:
Sa Feb 26 -

NO NEWS IS
BAD NEWS SOMETIMES . . .

*MOSUL, IRAQ - The body of a female news anchor was found in Mosul Saturday, six days after masked gunmen kidnapped her, reports her family.

The husband of Raiedah Mohammed Wageh Wazan said her body was dumped along a street. She had been shot four times in the head.*

:: CBC News: Found in Mosul ::


*NEAR HILLA, also south of the capital, a journalist with a US-funded Arabic language television station, Al-Hurra, was seriously wounded and his driver killed.

"The Al-Hurra car was attacked by gunmen, the driver killed, and journalist Mohammed Sherif Ali was badly wounded," police Lieutenant Thamer Sultan said.*

:: AFP/Arabia.msn ::

...

:
Fr Feb 25 -

IT COULD BE CONTAGIOUS -

*All this could change if the international community pressed Tehran to hold free presidential elections with U.N. observers monitoring the process. As in Iraq, where the Iranian leadership insisted on 'free elections without manipulation,' all candidates must be allowed to participate without any fear of intimidation or fraud.*

An interesting Op-Ed by the first vice president of the European Parliament at the WashTimes.

:: Iran's ayatollahs challenged ::

...

:
Fr Feb 25 -

IRAQI STUDENTS
DENOUNCE 'ZIONIST PLOT' -

*Hundreds of Iraqi students demonstrated to protest a government decision to extend the weekend to include Saturday, denouncing the scheme as a 'Zionist plot.'

Irate high school students marched through Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, denouncing outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision to extend the weekend from the traditional Islamic holy day of Friday to include Saturday.

'We don't want Saturday as it is a Jewish holiday,' the crowd chanted Wednesday.*

:: AFP/Naharnet ::

...

:
Fr Feb 25 -

SAMIRA RAJAB CONTROVERSY -

The remark that: 'General' Sistani has been the main backer of the American occupation in Iraq has caused a furore within the Shia community in Bahrain.

NB: Although ruled by a Suni clan, the population of Bahrain is largely Shia.

Bahraini Blog perma ::

...

:
Fr Feb 25 -

FROM THE GULF -

# *Kuwait City: A meeting between the government and a parliamentary committee dealing with the new press law has hit a snag because of disagreement on jail terms for erring press corps and control on closure of publications.

:: gulfnews.com ::


# ...Al Arabiya television said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had demanded that Damascus pull its troops out of Lebanon by April or face measures from the Security Council.*

:: gulfnews.com ::

...

Fr Feb 25 -

CIVIL SOCIETY:
Arabia Style -

*As part of efforts to sustain and support the process of democratic transformation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation is holding a regional workshop on "Civil Society in the Arab World: Field Study."

The two-day workshop, which begins today at the Holiday Inn Amman, is organised in cooperation with the Jordan Centre for Social Research and falls within the "Democracy in the Arab World" project, according to a statement released by the foundation...

Civil society is considered one of the major constituents of modern democratic societies as well as the basic element for establishing democracy in the Arab world, the statement said.*

:: Jordan Times ::

...

:
Fr Feb 25 -

CAPTURED IN IRAQ:
Responsible for Beheadings -

*Iraqi forces captured the leader of an Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist cell allegedly responsible for carrying out a string of beheadings in Iraq, the government said. In a statement late Thursday, the government identified the cell leader as Mohamed Najam Ibrahim and said he had been arrested by Iraqi National Guardsmen in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. It gave no date for the arrest.

Ibrahim had carried out the beheadings with his brother, the government said...

The government said Ibrahim was being interrogated by authorities for more information they hoped would lead to other arrests.*

:: From Khaleej Times ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

TV CONFESSIONS -

"We received all the instructions
from Syrian intelligence..."

*The allegations made by the apparent rebels on al-Iraqiya TV would, if verified, back US and Iraqi claims of Syrian meddling in Iraq's affairs.*

:: BBC: claim Syria backing ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

HARIRI: WHACKED BY
JOOOZ WITH GUNS???

Jihad Al Khazen theorizes about
the Hariri assassination:

*If the U.S. or Israel attacks the Iranian facilities, Hezbollah will attack Israel. This is why there is an external project to turn the Lebanese popular anger, which followed the assassination, into an anger that would be followed by an explosion allowing the external forces to get rid of Hezbollah. Such an attack would happen prior to an air raid against all the Iranian nuclear facilities, in a pre-emptive way to ban Hezbollah from retaliating by attacking Israel.*

+ Yeah, very twisty of them.

:: Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

EXPANDING ALLIANCES:
Israel and Nato -

Previously, there had been some discussion published about the possibility of Israel joining the European Union.

This article explores the potential of an Israeli relationship with NATO:

*Strengthening the ties between Israel and NATO and anchoring Israel in the Euro-Atlantic community are not only strategic and political issues, important as they may be. Geographically, Israel is located in the broader Middle East, but culturally, politically and economically it is an advanced Western democratic nation...*

-- By Uzi Arad --
:: FromThe Daily Star ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

FEELING LEFT OUT -

*DUBAI: Reformists are calling for an
elected parliament in the pro-Western
United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an
unprecedented public demand for
a greater say in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom.*

:: Daily Times PK ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

SURPRISE GUESTS -

*AMMAN: A Royal Jordanian (RJ) flight
arrived in Amman on Wednesday
after making a brief emergency
landing at Israel's Ben Gurion
Airport, officials said.*

:: Jordan Times: Home News ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

LEVANTINE BRIEFS -

UAE Cranks Ratchet Up:

*Last Friday, EMAAR said it had decided to form a new company - EMAAR Palestine - in the Palestinian Authority area, a move taken under the directives of Dubai Crown Prince and strongman Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, who is also UAE defense minister...

According to a senior Emirati source in Abu Dhabi, quoted Tuesday by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, "in pushing contacts with Israeli officials, he [Abbar] went beyond the bounds of authorization set by the Emirati authorities.*

-- From a report by Taieb Mahjoub, AFP --
:: The Daily Star


:: And Issandr El Amrani :: reports that imprisoned Ayman Nour has been hospitalized after he became ill during interrogation.

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

COURTROOM LAUGHTER -

*Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, was named in a six-count federal indictment...

Court papers said a search of the Abu Ali family's house in Falls Church [Virginia, USA] on June 16, 2003, yielded a document on avoiding government surveillance, another document praising the Sept. 11 terror attacks, audio tapes in Arabic promoting violent jihad, and an anti-democracy book written by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top aide...

Spectators who had arrived with hopes that Abu Ali would be released from custody laughed incredulously when U.S. Magistrate Judge Liam O'Grady told the defendant that the indictment alleged he conspired to kill the president.*

-- From a report by Paul Bradley --
:: TimesDispatch.com ::

...

:
Th Feb 24 -

FLY ON THE WALL -

Sabria S. Jawhar reports on George Soros at the Jeddah Economic Forum:

*He called for establishing an Arabic culture organization that uses the unity of the language as a unifying power.

'I am here to explore whether it makes sense and get support,' he said.*

+ Support? Support for what... ?

I suspect he's positioning himself to buy into Aljazeera TV when it goes "public."

The rest of the article discusses his approach to the concept of "The Open Society" and is worth reading if you want to know more about that.

But, please, don't put me in the middle of his disagreements with Pres Bush.

:: Saudi Gazette Online ::

...

:
Tu Feb 22 -

FREE MOJTABA AND ARASH!

# The Global Blogsphere Community is being called into action to support two imprisoned Iranian bloggers, Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad.

# Iran is becoming an increasingly dangerous place to keep a blog, as they have become a popular forum for dissent.

# This group has a list of actions which it says you can take, including writing to local Iranian embassies.

...

:
Tu Feb 22 -

IRAN: CAUGHT IN THE NET -

# The Genie in the Laptop
and The Mullah in the Bottle:

The spread of the internet has changed the lives of young Iranians by allowing them not only to download files of forbidden music, but also to indulge in digital dating. In a phenomenon that has taken the country by storm, hundreds of internet blogs have been created in both Farsi and English. Defying official censorship can be a perilous business...

After the two men described their prison ordeal to some politicians, the details were published on a blog by the former vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist cleric, whose online diary has become one of Iran’s most popular sites.

:: Abtahi’s Blog :: is also regularly blocked by government officials. From time to time it reappears, however-- a sign to Iranians of splits among politicians about how best to deal with their country’s restless youth.

