:
We Ap 6 -

KSA: AL-RAS BATTLE ENDS -

*Three militants on the Kingdom's 26 most wanted list were said to be dead as the three-day battle in Al-Ras between extremists and security forces ended late on Tuesday...

Saudi experts on terrorism were surprised that the militants had so much weaponry and ammunition to keep Saudi forces at bay for so long...

Security forces seized a factory for manufacturing hand grenades and explosives inside the Al-Ras hideout of the terrorists. Besides RPG missiles, hand grenades, and other such weapons, large quantities of ammunition, unaccounted money, some documents and forged identity papers were also seized from the hideout...*

+ You can read the full account
here (with photos of perps):

:: Saudi Gazette Online ::
-- By Sabria S. Jawhar --

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

THE DIRKS REPORT -

Well, here it is...

The controversy from
Columbia University's
MEALAC Department:

*The committee is ... to identify cases where there appear to be violations of the obligation to create a civil and tolerant teaching environment in which opposing views can be expressed.*

I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Of course, each faction is expressing criticism and objections already. This is to be expected.

Floyd Abrams godfathered the report. By widespread consensus, he is one of the foremost experts on Freedom of Speech in the US.

:: Columbia News ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

ROYAL WEDDING CONFLICTS
WITH ALREADY SCHEDULED TV -

*But the element of the wedding that the BBC was planning to show live - the blessing at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle attended by 750 invited guests including the prime minister - will take place on Saturday afternoon and could clash with its Grand National coverage.*

:: From The Guardian ::


And The UK Sun reports other potential scheduling conflicts:

*Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles will have to get wed on Saturday morning in a four weddings and a funeral fiasco.*

:: The Sun ::


More from the British Press here:
:: Media Coverage ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

OVER-GODDED:

Think there was no other
news over the weekend
except Terri and the Pope?

Guess again.

It turns out, as we just
learned yesterday, that there
is a rapist at large in our area:

BOLO ~~ Police are looking for a man who they said kidnapped a teenage girl at gunpoint Friday in a local shopping mall and raped her.

+ We do like to know when there are dangerous criminals loose in our neighborhoods.

:: Local10 News ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

SAUDI TROUBLE -

There's been a serious outbreak of violent conflict with security forces in the Jawazat neighborhood of the northern town of Al Ras in KSA.

# There is an article about it at the Gulf News.

# And it has been reported on Aljazeera TV Net:

*When asked about the identity of the armed men, he said: "They are people with no belief or doctrine. They do not belong to any group but to the devil."*

# And at the Saudi Gazette:

*One extremist website said Saleh Al-Oufi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, is in the area directing the militant operations.

But Turki declined to comment whether Oufi was among those who were killed in the confrontation or even among the remaining ones.*

:: Saudi Gazette ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

IRAQI TV UPDATE:
Terrorism in the Grip of Justice -

We reported here earlier that there has been an allegation of mistaken identity on this popular Iraqi TV program. Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Ameen is looking into possible irregularities in how these confessions are being obtained.

Good article on this topic with some interesting material on Ameen at the Gulf News from Al Reuters.

:: Gulf News: Region ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

KUWAITI STAR -

*Kuwaiti Ahmad Hussein Jassem, a participant in the 'Star Academy' TV contest, was greeted by thousands of fans who gathered at Kuwait's international airport upon his arrival from Beirut after being voted out by viewers of the program.*

:: AFP/Naharnet ::

But Arab Times of Kuwait's Day by Day column seems to indicate some uneasiness among conservatives there with the airport reception because of the mixing of young men and women together.

:: Arab Times - Day by Day ::

...

:
Tu Ap 5 -

CAMEL CORPS: Patrolling
Around the M.E. Blogs -

# Riverbend is interviewed
:: on Aljazeera TV Net:

*I think the situation will get better only when the Americans allow it to get better. I think the current lawlessness justifies their reasons for having troops inside of the country.*

-- Via Mister Ghost at Iraqi Bloggers Central. If you've got a couple of spare minutes, Mister Ghost is really cooking over there. The entries for the last couple of days have been really percolating. Mister Ghost has turned out to be a real Live Wire!

# There's something rumbling just under the radar with the Kuwaiti bloggers, but it's mostly in the Arabic language. If you're appropriately equipped, you might want to check it out.

# Saudi Jeans reports
some good news for Sun Ap 3:

*DHL appoints Ghada al-Idreesi to be manager of customer service centers in Saudi Arabia. Al-Idreesi is the first Saudi woman to occupy such position.*

# Some of us are having problems getting into our blogs. Supposedly, the crew at Blogger knows about this already. And it is noted on the "status" blog. I hope they fix it soon. Keep your fingers crossed that I can post entries in this session online.

...

:
Fr April 1 -

BLOGGING SOLUTIONS -

Are you too busy to blog?

Have we got a solution for you!

Ever heard of a Blogging Robot?

I guess this must be for April Fools Day.

:: Say Hello to Bloggy! ::

-- via Blogger Buzz --

...

:
T/We Mar 30 -

NAVEL-GAZING III -

David Carr at the NY Times writes that The National Enquirer is getting a "Fleet Street SWAT team" to inject some new liveliness into it. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. Or, as one of those Breezy Brits
put it:

"We're tan, rested, and ready."

[Blogger has been having some problems lately which can make it time-consuming and/or a hassle to post entries.]

:: Enquirer's British Invasion ::
-- Reg Req'd --

...

:
T/We Mar 30 -

NAVEL-GAZING II -

*Since the moment coalition troops attacked Saddam Hussein's forces, one of the most persistent complaints of media critics is that mainstream news organizations in this country are not giving Americans the "full story" on what's happening as Iraq undergoes a historic regime change.*

If we had the 'full story,' could we grasp it?
By Jeffrey Shaffer

:: From the CS Monitor ::

...

