The Skeptic الشكاك

790 Hostages Freed

Thank God. And it’s the top news in Ghana.

787 Sudanese Forces Clash with Kidnappers

Sudanese government officials are telling reporters that the Sudanese forces killed six men accused of complicity in the abduction of 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides after a high-speed chase through the desert. The Sudanese say they captured two people involved, who said that the hostages had been moved to Chad. If all the reports coming out have been true, then the hostages have been moved from Egypt, across the border to Sudan, across the border into Libya, then back into Sudan, and again across the border into Chad.

738 Nineteen Abducted in Egypt

AFP reports that armed bandits forced 19 people on a safari to Gilf al-Kabir, a rock plateau the size of Switzerland, to drive across the border to Sudan. I’m hearing this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, it’s just the first time it has come to light. More on that soon, I expect. [Yes, here it is, with news of their release (soon?)]

In the meantime, the BBC’s story:

Eleven European tourists have been kidnapped along with seven other people while making an off-road tour of southern Egypt.

Five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian were taken along with seven travel guides and drivers.

Local reports said the abduction, which took place near Aswan, was carried out by tribesmen or bandits.

Egypt’s tourism minister said a ransom had been demanded and negotiations were under way.

A ministry statement said: “This is an act of banditry not of terrorism.”

Minister Zoheir Garana told Associated Press news agency that a ransom of up to $6m (£3.24m) had been demanded.

As an aside, I’ve dreamed of going to Gilf al-Kabir for years, but $2,000 and two weeks always seemed too much to spare. The possibility of bandit attacks adds further romance to the adventure, but also raises the specter of a police escort for any future trips.

554 Ghost Ship

From Al-Ahram Weekly:

Egypt’s missing cargo ship Badr 1 was supposed to reach Sudan more than 20 days ago, but it never made it. Badr 1 was reported missing in the Red Sea by the end of last month although it disappeared from sight and from radar screens only three days after its departure on 9 January while heading to Port Sudan from the Suez Canal, an almost 800-mile trip which normally lasts just a few days. Neither Egyptian nor Sudanese authorities have been able to locate the vessel since.

Most authorities concerned and government officials state that Badr 1 has yet to be found. Some people, though, claim they know something others don’t.

[Read on…]

492 The Middle East and Asimov’s Laws of Robotics

Punditpalooza: What’s the noun of assembly for op-ed writers? “A pontification of priests” has “pontification” in it, but “priests” seems strikingly inappropriate. Some might argue that “a drift of swine” would be more like it, but I think “a glozing of taverners” is more charitable and perhaps more accurate. In any case, you can find them, and links to all the articles they wrote, mostly about the NIE, here.

Ahmadinejad and the Gulf: Marc Lynch notices what most everyone else failed to notice in our astonishment at the NIE: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad glad-handing at the GCC. Prof. Lynch is more cautious, but these two events — the release of the NIE, Ahmadinejad in the Gulf exchanging platitudes about closer ties — could together make yesterday a decisive turning point in the world’s relations with Iran. How quickly can the United States pivot? I don’t think you appease someone like Iran’s diminutive president. I suspect you bait him with his megalomania until he chokes on it or finds himself caught in a cage. Like in chess or martial arts: You show your opponent a false opening, a feigned weakness, invite him in, and use his weight against him.

Moumediene/Al Odah v. Bush: Habeas corpus and Guantanamo at the Supreme Court. Brief resource center here. Good overview of what’s at stake from The Christian Science Monitor.

Dawn Visitors: Security detained 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo Wednesday morning. Security also detained either 11 (Reuters) or 13 (AFP) brothers in Sohag December 4. The Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s.

No Fuel in Gaza: Israeli sanctions have forced all official filling stations in Gaza to close indefinitely. No fuel also means that power stations can’t generate electricity and waterworks can’t pump water. So people are living in the dark without running water. The Palestinians are asking Egypt to help.

Tighter Control of Mercenaries: Mercenaries just got even less useful. The Pentagon and the State Department signed an agreement putting tighter military controls on Blackwater. Better late than never. Used to be that they were somewhat useful because they were not accountable. At least they still make blimps. I like blimps. But I’m not sure they’re the best use of Americans’ Hard-Earned Tax Dollars.

AU-EU Summit: Egypt hosted a preliminary meeting on the Lisbon EU-AU summit. So what? In 2004-2005, a high-level meeting on Darfur and human rights in Egypt would have sounded like a pipe dream.

Russia Flexes Naval Muscles in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

The Wacky Men and Women of the MKO: Video of a bizarre and ultimately boring parade of the Mojahidin-e Khalq, sort of the Scientologists of the “terrorist community,” set to techno. (Thanks, Blake, and congratulations)

Robots: I’ve been chewing over this weeks-old post from Mountainrunner for a few days now, and I have to confess, I’m not any closer to knowing what to think now than I was when I first read it. Mountainrunner reports that a South African robotic cannon went berserk, killing nine.