:: From IRAN-VA-JAHAN ::

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

# Mullahs Punish Mahabad,
Cut off Gas During Freeze

Recently there were large anti-regime protests in the city of Mahabad. As punishment, the regime has now cut off the gas to the region in the midst of the coldest winter ever, creating a deadly situation for the citizens of Mahabad...

:: "free" IRAN NEWS AND VIEWS ::

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

# Christian Dhimmi Jail

A Tehran military court sentenced a 47-year-old Assemblies of God lay pastor, Hamid Pourmand, to a three-year prison term on Wednesday, five months after his arrest with more than 80 other Christian leaders. The verdict came during the second and final session of a military trial that begun in late January...

:: From The Christian Post ::
-- via Payvand News of Iran --

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

# A Directory of Iranian Blogs:

:: BLOGS BY IRANIANS ::

...

:
Tu Feb 22 -

CHALLENGING ENCOUNTERS -

*But this third meeting ... has the potential to change the nature of Islam itself. If European-born Muslims look inside their faith for what are presented as Western notions of human rights and individual freedom, they will find them, he argues.

The challenge will be to convince other Muslims that these ideas are universal - and then western Muslims can export them back to the heart of Islamic society.*

+ Dominic Casciani of The BBC Online Magazine writes about Grand Mufti Dr Mustafa Ceric.

:: BBC Magazine - Islamic ::

...

:
Tu Feb 22 -

FROM THE MENTAL PRETZEL DEPT -

# It's Jihad Al Khazen in his regular Ayoon wa Azan column writing about someone named Max Boot, whom I've never heard of. But getta loada this chain of logic anyway:

*Max Boot denied the existence of an unelected neo-con cabal which hijacked the American foreign policy; this denial is enough to prove the existence of such a mob...*

:: Dar Al Hayat ::

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

# And then there's this gem from a US Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) comin' at cha like a meteor from Outer Space; better strap yourself in for this one:

...the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: it originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers ... And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it: they produced papers that made it look even worse. And they-- and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only-- what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for. They-- the people there-- they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had ’em. They didn’t care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

:: SIC VIDE ::

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

M.E. BLOG ROAMING -

# Mister Ghost now has posting privileges at Iraqi Bloggers Central. Gonzo Linguistics Prof Jeffrey from Queens, NY, was anticipating that he would get bogged down with professoring after the Iraqi Elections, so Mister Ghost, who used to write on the comments threads, is now going "mainline." And MG has turned out to be a real Live Wire. I mean, you won't doze off over there. He keeps things hopping. He has a bit of a Fleet Street touch with an air of anything-could-happen.

# The Arabist Network alerts us to a new weekly English-language publication called Cairo Magazine. Can they compete with Al-Ahram? Will they get censored by the Egyptian authorities? Cairo, of course, would make a good assignment for unemployed former Kremlinologists. Give it a try and drop in when you have a moment.

# Ponderous debate going on over at Mahmood's Den: what is the difference between bloggers who write their blogs in Arabic vs bloggers who write it in English?

# And last, but not least, As'ad AbuKhalil's Excruciatingly Acerbic Guide to Arabic-language TV, which is a very long rant. But he seems to cover just about every Talking Head, News Presenter, and Personality on the air in the M.E. and beyond. No? He must have really obsessed about this. You know, As'ad can be very funny sometimes, if you just factor in his self-professed multiple neuroses and do not mention the incendiary "J" or "Z" words. Oh, no no no. Step away from those taboo J and Z words or he gets like the Niagra Falls routine. Don't say you weren't warned.

# Wait wait. There's another item. A new-ish Syrian Blog I found via Chan'ad Bahraini with lotsa links on his sidebar to explore. It could open a window onto an entirely new world. It's called The Damascene Blog ... and it has some photos, too.

+ Now, this little package of links should certainly fend off any world-weary boredom that might come over you until tomorrow.

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

ALL THE ADS
THAT FIT, THEY PRINT -

*The venerable newspaper is in trouble. Under sustained assault from cable television, the Internet, all-news radio and lifestyles so cram-packed they leave little time for the daily paper, the industry is struggling to remake itself.*

+ Good but long article.

Questions: Has the U.S. newspaper industry or the American mass media in general been too complacent? Do you have to recycle your newspaper? And do you get the impression that your newspaper is just a vehicle for delivering ads?

Oddly enough, this article is somehow related to the previous articles cited here today on blogging and the "MSM."

