Egyptian government clamps down on Press. Activists Detained.

NOTE: This post covers a number of issues.

Apparently, the Egyptian government needs the flimsiest of excuses to arrest members of the Press. According to BBC, Al Jazeera's Egyptian Bureau Chief (Hussein Abdel Ghany) has been arrested by Egyptian security forces.

Apparently, the man wrongfully claimed that an attack on an Egyptian police patrol had occurred in Sharkeya (an Egyptian governerate) yesterday. The thing is, I watched the man's live feed and he specifically mentioned that he had received information from three separate sources but that the Ministry of Interior is claiming that it didn't occur. Furthermore, he said that the channel will report more on the validity of the event as soon as they get more information.


Update: Apparently the government, or a representative of the National Democratic Party (NDP) ruling party, is saying that Hussein Abdel Ghany is not under arrest, and that he was merely wanted for questioning by the offices of the attorney general. Also, he says the reasons behind the "detainment" was that Al Jazeera channel displayed footage of Israeli ambulances transporting Israeli citizens, out of Taba, where bombings had occurred before, back to Israel. He also mentioned the fact that the alleged bombings in sharkeya did not occur and that Al Jazeera helped to spread panic because of these false allegations.

The funny thing is that while the NDP's man was saying that Hussein Abdel Ghany was not under arrest, merely wanted for questioning, Al Jazeera was showing footage of its Bureau Chief being transported by mini-bus to the location where he was to be questioned, surrounded by at least 5 police officers and other plain clothes security personnel. I guess this means he isn't under arrest and these officers were just helping find his way.


On another level, violence has re-ensued today in downtown Cairo near the Judge's club and Press Syndicate. This is after a series of violent confrontations that have been occurring over the past few days over an issue that has been developing for a couple of months now. Read Baheyya's posts for more information on the issue (3 separates).

There have been Egyptian citizens arrested in the early hours of Monday morning, yesterday and today during a sit-in protest at the Judge's Club. Kifaya's (arabic - English here) coverage of the matter here (arabic) and here (english) [keep in mind that the stories cover different points as they are not translations. Rather, they are written by different members/reporters].

As I write this, there are clashes between security forces and protestors in the area. For more information, visit Tomanbay's Blog [He covers news in a much more succinct and tech-wise manner].

On a more personal note, one of the protestors arrested on Monday is a personal friend of mine; Ahmed Yasser El Droubi. I can only say that the only thing that drove Ahmed to participate in the sit-in protest was his love for this country and his personal quest and contribution to the effort to bring true freedom, democracy and rule of law to this country.

Friends close to Ahmed and myself, who have kept abreast of the issue have informed me that Ahmed was transferred to Torah Prison; a place recognized by many as one where political prisoners are regularly detained and tortured. They also informed me that the security forces have renewed his detainment for a period of 15 days (one I'm told is the regular/standard detainment time in such situations).

Update(Thursday afternoon): According to another friend Ahmed is not in Torah Prison; lawyers who visited the place have not found neither him nor the other protestors detained with him. His whereabouts are, at the present time, unknown.

Update #2(Thursday Night): Apparently Ahmed and detainees of Monday night are in a station [El-Khalifa Station] (which I am not sure is a State Security one or a regular Police station) where they were first taken for interrogation and detainment.

Update #3 (Friday): In the on-going quest of finding Ahmed, the latest information is that he is being detained at Torah Prison. This is according to his mother who recieved a hand-written note, supposedly from from Ahmed. In the note he said that he is well and misses his friends and family. He also said that him and the other detainees need lawyers urgently. He also asked for a couple of cigarette cartons (kharateesh sagayer), probably for him and the other detainees.
The note recieved was written in Arabic, and in Ahmed's signature bad handwriting, which his mother recognized. Also, it seems that through contacts, a meeting with Ahmed has been arranged for saturday. This awaits to be seen.

This, of course, no way guarantees the authenticity of the note as it might have been forged. A mutual friend of Ahmed and I put to words the absurdity of the situation by saying that "what struck [him] the most is how conflicting reports are". Apparently, phone call inquiries carried out within seconds of each other would yield completely different results. This just stresses the media and information blackout that the Egyptian government has been carrying out to-date, in all its dealings with its citizens.

