in developing peaceful nuclearprograms.Iran's progress in building its nuclear facilities has sparked a rushamong Arab countries to look at programs of their own, raising thepossibility of a dangerous proliferation of nuclear technology in thevolatile region.The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclearweapons. Iran denies the claims and says its program is for peacefulpurposes including developing electricity.

egyptian press

Officials: 3 Egyptian journalists sentenced to prison for spreadingfalse judiciary news?By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGDAssociated Press WriterCAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ A Cairo court on Monday sentenced the editor andtwo journalists of an opposition newspaper to two years in prison forallegedly publishing false news about the country's judiciary.The court also ordered Anwar el-Hawary, the outspoken editor ofAl-Wafd daily newspaper, Mahmoud Ghalab and Amir Salem, to pay 5,000Egyptian pounds (US$894, €633.46) in bail and a 2,001 Egyptianpound(US$358, €253.67) fine, a judiciary official said on condition ofanonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the press.El-Harawy said he did not publish false information and will appealthe sentence."The regime's stupidity has no limits. It's unbelievable," el-Hawarytold the Associated Press in a phone interview. "The war they arewaging against us (journalists), they will lose it no matter what theydo, and we will win it even without effort."In January, Al-Wafd, which serves as a mouthpiece for the oldestEgyptian political party under the same name, published a story thatquoted Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei insulting Egyptian judges,especially reformists judges, during a meeting of Egypt's upper houseof parliament. The minister denied he made the comments, and 12lawyers filed a lawsuit against the three journalists in April.Judge Medhat Fawakeh, who issued Monday's sentence, urged the Egyptianpress council to activate code of honor for journalists urging them tobe more professional. The judge said freedom of the press was"enjoying its best time" under President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt'sofficial news agency MENA quoted him as saying.Monday's sentencing comes after four editors of tabloid-stylenewspapers were sentenced earlier this month to a year in prison fordefaming Mubark and his ruling National Democratic Party in variousarticles.One of the four editors also will be put on trial in a separate caseover his paper's recent reports questioning the health of Mubark, whois 79 years old. His trial opens Oct. 1.Journalists, activists and human rights group have complained of a newcrackdown on the freedom of the press after a few years of relativeopenness.Mubarak has ruled Egypt for more than a quarter century and has nodesignated successor, resulting in periodic scares over his health andthe future of the country.Under pressure both at home and by the U.S. Bush administration _Mubarak surprised his country in February 2005 by saying he wouldchange the constitution to allow Egypt's first multi-candidatepresidential elections.He won re-election in September 2005, defeating 10 other candidatesamid charges of voter fraud and intimidation. In follow-upparliamentary elections, however, the Muslim Brotherhood _ thecountry's most powerful opposition group _ stunned the government witha strong showing.Perhaps because of that, Mubarak's regime began sharply pulling back:hundreds of Brotherhood members have been arrested since then, and 40of their leaders are standing trial in a military court. Scores ofactivists were arrested last year for supporting reformist judges whoblew the whistle over vote rigging in 2005 elections.In an editorial in Monday's Washington Post, columnist Jackson Diehlcriticized the recent press arrests and jail sentencings."The press has survived even as Mubarak moved methodically to crushother nascent center of opposition in the past 18 months, includingliberal political parties, a movement of judges seeking greaterindependence for the courts, and the Muslim Brotherhood," Diehl wrote."But this month, irritated by press speculation about his failinghealth, the 79-year-old president turned on the newspapers," he said.

baby, you can drive my car

Saudi women lobby king for right to drive

Morocco election

islamists DON'T win the election!

Don’t rebuild Nahr el-Bared

why not allow palestinian refugees the right to by land in lebanon?

while you're at it, why not remove all limits on their right to work?

"There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death"

Finally, some jihad recruits are opening their eyes. The story below – in a rare case, we have left it as is, not merely linking to it – recounts the fascinating tale of a naïve young Saudi who was lured to Iraq with the promise of glory, only to be deceived into murdering people he neither knew nor hated, and almost gave up his life. Now, back in his own country, he is warning others not to fall for the jihadi sales pitch.

Ahmed al-Shayea’s claim that recruits “are just instruments of death” is more than just sour grapes. For the proponents of jihad, the young men who are sent on suicide missions are simply human materiel – a resource cheaper to develop than the high-precision munitions and armor on which the “infidels” rely.

Judge for yourself:

Wounded and feeling cheated, a ‘holy warrior’ turns against the cause that
lured him to Iraq

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – The last time Ahmed al-Shayea was in the news,
he was in the hospital at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, being treated for severe burns from the truck bomb he had driven into the Iraqi capital on Christmas Day 2004.

Today, he says, he has changed his mind about waging jihad, or holy war, and wants other young Muslims to know it. He wants them to see his disfigured face and fingerless hands, to hear how he was tricked into driving the truck on a fatal mission, to believe his contrition over having put his family through the agony of believing he was dead.

At 22, the new Ahmed Al-Shayea is the product of a concerted Saudi government effort to counter the ideology that nurtured the 9/11 hijackers and that has lured Saudis in droves to the Iraq insurgency.

The deprogramming, similar to efforts carried out in Egypt and Yemen, is built on
reason, enticements and lengthy talks with psychiatrists, Muslim clerics and
sociologists.

The kingdom still has a way to go in cracking the jihadist mind set. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, and Saudis make up nearly half of the foreign detainees held in Iraq, according to Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser. They number hundreds, he said this month following a visit to Saudi Arabia. Dozens more arefighting alongside al-Qaida-inspired militants at a Palestinian camp in Lebanon.

Several hundred prisoners, as well as returnees from Guantanamo, are thought to have passed through the rehabilitation program.