:
T/We Mar 30 -

NEWS MEDIA NAVEL-GAZING -

There's a fuss going on in the
Blogging World about who is
being chosen for this panel:

*Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. Both journalists and bloggers will debate whether there's a difference between them, on Fri., Apr. 8, at 9:30 a.m.*

:: National Press Club ::

...

:
Tu Mar 29 -

UNDERGROUND DISCOURSE -

*In this roiling political spring of protest and debate about democracy in repressive Arab countries, cell phone text messaging has become a powerful underground channel of free and often impolite speech, especially in the oil-rich Persian Gulf monarchies, where mobile phones are common but candid public talk about politics is not.

Demonstrators use text messaging to mobilize followers, dodge authorities and swarm quickly to protest sites...*

+ Good article by Steve Coll at the WaPo.

:: In the Gulf, Dissidence...

...

:
Tu Mar 29 -

BAD BOYZ -

*Aired twice a day, Terrorism in the Grip of Justice is a popular reality show but those firing 62mm mortars do not like it and have made the Mosul headquarters of the state channel Al-Iraqiya arguably the most dangerous posting in broadcasting...

The impact has been electric. Al-Iraqiya was once widely scorned as a dull Iraqi government mouthpiece; all that changed in January when Mosul started feeding the confessions to the main studio in Baghdad, giving the network a national primetime hit...

Akin to Jerry Springer-meets-Newsnight, it is the government's most effective propaganda against a rebellion still raging two years after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

American officials say they have no involvement in making Terrorism in the Grip of Justice but welcome its impact...*

:: Guardian: Trial by television ::
-- By Rory Carroll --

* * * * *

Dahi Hassan, a correspondent for Khaleej Times, claims that there has been at least once instance of mistaken identity:

*The families and relatives of the Syrian citizens, who last week appeared on Iraqi state television making confessions alleging that they were Syrian intelligence officers, confirmed that those "officers" are merely leather dealers who left their shops at this small town to sell their products in the neighbouring Arab country.*

:: THE SYRIANS ON TV ::

...

:
Tu Mar 29 -

ECONOMIST MAG CAUSES
MIDEAST CONTROVERSY -

The Lebanese cover of The Economist magazine (March 8, 2005), which features young, female demonstrators and has been popular on the Internet, has attracted some negative flack, too.

Prof Mohammed Al Khalil, a lecturer in Arabic Studies in Dubai, pens an Op-Ed at the Gulf News warning Arab youngsters that if they want to succeed with the introduction of democracy, they should conform to his cultural norms.

"Arab society remains overwhelmingly conservative, more so, perhaps than any time in its history," he claims.

He preferred the Hezbollah demonstrations.

:: Gulf News: Region ::

...

:
Tu Mar 29 -

WHASSUP WITH
TERRORIST WEBSITES -

*It's probably just a question of
time before we get a live
transmission of a decapitation.

[ ... ]

Gone are the times when sites
had to constantly move around. They
are more stable now and easier to find.*


:: Jordan Times: News ::
-- By Firouz Sedarat - Reuters --

...

:
Tu Mar 29 -

BOLO: SURPRISING HEAD -

*Jeddah: Authorities found a decomposing headless body of a woman in her thirties near a sewage dump east of the Jaddah-Makkah expressway.

Okaz newspaper said the headless body was placed in a black suitcase. The suspects were assumed to have thrown the body at night.

Brigadier General Arif Al-Harthi, the head of Jeddah security, went to the site with his team to investigate.*

-- Police Blotter [Crime Watch] --
:: Saudi Gazette ::

...

:
Su Mar 27 -

LEBANON'S CHOICES -

Tony at Across the Bay blog writes an excellent entry about The Lebonist Narrative and points us to an article by Prof Fouad Ajami.

He has also developed a good sidebar link list which is worth dropping in on and using as a base hub for perusing Lebanese bloggers and related resources.

:: Apparition ::
-- Across the Bay perma --

...

:
Su Mar 27 -

KUWAITI ROULETTE -

Diana Elias at AP/YahooNews fills in more information about the situation of Ahmed al-Baghdadi, who was mentioned in a previous entry here recently. This article helps to illuminate the complex and sometimes subtle social pressures operating in that society, where some rules are official and some rules unofficial but influential anyway.

:: Kuwait Professor ::

...

:
F/Sa Mar 26 -

THEY WANT BOTH -

"Two bombs have exploded in the past few days, killing at least two people and causing considerable damage. The message that this sends seems to be that the Lebanese have to choose between SECURITY and SOVEREIGNTY. But it may well be that this time the Lebanese want both."

:: Lebanese Bloggers perma ::

-- via The Arab Street Files --


And try this link to a parody of an
"underground" Lebanese flyer
from The Beirut Spring Blog:

:: Beirut Spring perma ::

...

:
We Mar 23 -

GILDING: Part II -

In the entry preceding, you can see what may be the inception of a new Public Relations campaign to "soften up" or maybe even romanticize the image of Paul Wolfowitz. So, it should come as no surprise that Jihad Al Khazen has returned once again to his "Wolfowitz the ZOG" theme in his column with a piece he calls
Good and Bad:

*Every people have their good and bad elements; there is no better example on the good Jews than James Wolfensohn, and no better on the bad elements than Paul Wolfowitz.
[ ... ]
I think that the neo-conservatives' agenda was the lack of having an agenda, in order to lead to the destruction of Iraq as a favor for Israel.*

This, just after an entire series he wrote on the "Neo-Cons" which disseminated the ZOG theme repeatedly.

But wait, there's more. Here's an article from the Arab News, which I don't usually read:

Wolfowitz Dating Muslim
Woman Causes Stir

Do you really think that Karen Hughes is up to her assignment?

I have some serious reservations about that.

...

:
Tu Mar 22 -

GILDING THE WOLFOWITZ -

Since he's been nominated to
head the World Bank, there is now
a process ongoing to glamorize him.

