Month: February 2011

For some, Lebanon’s “complicated and delicate  power-sharing agreement … based on political confessionalism that aims to maintain a balance between the country’s 18 religious sects” is to blame for the countries problems “including corruption and war”: LEBANON: Hundreds March in Beirut Against Sectarian Political System (LA Times) Unsatisfied with promises of more government jobs and…

BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner tries to explain Gaddafi’s anarchistic governance structure, the self-appointed Brother Leader blames Bin Ladin for the turmoil, while his defenders blast “a mosque with antiaircraft missiles and automatic weapons”: Qaddafi Forces Attack Mosque Sheltering Libyan Protesters (Christian Science Monitor) “Nine members of the ruling party have quit over the government’s…

Qaddafi’s biggest blunder may be employing foreign troops against his own people; it backfired in Somalia and it is backfiring in Libya: Qaddafi’s Ties to Rebel Groups Scrutinized as ‘African Mercenaries’ Patrol Libya (Christian Science Monitor) In “protest at violence used to quell demonstrations calling for the president to quit”: Yemen Protest: Ruling Party MPs…

“The Washington Post learned of Davis’s CIA affiliation after his arrest but agreed not to publish the information at the request of senior U.S. intelligence officials”: U.S. Officials: Raymond Davis, Accused in Pakistan Shootings, Worked for CIA (Washington Post) Holding no government position from which to resign, Qaddafi refuses to step down as head of…

The disastrous speech by Qaddafi’s son in which he simultaneously asserted that the death tolls have been exaggerated even as he threatened the eradication of his father’s enemies has not stopped the spread of the opposition, with the resignation of senior officials and rumors of Qaddafi’s flight: Libya Protests Spread to Capital City of Tripoli…

“It is the ultimate definition of lip service that Secretary of State Clinton would be trumpeting the U.S. government’s supposed concerns for free speech rights and this man would be simultaneously brutalized and arrested for engaging in a peaceful act of dissent at her speech”: Former CIA Analyst Accosted During Clinton Speech About Tolerating Free…

Younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood “have a lot of street cred [now] within the old guard of the Muslim Brotherhood for pulling the big sleeping giant that is the Muslim Brotherhood into this demonstration”: A Look at the Youth of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (NPR) “It would be a huge mistake for American foreign policy…

Unless the military removes the state of emergency now, why should we believe their promises? Military Moves Quickly to Bring Elections to Egypt (Washington Post) An “under-reported dimension of the Egyptian revolution … suggests a fascinating moment may be upon us, … when both Islam and Christianity (and, one would hope, other religions as well)…

After barely avoiding tainting the Egyptian revolt by taking a too bold stand on an internal political dispute, the Washington falters again by feeding Iranian paranoia over foreign origins of domestic unrest: US Backs Iran Protests as Government Calls for Executions (Christian Science Monitor) “The military orders that a committee studying constitutional changes come up…