Links February 22nd to February 23rd

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 22nd through February 23rd:

• Dubai Gets $10 Billion Bailout to Ease Debt - WSJ.com - Dubai gets bailed out by its big brothers.


• Gulf States Bet on Africa - WSJ.com - Gulf Arabs still investing massively in African agrobusiness: "What the Arabs are doing for us is what colonialists should have done for Africa," said Djibouti President Ismail Guelleh, whose sliver of a nation on the Horn of Africa is enjoying an economic turnaround thanks primarily to Gulf money. "It's like a new Marshall Plan."


• Op-Ed Columnist - ROGER COHEN - Reading Khamenei in Tehran - NYTimes.com - Here's something you don't see often in the NYT: "Obama must abandon military threats to Iran’s nuclear program in favor of an approach recognizing the country’s inevitable mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle, while securing verifiable conditions that ensure such mastery is not diverted to bomb manufacturing. That addresses Iran’s intellectual pride (as well as the fact that the neighborhood includes the nuclear-armed powers of Israel, Pakistan and India).
  He must redirect U.S. policy toward Israel-Palestine to make Hamas-Fatah reconciliation a core American objective, recognize that the “terrorist” label is an inadequate description of the broad movements that are Hamas and Hezbollah and end the Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy that sabotages a two-state solution. This would allow Khamenei to claim that his demands for Palestinian justice — as the self-styled leader of the world’s Muslims — have been heard."


• AFP: Egypt arrests three over deadly bazaar bombing - On last night's bomb attack.


• World record Islamic sale is cancelled - The Art Newspaper - Art / auction world controversy over alleged "key to the Kaaba"


• From Captive To Suicide Bomber - Did Gitmo make a radical more radical?


• Ben Smith's Blog: A test for the Israeli lobby - Politico.com - A test for Obama, more like: "Arabist" diplomat Chas Freeman as head of National Intelligence Council is not thought kosher enough for AIPAC and friends.


• Olmert ousts Egypt mediator over 'unseemly criticism of a PM' - Haaretz - Israel News - Amos Gilad may have to abandon ceasefire negotiations - although ultimately he answers to Ehud Barak, not Ehud Olmert.


• Bellum » Covert Action and Iran’s Nuclear Program - A look at various methods that may have been used to covertly disrupt Iran's nuke program, including manipulation of currency, sabotage, fake suppliers, etc. An interesting blog too.


• Mexico's Drug Cartels May Have Become Too Powerful to Control - WSJ.com - WSJ equates narco-criminality in Mexico with (narco-?) jihadism in Pakistan: "The parallels between Pakistan and Mexico are strong enough that the U.S. military singled them out recently as the two countries where there is a risk the government could suffer a swift and catastrophic collapse, becoming a failed state."