Al-Shayea says his change of heart began when he was visited by a cleric at al-Ha’ir Prison in Riyadh following his repatriation from Iraq.

He says he put two questions to the cleric: Was the jihad for which he traveled to Iraq religiously sanctioned? And were the edicts inciting such action correct in saying the militants should not inform their parents or government of their intentions? No and no, came the reply.

“I realized that all along, I was wrong,” al-Shayea told The Associated Press in a two-hour interview at a Riyadh hotel before returning to an Interior Ministry compound that serves as a sort of halfway house for ex-jihadists rejoining Saudi society.

“There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death,” he said.

Saudi Arabia’s campaign against terrorism began in earnest after al-Qaida-linked militants struck three residential expatriate compounds in Riyadh in May 2003, killing 26 people.

The government says it cracked down on charities suspected of using donations to finance terrorism, banned mosques from holding unlicensed religious sessions and warned preachers against inciting youths to jihad. Officials as well as the government-guided media began to clearly and unequivocally refer to suicide bombings as terrorism.

The Interior Ministry sponsored programs on government-run TV stations showing repentant jihadists warning youths against joining al-Qaida and clergymen trying to correct misconceptions about jihad and dealing with non-Muslims. Al-Shayea has appeared on Al-Majd, a Saudi religious TV channel. Three years ago it set up the prison program.

“The aim is to reform the youths, to listen to them and talk to them,” said Ahmed Jailan, one of the clerics. “We also try to instill a sense of hope in them by telling them they still have the chance to make up for what they lost if they follow true
Islam.”

The prisoners later appear before a panel of judges who decide whether they can move from prison to the Interior Ministry compound, where activities include reading, civic and religious courses, sports and family visits. They get help finding jobs and wives, and after release they get free medical care, monthly stipends and sometimes cars.

At the time he was first approached to join the insurgency, al-Shayea was already becoming a devout Muslim in his ultraconservative town of Buraida. He grew a beard, prayed five times a day and stopped listening to Arabic love songs he used to enjoy. He was 19 and jobless. Then he was contacted by a school friend whom he doesn’t identify.

“My friend started telling me about Iraq, how Muslims are getting killed there and how we should go there for jihad,” said al-Shayea. “He told me there were fatwas (edicts) and DVDs issued by Saudi and Iraqi clergymen that called for jihad.”

“We didn’t think of jihad as something that would lead to our death. It was a fight againstoccupiers,” said al-Shayea.Finally, the friend told him he was going to Iraq, and invited al-Shayea to join him.

He was told to shave his beard and pack Western clothes to avoid looking like a would-be jihadist. He got a passport and an airline ticket to Syria. And he managed to save $1,600 – travel fees, he was told, that would go to smugglers, weapons training and al-Qaida’s coffers.

On a cool November night toward the end of the holy month of Ramadan, he
donned a black T-shirt and jeans and told his parents he was going camping in
the desert with his friends.

He and his friend flew to Syria, a favored transit point for Iraq-bound fighters because Syria doesn’t ask visiting Arabs for visas, and its 360-mile (580-kilometer) border with Iraq is thinly policed. A network of al-Qaida operatives sheltered him in Damascus, Aleppo and the border town of Abu-Kamal, and about two weeks later he and 23 other men were smuggled into Iraq.

Four Iraqi teenagers guided them to the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim. They saw Syrian border guards in the distance who fired in the air.

“They didn’t try to stop us. We were already in Iraq,” al-Shayea said.

At al-Qaim, the men were split into two groups. Al-Shayea said his group of 12 met
an al-Qaida leader who had direct links with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida
chief in Iraq who was later killed by a US airstrike. He took the men’s money
and gave each $100.

“Then he asked us a question: ‘Those who want to carry out martyrdom (suicide) attacks, raise your hands,’” said al-Shayea. “No one did.”

Al-Shayea’s group then spent a week at the Sunni fundamentalist stronghold of Rawa before al-Shayea and another Saudi man were taken to Ramadi and finally
Baghdad.

Al-Shayea met his new “emir,” or leader, an Iraqi who told him his first assignment was to take a fuel tanker to a Baghdad neighborhood to be collected by others.

“I felt scared. I didn’t know Baghdad at all, and I also didn’t know how to drive heavy vehicles,” he said.

Also, he says, he was never told that the truck would contain 26 tons of butane gas, rigged to explode outside the Jordanian Embassy. “That evening, we performed the last prayer of the day and had dinner – a dish of chicken and aubergines (eggplants),” said al-Shayea. “The emir gave me a crude map of my route.”

Two al-Qaida militants drove with al-Shayea, but then jumped out 1,000 yards (meters) from where he was supposed to park the truck and fled in a waiting car.

“I felt something bad was about to happen,” he said.

The farther he drove, the more nervous he got until, 60 feet (20 meters) from the embassy, an explosion – believed triggered from afar – turned the back of the tanker into a fireball.

“I saw the fire and I started to scream and pray,” he said. “I looked around me and I saw everything had melted. My hands had turned black. I jumped from the window and started running without thinking of what I was doing.”

The blast killed nine people.

Thinking he was an innocent victim and a Shi’ite by his fake ID card, passers-by took al-Shayea to a Shi’ite-run hospital. There he kept silent for several days until he finally told his doctors the truth.

The world’s first encounter with al-Shayea was on footage of his interrogation which was sent to Arab TV stations. Back in Buraida, his parents saw their son, face charred, head heavily bandaged, but alive. They were stunned. They had been notified he was dead and had held a wake for him.