Ahmed's STATUS: Detained. Whereabouts Unconfirmed.



Ahmed is diabetic and thus far has not been allowed access to medical personnel, since he is not in possession of his medicines and other things that he requires because of his illness. (Video of the arrest).

Events such as these really help to spread a sense of impotence amongst people, myself included. My friend is under arrest for completely unjust and unfounded reasons and I, amongst others, find myself unable to do or say anything that would help or contribute to his release from imprisonment.

It's times like these that force one to accept even a violent solution to the problem.


And the that's the way I see it.

Tags: Egypt, Cairo, Dahab, Al Jazeera, News, Protests, Judges, Arrests, Kifaya, Ahmed EL Droubi

Dahab and Northern Sinai - News and comments.

First, I am going to refer you to a fellow blogger's website, Tomanbay, for a better update of events on Wednesday the 26th in Sinai, Egypt.

Moving on, the main purpose of this post was to comment on posts made on another Blogger's Blog, namely Sandmonkey. Sandmonkey's post was a coverage of the Dahab bombings and that Blogger's opinion on different remarks made by Hamas and the the Israeli ambassador to Egypt.

After reading the article (linked to above), there were points of disagreements that I had with sandmonkey.

First, he quotes (source unknown to me) what Hamas's leadership had to say about the Dahab Bombing:

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-run Palestinian Cabinet, called
the bombings a "criminal attack which is against all human values. We
denounce the attack, which harmed the Egyptian national security." By
contrast, Hamas had refused to condemn last week's bombing that killed
nine people in an Israeli fast-food restaurant.

Then, he comments on their comment:

Didn't they call that suicidebombing a justified act of self defense? I guess it depends who the attacks kill: Jews ok, egyptians not so much.

I think the difference in what Hamas has to say is obvious, and the reasons as well. It would make sense that Hamas would say such a thing, since the world usually holds its breath after such events; waiting to see who will claim responsibility. Hamas's response, as an entity accused of being a terrorist organization by the west, was definitely much awaited.

Furthermore, and devoid of the question of International Politics and Relations, unless the bombings in Dahab were carried out by Egyptian seperatists, or persons claiming to want independence from Egypt, the situation is quite different. Palestinians say, and I will not say are because then many will scream that I am biased, that they are fighting to liberate lands that are theirs. Lands that, according to them, are occupied.

We still do not know anything about the perpetrators of the Dahab bombings. I agree with Sandmonkey when he mentions that it depends on who the attacks kill. Of course it does! If I was at war with another country for 50+ years (not counting pre-Israeli state days) and that happened to them, I would happier than if it happened to an acquaintance, or a friend. That would be a human thing.

But even more, and I agree with this point whole-heartedly, Hamas sees that attacks (whether carried out by them or with their support and/or agreement) on Israel (whether these attacks target infrastructure, civilians or military personnel) is a natural thing in a war where thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (civilians and otherwise) have been killed. I have not experienced what the Palestinians have been through, but I have talked to them extensively. I have also lived in Sudan.

The Southern Sudanese there expressed the same sentiment about the Northern government and people as the Palestinians.

My own view is that Hamas's use of religion as the force from which they gain their guidance, principles or whatever is the main reason why so many people stand steadfastly against them. Westerners hear the words bomb and Middle East in one sentence and Islam gets blamed. The general idea on Muslims is that they are all terrorists. On the other hand, the PLO was never attacked as much as Hamas was. They carried out operations as well and are much older than Hamas as an entity.

But, they are a secular organization, and they recognize Israel. Two ingredients that transformed the way they were treated. Let's not forget their almost instantaneous recognition by the Israeli and Western governments.


Sandmonkey then moves on to say:

You then read in Al Arabiy[a] a that the egyptian secuirty forces has shut down the border with Israel in order to prevent any "possible suspects escape", which would only mean in the eyes of the regular egyptian that the people who were behind this act were…yes…wait for it… THE JOOOOOOOOOZZZZZZZ.

