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Today's Los Angeles Times includes a report on the recent bloodshed in Iraq's strategic southern city of Basra, the country's economic artery to the world.
Here is more about Basra: Noor, 19, wears a gem-encrusted ring bearing the first letter in her name. Her sequined shirt says "beach dance." She wears light-pink lipstick and blue eye shadow. Her hair is wrapped in a white head scarf.
Before the government campaign two months ago, she worried about explosions and assassinations on her way to and from Basra's university. She heard stories of women being pulled from minibuses and shot. Police have estimated that more than 100 women have been executed by religious militants since last summer. Now Noor's family has ventured out tentatively for excursions to Basra's commercial Jazair Street.
But she wonders if elections, scheduled for the fall, will spark a new period of chaos.
"When the new government is formed, there will be more assassinations and confrontations as there have been many times before."
— Ned Parker and Usama Redha
Makram Azer was sitting in his jewelry shop this week in the El Zeitoun neighborhood in Cairo when two gunmen stormed in, killing him and three workers and injuring two. Nothing was stolen.
The murder is far from being seen as a mere crime. The victims were Copts, and that struck a nerve with the Christian community that constitutes about 10% of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
The prosecutor reportedly announced that preliminary investigations showed that no sectarian or terrorist motivations stood behind the crime.
Copts have long complained of religious discrimination, and sensitivities between Muslims and Copts have erupted in violence. In 2006, for example, a knife-wielding assailant attacked three churches in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, killing one and wounding at least 12. The government announced then that the perpetrator was mentally sick, a finding that fell short of convincing Christians.
With this week's killing, those in the Coptic diaspora have seized the opportunity to shed light on the conditions of their co-religionists at home. Their websites have been following closely the murder and displaying plenty of incendiary comments. Most commentators have accused the government of neglecting violence against Christians, expecting it to put the blame on some sick-minded gangster, as it has done with similar incidents in the past.
"There will be no punishment for the criminals. Christians are slaves in their own country. All these killings happen with the full blessing and planning of Habib Adli [Egypt's interior minister] and his gangsters," read a comment on the United Copts website, which represents a group of hard-line Copts in the diaspora.
"God willing, the perpetrators will be arrested by the police and they will not turn out to be mentally retarded," read a comment on another Coptic website maintained by Copts living in the U.S.
— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo
Photo: A cartoon commenting on the murder on a Copts website. The officer tells the prosecutor: "Here are the pictures of some mentally retarded men. Your highness can choose one or two of them for this case." Credit: Shafiq Botros / United Copts website
His lawyers and supporters have long said that the criminal case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, charged with dereliction of duty in the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha, has been trumped up for political purposes.
On Monday, Chessani's lawyers will get a chance in a Camp Pendleton courtroom to cross-examine the officer who brought the charges against Chessani: Gen. James Mattis (pictured).
The defense wants the case thrown out because of "undue command influence." It's not an unusual claim in military trials, although it is rarely successful.
Mattis has a complex — some might say contradictory — reputation among Marine generals.
He is known as an aggressive combatant who drives troops fast and furious. He led Marines into Afghanistan to help topple the Taliban in 2001 and was preparing to take his grunts cave hunting in Tora Bora to find Osama bin Laden until superiors, at the last moment, told him to back off.
In 2003 he led Marines into Iraq in the rush toward Baghdad, beating the Army across the Line of Departure. The next year he had the insurgents cornered in Fallouja until the White House ordered the attack halted. To his troops he's known as "Mad Dog" Mattis.
But at the same time, he holds his Marines, particularly officers, to high standards of conduct. He advanced investigations that led to charges against Marines for Iraqi deaths in Haditha, Hamandiya, Fallouja and a detention center outside Nasiriyah. He was also instrumental in the censure of a two-star general and two colonels in the Haditha case.
His philosophy is that, particularly in a counterinsurgency, allowing misconduct to go unpunished can lead to a loss of the moral high ground and undercut hard-fought victories on the battlefield.
Chessani's attorneys assert that Mattis, by allowing one of his top lawyers to attend certain meetings while the Haditha investigation was underway, was signaling that he wanted a case to be built, regardless of the facts. It may be a tough sell to the judge.
Still, the judge in Chessani's case has given the defense a partial victory: ordering the prosecution to disprove the defense assertions. Mattis, who was commanding general of the Marine Forces Central Command when the Haditha charges were brought, is now c.g. of a joint forces command at Norfolk, Va. and also Supreme Allied Commander (for) Transformation at NATO.
Chessani is charged with dereliction for not ordering a full-scale war crimes investigation when his Marines killed two dozen civilians during a chaotic day that began when a roadside bomb killed one Marine and injured two others.
"This case is dripping with double standards and political intrigue as the Pentagon attempts to appease Washington's political establishment and the press," said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Chessani.
— Tony Perry in San Diego
Photo: Gen. James Mattis, then a major general, during the assault on Baghdad. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
An opinion piece by the former German foreign minister published today in a leading Middle East paper says that Israel is planning to attack Iran over its nuclear program.