Al-Shayea said he told his interrogators where to find a senior al-Zarqawi aide in Baghdad, revealed all he knew about al-Qaida, and denounced al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden as killers of innocents. He says he hasn’t seen nor heard from the friend who accompanied him since they parted soon after entering Iraq.

Today, his hair has grown back, he sports a thick black beard and he can move without difficulty. He credits the medical care he received, including 30 operations, at the hospital of US-run Abu Ghraib prison. He says that when he was handed over to the Americans a couple of days after his interrogation at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, he was scared because he had heard about the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

“But the care with which the American officers carried me down to the car when they came to take me made me relax,” said al-Shayea. “One spoke Arabic and tried to put me at ease.”

After almost six months of medical care and interrogations during which al-Shayea said he was treated well, he was visited by three Saudi officers.

“They told me they were there for my sake,” said al-Shayea. “They allowed me to write a letter to my parents.”

They also asked him if he would tell his story publicly. He says he replied that he
would have volunteered to do so even if they hadn’t asked.

A couple of weeks later, in mid-2005, al-Shayea was flown home. His parents were at the airport. “I took my dad in my arms, crying, and kept asking for forgiveness,” he said.

Now, Saudi Arabia encouraging young Muslims not to follow al-Qaida may be a little like RJ Reynolds telling teens not to smoke – the fierce brand of Islam the kingdom is spreading around the world isn’t exactly the antidote to global jihad – but it’s a start.

Freedom on the march... maybe

Italian commentator Emanuele Ottolenghi, writing for Beirut's Daily Star, makes a case for the inevitability of freedom in the Arab world.

First, though, he explains why freedom has not come to most of the region, and why it is unlikely to do so anytime soon. What is holding things back, Ottolenghi says, is the short-sighted focus on elections as equal to, rather than part of, freedom.

"Our civilization," he writes, "demands a universal commitment – and our failure to live up to
it in the Arab world demands a reckoning. Is it the case that democracy cannot work there? Or is it just that the way democracy was promoted made one forget that its very essence is freedom, not elections?"

Before elections can begin to serve their function in a politically pluralistic society, he points out, that society must first be religiously pluralistic – or, in the case of the overwhelmingly Muslim countries of the Middle East, at least be tolerant of those who do not wish to observe religion.

Only then there came elections. But if people are afraid to openly disagree with conventional views, either because the state will punish them or because social pressure will silence them, there can be no freedom. Hence, the acid test of
democracy is not elections, but the ability to express one’s dissent on religion and politics without fear of the consequences. If going against the mainstream makes one an outcast and life and property can be lost, no ballot will ever generate democracy, only the illusion of it.

By rushing to elections without first creating the conditions for freedom to resist intimidation, democracy in the Middle East has been dealt a near death blow. Instead, the West should have recognized long ago that as long as the average Arab citizen is afraid to express his beliefs and convictions, thoughts, opinions, yearnings and aspirations, as long as Arabs live in fear of state repression and under social pressure to conform, they will not be free.

Although most of the article is pessimistic, Ottolenghi chooses to stress his belief that “freedom’s advance... can be delayed, but not ultimately denied.”

Of course, examples of the denial of freedom of personal expression still abound.

Such as in Iran (admittedly not Arab, but still very much tied to the Middle East and very relevant to this discussion), where the government is cracking down on anyone brazen enough to wear clothes or hairstyles considered unIslamic.

Or in Syria, where anyone lucky enough to have access to the Internet (only 6 percent of the populace!), already severly limited, are no longer allowed to read the web site of the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal – owned by the family of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, assassinated in all likelihood by Damascus – or thousands of other sites that are blocked by the government.

...And, in case anyone needs a reminder that freedom of expression and religious pluralism are far, far from the norm, there is the whole fiasco surrounding the Muhammad cartoons to ponder.

To make a real change in the Middle East, Western powers ought to focus as much as possible on pressuring repressive regimes in the region to guarantee free expression. The rest will take care of itself.

Talking Turkey

The AK Party, otherwise known as the Justice and Development Party, has won a decisive victory at the polls in Turkey’s parliamentary elections.

A few short months ago, tens of thousands of secular Turks rallied to demand a secular president and insist that Ataturk’s revolution remain intact. So it is both unsurprising and praiseworthy that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, keenly aware of how sensitive the issue of Islamic rule in a secular state is, has pledged following his party’s victory to preserve the secular nature of modern Turkey.

One of the many interesting facets of this election is that, far from losing favor in a secularist backlash against its Islamist designs, AK actually increased its share of the popular vote over its last showing five years ago, rising from 34 percent to 48 percent. (In Parliament, that result will be even greater, with AK controlling about 60 percent of the seats.)

As The Economist points out, this popular support has a lot do with the strong economic performance of Erdogan’s government and the judicial reforms that it has enacted.

The English-language Turkish publication Today’s Zaman adds its own interesting take on the result – namely, that AK managed to position itself as the only true “centrist” party in Turkish politics.

Whatever the case, Turkey deserves a lot more attention than it gets in the West. Although it has a loooong way to go on its attempt to join the European Union, Turkey is arguably the Muslim country that is closest – not only geographically – to Europe. The way Turkey manages to balance Islam and secularism, furthermore, will have broad implications for countries throughout the Middle East.

Egypt’s Mustache War

Agence France Press alerts us to the intriguing Mustache War of southern Egypt:

CAIRO – When an elder was kidnapped in a clan dispute in conservative southern Egypt, the Al Arab family’s worst fears were soon realized – they received a package containing his mustache, local media reported Sunday.

The man himself was returned uninjured, but the use of the new shaving tactic sent shockwaves through the town of Mahrusa, near Luxor, 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of Cairo, where a man’s honor is measured by the size of his mustache, the Al-Gumhuriya daily said.

