Automatically posted links for January 29th through February 3rd:

• Qatar reports new damage to Gulf undersea cables - Fourth time in a week - I think there's a conspiracy afoot


• Libya Sovereign Wealth Fund to Shun U.S., Ghanem Says - Qadhafi puts his country's money elsewhere


• Ezzedine Choukri: "?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?" - Rafah episode shows current situation is losing one for all


• The path of centrist political Islam by Khalil Al-Anani - Al-Anani says MB hopeless, Wasat way forward


• Robert Fisk: The curious case of the forged biography - Fisk, hagiographer of Saddam Hussein


• Making a Great Arab City - I like this Rami Khouri piece on Dubai even though I am skeptical, because it praises the tradition of Arab cosmopolitan urbanism


• Arab Media Watch Arab Media Watch > Home - UK outfit combats anti-Arab bias in press


• Hamas explodes a giant hole in Egypt's political cover - Op-ed takes Egypt's hypocrisy on Palestine to task


• It's time to herald the Arabic science that prefigured Darwin and Newton - Faraday prize winner defends historic Arab scholarship


• For sale: West?s deadly nuclear secrets - Whistleblower says top US officials sold nuke secrets to Pakistan (the person is not named in the article, but others say it's Marc Grossman)


• Al-Jazeera Journalist Arrested in Egypt - Howeida Taha arrested, again


• AFP: Egypt censors book fair - Mohammed Choukri, Milan Kundera, Elias Khoury, Hanan al-Sheikh censored from Cairo Book Fair.

Automatically posted links for January 25th through January 26th:

• The Arab - New London-based magazine on MENA


• MidEast Brief::Egypt - Newish website links to articles on region


• Egypt says will keep border open and help Gazans restock - Unable to stop flow of people, Egypt maintains borders open


• Abbas: No talks with Hamas despite Gaza border chaos - Abu Mazen turns down Cairo talks with Hamas


• PALESTINIANS CREATE NEW BREACHES DESPITE EGYPTIAN ATTEMPTS TO SEAL THE BORDER - Article mentions Egyptian tanks on their way to border


• Gaza source: Hamas planned border wall blast for months - Amira Hass


• Gaza into Egypt Middle East Strategy at Harvard - M. Kramer revives "give Gaza a chunk of Egypt" idea, good response by S. Cook


• The People in Gaza Challenge Sham Peace Process - Juan Cole's Informed Comment hosts Joel Beinin op-ed


• ANALYSIS: Gaza border breach shows Israel that Hamas is in charge - Haaretz analysis


• ?????????? ?????: ????: ???? ?? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ??? - Mahdi Akef denied that Khaled Meshaal asked him to stage Gaza siege demos


• Furlough Day for Gazans (Prospects for Peace) - Daniel Levy


• Appeal for the defense of individual freedoms - Moroccan liberals call for right to individual freedoms after Islamist gay witch-hunt


• Egypt's Gaza policy / A pan-Arab consensus? - Haaretz analyzes Egypt's tough position re: Gaza and Hamas

Automatically posted links for January 7th through January 8th:

• Bhutto Killing Roils Province, Spurring Call to Quit Pakistan - WSJ.com - Sindhis outraged, some call for armed insurgency, secession!


• Trip Notes from the Middle East - White House blogs during Middle East trip


• The Clash - Fouad Ajami, with hindsight, agrees with Huntington and fears for West


• Menassat - New NGO website on Arab media


• Egypt Police Officer Jailed 5 Years - Another conviction in a police abuse case


• G H A S B O U B A: Touareg Genocide - Very interesting interview (in French) of Niger Touareg leader


• An American in Iran - The New York Review of Books - Max Rodenbeck visits Iran

Automatically posted links for November 29th:

• Toward a New U.S.-Middle East Strategy - Saban Center (eeekh!) and CFR team up for Mideast policy recommendations for next prez


• Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him - washingtonpost.com - "Obama aides sharply disputed the initial stories suggesting that he was a Muslim, and in Iowa, the campaign keeps a letter at its offices, signed by five members of the local clergy, vouching for the candidate's Christian faith." I like these conspiracy


• 1973 U.S. Cable on Mideast Mirrors Current Events - washingtonpost.com - "In January 1974, with the Watergate scandal making headlines, Egypt's President Anwar Sadat wrote in a secret letter to Faisal that President Richard M. Nixon "could easily be impeached" and that "Arabs must do everything they can to strengthen" Nixon, a


• Seven Years for Murder - More Egyptian police officers sentenced for torture


• Trappist Command: Thou Shalt Not Buy Too Much of Our Beer - WSJ.com - I have had this beer, and it really is something else. It tingles against your palate and feels incredibly velvety and smooth. The bizarre sensation lingers a long time, numbing your mouth, and its bouquet is very subtle for such a strong beer, with very


• L?affaire du faux mariage homosexuel s?avère être une manipulation politique - This article (from a very pro-regime newspaper) accuses the Islamist movement in Morocco that is close to the PJD of nearly lynching a man involved in a rather sordid affair of "homosexual marriage" in northern Morocco. If you check at-Tajdid, the PJD-fri


• ??? ????? - The site of Muslim Brotherhood activist and blogger Ahmed Mohsen, who was arrested in Fayoum along with 25 people who were apparently planning their strategy to contest next year's municipal elections


• New term for Egypt CB governor - al-Okdah's reappointment should squash persistent rumors that he is in the running for becoming PM. Nazif probably to stay for another year at least


• Saudis See Potential for Influence in Sharif - WSJ.com - An interesting look at Saudi policy towards Pak, based on the fall of Musharraf


• Al Jadid Magazine - New issue of US-based Arab culture mag out, including a look at the World Press Photo pic from Lebanon, an interview with Alaa al-Aswany, and a lot more