The Skeptic الشكاك

338 Bumper-Stickers I’d Like to See

Check out Forsoothsayer’s recent post (and comment thread) about a fight she had with a friend from work. I’d forgotten about the bumper-sticker wars.

Two bumper-stickers I’d like to see: 1) Those “we are all the same” banners (the ones with the cross and the crescent) that appeared after the Alexandria riots last year. 2) the “no to torture” banner.

337 Police Seal off Tunisian NGO, Harrass Families of Political Prisoners

Updated, Friday, 2:28 a.m., Cairo time: Human Rights Watch is also calling on the government of Tunisia to end harrassment of political prisoners and their families:

On December 5, police in the city of Sousse questioned Monia Brahim, wife of hunger-striking prisoner Abdelhamid Jelassi, for one hour about her contacts with human rights organizations and activists abroad. Plainclothes agents had also questioned her on November 30 about her overseas contacts, and asked that she furnish their names.

Jelassi, along with Bouraoui Makhlouf, H?di Ghali, and Mohammed Salah Gsouma, are among the more than 100 men still imprisoned since authorities cracked down on the Islamist Nahdha movement in the early 1990s. These four, along with many others, were convicted in patently unfair mass trials held in military courts in 1992 on charges of plotting to overthrow the state. In recent years, authorities have conditionally released scores of these long-term Nahdha prisoners, while shortening the remaining terms for others. Jelassi, originally sentenced to a life term, is now due for release in 2010, his wife said.

[Full press release. Arabic version here]

Sorry to be late with this news, but I’ve been busy with work here in Egypt and have fallen behind on email.

Received this a few days ago from the National Council on Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT, by its French acronym):

Graves violations des libert?s de r?union et de circulation

Ce dimanche 3 d?cembre, d?importantes forces de police ont encercl? le si?ge de la Ligue tunisienne de d?fense des droits de l?homme o? devaient se r?unir d?anciens dirigeants de la LTDH qui ont constitu? un comit? de soutien ? la Ligue. La police a bloqu? tous les acc?s et interdit ? tous les invit?s de p?n?trer au local.

Le m?me jour, plusieurs d?fenseurs devaient se rendre ? Sousse au domicile de Moncef Marzouki, sous le coup d?une inculpation pour ?incitation de la population ? violer les lois du pays?. Ils ont eu droit ? des barrages de police sur toute la route avec contr?le d?identit? z?l? qui dure parfois des heures. Certains comme ma?tre N?jib Hosni ont ?t? bloqu?s sur les routes. Ceux qui ont r?ussi ? arriver devant le domicile de M. Marzouki, ont trouv? un important d?ploiement policier qui leur en a interdit l?acc?s. Les policiers ont malmen? ma?tres Ayadi, Maatar et Laabidi ainsi que le septuag?naire Ali Ben Salem, pr?sident de l?Amicale des anciens r?sistants. Les policiers ?taient assist?s de barbouzes qui ont us? de menaces et d?insultes grossi?res contre les pr?sents. Le Dr Marzouki a ?t? emp?ch? de quitter son domicile au moment o? il s?appr?tait ? repartir avec ses coll?gues pour Tunis en fin d?apr?s midi. Le chef de la police lui a clairement signifi? qu?il avait des instructions pour qu?il ne quitte pas son domicile.

Le CNLT:

• D?nonce avec la plus grande vigueur l?usage de la violence contre les d?fenseurs.
• Il condamne les pers?cutions dont la LTDH fait l?objet ainsi que le harc?lement judiciaire utilis? comme pr?texte pour justifier la violation de la libert? de r?union. Il d?nonce le gel ill?gal des activit?s ordinaires de la Ligue par la police.
• Il s??l?ve contre ces atteintes r?p?t?es ? la libert? de circulation des d?fenseurs qui sont devenus courants.
• Il d?nonce cette mise en r?sidence surveill?e qui ne dit pas son nom dont fait l?objet Moncef Marzouki.

Briefly, police blocked off the neighborhood of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LTDH) to prevent it from holding a meeting. Police and beltagis also blocked off the home of Moncef Marzouki, the former president of the LTDH, and prevented him from leaving his home.
I saw the same scene in September 2005 when the LTDH tried to hold a meeting to elect a new board. I was one of the few people who got through the police lines—thanks, I suspect, to the fact that they didn’t know what to do with this apparent idiot white boy showering them with elaborate compliments in an Egyptian accent. Anyway, it was a pretty grim scene…

[tags]Tunisia, Tunisie, LTDH[/tags]

336 Obaid Fired for Op-Ed

Interesting post-script to the Washington Post op-ed by Nawaf Obaid, a consultant to the Saudi government, suggesting the Saudis might fight a proxy war with Iran in Iraq if the Americans go: He’s fired.