The conflict that started with a coffee shop brawl, swiftly spiraled out of control, with the Al-Arab carrying out a humiliating reprisal shave on a leading member of the Fallaheen family, followed by all-out battles with sticks and clubs. Police and community leaders then intervened, restoring a relative calm to the town, the paper said, with those worst hit by the conflict set to remain indoors for the coming weeks pending the regrowth of their manliness.

Let us hope that, in the face of this senseless aggression, all sides will, er, keep a stiff upper lip!

...Let us hope also that none of the victims was a member of the Egyptian Society for Special Mustaches, highlighted in this article.

One of the most prominent members is pictured above.

It’s the economy, stupid!

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tries to beat the United States and the rest of the Western powers in a nuclear stare-down contest, the greatest pressure on his government remains internal discontent with the failure of the Iranian economy.

Last week, a panel representing 57 economists made its plea for Ahmadinejad to change economic policies during a five-and-a-half-hour meeting with the hard-line president.

To quote an Associated Press report:

In a letter read in public during the meeting, the economists told the president his government was ignoring academic findings, wasting huge oil revenues, and enforcing policies that have provoked greater inflation and worsening economic conditions.

Ahmadinejad was elected on a populist agenda in 2005, promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. His failure to keep those promises has provoked increasingly fierce criticism from both conservatives and reformists.

Housing prices in Tehran have tripled and prices for fruits, vegetables or other basic commodities have more than doubled since last summer. Inflation further worsened after a 25-percent hike in fuel prices in May. And some protesters burned down gas stations last month when fuel rationing was imposed.

“Excessive spending from oil revenues... won’t bring economic growth, but causes stagnation in the private sector, makes the size of the government bigger and causes greater inflation,” the economists told Ahmadinejad.

The economists called Ahmadinejad's government the wealthiest in Iran’s modern history due to soaring revenues from oil exports, but said it had failed to capitalize on this to remedy Iran’s economic ills.

Ahmadinejad's government has cashed in more than $120 billion in oil exports since it took over two years ago, an unprecedented figure.

(Despite that), Iran's Central Bank confirmed for the first time last week that inflation had registered at 14.2 percent despite Ahmadinejad’s promises to make it a single-digit figure. Some independent experts place the inflation rate at 30 percent or more.

Likewise, economists say the unemployment rate could be as high as 30 percent, though the government only acknowledges 10 percent.

So, Ahmadinejad is raking in more money than Iran has ever seen, yet his country’s economy is worsening. Not exactly a glorious revolution, huh?

No food for us, thanks – Allah will provide

Despite its people’s intense poverty, and despite the Gaza Strip’s almost total dependence on outside sources for food and basic materials, Hamas is banning produce from Israeli farmers.

That’ll show ‘em!

Sure, the move will be costly to Israeli fruit and vegetable growers, denying them an estimated $1 million a day in sales. But it will cost Gazans even more: some of the only decent food in their already meager diet.

(Note: When Israel uprooted some 8,000 settlers from Gaza two years ago, it decided not to dismantle dozens of greenhouses that the settlers had built and used to create a thriving agricultural industry. Rather than exploit this gift, however, the Palestinian Authority – then under Fatah control – allowed, and even encouraged, local Gazans to destroy the greenhouses.)

Hamas is literally biting the hands that feed it. And those hands are not only attached to farmers in the “Zionist entity”.

Close to 1 million Gazans rely on food aid from the United Nations. The World Food Program sends hundreds of tons of food – or would, if it could get through the border crossings.

There used to be three functioning crossings along Gaza’s borders: at Erez, in the north, used primarily by laborers who went to work in Israel; at Karni, in the east, used primarily for exchanging goods with Israel; and at Rafah, in the south, used primarily for travel to and from Egypt. All have been closed because of repeated Palestinian attacks – only making matters worse for those unfortunate enough to live in Gaza.

A highly secure, innovative crossing created in the wake of Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip in 2005 exists at Kerem Shalom, near Rafah and at a point where the Gazan, Egyptian and Israeli borders meet. Combining representatives of all three sides, the crossing was overseen by European inspectors/mediators. But after Palestinian gunmen attacked this vital crossing, too, the Europeans headed home.

This leaves Gaza with almost no help from the outside world. The effect, as one might expect, is paralysis. Just one consequence is that the UN is being forced to abandon its major construction efforts in the Strip, which not only provide shelter for locals but sorely needed employment as well.

Recently, despite having no mutually agreed protocol in place for the functioning of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Israel was delivering aid to Gazans through a secure portal there.

Now Hamas is undermining those efforts, too.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the “Zionist-controlled crossing of Kerem Shalom” was just part of a conspiracy by Israel and the pro-American Fatah leadership in Ramallah against the Palestinians in Gaza. How the delivery of food and building materials to some of the poorest people on the planet is a “plot” against them, Barhoum does not make clear.

What is clear is that Hamas is cutting its nose to spite its face. You could call Gaza a banana republic – if only Hamas would allow bananas in!

A martyr in drag

Last week, we brought you a female pharaoh who dressed like a man. This week, we have a Pakistani cleric caught hiding under a burqa.

Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, has long been both a place supported by government officials and a center of radical ideology. In recent months the conflict between those two realities erupted, with something of a localized rebellion against the government, complete with murders, kidnappings and the capture of a government building by some of the thousands of students at the mosque and its adjacent schools.

A government crackdown this week reached a crescendo with the deaths of almost two dozen at the mosque.

Although hundreds have given themselves up in exchange for a ride home, scores of men holed up inside declared that they “want only martyrdom.”

Women were given amnesty; Lal Masjid ringleader Maulana Abdul Aziz was discovered among them.

