Links for February 24th

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 24th:

• Amnesty calls for arms embargo of Israel and Hamas - Calls on Obama to suspend military aid. Amnesty's got balls of steel, HRW tiny private parts.


• Kerry fears Hamas cooties | FP Passport - Hullabaloo over a stupid letter - US officials afraid to read Hamas missive.


• One Big Unhappy Family - The New York Review of Books - Fred Halliday reviews Steve Coll's 'The Bin Ladens': "To read Coll's book is to enter a universe of perpetual movement and deal-making, but one in which little, if anything, is recorded or written down, where power and money are distributed by means of kin networks, informal gatherings of influential Saudi males, and the mobile phone. The Bin Ladens is not so much a book about Osama bin Laden himself, or his terrorist network and political aspirations, as about the power structures of modern Saudi Arabia."


• Daily News Egypt - IN FOCUS: WHO IS BEHIND THE AL HUSSEIN BLAST? - Khalil al-Anani offers hypothesis on people behind recent Cairo attack being lone amateurs inspired by radical salafism.


• Le Figaro - International : Attentat du Caire : les amis de Cécile, 17 ans, traumatisés - On victim of Cairo bombing


• Dennis Ross appointed special U.S. adviser to Persian Gulf - Haaretz - Israel News - Ross, who is a skeptic to say the least on engaging Iran, to be Obama's pointman on engaging Iran.