Friday, Nov 7

ROSIE TRIAL UPDATE: Jon Fine from AdAge gives a synopsis of what went on at the proceedings yesterday.

Friday, Nov 7

MEDIA MATTERS - Between the Lines

Mark Glaser writes about the Iraqi Bloggers and the Iraqi English-language newspapers.

A good column to help you stay well-informed which can help fill in some background information for you. And take a glance at the links on his right sidebar.

:: Glaser at OJR ::

Friday, Nov 7

DRIVING MISS SHIRIN: Shirin Ebadi is being given a bodyguard and a car by Iran's interior ministry, according to Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, spokesman for the Human Rights Defenders Circle, who requested they provide protection for her.

Ambeyi Ligabo, a UN Special Liason, flew in Tuesday on a week-long visit for a probe focused on press freedoms and freedom of expression. Ligabo is expected to meet with Ebadi and with imprisoned political opponents of the current regime.

:: From AFP via The Jordan Times.

Friday, Nov 7

EVERGREENS: Authorities have prevented a weekly newspaper in Jordan from publishing an editorial-type cartoon, designating it offensive, Mowaffak Mahaddin, a staff member of Al Wahdah newspaper, told AFP Thursday.

Figures depicted in the graphic included Centcom General Abizaid. Apparently, the cartoon conveyed some subtle insult which General Abizaid, who speaks Arabic and attended school there, could, presumedly, understand.

"They ordered us to delete the caricature or else we would be banned from printing so we replaced it with another cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Mahaddin said.

:: From AFP via The Jordan Times.

Thursday, Nov 6

NEW 'MAD' SCENARIO? *There is a Cold War between the US and the EU, says Mark Steyn, and it will end with the collapse of Old Europe.*

This is a somewhat scary "doomsday" essay, but it explores some interesting ideas.

:: Steyn Essay at The UK Spectator.

Thursday, Nov 6

INTERNET MURDER CASE: Amana Mona was convicted of the killing of a Jewish teenager today in Israel. She lured the boy, Ofir Rahum, over the Internet into a trap in which he was deliberately murdered in January, 2001. Mona was characterized as completely feral by the prosecuters who sought to protect the rest of human society by imprisoning her permanently.

:: From Reuters ::

:: From Sky News (with photo).

Thursday, Nov 6

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: The door seems to have opened just a crack... but then it was slammed in our faces again. Sigh!

George Soros, the international financier and media philanthropist and Gro Harlem Brundtland, retired director general of the World Health Organisation and former Prime Minister of Norway will join hundreds of journalists and executives from the international broadcast news community in Budapest Hungary on 6-7 November.

An entry about this topic, NEWS XCHANGE 2003, was posted on Salam Pax's weblog last night, but seems to have disappeared while I was sleeping. It's almost as if it disappeared by magic, but computers save almost everything, so I delved into my surf history from earlier today, last night, and yesterday. And I finally found it again.

According to the updated agenda (click through for it), the topic of the conference today is The Conflict in Iraq. Sounds interesting. It says that Salam will be participating. Maybe they'll produce a transcript or a report which we'll be able to read at some point in the future. Or is it going to be classified Top Secret? Film at 11 or no? :-)

Thursday, Nov 6

BABEL-NON: The CIA and the FBI are launching a new translation program to help solve the shortage of linguists in Arabic and other languages, which officials say has become a crisis in the fight against terrorism. They're going online and creating a "virtual" network... The National Virtual Translation Center starts operations Dec. 1. The new center's director is Everette Jordan.

:: From an article by by John Mintz
-- for the Washington Post.

Thursday, Nov 6

CONDEMNED TO BE FREE: Prof Juan Cole noted yesterday in an entry he posted on his weblog:

In other university news, Iraqi students at Baghdad U. protested a move by the Interim Iraqi Student Union requiring that it give prior approval for all posters put up at the university by students. The interim Minister of Higher Education approved the new policy. The protesters complained that this decision was undemocratic and an unwarranted interference with free speech...

Welcome to the ongoing struggle! Now Iraqi students can be more like students everywhere else in the world, including the US. You are embarking on a journey to protect your rights, conserve them, and maybe even expand them. But this is just the beginning.

A little taste of some of the latest forms of monkey business among American university students: some groups of miscreants have been stealing entire print runs of editions of student newspapers which contain something the dissidents disagree with. Oh, did you think it would be easy?

