With the horrid crackdowns on dissent in Syria and Bahrain and the vicious shelling by Qaddafi brigades of the port of Misrata in Libya on Tuesday, it would be easy to concentrate solely on the negative news. But the Arab Spring is still producing some positive reforms and questioning of past corrupt practices, and even […]
An Arab Spring for Women: the Coles in Tomdispatch
Just out in Tomdispatch.com, an essay by Shahin Cole and Juan Cole on “An Arab Spring for Women”. Excerpt: ‘ The Arab Spring has proven an epochal period of activism and change for women, recalling the role of early feminists in the 1919 Egyptian movement for independence from Britain, or the important place of women […]
Misrata Reprieved
The city of Misrata, a port and steel-making city and Libya’s third-largest urban center, was sentenced to death 7 weeks ago by the Qaddafi family, which sent its armored brigades and professional snipers in to punish the entire population for having dared throw off their fascist rule by ‘revolutionary committee.’ For seven weeks, the some […]
Casio Watches an Arresting Offense in Afghanistan: Wikileaks on Guantanamo
Wikileaks has released the Pentagon assessments of nearly 800 suspected al-Qaeda prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to newspapers such as the Washington Post. The documents show that some of the prisoners were likely dangerous men, while many others were probably arrested on flimsy evidence or even out of stupidity. Wearing a Casio watch could be […]
The Tyrants Strike Back
Syria Early Monday morning, columns of Syrian tanks led the way into the southern city of Deraa (pop. 75,000), followed by infantry brigades who took cover behind them as the city was subjected to army sniper fire from several directions. I stayed up late and am watching the invasion on Aljazeera Arabic, and black smoke […]
Fighting Rages in Misrata despite Withdrawal Pledge
Fighting continued in Misrata on Sunday morning despite claims of the Qaddafi regime that it was withdrawing its troops from the city, which seems to have been a bald-faced lie. In fact, Saturday saw unusually heavy fighting in the besieged city, with some 25 dead and 100 wounded. It is possible that the Qaddafi government […]
Syrian Security fires on Protesters, Kills 90
You never issue an ultimatum unless you are prepared for war. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad abolished the forty-year-old emergency law on Thursday, and he had dismissed two unpopular governors against whom there had been protests. Then he said that there was no longer any reason for anyone to demonstrate, implying that further demonstrations would be […]
Free Libyan fighters exult in small Victories, as US begins Drone Strikes
In the west on the Tunisian border, Berber rebel troops have taken a checkpoint and chased away 200 Qaddafi loyalists, who took refuge in Tunisia. The checkpoint is on a road that can be used to supply the Western Mountain Region of Berber towns who are in revolt against Qaddafi and who are under siege, […]
Apple Tracking likely a “Bug” or Oversight
The database of all our movements being kept on our iPhones by Apple is likely a software bug or oversight, according to John Gruber. The positions recorded are not exact, unlike GPS, and the towers are probably triangulating the position of the phone so that it can work wherever it is. But whoever wrote the […]
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