“We caught Abdul Aziz when he was trying to escape the mosque clad in a burqa. He did not offer any resistance,” said a Pakistani security official involved in the capture.

“He was the last in a group of women all wearing the same clothes. He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,” the official said.

So how did the keen Pakistani police sniff out the wily outlaw?

“Our men spotted his unusual demeanor,” explained the official. “The rest of the girls looked like girls but he was taller and had a pot belly.”

Alan Johnston freed

You have to tip your hat to BBC reporter Alan Johnston – for a guy who was just freed from four months of captivity in the Gaza Strip, he sure has kept his wits about him. And his wit, too.

After speaking rather eloquently and artfully about his ordeal in the early-morning press conference following his release, the balding Johnston made a second public appearance later on Wednesday and explained that he had just shaved off the ring of hair that had grown in his captivity, so as to “get rid of that just-kidnapped look.”

:)

In addition to his humor, Johnston also showed considerable wherewithal – and understated courage – during his televised pow-wow with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In a clearly awkward gathering, Haniyeh draped a Palestinian sash around Johnston’s neck as part of an attempt to portray the journalist’s release as evidence of the group’s new role as benevolent champions and law-and-order rulers of Gaza. Johnston managed to remove the sash without drawing too much attention.

Of course, if you’re falling for the Hamas-as-misunderstood-angels line, you probably haven’t read about their summer camp. The kiddies get a hot lunch, play some soccer, and fire off a few rounds on an AK-47. Memories to last a lifetime!

...At least at Summer Explosives Camp in Iowa, where teenagers get to blow up watermelons and concrete while learning about the construction industry’s demolitions management practices, the idea is to make things go “boom” for a benficial purpose.

Some good news for girls

Egypt has finally moved to completely ban female circumcision – a truly abominable practice that unfortunately remains far too widespread in Saharan Africa, and is present in certain parts of the Arab world as well.

Better late than never, truly.

It’s worth spending a few minutes to check out this article on women debating the practice in Mali.

Or, take heart in the categorical rejection of female circumcision by this scholar from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University. (That is, the first one – not the one who reminds us of the “curse of the clit woman”!)

Better yet, check out this clip of a debate, between two Egyptian scholars, on a Kuwaiti talk show in 2006.

Here are some highlights:

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: A girl phoned me once - A woman called me - there is no shame in asking questions about religion... A girl called me and said: When I take the Metro, wearing tight jeans... The Metro in Egypt jolts about like this... She said: I get really aroused. What should I do?

...I asked a doctor, I'm telling you what happened... I asked a doctor, who told me this girl's clitoris was very high, and that a small part of it must be cut off.

We must take all girls to a Muslim doctor who specializes in this, who will determine whether she needs a khifadh circumcision or not. If a girl needs a khifadh, we should perform it, and if a girl does not need it, we should not.

Am I supposed to deny one of the rites of Islam and the laws of Allah?

Interviewer: Is the girl asked whether she wants to be circumcised or not?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: No. We ask the doctor, who makes the decision.

Interviewer: So what about the girl's opinion?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: What do you mean?

Interviewer: What if she says: I don't want to be circumcised. What happens then?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: If a girl says she doesn't want it, she's free. No problem.

Interviewer: Is this what happens in reality?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: I have no relation to reality. I am talking about how things should be.

Interviewer: You are a religious sheik, from Al-Azahar University. You cannot say you have no relation to reality.

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: Reality is a mistake, we must rectify it.

…Well, on that point, we agree. Reality is a mistake, we must rectify it. Hopefully, this latest move by the Egyptian government will rectify the prevailing reality.

If the queen had, er, a beard, she’d be the pharaoh

We can now report that Queen Hatshepsut really was Queen Hatshepsut. Egyptian antiquities officials have positively identified the mummy of the rare female pharaoh, thanks to the modern miracle of DNA testing.

Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for a span of 22 years in the middle of the 15th century BC. Besides being incredibly fat, she is said to have dressed like a man and worn a fake beard.

Apparently, this made her even less attractive than Michael Moore.

In 1903, Hatshepsut’s mummy was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile, and has been kept there ever since.

Then, in March of this year, the body was brought to the Cairo Museum, where DNA samples taken from the mummy were matched against those of the queen's equally withered grandma.

The results: excited Egyptologists everywhere tossing their pith helmets in the air.

This post was approved by the censor

Apropos of Thursday's post on the intimidation and oppression of journalists, rights activists, etc. throughout the Middle East, the New York Times has a story on the desperate measures that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is taking to prevent Iranian media from discussing anything that might embarass the little bugger.

Not only can newspapers not discuss the possibility of further international sanctions on Iran, but they may not even report the fact that gasoline prices have risen.

Of course, even the most enlightened and open governments engage in spin doctoring, and in trying to manipulate the media to present news in a light that favors the administration. But when an administration is so fragile that it must terrorize the media into refraining from publicizing facts(!), well, that administration is not long for this world.

On the bright side, this is a fine time to recall the exceedingly laughable "reports" of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister in 2003 who regaled the world with tales of American troops who were "committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad..."

Whenever you need to blow off some steam, just read through some of Baghdad Bob's best one-liners at this homage site.

...It was hilarious to hear him say things like, "The Cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river." But, as a British reporter pointed out, al-Sahaf's statements about sucking Western troops into a swamp don't sound so ridiculous anymore. Maybe the buffoon was clairvoyant?

Hamas “didn’t expect to win”

For confirmation of our assertion that Fatah collapsed in the Gaza Strip, check out Khaled Abu Toameh’s article in today’s Jerusalem Post. Abu Toameh quotes a Hamas official describing the movement’s swift capture of the entire strip as shocking even to themselves.

