"Saudi Arabia is simply a very different society from Egypt, Tunisia or Syria," says Dr Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre, Dubai.There is activism. The women working on the jigsaw are all involved in campaign groups, arguing for the right for women to vote in forthcoming municipal elections. Dina, who recently returned to Saudi Arabia after four years at a US college, says "nobody was doing much campaigning" when she left but now "lots is going on". Last month, several dozen women openly drove cars in defiance of custom, if not law.Such feelings explain, at least in part, why, while the rest of the Arab world is in ferment, Saudis, of whom 70% are under 30 and 35% are under 16, have remained largely quiet. Despite overseas attention focused on a few incidents of protest, scores of interviews over two weeks in deeply conservative areas, the capital, Riyadh, and relatively liberal Jeddah have revealed a country in which a growing desire for reform is a very long way from anything approaching mass dissent. Read More.
If you didn't think David Petraeus had a lot to answer for already, you will after reading this story of a good man driven beyond what could be tolerated.
'Before putting a bullet through his head, Westhusing had been deeply disturbed by abuses carried out by American contractors in Iraq, including allegations that they had witnessed or even participated in the murder of Iraqis. His suicide note included claims that his two commanders, Lt. Gen. Petraeus and Maj. Gen. Josephy Fil tolerated a mission based on "corruption, human rights abuses and liars. I am sullied -- no more. I didn't volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves." One of those commanders: the future leader of American forces in Iraq, and then Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus.' Full story here.
'Under this insincere support for Egypt’s pro-democracy movement, McCain critiqued Obama for being “behind the curve” before and after Mubarak resigned. Although criticism of the White House’s slow response time is justified, the Senator should keep his attention in front of him. Relatively speaking, McCain has ridden side by side with Obama as Washington clung to a “peaceful and orderly transition.” This phrase, which remains in use in Syria and Yemen, has become symbolic of chaos and imperialism.And no sooner had Mubarak resigned did McCain switch his tone, insisting, “This was obviously a very difficult decision for President Mubarak, but it is the right decision for Egypt. History will note that President Mubarak’s last action in office was in the best interest of the country he loves.” From James Gundun at The Trench.
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| Iraqis Enjoying The Benefits of US Nation Building |
Britain and France began deploying attack helicopters as part of the NATO-led mission earlier this month to boost the alliance's firepower and flexibility against Gadhafi's forces.NATO had previously relied on jets that generally fly above 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) - nearly three miles (five kilometers) high. The attack helicopters give the alliance a key advantage in close-up combat, flying at much lower altitudes. Airstrikes by attack jets remain the backbone of NATO's Libya campaign, however.At least one distant explosion rumbled across Tripoli Tuesday as warplanes roared overhead. It wasn't immediately clear what was hit or whether there were casualties.What started as a peaceful uprising inside the country against Gadhafi and his more than four-decade rule has devolved into a civil war. Rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets in the west, and are trying to push their front line forward from their western stronghold of Misrata toward the nearby city of Zlitan. More Here.
In one almost unbelievable scenario, the soldiers considered throwing "candy out of a Stryker vehicle as they drove through a village and shoot[ing] the children who came running to pick up the sweets. According to one soldier, they also talked about a second scenario in which they 'would throw candy out in front and in the rear of the Stryker; the Stryker would then run the children over.'" MORE HERE.
Depuis le début de la contestation à la mi-mars, le régime Syrien n'a eu de cesse d'agiter le spectre du sectarisme et de la guerre civile pour convaincre les minorités ethniques et religieuses de ne pas rejoindre la contestation.
Une information qui, selon le professeur américain Joshua Landis, auteur du blog Syria Comment, "ne peut pas être vraie". "Les tribus alaouites n'ont pratiquement plus aucune cohésion et n'ont pas de chefs qui peuvent parler au nom du clan afin de le dissocier des Assad", analyse-t-il.
Aerial intervention, as was discovered in the Balkans, is a very difficult way of going to war. It is slow, and uncertain, and accelerates war-weariness. In addition to the strategic and tactical mistakes, however, in this war political mistakes have worsened the situation.
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| Brian Haw. Proudly Remembered. One less good man in the fight against the madness. RIP. |
Shouldn't US politicians be busy fighting the recession and protecting the voters from the ravages of the economic slump? Apparently not. Adult content warning.
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| Humanitarian Bombing Courtesy of NATO |
After the debacle of the Republican debate on Monday, it's nice to see the level of internal US politics being raised above the banal, venal and frankly demeaning state illustrated by the wooden and predicatable participants. Here is a real story to show that the political debate within the US is in a healthy place.
Its report says that private businesses have been hardest hit by the continuing ban on virtually all exports.
The first attempt to take statements from Iraqis in Lebanon ended when investigators were asked to leave by the authorities there.A second attempt in Turkey ended when an interviewee objected to the questioning. He cut short the interview and flew home to Iraq."It was a multiple of serious errors they made. They clearly haven't been trained," he said.He said the law classifies his clients as "vulnerable and intimidated witnesses".Despite an agreement with IHAT to use civilian Achieving Best Evidence guidelines, he said investigators failed to follow them."I have a duty to them. I could not advise them, some of whom have been raped, that they should go through this," he said.They pulled out of the process, which means no more interviews can take place.MORE HERE
For the first time ever, ordinary Russians can now see documents that appear to confirm long-standing rumors that Vladimir Lenin had Jewish heritage. In Moscow, a new exhibition traces what may be Lenin's Jewish rootsAmong dozens of newly released documents on display at the State History Museum is a letter written by Lenin's eldest sister, Anna Ulyanova, saying that their maternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity to escape the Pale of Settlement and gain access to higher education.
"He came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank, a native of (the western Ukrainian city of) Zhitomir," Ulyanova wrote in a 1932 letter to Josef Stalin, who succeeded Lenin after his death in 1924.
"Vladimir Ilych had always thought of Jews highly," she wrote. "I am very sorry that the fact of our origin — which I had suspected before — was not known during his lifetime."
Under czarist rule, most Jews were allowed permanent residence only in a restricted area that became known as the Pale of Settlement which included much of present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine and parts of western Russia.
Many Jews joined the Bolsheviks to fight rampant anti-Semitism in czarist Russia and some were among the leaders of the Communist Party when it took power after the 1917 Revolution. Most prominent among them was Leon Trotsky, whose real name was Bronstein.
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| Blair and Brown With Their Mutual Mentor |
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