The Agonist reports on an intriguing interview with the former Russian Foreign Minister, Yevgeni Primakov;
“There was an understanding with the Americans, as paradoxical as it may seem,” Primakov told the Russian daily Gazeta in a lengthy interview.
“Why weren’t the bridges of the Tigris blown up when the American tanks approached Baghdad? Why weren’t Iraqi aviation [...]

Reuters reports on the arrest of 25 alleged Jihad activists in Cairo. To my knowledge there has been no arrests (or indeed operations) by Egyptian Islamic Jihad in a long time. If it is true, it’s a worrying sign that long-dormant Jihad (which has not done much since its erstwhile leader, Ayman Al Zawahri, joined [...]

This story headlined “Abu Ghraib Tactics Inspire Torture in Neighbour Egypt” has been making the rounds. Frankly, it sounds ridiculous — Egyptian police did not need Abu Ghraib to happen to start torturing people. They’ve been doing it by themselves for a while. There may be cases of officers boasting about imitating Abu Ghraib, but [...]

One of the longest serving ministers in Egypt was kicked upstairs yesterday, marking one of the most important political changes to take place in Egypt in years. Minister of Information Safwat Al Sherif, a man who had held a key post for 22 years and has contributed immensely to destroying creativity and nurturing a culture [...]

A few days ago I wrote about last week’s Congressional hearing on US policy towards Egypt. Although I gave links to three presentations, I omitted the most interesting one: a presentation by Michelle Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former US diplomat at the US embassy in Cairo, on Egypt’s reform [...]

The Times says the BBC is considering creating a 24-hour Arabic TV channel. Let’s hope it does — the BBC is the only Western institution that has the credibility and professionalism to add something meaningful to Arabic-language television. It’s worth noting that the BBC had previously experimented with an Arabic language station, but it was [...]

Juan Cole offers insight into the fates of Muqtada Sadr and Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq’s comeback kids:

National Congress Planned; Muqtada InvitedChalabi mediates with Kurds
Al-Hayat: On Sunday, the preparatory board met to begin planning a national congress of 1000 notables, politicians, religious leaders and tribal sheikhs to be held in July. It will involve twenty [...]

Rami Khouri has a good point:

Arab governments and civil society activists have, in the past eight months, produced half a dozen declarations on the need for broad political, social and economic reforms. The most noteworthy have been the declarations at Alexandria and Sanaa, the Arab summit statement and the recent Doha statement. These were preceded [...]

The indefatigable Seymour Hersh has yet another great story:

Israeli intelligence and military operatives ar now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providin training for Kurdish commando units and, mos important in Israel’s view, running cover operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran an Syria. Israel feels particularly threatened b Iran, whose [...]

Beyond Northern Iraq compares views on the BBC. I definitely agree with his contention that “if both sides are accusing the BBC of bias then maybe someone’s doing something right.”

I present two contrasting viewpoints on the BBC’s coverage of the Middle East with little comment — as anything I say will be construed as proof [...]

Nicholas Xenos has the best article I’ve seen on the Straussians so far. Scary stuff, which explains a lot.
The Straussian network is really an amazing thing. Any political theorist or anyone who has been around political science departments has seen it at work. Long before attaining public attention, the Straussians were often ridiculed for their [...]

The Agonist has posted a Stratfor analysis of the current crisis in Saudi Arabia that is well worth reading in full. In this analysis, Stratfor argues that although control of Saudi Arabia might be the endgame of Al Qaeda it does not necessarily need to happen with a complete overthrow of the House of Saud;
Al [...]

An Israeli soccer fan has been convicted for shouting “death to Arabs” at a soccer match:
“I said death to the Arabs because that’s what I felt at the time,” Cohen said in a statement to police.
He said in court “there was nothing to it, just like you shout `go Beitar’ you shout `death to the [...]

There was a meeting of the Congressional Committee on International Relations’ subcommittee on the Middle and Central Asia on Wednesday in order to discuss Washington’s Egypt policy.
In her opening statement, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the head of the committee, brought up several issues, including Egypt’s reported attempts to acquire North Koran missile technology, the Egypt-bound [...]

Ariel Sharon is building as many settlements as he can in the Palestinian Occupied Territories before the planned pull-out:
Sharon’s plan of “unilateral disengagement” calls for a withdrawal from all of Gaza and four West Bank settlements by September 2005. Sharon has said that in exchange, he wants to keep and expand several [...]

Depressing words from the Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor:
Israeli families of dead soldiers or dead civilians get a follow-up, even on foreign TV, for they had a future ahead of them before they died. Did the Palestinian children who died in Rafah have any future? No. So they are dead, and it will be over in [...]

As I’ve been collecting information on the announcement that Mubarak will be undergoing an operation in Germany for a “slipped disc” tomorrow, I thought I’d share what I’ve gathered. I may return to hyperlink it later today.
- On Tuesday, an Islamist site said there was a rumor that Mubarak had been hospitalized on Monday [...]

The Head Heeb notes that Chadian Arabs with ties to Chad’s rebel movements are being recruited in the ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur:

This has the potential to disrupt an already-fragile cease-fire as well as further internationalizing the conflict and, in a worst-case scenario, turning it into a regional ethnic war. Allami expressed the fear that [...]

From the Whiskey Bar:

Watch What We Say, Not What We Do
Secretary of State Colin Powell says terrorists would earn a victory if American workers leave Saudi Arabia in response to a spate of terrorist attacks, including the murder of hostage Paul Johnson.
“If they leave, then the terrorists have won,” Powell said, shortly after Islamic militants [...]

Sudan and Egypt ease border controls

The Sudanese parliament has ratified an agreement with Egypt that allows citizens of the two countries to live and work in each other’s territory.

The parliament approved the so-called Four Freedoms Agreement on Tuesday, which was concluded between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir in Cairo in January.

The agreement gives [...]