Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia captures Israeli 'spy vulture'



The large bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag bearing the identification code R65 from Tel Aviv University, strayed into rural Saudi Arabian territory at some point last week, according to a report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

Residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be linked to a "Zionist plot" and swiftly alerted security services. The bird has since been placed under arrest.

The accusations went viral, according to the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the "Zionists" had trained the birds for espionage.

The incident comes amid growing paranoia among Israel's neighbours over the nation's growing military might.

Several weeks ago an Egyptian official reportedly claimed that a shark that attacked tourists off the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheikh was also acting on behalf of the Israeli spy service.

Source: The Telegraph

Trouble in Jordan

Riot in Jordan sparks mass arrests




More than 20 people have been arrested following riots in a southern Jordanian city that erupted after two people were killed in a brawl, police said yesterday.

Col Aref Wishah said the neighbourhood in Maan where the melee took place had been cordoned off and more suspects were being questioned. He promised further arrests.

"We closed the entrances of the city and the manhunt will continue until we capture all those involved in the rioting and vandalism," Col Wishah said.

The government said calm had been restored in Maan, 220km south of the capital Amman, a day after protesters ran riot after the funeral of two people who were killed on Monday by unknown assailants.

Hundreds of masked demonstrators set fire to municipal and court buildings, as well as to police vehicles and posts, civilian cars, shops and a petrol station, said police, who used tear gas to disperse the mob.

Residents told the Reuters news agency that the tumult followed the funeral of two workers from prominent Maan tribes who were believed to have been killed in a labour dispute on Monday by Bedouins from the powerful Hwaitat tribe.

They said Hwaitat tribe members were angered that rival tribes from the city of Maan were employed in their hometown in Shidiya, nearly 70km south of Maan, to build a multi-million dollar water project. Most of the businesses attacked in Maan on Tuesday belonged to members of the Hwaitat tribe. Government officials warned against attempts to foment further unrest.

"We will not tolerate any [party] who will seek to take advantage of the incidents in Maan governorate and disrupt the security and the stability of its residents," Saad Hayel Srour, the interior minister, told Jordan state TV on Tuesday.

The impoverished city has been the scene of violent civil unrest in recent years, and Muslim fundamentalists have long been active among its residents, many of whom carry weapons and have resisted pressure to disarm.

In 1996, riots erupted when the government eased subsidies on bread and fuel. Two years ago, rioters also clashed with police as they tried to prevent them from arresting suspects.

Also, inter-tribal violence has been on the rise not only in Maan but elsewhere in Jordan, where tribes, who are the original inhabitants of the country, form the backbone of support for the Hashemite dynasty.

Last month, 12 students at the University of Jordan in Amman were injured in a brawl in connection with student elections.

"Social unrest is raising the alarm bells in society and indicates that the public is losing its faith in the leaders of their society," said Hussein al Khozahe, a sociologist in Al Balqa Applied University in Salt.



In 2009, the kingdom suffered its worst economic performance since an economic crisis in 1989, when it was forced to seek help from the International Monetary Fund. The downturn is making it more difficult for the state to satisfy demands of Jordanians for state jobs as proceeds from foreign aid and tax revenues have shrunk, analysts say.

Source: The National

Snapshot: Iraqi Christians in Jordan

Source: Reuters

More Unrest in Tunisia

New unrest over unemployment breaks out in Tunisia

TUNIS, Tunisia - Police and high school students have clashed for two days in a small city of Tunisia, with protesters setting fire to the local headquarters of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's ruling party, a union representative said Tuesday.

The North African nation has been gripped by more than two weeks of protests over unemployment that were sparked when a young man set himself on fire, in despair after police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he sold without a permit. The unrest has led to three deaths.

The latest protests broke out in Thala, 250 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of the capital.

As classes resumed after winter vacation Monday, hundreds of high school students and other protesters clashed with police, who used tear gas, said a union official who was present. The man spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing problems in a country where the media is heavily controlled by the state.

Amid the clashes, demonstrators set fire to tires and to the local ruling party headquarters on Monday, the official said. The unrest continued on Tuesday. Several people were arrested, and others were hospitalized with injuries, the union official said. The protests shuttered local schools.

France's LCI television broadcast video of Thala that showed packs of shouting young men roaming the streets and clouds of smoke in the air.