There is some spin from the official about the validity of the Palestinian security forces in their Fatah-dominated makeup… and he also points out that Fatah’s fighters were demoralized by the fact that their leaders had fled the area, leaving them totally adrift...

Even so, you would expect people to fight if they had been inculcated with a defensive spirit. That Fatah lacked this spirit became glaringly obvious during the confrontations with Hamas.

As the official in the Jerusalem Post story says:

“It was not a matter of a military victory for Hamas as much as it was a psychological defeat for Fatah.”

The groundwork for that psychological defeat was laid well before the Hamas uprising…

Watch your mouth!

You don’t have to carry a rifle or an explosives belt to be a threat to the government these days. Throughout the Middle East, it is enough to merely speak your mind.

In recent weeks, Morocco has rounded up left-wingers and rights activists for ostensibly “insulting sacred doctrines.”

Tunisia, meanwhile, has locked up an Islamist journalist; harassed the leader of a journalist’s union; and shut down a magazine for publishing common Tunisians’ jokes about religion, sex and politics.

In Syria, where arresting “dissidents” is something of a sport for the government, an anti-Baathist journalist was recently sentenced to three years in jail.

Iran’s treatment of former Revolutionary Guard turned anti-government snitch and pro-democracy activist Akbar Ganji is but the most prominent example of a widespread practice.

Ditto for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Muslim countries routinely occupy some of the lowest spots in the Reporters Without Frontiers annual rankings of press freedom, or that protests against censorship through intimidation and violence have come from such groups as the Arab Press Network and Arab Press Freedom Watch.

Interestingly, the press freedom index closely resembles the economic freedom index.

In fact, both closely resemble the broad series of indicators in the UN's Human Development Report. More freedom, apparently, really does mean a better life.

The Crusaders of Gaza

Apparently, the Huda Army does not read The Christian Post.

On Saturday, the newspaper published a ridiculously optimistic forecast of interfaith relations in the Gaza Strip:

Hamas-Christian Friendship Gives Hope for Believers' Safety in Gaza

While looting, sporadic violence, and instability still plague the newly Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a Christian persecution group [sic] hopes that a long-established friendship between it and Hamas will keep the small Christian community relatively safe from targeted attacks.

Open Doors, an international ministry working with persecuted Christians, said although it fears a worsening of living conditions for Gaza inhabitants, it does not think Christians will be attacked by the Islamic fundamentalist group.

“I am afraid it is going to get worst now that the border with Israel will be sealed tight,” Al Janssen, director of communications for Open Doors International, said to The Christian Post on Friday. “If food isn’t getting in and water isn’t getting in then there is going to be a humanitarian crisis.”

However, Janssen noted that he hopes the conversations between Hamas leaders and Open Doors founder Brother Andrew “will bear some fruit.”

Brother Andrew had built a relationship spanning over a decade with Hamas leaders. In December 1992, over a thousand Hamas leaders were deported from Israel and left on the side of a mountain in Lebanon.

Brother Andrew had flew in [sic] and visited the Hamas camp in a humanitarian way and gave Bibles and his book “God’s Smuggler” to them, who in turn invited Brother Andrew into their tent for a meal.

When the Hamas leaders later were able to return to their countries, Brother Andrew in turn hosted meals for Hamas leaders where he would testify about the Gospel. The two built a friendship where they would mutually challenge each other's religious beliefs but would do so with respect.

“Hamas are still people who need to hear the Gospel,” Janssen said. “Maybe at night, one of them would think about God and where he will go when he dies. We as Christians should spread the Gospel and not just cut them off.”

On Sunday, two Christian institutions in Gaza City were attacked.

As the Jerusalem Post story relates:

Masked gunmen in Gaza City set fire to the Latin Church and went on a rampage inside the Rosary Sisters School on Sunday. The attack was the first of its kind since Hamas took full control over the Gaza Strip last week.

Leaders of the Christian community in the Strip expressed deep concern over the fate of the Christians living under Hamas. They said most of them wanted to leave the Gaza out of fear for their lives.

An estimated 2,500 Christians live in Gaza City.

...

A group calling itself the Huda (Guidance) Army Organization threatened to target all Christians living in the Gaza Strip following remarks against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that were made last year by Pope Benedict XVI.

“We will target all Crusaders in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a leaflet, “until the pope issues an official apology. ”

The group also threatened to attack churches and Christian-owned institutions and homes.

“All centers belonging to Crusaders, including churches and institutions, will from now on be targeted,” it said. “We will even attack the Crusaders as they sit intoxicated in their homes.”

The Huda Army Organization said preparations had been completed “to strike at every Crusader and infidel on the purified land of Palestine."

Looks like Brother Andrew might have overestimated that mutual respect.

Peace in our time

Shi’ite rebels and government officials agreed to a cease-fire on Saturday, ending hostilities that have cost 4,000 lives so far this year.

In Yemen.

The rebels, the Young Faithful Believers, started fighting the government three years ago. During a spate of attacks in March, five members of the group were caught dressed as women, planning terrorist attacks.

The group, whose slogan is “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on Jews and victory to Islam,” denies allegations that it is supported by Iran.

Fatah gives up the ghost in Gaza

Well, that was fast.

Hamas has taken over the Gaza Strip in what can only be called a military coup. The gunmen did a pretty good job of planning and carrying out a lightning operation… in fact, they succeeded so much that an entire clan of Fatah supporters, with a few hundred men under arms, surrendered rather than face a fight. Those Fatah gunmen who haven’t turned themselves over, been kidnapped or killed, are fleeing to Egypt by the dozens.