 Joschka Fischer, German's top diplomat from 1998 to 2005, is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
[UPDATE, June 2, 3 p.m. PST: Fischer was actually a fellow at Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, not at WWICS]
He wrote a piece that appeared in today's Daily Star, an English-language Lebanese newspaper, arguing that President Bush's recent visit to the Middle East was a precursor to a war on Iran's nuclear program: The Middle East is drifting toward a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin.
Fischer said Bush's speech during his address to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, this month indicated a coming Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear program: He seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program -- and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means.... Although it is acknowledged in Israel that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice between acceptance of an Iranian bomb and an attempt at its military destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel won't stand by and wait for matters to take their course.
Fischer, former leader of Germany's Green Party, was one of the key diplomats involved in assessing Iran's nuclear facilities and pressuring Tehran for a temporary halt of its uranium enrichment program from 2003 to 2005, when he left office.
His piece was the talk of the town in Beirut. It stunned some abroad, as well. Conservative blogger Don Surber writes: I had hoped that reasonable minds would by now have resolved this situation amicably and without violence. When a lefty like Fischer doubts that can happen, I worry.
—Borzou Daragahi in Beirut
Photo: Joschka Fischer. Credit: Andrzej Barabasz / Wikimedia Commons
Continue reading IRAN: Former German official says war imminent »
Chris de Burgh is determined to sing for his lady, whether she wears a sexy red dress or an austere black chador.
This fall, the British pop star, who became famous worldwide with his 1980s light-rock hit "The Lady in Red," will likely perform in the Iranian capital. This is what he and his Iranian producers announced at a news conference in Tehran on Wednesday morning.
Of course, there is still the arduous task of getting a official written permission from Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and then making sure that the country's strict religious authorities do not decide to spoil the party.
Continue reading IRAN: Chris de Burgh plans to play Tehran »
Pfc. Chad M. Trimble, 29, of West Covina, Calif., died Wednesday near Gardez, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the Army's 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky. At least 510 American military personnel have died since the war began in 2001.
Marine Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, jailed in Los Angeles last week for contempt of court for refusing to testify against his former squad leader, was released Thursday after promising to attend a grand jury session and listen to questions.
Joseph Low, Nelson's attorney, said his client promised U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson that he would attend a June 18 session of a grand jury probing the alleged killing of prisoners by Marines during the fight for Fallouja in late 2004.
But Nelson did not promise to provide information about former Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario, Low said. "I did inform the judge [that] nothing has changed except our willingness to listen," he said.
Anderson had Nelson jailed last week when, despite receiving immunity, he declined to answer questions about "a brother Marine." Low said Nazario had saved Nelson's life in Iraq.
A dozen Marines and other supporters waited outside the courtroom during the closed session.
Marine Gunnery Sgt. James Griffin, stationed at Twentynine Palms, said he was angry that the Marine Corps had not backed Nelson's refusal.
"They teach us 'you never leave your brothers behind,' " Griffin said, "but he's all by himself right now.... We give our lives to the Corps — now this Marine is fighting for his."
Nelson faces charges in the military legal system in Camp Pendleton tied to the alleged killing of prisoners. Nazario is charged in federal court in Riverside, where he was a probationary police officer until he was charged.
Retired Marine Gerald Johnson said charging Nelson and Nazario could make other Marines second-guess themselves during combat.
Court documents suggest that the Marines claim they were faced with a split-second decision: either take time to process prisoners according to the rules, or rush to the aid of Marines pinned down in a firefight.
Another supporter, Joyce Glanza, said it was wrong to pull Nelson into a civilian courtroom. "It's not a jury of your peers anymore; it's a totally different thing."
— Scott Glover in Los Angeles / Tony Perry in San Diego
Photo: Marines in house-to-house combat in Fallouja. Credit: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times.
 It’s a profanity uttered countless times a day around the globe, but a barber in Saudi Arabia faces beheading for the crime of using God’s name in vain. Sabri Bogday, a Turk who cuts hair in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, is awaiting appeal on his sentence.
Press reports say Bogday cursed during an argument with a neighbor, who later complained to police. This nation is ruled by a strict Wahabbi brand of Islamic justice that doles out lashings and public beheadings for crimes including murder, rape and heresy.
Bogday has been in jail for 13 months. Turkish President Abdullah Gul has asked Saudi King Abdullah to spare the barber. But the Arab News reported there could be complications hinging on arcane interpretations of religious law by fundamentalist judges.
The newspaper quoted a lawyer as saying: “Some judges consider it heresy and infidelity, and say that the accused cannot repent and so faces the death penalty. Others consider the statement to be disbelief, thus allow the accused to retract what he has said and repent and then set him free. ... Sentences in these cases are limited and considered rare, because the judgment is not based on something that is written.”