I disagree. It doesn't mean that "the Jews" are the ones behind this issue. What Egypt did was close a possible avenue of escape... perhaps they had information that pointed to the fact that this has been used before as an escape route, who knows? If anyone comes to the conclusion that it is the Israelis, and not "the Jews", who carried out the bombings... that's their own thing.

And then

Who else would we blame anyway?

I realize that this was a rhetorical, sarcastic question as posted by Sandmonkey but still... it seems that Sandmonkey had no compunctions about blaming "the Jihadis";

I am really mad because this brings back memories of Taba, and it shows that we haven't elarned shit from the previous attacks at all. It also shows that the security forces can not protect us at all, with or wiothout the emergency laws. And now, I found out that a friend of mine got injured in this attack, and lost an arm. He is 23 years old. and he lost his arm. And all I can think of is the blind hatred that is cursing through my body right now towards every single Jihady fuckhead in existance, and how I will not rest until every single one of them is fuckin whiped out, have their bodies doused in whiskey and pig piss and wraped in the cumsoaked sheets of a diseased jewish whore.

I HATE THEM SOOOO MUCH! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hate all militant (and non-militant for that matter) Islamist groups or individuals as well, quite vehemently as a matter-of-fact, but the leap in logic that occurred in that large paragraph was strange. The fact that his friend lost an arm is an extremely sad and upsetting issue. I had friends in Dahab as well (Read an account), and they thankfully made it without injury, but how does this particular bombing and Sandmonkey's injured friend point to "the Jihadis"?!

It seems to me that the seem leap in logic he claimed that Egyptians would make was made by him. Technically speaking, this isn't much of a problem; as I understand it, he is Egyptian himself.

Moving on, there are certain parts of his post that I do agree with. For example,

I am so sick of this. So sick of all of this bullshit. So sick of the people dying, the jooz blaming, the ineptitude of the government who even though they have Sinai on lockdown for the past 3 years can't prevent a single attack, the inability of my people to see the nature of the ruthless enemy that is the Jihadis and how they are not our friends, and just the fuckin instability that Egypt has been in for the past 3 years.

The thing is, there are, in my opinion a plethora of factors that affect how well the security forces can do their job. I do agree with Sandmonkey that it seems that with or without the Emergency Law, Egyptian security forces are disgustingly useless at carrying out their job. Furthermore, if people who are loyal to the regime show up on television and say that these attacks and ones before them smack of foreign intervention, then, as Sandmonkey mentions, where on earth are our intelligence agencies?!

If "they" are using their agencies to do this to Egypt, it's about time that ours does something. That is, if they aren't already trying and failing... which puts us in dire straits.

Also, to be fair, Israel did in fact offer to send ambulances to Egypt. The ambulances were even filmed by the Israeli border. They also activated an IDF crisis rescue (we were not told the Unit name nor designation) unit and put them on alert. I am guessing the Egyptian government did not need, or did not want, assistance. Also, watching the live coverage that Al-Jazeera (English here) had going of the bombings, I have to say that the dead and wounded were transferred relatively quickly to hospitals in Dahab and then Sharm El Sheikh.

Finally, to summarize a relatively long post, the whole point behind this post is thus: coming to conclusions quickly is simple, everyone does it. Offering quick-cut, easy answers is also simple. I'm not saying that simple answers are always wrong, Okum would be quite upset indeed, just that reverting to them all the time just because others do isn't the best thing to do.

And that's the way I see it.

Tags: Dahab, Jihadis, Islamists, Hamas, Egypt, Israel, Bombings, Opinion

Leave Iran be. Or don't, it's your funeral.

The topic of this post is: Iran.

For the past two years now it seems that the International Community, in the form of the United States, has been hounding Iran about its nuclear program. Apparently, it isn't ok for Iran to have their own nuclear reactor(s). But, many of my friends and people that I know think that I'm not looking at this from the correct angle.

So I asked them: what am I missing?