For instance, this article
by Richard Leiby:

*What Will the Neighbors Say?
Wolfowitz Romance Stirs Gossip*

*Social Washington has been buzzing for months about the discreet romance between Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Shaha Riza, an Arab feminist and a communications adviser at the World Bank.*

:: From WashPost ::
-- "Reliable Source" --

* * * * *
Do I believe all this? Let's just say that I'm skeptical, since I still remember when Hollywood movie studios used to perform a similar PR function, matching up "romances" for people like Rock Hudson who was obliged to date gals even though he was actually interested in other guys.

Maybe I'm being too cynical, but there's a tremendous amount of Public Relations material in our Mass Media content these days. A glittering sprinkle of glamorous fairy dust, taken with a large grain of salt might not hurt.

* * * * *
Then there's this rather more intellectual
piece by Christopher Hitchins in Slate:

He's not exactly who you think he is.

*Wolfowitz is not at all the "Likud"
fan that his defamers portray.*

*I can't exactly say that I know the man, but on the occasions that I have met him I have been very struck by the difference between his manner and the amazing volleys of obloquy and abuse that have been flung at him.*

Oh, yeah! That should really
convince the ZOG-obsessed crowd!

...

:
Tu Mar 22 -

A SURPRISING HEAD -

The story thus far . . .

*...The surprise was the discovery of the head of Paul Marshall Johnson, the US citizen who was slain one month before the operation by Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin and Faisal Al-Dakhil.

However, Fawziah said, in the first statement of its kind, that she had not seen the head of the American as her movement inside the house had been restricted.

Fawziah Al-Owfi is the wife of Saleh Bin Awadallah Al-Owfi, who is believed to be the leader of the Al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia...*

:: From The Saudi Gazette ::

...

:
Tu Mar 22 -

CRITIC TO SEEK ASYLUM -

"What good is life when
you can't express your opinion?"

A liberal Kuwaiti professor, Ahmed Al-Baghdadi, convicted of mocking Islam in a newspaper article, said Monday he will seek asylum in a Western country to protect his life, family and freedom of speech...

...Al-Baghdadi is a staunch liberal who has blamed extremists for teaching intolerance and encouraging young citizens to take up arms alongside militants in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq.

He was initially taken to court over the column by two Islamists...

:: ArabTimes of Kuwait ::

...

:
Mo March 21 -

GALS TALK "OP-ED" -

Female Op-Ed Columnists Discuss
Why There Aren't More of Them:

*Female opinion columnists say op-ed pages are still dominated by men for reasons including sexism, resistance to change on the part of some editors, and the reluctance of some women to do commentary...*

+ This is a good article on an important topic, but the discussion was directed to the wrong people; it should have been directed to the management of the newspapers.

:: By Dave Astor ::
-- Sr Ed at EandP --

...

:
S/Mo Mar 21 -

BLOGGING IN THE GULF -

A wonderful light feature article
by Piers Grimley Evans called:

Blogging on UAE perspectives.

The reporter claims there
are over a thousand UAE
journals online today.

"How cool is that?"

:: gulfnews.com: Features ::

...

:
S/Mo Mar 21 -

SHRINK-PROOF -

*Qatari authorities identified the charred body of a suicide bomber inside the vehicle as Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali, an Egyptian computer programmer and father of two. The officials said he detonated his explosives-packed car behind the Doha Players Theater during a production of Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night.*

:: From AP/YahooNews ::
-- By Jim Krane --


*Omar, 38, worked as a computer programmer at Qatar Petroleum and had been living in Doha since 1990, AFP quoted Umm Abdullah, the wife of Ali, as saying. She described Omar as a devout Muslim and a man of integrity. The car he owned was a black Land Cruiser. "I am shocked," the mother of three said.*

:: The Peninsula: Qatar ::


+ Of course, the classic question arises once again: How did he get that way?

...

:
Su Mar 20 -

ANOTHER MUSA MIXER -

*A two-day Arab League summit starts on Monday in Algeria.

Algerian authorities have taken extreme measures to safeguard the summit... ahead of the expected arrival of 20 Arab heads of state and some 3000 officials.*

:: Aljazeera TV Net - summit ::

...

:
Su Mar 20 -

LAUGHING IT UP -

A new Iraqi satirical online magazine or website called Sakhir Net has a page of cartoons. You can view them, but the text seems to be all Arabic, although tooltips there are in English.

:: SAKHIR NET ::

-- Via Ayad Rahim:
:: Live from Baghdad Blog --

...

:
Su Mar 20 -

FAIZA FLOATING SOMEWHERE -

Faiza Jarrar just returned to Amman, Jordan, from a conference in the Gulf. She seems to have experienced a form of Existential Vertigo while in the very modern Dubai Airport:

*I stood amazed on the passport stamp line, feeling myself in a world without an identity, a world of human mixtures, on each line there is a group speaking a language that doesn't resemble the language of the group on the line before, or after it. I felt a great foreboding, as if myself was asking me: Where are we??*

+ Sounds a bit like Alphaville from her description. She also recalls the conference where she seems to have become aware of her Cultural Dislocation, as she moves from a relatively closed society (Ba'athist Iraq) to more open societies.

This is a very long entry best suited, perhaps, to a rainy Sunday afternoon; thus, you may want to copy it to floppy so you can read it offline, if you're interested in these issues at all.

:: A Family in Baghdad perma ::

...

:
Su Mar 20 -

NEWS YOU CAN'T USE . . .
But so what -

As'ad AbuKhalil, the Lebanese academic currently located in The People's Republic of Berkeley, claims that Reality TV is coming to the Lebanese sects:

*LBC-TV is planning a reality show where people of different sects are brought together in front of the camera. They will live together for the viewing pleasures of the Lebanese audience. Hopefully, they will not fight in front of the camera.*

+ Someone left a comment, raising the anthem of the Jerry Springer TV Show, chanting: jerry, jerry, jerry, etc. LOL

Is this for real? I have no idea. He doesn't provide a link to any newspaper.