:: From PERMANLINK :: Nov 5 - 8:22 AM

:: Informed Comment ::

Wednesday, Nov 5

JUNKET ANNOUNCED: The Arab League will send a high-level delegation to Iraq next week for the first time since the war to topple Saddam Hussein was launched in March.

:: AFP via YahooNews.

---------------------------

NOTABLE CAPTURE: US forces have captured two former Iraqi generals suspected of financing and organizing attacks on coalition forces around Fallujah.

:: AFP via YahooNews.

Wednesday, Nov 5

NAJAF HEAD DECLARES STRIKE:

Gov. Al-Mayyali of Najaf has declared an open-ended strike in that city after a meeting with Robert Ford, representative of Paul Bremer, in order to protest the lack of security there which recently resulted in the assassination of their top judge, Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, who was kidnapped and shot dead on Monday.

Shuwaili was behind the creation of a judicial commission to probe former officials of the ousted dictator's regime.

That commission should be reconstituted with more of an emphasis on Reconciliation, in my opinion.

Officials from other countries, including the former East Germany, South Africa and elsewhere have offered to help the Iraqis handle this issue. The Iraqis would be wise to accept some of the help being extended to them.

:: From AFP via YahooNews.

Wednesday, Nov 5

~ ONLINE FROM BAGHDAD: Washington Post military reporter Vernon Loeb was live online today (Wed-Nov 5) at noon to talk with WaPo surfers about the latest developments in Iraq and answer some of their burning questions. This is a link to the transcript, courtesy of a heads-up appearing at Romenesko.

Vernon Loeb: Hello everybody. Greetings from Baghdad... I look forward to answering your questions, so let's get started...

:: SPECIAL EDITION :: Loeb Transcript.

Wednesday, Nov 5

Carnival of the Vanities at Wizbang this week. Nice presentation. It's a weekly cyber-zine of selected blog entry writings for your perusal.

Skate over that list of contents and see if there's anything there that piques your interest or curiosity.

:: This week's Carnival at Wizbang ::

Wednesday, Oct 5

AL-JAZ HITS SOME SPEED BUMPS: *Abu Dhabi TV's no-nonsense reporting and Saudi giant al-Arabiyya's smooth graphics and heavy budgets have been drawing some of the audience away from Aljazeera TV lately.*

So, how are they doing lately in context with some of their new competition?

:: See article by Jason Athanasiadis
-- at the Asia Times.

Tuesday, Nov 4

FROM THE CHINESE NET:

Ever hear of The Stainless Steel Mouse?

That's the handle of a young Chinese university gal student who has been held incommunicado by the ChiCom government since November, 2002.

You're hearing about her now because it seems that the Chinese government has launched a new crackdown on dissent posted on the Internet in recent weeks.

Here are the names of the "cyber-dissidents" involved in the current fracas:

:: Du Daobin
:: Jiang Lijun
:: Liu Di (SS Mouse).


~ Several dozen Chinese academics, reporters and scholars have called on Beijing to release detained "cyber-dissident" Du Daobin and protect freedom of speech.

He had signed an online petition and repeatedly called for the release of fellow cyber-dissident Liu Di, a female psychology student from Beijing Normal University who was detained in the capital in November 2002. Liu has been held incommunicado since.

:: From Reuters Internet Report
-- via YahooNews - Nov 03 ::


~ Jiang Lijun, a prominent Internet activist who was detained in November of last year, has been put on trial here.

Indications are that authorities suspect Jiang, who represents a growing sub-culture posting their political views on the Internet, of being a ringleader of online pro-democracy activism.

He is reportedly close to other Internet activists, including Liu Di, a Beijing student known by her online alias "Stainless Steel Mouse" who was also arrested a year ago after posting democracy essays online.

:: From AFP via YahooNews >
-- World > Asia > China - Nov 04 ::

Tuesday, Nov 4

IN VOA NEWS: 4 Explosions Rock Center of Baghdad; 4 Injured.

:: On Front Page Headlines HERE ::


The Story Corps Project: While you're over at VOA NEWS, you might also want to check out this story. The BBC is trying to do a somewhat similar project which, I believe, is called the Voices Project.

VOA > Left Sidebar > Arts and Culture

:: or Direct LINK HERE ::

Tuesday, Nov 4

ROSIE MAG SAGA Continues...

:: Rosie vs GnJ ::

-- Link via Drudge and Romensko.


:: Rosie Coverage :: Court TV via Yahoo

-- This story has some illuminating moments.