Basically, the popular thought is that Iran's government is crazy. The moment they get nuclear weapons, they will use them against Israel. Hold on a second. The Iranian government aren't what they are because they're stupid. I think that Iran has a shrewd government. Let's say they do get nuclear weapons. There is no way in hell that they will use them on Israel knowing the Death shall rain down on them from the heavens AKA Lots of Minuteman and Peacekeeper ICBMs launched from Wyoming, the Dakotas, and other bases throughout the United States, will level the country into oblivion... and beyond.

I sincerely doubt that Iranians, including members of the government and people in power, are suicidal enough to do something like that. Futhermore, Iran has a right to develop its nuclear technology peacefully. The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), of which they - and the US but not Israel - are a signatory, assures them this right. [Extra information about NPT and the additional protocol from Wikipedia here. IAEA Board of Governers Report on Iran's Nuclear Situation in September 2005.]

Admittedly, the report mentions that Iran was late declaring certain important things. But, the report also mentions that Iran has taken steps to rectify the situation and the steps were acceptable by the IAEA.

Iran, as do other nations around the world, believe that they are being targeted for the possiblity of them developing Nuclear Weapons. Israel is already in possession of Nuclear Weapons. I don't blame them for possibly believing that this is a wee bit unfair.

The obvious issue then, is that the United States (and allies) do not want an enemy state (Iran in this case) gaining such a "card" in the international game of "power" relations. Having nuclear weapons will mean that iran will pose a threat, however miniscule (though a nuclear weapon - if only one bomb - is not a small nor trivial matter at all) some might believe it would be.

With all the links that are in this post, I won't go on any more about the issue... what I will do is give you access to even more links that I came across while researching the matter in more detail:

Another Blogger', Ramblefish, view on the matter.

Some of the IRNA's (Islamic Republic News Agency), Iran's official news agency, stories:

• The Arab League's Secretary General's, Amr Moussa, views on the matter.
• Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs's, Syed Hamid Albar, opinion.
• News of an Iranian delegation visiting Russia and updates on the Iranian Nuclear File.

The IAEA has an Iran file timeline on their website which might be useful to those that which to know more details about the whole issue (since 2004).

Of interest: CNN's bumbles and blunders. Pathetic, but expected.

Finally, and because this is a blog... the following are links to Iranian Blogs which may, or may not have more information on the matter. Most interesting is the Iranian Vice-President's Blog.


An Iranian news blog.

Iranian Blog (Iran-based).

Iranian Blog (Los Angeles based).

Another Iranian Blog. All in Farsi, but check out the photos.


And that's the way I see it.

Tags: Iran NPT US United States Nuclear Weapons Additional Protocol ICBM IAEA

Egypt. Land of Civilization.

About a month-and-a-half ago, I wrote a post about certain things in Egypt that I found amusing.

Here's the picture, or one of the two pictures, that should have come with that post; I only recently bought a digital cam. though... so it came a bit late.


You probably won't be able to see the text on the blue sign. Click and maximize or download and maximize.

Enjoy!

Tags: cairo egypt sign funny ironic tourism photos

Egypt. Egypt. Egypt.

The following are two Op-Ed articles, published in the Egyptian Daily Star, that I found interesting:

The First is about political parties in Egypt. The writer takes to the street and asks Egyptians what they think.

The Second is about the Hijab, or veil, in Egyptian Society.

If you've managed to read this far, here are my views on the Hijab:

First of all, I am strongly opposed to the view that the Islamic Hijab is a fard, or religious tenet, for Muslim women (all the time of course - they do have to wear it when praying). None of the verses put forward from the Quran conclusively support this view, in fact, many scholars say there are no verses from the Quran that supports this view at all.

That said, my general outlook on society follows the code: To each his own. You do whatever you want to do as long as you do not cause harm to someone else. When mentioning harm here, I am most certainly not referring to the psychological and mental anguish some claim to feel when confronted with a non-veiled female.