:: AbuKhalil perma ::

...

:
Sa Mar 19 -

WOLFIE'S CHICKENOLOGY -

President Bush's nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank has raised some questions about the direction it might take.

I think, in the wake of the Oil for Food Program Scandal, Mr Wolfowitz will probably try to circumvent the government-level Ministers of Chickenology and more directly seed such Micro-Enterprises as cottage industry poultry businesses. This would avoid "The Fungible Follies" of money going wayward and never "trickling down" to the individuals who really need it.

Chickens are very important in poor areas of the under-developed world. They are a good source of needed protein. And they tend to multiply themselves. Moreover, many women enjoy dealing with this kind of enterprise.

That's just my guess.

:: Wolfowitz and the World Bank ::

...

:
Sa Mar 19 -

ZOG ITERATIONS -

*I wrote a series on the neo-conservatives, and I received a lot of readers' feedback and comments on several columns of this series. Some of the letters deserve to be shared with the readers, even if I personally do not agree with them; thus, I will talk about them today, in order to prove my sense of democracy, which I acquired after having lived for so long in the west.*

I did some blogging on Jihad Al Khazen's series. Did you read any of this? If so, you can now compare your reactions to some reactions from other readers in Khazen's latest column.

At the risk of over-simplification, I guess I considered too much of his writing on the subject to be predicated on just-another tired iteration of the ZOG Syndrome. Although he evidently did a lot of research, it seemed to me that his findings were going to be tailored to the already-familiar canards which I can't take seriously because they are the equivalent of the djinns who operate the cell phone system. And the minute someone throws in the Nazis, there's a custom on the Internet that the discussion ends.

:: Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Sa Mar 19 -

BUZZ IN THE BLOGSPHERE -

Some lively discussion going on here and there about this article by Declan McCullagh:

*Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over.

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Smith should know. He's one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission, which is beginning the perilous process of extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet.*

::The coming crackdown on blogging

+ It's just something to be aware of. Patterico, who is a lawyer of some kind, has blogged about it HERE. I'm not sure that Patterico understands that this is more about "following the money" than about censoring bloggers. Or maybe it's McCullagh who isn't very clear about it. Or just maybe my own impression is faulty. At any rate, there will probably be much more discussion about it.

And, for whatever it's worth, the eruption of this little controversy reminded me of a famous poster by Ben Shahn illustrating the quotation: You Have Not Converted a Man Because You Have Silenced Him.

Via On The Third Hand blog.
(See my sidebar for link)

...

:
Fr Mar 18 -

IN SEARCH OF IRAQI BLOGS -

Looking for some new Iraqi Blogs to read? A couple of librarians here have tried to compile a list with some brief descriptions:

A Review of Alternative Sources
for Iraq War Information

by Paul S. Piper and Miguel Ramos

*...Given the short time the Internet has existed and the oppressive controls of conventional media outlets, blogging is truly a miracle. And there is no question that it will represent a significant journalistic force in future conflicts, disasters, and events. Blogs have also begun to contribute significantly to public discourse...

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there is no organized archiving of this information. A task for librarians and archivists and historians and news source devotees awaits.*

:: Searcher's Voice ::

...

:
Fr Mar 18 -

RIVLIN IN CAIRO -

*On 14 March, Israeli Speaker of Knesset Reuven Rivlin visited Cairo ... to attend a European-Mediterranean Inter-parliamentary Conference, in which representatives from 27 European and Mediterranean states participated... The event... was broadcast on Egyptian state television...*

+ An interesting article via The Arabist Network (see my sidebar for link).

:: Cairo Mag - Knesset head ::

...

:
Mo Mar 14 -

8 MILLION BLOGGERS
CONVERGE ON DC PRESS RM -

Let the fantasies begin . . .

"For the first time, a blogger gains
entry to the White House press room."

The weekend seems to be the time period when the cable news TV channels engage in some navel-gazing, because that's when they conduct their News Media critiques. I happened to catch Eric Burns and Co. during their Saturday session. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't mention it, were it not for their topic of a young blogger who got a day pass credential for the White House press room-- an event that fueled their imaginations like rocket booster.

But, to begin with, this is not "the first time." Joseph Farrah who runs the World Net Daily blog got to the Government in DC first. And it wasn't easy. They made him jump through hoops and worse. A little credit for Farrah's accomplishment wouldn't hurt, especially after all Farrah was forced to endure in the process. And just why he was put through that ordeal still mystifies me. Frankly, it irked me then; and it still irks me now, when I think about it.

Then Burns and Company imagined that because there are supposedly 8 million adult bloggers in the USA, all of them will travel to Washington DC to demand similar press passes. This is utterly ridiculous for numerous reasons.

Oh, and just maybe we'd all be in our pajamas, huh :-)

I didn't catch the other show on the News Media with Howard Kurtz which is on Sunday. One topic that both shows had in common, though, was the departure of the dinnertime news presenter, Dan Rather, and his successor.

Let's play Fantasy Movie Casting for a moment: who would you like to see in Dan Rather's anchor chair? Any ideas yet?

There seems to be the feeling out there that the era for "The Voice of Authority" has probably passed. So, what now? Perhaps, someone more like a talk show host...

Stay tuned, as they say.

:: FOX News Watch, March 12 ::

...

:
Mo Mar 14 -

CONFER ESTABLISHES
NEW INDUSTRY -

"Rejecting the US anti-Semitism act:

Egyptian and Arab legal experts said the US's new global anti-Semitism monitoring law was biased and illegitimate. Gihan Shahine attends the first conference on the issue."

+ Recommended.

:: Al-Ahram Weekly ::

...

:
Su Mar 13

AMERICAN NIGHTMARE:
ENSLAVED BY THEIR TVs -

They walk with the Zombies . . .

