News and Analysis (4/17/08)

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar argues that no peace between the Israelis and Palestinians can be achieved without first allowing discussions to begin without any preconditions…

• No Peace Without Hamas (Washington Post)

…meanwhile 20 Palestinians are killed in Israel’s latest bombing campaign, including 13 civilians and among them were 5 children and a Reuters cameraman:

• Fighting Breaks Out in Gaza Strip (Washington Post)
• Gaza Fighting Kills 20 Palestinians, Including 5 Children (Associated Press/Wiredispatch)

Hundreds of millions in US taxpayer money is requested for Pakistani military aid rather than civil society assistance or left in the pockets of ordinary Americans:

• U.S. Military Prepares To Train Pakistani Forces (Christian Science Monitor)

Critics of a trial against an eccentric group with “no firearms, no explosives and no links to a terrorist group” say it involved “more hype than evidence”:

• Second Terror Mistrial Hurts Bush Administration, Critics Say (ABC News)

After Harvard’s school newspaper reports of law enforcement surveillance at a Pro-Palestinian rally, the ACLU questions the relationship between the University and the FBI:

• ACLU Accuses Harvard of Ties to the FBI (US News and World Report)

Two thousand students protest the sentencing of two prominent Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders and 25 others recently detained:

• Students Protest Jailing of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Members (Deutsch Presse-Agentur/Monsters and Critics)

Report from Refugees International finds Sadr runs the largest “unofficial” aid agency in Iraq:

• Iraq’s Biggest Aid Agency? Muqtada Al-Sadr & Co. (MSNBC)

Alejandro

Alejandro Beutel is program assistant for the Minaret of Freedom Institute with expertise in religious freedom, democratization and security issues.