This has implications for his research, which sounds very interesting. Take his survey on perceptions of robots in warfare simply to be asked questions you likely never will be again. Ron Arkin’s paper on “constraining lethal actions in an autonomous robotic system so that they fall within the bounds prescribed by the Laws of War and Rules of Engagement” (PDF here) is also well worth the detour.

Now, I know when I’m out of my depth, but speaking as an unarmed human being, I’m wondering if we need an NGO to campaign for Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics in the same way human rights organizations campaign for the implementation of international humanitarian law. Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics, first postulated in Runaround (1942), are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the 1st Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the 1st or 2nd Law.

In Robots and Empire (1982), Asimov added a “Zeroth” Law, to proceed and supersede all the others: “A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

Why can’t all robots be like QRIO? (Elaborate bow, Mountainrunner)

478 Flogging a Dead Teddy Bear, Hiding Dead Iraqis

On this, I have nothing to add to the great post at ‘Aqoul, from a writer who attended the school in question:

I was hoping this would go away and that I therefore would not have to withdraw my head from the sand and confront the farce that is the Mohammed teddy bear story. Almost no aspect of this saga can be taken seriously in that I actually marvel at how newsreaders can keep a straight face when using the words ‘teddy bear’ and ‘flogging’ in the same breath. That said however, it is indeed gravely serious. I have no doubt the teacher in question will not be subjected to the full barbaric punishment (only because Sudan’s version of Sharia law is so cosmetic and floggings, amputations and stonings rarely, if ever take place) but what is worrying is how far the Sudanese local authorities are willing to go to flex some muscle.

Reactions have been typical, ranging from the ‘what do you expect from Muslim savages’, to the exaggeratedly tolerant ‘we have to respect their culture’ but there are a couple of issues of note which have not been sufficiently covered. Firstly, having had the dubious honour of attending the said institution (the choice of ‘well heeled’ Sudanese and expat children) for some time due to one of my father’s random diplomatic postings, I am aware that there has always existed an uneasy truce between the highly Westernised elite that chose to send their children to the school and local government authorities who resented the very existence of such an elite and their access to the admittedly exceptional education the school offered. Were it not for the ironic fact that high ranking government officials mostly sent their children to the school, the co-existence would have been much more challenging. [Read on…]

On a more serious note, Salon.com has an interesting article on the differences between the body-counts the U.S. military and Iraqis put forward after operations in Iraq. Here’s a taste:

From the beginning of the American occupation in Iraq, airstrikes and attacks by the U.S. military have only killed “militants,” “criminals,” “suspected insurgents,” “IED [Improvised Explosive Device] emplacers,” “anti-American fighters,” “terrorists,” “military age males,” “armed men,” “extremists” or “al-Qaida.”

The pattern for reporting on such attacks has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today. Take a helicopter attack on Oct. 23 of this year near the village of Djila, north of Samarra. The U.S. military claimed it had killed 11 among “a group of men planting a roadside bomb.” Only later did a military spokesperson acknowledge that at least six of the dead were civilians. Local residents claimed that those killed were farmers, that there were children among them, and that the number of dead was greater than 11.

Here is part of the statement released by U.S. military spokeswoman in northern Iraq, Maj. Peggy Kageleiry:

“A suspected insurgent and improvised explosive device cell member was identified among the killed in an engagement between Coalition Forces and suspected IED emplacers just north of Samarra … During the engagement, insurgents used a nearby house as a safe haven to re-engage coalition aircraft. A known member of an IED cell was among the 11 killed during the multiple engagements. We send condolences to the families of those victims and we regret any loss of life.”

As usual, the version offered by locals was vastly different. Abdul al-Rahman Iyadeh, a relative of some of the victims, revealed that the “group of men” attacked were actually three farmers who had left their homes at 4:30 a.m. to irrigate their fields. Two were killed in the initial helicopter attack and the survivor ran back to his home where other residents gathered. The second airstrike, he claimed, destroyed the house killing 14 people. Another witness told reporters that four separate houses were hit by the helicopter. A local Iraqi policeman, Capt. Abdullah al-Isawi, put the death toll at 16 — seven men, six women and three children, with another 14 wounded. [Full story]

472 Sudanese Migrants Face State Security Court

As careful readers of the Egyptian press will know, eight Sudanese men will soon stand trial before a State Security court, whose verdicts may not be appealed, in connection with a fatal stabbing last June. The evidence against them seems slender at best, and those who know them say what evidence exists has been manufactured.

I’m not in a position to evaluate the evidence, but that’s not the issue. There’s absolutely no reason this case should be heard before a State Security court. This is an ordinary criminal case, and the ordinary criminal courts are perfectly competent to decide on the matter. There was no reason for the government to invoke the Emergency Law and transfer the accused to a special court. The defendants deserve their full due-process rights, particularly given the seriousness of the charges and the possibility they might face the death penalty.