*The city of Weston has won the first battle in its war to make basic cable television voluntary for 16,000 homeowners.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a ruling released on Tuesday, refused to grant a request by Advocate Communications, owner of Advanced Cable Communications, to block the city's attempt to make cable either completely voluntary for homeowners or reduce the cost from $34.59 to $10.49 a month...

All Weston homeowners except those in Bonaventure, Emerald Estates, Windmill Reserve and Isles of Weston are required by deed to pay for basic cable...

City officials argue that basic cable should be 10 or 15 channels, not the 77 channels that Advanced makes mandatory. The city also says Advanced should be charging $10.41 a month, the amount it charges for basic on its voluntary Coral Springs system, not $34.59...*

:: Weston: cable TV ::
-- By Joe Kollin --
-- South Florida Sun-Sentinel --

...

:
F/Sa Mar 12 -

BLOGGING MULLAH update -

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the blogging Iranian mullah, seems to be back up again, but Blogger is having problems today!

Abtahi was recently profiled at the BBC news website which may have helped to give him a boost of international visibility.

Please make note of his new URL which is slightly different:

:: ABTAHI BLOG ::

The latest entry I see is for Feb 13th on a Valentine theme.

Hang in there, Abtahi--
Sending you Good Vibrations!

...

:
F/Sa Mar 12 -

SUDANESE: BALLISTIC
BUT NOT NUCLEAR -

*A typo in the transcript of the US Congress' Armed Services Strategic Services Subcommittee's March 2 session had the unforeseen consequence of triggering Sudanese accusations the US had carried out nuclear tests in Sudan.

The report was supposed to refer to a codenamed US site called 'Sedan' but the transcript mistakenly called it 'Sudan' instead.*

:: AFP/Yahoo ::

...

:
F/Sa Mar 12

IT'S ABOUT TIME DEPT -

*Muslim clerics in Spain issued
what they called the world's first fatwa,
or Islamic edict, against Osama bin Laden
on Thursday, the first anniversary of the
Madrid train bombings, calling him an
apostate and urging others of their faith
to denounce the al-Qaida leader.*

:: Billings Gazette ::

...

:
F/Sa Mar 12 -

SOUTH FLORIDA LOCAL
TO TRANS-INTERNATIONAL -

Just when you thought
it was safe to go out . . .

Mandoah "Manny" Ebaid,
the Egyptian proprietor of
the Exotic Bites restaurant
in Hollywood, Florida, has been
spotted on a terrorism watch list.

He is currently being held at the
Krome Detention Center west of Miami.

Many of his associates believe there
must be a mix-up of names on the list.

I haven't been to his restaurant.

:: Terrorism Suspect ::
-- From The Sun-Sentinel --

* * * * *

+ Seen on American TV this past week: Mithal Alousi, the Iraqi who attended a terrorism conference in Israel and got a lot of flack for it from some suspect quarters.

He made a very good impression. He seemed like a very level-headed guy with sensible judgement. And he came across as remarkably sane.

...

:
Su Feb 27 -

WHAT'S POPULAR ON IRAQI TV -

*But many Iraqis seem to have
ignored the new output from Virginia.
They have turned off because Al Iraqiya
is seen as either too American or containing
too many bought-in shows from Cairo and
Beirut instead of the all Iraqi offerings
of the new Al-Sharqiya channel.*

:: BBC/Newsnight ::

...

:
Su Feb 27 -

ARTICLE 76:
NUR ENDS FAST -

*Detained Egyptian opposition leader
Ayman Nur has ended his hunger strike
after President Husni Mubarak
announced proposals to allow
multi-candidate presidential elections.*

:: Aljazeera TV Net ::

...

:
Su Feb 27 -

BANK WIRES PLUGGED -

*A U.S. bank regulator said Friday it ordered Palestinian-managed Arab Bank Group to convert its New York branch to a federal banking agency, ending the bank's wire transfer business.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it determined the bank's branch had internal control weaknesses, especially in its international funds transfer activities.*

:: Reuters/SanDiego ::

...

:
Su Feb 27 -

AFGHAN: 1st WOMAN
PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR -

*Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's former women's minister, has outlined the challenge facing her as she prepares to take charge in Bamiyan province - that would make her the country's first female provincial governor.

Ms Sarabi is set to be appointed governor by President Hamid Karzai after being selected from an all-women shortlist.*

BBC NEWS - South Asia ::

...

:
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 ::

...

:
W/Th Feb 17 -

CUT OFF -

"I tried to connect to the Internet immediately after the speech but the dial-up networking said that there was no dial tone. I then looked at my cell phone which was saying 'no network' and I understood that I have been cut off from the rest of the world."

:: Radio Free Nepal ::
-- via BuzzMachine --

* * *

:: From the BBC:

*King Gyanendra assumed direct control nearly two weeks ago, saying the former government had failed to tackle Maoists, during whose nine-year insurgency 11,000 people have been killed.*

:: Tues, 15 Feb ::


*Fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, have been curtailed and several political leaders, human rights activists and journalists are still under house arrest or are in detention.*

:: Wed, 16 Feb ::

* * *

Kathmandu, Feb 16: A high-level delegation of Amnesty International has discussed the current situation in Nepal with King Gyanendra and other top officials and human rights activists here.
[ ... ]
It will issue a statement on Nepal issue in New Delhi on Thursday afternoon, an official at the AI Nepal Chapter said.

:: Press Trust of India ::

...

:
Mo Feb 14

BLURRY VISION -

I mentioned in my previous remarks [see entry directly below] on Jihad Khazen's Neon-Cons series that his narrative is full of blurry material. And I wanted to give an example that illustrates this.

