Links for 09.17.09 to 09.19.09

A few day's worth...

✪ Orientalism’s Wake: The Ongoing Politics of a Polemic | Very nice collection of essays on Edward Said's "Orientalism" from a variety of supporters, critics, academics including Daniel Varisco, Robert Irwin, Roger Owen, etc.
✪ The Sources of Islamic Revolutionary Conduct | I have not read in detail this small book by a US Air Force analyst, but scanning through it I see rather odd choices. For instance there are long chapters comparing Christianity and modern secularism to the Islamist outlook, except that it's never quite clear whether the latter means the outlook of engaged Islamist activists or ordinary Muslims. There is also copious quoting from Sayyid Qutb's "Milestones" as if it was representative of all Islamic thinking. Someone should give this a detailed look (and I'd be happy to post the result.) [PDF]
✪ Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | A clean break | On Cairo's garbage collection crisis.
✪ Irving Kristol, Godfather of Conservatism, Dies - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com | Leaving behind a disastrous intellectual, social, economic and political legacy: alleged liberalism on social issues that shirks from real change, supply-side economics, and of course an imperial war doctrine.
✪ Are Morocco And Algeria Gearing Up For Arms Race? « A Moroccan About the world around him
✪ Big mouth - The National Newspaper | Bernard Heykal on how the strength of al-Qaeda is impossible. Which makes sense, at least if you try to do it from the Bin Laden tapes as all the silly pseudo-analysis of last week showed.
✪ Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website | Very much like the new look of the Muslim Brothers' English website, which I hadn't checked in a while. They have a very useful "today's news" feature that can also be used for archives by date.
✪ Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy | Depleting Egypt's reserves | A good article with details on the Egypt-Israel gas deal and why it may be a bad idea in terms of resource management, never mind political and financial sense.
✪ Al-Qaradawi's Fatwa Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English) | The alleged liberal paid by intolerant Islamists in Riyadh attacks the alleged moderate Islamist paid by Doha:

A news item reported in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper revealed that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi had issued a fatwa prohibiting Iraqis from acquiring US citizenship on the grounds that this is the nationality of an occupier nation. However this fatwa has nothing to do with the reality on the ground, and contains more political absurdity then it does religious guidance. Sheikh al-Qaradawi himself is an Egyptian who possesses Qatari nationality, which was given to him after he opposed the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. However when an Israeli office was opened in Doha, al-Qaradawi did not renounce his Qatari nationality.

✪ Freed Iraqi shoe thrower tells of torture in jail | World news | guardian.co.uk

| "His brother Uday told Reuters: "Thanks be to God that Muntazer has seen the light of day. I wish Bush could see our happiness. When President Bush looks back and turns the pages of his life, he will see the shoes of Muntazer al-Zaidi on every page.""
✪ BAE to axe 1,100 jobs and close site | Business | guardian.co.uk | So Tony Blair quashed the Yamama inquiry to save jobs (or so he says) but BAe still carries out layoffs?
✪ Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen and Natalie Portman slam Toronto Film Festival protest - Haaretz - Israel News| Some stars come to Israel's side in the tiff over TIFF.
✪ GDC | Economist Conferences| Economist infographic shows public debt around the world.
✪ FT.com / Middle East / Politics & Society - Investors seek to revive faded glory of Cairo | On investment in Downtown Cairo properties and plans for gentrification. Look out for another article on this soon.
✪ No concrete proof that Iran has or has had nuclear programme – UN atomic watchdog | Just a reminder that the press reports have spinned things wrongly - this comes straight from the UN: "17 September 2009 – Refuting a recent media report, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today reiterated that the body has no concrete proof that Iran has or has ever had a nuclear weapons programme."
✪ Egypt Islamic Authority Says Women Can Wear Trousers - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News - FOXNews.com | The world is going to hell -- what next, capris?
✪ BBC NEWS | Middle East | 'Many killed' in Yemen air raid | Serious turn in Yemen's trouble -- bombing a refugee camp!?

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Fault Lines on the torture debate, Obama's relationship with Mubarak, Saudis

I caught a glimpse of a very lively debate on torture on Al Jazeera English's new show Fault Lines (hosted by Josh Rushing, former US Army spokesman in Qatar captured in the wonderful documentary on al-Jazeera Control Room). The show is about the recent US controversy over President Obama to close US-based torture programs (but not torture carried out by allied countries such as Egypt, Jordan or Morocco), his decision not to release further Abu Ghraib and other photos, and his ambivalence about prosecuting senior Bush administration officials who were involved in the decision to authorize torture. Part I The second part has an interesting outburst by former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer against Obama's visit to Cairo. At around 1:08 he says:

This business of rendition and interrogation is important and should get sorted out. But when congressmen and other people say, "this is a a great recruiter for al-Qaeda" -- let me tell you what's the great recruiter for al-Qaeda: when Mr. Obama goes to Cairo and raises his arms with Mr. Mubarak and cheers for freedom, and then goes and kisses the royal buttocks of King Abdallah in Saudi Arabia because we're dependent on their oil, that's much more of a recruitment tool then anything that happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay. This is small potatoes.

Later (3:38) he adds:

Mr. Obama does not know the first thing about how this world works and cheer freedom with Hosni Mubarak.

Part II

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On US democracy promotion in Egypt

Analysis: Democracy in Egypt appears to wane:

"Four years ago, the United States talked about two laboratories for democracy in the Middle East: Iraq and Egypt. Egypt was supposed to be the easier one. But now it's battered Iraq that has shown democratic advances, while Egypt seems to be going backward with President Hosni Mubarak's government solidifying its hold on the levers of power. Still, Egypt is hoping for improved ties with the United States under President Barack Obama after the Bush administration called for reform by Mubarak and after years of strains over the staunch U.S. ally's human rights record. The Obama administration has already hinted it won't hinge its relationship with Egypt on human rights demands, moving away from former President George W. Bush's ambitious — or overreaching, as some in the region felt — claims to seek a democratic transformation in the region."