Such overt clashes are rare in Tunisia, a popular tourist destination on the Mediterranean where the government brooks little dissent and is routinely criticized for its human rights record. Tunisia's unemployment rate is around 14 per cent, a figure believed much higher in rural areas.

The protests started on Dec. 17 after 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in public. Bouazizi had a university degree but no steady work and sold produce in the street to earn money for his family — a story that resonated with many. Bouazizi is still hospitalized.

In one protest, police opened fire, killing two people. In another, an unemployed youth electrocuted himself on an electricity pylon.

Reacting to the unrest, the president has ordered a 6.5 billion dinar ($4.5 billion) plan to create jobs for Tunisians with university diplomas.

The opposition says the government's response has been inadequate and that the protests are fueled not only by unemployment but by a lack of personal freedoms.

Source: AP

al-Bab

Cyber war breaks out in Tunisia

As the Tunisian uprising continues on the ground with no sign of abating, the battle over information is intensifying on the internet.

Yesterday there were numerous reports of Tunisians' Facebook pages and email accounts being hacked – presumably by the regime – with Yahoo users apparently the most vulnerable.

The nawaat website responded with technical guidance for protecting against attacks. The Tunisian Pirate Party was also reported to be distributing USB sticks containing Tor (anonymity software) to students.

The Tunisian government is regarded as a world leader in the field of internet censorship and it could easily block access to the whole of Facebook if it chose to do so. However, it seems to have recognised that this would be extremely unpopular and could further inflame the protests – so it has opted for targeting individuals who oppose the regime.

The authorities also routinely block access to anything remotely critical which appears on websites outside the country. According to a Twitter user, this article was blocked within 10 minutes of appearing on a Swiss website.

Parallel with the government's assault on internet users, the group known as Anonymous has been attacking government-related websites (as reported here yesterday). Al-Jazeera has more details.

When checked this morning, the following websites were still unavailable:

www.bmvt.com.tn (Tunisian Stock Exchange)

www.sicad.gov.tn (Tunisian Foreign Relations)

www.industrie.gov.tn (Ministry of Industry)

www.commerce.gov.tn (Tunisian Government Commerce)

www.carthage.tn (The Carthage Palace – presidential website)

benali.tn (Presidential elections site)

www.ministeres.tn (Tunisian government site listing various ministries)

Al-Jazeera appears to be the only major news organisation trying to cover the uprising on a day-to-day basis and, predictably, it has come under fire from the Tunisian regime and its supporters. The accusations of "unprofessionalism" and using "unreliable" (ie non-governmental) sources are a bit rich considering that the authorities are doing their utmost to prevent it from reporting. It is having to make extensive use of amateur videos and social networking websites in order to get information.

Twitter users reported demonstrations in several Tunsian cities yesterday, though details are scarce. The nawaat website posted videos of two student protests, one at the Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l'Information and the other at Gronbalya Lycée. It also reports a hunger strike by trade unionists in Redeyef.

Lawyers have reportedly called a strike for Thursday, January 6.

The Egyptian foreign minister arrived in Tunisia yesterday for two days of discussions on "key issues of mutual interest". The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, also began an official visit.



Posted by Brian Whitaker

Inside Iraq

As if Saddam never was

Our schools are different from schools in the U.S. in that the teachers are required to stick to the material in the text books that the Ministry of Education prints, and are not permitted to deviate from the curriculum in any way. This is how it was during Saddam's time – and has – conveniently, remained the same since, in spite of "democracy", "human rights" and "freedom of speech". In maths and chemistry this may not be such an issue. But when it comes to history ..

Contemporary Iraq history is taught in sixth, ninth and 12th grades, the grades that take ministry board examinations. Now, in all three text books history suddenly comes to an end after the 1958 revolution. No mention is made of later revolutions: in 1963 in which Baathists participated, though they did not come to power, and the 1968 revolution that they led and through which they arose to power. Not once is "Baath" mentioned – Not once is Saddam Hussein" mentioned in all the history text books now being taught in Iraqi schools.

I spoke to Ms Nadia (38 years - very beautiful! – married, three children), who teaches ninth grade history in a boy's intermediate school in west Baghdad, and who had previously taught 12th grade in a secondary school.

"I cannot deny that a big effort is being made to erase that era from the history (text) books. It seems that our governments cannot draw a moderate path to teach our pupils. Before 2003, there used to be too much detail about the Baath party rising to power – its struggle - its achievements and future goals – And now there is nothing at all.