From the current VII chapter:

*Out of his Zionist extremism, Douglas Feith objected on the performance of Benjamin Netanyahu's government; as he is the real son of his father Dalck Feith, who was a militant in Betar, a Zionist youth movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, an admirer of Mussolini. Betar, whose members wore dark brown uniforms and spouted militaristic slogans modeled after other fascistic movements, was associated with the Revisionist Movement, which evolved in Poland to become the Herut Party, which later became the Likud Party.*

The Herut Party, he asserts, became the Likud Party. But that is factually in error. Every political party has its own platform and credo, what it stands for, what it believes in, and what it wants to try to accomplish. The Herut party was, in part, a product of a certain time and place and conditions and demography. It still exists as a separate and distinct entity apart from the Likud Party. And it even has its own website.

It is clear from Khazen's discourse that he blames the Likud party for something he attributes to the Herut party. That's like blaming the Democrats for something the Green Party said or did, while claiming that the Green Party became the Democratic Party. The Likud party is not the Herut party. They have different histories. And they are not synonymous. His series is full of this kind of "fuzzy" thinking.

What Khazen does NOT mention in that paragraph above is conspicuous in its absence: the Nazis and the Nazi genocide of the Jews. He has crafted his narrative in complete isolation from the context of reality, in this case, historical reality.

Let's return to the current Khazen piece:

*Even if Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle are more famous than Douglas Feith, the latter remains one of the most dangerous and despicable neo-conservatives. I personally held him accountable for the killing of Americans and Iraqis, and if there is a true justice, they should have been in Guantanamo Bay prison, or facing the International war crimes tribunal, which the Bush administration refuses to join it for clear reasons. Feith's resignation is not enough; he ought to be punished.*

Frankly, I worry about speech like that. Khazen describes Feith as "despicable." The intensity of Khazen's feelings concerns me. While Khazen's remarks may not constitute "a clear and present danger" vis a vis a distinct death threat, he is advocating that Feith "ought to be punished."

Thus, one wonders, what kind of punishment does he have in mind? Because throughout his series thus far, Khazen strings together insinuations by propinquity, innuendos by association, allegations and accusations. But no criminal convictions. Does Khazen have legal punishment in mind? Or does he have an extra-legal punishment in mind? Is he thinking of a courtroom environment or is he thinking of "street" justice or "rough justice?" Or is he invoking the death penalty on Faith for "killing" those he named?

While I support freedom of speech, I worry that remarks such as Khazen's "ought to be punished" may come perilously close to the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

:: Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Su Feb 13 -

IN SEARCH OF:
VILLAINS AND SCAPEGOATS -

I think I have posted a couple of casual reactions to a series Jihad Al Khazen has been publishing at Dar Al Hayat. In case my remarks have gotten you interested in reading his series more thoroughly, the online publication does not provide a list of courtesy links to each back chapter, but you can retrieve them at Google by pasting the following query into the search box:

:: QUERY: *site:english.daralhayat.com Ayoon wa Azan +"The Neo-Cons Again" by Jihad Al Khazen*

# What was the impetus for this series? I am choosing to presume that it was his intellectual curiosity. But if you read it for yourself, you'll see that he brings some baggage to the project.

# For this series he has accumulated lots of information out of which he has tried to construct a narrative thread or story. I don't have a problem with the bulk of his information for the sake of a preliminary discussion, but, rather, I have issues with the way he connects the dots.

# In Chapter II, for example, he posits two groups: former students of a Chicago professor named Strauss and the Qaeda.

First, there is no valid parallel between these two groups which are like apples and oranges.

The first is a random group; the second has a special mutual interest which binds them together and becomes the organizing principle for their lives.

The first group is random because people sign up for a professor's course for many diverse reasons. Some may need three more credits to complete a semester requirement, some may have the time period for the class open on their schedule, and some may even sign up because a pretty blonde girl they're soft on has signed up for that class whom they'd like to get closer to so they can get to know her. The former or current students of any professor are random.

The second group has a mutual interest. The first group may not have any interests in common. But Khazen invests the random students with a special teleology from his own imagination.

So much for parallel.

Then Khazen tries to draw a moral equivalence between the two groups which is, well, beyond ridiculous.

There is no moral equivalence between random former students of a Chicago professor and a group of mass murderers who killed 3,000 office workers in cold blood by using jumbo jets as missiles on 9/11.

This is just not credible.

# The series is filled with flaws like the one described above. And it has lots of shmooshy ellisons and sloshy thinking. This may not be The Twilight Zone; but it is, at least, The Blurry Zone.

As I've mentioned before, I enjoy some of his lighter pieces. I don't normally study his more intellectual ventures. And I did not intend to delve into this series so intensely.

Try it if you're so inclined, but try to be a critical reader.

Gee, I hope I haven't ruined your Sunday.

Take it easy :-)

...

:
Su Feb 13 -

IRAQ CATCH-UP:

*'He came to Kirkuk from Mosul,' a source in the Kirkuk police department told Reuters news agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 'There's a possibility that he might be captured at any moment.'

In Kirkuk in the north, police said they were hot on the trail of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who has claimed responsibility for many of the worst attacks in Iraq, including the beheading of several foreign hostages.*

Robert H. Reid of AP gets you all caught up
on the latest recap of events.

:: The Washington Times ::

...

:
Su Feb 13 -

EVERYONE'S A
CRITIC THESE DAYS -

*CAIRO, Egypt: A statement in the name of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror group posted Saturday on the Internet accused Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera of trying to win U.S. favor by reporting false information about an attack the group had claimed responsibility for.*

+ Memo: Don't invite them
to the same party-- at least for a while.

:: KeralaNext ::

...

:
Su Feb 13 -

ADVICE OR MEDDLING?

*A mirrored ceiling in your bedroom is fine, as is driving an American car or having a facelift. Eating caviare, however, is forbidden, as is a quiet chess game.

So goes the advice dished out to millions of Iraqi Shi’ites by the nearest thing their country has to an online agony uncle: the website of the country’s most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.*

+ This is a soft, but informative, background feature piece by Colin Freeman.

:: Scotland on Sunday ::

...