Already some people in Cairo are nostalgic (or have been nostalgic for several years) for that 2004-2005 moment when the Bush administration was publicly, relentlessly, critical of Egypt's lack of political reform. Ironically Obama, with his charisma, could make an even better democracy promoter than Bush, whose neo-conservative version of democracy promotion appeared like a barely concealed fig leaf for a pro-interventionist, pro-Israeli Middle East policy. The problem remains the same: how do you craft a successful democracy-promotion policy? Can you do so when you have a strategic alliance with a repressive state? I think government-to-government pressure has limited effectiveness, especially when Egypt is such as a great counter-terrorism and regional diplomacy ally. Or when you're unwilling to reconsider over $1bn of military aid that subsidizes your own military-industrial complex and irrigates the backbone of the regime. (sorry for the terrible mixed metaphor.) The way to go may be lobbying in the US, EU against businesses involved in Egypt and naming and shaming politicians that support Egypt. But even then you run the risk of becoming the useful idiot of those who claim to be concerned about democracy in Egypt but are merely cynically adding a card to play in regional politics.

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Who throws a shoe? Good ole shoe, that's who.

Via POMED. I won't point to all the shoe stories out there, which mostly point out the obvious: "shoe incident highlights cataclysmic perception of Bush administration," which doesn't even begin to do justice to this strange little grinning man who decided he would wreak havoc thousands miles away from where he lives and whose country (or at least its leaders) still believe they have a right to do just that. Yankee, will you just go home? Personally, as a funny aside on shoegate, I much prefer this clip from the great, prophetic movie Wag The Dog - which let's remember preceded much of the Clinton and Bush era warmongering. Watch the rest here.

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The other shoe drops

What a beautiful scene. Makes you want to cry with joy.

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Links for January 14th

Automatically posted links for January 14th:

• Daily Kos: Bush fawns over the U.A.E. - Great takedown of Bush's appraisal of UAE as "model society"
• Total, Suez, Areva to build two nuclear plants in Abu Dhabi - The Middle East nuclear race that really matters
• Bush Nudges Mideast on Democracy - Story number 129747247 on Bush abandoning democracy talk
• Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel - Tiny Iranian boats not aggressive and posed no threat
• Pursuing happiness behind the veil - The LAT's Jeffrey Fleishman: king of the mixed metaphor
• Islamists emerge in stifled Tunisia - Returnee mujahideen spell trouble
• Kuwait set to invest as Merrill seeks $4bn - Another big Gulfie investment in top Western financial firm
• EGYPT HOLDS ARMY OFFICERS FOR 'PLOTTING ISRAEL ATTACKS' - Now, if you were an Egyptian Islamist in the army, would it be Israel that's your target?
• EGYPT: Iraqi refugee return driven by lack of money IRIN Middle East | Middle East | Egypt | EGYPT: Iraqi refugee return driven by lack of money | Early Warning Refugees/IDPs | News Item - Iraqis fleeing death find poverty in Egypt

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Links for January 11th

Automatically posted links for January 11th:

• Islam and democracy | The practice?and the theory | Economist.com - Rather flawed piece since it alleges democracy not discussed in Muslim lands
• The Arabs | Between fitna, fawda and the deep blue sea | Economist.com - "IT IS not easy to be an Arab these days"
• George MacDonald Fraser - Economist obituary of Flashman creator
• ACLU: Court Rejects Government?s Attempt to Deport Egyptian to Torture - Egyptian convert successfully claims torture is likely if sent back to Egypt
• House Leaders Vow Tough Stance on Iran - Tom Lantos potential successors just as gung-ho on Israel
• Torture In Egypt: The Nadeem Center?s Report at 3arabawy - Hossam has torture report available for download
• Egypt names site of first nuclear reactor - It's Dabaa, whatever the real estate speculators wanted!
• CIA: We said back in 1974 that Israel had nuclear weapons - But in Seymour Hersh's "Samson Option" it's clear the US knew, but did not want to hear, in late 1960s
• 25 Simply Amazing Mosques - List includes many modern mosques, but what about Hassan II in Casablanca?
• Threat To Cut U.S. Aid Opens Rift With Egypt - Forward looks at Egypt's accusations at Israel lobby

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Links January 7th and January 8th

Automatically posted links for January 7th through January 8th:

• Bhutto Killing Roils Province, Spurring Call to Quit Pakistan - WSJ.com - Sindhis outraged, some call for armed insurgency, secession!
• Trip Notes from the Middle East - White House blogs during Middle East trip
• The Clash - Fouad Ajami, with hindsight, agrees with Huntington and fears for West
• Menassat - New NGO website on Arab media
• Egypt Police Officer Jailed 5 Years - Another conviction in a police abuse case
• G H A S B O U B A: Touareg Genocide - Very interesting interview (in French) of Niger Touareg leader
• An American in Iran - The New York Review of Books - Max Rodenbeck visits Iran

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Del.icio.us links for November 22nd

Automatically posted links for November 22nd:

• Le Monde.fr : Le patriarche maronite libanais, Nasrallah Sfeir, politique malgré lui - What a ridiculous headline... poor Sfeir, pushed into politics!
• Women in Muslim Brotherhood ..Towards More Political Participation - MB article on growing role for women in political activism
• Report: Syria has decided not to attend Annapolis peace conference - Syria snubs Condi's party
• مش هنبطل: I will still stand up for him - Hudaiby answers Sandmonkey allegation
• "‘Fall of the House of Bush:’ Six Questions for Craig Unger" by Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) - Unger on how neocons met Bush, etc.

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