The Skeptic الشكاك

306 Eid

Lest the disgusting events downtown color everyone’s memories of the holiday, think of this moment, captured by the talented Nasser Nouri, via Hossam‘s Flickr account.

304 ‘Expression, Not Repression’

Kudos to Amnesty International for carrying the torch on the rights to freedom of information, free expression, and privacy online at the Internet governance forum in Athens next week. Their press release is here.

303 List of Brotherhood Detainees

Human Rights Watch has released (Arabic) the names of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood detained under the Emergency Law and Article 86(bis) of the Penal Code. The list of names is here.

Egypt: Crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood Deepens
Government Must Release Detainees Without Delay

(Cairo, October 26, 2006) ? In a new round of arbitrary arrests, the Egyptian government has expanded its crackdown against members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The government should immediately release all members of the nonviolent organization imprisoned in the government?s months-long campaign, Human Rights Watch said today.

Most recently, State Security forces on October 17 detained eight additional members of the organization from the Manufiyya governorate, north of Cairo. The arrests are the latest in a crackdown the government began in March against the Muslim Brotherhood, which ? although officially banned ? constitutes the country?s largest opposition group, with 88 out of 454 seats in Parliament.

Human Rights Watch has collected the names of 792 members of the organization who have been detained between March and mid-October. According to the Muslim Brotherhood, 62 remain in custody, 33 of them without charge under provisions of Egypt?s Emergency Law, which allows the government to indefinitely detain people without charge, trial or legal recourse. The other 29 are in prison on charges of ?belonging to an illegal organization.? More…

302 Israelis Threaten to Retake Gaza-Egypt Border

For the senseless provocation department, via Reuters:

Several Israeli cabinet ministers called on Sunday for a military operation to retake control of Gaza’s southern border and prevent Palestinian militants smuggling weapons from neighbouring Egypt.

[tags]Gaza, Israel[/tags]

301 Breaking News: U.N. Envoy to Sudan ‘Relieved of Duties’

I’ve just heard from a U.N. source that Jan Pronk, U.N. envoy to Sudan, has been relieved of his duties. It’s not clear whether he’s been declared persona non grata or stripped of his credentials.

I wonder if this is connected to his breaking news on his blog.

UPDATE: Here’s the BBC story. Looks like it was related to the comments he made on his blog.

[tags]Darfur, Sudan, United Nations, Pronk[/tags]

299 Letter from Iraq

Another worthwhile letter from our talented friend in Iraq, Paul Schemm:

They beat up one of our photographers today.

And smashed his cameras. Now that’s pretty tough – not so much slapping around our photographer and threatening to drag him into a car so that he could join the ranks of nameless corpses, that’s common. But destroying these big clunky professional Canons, with metal frames takes a lot of effort.

Apparently, though, grabbing a camera by its lens and hurling it with all force onto a stone floor, will do the trick.

He was taking pictures of worshippers, something this Shiite photographer does every Friday, but this was a Sunni mosque and this time he didn’t come with the Sunni journalist and he was taking pictures of people’s faces.

Maybe he was going to deliver those pictures to a Shiite death squad, went the thinking.

So the guards grabbed him, hurt him, checked his wallet, and found a few too many pictures of soulful eyed Shiite imams – not too mention the fact that he does have his connections with the Shiite militias, but then you have to if you’re going take pictures out in Sadr City.

They hit him a lot, and were prepared to take him away, when the mosque imam said that actually he had been there just a week before taking pictures with a nice Sunni fellow who was okay in those circles.

If not for that… More…

298 You’re So Fired

Well, I hope not, but I imagine this is the sort of thing that could kill a career in the State Department. Perhaps, given the current political climate in the United States, he has a future in an elected office.

[tags]United States, Iraq[/tags]

297 Fathi Sorour: ‘Terrorism Must Not Be a Justification for Violating Human Rights’

Al-Misri al-Youm quotes Speaker of the People’s Assembly Fathi Sorour as saying that terrorism must not be a justification for violating human rights.

And everyone in the room presumably kept a straight face.

[tags]Egypt, human rights, Islamists, Terrorism[/tags]

296 Throw the Bums Out

…And restore my faith in democracy.