:
Su Feb 13 -

WITHOUT BOUNDARIES -

Jihad Al Khazen continues his "research" series on The Neo-Cons with this, his seventh chapter, from which comes the following excerpt:

*This man must be tried along with Gaffney and the rest of the neo-con cabal members, for the crimes they committed against the U.S., Iraq, Palestine, and the Arabs and Muslims everywhere.*

:: Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Sa Feb 12 -

WEEKEND DIVERSIONS -

# This is an online comic strip I just came across. And here's what they say about it:

OK/Cancel is a comic strip collaboration co-written and co-illustrated by Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi. Our subject matter focuses on interfaces, good and bad and the people behind the industry of building interfaces - usability specialists, interaction designers, human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, industrial designers, etc.

If this sounds interesting to you,
check it out at:

:: OK/Cancel ::


# And if you run out of other entertainment this weekend, try dropping into one of my old favorites: Atom Films.

:: ATOM FILMS ::

...

:
Sa Feb 12 -

HEATHROW ARREST -

*A man arrested after arriving at Heathrow has been charged with conspiring to cause an explosion.

Salahuddin Amin, 29, had flown in from Pakistan when he was detained, police said.

[ ... ]

He will appear in custody at Bow Street Magistrates Court on Monday, Scotland Yard said.*

:: This is London ::

...

:
Fr Feb 11 -

GO AWAY !

Once it was announced that Prince Charles and Camilla were going to get married, there was no end to it on our media. It was bad enough that they kept repeating it over and over again in diverse ways, but they also immediately sent in the British Brainwashing Brigade who instantly appeared on our TV screens telling us how we "have to feel."

*Even now there will be people who condemn him over his relationship with Camilla, but I think they will be in a very small minority.*

Well, you guess wrong, Mr Smarty!

They aren't my royalty; I'm an American. And I don't like people dictating to me how I have to feel! I have a right to feel any way I want to about it. And I happen to think this is very tacky.

Why tacky? Because she was alleged to have been so active in destroying his first marriage.

I just want them to disappear from my TV screen. I heard the announcement enough already. How long are they going to take over my viewing space?

*Today, it is clear that most people - partly as a result of some astute media management - recognise that they are now a genuine item.*

It's the part about the "astute media management" that severely aggravates me. It looked a lot like brainwashing to me. Thanks, but no thanks.

In addition to the tackiness, this event just fuels the conspiracy theories about how Diana so conveniently disappeared as an impediment to their marriage. The rumours were rife anyway; now they'll be proliferating. You probably couldn't sell it in a movie script because many people would find this chain of events too seemingly contrived.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Dude! But a simple announcement would have sufficed.

I'd like to skip the British Brainwashing Brigade.

:: By J Dimbleby - The Guardian ::

...

:
Fr Feb 11 -

CLARIFICATION -

Al-Jazeera denies Fox buyout -

*PESHAWAR: A satirical narrative carried
recently by the media in the West,
where Fox News Channel is shown
buying Al-Jazeera, was unfortunately
understood to be factually correct
by a section of Pakistan's media...*

:: Daily Times - PK ::

...

:
Fr Feb 11 -

CHURCHILL LINKS -

Someone has collected a lot of links
related to Prof Ward Churchill.
If you're interested in reading more about
him, you might want to look into this:

:: ABOUT WC ::
-- via LGF --

...

:
Th Feb 10 -

MORE Z*GORAMA -
Nu, it's in the air . . .

UFO's ALSO LOYAL TO ISRAEL -

Jihad Al Khazen reports that
Dr Stephen Bryen had a COSMIC
Level Security Clearance
[ie: suitable for Groom Lake, etc].

Nevertheless, Khazen insists:
NOT a conspiracy!

*while the final goal of the members of the neo-cons mob is to serve Israel, on the account of the American interests and all other interests. I do not think there is a conspiracy in their work, as one of the essential criteria of a conspiracy is secrecy, and these men speak openly.*

There's a whole cast of characters here, including Perle, Ledeen and Wolfowitz. Keeping up with these neo-cons could occupy you for the entire weekend. And you've got a headstart now because it's still only Thursday today. But aren't you exhausted just thinking about it?!

:: From Dar Al Hayat ::

...

:
Th Feb 10 -

WAR BLOG INTO BOOK -

G.P. Putnam's Sons is publishing the personal experiences of twenty-eight-year-old U.S. Army soldier Colby Buzzell. His book, 'My War,' began as a weblog...

World and audio rights to My War have been acquired by David Highfill, Senior Editor, G.P. Putnam's Sons, from literary agent Heather Schroder at ICM. Putnam will publish the book in hardcover in fall 2005, with a paperback edition to be published by Berkley in 2006...

Esquire magazine will be publishing a chapter from the book in its March, 2005 issue.

:: Stryker Brigade News ::

...

:
Th Feb 10 -

BANKROLLING "FREE" SPEECH -

*When controversial scholar Ward Churchill tried to speak last week at Hamilton College, a number of contributors to the institution answered with a message that's gaining currency from New York to Nevada: not on our dime.*

:: Donors - CSMonitor ::
-- By G. Jeffrey MacDonald --

...

:
We Feb 9 -

CHURCHILL: NEVER BACK DOWN -

*Boulder: Met by wild applause Tuesday night from hundreds of supporters, controversial University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill strongly attacked Gov. Bill Owens and the CU Board of Regents and said he would never back down from his comparison of some 9/11 victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann.*

:: From The Denver Post ::

...

:
We Feb 9 -

Q8 MILITANT
DIES IN CUSTODY -

*The alleged leader of a cell
accused of plots to kidnap US
soldiers and other Westerners
in Kuwait has died in custody,
Kuwaiti officials say.

Amer Khlaif al-Enezi died on
Tuesday of heart failure,
interior ministry officials said.*

+ They should do an autopsy
test on him for drugs. Maybe
he was taking speed or such.

:: From BBC NEWS ::

...