More information—including the full background, scanned copies of the legal documents, and contact information for people familiar with the case—is available at auc8.blogspot.com.

451 Joint Letter to Arab League on Darfur

An impressive coalition of Arab and international human rights organizations have sent the following letter to the Arab League on Darfur:

To the League of Arab States

Your Excellency,

We are writing to you in advance of your attendance at the meeting of the League of Arab States due to take place in Khartoum on 30-31 October 2007. We are encouraged by this initiative to discuss the crisis in Darfur, which is clearly of global concern.

We understand that the conference is dedicated to discussion of the provision of humanitarian assistance in Darfur, and post-conflict reconstruction and development. In considering this, it is vital that the conference consider the human rights issues that are directly endangering the provision of humanitarian assistance, and which contribute to the continuation of the crisis. If these issues are not addressed, there can be no hope of lasting peace and security, which are vital prerequisites to effective reconstruction and development.

We urge you to consider the following points and take the specific steps outlined below in order to make a real difference in the lives of the people of Darfur.

Specifically, we recommend that the governments of the League of Arab States:

• Ensure that AMIS and UNAMID have adequate personnel, equipment, technical expertise, and other resources, noting that improved security in Darfur will be contingent upon their rapid response capabilities and patrolling activities.

• Call on all parties immediately to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law including:

1. Ending attacks on civilians and the unlawful use on aircraft of UN and AMIS colors or markings,
2. Ending support to abusive militia/Janjaweed and initiating militia/Janjaweed disarmament programs,
3. Ending impunity and promoting accountability through full cooperation with the International Criminal Court, and undertaking legal reforms and other steps to strengthen Sudan’s justice system,
4. Facilitating the expeditious deployment of AMIS and UNAMID and ensuring they can carry out their mandate unhindered, including having freedom of movement throughout Darfur.

Attacks on Civilians

After almost 5 years of conflict in Darfur, more than 2 million people are living in camps and temporary shelters, having been forced to flee their homes and unable to return. In many areas people continue to be displaced by renewed fighting and direct attacks on villages and towns. [Continues after break…] More…

426 ‘Facts and Darfur’

Ken Silverstein, Washington editor at Harper’s, takes issue with the Save Darfur campaign:

When I lived in Brazil in the early 1990s and worked for Associated Press, I filed a short item on a study by a pro-choice group that revealed the staggering number of abortions that took place in the nation. The study showed, the group argued, that abortion needed to be legalized because so many women ran serious risks in order to get “back alley” abortions. That claim may have had merit, but the numbers, I realized too late, were surely bogus. After re-examining the study, I discovered that for it to be true every Brazilian woman of childbearing age would have had (on average) multiple abortions, which was obviously impossible.

All groups, left, right and center, sometimes make sensational claims and cite dubious statistics. Political organizations do it for obvious reasons and advocacy groups do it because it calls attention to their cause and helps bring in money. For years, the Southern Poverty Law Center hyped the threat of the Klan in the course of raising a $100 million-plus endowment. This same sort of game is apparently being played by Save Darfur, whose “mission is to raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur.” [Full article…]

410 Quick Readings

Busy preparing to leave town again, but just wanted to flag a few quick reads:

• Ellen Knickmeyer (and Nora Younis) give legs to the story of the Darfuri refugees slated for expulsion from Israel. I’m glad Ellen has been posted to Cairo. She’s doing a fantastic job.
• Also in the Washington Post, Julie Flint, who deserves credit for being among the first to shout to the world about the crisis in Darfur, urges UN peacekeepers to “step out of that armored car and ask the Darfurian people: ‘Just what the hell is going on here?'”
• The Iraqi government limps along.
• Russian police arrested an Israeli man wanted by Interpol for training Colombian militants. In a former life, I used to follow South and Central America more closely and was intrigued by the Israeli and Lebanese (sometimes identified as Hizballah-affiliated) merchants of war messing around in the region. Sometimes stories would pop up in the local press about arms deals that would implicate corrupt or cynical officials in three or more countries, but whenever I’d have a correspondent dig deeper, the stories would die on the vine because of information from dodgy sources, libel laws, and fears for the correspondent’s safety. Other times, the story would simply be too tangled to explain to a casual reader in less than 6,000 words. There’s gotta be a good book, New Yorker essay, or Hollywood thriller in one of these stories.
• Speaking of corruption and arms sales…
• Kudos to the Christian Science Monitor. Sometimes journalism can make a difference, as in the suspension of the Pentagon’s creepy (but impressive) ADVISE data-mining system, which the CSM first reported in February 2006.
• I enjoyed Wassim’s reflections on Edgware Road.

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