Rep. Terry Everett, vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence, more than three years after the most recent invasion of Iraq: ?Now that you?ve explained it to me,? he replied, ?what occurs to me is that it makes what we?re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.?

For the past few months, Jeff Stein has been asking the people who supervise the U.S. War (war) on (on) Terrorism (terrorism) if they know the difference between a Sunni and a Shia. The results are in the Oct. 17 New York Times.

Here’s another taste:

Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.?s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was similarly dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

?Do I?? she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. ?You know, I should.? She took a stab at it: ?It?s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it?s the Sunnis who?re more radical than the Shia.?

Did she know which branch Al Qaeda?s leaders follow?

?Al Qaeda is the one that?s most radical, so I think they?re Sunni,? she replied. ?I may be wrong, but I think that?s right.?

Did she think that it was important, I asked, for members of Congress charged with oversight of the intelligence agencies, to know the answer to such questions, so they can cut through officials? puffery when they came up to the Hill?

?Oh, I think it?s very important,? said Ms. Davis, ?because Al Qaeda?s whole reason for being is based on their beliefs. And you?ve got to understand, and to know your enemy.?

Full article after the break…

More…

295 Iran ‘Bans Hi-Speed Internet Access,’ Protests Google’s ‘Censorship’

Via email:

Iran bans fast internet to cut west’s influence: Service providers told to restrict online speeds
Opponents say move will hamper country’s progress

Robert Tait Tehran
18 October 2006
The Guardian

Iran’s Islamic government has opened a new front in its drive to stifle domestic political dissent and combat the influence of western culture – by banning high-speed internet links.

In a blow to the country’s estimated 5 million internet users, service providers have been told to restrict online speeds to 128 kilobytes a second and been forbidden from offering fast broadband packages. The move by Iran’s telecommunications regulator will make it more difficult to download foreign music, films and television programmes, which the authorities blame for undermining Islamic culture among the younger generation. It will also impede efforts by political opposition groups to organise by uploading information on to the net.

The order follows a purge on illegal satellite dishes, which millions of Iranians use to clandestinely watch western television. Police have seized thousands of dishes in recent months.

The latest step has drawn condemnation from MPs, internet service companies and academics, who say it will hamper Iran’s progress. “Every country in the world is moving towards modernisation and a major element of this is high-speed internet access,” said Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary telecommunications committee. “The country needs it for development and access to contemporary science.”

Iran has not responded to a western incentive package that includes the offer of state-of-the-art internet technology in return for the suspension of a key part of the country’s nuclear programme.

A petition branding the high-speed ban as “backward and unprincipled” bearing more than 1,000 signatures is to be sent to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Scores of websites and blogs are censored using hi-tech US-made filtering equipment. Iran filters more websites than any other country apart from China. High-speed links can be used with anti-filtering devices to access filtered sites.

The telecoms regulator declined to explain the decision but said it was taken by “a collection of policy-makers”. However, Etemad, a pro-reformist newspaper, suggested it was part of an official campaign to stem a western “cultural invasion”.

“Unpleasant whispers are saying that the motivations behind the scenes are the same as those involved in the purging of satellite dishes,” the paper wrote.

Parastoo Dokoohaki, a prominent Iranian blogger, said the move was designed to foil the government’s opponents. “If you want to announce a gathering in advance, you won’t see it mentioned on official websites and newspapers would announce it too late. Therefore, you upload it anonymously and put the information out. Banning high-speed links would limit that facility. Despite having the telecoms facilities, fibre-optic technology and internet infrastructure, the authorities want us to be undeveloped.”

The crackdown comes in an atmosphere of increasing restrictions on the media. Last week, Mr Ahmadinejad launched a fierce attack on the head of the state broadcasting organisation, IRIB, which he blamed for stoking public fears about inflation. Iran’s leading reformist newspaper, Shargh, was also closed last month.

Which all makes this is particularly rich: Iran’s hardline Khorassan recently blasted Google for censoring its service to the country.

In any case, I don’t expect the broadband ban to last.

[tags]Iran, Internet[/tags]

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