"Thirty years cannot be erased from our memories. They are what made us who we are – for good or bad. As a history teacher I believe that it is not just identity that we gain from studying our history – but also the lessons and examples that history gives – the examples that should make us wiser in the future. These should not be erased. They should be highlighted and shouted from roof tops so that the politicians sit up and pay attention".

(I asked her whether she thought the politicians intend to keep this silence in history text books – or whether they were just pondering what should be written??) "History is always affected by politics – and the winner gets his version into the text books. Like you, I am wondering what they will write – how they will describe that era, its ups and downs. May be it is still too recent for them to be able to make all the changes. Will they be fair? Or will it be just revenge? I feel like I am a witness and need to see the outcome of this struggle".

(I asked her what other changes were made in history text books that she would like to comment upon) "The change that caught my attention was in seventh grade history text books. Seventh graders study ancient civilizations, focusing on Mesopotamia. It was a rich study that caught the imagination of the pupils and inspired them. Now the focus on Mesopotamia is very little – Hamurabi is just another king who wrote the law on an obelisk – and greater focus is given to neighbouring civilizations".


Posted by Sahar IIS on Inside Iraq

Collective Amnesia

Reading the latest book (Chicago) by the Egyptian novelist Alaa al-Aswany recently one section stood out from the rest: a conversation between an Egyptian academic, Muhammad Salah, and his first love Zeinab. Dr Salah had left Egypt at an early age to pursue a PhD in America and went on to carve out a successful career for himself at the University of Illinois, leaving Zeinab behind in Egypt to idle away her days at the ministry of planning.

However, several decades later and driven by a failed marriage to his American wife, acute homesickness and a deep sense of nostalgia for his homeland, Salah plucks up the courage to contact Zeinab, whereupon his nostalgic view of the Egypt he left behind in the 1950s comes face-to-face with the harsh realities of modern life in many Arab countries.

“Egypt is living its worst days” Zeinab tells him. “Everything has changed for the worst. Reactionary ideas are spreading like the plague. Can you imagine that I am the only female Muslim in the department of planning, out of fifty employees, who is not wearing the veil? … Egyptians have given up on justice in this world, so they are they are waiting for it in the next.”

The growth in religious symbolism here in Jordan is a subject that has caught my attention for some time now. The most obvious expression of this is a perceived increase in the number of girls wearing the Hijab (headscarf), particularly the younger generation. In the absence of any hard statistical data, a fairly rough way of gauging the situation is to talk to university lecturers, most of whom agree there has been an increase. The decision of Muslim women to wear the Hijab is a personal choice and I’m all for that. However, I believe this phenomenon reflects much deeper societal fault lines.

For example, the growing religiosity appears to have little to do with religion in any meaningful sense of the word, i.e. an inward journey to improve the self. Neither does it appear to be driven by Qu’ranic injunctions on modesty. Many women who wear the Hijab do so in combination with skin tight jeans and tops, not to mention layers of make-up. And it’s not just an issue of the Hijab. In a recent column for the Independent, Robert Fisk noted that “civil "servants" and government officials are often scrupulous in their religious observances – yet they tolerate and connive in rigged elections, violations of the law and prison torture.” The same article also recalled how doctors abandoned their patients at a Cairo hospital to attend prayers during Ramadan. The same phenomena can be found throughout the region, a kind of mass religious façade in which the meaning of Islam has become associated with its physical representation, however threadbare that may be.

The character in al-Aswany’s novel, Zeinab, puts this phenomena down to repression, poverty and having no hope in the future, describing as a “ collective depression accompanied by religious symptoms.” Driving this sense of collective amnesia has been the failure of Arab regimes to introduce democratic institutions, good governance, a thriving civil society and clear national goals. In the absence of effective governance, including a lack of checks and balances on power, the whole concept of citizenship, as a person enjoying equal rights and obligations to co-citizens under the law, has been undermined. Under these circumstances the retreat into religious symbolism is perhaps a way of rationalizing both the present and the future in repressive societies where cronyism and corruption rein supreme and where patronage and connections, rather than merit, are the key factors which determine social mobility.

Nevertheless, it can hardly be a sign of healthy and advancing societies but more a descent into mass schizophrenia.