—Jeffrey Fleishman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Photo: A beheading in Saudi Arabia. Source: kvinnonet.org
Recent reports suggest Israel and Hezbollah are nearing an agreement. The talks, mediated by Conrad Gerhard, former head of Germany's federal intelligence service (BND) involve the possibility of Israel releasing Samir Kuntar, another four prisoners and the remains of 10 Hezbollah combatants in exchange for IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose kidnapping by Hezbollah in July 2006 sparked the Second Lebanon War.
 According to reports, the two had been injured -- at least one gravely, but taken alive. Their fate remains unknown, as Hezbollah refuses to divulge any information on their condition.
Israel has paid controversially high prices for abducted soldiers and civilians, dead or alive. Redeeming prisoners is an important Jewish principle, as is bringing Jews to burial. But so is the precedence of the living over the dead.
Some maintain that past deals set bad precedents that left Israel vulnerable to kidnappings and extortion, and urge the government to re-set definitions to exchanging live prisoners for live prisoners only, not for bodies or remains.
According to press reports, Israel has threatened to declare the missing reservists dead on more than one occasion during the negotiations but hasn't.
Continue reading ISRAEL: Talk of prisoner swap with Hezbollah »
The debate over the U.S. invasion of Iraq has become front and center of presidential election contest.
This week, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan's bombshell book became the talk of the Beltway.
Bush allies promptly trashed McClellan for his disloyalty while others chided him for his tardy arrival to the anti-war camp. But few addressed the substantive issues raised in the book, which reveals tantalizing details about the run-up to the war and the management of the media: If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq. ... The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. ...In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.
Meanwhile, presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain accused his primary rival, Barack Obama, of being clueless about the war in Iraq and "ignoring the successes of the U.S. troop buildup" and suggested he swing by Baghdad for a visit.
Certainly violence in Iraq is down, but it might be too early to start patting ourselves on the back. Today, two car bombs killed and injured at least 26 people in northern Iraq, and that was before noon.
Continue reading IRAQ: McClellan, Bush, Obama, McCain spar over war »
The Defense Department has identified several American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 4,084 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began, and at least 509 in the Afghan conflict:
Pfc. Kyle P. Norris, 22, of Zanesville, Ohio, died Friday in Balad, Iraq, from wounds caused by a roadside bomb on May 22 in Jurf as Sakhr, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.
Staff Sgt. Frank J. Gasper, 25, of Merced, Calif., died Sunday in Najaf, Iraq, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, Ft. Carson, Colo.
Sgt. Blake W. Evans, 24, of Rockford, Ill., died Sunday in Iraq's Al Jazeera Desert of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky.
Sgt. 1st Class Jason F. Dene, 37, of Castleton, Vt., died Sunday in Baghdad from non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.
Spc. David L. Leimbach, 38, of Taylors, S.C., died Sunday near Bala Baluk, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 118th Infantry, South Carolina Army National Guard, Fountain Inn, S.C., and attached to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition), New York Army National Guard.
Spc. Christopher Gathercole, 21, of Santa Rosa, Calif., died Monday in Ghazni, Afghanistan, of gunshot wounds. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Lewis, Wash.
Spc. Justin L. Buxbaum, 23, of South Portland, Maine, died Monday in Kushamond, Afghanistan, of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 62nd Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, Ft. Hood Texas.
By Saif Rasheed in Baghdad
It seems that after five years, car bombs in Baghdad have become an opportunity for scavengers.
On Monday, I saw five men gathered around the remnants of charred car that exploded over the weekend in western Baghdad's Qadisiya district.
The attack had targeted the governor of Hilla, who escaped. But the scavengers didn't seem to care Monday about whether anyone had lived or died.
They had gotten down to work with their wrenches and screwdrivers. They tore the car apart and distributed its pieces among themselves.
Their main argument was over who would get to keep the engine. After a few minutes, the dispute was solved when a man bought the engine from the others.
He loaded the charred engine into the trunk of his old Volkswagen and drove off happily.
He left the chassis of the car for the others.
Iranian and Syrian officials poured a bucket of ice water this week on Israeli hopes for a rupture in the long-standing Tehran-Damascus relationship.
Israeli officials had demanded Syria break ties with Iran in exchange for returning the occupied Golan Heights to Syria.
Instead, Syria this week appeared to strengthen its ties with Iran, signing a defense cooperation pact in a showy Tehran photo-op on Tuesday.
That same day, Syrian President Bashar Assad told a visiting delegation of British lawmakers that Damascus' relationship with Tehran was not up for negotiation.
In reality, despite a lot of media attention, there was never really much chance of a peace deal between Syria and Israel or a break in ties between Damascus and Tehran. At least not anytime soon.
Continue reading SYRIA: Israeli hopes for a Tehran-Damascus rift collapse »
 For the Marines in the once-violent Euphrates River Valley, the road home may include a bridge.
A new bridge across the Euphrates River at the farming community of Baghdadi was opened Saturday -- a project of the Marines, Seabees and Army Corps of Engineers.
