Links September 26th to September 27th

Links from my del.icio.us account for September 26th through September 27th:

• Golan brides know there is no going back - Yahoo! News - About a bride crossing the border from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria


• Car Bomb in Damascus and Rise of Salafi Groups in Region - Josh Landis: "The car bomb that exploded this morning in Syria is the first successful “al-Qaida” type terrorist attack in Syria in the last 10 years. Two theories are developing on little evidence so far. One is that the bombers were targeting a state security center. The other theory is that they were targetting Shiites. So far we don’t know what the truth is." Link this with the recent reports of troop movements on the Lebanon border + anti-Syria / anti-Hizbullah feeling among Lebanese Salafists that Nir Rosen recently wrote about (see links from a couple of days ago).


• Daily News Egypt - BUILDING YOUR OWN STATE - Ibrahim Hudaiby: "When my father decided to buy a farm in the suburbs of Cairo and live there a few years ago, his justification was that if you decide to live in Egypt, you should be ready to build your own state. I must admit it took me years to understand what he meant."
  "To secure a decent, respectable life in Egypt, one should never depend on the state. The state’s revenue mainly made up of taxes, tariffs and foreign aid, and the state’s different apparatuses do not function to serve Egyptians, but rather a few hundred influential politicians and businessmen. The state’s role starts by providing security for its citizens, residents and visitors. Mubarak’s regime increasingly fails to do so. Not only is the police unable to prevent the mounting number of crimes, but it also participates in threatening people’s safety through torture and corruption."


• #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation | Project Censored - The top under-reported story of this year is the death toll caused since the invasion of Iraq


• Sarah Palin: Henry Kissinger is Beyond Naive When it Comes to Diplomacy - Palin says Kissinger, Obama "naive" about diplomacy with Iran. Maybe Kissinger is naive, if he thought his time was well-spent with Palin.


• 'The Secret': Coming soon to a bookstore near you - Haaretz - Israel News - Controversy over new book on the Lavon Affair, which refers very dirty underbelly (involving Skeletor himself, Shimon Peres) of what was in any case very dirty business.