In trying to understand how this happened, some will undoubtedly lay the blame on Israel for failing to support Mahmoud Abbas and those parts of the Palestinian Authority security services that are under the control of his Fatah Party. And, they’ll say, Israel should have helped Fatah fend off Hamas.

The fact is, though, that Israel did just about all it could.

Israel took the diplomatic initiative to marginalize and weaken Hamas politically by inducing the imposition of an international embargo on their government ministers. Fatah could have used that to tell the Palestinian public that only it (Fatah) would be able to deliver diplomatic achievements. Yet it squandered that opportunity by identifying with Hamas and reinforcing its martyr’s image.

Israel has funneled or facilitated the delivery of funds and weapons to Abbas, to help him maintain an advantage over Hamas. This too he has squandered. (It should be noted that Fatah folded this week despite enjoying a numerical advantage over Hamas.)

Most dramatically, though, Israel has fought Fatah's battles for it -- by overwhelmingly focusing on Hamas activists in its military operations. The data are unequivocal: in its arrest raids and in its assassinations of senior and mid-level activists, the Israeli army has disproportionately targeted Hamas. In the years 2000 through 2004, for example, 80% of Israeli air strikes were carried out against Hamas figures. Since then, the trend has only continued, and even increased. In addition, Israel has carried out assassinations and “interceptions” of Hamas men almost exclusively in the Gaza Strip for the past three or four years.

You would think, then, that Hamas would have grown weaker vis-à-vis Fatah in Gaza, instead of stronger.

How ironic it is that Yasser Arafat used to say that he couldn’t control the “rogue” Hamas. Well, it came true in the end.

Why did Hamas’s political and military might grow? It grew, not only because Hamas took the initiative to grow and challenge Fatah, but because Fatah did not respond to that challenge. The plain truth, it must be said, is that Fatah committed suicide. It took a few years, sure, but it was suicide just the same. In Gaza at least, Fatah has given up the ghost.

What is this, if not a war?

The death toll in factional violence in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year is fast approaching 200. Over the past few days, Fatah and Hamas have taken turns throwing each other’s members off tall buildings. Gunmen from each group are shooting at each other inside hospitals, assassinating each other’s officials, killing women and children, and preachers too. They are storming each other's headquarters.

As one Fatah spokesman said, “What is this, if not a war?”

So much could be said about how utterly unsurprising these clashes are, about the culture of hatred that both Fatah and Hamas have cultivated and how it is finally consuming them, about the complete failure of the Palestinians and of anyone who has ever taken an interest in their fate to affect the development of a fruitful society amongst them... but the simplest and most salient point of all is that this is, indeed, a war. And it is gruesome.

In Memoriam: Sahar Hussein al-Haideri (1962-2007)

Sahar Hussein al-Haideri knew her life was in danger. For three long years, she had reported critically on the rise of fundamentalism in her hometown of Mosul and, as a result, drew the attention of the self-styled Islamic Emirate of Iraq.

In fact, she was No. 4 on a hit list issued by a local jihadi boss.

Under the circumstances, no one would have blamed her if she had fled to Syria, but Sahar stayed with the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). She stayed – and she paid the price. On June 7, she was gunned down outside her home.

Ansar al-Sunna took credit for the slaying.

Susanne Fischer, Iraq Country Director of IWPR, had known Sahar ever since she started her first journalism training session in May 2005. In her obituary (the third one Fischer has had to write for a fellow journalist in a year), the IWPR director recalls:

Haideri was a remarkable woman in many regards. Strong, independent, dedicated
to the job, and at the same time a loving wife and caring mother of four.
Whenever she visited our training centre in Suleimania, she would seize the
kitchen and cook opulent meals.

Six months ago, her son-in-law was killed in a carjacking, so Sahar sent her family to live in Syria. But despite the danger, she continued to write about the transformation of her beloved Mosul into a neo-Taliban hell.

The fundamentalists were forcing women to wear the veil, blowing up statues and ordering the decapitation of mannequins. Restaurants even stopped mixing cucumbers and tomatoes (apparently “male” and “female” produce) in their salads.

Eventually, even Sahar felt the heat, and she jumped at the chance offered by IWPR to join her family in Syria. She lived there for only a month before coming back to Iraq.

An inexplicable choice to some, but Fischer knows why the Iraqi reporter returned. It had to do with the question that had tormented her throughout these years of violence: “What will become of Iraq when all the Sahars leave?”

In the past six months, according to the World Association of Newspapers, close to 30 journalists have been killed in Iraq.

Blood money

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is negotiating with EU officials over the fates of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who are on death row for what Libya says was the intentional infection of more than 400 children with HIV in 1998.

Foreign experts who studied the case – including one of the men who discovered the AIDS virus – testified during the medical workers’ trial that many of the children had contracted the virus before the accused even arrived in the country, and that the spread of the disease in the Benghazi children’s hospital was not a plot on the workers’ part but the fault of substandard sanitary conditions and practices at the hospital.

Libya, of course, rejected those findings out of hand, preferring the much more convenient and diversionary explanation of a foreign plot. (Gaddafi blamed the CIA and the Mossad.)

The medical workers said they were tortured – police have even admitted to using attack dogs and electric shock equipment in the interrogations (see here and here) – before confessing to the crimes, for which they are to face a firing squad.

Perhaps by sending the children to Europe for treatment last year on its own dime (or dinar) Libya made an admission of sorts… or perhaps it was just part of a PR campaign in what is already an elaborate farce.

As mentioned above, Gaddafi’s son is negotiating with EU officials. The word “negotiating” is significant because the families of the infected children are asking for 10 million euros each for their suffering. That’s up from 10 million dollars a while back, up from less than 4 million bucks before that. It’s an interesting tactic: the less of a case you have, the more money you demand!