Tuesday, Nov 4

Slavery in Classified Ads: A Saudi man put an ad in the newspaper to exchange a 1991 Dodge automobile for a female slave.

:: Norwegian Leak ::

Tuesday, Nov 4

Arab Crackpot Conspiracy Theories...

*...told me in all seriousness how there was a detailed Jewish plot that if Al Gore had become president, he would have been assasinated so that Joseph Lieberman could assume the presidency of the United States. Since the Jews knew they would never get a Jewish president elected directly, the Lieberman VP bid was a Jewish conspiracy to gain control of the presidency by underhanded means.*

:: But keep this under yr hat :: ~( ;-)

Tuesday, Nov 4

VENDETTA: Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, who headed the "Najaf Tribunal," was kidnapped and assassinated gangland-style by Ba'athists according to his companion at the time, Aref Aziz, who told AFP.
--Al Bawaba


Also in Najaf, the president of the city’s municipal council, Sheikh Khaled Al-Numani, said he had escaped an assassination bid late Sunday when assailants opened fire on his house, triggering retaliatory fire by his guards.

"Two of the three assailants were caught. One of them is an Egyptian named Rabih Al-Masri who has been living in Najaf for a long time," Numani said.

And in another apparent vendetta: Mustafa Zaidan Al-Khaleefa, head of Baghdad’s Karkh Neighborhood Council, was killed on Sunday evening in a drive-by shooting.

:: From an article in the Jordan Times.

Tuesday, Nov 4

MORE TROUBLE IN KARBALA: Late Monday a bomb exploded near the Baratha Hotel behind al-Mukhayam Mosque, killing several people and wounding some others. The office of the Shia cleric Muhammad Taqi al-Mudarrasi also came under attack, but no further details are available at this time. --Al Jazeera


On Saturday, Hamza Hendawi sent a dispatch to AP from Karbala in which he noted:

*Next to the main gate of the Imam Hussein shrine, a banner declares: "Any constitution imposed on the Iraqi people will be a prelude to the return of dictatorship and will destined to fail." The author is Mohammed Taqi al-Mudaris, a little-known senior cleric who has recently returned from exile in neighboring Syria.*

I do not know whether the clerics identified here as Mudarrasi and Mudaris are the same person with spelling variations of the name or whether they are two different people. The first name does appear to be the same. Perhaps, in time, this will emerge more clearly.

Monday, Nov 3

2-TET OR NAH-2-TET

I don't like to keep linking to negative things, but sometimes it's hard to avoid them.

Robert L. Bartley in his Nov 3rd essay at Opinion Journal asks if Iraq is another Vietnam and evokes the Tet offensive. A number of writers have mentioned Tet lately.

I'm no expert on military affairs, but for many generations men have undertaken military actions when there is the least moonlight in order to exploit the cover of darkness. That phase of the moon is the new moon. To the degree that the Tet action was linked to the moon and the cluster of Iraqi attacks were linked to the moon there may be some lunar or symbolic connection that some writer may wish to explore. Other than moon linkage, it seems to me, the two situations are demographically incongruous.

In the Vietnam situation the US was supporting a minority Roman Catholic oligarchy while the majority of the population there was Buddhist. At the time we went in, we were led to believe that the demographic was similar to the Philippines where the majority of the population had been Roman Catholic. But Vietnam was not mostly Roman Catholic. It was mostly Buddhist.

In the current Iraqi situation, the demographic configuration and pattern of alliance is exactly the opposite. The US is allied with the Shiite majority which has been repressed for the last few decades by a minority Sunni oligarchy which has become like a Mafia. This does not mean that all Sunnis everywhere are always gangsters. But we know that this particular group is fascist in sentiment.

This situation has the ingredients to make for a very nasty civil war.

Thus, I am quite appalled to see The Guardian publish an inflammatory op-ed piece by a fellow named Tariq Ali who has taken it upon himself to presume to speak for all of the Iraqi public-- what nonsense! Worse yet, this aspiring Edgar Bergen seems to be trying to incite more violence.

I think The Guardian editorial board should place a moratorium on inflammatory pieces like this. Certainly, they must be aware of the demographics of the situation. Would they publish something that encourages people to walk in front of moving traffic? Can we agree that would be irresponsible?

The only "colonial" occupation Iraq is under today is the Shiite majority being brutally attacked by the "colonizing" Sunni fascist gangsters. This is not the first phase of anything, it is the last desperate gasp of a Mafia-like group.