As is obvious, anyone can wear the Hijab in my book. Still, if it so happens that a girl, or guy for that matter, mentions that all girls should wear the Hijab because it is an Islamic fard, they drop down many rungs on my ladder of respect. Usually, they fall right off. Generally speaking, most of the girls that I personally have dealt with that chose to wear the Hijab have turned out to have voluntarily surrenderred the use of their brain and mental faculties for any kind of thinking.

The aforementioned category of girls have said to me:

1. Amr Khaled said we shoud wear the Hijab.
2. It is written in the Quran. (Me: Which verse exactly? What does it say?) I'm not sure, but it's written in the Quran.
3. A pure Muslim woman has to wear the Hijab.

There were, of course, many other reasons. First though, I want to comment on the three mentioned above.

So Amr Khaled said you should, huh? And if Amr Khaled told you to go jump off the top of a building, wearing your Hijab, I suppose you would? Too sarcastic? Well, what if Amr khaled mentioned that killing all non-muslims (he hasn't) was the only way to make it to heaven? Would you stop and think about what he says then? Or maybe not. I keep getting the feeling that Amr Khaled is our prophet in disguise... It's amazing how people follow him this blindly!

As for the Quran, I have yet to be told the verses. I await that patiently.

Pure women has to wear the Hijab? So... my mother and grandmother aren't pure Muslim women? They probably went out whoring in their younger days, did they? Invited all the guys over to their homes and had regular sexual orgies, eh? What kind of pathetic argument is this? Your purity is defined by what you choose to do in life! Let me just tell you that all prostitutes in Sudan were veiled (and I've lived there).

Now, I think the main reason why women and girls wear Hijab in Egypt is because of Social pressure. Wearing the Hijab in this country has become a social custom, especially amongst the poor. This helps explain a phenomenon that many men do not understand, especially those that come from the wealtheir upper class; you know all those girls and women that you see wearing the Hijab yet still wearing pants so tight that it is difficult to imagine them being able to move? Well, that's why. The Hijab has become a social necessity, but they do not necessarily represent the religious views of the woman wearing them. Most of the time, she doesn't consider if she should wear it or not... there is no question. There is no debate on the issue.

Oh, and by the way, there are many poorer mothers who still believe that dressing their daughters in tight pants will discourage any possiblity of sexually-motivated attack as it would be difficult to get inside her clothes. (I've asked about this! Many, many times!)

Finally, I feel it needs to be said that while I believe that prejudiced generalizations made about a certain group of people because of creed, ethnicity or social class is abhorrent and wrong, one has to keep in mind that sometimes priorities are different for different people.

For example, in the school where I work, I happen to be in an office with the headmistress, her secretary and the assistant headmistress. All three of them are veiled. Sometimes it gets to be a pain... for example, I have to make sure I censor myself lest I mention something that they think is wrong. It's not that that they are annoying; to date, none of them have even asked me why I don't get up to pray, it's just that I don't want to get into that kind of discussion because I don't know how to tell people that I don't want to talk about it without sounding annoyed or rude.

And hey! What if I want to exclaim: "Oh, shit!" or "God damn it!" whenever I'm annoyed or something goes wrong? I don't. I don't because I don't want them giving me "the look" and possibly a couple of words on how I shouldn't say things like that... because when I do say things like that, those couple of words are definitely the last thing I want to hear (now that I think about it, it's probably the last thing they want to hear as well... *shrug*).

i find myself wanting to talk about how most girls in Egypt shudder and shake if a guy swears next to them, but that's another story for another post.


And that's basically the way I see it.

Tags: Egypt Hijab Women Liberal Society Islam Fard Veil Personal

Hamas: not completely broke.

I came across this news item posted on the International Herald Tribune's website.

So, I guess this means that the Palestinian government now has a little bit of money with which to function. Though it is supposedly far less than the amount they need to pay the salaries and debts that they own. You might remember that most major donors chose to halt all aid to the Palestinian government as soon as the democratically elected Hamas came to power. This, of course, was disastrous.

This is a compilation of the Palestinian government's sources of aid by donor countries. My thanks to Sandmonkey for posting it.

I also came across this transcript of a PBS show, NewsHour, that discussed the issue of Hamas being voted in as the Palestinian government.