“I fought the law and the law won…”

Quick question: Which country arrests the most Islamists?

Answer: Not the one you’re thinking of. In fact, the United States, England and France aren't even close.

A sampling of yesterday’s Associated Press news reports highlights the fact that the real crackdown on Islamists is taking place not in Western countries, but in Arab ones. Let’s peruse the news:

Jordanian police arrest 7 Islamists for allegedly forming armed militias

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – Police arrested seven members of Jordan’s largest Muslim opposition group for allegedly setting up armed militias with the aim of destabilizing the kingdom, the group’s leader said Thursday.

The latest arrests bring to nine the total number of activists with the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, who were detained by police since May 22.

Saudi authorities arrest 11 alleged militants in the past 48 hours

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi police have arrested 11 suspected militants, including one allegedly involved in last year’s foiled suicide attack on the world’s largest oil processing facility, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The official Saudi Press Agency, quoting an unidentified ministry official, said the men were all Saudi and belonged to “the deviant group,” the term Saudi officials use to refer to Islamic militants and members of al-Qaida.

...In April, police arrested more than 170 al-Qaida-linked plotters accused of planning to replicate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by dispatching suicide pilots to military bases and launching attacks on the oil refineries that drive the economy in Osama bin Laden's homeland.

Egyptian police arrest 41 more members of Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Authorities on Thursday detained 41 more members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood, a police official said. The arrests were the
latest in an ongoing crackdown on the country’s strongest opposition group.

...The police official gave no reason for the arrests, but said the detained were posting religious banners in their districts.

...A statement posted later Thursday on the Brotherhood’s official Web site claimed that so far, 814 of its members are in detention since December, including 646 members arrested following a recent police step-up in the crackdown ahead of nationwide elections for the upper house of Parliament, known as the Shura Council.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; it is but a single day’s tally in only three Arab states. Just tiles in a larger mosaic, if you will, that will be the topic of future posts here.

Those in glass houses…

Left-wing Israeli activists protesting “the occupation” in Hebron isn’t news.

Palestinians throwing stones at Israelis isn’t news either.

But when Palestinians throw stones at left-wing Israelis protesting “the occupation” in Hebron, it’s news (see the story here or here). ‘Cause it’s just hilarious.

...Fortunately, of course, no one got hurt.

Can we talk?

Talks between Syria and Israel – the possibility of which has the media abuzz – make perfect sense. If you’re Bashar Assad, that is.

The latest notion is that, with the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians at a standstill, Israel could use a breakthrough on the northeastern front. (By “Israel,” one might infer Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose approval rating has sunk to the single digits.) Syria, of course, desperately needs a break – from America, because Syria allows jihadists to file into Iraq through its border, and from the United Nations, because Syria is the only real suspect in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

There’s a pretty convenient deal for everyone, right?

Well, if the idea were to talk about peace for peace, then it could definitely be a good thing. But everyone knows that Syria’s asking price for making peace with Israel is a full return of the Golan Heights, and that its offer in return is the mere promise to consider “normalization.”

Want to put such a deal in historical context? Here’s an analogy that springs to mind: Israel selling the Golan to Syria for a cold peace is the Middle East equivalent of the Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

The Golan provides Israel with vital water resources, a tourism goldmine, and militarily strategic high ground. It is enormously popular with Israelis – far more so than the Gaza Strip, which the country gave up two years ago with no small amount of heartache. Yet Syria wants it back.

What is it, exactly, that supposedly makes the Golan Heights – which is home to numerous remains of the ancient Israelites – a Syrian territory? Israel has already ruled the Golan for twice as long as Syria. (Syria gained its independence from France in 1944, so it only held the Golan for 23 years. Before the French mandate, the Ottoman Turks controlled the territory for 400 years. Before them, the Mamluks had it for two and a half centuries.) And while Syria was in charge, it did little with the territory other than use it as a launching ground for mortar fire on Israeli farms and for Palestinian fedayeen to carry out cross-border raids into Israel.

Olmert’s administration may be more interested in giving the appearance of willingness to talk with Assad, and not actually be interested in talking with him. A parallel situation is likely the case where Assad is concerned. But it is strange that Israel would even fly this trial balloon right now. Wouldn’t it benefit more by letting Assad twist in the wind while the UN’s Hariri tribunal starts presenting its evidence against him and his intelligence agents?

Maybe that’s why US Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice put the kibosh last week on Israeli reports of interest in talks with Syria. Of course, she did so just after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and while the State Department was trying to set up the first high-level talks between America and Iran in 30 years. Not exactly a consistent line of reasoning there.

(Speaking of that, this report on last week's meeting between the foreign ministers of Iran and Syria is good for a chuckle. Oh, sure, they both want to see Iraq and Lebanon stabilized!)

America, at least, has an urgent need to stop the bleeding in Iraq. Apparently, it is willing to lose a little face to Damascus and Tehran in the (futile) hopes of getting some cooperation there.

What about Israel, though? Does it really need to stave off a Syrian attack? The argument is that, if Israel doesn’t agree to surrender the Golan via diplomacy, Syria will be forced to demand it through war. To clarify that point, a Syrian MP has said that the armed forces are preparing for war with the Zionists.

The fact is, though, that Israel has enjoyed a pretty cushy state of war with Syria ever since 1973. The vastness of the qualitative gap between Israel’s military and Syria’s has been proven time and again since then, and it is not about to be bridged any time soon. So you have to ask yourself why Syria has not tried a direct assault on Israel in 34 years. Is it because it thought that a diplomatic breakthrough was right around the corner, or because it feared such a confrontation?

Olmert and Assad talking about that – now that would be interesting.