The bridge will allow Iraqis to cross the river without making the lengthy trip along rutted roads looking for a crossing point.
It will also allow the Iraqi security forces to maintain a persistent, armed presence on both sides of the river, lest the insurgents attempt a bloody comeback.
When the Iraqi forces are in place, the Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 5th Regiment who have been manning an outpost in Baghdadi can withdraw to the U.S. base at Al Asad while remaining in "over-watch" if the Iraqis need help.
The larger strategy for Anbar province, apace for several months, has the U.S. turning primary security responsibility, region by region, over to the Iraqi army and police. The final turnover is set for mid-June. That will allow for a reduction of U.S. forces in the sprawling province.
—Tony Perry in San Diego
Photo: The top Marine in Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Kelly, without helmet, crosses the new bridge at Baghdadi, accompanied by U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians. Credit: U.S. Navy.
Continue reading IRAQ: A bridge closer to home »
Start digging anywhere in Israel and you're bound to run into bones or an archeological site, as just about every spot of the ancient land had been settled by someone at some time. Construction projects are frequently held up because of archeological findings and burial grounds, for both scientific as well as religious reasons.
But some of the best underground surprises found in Israel are not human-made at all.
In early May a tractor carrying out development work for a sewage line exposed the small entrance to a cave in Israel's western Galilee. The fortunate few called to enter were left in awe of the spectacular stalactites, as well as important prehistoric findings that include a human skull and bones of animals long gone from the Israeli landscape.
Researchers' first impression is that the cave dates to the upper Paleolithic period, though further studies will attempt to determine whether it had been in use before that. Dr. Ofer Marder, head of the prehistory branch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who saw the cave, said that in the last 40 to 50 years "no cave has been found with such a wealth of prehistoric finds and certainly not inside such a lovely stalactite cave."
Continue reading ISRAEL: Natural surprises underground »
It was the first fruit of Hezbollah's latest political victory.
The Shiite militant group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said today that armed "resistance" against Israel would remain the cornerstone of the country's defense strategy.
Indeed, he strongly suggested that armed struggle against Israel would take precedence over Lebanon's democratic experiment.
On a gigantic screen, Nasrallah addressed thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut's southern suburb to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the end of Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. His speech came a day after the long-awaited election of a new president in Lebanon, which resulted from a recent Qatar-sponsored political agreement between all Lebanese factions.
Nasrallah devoted a big part of his speech to argue that armed resistance and not negotiations, whether in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon, had proved the only way to liberate Arab soil: The resistance presented a paradigm and a strategy in two areas and not in one area only: the strategy of the resistance and that of expelling the occupier, and the strategy of defending the nation and the people in the face of aggression and invasion and threats.
And he laid down the law as to Lebanon's priorities. The goals of the resistance, he said, remain above the interests of the Lebanese state: The resistance does not wait for a national and popular consensus. It should carry weapons and move ahead to accomplish the duty of liberation with weapons and blood and high-priced sacrifices.
Continue reading LEBANON: 'Resistance' to Israel above all »
When is a 55-year-old lifelong academic and son of Holocaust survivors a threat to the national security of Israel? When that academic is Norman Finkelstein, a former DePaul University professor and prominent critic of Israeli policy. Israel's Shin Bet internal security service detained Finkelstein at the airport Friday when he arrived from a recent European speaking tour. After a night of detention and interrogation, Finkelstein was declared a security threat and sent back to Europe. According to his lawyer, Finkelstein is banned from the country for 10 years.
Shin Bet officials told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Finkelstein was deported because of "suspicions involving hostile elements in Lebanon" -- a reference to Finkelstein meeting recently with leaders of Hezbollah and expressing solidarity with the Lebanese militant group.
Continue reading ISRAEL: Seeing a threat in U.S. academic »
 The Egyptian parliament on Monday renewed the 27-year-old state of emergency for two more years, dashing the hopes of the nation's human rights activists.
In all, 305 of the Parliament's 454 members voted in favor of the renewal after President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree a day earlier calling on the nation’s representatives to extend the notorious state of emergency. One hundred three MPs did not heed Mubarak's call.
Under the emergency law, the police are authorized to detain people indefinitely without charges, refer civilians to military courts, close dissident publications and thwart demonstrations.
In 2005 Mubarak promised to lift the state of emergency and pass an anti-terror act instead, but he has yet to deliver on his pledges. The act has not been passed, and Mubarak's regime has used that fact to justify the extension of the emergency law. The state of emergency was due to expire May 31.
"It is sad that Egypt remains under state of emergency for more than 27 years," said Bahey Eddin Hassan, general director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. "We fear that the extension of the state of emergency aims at crushing the peaceful political opposition, which has recently increased."
Continue reading EGYPT: Two more years of emergency »
Pfc. Howard A. Jones Jr., 35, of Chicago, died May 18 in Chicago from injuries sustained when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while on leave from the Iraq theater of operations, the Defense Department has announced. He was assigned to the Army's 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Ft. Riley, Kan.