(Blog reaction to the offending op-ed at Arabist, Abu Aardvark, here, and everywhere)

[tags]Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran[/tags]

335 Cairo at 6.25 a.m.

I’ve spent the weekend in one last push to get a handle on the trial for the Taba bombings. Awfully tangled for an illegitimate court marred by such glaring problems as lack of access to counsel and serious allegations of torture. Egyptian rights organizations have called for a retrial.

Now there’s this bizarre story about a Franco-Belgian-Tunisian-Syrian-American terrorist cell planning attacks in Iraq from Egypt. Israel is calling on its citizens to leave Sinai for security reasons as Egyptian security services look for four Palestinians alleged to be roaming around, planning attacks. As Israelis leave Egypt, Egypt’s spy chief, Omar Suleiman, has left Israel, returning with not much to report on the “Shalit deal.”

Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni, who should be basking in the glory of the Cairo Film Festival, is still in the hot-seat over his ill-advised comments on the hijab, which the Muslim Brotherhood and others (including NDP Sec. Gen. Fathi Sorour) adeptly exploited for political benefit. Though a parliamentary committee convened to determine whether he had taken any steps against the hijab at the Ministry of Culture cleared him today, lawmakers chanted “out, out” as he entered the hall. The mighty and the unpopular, or at least the brash and the rude, do fall (as Rumsfeld and Bolton can attest).

Speaking of, funny how Talaat al-Sadat, the jailed nephew of the late president and a leader of the suspended Ahrar Party, is now ennobled as a living symbol of the state of Egypt’s “party affairs.” (except it’s not, really. not funny at all)

My couch will ease my complaint.

[tags]Egypt[/tags]

334 Egypt Holds French, American Suspects in Secret Group

Got this first as an SMS from Al-Jazeera, now on the wires…

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian police have arrested nine French people, an American and two Belgians on suspicion of forming a secret Islamist organization linked to “terrorist” groups abroad, the government said on Monday.

A number of Tunisians and Syrians were also arrested, the Interior Ministry said.

“These people had links with certain terrorist organizations abroad. Investigations showed that they were trying to recruit others and indoctrinate them in their destructive beliefs and incite them to jihad and to travel to Iraq to carry out operations,” a ministry statement said.

Full story

[tags]Egypt[/tags]

333 Violence in Beirut

Looks like the “party atmosphere” friends who were at the first day of protests in Lebanon described is turning sour.

[tags]Lebanon, Beirut[/tags]

332 British ‘Surrender Monkeys’

Paul has a worthwhile post about the British in southern Iraq over at Arabist. Sure to raise some eyebrows. Certainly raised mine.
Seems a little cruel given England’s humiliation at the Ashes. But I’ve never known Paul to pussyfoot around.
[tags]Iraq, Afghanistan[/tags]

331 Iran ‘Blocks Some of World’s Most Popular Sites’

[Update: Friends of friends in Iran tested these sites and found that YouTube was blocked on some ISPs, but not others. The other sites named in the article were accessible.]
According to a report in today’s Guardian:

Iran yesterday shut down access to some of the world’s most popular websites. Users were unable to open popular sites including Amazon.com and YouTube following instructions to service providers to filter them.

Similar edicts have been issued against Wikipedia, the internet encyclopaedia, IMDB.com, an online film database, and the New York Times site. Attempts to open the sites are met with a page reading: “The requested page is forbidden.”

The clampdown was ordered by senior judiciary officials in the latest phase of a campaign that has seen high-speed broadband facilities banned in an attempt to impede “corrupting” foreign films and music. It is in line with a campaign by Iran’s Islamist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to purge the country of western cultural influences.

[Full story]

More on online censorship in Iran here and here.

[tags]Iran, censorship, Internet[/tags]

330 Living to Make Way for Egypt’s Dead

Al-Jazeera reports:

Egyptian authorities have begun destroying the homes of more than 10,000 people to give archaeologists and tourists access to nearly 1,000 Pharaonic tombs that lie beneath them.

Full article.

[tags]Egypt, Luxor[/tags]

327 A Chilling Photograph’s Fascinating History

Don’t miss Joshua Prager’s page one feature from today’s Wall Street Journal. Until recently, no one knew who took this Pulitzer-winning photograph of a mass execution in Iranian Kurdistan. This is top-notch journalism, and a pleasure to read.

Those who don’t subscribe to the Journal‘s site can read the full article after the break. (Please don’t sue me, WSJ. This article is actually a fantastic advertisement for your subscription-only service. You should be glad it’s being reproduced. [Update: I just got a very gracious message from the WSJ letting me know they’ve made the article available to non-subscribers here. I’ve removed the article from this site. Thank you, WSJ, for being so cool.]

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