Links August 4-6 2010

I am thinking of visiting Mauritania in the next few weeks. If anyone has tips or insight about the place, please let me know. Now for the links...

• Obama Sent a Secret Letter to Iraq's Top Shiite Cleric - By Barbara Slavin | Foreign Policy

  Obama seeks object to emulate?

• The U.S. Military Spends Trillions for Oil - By Peter Maass | Foreign Policy

  And has for a long time.

• We’re All Part of the Masterplan « The Moorish Wanderer

  On Morocco's royal plans.

• Keep anti-terrorism and theology apart | Brian Whitaker

  On the recent leak of a CT strategy in UK drafted by anti-Islamists.

• Calling Gaza a prison camp is an understatement | Laila El-Haddad

  Siege is not on goods, it's a siege on freedom of movement.

• Barack Obama's plan for Iran

  Obama explains himself.

• IRIN Middle East | EGYPT: Growing protests over water shortages | Middle East | Egypt | Early Warning Environment Water & Sanitation | Feature

  Very useful roundup.

• Music fails to chime with Islamic values, says Iran's supreme leader | The Guardian

  Overthrow him now.

• "fraudulent appeal of Marxism" (oh, how I miss the fraudulent appeal of Marxism in the Middle East)

  Angry Arab has a great quote from Margaret Thatcher.

• Gamal Mubarak holds closed-door meeting on cultural policy | Al-Masry Al-Youm

  Why secret?

• Nasrallah: Israel assassinated Hariri and we will provide evidence « P U L S E

  Translation of Nasrallah's speech.

• Arab Satellite Broadcasting: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

  620 satellite channels in the Arab world.

• Drums of War: Israel and the “Axis of Resistance”

  New report by International Crisis Group

• Circle of media repression widens over Tunisia’s history

  CPJ on media in Tunisia.

• Will Israel's New Archive Policy Set Back a Generation of Scholarship? - The Chronicle of Higher Education

  Interview with Benny Morris on closure of archive to scholars.

• Mubarak’s regime may be a victim of its own success - The National

  Shadi Hamid.

• BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: LET THEM EAT PLASTIC

  Curtis, always fantastic, on credit.

• Cafés arabes : un élixir* de culture