Lt. Jeffrey A. Ammon, 37, of Orem, Utah, died Tuesday as a result of injuries caused by a roadside bomb in the Aband District, Afghanistan, the Defense Department has announced. The sailor was attached to Commander Navy Region Northwest, Bangor, Wash., and serving in Afghanistan as a member of Provincial Reconstruction Team Ghazni.
The United States along with most other countries enthusiastically supported the ascent of army Chief of Staff Michel Suleiman as president of Lebanon.
To many, he appears to be a beacon of stability for the country. But don't expect the Maronite Christian to change the country's position on the staunchest of U.S. allies in the Middle East, Israel.
In his inaugural speech to parliament today, he affirmed the right of the Hezbollah-led "resistance" to confront Israel and obtain a disputed piece of property under Israeli occupation called the Shebaa Farms: The continuing occupation of Shebaa Farms and the breaches and threats by the enemy [Israel] compel us to find a defense strategy that protects the nation coupled with a calm dialog to benefit from the competence of the resistance so that the achievements of the resistance are not consumed in internal struggles. And this way we can preserve its values and its national position.
He also said Lebanon would continue to refuse to grant the 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon passports in order to keep alive their dream of returning to a viable Palestinian state: Our rejection of giving them nationality is not a rejection of hosting of our brothers the Palestinians and caring for their human rights, but an establishment of their right of return when a viable state is formed.
But much of Suleiman's speech was focused on healing the country's recent self-inflicted wounds. Below are more excerpts from a rough, unofficial Los Angeles Times translation:
Continue reading LEBANON: Suleiman supports fight against Israel »
 Egypt is using a new media law to prosecute the owner of a satellite TV company for his role in broadcasting violent anti-government street protests. The law, passed by the Arab League in February, is the latest attempt by regimes in the region to silence independent satellite channels.
Charges have been filed against Nader Gohar, owner of the Cairo News Co., which provides links and equipment to Al Jazeera, BBC and other international networks. Police raided Cairo News in April after Al Jazeera broadcast images of riot police battling with protesters in Mahalla, a Nile Delta town where 27,000 textile workers have been protesting inflation and low salaries.
Gohar is expected to be tried later this month for broadcasting without permission. His company has been shut down and he faces fines and up to one year in prison. Human Rights Watch has called the charges part of a campaign by the government of President Hosni Mubarak to “stifle freedom of the press.”
The Arab League law, sponsored Saudi Arabia and Egypt, pressures channels from broadcasting transmissions that “negatively affect social peace, national unity, public order and public morals” or “defame leaders, or national and religious symbols [of other Arab states].”
—Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Photo: Cairo's rooftops are a sea of TV satellite dishes. (BBC)
Continue reading EGYPT: Be careful of what you broadcast »
In the conspiracy-minded Middle East, nothing is how it appears, especially when enemies suddenly put aside their differences and make a deal.
After six months without a president and more than a year-and-a-half without a properly functioning government, Lebanon today finally swore in a new head of state, President Michel Suleiman, and began the process of healing a rift which has cost scores of lives in sectarian and political violence over the last few weeks.
On the surface, the U.S.-backed government and the Iranian-backed opposition put aside their differences during talks in the Qatari capital of Doha and made a last-minute deal for the good of their nation.
But nobody really believes that.
On the streets of Beirut, a common view is that Qatari Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani stepped in as talks were about to collapse and whipped open his checkbook.
Most believe his intervention salvaged not only Lebanon but his tiny Persian Gulf state's fledgling attempt at high-stakes conflict resolution and international diplomacy.
Continue reading LEBANON: Backroom deals and checkbook diplomacy »
Is Iran gunning for a victory by presidential candidate Barack Obama?
 Depends on whom you ask. But, yeah. It is.
Despite the official line that it won’t make any difference who wins the U.S. presidency (after all, they say, America is totally under the thumb of “Zionists"), Iranians are watching the U.S. elections closely and rooting for a victory by the Illinois senator, who has said he's willing to agree to unconditional talks with Iran.
Not only is Obama’s middle name Hussein that of the prophet Mohammad’s grandson (revered as the saint of all saints by Iran’s majority Shiites) but the candidate’s foreign policy seems light years away from the saber-rattling of President Bush and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
"For those worried about another war in the world, John McCain is not a suitable candidate to take office,” said an April 16 editorial in the moderate daily Seda-ye-Edalat: He is tough and rigid not only towards Iran but also towards Russia and China. Many experts believe that his victory will be a message to Iran, Russia and China to either review their policies or get ready for confrontation.
Contrast that to what Iranian elites say about Obama.
“I should say, he is a phenomenon, based on what he has said so far,” Sadegh Kharazzi, a former Iranian diplomat squarely in the reformist camp now out of power, said. “Unless he is drawn into traditional Democratic Party ways, his election as a president will be welcomed in Iran.”
