Where I lazily dump links to recent articles and a few notes.
- I know I can be a bit of a grouch about the American (and other) media. Actually I think the US press, especially magazines, is the finest in English — better, in general, than Britain’s in terms of the resources it devotes [...]

Boston University Professor Andrew Bacevich, an opponent of the war on Iraq who recently lost his son there, wrote this WaPo op-ed. Here’s the bit about what he blames for his son’s death:
Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to [...]

Remember how a few weeks ago a Congressional delegation met — both in parliament and at an embassy function — MPs from the Muslim Brotherhood? That time around, the Egyptian government did not respond, even though it has always opposed contacts between foreign countries and the MB. Yesterday, another delegation met with MP Saad Katatni, [...]

On the occasion of the re-election (surprise!) of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a new clearinghouse for Syrian opposition news has just been launched. Check out OpenSyria.org.

Why is YouTube blocked in Morocco? I remember seeing some nice historical archive of Hassan II on there, but nothing too compromising on King Muhammad VI. That’s the only political reason I could think of, as well the many critical videos on the Western Sahara. If YouTube is indeed being blocking by Morocco’s main ISP, [...]

Click on the film poster to go to Marjane Satrapi’s MySpace page and see the trailers for the animated version of her great comic book Persepolis (which you should read if you haven’t yet.)

Don’t miss Wael Abbas’ op-ed in the Washington Post, which might help revive the flagging concern about Egypt in Washington (or just land Wael in further trouble):
CAIRO Last Thursday, I returned to my country, Egypt, after several weeks in the United States on a Freedom House fellowship. I came home full of anxiety. I feared [...]

So, where were we?
Thanks to the readers who wrote in and left comments about why I haven’t posted for over two weeks. The reason is basically that I’ve been traveling a lot and was very busy with work at the same time. I will slowly crank up posts again over the next week (still some [...]

The Egyptian government has nothing to fear from the nascent US debate on what US policy should be with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood, as this typical American voter attests:

This news is a couple of weeks old, but I found telling what German news magazine Der Spiegel discovered in attorney documents which are part of the file on the Siemens corruption scandal (which also extends to bribery in Saudi Arabia – see this excellent WS Journal article):
The documents suggest that a part of the [...]

With Issandr having said ‘Buy land in Sinai now!’ in the discussion of the Saudi plan to build a bridge to Sinai, I think this interesting article on British property buyers which appeared in Business Monthly in a way supports what he added: ‘if you have a well-placed uncle in the army or mukhabarat’.
Property worth [...]

That’s good news for those business men of Egypt’s parallel economy carrying around millions of pounds (khawaga hit men pay in hard currency, I guess?). The capacity of their black suit cases could now double, as Egypt’s Central Bank is to introduce LE200 notes. (And later on even LE 500 notes).
On the lower end of [...]

This is an interesting project:
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will next week lay the foundation stone for a $1.5 billion bridge project that will link the Kingdom to neighbouring Egypt.
The bridge will link the Sinai region of Egypt, close to the Sharm el-Sheikh resort town, to the northwest of Saudi Arabia near Ras el-Sheikh Humayd.
Two bridges [...]

The liberal pinkos at the NYT, of all things, pick up on the closing of the CTUWS and admonish the US ambassador to Egypt for being too, er, diplomatic.
Denial and Democracy in Egypt - New York Times:
In recent weeks, Egypt’s government has further trampled the rights of its citizens, closing several branches of the [...]

Yesterday was Hosni Mubarak’s birthday — he turned 79. It must have been a busy day, with all those people over for work and Jimmy tying the knot. I’d say best wishes, but would just rather reproduce this birthday card printed in Egypt’s number two state daily, al-Akhbar:
My dear child,
On the celebration of your birthday, [...]

I had this opinion piece on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site about Arab and Egyptian bloggers and how they might face the ongoing security clampdown. Got so busy yesterday with work forgot to post it here! (Sorry for the slow posting these days…)
I just wanted to note, if any Egyptian bloggers feel slighted by [...]

From the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Jordan blocks newspaper edition over story on ‘secret’ Palestinian plan
New York, April 30, 2007—Jordanian authorities should lift their ban on today’s edition of an independent paper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Fahd al-Rimawi, editor of the weekly Al-Majd, told CPJ that security agents moved Sunday to prevent printing of [...]