News and Analysis (1/1/14)

The regime accelerates it s repression of the Muslim Brtherhood and its Hamas allies:

• Egyptian security forces arrest Muslim Brotherhood leader’s son (Reuters / NDTV)
• Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Handed Prison Terms (UPI)
• Egypt Seizes Brotherhood, Islamist Leaders’ Assets (AP / NPR)
• Egypt: Al-Jazeera Journalists’ Detention Renewed (AP / abc News)
• Hamas Rejects Egypt’s Terror Label of Muslim Brotherhood (Haaretz)

• France: the Looming Battle over Muslim Integration (Jewish Press)

“Muslims who read the Quran, and not all of them do, but ones that do notice the Quran speaks to the Bible all the time, and the people in the Bible, so it’s a natural progression of curiosity” — Hans Wiersma,  Augsburg College, Minneapolis:

• Why Did Fort Hood Shooter, a Radical Muslim, Request a Bible? (Christian Science Monitor)

“Security concerns, bureaucracy, bad weather and a complex multinational procurement effort for equipment were the reasons for the delay, an official from the UN’s Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said”:

• Syria Misses Chemical Weapons Deadline (Guardian)

“Three members of a persecuted ethnic minority from China have been released from Guantanamo Bay and sent to the Central European country of Slovakia, officials said Tuesday, resolving a diplomatic dilemma that had kept the men imprisoned long after a judge had ordered their release”:

• US Frees Last 3 Uighur Prisoners from Guantanamo (AP / abc News)

“Defence Minister Fayez Ghosn told AFP that Majid al-Majid, the Saudi “emir” of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, was being held by Lebanese army intelligence in Beirut” …

• Lebanon ‘Arrests Head of Abdullah Azzam Brigades’ (BBC)

… and Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington says, that if the Saudi intervention into Lebanon “is being done as a means to confront Hezbollah, or change the internal balance of power, then the effort might be somewhat misguided.” —  …

• Saudi Arabia Promises Record $3 Billion in Military Aid to Lebanon (Christian Science Monitor)

… but the Lebanese militia’s  intervention into Syria is something else, where in the “Syrian border town of Qusayr …, Hezbollah stormed the town from the south, achieving in three weeks what the army it supports had been unable to do in two years”:

• Syria Conflict Pits Shia Against Sunni as Hezbollah Says This Is ‘War We Must Win (Guardian)

“Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said the experts would report back to their capitals and contacts would continue to ‘finalize a common understanding of implementation’. He declined comment on Iran’s assertion that there was an agreement on the timetable for implementing the accord”:

• Iran Says Nuclear Deal to Be Implemented in Late January (Reuters)

As the former military ruler faces the death penalty for “treason charges relate[d] to his decision in 2007 to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule., his “defence team is arguing that Mr Musharraf cannot get a fair trial in Pakistan. Defence lawyer Anwar Mansoor said the current prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, “has a bias against” his client. Mr Musharraf seized power from Mr Sharif in a coup in 1999″:

• Pakistan’s Musharraf Not in Court for Treason Trial (BBC)