Continue reading IRAN: Tehran carefully rooting for Obama »
By Said Rifai in Mosul
My visit to Mosul with Vice President Tariq Hashimi’s delegation took us to the local police detention center. Some of the prisoners claimed that they were arrested for arbitrary reasons, rather than any credible evidence.
One man, with a long white beard and wearing a traditional white robe, said that he had fled to Mosul from the western city of Tall Afar. In Mosul, he said, he had been arrested on the street because he belongs to the Sabawi tribe, which many consider a supporter of violence against the Americans and the Iraqi government. The man claimed that many people had been locked up for no good reason.
There were at least 150 people inside his pen of metal and cinder blocks. In another cell, 70 detainees were packed inside. Their area was surrounded by razor wire. Hashimi urged this group of prisoners to lend a hand in ending Iraq’s violence by telling people to respect the law once they were released. “Enough with violence and death, let us build back our country and work for a better future,” Hashimi said. Some of the prisoners who talked to Hashimi agreed with him.
Continue reading IRAQ: Mosul's detainees »
Travel advisories are issued by governments. The U.S., for example, posts travel advisories on the State Deparment website.
General or specific terror alerts usually make their quiet way through discrete pipelines, and current threats such as those reported by intelligence websites to Israeli businessmen, consultants and whatnots in various Arab countries are presumably handled by the relevant bodies.
But the latest warning issued by Israel's National Security Council was evidently of such urgency that authorities turned to the agents best at disseminating information and conveying alarm: parents.
Breaking into the middle of Israel Radio's international hour Wednesday afternoon was a reporter announcing that there was an immediate and concrete danger to Israeli tourists in Jammu and Kashmir and that parents of young Israelis visiting the region were asked to call their kids and instruct them to get out -- and now.
Tens of thousands of Israelis backpack through the Far East every year in what has become a rite of passage over the last two decades. The freedom, laid-back culture and vast landscape are a tempting contrast to the small and nervous country with a chronic water problem. Fifteen years ago, a group of Israeli trekkers had been among tourists involved in a terrorism attack in that region. The backpackers, typically just out of the army, jumped the terrorists that had taken them hostage. One Israeli was killed and Kashmir was off-limits for a long time, but it's since back on the backpacking map.
The latest warning to Israelis in Kashmir is a "very high concrete threat" (in Hebrew), according to the NSC's counter-terrorism bureau.
—Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem.
A Marine combat veteran from Iraq has been thrown into federal jail after refusing to testify against his former squad leader before a grand jury in Los Angeles.
Although granted immunity, Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson, 26, refused Wednesday to testify against former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario (above, without briefcase) in a case involving the battle in Fallouja in late 2004.
Nelson's attorney, Joseph Low, a former Marine, said that Nelson fell to his knees and began to pray as U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson warned that he would be held in contempt and jailed if he refused to testify.
Low said that Nelson will not testify against Nazario because Nazario saved his life on numerous occasions in Iraq.
"He believes in God, country and Corps, and that he is doing the right thing by not testifying against his brother Marine," Low said after spending several hours with Nelson on Friday at the federal jail in Los Angeles. "His view is that if he has to suffer because of this, so be it."
Nelson and Nazario have been charged with killing unarmed prisoners during the battle in Fallouja rather than take time to process them according to Geneva Convention rules.
Continue reading IRAQ: Marine refuses to testify against 'brother' »
By Said Rifai In Mosul
I traveled this week to Mosul, the northern city where Iraqi and U.S. security forces declared an offensive on Al Qaeda in Iraq earlier this month. It was the latest in a string of campaigns in Nineveh province against Sunni militants.
I moved around the city with a delegation headed by Vice President Tareq Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, whose movement, the Iraqi Islamic Party, could do well in provincial elections scheduled for later this year. The government has promised more than $100 million in reconstruction funds to Mosul and Nineveh province, according to Hashimi.
We visited shops in central Mosul, located outside the Nineveh government compound, which is surrounded by security forces and walled off with concrete barriers.
Continue reading IRAQ: A visit to a troubled northern city »
Maybe it's just a hangover from the state of maximum vigilance imposed during President Bush's recent visit, but Israel's air defenses tend to be on high alert all the time anyway.
 So when a small aircraft entered Israeli airspace from Egypt Monday without identifying itself, fighter jets were scrambled. The plane's pilots quickly made contact when the jets appeared, and the passengers apparently never knew of the imminent threat.
It's the sort of thing that happens in Israel about once a month, and wouldn't have merited a paragraph if not for one hitch: The plane was carrying Tony Blair, former British prime minister and current international envoy to the Middle East.
Blair was returning from the World Economic Forum summit in Sharm El Shiekh, Egypt, and was on his way to the Palestine Investment Conference that wrapped up yesterday in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Details of the near-miss emerged yesterday in the Israeli media, which reported it matter-of-factly and cited anonymous Israeli security sources.
The British coverage was a little more breathless, with one headline proclaiming Blair was "moments from death."
--Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem
Photo credit: Share Alike 2.0
Continue reading ISRAEL: Blair's airborne adventure »
The Shiite militia Hezbollah's audacious takeover of West Beirut earlier this month remains puzzling to many observers. The group launched an unprecedented attack targeting very specific locales. They came with guns blazing, in full force, showing some of their key assets.
Watch the extraordinary video of Hezbollah driving through West Beirut below. Hezbollah said it was responding to two government decisions targeting its telecommunications and intelligence assets around the country and at Beirut's international airport.
But most believe the government would have no way to get an army sympathetic to Hezbollah to enforce those decisions. And it probably could have gotten them set aside or ignored without so extreme a reaction as occupying downtown Beirut and fanning the flames of the country's long-burning sectarian and religious hatreds in violence that left scores dead.
After years of fighting against Israel, did Hezbollah end up emulating its own enemy?
Continue reading LEBANON: Was Hezbollah imitating Israel? »
The days between Passover and Shavuot are called "sefirat ha'omer", a seven- week stretch cutting through the Hebrew months of Nissan, Iyar and Sivan. During this period, religious Jews practice partial mourning customs: no weddings, no music, no haircuts or shaving. Lag Ba'Omer, the 33rd day of the count, is an exception.
It is widely accepted that Lag Ba'Omer commemorates the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, the 2nd century sage who was the first to openly teach mystical dimensions of Judaism. Traditions also maintain that on this day a plague that had killed 24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva stopped and/or that this day marks the Jewish rebellion against the Romans led by Bar-Kochva, or perhaps the day his forces succeeded in capturing Jerusalem.
Continue reading ISRAEL: Lag Ba'Omer, a vanity of bonfires. »
It was a parent’s worst nightmare.
Um Jihad left home about 7 p.m. on April 28 to do some grocery shopping at the local market with her mother, sister and three sons. It was a short trip that didn’t even require leaving their central Baghdad residential complex.
“My mother was carrying my son, Humam, a year and 8 months, and was walking a bit ahead of us, a few meters as I remember,” said the veiled woman, who asked to be identified only by a traditional nickname. “Suddenly, a man who was hiding in the garden appeared from the dark and started walking towards my mother. He was in his 20s, alone, unarmed, had a blue shirt. His face was exposed, but I had never seen him before in my neighborhood.”
The stranger reached for Humam and started punching and hitting the child’s grandmother, trying to force her to release him. The elderly woman collapsed with shock. Without thinking, Um Jihad and her sister rushed towards Humam’s kidnapper.
“He started beating us back, as we hit back all over, trying to get hold of my son,” she said. “We all lost control, screaming, crying. He would not release him. He was committed, insisting on kidnapping him.”
Continue reading IRAQ: When a parent's worst nightmare becomes reality »
In less than 10 days, Egypt’s 27-year-old state of emergency, which gives the police absolute authority to arrest and detain, is expected to expire.
The state of emergency dates to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Human rights advocates complain that the emergency law has become a convenient tool for crushing political opponents. However, President Hosni Mubarak’s regime insists that it is only there to fight terrorists and drug dealers.
A hot debate is going on: If the government allows the law to expire, will Egypt’s record on human rights improve? Human rights activists are skeptical.
Continue reading EGYPT: A long and curious state of emergency »
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is waging a peace offensive as he battles on the home front against allegations of corruption that threaten to cut short his term in office.
In an interview with The Times this week, he spoke of a "race against time" to reach an interim accord with the Palestinian Authority in U.S.-backed peace talks before President Bush leaves office in January. "If we miss the opportunity," he said, "then how long will it take before we can restart with a new American administration?"
Broadening his peace effort Wednesday, Olmert went public with the existence, since early last year, of talks between Israel and Syria through Turkish mediators, aimed at ending the two neighbors' long enmity. That represents a longer-term effort by Olmert to end Syria's backing for the Palestinian movement Hamas, a sworn enemy of Israel that is not part of the talks with the Palestinian Authority. The move weakens the Bush administration's policy of trying to isolate Syria.
An Israeli-Syrian accord could oblige Israel to return most or all of the militarily strategic Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. In return, Israel would expect Syria to break its alliance with Iran, which backs the Lebanese group Hezbollah as well as Hamas. Israel is alarmed by Hezbollah's recent muscle-flexing in Lebanon, and by Wednesday's internal political agreement there that appears to solidify the group's status as an armed force overshadowing the power of the state.
—Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem
1st Lt. Jeffrey F. Deprimo, 35, of Pittston, Pa., died Tuesday in Ghazni, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb, the Defense Department announced. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 103rd Armor Regiment, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Williamsport, Pa. At least 505 U.S. military personnel have died since the war began in 2001.
The sentencing of a fugitive Al Qaeda in Iraq leader to hang for the slaying of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho has drawn mixed responses in Iraq.
The U.S. Embassy and U.S.-led military force praised Iraqi authorities Sunday for bringing to justice the person responsible for the kidnapping and death of the archbishop in the northern city of Mosul more than two months ago.