Tariq Ali's schadenfreude over the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people is disgusting. But there's a lot of that going around lately.

I don't think The Guardian should perform as his enabler and a Facilitator of Genocide. I think all of us would have been much better off without his Resistance essay at this particular moment. Maybe it's just poor timing. But, yes, there is such a thing as criticizing and dissenting without trying to incite more violence. And I don't think Mr. Ali has quite mastered that gambit yet.

Of course, newspapers and media organizations want to offer punchy material rather than material that puts the public to sleep. But where do we draw the line into the foul zone if not with a piece that clearly intends to throw a stick of dynamite into the crowd?

:: Robert L. Bartley's essay ::

:: Tariq Ali's essay ::

Sun-Mon Overnight, Nov 3

MEDIA MATTERS . . .

News goes bump in the night: An essay by Steve Busfield, the Night Editor of The UK Guardian, which offers a charming and illuminating behind-the-scenes glimpse into how some newspapers are still being put together.

:: From The Guardian ::

--------------------

Pity the American press: Frank Rich wrote an op-ed piece for Sunday's NY Times called So Much for 'The Front Page.' Some people I surfed had a pointer to it, mentioning a few words about it. Their comments were mostly negative. I went over there and read it myself. It was a waste of valuable time. I don't recommend it.

:: Press Piece by Rich
-- Registration Req'd.

--------------------

Post-Internet Newspapers: A few days ago, Jeff Jarvis pointed to this article by Steve Outing in which Outing describes his vision of a post-online newspaper. Jarvis had some ideas about the issue, too.

I've been thinking about Outing's article ever since I read it.

Since I've been online for a couple of years now, I think I've become much less tolerant of poor presentation. That would include busy, jumbled pages, messy organization and user-unfriendly navigation.

How about you? Has the experience of reading material on the Internet changed your expectations of how your reading material should be presented?

Sun-Mon Overnight, Nov 3

CROP CIRCLE GLYPHS: New Formation - West Union, Ohio - dated November 1 - Another Soybean Formation ::Earthfiles::

Sunday, Nov 2

ON THE DAMASCUS SEVEN: "If someone tells you at nearly one in the morning that he invites you to Damascus where the meeting starts the next day at 10 in the morning, it means that this is not an invitation."

:: Hoshyar Zebari
-- Interim Iraqi Foreign Minister

:: From the BBC ::

Sunday, Nov 2

DOES FASTING PRODUCE CONFLICT? *Psychoanalysts remain unable to explain the increasing rate of street violence during the holy month of Ramadan.*

Some people are theorizing that it may be due in part to the lowered nicotine level in the blood of smokers who abstain during this period of time.

Mohssen Arishie has written an interesting essay in social observation and wondering: what does it all mean?

:: From the Egyptian Gazette.

Sunday, Nov 2

A MYSTERIOUS SUMMONS: A group of Middle Eastern countries got together over the weekend for a conference in Damascus, Syria, purportedly to discuss the impact of the Iraqi regime change on the region.

Late Friday a Syrian official sent a last-minute invitation to Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari to come to Damascus for the group's first session.

Mr. Zebari called the Syrian invitation "mysterious and ambiguous."

"With the absence of a clear invitation by the Syrian government, it is very difficult for Iraq to participate in this meeting and we will not abide by or accept any decisions taken by this meeting," Mr. Zebari told a news conference in Baghdad a few hours before the meeting was to start.

:: From an article by Sam F. Ghattas
-- for AP via the WashTimes.

------------------------------

But wait... there's more! Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir lashed out at Iraq's Zebari for not attending the meeting of a mysteriously appointed group of Middle Eastern Foreign Ministers in Damascus over the weekend.

Zebari said late on Saturday he had not received an invitation "through recognised channels."

:: From Al Jazeera TV Net.

------------------------------

And from the Egyptian Gazette: Egypt expressed astonishment [sic] over Iraq's failure to attend a meeting in Syria by foreign ministers from seven Middle East states to discuss post-war regional security, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said yesterday.

Sunday, Nov 2

THIS YEAR'S SHELDON AWARD: Many readers with far too much time on their hands have written in and asked: Whatever happened to this column's annual Sheldon award? Well, it's back. It goes to the university president who does the most to look the other way when free speech is under assault on campus.

:: From an article by John Leo
-- in the NY Daily News.