The whole discussion is interesting, but it is one statement in particular that I wish to comment upon (I have not heard it being said often);

ROBERT SATLOFF: No, I think this is a moment for clarity. A large plurality of the Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization as its leadership. This is a moment where the world needs to respond to that very clear statement. I respect their vote. They should respect the world's response to this vote.

Mr. Satloff is faultless when making this comment. The Palestinians should respect the world's response to this vote. If not respect, then at least accept. It is in my belief that they have actually done that. Barring any proclamations they might have made upon winning, most news items either carry opinions on the issue as a whole or interviews with members of the Hamas government.

Furthermore, I am proud that an Arab country (as ironic as it may seem, the only "un-recognized" Arab country) had a free and fair elections (to a large extent, anyways).

Now then, to get to the "respect the world's response to this vote" part. Lots of Arab media and thinkers would tell you: An Arab state finally has a democratically elected government and the West is still bitching about it. Nothing satisfies them. What do they want? To choose who comes to power personally? To put their men as Prime Ministers or Presidents if they don't like the ones there?

Of course, they were quite fiery when making these remarks.

The answer is, of course, Yes! Who wouldn't you fools? What government would not want to choose who has the power in places which might affect its people and its well-being, politically and economically, as a state. It's called realism.

Maybe Political Science, as a major, wasn't so stupid after all. You see, as my professor in POLS 320: International Relations informed us, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to international relations between states; the realists and the liberals. Of course, now we have the neo-realists and the neo-liberals. Now, to the realists, power is everything. You have the power, you use the power. You can get what you want with your power... go on ahead and do it. That's the way of life. The state is the largest entity when it comes to International Relations and one's level of analysis should not extended beyond that.

On the other hand, the liberals are believers in international institutions and organizations. They believe in collective decisions and that the state is not the largest entity when it comes to IR; the UN, WTO, WB, IMF and all those organizations are. These people do not believe in war, but they do acknowledge that it occurs. Even though I once adamantly followed this school, it reflects a highly idealistic and non-practical way of viewing things.

The U.S. (Current World Hegemon), as a government, follow the neo-realism school of thought. Meaning that everyone has to live with this. So live with it. I'm not saying don't bitch about it, O Arab countries. You should. You never know when a European (minus the UK) might be listening. For some weird reason, the Europeans are more sympathetic to this than the Americans are. It might be the two World Wars, all the deaths they suffered or that they want people to like them so that they can be the next International Hegemon, when it's time for the U.S. to step down.

It matters not. When they listen to you, they do things just to spite the U.S., just convince them that you're important to them or their people in some way (the subscribe to the neo-realist club too, you know) and then you're set... for a period of time at least.

What you should be doing, O foolish Arabs, is working like hell to gain power. I almost hope there's some Top Secret Plan for doing this and that everything that's happening now is a mere facade, until one day, 25 years from now, an Arab Leader or person will suddenly go on television and go: TA-DAAAA! We're rich!! We're Powerful!! Or some other weird thing.

Yeah, right.

And that's the way I see (or is it dream?) it.

Tags: Hamas IR international relations politics Palestine government realist Arabs united states

Random News and Opinions

As I have a two week break from work (working at a school helped me re-discover the joy of Spring Break as a holiday) I now randomly surf the Internet in the morning checking news or whatnot. I don't know if I'm going to do this regularly, but I will share the things I found interesting:

This twenty-year old Republican's view on Bush and the Republicans.

Russian gypsies attacked.

The FBI's tips page. (I included this because I didn't know it existed).

A simple view on who will win the next House elections in the states.

Brotherhood members captured in Egypt.

[I always find this kind of news strange. The State knows who the MB's leaders are. If you're so interested in arresting people who are members, leave the stupid students alone and go get the big fish. Work your way down the hierarchy. It's almost like they want the MB to continue but they don't want them to grow or expand.]

Free Trade is not doing well. A list of the disputes filed before the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (including the panels and Appellate body's findings and possible rejections or over-turning of decisions).


That's about it for now.

Tags: news, egypt, world bank, wto, us, republicans, democrats