:
We Feb 9 -

FREE SPIRIT TV JOURNO WHACKED -

*Abdul Hussein al-Basri, correspondent
of Al-Hurra, and his son were both killed
in the Maqal area of Basra, 340 miles
southeast of Baghdad, said Nazim
al Moussawi, a spokesman for the
local government administration.*

:: AP via Guardian ::

...

:
We Feb 9 -

MORE Z*G DITHER EXPECTED -

Now that Douglas Feith is going to be history in the Bush Administration, you may have thought that everything would settle down, the conspiracy theorists would take a hiatus, and the public would just go about its business without having to cope with complex plots. But, if that's what you thought... you guessed wrong!

Because Elliot Abrams is back,
and Islam Online has got him:

*Embodying neo-conservatism perhaps more than any other neoconservative, Elliot Abrams will be assigned with promoting democracy and freedom abroad in line with the Bush administration's Greater Middle East and North Africa Initiative...

Jewish Abrams is the author of the book: Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America.*

:: Islam Online - News Section ::
-- By Adam Wild Aba --

+ I have no idea why the Bush Administration would do this, but this appointment may keep the conspiracy theorists busy enough so that they stay out of some other people's way. Errr, maybe that's the point.

Speaking of conspiracies and the like, is the James Bond movie position still open? I'd heard that it was temporarily filled, but the candidate didn't work out. If the role is still open, I'd like to nominate Adrian Paul to fill it. I think that Paul has worked very hard over the years, what with all that swordplay and fight choreography, so he's earned it. How come I don't hear his name being bandied about for the role? To whom are we supposed to submit this proposal? I dunno, but give it some thought, will you.

...

:
We Feb 9 -

INTERNET SPAT -

*Juan Cole has taken some delight in smashing pundit Jonah Goldberg, who ventured a one-paragraph criticism of Cole's take on the Iraqi elections. Cole hammered back that Goldberg knows no Arabic, has no Iraq expertise, hasn't lived in an Arab country, etc. The spat has been all over the weblogs...*

:: From M Kramer's Sandbox ::

...

:
We Feb 9 -

SNOWING IN MIDEAST -

*AMMAN: Snow showers, heavy rain and high winds gripped the Holy Land and Middle East countries on Tuesday, paralysing life in some areas but also bringing welcome relief to drought-hit regions.

Snow fell in the Jordanian capital and most regions of the desert kingdom, blocking off several roads into Amman, where schools kept their doors shut and police advised residents to stay indoors...

Snow fell on Jerusalem for the first time this winter as well as in northern Israel...*

Middle East Online

...

:
Tu Feb 8 -

ISLAMIST WEB STALKERS -

Jeremy Reynalds, a Christian aid worker, ... apparently has been targeted for death by contributors to an Islamist website...

Reynalds' emergency homeless shelter is the largest in New Mexico... He wrote about the demise of a website called mawsuat.com in a January article.

Posting on the Houston-based website Al Ansar, the Islamists blamed Reynalds... for the demise of mawsuat.

::WND - Islamists threaten ::

...

:
Tu Feb 8 -

PK PHONE SYS BOMBED -

*QUETTA: Unknown saboteurs blew up a telephone tower on Monday; as a result all four local exchanges of Barkhan District came to a standstill while a bomb blast took place in the outskirts of the provincial capital of Quetta on Monday, however, no one was injured.

Meanwhile, some miscreants also blew up Quetta-Chaman railway track. Baloch People's Liberation Front, a new organisation, claimed responsibility for the attacks and for destroying the telephone system.*

:: Pakistan Times ::

...

:
Tu Feb 8 -

HOFSTAD EXTREMISTS -

*Twelve Muslims arrested in Holland have been accused of threatening to kill prominent politicians critical of Islam...

Prosecutors, speaking at a pre-trial hearing of the men, said last year's arrests had foiled further attacks.

The group, aged 18 to 27, are suspected of belonging to the extremist Muslim group Hofstad...

...copies of the letter found pinned to Van Gogh's chest with a knife that threatened leading Dutch politicians were found on computers owned by several of the suspects.*

:: From SkyNews ::

...

:
M/Tu Feb 8 -

COUCH POTATO ALERT -
FRONTLINE TV: House of Saud -
Tues Feb 8 at 9 pm EST [U.S.]

*The House of Saud has controlled every aspect of Saudi life and politics since the kingdom was established in 1932. But outside the Desert Kingdom, little is known about Saudi Arabia's secretive royal family. In "House of Saud," FRONTLINE explores how the Al Saud family maintains its hold on power in the face of growing tensions between Islam and modernity. Through interviews with members of the royal family, government officials, and other experts from Saudi Arabia and the U.S., the two-hour documentary also traces America's relations with the Saudi royal family from their first alliance in the 1930s through September 11 and beyond to the present day.*

:: FRONTLINE HOMEPAGE ::

:: HoS Program Page ::

...

:
Mo Feb 7 -

HERE COMES THE CANDYMAN -

*A Kuwaiti Interior Ministry official confirmed a report that militant suspects captured in recent police raids confessed to planning to use ice cream trucks packed with explosives to attack US military convoys traveling to Iraq...

On Sunday, most of the vans had disappeared from major highways and increased numbers of police cars were monitoring the roads. The snack vans, which also sell ice, are common on highways at this time of year when many Kuwaitis drive into the desert to camp...

One woman captured Saturday, who was identified as a "non-Kuwaiti," was "hiding a machine-gun under her abaya," according to an official...

In other news, security forces have been strategizing to arrest Khaled Al-Dousari and another wanted mastermind terrorist Mohsen Al-Fadhli... The same sources said Dousari is holding three passports-- Kuwaiti, Saudi and Iraqi-- all bearing different names...

It was also reported that the terrorists are financed by a Saudi citizen, [only] identified as Abu Zaid.*

-- Excerpts with redactions from:
:: ARAB TIMES - KUWAIT :::

...