That's the new slang for "Mainstream Media."

:: Hard News - WashPost ::
-- By Frank Ahrens --

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

US PRESS "COUPS" -

The UK Guardian Observer
puts in its own $.02:

*One question is dominating US newsrooms and television studios: ignored, scandalised and now corrupted, just what is America's mainstream media for anymore?...

The internet has become a sort of Fifth Estate as the Fourth Estate of the mainstream media has slid toward irrelevance...

Unlike Britain, where political blogs are barely part of the debate, internet sites in America are seen as a vital political tool...

Some commentators see the emergence of blogging as a media force as a liberating phenomenon...*

+ Excerpted and redacted from:
:: The mole, the US media and ::
-- By Paul Harris --

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

NEPALESE NEWS LINKS -

BBC Monitoring gives some
links to the Nepalese press.

:: BBC: Nep Dem Day ::

* * *
And you can add this one:

*Media group seeks
release of Nepal journalists*

:: From Reuters ::

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

MORE ON JORDAN AND BLOGS -

The BBC puts in their $.02:

*Bloggers. Truth-tellers or vigilantes? Trophy-hunters or watchdogs?

With the abrupt resignation of CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan, the American media are struggling with how to respond to bloggers.*

As already explained, in my opinion, this "take" on the situation is a serious misunderstanding of what "The Jordan Problem" was.

See today's first entry below.

:: American media vs the blogs ::
-- By Kevin Anderson for the BBC --

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

TYCOON FOR GAZA -

*Mohamed Ali al-Alabbar, chairman of the $7bn company Emaar Properties, has begun negotiations with Ariel Sharon's office and the Palestinian Authority over his plan for what his supporters claim could transform much of Gaza, ravaged by more than four years of conflict and economic collapse, after Israel's planned disengagement.*

:: The Independent ::
-- By Donald Macintyre --

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

KSA ELECTION DYNAMICS -

Some interesting English-language observations by an Arabicphonic journalist on the recent Riyadh election process:

*How did the victors pull it off? ... The candidates chose to campaign on the Internet and by sending text messages on mobile telephones...

One of the Web sites that was heavily visited during the elections was the emirates-based alsaha.com (the forum), which is still considered by many to be the most frequented Arabic-language weblog...*

:: The Daily Star - Riyadh's polls ::
-- By Mohammed Alkhereiji --

...

:
Su Feb 20 -

"Does Blogging Matter?"

I happened to catch a segment on CNN TV Friday afternoon during which there was some informal discussion about blogging and I want to comment on a few points. The transcript for this segment comes to us courtesy of Jeff Jarvis who also posted an entry about the segment. You'll find the relevant links below my comments.

# First, I was perturbed that Anne Marie Cox, the writer of Wonkette, was being portrayed as a blogger when, in fact, she is a paid online columnist just as Howard Kurtz is a paid columnist. I think this is a sinister turn of events that does not bode well for bloggers. What's the difference?

Bloggers are self-selected. Paid columnists are hired and paid by someone else. Let's not be cute about this. Yes, I think it matters greatly.

# Second, are bloggers just a "Media Lynch Mob?" No. Even when I disagree with someone, I don't think I'm trying to lynch them. I would say that the blogging community is more like an office Water Cooler. The rest of the "bicker" about whether bloggers should be regulated, controlled, or be held accountable for their opinions is as silly as advocating the "control" of a bunch of people chatting around an office water cooler.

# Third, Eason Jordan was mentioned in passing; his separation from his position as the head of CNN News or TV was attributed, at least in part, to bloggers. This is untrue.

Jordan's remark which allegedly claimed that journalists are being "targeted" by the military may have been spotlighted by some bloggers who found the claim objectionable, but that was not the critical problem with his reputed remark. The crux of the problem is that he seemed to be parroting a well-known partyline associated with Al-Jazeera TV which is supposed to be a rival and competitor of CNN. That can easily raise a question in viewers' minds: who is Jordan really working for-- CNN TV or Al-Jazeera TV? And that can translate into a more tangible problem with eyeballs and TV ratings. Plus, Al-Jazeera has been in the doghouse with the Iraqi authorities, so that echoing them could risk putting CNN in there with them.

-- Transcript of Judy Woodruff's:
:: INSIDE POLITICS ::

-- Entry from BuzzMachine --
:: PERMALINK ::

...