But today, Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk protested the sentence, saying, "Christianity is the religion of tolerance." Sako was troubled by the government's failure to release details of the investigation that led to the conviction of Ahmed Ali Ahmed, also known as Abu Omar.
"Was he the only one who killed four men? Why did he kill him? For religious or political reasons? Who was behind that?" Sako asked.
Rahho was kidnapped Feb. 29 by gunmen who killed his driver and two guards. His body was found two weeks later, though officials said at the time that it was unclear whether the ailing archbishop had been killed or had died of natural causes. His death prompted an outpouring of grief among Iraq's dwindling Christian community and drew international condemnation.
Tell us what you think.
--Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad
 No more letters home for Ayman Nour. An Egyptian court has ruled that the jailed political dissident and leader of the Tomorrow Party can no longer write to his wife. The reason: Nour has angered officials by mailing home essays critical of the government that ended up in the nation’s independent newspapers.
"This decision shows a determination to deny him every right as a prisoner," Nour's wife, Gamila Ismail, told AFP.
The ruling is the latest attempt to silence Nour, a lawyer who ran against President Hosni Mubarak in 2005 and was later sentenced to five years in prison for forging political documents. His cause was quickly taken up by human rights organizations that frequently criticize Egypt for political repression, torture and the jailing of activists, especially members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Nour was on the minds Egyptians on Sunday, when President Bush, speaking in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, criticized Middle East governments for silencing their opponents: "Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail," he said.
—Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
Photo: Ayman Nour ran against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2005 and was later sentenced to five years in prison for forging political documents. (AFP)
The Defense Department announced the deaths of a soldier and a Marine in Afghanistan, where at least 503 U.S. service members have died since the war began:
Army Master Sgt. Davy N. Weaver, 39, of Barnesville, Ga., died Sunday in Qalat, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Georgia Army National Guard, Macon, Ga.
Marine Cpl. William J. L. Cooper, 22, of Eupora, Miss., died Monday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2d Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Army Pvt. Branden P. Haunert, 21, of Cincinnati, Ohio, died Sunday in Tikrit, Iraq, of wounds caused by a roadside bomb, the Defense Department announced. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Ft. Campbell, Ky. At least 4,079 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began.
The city of Ashkelon has been in the headlines lately, and not for its pretty beaches. The city of 110,000 has sadly joined Israel's southern front line as rockets fired from the Gaza Strip improve in range and technology.
Last week, a rocket hit a shopping mall in city; the dozens of injured treated at the Barzilai Medical Center.
It turns out the hospital grounds contain a remarkably interesting bit of history: a site holy to certain Shiite Muslims, thousands of whom have come to pray there over the years. Ashkelon itself has 5,000 years of recorded history, but when the hospital was first built in 1961, nothing indicated that the hill out back was anything special.
Continue reading ISRAEL: Shiites in Ashkelon?! »
 By Raheem Salman in Baghdad
Iraqi soldiers pushed deep into Sadr City without resistance today, and I went to see how the operation was going.
I entered from the west side, near the 3-mile-long wall erected by U.S. forces to prevent militiamen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr from using the southern portion of the vast Baghdad slum to shell the Green Zone and other targets.
As I moved into the neighborhood, the destruction from weeks of fighting was horrible. Most of the shops and kiosks have been damaged. Doors are knocked off their hinges. Windows are shattered. The walls are riddled with bullet holes. Some buildings are blown apart by missile fire.
Close to the wall, some young men were cleaning out the debris from their charred shops. Meters away, a funeral was under way for a man who was killed by a sniper's bullet on May 17. He was on his way home from work, the shopkeepers told me. As he turned into the alley where he lives, he was shot dead.
Continue reading IRAQ: A scarred district gives a wary welcome to Iraqi soldiers »
There's a simple test to figure out who really runs a Middle East country. You walk outside onto the streets of any major city and look at whose face is up on the billboards.
In Iran it's the face of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not the that of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who is running on his foreign policy credentials, stumbled into the labyrinthine structure of Iran's political leadership this week. At a press appearance he insisted that Ahmadinejad and not Khamenei sits at the top of Iran's hierarchy.
He got into a debate with Time magazine reporter Joe Klein that was captured below. Below is part of the exchange:
Continue reading IRAN: McCain stumbles over Persian leadership puzzle »
American University of Beirut student Rama Baaj didn't go to class for a week during the recent fighting that swept Hamra Street, the most cosmopolitan district of Lebanon and the subject of a Los Angeles Times article yesterday.
But like other residents of Hamra, Baaj learned some extracurricular lessons about the real world. The fighting came to an end after the government appeared to cave in to the Shiite militia Hezbollah's demands and rescinded two provocative Cabinet decisions that sparked the conflict.
"When you take a kid to a supermarket and he asks for chocolate and you say, 'no' and he starts screaming and you give in and give the kid chocolate, you've reinforced the screaming," said the 22-year-old psycholog | |
